Wi' Girning O' His Chaps

Artist William Strang (Dumbarton, Scotland, 1859 - 1921)

Date1888

Mediumetching and engraving on paper

ClassificationsPrints

DimensionsPlate Size: Height: 17.5 cm
Overall: Width: 19.9 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1931.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG008071

Keywords

Death

About MeStrang began as the pupil of the eminent Alphonse Legros at Slade School in 1876.
He was thoroughly devoted to the very principles of the French artistic education, the concern being with the linear and his passion, with etching. This is one of an incredible and lengthy series of over seven hundred plates, exhibits just one facet of this talented yet 'fickle' artist's creative preoccupations. [Studio 1921]

He constantly contradicts the old Masters that, with one work, the viewer would assume him to follow, often verging on cynical irony to the point of creating a figurative caricature. [Studio 1921]

Here we see a deathly figure, totally distinct from reality, scythe in hand, lurching toward the outskirts of the etching. This piece is concerned solely with aesthetics and precision. He is seen 'cultivating ugliness' [Studio 1921] in this skull-ridden figure, yet Strang never fails to outdo the notion of the unpleasant itself, with the power of beautiful craftsmanship.

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The craftsmanship which Strang displays here belies the macabre nature of the subject