untitled, Oliver Dennett Grover

Exhibition Label:
"American Etchers Abroad, 1880-1939," Apr-2004, Reed Anderson
The youngest of the “Duveneck boys” Oliver Dennett Grover is most closely associated with the city of Chicago, where he enjoyed a long and prosperous career. Although Grover produced a small number of etchings, it is possible to trace the development of his skills by comparing his untitled landscape of Siena, produced during his tenure as one of the Duveneck boys, with "The Lido, Venice," created several years after he had left the group.
In the former, the composition appears to have been conceived hastily; the artist’s primary objective appears to have been to sketch the most salient details of the Tuscan landscape, the gently rolling hills, the sparse vegetation, and stately villas. The line work seems tentative, as though Grover was still learning how to handle the needle. In contrast, the line work in "The Lido, Venice" is more controlled, the entire composition showing greater facility with the needle. The biting and printing of the plate also show greater skill, the warm brown ink lending the print a pleasing effect.