Clifford Isaac Addams (1876-1942) - Early 20thC Etching Bathers In The Mersey

Description

A charming etched view across the river Mersey in Liverpool. The iconic Liver Building can be seen on the distant city shore line. Bathers stand in the shallow in the foreground. The artist has signed in and outside the plate and numbered (13/50) to the lower edge. The artist has inscribed in the lower left corner. On watermarked laid.

Condition

The condition is typical for a picture of this age including some discolouration and general dirtying across the surface.

Size

10.2 x 14.2cm (4" x 5.6")
Sheet: 19.5 x 29.6cm (7.7" x 11.7")

Artist Biography

John Sloan commented on one of the works Addams exhibited at PAFA's 1907 annual exhibition: "Clifford Addams is a theme of interest. His nude in the show is a fine thing. If Whistler had done it, it would be a great Whistler." After meeting him, Sloan wrote: "Clifford Addams seems to be not at all the weird eccentric we have heard him described during the last six years. Either he has changed or Dame Rumor is a liar, the last most likely."

Addams exhibited sporadically at PAFA from 1907 and 1937. His Odalisque, exhibited in 1913, is fully clothed and coolly appraises the viewer. His At Play, a scene of a young woman in a kimono playing with a pet bird, was a traditionalist subject, but Addams painted it with modernist brushwork. It was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1922, at PAFA in 1923, and at the National Academy of Design in 1924, where it was awarded the Thomas B. Clark Prize.
Addams exhibited five oil portraits (including a self-portrait), two war sketches, and a watercolor at the 1926 Sesqui-Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

In 1928, Addams completed five murals for the City Council Chamber of City Hall in Asheville, North Carolina. "These depict the story of the Indians and the early white settlers."
His paintings are in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago and private collections.