TitleSeamstress
Artist
Robert Baxter
(American, b. 1933)
Datec. 1979-1980
MediumEtching and engraving on chine collé on cream Fabriano (Rosa Spina) paper
DimensionsSheet size: 19 1/2 x 13 7/8 in.
Plate size: 9 1/16 x 6 11/16 in.
Edition75/170
SignedSigned in graphite LR below platemark: "R Baxter".
MarkingsWatermark: FABRIANO
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of the artist
Object number2006.1
Label TextDraughtsman and painter, Robert Baxter draws inspiration from the classical tradition that has descended from Poussin and Ingres through Degas and others to the present. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Baxter studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completing his MFA there. In the early 1960s he began teaching at San Diego State University and spent his sabbatical year living in Italy in 1969. Frustrated with the academic environment at the university and having fallen in love with Rome, Baxter soon left San Diego and became a permanent resident for many years in the Italian capital. He now lives and works in Southern California."Seamstress" is from a series of prints the artist made about 1979-80 and was inspired by drawings done from women working in a public laundry facility in Rome. Baxter was completely taken with the movements of the women and he would make sketches on-site that he would take to the studio and work up into highly-finished drawings. These drawings served as the basis for this series of prints. Like many of Baxter's works, "Seamstress" employs an overhead perspective as we look down on the woman working. The compositional emphasis, however, is on her anatomy and as the artist stated: "I find such extraordinary beauty in their [the laundresses] movements....the grace of the women's gestures."
