Whiskers

Dox Thrash|WPA

ca. 1939–40 · Carborundum mezzotint · Drawings and Prints

The glow that emanates from Whiskers, a portrait of an unidentified man, is characteristic of Thrash’s work in carborundum mezzotint, a technique he developed while working at the Philadelphia-based printshop of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. The project was established by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal government to provide funding to unemployed artists during the Great Depression. Thrash adapted the mezzotint process, invented in the seventeenth century, by employing the industrial material of carborundum to abrade the metal plate. Working from dark to light, he burnished, or smoothed, the rough surface to form his composition, achieving an impressive tonal range of rich blacks.

Artist

Dox Thrash|WPA

Date

ca. 1939–40

Medium

Carborundum mezzotint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of the Work Projects Administration, Pennsylvania, 1943