In the House of Mourning, from "American Art Review", vol. 1, no. 8 (republished in "The Art Journal," October 1880)

Friedrich Leonhard Meyer|Carl Hoff

June 1880 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

An elderly woman, young woman and boy stand by a bed in a humble interior where a body has been reverently laid out, the coverlet draped with garlands. The title echoes Ecclesiastes 7:2, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men." Sylvester Rosa Koehler ​(1837–1900) wrote of the print in the American Art Review, "The subject of this picture is of that "literary" nature which is so vigorously condemned by those who advocate "painting, simply for the sake of painting." The popularity of artists like Karl Hoff...goes to show that there are still a good many people who have not yet been converted to this latest gospel of art. The etching, a careful, conscientious piece of work...was executed by a young German artist, F. L. Meyer...who followed the calling of a wood-engraver until about the year I872....America needs a few good reproductive etchers, and they are more likely to be found in the ranks of the many excellent who at present give their entire attention to the wood-block than anywhere else." A few months afterward, the print was reissued in Britain in "The Art Journal" (October 1880).

Artist

Friedrich Leonhard Meyer|Carl Hoff

Date

June 1880

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Donato Esposito, 2013