Maternity

Stanley William Hayter

1940 · Engraving, soft-ground etching · Drawings and Prints

In 1940 Hayter had a son with his wife, artist Helen Philips, and commemorated the event in Maternity—the first print he made in the United States and his first color print. Hayter had left Paris for London the day after World War II was declared; the following spring, he moved to the United States. He taught briefly in California before opening a new iteration of Atelier 17 through the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he found a vibrant intellectual and artistic community. Maternity reflects a variety of techniques: screenprinting for broad areas of color, engraving for bold black lines, and soft-ground etching for delicate textures. Although it involved numerous processes, the print represented a significant step in Hayter’s quest to make a color intaglio print from a single plate.

Artist

Stanley William Hayter

Date

1940

Medium

Engraving, soft-ground etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Ellen Peckham Gift, 2016