Black Country

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

1919 · Woodcut on coated orange paper · Drawings and Prints

In 1918, Wadsworth made several trips through the Black Country while traveling between Liverpool and London. Located in England’s West Midlands section, the region received its name in the nineteenth century due to the soot from heavy industry and coal production that covered the area. Wadsworth was fascinated by the scale of manufacturing, especially the effects that its waste (such as slag heaps from coal and air pollution from factories) had on the environment. He printed this powerful scene of fiery iron and steel furnaces and polluted skies on different colored papers. The vivid orange hue of the paper here seems to reflect the tones emitted by the furnaces, echoing American diplomat Elihu Burritt’s earlier statement that, due to its manufacturing, the region was "black by day and red by night."

Artist

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

Date

1919

Medium

Woodcut on coated orange paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, Peco Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019