Blast Furnaces I (Netherton Furnaces)

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

1919 · Woodcut on gray paper · Drawings and Prints

In 1919, Wadsworth returned to the Black Country to observe its furnaces and the terrains created by their industrial waste in greater detail. The following year, he exhibited thirty-seven Black Country drawings in London. Reviewers praised his ability to capture the scenes in all their brutality. A critic in The Times noted: "What he gives us is the terrific energy of the whole industrial process represented, as only energy can be represented, in rhythmical and orderly forms." In this woodcut, Wadsworth captured the power and environmental destruction of blast furnaces, designed to heat and melt iron to remove unwanted materials. Dominating the image are the clouds of waste expelled by the furnaces. Wadsworth rendered the smoke and gaseous forms with gracefully undulating lines, giving them a solidity equal to that of the structures.

Artist

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

Date

1919

Medium

Woodcut on gray 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