View of a Town

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

1916 · Woodcut on gray paper · Drawings and Prints

In this color woodcut, Wadsworth created a complex construction comprising layers of simplified geometric shapes. Using just three colors (gray, blue, and black) as well as the gray color of the paper, he depicted a townscape, most likely of Bradford, in the north. View of a Town is less abstract than his prior work, such as Bradford: View of a Town, in which he engaged a similar subject. Rather than using multiple interlocking lines of various sizes recalling earlier Analytic Cubist depictions of landscapes and similar motifs, in View of a Town, Wadsworth employed a vocabulary of sharp angles and larger flat planes of color. Though the work is still abstract, representational elements—such as chimneys and roofs—are visible to a greater degree than previously.

Artist

Edward Alexander Wadsworth

Date

1916

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