Walt Whitman At Camden Docks Printmaking By Jerry Di Falco

Year:

Medium:

Intaglio Print

Size - (USA):

12 W x 16 H x 1 D (inches)

Size - (metric):

30.5 W x 40.6 H x 2.5 D (centimeters)

Theme:

Famous People

Edition:

Original

Artwork ID:

616670

PDF Copy:

Artwork Info Sheet (PDF)

Artwork Description:

PRICE INCLUDES A FRAME, ARCHIVAL MAT, AND CARDBOARD SHIPMENT CARTON WITH BUBBLE WRAP. This imagery in this etching originated with an 1890 photograph by British physician, Dr. John Johnston, currently located in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection, Library of Congress, Washington D. C. The scene shows US poet, Walt Whitman, with his nurse, Warren Warry Fritzinger, sitting on the Delaware River wharfs in the city of Camden, New Jersey. The original etching was executed on a zinc plate by Jerry Gerard Di Falco and manually printed on a Charles Brand flatbed press at The Center for Works on Paper, located on the Fleisher Art campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The artist incorporated the etching techniques of Intaglio, Aquatint, Drypoint and Chine collé. Media includes Oil-based etching inks on RivesBFK white paper, which were both manufactured in France. Mulberry bark paper from Thailand, which was infused with Kozo fibers and hand-treated with homemade methyl cellulose, was employed in the Chine colle process. Three nitric acid baths were required to obtain the final design. This is the best print of five prints in the FIRST Edition of FOUR Editions. The image size corresponds to the etching plate’s size of six inches wide by nine inches high or 15.240cm by 22.860 cm. The RivesBFK white printmaking paper was hand torn to a size of about eleven inches by fifteen inches or 27.940cm by 38.100cm. DiFalco created the work’s color by blending five inks. STORYLINE -- Walt Whitman lived his final years in Camden, New Jersey, on Mickel Street. His small house, which is now a museum, is located a few blocks from the Delaware River docks. His housekeeper and cook, Mary Davis, arranged for Whitman to hire her adopted-son, Warren, to act as the poet’s last caregiver and personal nurse. Warren became Whitmans closest friend and stayed with him over two years until his death in 1892. The poet was quoted as saying--Warry is faithful, true, and loyal. Speculations over their sexual relationship and Whitman’s bisexuality remain. Dr. John Johnston, an admirer of Whitman, took the photo on which DiFalco based his etching. Johnson traveled across the Atlantic specifically to meet the poet on July 15, 1890. He would later write--As we approached the wharf Whitman exclaimed How delicious the air is. On the wharf he allowed me to photograph himself and Warry, and it was almost dusk. The light was unfavourable, and after I sat on a log of wood beside him. Walt talked in the most free and friendly manner for a full hour, facing the golden sunset, in the cool evening breeze, with the summer lightning playing around us, and the ferry boats crossing and recrossing the Delaware. The artist poet, Jerry Di Falco, was born and raised in Camden, New Jersey, just blocks from Whitman’s house. Whitman holds a special place in the artist’s heart, and he has frequently visited his Camden grave. In 1974, DiFalco escourted the poet Allen Ginsberg to Whitman’s house and arranged for a public reading by Ginsberg at nearby Rutgers University.

Artwork Keywords:   Original Printmaking

Materials:   Intaglio Prints