The 'Big Four'
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of over 2,000 etchings, dating from 1885 to1940, by the Scottish etchers David Young Cameron, Muirhead Bone, James McBey and William Strang. These artists were known collectively as ‘The Big Four’. This collection includes approximately 50 works by McBey, 100 works by Bone, 200 works by Cameron and some 1,700 works by Strang. Of these, 50 were bequeathed by Strang himself in 1921, and a further 1332 presented by his son David Strang between 1955 and 1962. These works account for almost all of Strang’s output of over 800 plates. The different stages in the creation of the plates can be seen, and some have pencil overdrawing where the artist wished to experiment with changes in the composition. The Etching Revival of the late 19th and early 20th century saw a return to the ‘old master print’, reviving techniques used by Rembrandt and inspired by the great 18th century printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi. ‘The Big Four’ were pre-eminent in a world context.
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