Hands Etching---O Laborum

As founding president of the British Society of Painter-Etchers, Seymour Haden assiduously studied the craft of past etching masters, and with this meticulous etching of his own two hands, he represented his self-identity as an artist of that tradition. Instead of the recognizable facial features present in a typical self-portrait, Haden included only tools involved in his artistic labor—etching needles, a copper plate—and his hands to utilize them. He identifies himself not by his appearance but rather by his trade and creative merit, retaining privacy even within the public nature of the print medium. Haden was a passionate contributor to the nineteenth-century etching revival, taking great joy in the spontaneity and expressive lines of the etching needle. Inscribed at the center of this unconventional artist’s portrait is a Latin line from Horace that translates, “O sweet solace of labors.” In a pair of etching hands, Haden emphasizes the nobility of artistic labor, a sentiment that many nineteenth-century printmakers were anxious to assert.