aquatint/etching, 1951
George Chapman was famous for documenting the industrial life of South Wales and House on Rocks is no exception. The mill wheel and chimney are placed next to a small house, with hills or even slag heaps in the distance.
The technique is of interest here. A combination of etching and aquatint create the fine lines of the mill wheel and the more tonal quality of the hills and clouds. Both are forms of intaglio printmaking, where the printing plate is incised with lines to hold the ink, in the case of etching, and acid is introduced to eat away at the metal creating sunken areas to hold the ink, in the case of aquatint.
Purchased by the Fry Art Gallery Society