Moran, Mary Nimmo (1842-1899)
'Tween the Gloaming and the Mirk.

Etched print incorporating roulette, mezzotint, and sandpaper, printed in sepia ink on heavy wove Japanese paper, signed and dated 1883 in the plate, and signed by the artist in pencil below plate mark; sheet slight dusty, toning; penciled price and location noted at foot of the sheet; depicting Hook Pond, Easthampton, Long Island, with a ramshackle fenced bridge in the foreground, dark clouds in the sky, and the silhouettes of buildings and windmill in the distance, full sheet measures 17 3/8 x 13 1/8 in., the image 11 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.

"The title of Mary Nimmo Moran’s etching “Tween the Gloaming and the Mirk” refers to the ballad “When the Kye Come Hame” by the Scottish writer James Hogg. First published under this title in 1823, the song was reprinted throughout the late nineteenth century and was popular with Scottish immigrants in the United States such as Nimmo Moran. The time ’tween the gloaming (dusk) and the mirk (dark of night) was the twilight hour when agricultural communities brought the cows (kye) back from grazing in the fields. [...] The print also illustrates Nimmo Moran’s successful endeavors as an artist and her mastery of one of her etching tools, the roulette. The roulette is a revolving toothed wheel on a handle, which can be run over an etching plate to produce patterns of small dots that hold ink, which when printed register as tonal shifts. The use of the roulette creates the moody, atmospheric variations in the sky evocative of the descent of night as it overtakes the day. The foregrounding of the road encourages the viewer to follow it back toward the lowering sky, and if one looks closely a solitary figure on horseback ambles up the incline on the way home." (Quoted from Sandra Pauly, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research, 2020, Gilcrease Museum.)

Condition
For inquiries about condition, please contact:
Devon Eastland, Senior Specialist: deastland@swanngalleries.com
Grace Meschery-McCormack, Cataloguer: gmccormack@swanngalleries.com