About the work

Fine condition with full margins. Childs Gallery of Boston label attached verso.

About the artist…

Sears Gallagher (1869-1955) was a Boston painter and printmaker who is counted in the pantheon of the first generation of the "Boston School.” In contrast to his counterparts who focused on portraiture and still life painting, Gallagher focused on watercolors and etchings to create landscapes and marine scenes. In this pursuit he was a pioneer of his time.

Of the first generation Boston School, only the names of Frank Benson and Gallagher are synonymous with mastery of both watercolor and etching. Unfortunately, Gallagher's entire collection was placed in storage after his death. It was only after a period of decades that a re-discovery of Sears Gallagher took place, an artist who was lauded during his lifetime as one of the great watercolor painters and master etchers of his era.

Gallagher made his first etchings in 1888, but it wasn’t until 1911, at age 42, that he rediscovered printmaking. During the same year, Doll & Richards Gallery first exhibited his works, and from 1915 until at least 1940 they presented solo exhibitions of his watercolors and etchings nearly every year. From this point on he would become equally known for both his watercolors and his etchings, which were exhibited at the leading Boston and New York galleries. Of his 1918 exhibition at Doll & Richards Gallery, William Howe Downes wrote that Gallagher's etchings “are free of mannerisms, and reveal no tendency of the artist to follow in the footsteps of Whistler, Meryon, Haden, or Zorn.

As the popularity of Gallagher's etchings grew, he was asked to join the staff of Boston University, where he became a popular printmaking instructor. By 1920, Boston's venerable dealer in rare books and prints—Goodspeed’s—published a biography with a checklist of his etchings. In 1929, one of Gallagher's etchings won the Silver Medal at the 10th International Exhibition of the Print Makers Society of California. Gallagher was the only American to win a prize that year.

Gallagher's popularity appears to have peaked during the 1920's and early 1930’s. During this period his etchings were regularly accepted for publication in the annual Fine Prints of the Year. His works also found an audience in New York through solo shows at Kennedy Galleries and Macbeth Galleries.

Howard R. Guild, Boston's well-known collector of Rembrandt and Whistler etchings, wrote:

"The etchings of Sears Gallagher show a fine honesty of purpose and a conspicuous purity of workmanship. They are not assertive, and in no way arouse opposition . . . For years he has worked ahead without blare of trumpets, always holding his own idea of fitness and beauty. Either unconsciously or otherwise it is axiomatic that most etchers betray a predilection or an imitation of the great masters, Rembrandt, Meryon, or Whistler. Is it not a relief, and source of gratitude, that in Gallagher's work there is no evidence of an attempt to become great by hanging to the skirts of the masters? Gallagher's work is his own work always." [Holman. p.25]

Biography sourced from “An American Master of Watercolor and Etching,” Peter Hastings Falk, 1999

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