Baby Street

Object Details

Description (Brief)

This black and white etching is a trial proof for a print by Mildred Bryant Brooks (1901-1995). It is signed in pencil below the image: "Baby Street, trial proof," with the artist's name and the date, "Mildred Bryant Brooks, 1934." Many of Brooks's works are landscapes or nature scenes; she was considered a particularly talented etcher of trees. Here she used delicate lines to show everyday life: children playing, women and babies in nature, and clothes hanging out to dry. The scene is a composite of several popular subjects of the period. It references European-style architecture and children's illustration. Brooks was a wife and a mother, who studied at the Stickney Art School in Pasadena under artist and critic Arthur Millier. She had her own etching press to print her own work, and that of other artists.

In 1934, Brooks participated in the Public Works of Art Program (PWAP), later absorbed into the more ambitions Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. In that capacity, like some 3,500 other artists, she was paid to produce prints that were distributed to government agencies, including museums. In March 1936 Brooks was given a solo Smithsonian exhibition by what is now the Graphic Arts Collection. The collection acquired six examples of her PWAP work at that time.

Location

Currently not on view

Data Source

National Museum of American History

maker

Brooks, Mildred Bryant

Date made

1934

Physical Description

paper (overall material)

ink (overall material)

Measurements

image: 21.5 cm x 22.6 cm; 8 7/16 in x 8 7/8 in

overall: 33 cm x 27.2 cm; 13 in x 10 23/32 in

Object Name

Print

Object Type

Etching

Other Terms

Print; Etching