1931-1932 Etching, with mezzotint, in black on white wove paper
209 x 334 mm. Purchase: Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers 1933
Trial proof. The space left at the bottom of the plate was probably intended for an inscription. A catalogue from a 1932 exhibition states that the exhibited 'Lincoln - Sunrise' was a ''working trial proof before inscription''. Also, a drawing of the same subject includes the verse ''Thy liquid notes that close the eyes of day, Thee chauntress of the woods among, I woo to hear thy even song'' which is partly taken from Milton's sonnet 'To the Nightingale'. See catalogue entry 38 in 'Joseph Webb, prints and working drawings', Gascoigne & Furst, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1989
Imaginative view of Lincoln Cathedral; foreground, on the left, a plant by a fence and a road over a single arched bridge, on the right, a white bird in flight, a small fall in a river, plants and a path leading over a small footbridge; middleground, on the left, trees and a church with a small tower and four windows, on the right, shafts of sunlight shining through a grove of trees; background, the three towers of Lincoln Cathedral in silhouette; sky, stratos clouds, a flock of birds flying in formation and a sunrise with shafts of radiating light. Etching with mezzotint. Burnished highlights. Only the upper three quarters of the plate is used for the image
