Ancient Doorway, Santa Cruz, Toledo, after Albany E. Howarth, Mid-Century Framed Reproduction

The Piece

The carved entrance of the Hospital of Santa Cruz in Toledo, after the etching Ancient Doorway, Santa Cruz, Toledo by the British etcher Albany E. Howarth (1872 to 1936). The portal rises in tiers: a deep arch crowded with saints, a sculpted tympanum of the Holy Cross, a tabernacle of figures above, and grilled windows standing guard on either side. Howarth sets it square to the picture plane so the whole program reads at once, lets the shadowed recess and the great studded doors anchor the centre, and places a handful of townspeople at the foot of the steps to give the stone its scale.

This is a mid-twentieth century photomechanical reproduction of Howarth's plate, not a pulled impression. The margin carries the signature A.E. Howarth at lower right and the title Ancient Doorway at lower left, with SANTA CRUZ, TOLEDO typeset beneath it, and all three are printed in the same flat black as the image. There is no platemark. It is presented in its period frame with a burlap mat.

History & Provenance

Albany E. Howarth was born in Durham, trained in the drawing offices of the Armstrong Mitchell engineering works at Newcastle, and taught himself to etch. His first published plate appeared in 1907, sets of Oxford and Cambridge colleges followed in 1909 and 1910, and in 1910 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. He spent three decades on the doorways, choirs and old streets of England, France, Italy and Spain. In 1922 the City Art Museum in St. Louis hung him among the masters of British line etching, alongside D. Y. Cameron, James McBey, Frank Brangwyn and Muirhead Bone, and his prints are held today by the Yale Center for British Art, the Akron Art Museum and Te Papa in Wellington.

His genuine impressions are signed by hand in pencil, usually in full as Albany E. Howarth, and carry a platemark. After the etching market collapsed in 1929, popular plates such as this one were reissued as framed photomechanical reproductions, with the signature and title reproduced in the margin; a reproduction of this same image sold under the trade name Talio-Chrome is recorded at auction. Our picture belongs to that family and is catalogued as after Albany E. Howarth. His full story, with how to tell an impression from a reproduction, is on the Albany E. Howarth artist page.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Howarth drew buildings with an engineer's accuracy and a printmaker's eye for black, and even in reproduction this doorway carries that patience: every niche, every saint and every iron stud is there. It suits a study, a library wall or a hallway, where it can be read up close, and the burlap mat and warm wood sit naturally with leather, walnut and old books. It is an honest, well framed way to live with one of the great Spanish subjects of the British etching revival.