Benson, Frank. SALEM HARBOR. Paff 1. Etching, 1882. Edition of about 1500. Unsigned, as always. 4 7/8 x 7 7/8 (plate), 8 1/4 X 11 5/8 inches (sheet). In very good condition except for four breaks at the bottom edge from removal from the magazine in which it was published. Paff states: "This etching was made as the frontispiece for the second number of "The Art Student," a magazine published by "Students in the School of Drawing and Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," and of which Mr. Benson was one of the editors. The plate was steel-faced about fifteen hundred impressions were printed." "Mr. Benson had just read Lalanne's treatise on etching, and Salem Harbor was the result of the interest aroused by the book. Except four or five experiments immediately following, of which no impressions have been traced, he did not etch another plate until 1912..." The work is of interest as Benson's first effort as a printmaker, as a view of Salem Harbor in the late 19th Century, and as an artwork in its own right. Despite the size of the edition, the print is uncommon, likely the result of appearing in an ephemeral publication with a low survival rate.
