Reaching for the Coat Sleeve from the portfolio Eight Etchings II, 1936-1959
Isabel Bishop
American, 1902–1988
(1943, printed 1980)
An etching that quietly studies a figure from behind as she reaches into a coat sleeve, aiming to freeze a small, revealing everyday gesture.
What strikes you is the sparing, lively linework that sculpts the heavy folds of the coat and the slight twist of the body, set against a wide, quiet expanse of paper.
Bishop's work dignifies ordinary urban moments—especially women’s everyday movements—combining modernist draftsmanship and printmaking to make intimate, working-class life visible in American art.
Medium
One from a portfolio of eight etchings
Dimensions
plate 5 7/8 x 4" (14.9 x 10.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
John B. Turner Fund
Accession
378.1981.2
Palette
Exhibitions
