Baldpates

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Baldpates

Artist Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862-1951)

Date1924

Dimensions9 7/8 x 7 3/4 in.

MediumDrypoint

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Joseph Hearst

Object number

1951.434

Not on View

Label TextFormerly known as the Baldpate, the male American Wigeon is easily identified by the striking white stripe on its head. It is a common migrant visitor to the Lake Erie marshes. Benson wrote of his method of depicting birds, “Every artist must see things in his own way. He will do this as the Japanese have done it for centuries—study some object in nature until he can draw it from memory by repeated practice. In that way I learned how birds appear in flight, watching them by the hour, returning to my studio to make drawings, then back to the birds to make corrections.”Published ReferencesPaff catalogue 235Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, For the Birds, April 13-October 14, 2012.