Lot 5: ERNEST CHRISTIAN ROTH (1866-1940) ETCHING

Late 19th, early 20th c. etching of a country lane and village in New York State, pencil-signed by the artist Ernest Christian Rost (1866-1940). Remarque of a stone bridge in the lower margin. In Frame easures 31"x17"x1". Weight 7 pds. Ernest Christian Roth was born January 20, 1866, at Mt. Vernon, N.Y. and was the son of Christan Rost (a locally known engraver) and Minna M. Rost. Nothing is known of his childhood except he was the fourth of six children in the family. By the mid-1880’s E.C. Rost was exhibiting landscapes in oil at the National Academy of Design, New York City. After 1887 his oil painting stopped and by 1891 etching became his primary occupation. Today, the Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division) maintains 63 etchings signed ‘Ernest C. Rost’ or ‘E. C. Rost’, with dates running from 1891 to 1896. These often portray country lanes, cottages, rural scenes, sea, river and bayside settings, mostly in New York State. With the outbreak of the Spainish-American War, Rost was sent by the U.S. War Department to Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Phillippines, and Guam as a civilian photographer of military operations and installations. Today, 21 photographs taken by E. C. Rost of these islands are held by the National Archives

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