Thomas Nason's "Pearson Hall (Phillips Academy, Andover,
Massachusetts)" is one of the artist's most highly sought after
wood engravings.
As June and Norman Kraeft put it in their
seminal volume "Great American Prints 1900-1950" (Dover, 1984),
"If Robert Frost was poet laureate to New England, Thomas Nason
was its laureate of engraving."
Nason, who was born in Dracut, Mass., was an engraver on wood
and copper, an illustrator and painter. His only formal
training, according to the Kraefts, consisted of life classes in
Boston. His career took off after he won first prize for
engraving at the Philadelphia Print Club in 1929. Through the
1930s and '40s he was honored by the Art Institute of Chicago,
the Library of Congress and the Society of American Etchers,
among other organizations. He also received international
accolades in the '30s.
"Pearson Hall" is the first in a series of eight prints for
the Phillips Academy. The edition was apparently rather low. T
he
print is catalogued as No. 382 by the Boston Public Library (BPL).
