Code: 55487
Date: Circa 1927-1928
Drypoint etching signed in ink in bottom margin and numbered 49 of 90. Very atmospheric view on the Tigris river, which flows from Turkey through Iraq and into the Persian Gulf. The site depicted is believed to be the burial place of the biblical figure Ezra.
Charles William Cain [1893-1962] A student of Camberwell School of Art and then an illustrator cartoonist for the Johannesburg Star until WWI when he joined the Border Regiment in India and Mesopotamia until Armistice, and entered the Royal College of Art under Frank Short 1920-1. During the 1920's and 1930's Cain produced seventy-four original etchings and engravings, all published in London by Greatorex. The large majority of his prints deal with scenes in Iraq, Persia, Indian and Burma and Cain developed a strong reputation as a major Orientalist printmaker. Today, a large collection of Charles W. Cain's drypoints will be found at the British Museum, London. A relation of Charles Cain asserts that he was a spy for the British in the Middle East undercover of his sketching and painting.
