Edge of the Desert, Arizona. Etching by George Elbert Burr.

George Elbert Burr (1859-1939) was an American printmaker and painter best known for his etchings and drypoints of the desert and mountain regions of the American West. Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e For other uses of etch or etching, see Etching (disambiguation, for the history of the method see Old master prints. Drypoint is a Printmaking technique of the intaglio family in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix" with a hard-pointed "needle" The Western United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American West or simply the West &mdashtraditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost

Burr was born in 1859 in Monroe Falls, Ohio. Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago for one winter, his only formal artistic training. The Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's premier Fine art museums Nevertheless, he enjoyed early success as a commercial artist, providing illustrations for Harper's, Scribner's Magazine, Frank Leslie's Weekly, and The Cosmopolitan. Harper's Magazine (also Harper's) is a monthly general-interest Magazine of literature politics culture finance and the arts Scribner's Magazine was first published in January 1887, also by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, which spent $500000 to compete Frank Leslie's Weekly, later often known in short as Leslie's Weekly was an American Illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1852 and continuing In 1892, he began a four-year project illustrating a catalog of Heber R. Bishop's collection of jade antiquities for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, This project, which involved producing etchings of over a thousand artifacts, paid well enough for Burr to embark on an extended tour of Europe with his wife upon its completion. Over the next five years, as they traveled in Italy, Germany, and the British Isles, Burr amassed sketches and watercolors that would provide the source material for his copperplate etchings of European scenes. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The British Isles (Irish variously Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha, Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa, Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór; Ellanyn Goaldagh Eileanan

A few years after his return to the United States, an attack of the flu prompted Burr to move to Denver for the benefit of his health. The City and County of Denver (pronounced /ˈdɛnvɚ/ is the Capital and the most populous city of Colorado, in the United States It was there, during summers spent in a cabin studio in a steep wooded canyon with panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains, that Burr began to concentrate on the work that made him famous. Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a Mountain range in western North America. In 1924 the artist settled in Phoenix, Arizona, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Phoenix (ˈfiːˌnɪks O'odham Skikik, Yavapai Wasinka, Western Apache Fiinigis, Navajo Hoozdo, This change of scenery gave him the opportunity to round out his oevure of Western landscapes with expansive views of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts. The Sonoran Desert (sometimes called the Gila Desert after the Gila River or the Low Desert in opposition to the higher Mojave Desert) is

Today George Elbert Burr is widely considered to be one of the finest of the early 20th century American etchers. His prints are in a number of prominent collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the British Museum, the French National Print Collection, Luxembourg Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, the New York Public Library and the Congressional Library in Washington, D. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a Museum in Washington D The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. Musée du Luxembourg is a Museum in Paris, France. Situated near the Palais du Luxembourg, it once housed paintings and Sculpture The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design housing a permanent collection The New York Public Library ( NYPL) is one of the leading public libraries of the world and is one of America's most significant Research libraries. C.

References

• Seeber, Louise Combes (1971). George Elbert Burr, 1859-1939; catalogue raisonné and guide to the etched works with biographical and critical notes. Flagstaff, Ariz: Northland Press. ISBN 0-87358-067-2.  
  

External links

• George Elbert Burr on Artnet
  George Elbert Burr at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  George Elbert Burr Papers at the Denver Public Library
  Works by George Elbert Burr at Davidson Galleries