George Elbert Burr

The best way to tell the story of George Elbert Burr is to tell of his work, for his life and his accomplishments are synonymous. In the introduction to the American Etcher's series volume devoted to him Arthur Millier, the critic, said: "We have excellent etchers who practice recognizably within the styles developed by Rembrandt, Whistler, Meryon or Haden, and others who have drawn upon Goya and the more modern Frenchmen. But we discover few who are entirely their own men in both subject material and style. Among this group of originals none has accomplished a more genuinely original body of etched work than George Elbert Burr."

Mr. Burr was fortunate among men for not only was he born with a keen appreciation of all things great and beautiful but he was gifted with the ability to become one of America's greatest artists. He had the knowledge of craftsmanship, inherent rather than acquired, which granted him unlimited means of expression.

Will Simmons, another great critic who frequently wrote of his work, once remarked that "in these desert prints of Burr's one feels the inspiration of the wilderness, as it were the second nature of the artist standing behind his self. As others have noted, Burr's trees are the expression of his physical self, sometimes in repose, as in his 'Old Pine, Estes Park', where the big pine stands as a warden before the promised land beyond."

In speaking of Mr. Burr and his work, the American Magazine of Art once said, "Like Sir Alfred East, who delighted in drawing and etching the trees of his beloved English forests, Mr. Burr has studied tree anatomy and has pictured trees with their roots under ground, trees that are standing firmly and growing, trees with such marked characteristics that they become, through acquaintance, as familiar friends individualities. His etchings of trees in winter, sharply outlined against gray skies and white snow mantles, are particularly beautiful and very true."

The Art Digest in another article said, "George Elbert Burr, called 'The Etcher of the American Desert', is probably more numerously represented in the museums of the world than any other living artist of the graphic medium." At the time of Mr. Burr's death in 1939 there were over 1000 of his etchings in over 30 of the leading museums and art collections in the world. It is impossible to determine how many have been added since that time. No story about Mr. Burr can be written without telling that he was an early-day illustrator with Frank Leslie's Weekly in New York, traveling across the United States and Mexico on roving assignments; that he was

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