Pont y Prydd [Bridge of Beauty]

Clerk was an amateur etcher of the British countryside. His views are among the precursors of the revival of pure etching, especially for landscape subjects, in the early 19th century. More specifically, their intimate scale, sensitive hand, and poetic mood prefigure the English visionary tradition, from Blake through Samuel Palmer to the early Graham Sutherland. Clerk himself printed very few impressions and usually tore them to the image by hand. Steinberg's nine prints form one of the most significant groups in this country