The Valley of the Savery, Wyoming

Arms began his career as an architect. His early work shows a preference for a meticulous, almost obsessively precise etching style, documenting the Gothic cathedrals of Europe. The etching shown here is much more modern and experimental—with an emphasis on abstracted forms. Much of the plate is occupied by the white, negative space of both the foreground and background.

The etching had its origin as a group of sketches, created while vacationing in Wyoming in the summer of 1932. For two days, the artist sketched at the edge of the remote valley, capturing the sweeping, dramatic panorama which he called, “wonderful, remote, [and] monumental.”