Storytelling in Miniature

Frank Weston Benson
American, 1862–1951

Two Crows

Drypoint, 1920
2 x 3 in.
Gift of Joseph Hearst, 1952.126

Frank Benson grew up in Salem, Massachusetts. He was an avid sportsman, and the marshlands around his coastal home provided ample opportunity for him to exercise his passion for hunting and birdwatching. A parallel passion for art developed quite early, with the artist producing his first oil painting of shore birds when he was 12 years old. However, Benson was 50 before he began making prints in earnest. Not surprisingly he specialized in waterfowl and is considered to be one of the founders of an American style of sporting art. This print is one of his rare images of a non-waterbird species.