Artist:
Peter Paone
(b. 1936)
Portrait of Ambrose Bierce
Medium: Etching and aquatint on paper
Date: 1963
Dimensions:
30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm.)
Accession number: 2023.13.42
Curatorial RemarksThis first print in the portfolio depicts author Ambrose Bierce (1842-c. 1914), on whose Decalogue this set of prints is based. An admirer of Bierce’s iconoclastic thinking and writing, Peter Paone (b. 1936) presents him in profile facing off with the devil—a reference to another of Bierce’s noteworthy works, The Devil’s Dictionary, a decades-long compendium of satirical and subversively cynical definitions.
Completed in 1963, The Ten Commandments of Ambrose Bierce garnered Paone a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1965, allowing him to study in London and Paris. The Brandywine’s exhibition, “In Shadows’ Embrace: Prints by Peter Paone” (2024) is the first time in 57 years that the portfolio is being shown in full, the last being at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.
Completed in 1963, The Ten Commandments of Ambrose Bierce garnered Paone a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1965, allowing him to study in London and Paris. The Brandywine’s exhibition, “In Shadows’ Embrace: Prints by Peter Paone” (2024) is the first time in 57 years that the portfolio is being shown in full, the last being at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.
On view