The Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) wrote The Torrents of Spring in 1872. Over one hundred years later, the Ukrainian artist Valentin Popov created twenty-one etchings to bring this novel back to life. The story is a romantic tale of Dimitri Sanin, a young Russian who falls in love with a seductive woman named Gemma while traveling in Europe.
Popov’s website tells us that the project was “originally begun in 1983 with a grant from the Academy of Fine Art of the USSR. The etchings took approximately three years to complete and in 1988 received the Academy’s Silver medal.”
Each hard-ground etching includes additions of dry point, aquatint, and/or burnishing. They are overprinted with a combination of transparent yellow and white inks. Each edition, designed by Stephen Black of San Rafael, is presented in a clamshell box covered in Japanese silk with a copper plate affixed in a debossed area on the cover.
Forty-two numbered sets were produced, with five additional Artist Proofs and three Museum Proofs. Graphic Arts has one of the Artist Proof editions. Firestone also holds a copy of Popov’s illustrated trade edition: Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883), The Torrents of Spring; illustrated by Valentin Popov; translated by Ivy and Tatiana Litvonov (New York: Grove Press, 1996). PG3421 .V5 1996.
For more images, see http://popov.com/TurgenievPrints.html.
