John DePol (September 16, 1913 – December 13, 2004) was a New York printmaker and wood engraver. He was perhaps best known for his illustrations of the

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

keepsakes over a period of over 25 years. Shows of his art include a one-man show at th
Florham-Madison Campus Library
in 1997 (see References, below).

Biography

John DePol was born September 16, 1913, in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York, where he was raised, the eldest of three children of Theresa and Joseph DePol. His father's death, when John was still a boy, influenced his decision to leave high school early to help support the family — his mother, brother William, and sister Genevieve. DePol worked as a securities runner on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...

and expected that there, beyond this beginning at picking up and delivering certificates of stocks and bonds bought and sold, lay an opportunity to make his fortune. He was employed but four weeks when the stock market crashed during the latter half of October 1929, and only then discovered his fortune merely in holding on to a job at a time when many were losing theirs in the Depression. In the evening DePol attended night school, where he learned typing and shorthand, which were to prove useful for his later stenographic and secretarial positions in civilian and military life - the first of these through a company promotion into a special investments department. From an early age, guided by his love of art, DePol devoted himself in his spare time to becoming a self-taught artist. He would sketch the streets, landmark buildings and waterfront scenes of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and scrutinized gallery windows, studying the etchings of various artists. Decades later he would recall how he was drawn to the masters: Although John DePol is known as a master of wood engraving, he also produced prints by etching with

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...

and

drypoint Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...

, as well as

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

. His earliest works were

etchings Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

with subjects taken from his life as a young man in New York City. Even these early works, done with almost no professional training, show DePol's sense of design, use of light and shadow, and his abiding interest in the lives of ordinary people. The

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

Library holds the only known collection of DePol's early

. Throughout his life, John DePol returned to the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

of his birth for inspiration. Many of his earliest artwork was of the

lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

neighborhood he grew up in. Over the years, he continued to make engravings of the buildings, skyline and neighborhoods of the city.

External links

References

Florham-Madison exhibit

The John DePol Collection--The Morristown & Morris Township Public Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Depol, John American engravers American wood engravers 1913 births 2004 deaths 20th-century engravers

Biography

Further reading

External links

References