Kerr Eby, born Tokyo, Japan 1889-died - Deserted Farm, St. Cyr - ca. 1921-1922 - T-Shirt

Kerr Eby's etching Deserted Farm, St. Cyr shows a single stone farmhouse standing empty in a dry, open French landscape, its emptiness the subject of the whole plate.

Visual Elements & Composition

The print is built in cream paper, ink black, warm sepia and dark umber, with the cream field dominating and the image sitting inside a rectangular plate margin. The horizontal layout keeps the eye moving across dry, scrubby ground toward the farmhouse with its tiled roof. A tall cypress rises beside it, and pruned bare trees thin out the scene. Fine line work carries the shading, so the picture reads through texture rather than solid mass.

Meaning & Symbolism

The farmhouse, cut off from any sign of human activity, stands for the domestic life the war took from the region. Eby does not show battle here. He shows what remains afterward: the stillness of the land, the bare trees, and the cypress that holds its place. Made around 1921 and 1922, the work belongs to the period when Eby was producing his powerful etchings of World War I, drawn from his own service and experience. It records the scars left on the European countryside, and it does so with restraint and deep empathy for the people who once lived there.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee is worn close to the body and seen from every angle, so the plate's quiet horizontal scene becomes something you carry with you rather than a picture you look at from across a room. The farmhouse sits on the chest, where its stillness can be read up close, and the cream and sepia tones sit easily against everyday clothing.