Wise

This printmaker had a habit of signing work “Wise” and nothing else, as if the name were enough. In 1813 he turned a single day—October 11—into a loose set of street scenes, each sheet a quiet snapshot of Londoners going about their business. Why he chose that date is lost, but the prints themselves still feel freshly inked, as if the ink never dried. Look up the H Beard Print Collection; one sheet shows a crossing sweep at Charing Cross, broom in hand, pedestrians in their bonnets and top hats frozen mid-stride.