Wilson Silsby, American, 1883 to 1952, drypoint on paper, The Brook. Signed in pencil lower right. Inscribed and dated in pencil, to John M. Me Lean, M.D. New York City as a souvenir of the Research Study Club, Los Angeles, California, 1957, lower left. Framed. Wilson Silsby was an etcher, lithographer and painter, known especially for his invention of the no ground etching plate and for his stage set designs for the theater and motion picture industry. He was born in Chicago. He attended high school in Chicago and later studied privately with William Merritt Chase and Abbott Thayer. In 1913, he moved to Los Angeles where he first worked as an art director for Universal Pictures. In the 1920s, he began etching and wrote two books on the subject: Etching Methods and Materials and Dry Points of Wilson Silsby. American Landscape Graphic Art Prints and Collectibles.