MODERN ETCHING AND ENGRAVING

Edited by Charles Holme

n i^

OFFICES OF ,THE STUDIO,' LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK MCMII

ERINDALE

COLLEGE

LIBRARY

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

AN editor, when reviewing an important work which has just been brought to completion under his guidance, cannot but be sensible of the disparity existing between a thing done and a thing sketched out vividly in projects — in " enchanted cigarettes " as Balzac called unrealised schemes ; for in books, as in all other works of art, many unexpected difficulties and disappointments interpose between con- ception and execution, limiting the scope of the aim in view, and lowering, more or less, the quality ot craftsmanship. The fact that several modern workers of repute are unrepresented amongst the illustrations is one cause of regret ; the large but unavoidable reduc- tion in size of many of the illustrations is another ; also it is felt that the absence of the raised line of the original plates causes a loss of distinction in the half-tone plates, which no amount of care in the selection of paper and in the printing could entirely remedy. There are, however, other sides of the question in the light of which the very faults of the volume become virtues ; and, in spite of inevitable shortcomings, the hope is entertained that the publication will add something to the general knowledge of the subject of etching and will give an impetus to the revival of interest in one of the most delightful and personal forms of artistic expression. THE Editor, having received much valued sympathy and help from many quarters, desires to express his cordial thanks to his foreign correspondents, to the artist-contributors, and also to the various publishers who have sanctioned the reproduction of copyright etchings, especially to Mr. C. Klackner and Mr. Frederick Keppel of New York and London, Mr. R. Gutekunst of London, Messrs. Frost and Reed of Bristol, M. E. Sagot, M. C. Hessele and M. Andre Marty of Paris, and Messrs. Amsler and Ruthardt of Berlin. The American Section owes much to Mr. J. M. Bowles, of New York, and to the historical notes supplied by Mr. Louis A. Holman, of Boston.

TABLE OF LITERARY CONTENTS

MODERN ETCHING AND ' ENGRAVING IN

GREAT BRITAIN -

AMERICA-

FRANCE - - - -

GERMANY

AUSTRIA - - -

HUNGARY

HOLLAND

BELGIUM - - - -

DENMARK & NORWAY -

FINLAND - - - -

ITALY - _ - -

SWITZERLAND

By A. L. Baldry „ Will Jenkins „ Gabriel Mourey „ Dr. Hans W. Singer „ Wilhelm Scholermann „ Anthony Tahi „ Ph. Zilcken „ Fernand KhnopfF „ Georg Brochner „ Count Louis Sparre „ Dr. Romualdo Pantini „ Professor Robert Mobbs

ETCHERS AND ENGRAVERS : INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BRITISH SECTION.

Baker, Oliver, R.E. Ball, Wilfrid, R.E. Bayes, A. W., R.E. Bolingbroke, Minna, R.E. Brangwyn, Frank Burridge, Fred., R.E. Burridge, Fred., R.E. Bush, R. E. J., A.R.E. Bush, R. E. J., A.R.E. Cameron, D. Y., R.E. Cameron, D. Y., R.E. Cash, John, F.R.I.B.A. Charlton, E. W., A.R.E. Copeman , Constance G. , A. R Crawford, Susan F., A.R.E Dicksee, Herbert, R.E. Dalgliesh, T. Irving, R.E. East, Alfred, A.R.A. East, Alfred, A.R.A. Ellis, Tristram, A.R.E. Finnic, John, R.E. GofF, R., R.E. Goolden, Fred. W. Haig, Axel H., R.E. Hartley, Alfred, R.E. Herkomer, Prof. H. von, R. Herkomer, Prof. H.von, R,

AMERICAN SECTION.

Aid, George C. Backer, Otto H. Bauer, W. C. Beal, W. Goodrich

Plate	25
j>	52
>»	9
>>	7
>)	46
>>	28
>>	29
»	13
It	14
ty	32
>»	33
»	S3
)>	4
•E.„	34
J)	2
>>	47
»	40
»	15
it	16
a	41
>>	3S
»	17
))	31
»	12
9)	II
A.„	5
A.„	6
Plate	12
))	6
>j	3
})	18

Herkomer, Prof. H. von, R. A. Hole, William, R.S.A., R.E. Holroyd, Charles, R.E. Holroyd, Charles, R.E. Huson, Thomas, R.I., R.E. Kiddier, William Knight, Joseph, R.I., R.E. Legros, Prof. A., R.E. Menpes, Mortimer, R.E. Meyer, A. C, A.R.E. Murray, J. G., A.R.E. Paton, Hugh, A.R.E. Phillips, L. B., A.R.E. Pott, Constance M., R.E. Raalte, H. B. van, A.R.E. Raalte, H. B. van, A.R.E. Reason, R. G. Robertson, Arthur, A.R.E. Robinson, Sir J. C, C.B. Roller, George, R.E. Rowe, T. Trythall Short, Frank, R.E. Sloane, Mary A., A.R.E. Slocombe, Fred, R.E. Waterson, David, A.R.E. Waterson, David, A.R.E. Watson, C. J., R.E.

Plate 8

38 21 22

39 44 10

I

30

23 24

48

27

19

20

54 26

51

49 42

45

3

43

36

37 18

Burleigh, Sydney Richmond, Plate 1 7 Duveneck, Frank „ 21

Getchell, Edith Loring „ 20

Ho vend en, Thomas „ 16

5

American Section — continued.

Lathrop, W. L. Lewis, Arthur A. MacLaughlan, D. Shaw Merritt, Anna Lea Mielatz, C. F. W. Moran, Peter Moran, Thomas Oakford, Ellen Parrish, Stephen

FRENCH SECTION.

B6jot, Eugene Bejot, Eugene Besnard

Bracquemond, Felix Chahine, Edgar Chahine, Edgar Dupont, R. Dupont, R. Helleu, P. HeUeu, P. Huard, Charles Jeanniot Lafitte, A. Leheutre, G.

Plate

Plate

» >>

9

24

II 19

25 7 8

4 5

25 26

20

27

17 18

13

15 6

7 3

19

22

2

Pennell, Joseph		Plate 13
Piatt, Charles A.		„ 22
Piatt, Charles A.		» 23
Rix, Julian		„ 15
Stetson, Charles	Walter	„ 10
Weber, Otis S.		„ 14
Whistler, James	McNeill	» I
Whistler, James	McNeill	51 2

Lepere, Auguste Lepere, Auguste Lepere, Auguste Lepere, Auguste Monvel, Bernard de Paillard, Henry Paillard, Henry Robbe, Manuel Robbe, Manuel Schuller, J. Charles Steinlen Steinlen Viala, E.

Plate 8 10 II 12

5 9

H I

4

16

23 24 21

GERMAN SECTION.

Fischer, Otto Fischer, Otto Gambert, Otto Graf, Oscar Graf, Oscar Halm, Peter Hegenbart, Fritz Hegenbart, Fritz lilies, Arthur

Kalckreuth, Leopold Count 6

Plate 22 Klinger, Max

„ 24 Klinger, Max

„ 1 1 Kollwitz, Kathe

„ 5 Leistikow, W.

„ 6 Liebermann, Max

„ 23 Meyer-Basel, C. T.

„ 19 Meyer-Basel, C. T.

„ 20 Overbeck, Fritz

„ 25 Pankok, Bernhard

„ 4 StaufFer, Karl

Plate 12

13 16

I

18 8

9 21

17 15

German Section — continued.

Stuck, Franz Plate lo

Thoma, Hans „ 3

Ubbelohde, Otto „ 2

Ubbclohde, Otto WolfF, Heinrich

Plate 7 » 14

AUSTRIAN SECTION.

Cossmann, Alfred Cossmann, Alfred Cossmann, Alfred Jettmar, Rudolph Lopienski, Ignaz

Plate

3	Orlik, Emil	Plate	7
4	Orlik, Emil	»	8
5	Schmutzer, Ferdinand	yy	2
10	Schmutzer, Ferdinand	M	9
6	Unger, William	»>	I

HUNGARIAN SECTION.

Aranyossy, Akos F.	Plate 4	Raiischer, lajos
T^ndsinger, Zsigmond	9	Raiischer, Tajos
Landsinger, Zsigmond	„ 10	Sz6kely, Arpad
Olgyai, Viktor	I	Sz^kely, Arpdd
Olgyai, Viktor	2	Tahi, A.

Plate

DUTCH SECTION.

Bauer, M.	Plate	^	Nieuwenkamp,	W.	0.	J-	Plate	6
Becht, Ed.	>^	9	Reicher, A. F.				»	4
Bosch, E.	»>	II	Witsen, W.				»	2
Gravesande, Storm van	))	10	Zilcken, P.				»	7
Houten, Miss B. G. van	»	3	Zwart, W. de				n	I
Koster, A. L.	»	8

BELGIAN SECTION.

Baertsoen, A.	Plate	7	Mar6chal, F	Plate 10
Cassiers, H.		I	Meunier, H.	» 5
Coppens, 0.		9	Romberg, M.	„ 4
Danse, A.		2	Rysselberghe, T. van	>» II
Gailliard, F.		3	Titz, L.	w 8
KhnopfF, Fernand		13	Wytsman, R.	6
Laermans, E.		12

DANISH SECTION.

FrOlich, Lorenz	Plate	lO	Liind, Soren	Plate II
Hansen, H. N.		3	M5nsted, Peter	7
Hou, Axel		2	Niss, Thorvald	» 4
Krause, E.		9	Schwartz, Frants	„ 12
Kroyer, P. S.		I	Schwartz, Frants	» 13
Locher, Carl		5	Skovgaard, Niels	» 8
Liibschitz, J.		6

NORWEGIAN AND FINNISH SECTION.

Edelfelt, A. Plate Edelfelt, A. „

Flodin, Hilda „

Flodin, Hilda „

Gallon, A. „

Nordhagen, J. „

8	Sparre, Count Louis	Plate	5
TO	Sparre, Count Louis	»	9
4	TheslefF, Ellen	i>	3
6	Zorn, Anders L.	»	I
7	Zorn, Anders L.	)j	2
II

ITALIAN SECTION.

Beltrami, Luca Plate 1 1

Biseo, Cesare ,, 6

Chessa, C. „ 2

Fattori, G. „ 9

Fortuny, Mariano, Jun. „ 15

Grubicy, Vittore „ 4

Kienerk, Giorgio „ 10

Miti-Zanetti, G. » 7

Nomellini, P. Savardo, Dino Sezanne, Augusto Turletti, C. Vegetti, Enrico Vetri, Paolo Vitalini, Francesco

Plate	8
>>	13
>»	14
>>	12
»	5
»	I
»	3

SWISS SECTION.

Amiet, Cuno Plate 8

Beaumont, Pauline de „ 4

Burnand, Eugene „ 10

Forel, Alexis „ 9

Muyden, E. van „ i

Muyden, E. van Muyden, E. van Piguet, R. Ravel, Edouard Vallet, E.

Plate 2

»	3
a	6
»	7
a	S

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN GREAT BRITAIN. By A. L. BALDRY.

N exact definition of etching is not easy. In the narrowest sense of the term it would pre- sumably be limited only to work which is scratched with a pointed tool upon a metal plate, to line drawings upon copper which, when rubbed with ink, will give an impression on paper. If this definition is accepted, there are but two kinds of etching, that in which the lines made by the point are deepened and strengthened by being bitten in with an acid which will eat away the copper, and that known as " dry-point," in which there is no accentuation of the lines by the use of the acid. From plates treated in either of these ways prints can be obtained which have character- istic technical qualities and reproduce exactly the original touches of the tool ; and these prints are probably entitled to be regarded as illustrations of the purest form of the etcher's art. BUT it is questionable whether it is quite permissible to draw so sharp a line between etching and other kinds of engraving. There are processes allied to it which differ from it only in minor details, and there are others in which it actually plays some part in producing the final result. It is better to make the definition as broad and -comprehensive as possible, and not to insist upon distinctions which only hamper the etcher's activity. That the workers themselves desire full freedom to express their ideas in any way that suits them best is proved by the readiness of the Royal Society of Painter- Etchers to encourage all forms of engraving which give opportunities for the display of originality of invention and accomplishment. One of the rules of this society declares that " all forms of engraving on metal, whether by the burin, the etching-needle, by mezzotint or aquatint, or by whatever other form (of engraving) the artist may choose as a means of original expression, are understood to be in- -cluded in the term 'painter-etching.'" This inclusiveness is no doubt due in some measure to the anxiety of an exhibiting association to make its shows attractive and varied, but it comes also from an ob- vious desire on the part of the artists themselves to be allowed a free

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choice as to the particular technical method which will best interpret them.

INDEED, if such a society, founded professedly to develop the art of etching and to popularise it among all lovers of interesting accom- plishment, were to attempt any exact regulation of executive processes, it would lose the greater part of its authority and would practically destroy its right to existence. Its real mission, which it seems from the first to have judiciously recognised, is to gather together all men who take an intelligent view of their artistic responsibilities and to bestow approval upon all types of production which are plainly inspired by a legitimate desire to break away from the beaten track* To ignore anything which bore the stamp of serious originality would be as mistaken a piece of policy as to extend encouragement to mechanical and commercial substitutes for the artist's work* Every man who has something fresh to say is entitled to a hearing ; it would be foolish to try and silence him because he does not use exactly the same idioms as his predecessors, or because he happens to have hit upon an idea which had not occurred to them. OF all the experts who have given an opinion on the question of terminology, perhaps the most catholic in his views is Professor von Herkomer. He declared, in one of the lectures which he delivered during his tenure of the Slade Professorship at Oxford, that he is disposed to apply the term " etching " to every form of work on metal, whether bitten with acid or indented with a burin or needle^ so long as this work in its character strictly represents the freest expression of an artistic nature. He would make the distinction between what is and what is not properly called etching a matter of esthetic sentiment rather than of technical manner, and he would exclude from the category of etchings all laboriously wrought plates^ even though the methods of working followed in them might conform absolutely to executive precedents. At the same time he admitted that there is no measurement and there are no rules by which thc: right thing can be recognised off-hand. Personal feeling must necessarily play an important part in the guidance of the men wha practise this subtle art, and it must equally have a supreme influence over people who are honestly anxious to understand what maybe the type of production that has the strongest claim upon their apprecia- tion. Of course there can be no precise standard if so much scope- is allowed to individual conviction, and inevitably there must be con- flicts of taste on many more or less vital questions, but there is in these very conflicts something stimulating and encouraging to th^ active mind.

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IF we accept, as a basis ror argument, the Professor's broad statement as to the comprehensiveness of etching and adopt his standpoint with regard to the functions of the art, it may fairly be said that there is within the artist's reach no executive device which is at the same time capable of giving so much enjoyment to producer and observer, and so full of exciting possibilities. The etcher's successes, the achievements of a man who has secured for once an absolute agree- ment between mind and hand, are exquisite things which will fascinate every intelligent thinker, because the process by which they have been brought into existence is one that allows the most complete realisation of great imaginative ideas. It abounds with subtleties which are infinitely suggestive to the possessor of the true artistic temperament, and it will lead him on to heights of expres- sion unattainable by any other mode of practice. So many ways of arriving at his results are, moreover, open to him that he need never fear that he will be hampered by the unresponsiveness of the medium ; the limitations which he has to fear are those of his own personality ; nothing will check his progress more than any inability on his part to perceive the direction in which he should turn in his striving after success.

BUT, at the same time, etching in all its form is an uncertain art, or rather it is uncertain when it is used by an artist who is ambitious. If its processes are made mechanical and kept in regular sequence by a code of rules, it will give only mechanical results which will satisfy no one but the man who is cursed with commonplace instincts and an unimaginative nature. It will cease to be spontaneous and will become merely mannered and pedantically correct, losing thereby some of its noblest qualities and gaining nothing but an aspect of superficial completeness. In the hands, however, of an artist who willingly risks failures in the hope that he may achieve something of memorable importance it is capable of endless surprises, for it will vary strangely in response to his moods. Its results may be fantastic, exaggerated, contrary to all precedent, but even when they are obviously wrong, they will be neither tame nor stupid, and when they are right they will probably be exquisitely attractive. At least they will never have the smug and soulless perfection of mechanism which the unaspiring craftsman is content to attain. THE reasons for this uncertainty are to be sought partly in the temperament of the etcher, and partly in the technical complexities of the art itself. The first essential for success is enthusiasm, a love of the work for its own sake, and a resolve to be daunted by no diffi- culties that may arise to hamper the worker's progress. The

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enthusiast, when the fit is on him, will attack cheerfully the most complicated problems, and will triumph over them by sheer brilliance of inspiration and strength of will, but even a momentary slackening of his determination, or the slightest yielding to a feehng of dis- couragement, will suffice to put him hopelessly off the right track and to involve him in a maze of perplexities from which there is no escape. Even when his enthusiasm is at its highest, there may come difficulties which he cannot surmount, and he has to confess himself beaten. Some etchers, indeed, profess to regard their art as one that is made up of accidents, happy and unhappy, and to find its very unexpectedness a source of delight. But such an attitude towards it is a little too fanciful ; there is beyond doubt a very con- siderable amount of knowledge of its peculiarities to be obtained by serious study, and there are many practical details which can be reduced to order by a man who makes reasonably methodical investi- gations. How he applies his practical knowledge must, of course, depend upon himself. If he is of a wavering temperament and inclined to stray about, he may meet with more than a fair proportion of accidents, but if he has a passably stable disposition he will know well enough what lapse in his own judgment has caused him to fail, or what keying up of his nervous energies has brought success within his grasp.

IF, then, the personality of the etcher has so much to do with the character of the plates that he executes, it is possible to give the English school credit for the possession of an unusual number ot members who are liberally endowed with the right mental qualities. During the last few years there has been produced in this country a very considerable amount of etched work which satisfies all the necessary conditions of spontaneity, originality and sympathy with nature, and has besides a large measure of admirable technical strength. Some of this work is worthy to rank with the best that has come from any school, much of it is decidedly above the average, and even among those examples which have to be reckoned as failures there is unquestionable evidence of well-intentioned effort to avoid the easier commonplaces that content the mere journeyman engraver. Of course the good things have to be sifted out of a mass of stuff which makes no pretence of being original in even a minor degree, but quite enough of them can be found to repay the trouble of investigation.

ONE excellent point which must be noted about our native school at its best is that it covers a very wide ground. The variety of invention which is shown by the men who belong to it, and their

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readiness to seize upon all kinds of material that seems susceptible of artistic treatment, are worthy of the highest praise. They do not merely follow in the track of one or two masters, nor are they content simply to repeat what others have done ; their obvious desire is to give fair play to their own independence of thought and their particular individualities of expression. Even those etchers who plainly reflect the practice of the teachers from whom they received their grounding of technical knowledge show in a number of cases that they are capable of giving new readings of the facts that they have learned. Generally, indeed, there is to be perceived a whole- some spirit of originality which, despite occasional aberrations, has called into existence an array of sound and interesting works of art illustrating with complete adequacy most of the worthier applications of the craft of etching.

IT is in figure drawing, perhaps, that English etchers are least successful. We have no one in this country who approaches M. Paul Helleu in graceful elegance of design and supple freedom of expression, and certainly none of our artists can be compared to him as a brilliant exponent of what is most attractive in the modern type of humanity. Nor have we a master like Mr. Anders Zorn who combines in perfect proportion certainty of draughtsmanship and masculine confidence in the use of the best devices of etching. But at least we can claim, by virtue of his long residence amongst us, M. Legros as one of our chief art leaders, and we can point to an important group of younger Englishmen who owe to his example and instruction some of the best qualities of their practice. Such artists as Mr. W. Strang, Mr. Charles Holroyd, Mr. Gascoyne, and others who were trained by M. Legros at the Slade School or at South Kensington, take high rank in this country and illustrate in their methods of working some decidedly original views about the application of aesthetic principles.

THEN there is another group of the pupils and followers of Professor von Herkomer, which includes several of the most prominent of present-day workers in various forms of engraving. The Professor himself, by his own performances as an etcher and a mezzotinter, and by his invention of a process of " plate painting," which makes possible the exact reproduction of an artist's own handiwork, has earned an indisputable right to be reckoned as one of the most versatile and capable masters of the craft, and by his ability as a teacher he has made upon the art of this country a mark which can never be effaced. He has done much to simplify the complicated processes of etching by ingenious adaptations of the older technicalities;

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he has devised various short cuts to results which were previously attainable only by prolonged and often uncertain labour ; and he has imparted to others a full share of his well-directed and intelligent enthusiasm. From these two groups is coming annually a great deal that is very significant and decidedly promising artistically. INDEED, though there arc among the etchers of figure subjects only a few who are entitled to be placed in the first rank, the list of capable craftsmen who deserve to be seriously considered is by no means a small one, and it is in its way thoroughly representative. There are Mr. Mortimer Menpes, Mr. Jacomb Hood, Mr. R. W. Macbeth, Mr. D. A. Wehrschmidt, Mr. Norman Hirst, Mr. A. W. Bayes, Mr. George Roller, Mr. William Hole, Miss Cormack, Mr. E. G. Hester, Mr. J. C. Webb, Mr. J. B. Pratt, Mr. Macbeth- Raeburn, and others whose understanding of different forms of engraving is displayed in a long series of plates, some original and some reproductions of pictures. Every now and again there comes from one or other of these artists something of real excellence, something to remind us that the great ideals which were respected in past generations are still being kept alive, and that the desire for admirable achievement is as active as ever.

THE number of etchers who occupy themselves principally or entirely with landscapes and studies of architectural motives is notably large, and their record is memorable for its compre- hensiveness and for its revelation of true sympathy with nature. Much of the work which comes into this class is inspired by unusual understanding of refinements of line composition and by a delightful appreciation of subtleties of atmospheric effect, and is especially happy in its translation of gradations of tone and colour into suggestive black and white. What may be called the common- place view of nature, with its exaltation of trivial detail and its neglect of decorative arrangement and fine adjustment of masses of light and dark, is not often taken by the men who can be regarded as representative of our landscape etchers. They aim by preference at a nobler treatment of the motives which they select, and if they fail it is because they chance at times to attempt what is beyond their powers of expression. Theirs is the honourable failure which can be forgiven readily enough on account of the splendid ambition which prompted the effort ; it does not come from want of courage or from a disposition to be satisfied with little things.

BUT it would not be difficult to collect instances of the fortunate realisation of really great intentions. In the work of Mr. Frank 6

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Short, with his excellent draughtsmanship and sound sense of style> Mr. F. V. Burridge, with his large freedom of touch, Mr. D. Y. Cameron, Mr. E. W. Charlton, Mr. C. J. Watson, Mr. Wilfrid Ball,. Mr. Thomas Huson, Mr. Alfred Hartley, Sir J. C. Robinson,. Colonel GofF, Mr. R. E. J. Bush, and Sir F. Seymour Haden, the combination of sensitive study and strong expression is wholly fascinating ; and a not less correct appreciation of the etcherV mission in the art world is to be credited to artists like Mr. T. Irving Dalgliesh, Mr. Fred Slocombe, Mr. J. G. Murray, Mr. Oliver Baker,. Mr. Alfred East, Mr. John Finnie, Mr. Arthur Robertson, Mr. Lawrence B. Phillips, Mr. F. Laing, Miss C. M. Pott, Mr. H. Van Raalte, Mr. T. T. Rowe, Miss C. G. Copeman, Mr. David Waterson, Miss M. A. Sloane, Mr. H. R. Robertson, Miss M. Bolingbroke, Mr. F. W. Goolden, Miss C. M. Nichols, Mr. W. Kiddier, and Mr. Joseph Knight. Then there are men like Mr W. Hole and M. Legros, who handle landscapes and figure-subjects with almost equal power. In all directions can be found good things which are worthy of attention from all students of contemporary art history and from all lovers of unaffected and earnest endeavour. IT is an encouraging sign that there should be now among the members of the English school a widespread belief in the importance of a generous interpretation of the technical responsibility of the etcher. Every worker is at liberty to choose the mode of practice that suits best his point of view and will aid him most satisfactorily to convey his impression of nature to other people. He is not rigidly bound down to observe narrow rules, and he need not fear that he will be denied recognition because he is impatient of all restrictions likely to limit his freedom of expression. Many of the older conventions have disappeared, and with them the pedantic insistence upon the idea that every one who might have the will and the ability to strike out for himself a new way apart from the beaten track must necessarily be a heretic and an unbeliever. This- widening of opportunity has not, however, led to anything like extravagance. The sincerity of the better type of artists who practise the craft is quite beyond question ; they have not relaxed in the smallest degree their respect for Nature's authority, and plainly they value their freedom most because it helps them to realise something of her infinite variety.

A. L. Baldry.

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"IN WEST PRINCE'S STREET GARDENS, EDINBURGH." FROM THE ETCHING BY SUSAN F. CRAWFORD, A.R.E.

Plate a

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Plate 3 — "a roadway in flanders"

FROM THE ETCHING BY MARY A. SLOANE, A.R.E.

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Plate 4 — "the slipway"

FROM the etching BY E. W. CHARLTON, A.R.E.

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"STUDY OF AN ARAB HEAD." FROM THE HERKOMERGRAVURE BY PRO- FESSOR H. VON HERKOMER, R.A.

Plate 5

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Plate 6 — "wild weather

FROM THE DRY-POINT BY PROFESSOR H. VON HERKOMER, R.A.

Plate 7 — " in the furrowed land

FROM THE ETCHING BY MINNA BOLINGBROKE, R.E.

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"JOHN PHILLIP, R.A." FROM THE ETCHING BY A. W. BAYES, R.E. Plate 9

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Plate io — " the cloud "

FROM THE MEZZOTINT BY JOSEPH KNIGHT, R.I., R.E.

Plate i i — " an essex stream

FROM THE ETCHING BY ALFRED HARTLEY, R.E.

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"WESTMINSTER ABBEY." FROM THE ETCHING BY AXEL HERMAN HAIG, R.E,

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"EVENING, MOUSEHOLE HARBOUR" FROM THE ETCHING BY REGINALD E. J. BUSH, A.R.E.

Plate 13

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Plate 17 — "dordrecht'

FROM THE ETCHING BY R. GOFF, R.E.

Plate 18 — "vespei

FROM the DRV-POINT BY C. J. WATSON, R.E.

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"THE PHILOSOPHER." FROM THE DRY-POINT BY H. B. van

RAALTE, A.R.E.

Plate 20

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"NIGHT." A DRY-POINT STUDY OF A HEAD BY CHARLES HOLROYD, R.E. Plate 21

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"GUN AND SHOT WHARF, SOUTH- WARK." FROM THE ETCHING BY CONSTANCE M. POTT, R.E.

Plate 27

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"THE MILL IN THE WIRRAL." FROM the etching by FRED. BURRIDGE, R.E.

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Plate 30 — "on the moors"

FROM THE MEZZOTINT BY A. C. MEYER, A.R.E.

(jBv termission of the Publishers, Messrs. Frost and Reed, Bristol)

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FROM THE ETCHING BY FRED W. GOOLDEN

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Plate 34 — " every little helps a little " from the etching by Constance g. copeman, a.r.

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(By permission of the Publishers, Messrs. Frost and Reed, Bristol)

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Plate 36 — "the little copse"

FROM THE ETCHING BY DAVID WATERSON, A.R.E.

Plate 37 — "a piping shepherd"

FROM THE MEZZOTINT BY DAVID WATERSON, A.R.E.

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Plate 39— "drizzle"

DRAWN, ETCHED, AND ENGRAVED BY THOMAS HUSON, R.E.

Plate 40 — "the hill side'

FROM the DRY-POINT BY T. IRVING DALGLIESH, R.E.

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FROM the etching BY WILLIAM KIDDIER

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FROM the AQUATINT BY FRANK SHORT, R.E.

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"A DOCKYARD ON THE THAMES"

FROM THE ETCHING BY FRANK

BRANGWYN

Plate 46

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Plate 47 — " the king "

FROM THE ETCHING BY HERBERT DICKSEE, R.E.

{By fermission of the Publishers, Messrs. Frost and Reed, Bristol)

Plate 48— " on the grand canal, venice"

FROM THE ETCHING BY L. B. PHILLIPS, A.R.E.

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"PORTRAITS OF THE LATE CECIL RHODES." FROM THE ETCHINGS BY MORTIMER MENPES, R.E. Plate 50

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"A STREET IN PERUGIA.'VFROM THE ETCHING BY R. G. REASON Plate 54

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN AMERICA. By WILL JENKINS.

HE many and varied artistic possibilities of line have each year been more intelligently practised by the American artist and better appreciated by the general public, and a brilliant school of wood engravers followed by a yet more brilliant school of pen draughtsmen whose work has appeared in well printed periodicals of large circulation, has produced a better public taste and a rapidly increasing interest in the graphic arts. A DEFINITE revival of interest in etching means a move towards raising the standard of public taste by a wider diffusion of things of real beauty and of sufficient monetary value to prompt a careful consideration of their merits. Again, a good etching besides being a thing of beauty is always an intellectual treat ; it is so " autographic," so closely characterised by the artist's actual touch that the student of it is almost able to feel the charm of the studio circle and to understand something of such a subtle atmosphere. MR. WHISTLER has said that " in Art it is criminal to go beyond the means used in its exercise." This is a canon which he has not only preached but conscientiously practised, and by so doing he has exerted very great influence on the work of American etchers. Many- sided worker and enthusiast, he has by sheer virtuosity, coupled with jiobility of conception and conscientiously serious aims, triumphantly reached and maintained a higher position as an etcher than any artist of his time. He has not reached his position without opposition. It has been given to few modern artists to meet such unfair and bitter criticism from the highest in authority (at one time in England) as he has in years past had to battle against. Now happily his great- ness is fully acknowledged, and no modern artist can justly claim so many appreciative and devoted admirers. He has earnestly striven with the greatest devotion to his ideals, unhampered by weakness of conception or lack of power, to express the full realisation of any message he has desired to impart. To the artist or connoisseur his works are the highest examples of lofty purpose and graceful poetic expression in modern etching. Equally versatile as painter, etcher or lithographer, he seizes with supreme and masterly grace the innermost

American

character of his subjects, and powerfully projects his statements with invariable refinement and by the most economical and effective means. He is sometimes almost epigrammatic in his manner of saying so much with so few lines or touches, and his work glows with the dramatic intensity of rich masses. It is now more than forty years, since the " French Series " — The Cabaret^ The Unsafe Tenement^ and others — were followed by the better known " Thames Series," each plate of which is a veritable gem of " portraiture " of the picturesque river subjects of that time. These first groups,, masterly as they are, were but the beginning of the most remarkable number of plates produced by any modern etcher, to which year by year he has added something from many and diverse motives. Shipping, buildings, figures, portraits, canals, docks, streets of London, Paris, Venice, Holland, Belgium, or the French Provinces, have all been subject to the magic of his touch. The total number of pages here available for American work would not afford sufficient space for even a briefly annotated catalogue of his important achievements in etching, to say nothing of the other branches of art in which he has with so much distinction exerted his personality. Happily he is to-day as vigorous and as active a force in art as ever. IN the foremost group of American painter-etchers stands the work of Charles A. Piatt. Distinguished alike for vigorous brilliancy and richness of effects, it shows that he has every variety of technical means at his disposal, and is a master of each in some special way. Exceptionally gifted with versatility, he has employed his skill in many different directions.

STEPHEN PARRISH is an etcher whose work teems with interest regardless of the particular subject dealt with. Whether he is rendering the clear sunlight of Pennsylvania or the deeper notes of the lower Canadian Provinces, his style is always full of interest and rich in every line and mass. No American's work shows more forcibly how their country abounds in good subjects. There is a. certain paucity of native subject in the work of most American painters and etchers, probably due to lack of example such as the European artist has constantly at his elbow. If the European be painting this or that phase of a landscape, he can with little trouble study masterly examples and traditions of how to solve his problems.. He may see how Daubigny did this or Rousseau that ; how carefully Constable studied the various stages of the growth of a tree from month to month throughout the seasons, or with what decisive strength he painted a cloud form or a bit of foreground. The American etchers have had to look for technical example in work

American

based on subjects foreign to their own country, and have in conse- quence greatly neglected possibilities nearer at hand. Mr. Parrish is one of the men who has been able to both see and feel the greatness of the old master-etchers, and to grasp their technical methods with sufficient understanding to enable him to practise on any theme with equal force and enthusiasm.

THAT brilliant pen-draughtsman illustrator. Otto Bacher, has practised etching with accomplished skill and with a simplicity of execution which gives his work unusual force with no lack of effectiveness. His Venice plates are among the best performances by any American. His grip of locale and ability to manage with ease the complicated groupings of boats, masts, cordage and the dazzling, fascinating undulation of water reflections in brilliant sun- light, have enabled him to produce plates that are never lacking in either pictorial or technical interest,

FRANK DUVENECK is an artist who has accomplished many important plates. Versatile to a degree both as painter and etcher, he has a masterly command of line and is always able to express himself with intense dignity and polished grace of handling. Much of his best work has been done in Italy.

SEVERAL members of that talented family, the Morans, have found a distinguished position as painter-etchers. Thomas Moran may be styled the artistic discoverer of the beauties of the south-west of America. His dramatic pictures of the Yellowstone Region have earned him an unique position in American art. A dreamer like Turner, he has painted Venice and the Orient with imaginative fervour. His etchings are conspicuous for technical facility and rhetorical force. His line has a wonderful quality of nervous vitality that adds interest to all his plates. Peter Moran has also devoted himself to the south-west, and has painted much from the picturesque life of the Pueblos. In most of his work animals are an important part of his subject. His landscapes with cattle are happily rendered and conspicuous for good drawing. The late MRS. NIMMO MORAN also attained a position of distinction as an etcher. Her work is a striking example of how much can be accomplished with simple undisguised line, softened only by such mellowness as the paper and the glow of rich inks will give. WALTER L. LATHROP is an etcher who knows how to make the most of line, and in handling it to show much versatile grace and variety. His splendid series of Connecticut country landscapes are teeming with both technical interest and the charming atmosphere of a picturesque native locality.

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American

JOSEPH PENNELL has not only shown his ability as an etcher, but also as a writer. As a black-and-white draughtsman few men have equalled his output for the past twenty years. At the last Paris Exhibition the only gold medal of the ist class awarded in the American section fell to him as an etcher.

MRS. ANNA LEA MERRITT first attained distinction as a portrait painter, and afterwards as the writer of the life of her late husband, Henry Merritt, artist and author. She turned her attention to etching as a means suited to the illustration of her own work. She has executed many charming plates, principally portraits of dis- tinguished men and women of the time, with an occasional plate ot river scenery, landscape, or interpretations of her own paintings. Her vigorous portraits of Miss Ellen Terry and a large head of Mr. Leslie Stephen are striking examples of good etching. ELLEN OAKFORD has done much that is good in landscape etching ; strong in tonality, her work has much of the subtle glowing charm of moist growth and outdoor atmosphere. More of an exponent of painty masses than of flowing, sparkling lines, her work is always satisfying and charming in its own especial way. ESSENTIALLY a practitioner of the briUiant uses of Hne, the work of Edith Loring Getchell is vigorous, original and effective without affectation. She has practised dry-point with much success, and found her motives in Holland and France, as well as in her own New England scenery. Her hand is particularly sympathetic to all that is beautiful in foliation and growth of trees, atmospheric or climatic conditions of light, and those subtleties of nature best adapted to expression with the point.

D. SHAW MACLAUGHLAN is an accomplished young artist

who first studied in the usual academic courses, but has found in the

art of etching a form of expression far more suited to his artistic

bent. Deeply conscious of the towering greatness of Rembrandt,

Durer and the older masters of line, he has set himself the task of

learning all in his power of the good that appeals to him in the

works of such great men. It follows that such devoted enthusiasm

to an ideal is bound to produce good work; Mr. MacLaughlan has

proved this already by his many charming and vigorously original

plates. A well-known exhibitor both in America and Europe,

honours and medals have already begun to come to him. In such

an acomplished artist and conscientious student of good etching, great

things may be expected from his clever hand in the years to come.

ARTHUR A. LEWIS is another young artist who is devoting his

talents to the best ideals of pure etching. Strong in his use of line,

4

American

he is also most happy in achieving a velvety richness in his work with very conscientious and clever style in his composition. He is par- ticularly happy with figure subjects. Keenly grasping all the essentials, he draws them with charming grace and striking originality of style. GEORGE C. AID strikes a modern, graceful note in his work, permeated with much artistic thought and sympathy with nature. A thorough student of his art, he has most consistently studied the subject, and practises with conviction and much promise for the future. IT is not surprising that so talented a water-colour painter and illustrator as Sidney R. Burleigh should turn his hand to etching with conspicuous success. With unusual refinement of draughtsman- ship and brilliancy of handling such as he possesses in all mediums, Mr. Burleigh might be among the foremost of American etchers. CHARLES W. STETSON is an artist who is exceptionally gifted with individuality and power as a colourist. More strongly imaginative than most men of his school, whatever he touches is at once marked with those indescribable qualities which make such works stand alone. He is voted a " genius " among his friends, and so he is ; no school, no teaching, nothing but a natural fund of deep originality, can do what he has done with rich, deep, glowing, radiant colour. THE late Thomas Hovenden, who reached such a prominent position as a painter of American genre, practised etching with much success. Essentially an exponent of character, his figure plates were always handled with both breadth and richness of detail. JULIAN RIX as an etcher has done many clever plates, always handled with much fertility of line expression and with sympathy for tone and rich colour.

W. C. BAUER is strong in his grasp of landscape drawing in all its different phases. Dignified in composition, with an intimate know- ledge of his subjects, his plates are always seriously managed and pleasing in final effects.

OTIS WEBBER'S work, rich in tonaHty, is handled with a sympathetic line well expressing the different moods of nature. C. F. W. MEILATZ possesses a power of rendering a great variety of subject-matter with success. Bulk and masses of architecture, characteristics of streets, people and buildings, he sets down always with grace and conviction.

THE late W. Goodrich Beal was most accomplished in his land- scape plates ; every tree, rock, hillside, cloud, or bit of foreground found conscientious consideration from him as to its placing, size, relation and character. His compositions were always managed with a keen grasp of the relation of all the parts to his motive.

American

J. A. S. MONKS has done excellent work with the etching needle. A brilliant painter of landscape, sheep and cattle, his etchings are based on solid knowledge and are handled with skill and taste. EDMUND H. GARRETT, painter, author, illustrator, and designer, has devoted himself to etching as a means of illustrating a certain beautiful series of books, and has achieved his purpose with marked artistic ability.

R. SWAIN GIFFORD has done many excellent plates, as has also J. D. Smillie, who has successfully devoted his ability to many pro- cesses— line, soft ground, aquatint, mezzotint, and dry-point. One of the classes at the National Academy is employed in etching from life under his able direction.

THOSE excellent painters, Robert Blum and W. Chase, are both accomplished etchers, but have produced nothing recently. ROBERT F. BLOODGOOD has done some very artistic plates, two of which he was good enough to contribute to this number. These, together with one by E. H. Garrett, it was found impossible to reproduce satisfactorily, and they were regretfully omitted. That clever marine painter, Carlton Chapman, also sent some excellent things, as did Frederick W. Freer and J. A. S. Monks, all of which unfortunately arrived too late to be included.

IT is not possible to include here the names of all those who might justly claim mention under the title of American etchers, neither would it serve any definite purpose to do so. The following artists, in addition to those already mentioned, have been more or less prominent as etchers at various times in the past decade, and their examples and teachings will be a powerful influ- ence towards the revival of this art, a revival which now seems more possible than was the case a few years ago.

J. M. GAUGENGIGL, Alfred Brennan, J. W. Twachtman, Charles Corwin, C. A. Vanderhoof, Bernard Walter Priestman, George L. Brown, T. W. Wood, J. M. Falconer, F. S. Church, H. Farrer, J. C. NicoU, F. Dielman, H. P. Share, Walter Saterlee, Otto Schneider, B. Lauder, Hamilton Hamilton, Ernest Haskell, James S. King, J. Lauber, Samuel Coleman, Frank Waller, C. Volkmar, Ernest C. Post, C. A. Walker, Charles H. Woodbury, H. D. Murphy, W. G. Glackens, W. H. H. Bicknell, Frank Bicknell, Sidney Smith, H. R. Blaney, G. G. McCutcheon, Frank Waller, G. D. Clements, Elliot Dangerfield, Katherine Lewin, W. H. Skelton, J. Fagin, Krausman Van-Elten, J. J. Calaghan, J. G. L. Ferris, Frank M. Gregory, J. F. Sabin, W. St. J. Harper, Stephen J. Ferris, Herman Hyneman, W. E. Marshall, C. F. Kimball, Eric Pape, and R. Coxe.

Will Jenkins.

American

"CAMEO NO. I." FROM THE ETCHING BY J. MCNEILL WHISTLER

Plate 2

American

Plate 3 — " a wintry evening "

FROM THE ETCHING BY W. C. BAUER (By permission of Mr. C. Klackner)

Plate 4 — " twilight "

FROM THE ETCHING BY ELLEN OAKFORD

(By permission of Mr. C. Klackner)

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Plate 6 — " lido, Venice "

FROM THE ETCHING BY OTTO H. BACKER

Plate 7 — " the hour of rest "

FROM THE ETCHING BY PETER MORAN

(By permission of Mr. C. Klackner)

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Plate 14 — " an ebb tide "

FROM THE ETCHING BY OTIS S. WEBER

{By permission of Mr, C. Klackner)

Plate 15 — "autumn on the passaic river'

FROM THE ETCHING BY JULIAN RIX

(By fermission of Mr. C. Klackner)

American

{By permission of Mr. C. Klackner)

" DEM WAS GOOD OLE DAYS." FROM THE ETCHING BY THE LATE THOMAS HOVENDEN

Plate i6

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Plate 17— "study of a head" from the etching by sydney richmond burleigh

Plate 18 — "on the merrimac"

FROM THE ETCHING BY THE LATE W. GOODRICH HEAL {By permission of Mr. C. Klacktier}

American

Plate ig — portrait of louis agassiz

FROM THE ETCHING BY ANNA LEA MERRITT

Plate 20 — "a fisherman's fortune'

FROM the etching BY EDITH L. GETCHELL (By Permission of Mr. C. Klacftner}

American

Plate 21 — '' desdemona's house

FROM THE ETCHING BY FRANK DUVENECK

Plate 22 — " Williamsburg

FROM THE ETCHING BY CHARLES A. ii..».i

{By permission of Mr. Frederick Keppel)

"THE MARKET SLIP, ST. JOHN, N.B., AT EBB TIDE." FROM THE ETCHING BY CHARLES A. PLATT

Plate 23

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MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN FRANCE. By GABRIEL MOUREY.

URING the past few years engraving on metal in France has been going through an evolution analogous to that in lithography. Etching in colour is gradually and almost entirely replacing, in the esteem of connoisseurs, etching strictly so- called, dry-point etching in monochrome, and the work done with the burin or graver. Nor has it been otherwise with lithography ; public taste has recently veered round to drawings on stone, of which the more or less audacious, and more or less rich polychromatic effects, constitute the sole merit, so that the studies in monochrome of a Steinlen or a Willette impress many as belonging to a time long gone by.

IN the course of two articles on Coloured Etchings in France, which appeared in "The Studio" for February and March 1901, I endeavoured to define in a few words the different methods followed in the technique of this special branch of art. May I be permitted to revert here to a question interesting for so many reasons not only to artists themselves but to connoisseurs and collectors ? I was, moreover, at considerable pains to make the information I gave last year complete, by addressing myself to the man who is best acquainted in France, if not in the whole of Europe, with the secrets of etching in colour. I allude to Eugene Delatre, the engraver and printer, son of Auguste Delatre, of whom Castagnary justly said that if he had lived at the time of Rembrandt, that great etcher would not have had to take impressions of his engravings himself; Auguste Delatre, to whom Felicien Rops wrote that curious treatise on Gravure au vernis mou^ or etching on a soft ground, which serves as an appendix to his Eauforte^ Pointe-Seche et Vernis mou (etching, dry-point, and soft-ground etching), which every etcher or engraver ought to read.

M. EUGENE DELAtRE was, with M. Charles Maurin, one of the first engravers to yield to the fascination of etching in colour ; he it is who has struck off the greater number of etchings in colour which have so far appeared, for at the present day artists who print their own etchings are quite in the minority.

French

THERE are three distinct processes of etching in colour. In the first only one plate is used, the colour is laid on in the manner known as a la poupee*^ and the number of impressions that may be taken is practically illimitable.

IN the second process two plates are used, one for the outline and the shadows, the other for the colour or colours, care being taken to print from the plate with the colour first, and that with the outline and shadows last.

IN the third process one plate is required for each colour, and as many impressions are taken as there are plates ; but I was told by M. Delatre that with four plates every combination of colour can be obtained. THERE still remains the so-called monotype process, which is, as is well known, a painting on metal, generally on copper, which is passed through the press before the colour is completely dry. It would appear that monotypes can also be produced on zinc. The drawing is done with lithographic chalk, and similar colouring is used as in etching in colour a la poupee. The chalk drawing can only bear the taking of five or six impressions at the most, for the outlines become more and more eff^aced in each proof.

FOR reasons which will be readily appreciated I will not dwell longer on these technical questions. Those who actually practise any craft have, of course, an experience impossible to an outsider, and the critic who pretends to bring his personal opinion to bear on the subject, lays himself open to a charge of pedantry. And after all what do the processes employed matter ? it is the results which count, the results which speak for themselves, and it is our mission to state what those results are. The art of the engraver is indeed of all the graphic arts the most involved in mystery, the most unique, and, at the same time, on account of its infinite resources, the most wide reaching in its results. What a gulf yawns between the style of a Meryon and a Gaillard, a Lepere and a Rops, a Jacquemart and a Whistler, a Braquemond and a Helleu. "Men achieve good results," says Felicien Rops in the letter to Auguste Delatre, alluded to above, " by the use of the most diverse, the most opposite means. That which suits one will not suit another. I think much the same may be said of all dogmas, academic formulae and recipes for success as the dictum of a celebrated doctor, who, after giving it due trial, declared of a remedy for cholera that it was excellent for masons but utterly bad for cabinet makers." AMONGST the engravers who have devoted themselves most exclu-

* The poupee or doll is a bunch of rags used in this process.

French

sively to monochromatic etching a first place must be given to Auguste Lepere. I have no fear that any artist or connoisseur will reproach me for naming him as one of the masters of French etching, if not the master par excellence of the day. Lepere is incomparable in his knowledge of how to express motion and life, he is a draughts- man of the highest rank, and has a most admirable grasp of technique. Every fresh plate engraved by him proves him to be a yet more complete master of his craft, and shows that his outlook is ever widening, his execution ever gaining fresh ease, his art becoming ever more and more original and personal. The series of etchings he brought back from Holland last year is an illustration of the constant progress I have described. However great the excellence attained by Lepere in his wonderful engravings we are quite sure to find him taking one step further in advance in his next productions. How exquisitely beautiful are his views of Amsterdam ; what life, what go, there is in them ; what decision of touch, what variety of effect in the biting in ; what intensity of colour they display. WE discussed so recently in ** The Studio " the talent of M. Edgar Chahine that it is not desirable to say more here than is necessary to do justice to the more recent plates of that very original artist. His Portrait of Mdlle. Dehair, of the Comedie Fran9aise, which is full of refinement and insight into character, the Feather Boa and yaby, the last representing the exquisite face of a young girl leaning on her elbow and resting her chin on her hands, her beautiful light hair crowned by a big grey hat, prove him to be endowed with the greatest versatility. But however sensible he may be of the charms of the women of the day, Edgar Chahine is no less successful in his study of typical scenes in popular resorts.

THERE is, perhaps, less sharpness and distinctness about the Paris scenes of Eugene Bejot, but they are even more pleasing. He excels in catching momentary effects, especially on the banks of the Seine, which are full of unexpected surprises in colour and perspective. GUSTAVE LEHEUTRE is another artist devoted to characteristic city scenes : the old streets and quaint old houses, &c., which he sees with the true etcher's eye, with the dry-point, so to speak, and he has produced a number of etchings full of charm. A conscientious draughtsman, he wields the etching tools with a delicacy of execution combined with a decision of touch which often result in the pro- duction of real masterpieces. How delightful, for instance, are his Maison de Garde ^ Tanneries a Montargis, U Impasse Gambey, Troyes, Ecluse du Treport, and Bateaux parisiens a Auteuil, full as they are of audacious effects of perspective.

French

HELLEU is as ever the fascinating wielder of the diamond-point whom we all know so well, the masterly interpreter of the grace :and elegance of the fashionable woman of the day. We are never "weary of admiring him, for he is always, as has been justly said, «equal to himself; nay, even superior to himself What could be

more exquisite than his recent studies of the Duchess of M , one

of the great ladies of the English aristocracy, especially that of

La Duchesse de M Endormie, with her favourite fox terrier on her

knees; or, to quote another tx2im^\t,thtsi\xdiy oi Mme. Madeleine C ,

full of typically Parisian distinction ; or, again, that most admirable scene of maternal affection, Jean Helleu embrasse par sa Mere, and Les Saxes, which is a fitting pendant to the celebrated dry-point called the Dessins de Watteau au Louvre.

GREAT indeed and full of strange fascination is the contrast when we turn from Helleu to consider the work of Steinlen, full as it is of profound melancholy, even tragedy ; for, with his deep insight into the life of the people of Paris, he transports us into the very atmosphere of the faubourgs, revealing the vice and misery under- lying the brilliant society of the capital.

STEINLEN is, in my opinion, especially successful in his etchings in black and white. His Amour eux de Village, Pauvre Here, Le Bouge, Rentree du Travail, A Concert in the Street, and certain of his land- scapes, such as the Lffet de Soleil couchant sur un Pont, are especially noteworthy, so full are they of entrancing charm. These etchings, in fact, simply palpitate with truth and emotion ; their drawing and composition are alike excellent.

VERY different in style, but equally sincere in their interpretation of nature, are the engravings of the Dutchman, M. P. Dupont, who resides in Paris, and on that account has a right with the Armenian, M. Chahine, to be noticed here.

M. DUPONT has assimilated the technique of the German masters in engraving of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with rare skill and intelligence, but at the same time he has given a thoroughly personal impress to his own work. Except for one Amsterdam scene, the Groote Toren, I have scarcely seen anything of his but studies of horses — all strong dray or farm animals — notably The Fallen Horse, UOutillage, and the Cheval mangeant. In them the artist has shown himself thoroughly in touch with his subjects, interpreting in each case expression, gesture, attitude — in a word the special ego of every one of his models with a really touching tenderness ; for his horses, whether in the open country or on the quays of Paris, are full of individual life and character. M. Dupont is,

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in fact, an artist of the first rank and his name deserves to be remembered.

IN his etchings in black and white and in colour Charles Huard continues to interpret with great success the life of fisher folk, sailors, old country women, and other types of provincial life, observing their peculiarities with infinite care. His Vieille Femme reprisant pres d'une fenetre and In the Snow at Bel- Air are amongst the best of his signed works.

M. GASTON EY'CHENNE has also produced some studies of animals which are really little masterpieces. His L.a Carpe, Papillon jaune^ and Petite Panthere are specially noteworthy. He is a thorough lover of delicate and subtle effects of colour, an earnest student of nature, and everything from his hand has a permanent charm of its own. — [As we go to press we have heard, with the greatest regret, of the death, at the early age of twenty-nine years, of this very talented and sympathetic artist. — Editor.]

M. CHARLES HOUDARD confines himself more and more strictly as time goes on to the effects of sunset, in which he has attained such wonderful richness of colouring.

M. MULLER is an artist of considerable power and versatility. His portraits of actresses, especially that of Cleo de Merode, are very quaint. For myself, however, I prefer his Baigneuse sous les Saules ; Rue St. Vincent — a winter snow effect full of force and charm — Port du Pollet, and his Promenade a Hyde Park, etchings in colour in which he has obtained effects of rare delicacy and subtle refinement. M. CHARLES MAURIN is one of the very few artists who has attempted to treat the nude figure in the medium of etching. His morning and evening toilettes of young girls, his studies of girls or women bathing, chatting together in deshabille in the privacy of their own rooms, and scenes from the home life of mothers and children, are full of the greatest charm. The only fault I have to find with them is that they are, perhaps, too precise in drawing and in colouring, but some few of them have all the interest of the most charming genre paintings, notably the Ruban de Coi^ure, Nouvelle education sentimentale. Premiere Toilette, and the Bain de lajillette. M. MANUEL ROBBE possesses in the very highest degree the same mastery of technique as M. Charles Maurin, but he is less perfect as a draughtsman. Some of his signed proofs are full of incomparable charm, especially, in my opinion, those in which there is the least colour — La critique, for instance, in which a young woman is standing in a delightful pose in front of an easel. The Dame a la chaise longue also pleases me greatly. The versatiHty of M. Robbe's

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talent is just as clearly displayed as in his scenes of intimate home life in hjs landscapes with figures, such as the Marche a Montmartre^ Dans Je Parc^ Lever de Lune, the Vieil Arbre, and Aux champs, all fine renderings of typical outdoor subjects full of admirable effects of light. THE scenes of Parisian life of M. Richard Ranft are full of humour and imagination. In such typical works as his Marche a la Volatile and La Charrette anglaise he delights in striking schemes of colour, full of cheerful harmony.

M. FRANCIS JOURDAIN continues to seek his effects by contrasting masses of d^k tone, achieving ever more striking and impressive results, but at the same time always retaining the decorative character of his work. As an etcher in colours he occupies an unique position, and 1 know nothing more charming than his Femme dans r Ombre, Femme lisant, or his Femme au can^e, the last a charming study in grey and pink, relieved by the dull gold pf the hair and the soft black of the velvet collar.

M. BERNARD DE MONVEL has produced itltle during the last year. If I am not mistaken only two plates, namely, the Bar — one of those curious studies to which he owes his celebrity — and his Before the Storm, which resembles a little too much his Haleurs, although the colouring is different.

THE plates engraved by M. Eugene Delatre are simply perfect, so wonderfully strong is his technique. In my opinion, it would be quite impossible for any one to attain to greater delicacy, refinement, softness, and depth of tone. It is an absolute delight to turn over his. series of Landscapes, vibrating with the light of early morning with the mists of the dawn still clinging to them. To cite but a few, how charming are the Entree du Village de Saint-yulien-le-Pauvre, the Moulin de L'Epais, the Pommiers, and the Brumes sur la Sarthe, Very different, but equally striking, are the Pont Solferino, a night effect, with the lights reflected in the humid gloom of the reddish fog ; and most charming are the two studies of cats, Moumoune and Marquis, whilst in the Vieille Femme aux Chats is displayed in an equal degree the wonderful insight into character and power of observation which distinguish so many fine works from the hand of M. Eugene Delatre. AMONGST the more recent plates of M. Jacques Villon, all of whose work bears the impress of distinction, the most pleasing are those in which he contents himself with simple effects of colour, in. other words those which are the least polychromatic. Specially noticeable are his Parisienne seated in a pink armchair, with her face turned away from the spectator, the whole subject veiled in a kind of grey haze, from which emerges the exquisitely delicate and refined

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profile of the young girl, and that most dainty study, full of the elegance of the Second Empire, Les Premiers Beaux yours, with the figure in the blue — such a ravishing blue — costume ; very amusing too are the plates to which the artist has given the names of the Negre en bonne Fortune, the Cabaret de Nuit, and the Ombrelle rouge, THE impressionist painter M. Dezaunay endeavours, with marked success, to give to his etchings the same freshness and brightness of colour as distinguish his canvases. His studies of Breton women, such as the Paysanne de Rosporden, the Petite mendiante de Pleyben, and the Femme etjillette de Ploogastel Daoulas, are simply delightful. TO M. Dubuc we owe some very powerful studies in etching of sea effects. Now he renders with rare skill in his Mourillon the gleam- ing luminous Mediterranean, as a scintillating stretch of blue water, now he becomes tragic and grand in his Vaisseau de Guerre, 3. mighty man-of-war, breaking the huge waves of the ocean at night, with its smoke trailing behind it and its lamps all aglow. EQUALLY highly must be commended the landscapes of M. E. Viala, etchings in black and white, or very slightly tinged with colour. They are all characterised by broad masses of tone, and there is about them a certain mystery reflecting their artist's peculiar mode of looking at nature. The plate called Humbles Terres is a noteworthy example of M. Viala's special excellences. M. ROUX-CHAMPION sees his subjects in a less romantic and less cheerful light. His Pardon is one of his most successful efforts, and, in my opinion, there is much to admire in the colouring of the Robes rouges, the Moulin, and the pleasing impressionist view of the Jardin du Luxembourg.

M. HENRI PAILLARD, the illustrator of Bruges la morte, is evidently not very much in love with the process of etching in colour. His Quais de la Seine, however, is a very pleasing plate, but it is easy to see that the artist is more at home in black and white engraving.

M. L. PI VET'S Coq is a successful bit of decorative work in harmonious colouring ; M. Schuller in his Deux Coqs, and M. J. Angelvy in the two plates called Debuts and Fin d'un Maraudeur, have turned the resources of polychromatic etching to very good effect in their renderings of animals.

MANY other works deserve recognition and examination, full as they are of interest alike from the point of view of their artistic and of their technical value. I must be content, however, with mentioning the fine studies of women by M. Gaston Darbour, especially the Parisienne in a red dress looking at a drawing ; the Dame au Hibou ;

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the Inter leur forain a la Foire de Neuilly by M. Betout, displaying considerable observation and skill of execution; the exquisite Scene d'Interieur of M. V. Dupont, in which a mother is seated sewing near her child perched in a high chair; the fine studies of flowers by Mdlle. Voruz, which are perhaps rather too Japanese in style ; the series of typical inhabitants and scenes from the street by Sunyer, notably the Place de r Ahreuvoir a Montmartre^ Groupes as sis au Luxem- bourg^ which recall not very happily the manner of Steinlen ; the landscapes of M. A. Lafitte, such as Soira Onival ; the Promenade apres la Course by M. R. Canals, a characteristic Spanish scene ; the land- scapes of the south of France by M. Ralli-Scaramang, which vibrate with life and character ; the studies of women by M. E. Roustan, interesting although the execution is rather feeble; and the Pay sage du Bourbonnais of M. P. Maud. Lastly, 1 must not omit to mention especially the recent engravings in colour of M. Auguste Delatre, the Solitude Marais^ the beautiful Moonlight Effect in Scotland^ and above all the Storm Effect^ a magnificent etching in black and white, in which this master in engraving has attained to a tragic grandeur truly admirable.

WHAT rich and varied results have been achieved in this new art ot etching in colour, how many artists of widely differing temperaments have been enticed to produce by its means works stamped with their own individuality ! In the collections of engravings and museums of the future an important place will be occupied by etchings in colour. French engravers may well pride themselves on having widened the field of monochromatic engraving on metal, and of having revived the art of polychromatic etching ; in a word, of having converted it into a prolific and supple process, lending itself to an infinite variety of expression, and capable of being adapted to every kind of artistic temperament, every peculiarity of style.

IN conclusion, let us off^er our best thanks to M. Ed. Sagot and M. Charles Hessele, the owners or publishers of the various etchings, reproductions from which form the illustrations of this article.

Gabriel Mourey.

French

(By permission oj M. Ed. Sagot)

"L'IMPASSE GAMBEY, TROYES." FROM THE ETCHING BY G. LEHEUTRE

Plate 2

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''IN THE SNOW AT BEL-AIR." FROM THE ETCHING BY CHARLES HUARD Plate 3

(By permission of M. Hessele)

"choosing a good proof." from the coloured etching by MANUEL ROBBE.

fBy termissiouc/ M. Ed, Sagot.}

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By permission oj M. Ed. Sagot)

"LA MAISON NEUVE." FROM THE ETCHING BY A. LEPERE

Plate 8

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Plate 9 — " Amsterdam

FROM THE ETCHING BY HENRY PAILLARD

amsterdam " Plate 10

FROM THE ETCHING BY AUGUSTE LEPERE

{By permission of M. Ed. Sagot)

"at AMSTERDAM." FROM THE ETCHING BY A. LEpIrE.

(By Periitissicii of M. lid. Sa^ol.)

French

quartier de la bievre ' Plate 12

FROM THE ETCHING BY AUGUSTE LEP^RE

(By permission of M. Ed. Sagot)

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Plate 13

FROM THE ENGRAVING BY R. DUPONT

{By permission of M. Ed. Sagot)

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Plate 14 — " bassins de la villette, le jour "

FROM THE ETCHING BY H. PAILLARD

'the fallen horse" Plate 15

FROM THE ENGRAVING BY R. DUPONT

(By permission of M. Ed. Sagot)

"MLLE, DELVAIR OF THE COMEDIE FRANCAISE." FROM the etching by EDGAR CHAHINE.

French

{By permission oj M. Ed, Sagot)

"MARKET DAY — AVENUE DE CLICHY." FROM THE ETCHING BY EDGAR CHAHINE

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"PAUVRE HERE. A STUDY IN POVERTY." FROM THE ETCHING BY STEIN LEN Plate 23

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"A CONCERT IN THE STREET." FROM THE ETCHING BY STEINLEN Plate 24

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'VIVE LE TSAR!" FROM THE etching by FELIX BRACQUEMOND

(By Permission of M. A. Marty.)

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN GERMANY. By HANS W. SINGER.

HERE was a renaissance of etching in- Germany, as of most of the other forms of art, during the last quarter of last century. Among the men who plied the point seriously before then, and still remain in the foremost ranks, C. A. Meyer-Basel and P. Halm are- perhaps the best. Both are known by a large- number of delicate landscapes, showing views of Suabia, the northern boundary lines of Switzerland around Lake Constance, and similar regions, seen with an^ eye which does not feel attracted to landscape in its aspects of grandeur or in its romantic phases, but which loves nature pure and simple, even if it be but a few steps beyond the gates of a city. OF the two Halm has some special claims upon our interest, even- above Meyer-Basel. He has with excellent fidelity and grace repro- duced the work of other artists, and designed ornamental work. One of the best proofs of his abilities in this direction is to be found in the magnificent volumes dealing with the collections of Frederic the- Great, which were on exhibit in the German Pavilion of the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Moreover Halm is, after a fashion, in spite of his comparative youth, the Nestor of modern etching. FOR it was he who gave technical instruction, as a friend, to Karl Stauffer-Bern, and on the path upon which Stauffer led there after- wards followed Klinger. To Klinger's genius, again, as well as to his success, which called forth a widespread interest in the art, the- recent revival is due.

STAUFFER commenced as a portrait-painter and etcher. He was a sculptor at heart, but unfortunately he did not find that out much before the calamity befell him which ended his life. The wearisome, torturing process of elaborating his own ideal, of finding, the direction in which his technical talent and the bent of his^ genius lay, was all evolved on the field of etching. He had a keen eye for form, loved to follow each slight elevation and depression, and continually sought for the best means towards a full and conscientious expression of form. This caused him first to drop the strong line in^ etching, then to relinquish the point altogether and to take up the*

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graver in its place. But he did not use it in the mannered fashion to ivhich the thoughtless successors of Mercuri and Toschi had reduced it. He gave up the set " system " and used the graver w^ith as much freedom as etchers do the point. The difference in effect is that the quality of his delicate line helps him to obtain effects of pre- cision and " colour " that the point and bitten line do not yield. As an attainment in the direction of superb " modelling," such plates as Stauffer's portrait of his mother and the reclining nude model, have rarely been surpassed.

KLINGER, originally an etcher in true spirit, underwent transforma- tions like Stauffer, but has lived to complete them. He, too, in the •end has become a sculptor at heart. When he v^as young the exuberance of his fancy impelled him to take to etching and pen drawl- ing, for he had more ideas, all struggling to be put to the test, than he could comfortably have painted. From the standpoint of the connoisseur of etching pure and simple, Klinger's earliest w^ork, such as the sets on Ovid and the fable of Cupid and Psyche, are the most pleasing. They are tantalisingly full of odd fancies, but this "literary" character is nevertheless kept in the background. The latter series, such as the Story of a Love, Story of a Life, On Death, are over- whelming as lucubrations of a mind that must be taken seriously. Yet he is beginning to neglect his style, owing to the earnestness with which he endeavours to enforce what he has to say. The latest series, above all the Brahmsphantasie, considered as pure art, show a decline. His powers as a draughtsman are as great as ever, his fancy -as vivid and powerful as before, yet his craft has fallen off lamentably. He combines on one plate methods that lack harmony. He keeps the desired effect in view, and makes for it without considering the character of his medium. Now that Klinger has turned sculptor altogether, he has lost the patience, conscientiousness, and lightness of hand which characterised the early period of his career. OF the men whom he particularly impressed, Greiner, Kolbe, Dasio, and Hofer, none but Dasio has devoted much time to engraving and -etching. Dasio has done notable work ; but he has allowed himself to be carried away by a sort of spirit of romance which delights in parading a degree of culture greater than he really possesses. And in presenting his allegories, his philosophical sets, he has neglected to devote sufficient time to the technical part of his art and to his draughtsmanship.

THERE are no schools of etching in Germany, any more than there formerly were. More men apply themselves to it, and the quality as well as quantity of work produced is very much higher than it was

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some twenty-five years ago. Yet every one goes his own way, more or less. Much of the work is interesting. It shows us painters striving after aims similar to those they have already achieved with the brush. Upon the whole, very few men etch from an etcher's standpoint pure and simple. Among them the Dresden artists Unger, Fischer, and Pietschmann are in the lead. Their work runs more than any other upon the lines that legitimate etching has followed, since the days of Callot ; it is most like that of their English comrades. They have a true sense of the value of power and line. They employ the simple straightforward process, and do not fritter away time with experiments in search of new effects. Fischer has produced some very beautiful landscapes, sketches from the banks of the Elbe, from the shores of the Baltic at Bornholm or Riigen, and from the heights of the Silesian Mountains. There are few among us that have so much sense for a simple, grand style as he.

THE Hamburg artists are the very reverse. They studied from books all the methods and tricks of the trade. They have produced not very many, but very clever plates, and display dextrous feats such as other etchers have arrived at only after years of work. Yet this is the best one can say of Eitner, lilies, Kayser, &c. Perhaps they have been too apt, too clever. They have sucked the orange of etching and seem to have found it dry very soon, for they have almost given it up already. Serious art presupposes earnest work ; that is beyond dispute. The man who gets no help, who has to find out the ways and means all for himself, generally produces the most lasting work, and sticks to what he has learned. These Hamburg artists have found life too easy.

AT Berlin we find the two best reproductive etchers — we may safely say it — in allEurope,A. Kriiger and K.Koepping. Koepping'setchings of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Miinkacsy have gained him world-wide fame. There is nothing to equal it. He preserves not only the •character of the painter's work, but images even the quality of the brush work, nay, even the state of preservation of the picture before }iim. Both Kriiger and Koepping have attempted original work, but have failed to attract as much applause with it as with their other productions.

AT Berlin, too, we find Max Liebermann, certainly a most interesting artist. If we admit that such a thing as plein-air or impressionist etching is feasible we must admit that Liebermann has attained to it. Such plates as the Cart in the Downs, the Girl Herding Goats, th.^. Beer- garden in Rosenheim, the Dutch Girls Sewing in a Little Garden, are astonishing and interesting enough. I, for my part, prefer a number

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of delicate dry-points on zinc by Liebermann, little Dutch views, which betray a fine sense of the beauty of the materials employed. LEISTIKOW, of Berlin also, turns etching into an altogether decora- tive art, just as he does painting. His style, far removed from naturalism, is very personal and engaging, from the fact that he simpli- fies not only the colours but also the forms of nature. THE work of Mrs. KoUwitz is the last one would expect from a woman. There is all but brutal realism in her delineation of the lowest types of humanity Yet such powerful creations as the weird dance about the Guillotine are wonderfully impressive. Unfor- tunately most of her plates — the series on the Weavers, the Riot, &c., — savour too much of politics.

AT Karlsruhe there are Thoma and Kalckreuth, who have etched a good deal. What interests us in their plates is the painter, or rather the artist, whom we know through his paintings. They have not as yet turned out work that adds any important new touches to their characteristics as we already know them. It is the same with the late Leibl, or with Stuck, or with Menzel even. We would not care to miss their etchings, and yet when we pass judgment on these artists, our opinion of their etchings will not weigh heavily with us. Stuck, perhaps, of all the five touches us nearest. His Pool in a T^rout Stream is a beautiful plate, making the most of a wonderful technique. Before leaving Karlsruhe mention, at least, should be made of Walther Conz.

MUNICH, once upon a time the undoubted metropolis of German art, strange to say, has never given birth to a school of etchers in any way comparable with that of its painters. One of the most interesting among the younger men, Heinrich Wolff, received a call to Konigsberg, just when he was beginning to be known. He has done portraits principally, and has used the roulette in an extremely interesting way. Hegenbart, who has just begun to work upon this field, promises to succeed excellently, when we keep in mind what he has already achieved with his first few plates. He has done delicate line work, slightly too reminiscent of pure pen-and-ink drawing, but he has also completed some excellent surface work, notably the Ready for Flight. THOSE etchers who prefer to employ surface techniques, and aim at the pictorial chiaroscuro of the painters, are either Munich men or traceable to Munich influence. They are all landscapists, and I should place Gampert, with his fine moorland scenes, at the head of the list. Graf approaches him closely ; so does Pankok, who employs mezzotint, whereas the other two use aquatint and soft ground etching preferably. The " Worpswede " artists, Mackensen and

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Overbeck would fall within or near to this category, at least as regards their aim if not their technique, which is principally pure line etching depending upon the help of the printer and of retroussage for the tonality.

THERE are, of course, also line landscape-etchers such as Ubbelohde, who has produced beautiful, sunny work, with sweeping strokes, great delicacy, and a well thought out translation of the surfaces in nature into a scheme of line. Rasch and Hagen, of Weimar, as well as Hirzel, who is at the same time a well-known book-plate etcher, show more or less similarity to Ubbelohde.

PERHAPS I ought not to pass by Geyger and R. Muller, and Vogeler, the latter of whom has produced a number of well-known plates — but they are affected and singularly weak in sentiment. Geyger is remarkably skilful ; but this has led him into so great a degree of over-finish that some of his later work is almost painful to behold. R. Miiller's absolute want of fancy or refined conception unfortunately render his technically excellent plates as devoid of interest as photogravures.

THESE are the names of the greater part, though, of course, not all of the modern German etchers. Upon the whole they will bear comparison with those of other countries well enough. If there is not so much feeling for purity of style in evidence as there might be, this is, perhaps, somewhat counterbalanced by the great variety and freshness to be found in German work of the day. There has been less of imitation and more of originality in recent German etching and engraving than in any of the other forms of German art.

Hans W. Singer.

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Plate 2 — " a gusty day "

FROM THE ETCHING BY OTTO UBBELOHDE

Plate 3 — "an idyll"

FROM THE DRY-POINT BY HANS THOMA

German

"THE REAPERS." FROM THE ETCHING BY LEOPOLD COUNT KALCKREUTH

Plate 4

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"IN THE ORCHARD" FROM THE AQUATINT BY OSCAR GRAF Plate 5

' IN TJ^3 BAVAHIAIT MOoHLAUU

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Plate 8 — "in hessia"

FROM THE ETCHING BY C. THEODOR MEYER-BASEL

Plate g — "near starnberg"

FROM THE ETCHING BY C. T. MEYER-BASEL

German

"A POOL IN A TROUT STREAM." FROM THE ETCHING BY FRANZ STUCK

Plate io

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Plate it — "a river scene after sundown'

FROM the etching BY OTTO GAMPERT

Plate 12— "adam and eve, satan and death"'

FROM THE ETCHING BY MAX KLINGER

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Plate i6— " dance in a gin-shop"

from the soft-ground etching by kathe kollwitz

Plate 17 — "the violinist

FROM THE MIXED ETCHING BY BERNHARD PANKOK

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"ART AND MAMMON." ETCHED AND AQUATINTED BY FRITZ HEGENBART Plate 19

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"ROCKS ON THE ISLAND OF RUGEN." FROM THE AQUA- TINT BY OTTO FISCHER Plate 22

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"THE READER." FROM THE ETCHING BY PETER HALM

Plate 23

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Plate 24 — " breakers '

FROM THE ETCHING BY OTTO FISCHER

Plate 25 — "returning home in the snow"

FROM the DKY-POINT BY ARTHUR ILLIES

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN AUSTRIA. ByWILHELM SCHOLERMANN.

;ODERN Art in Austria, properly speaking, is but a young though rapidly-growing plant of recent cultivation and success. Its " nativity," if I may be allowed to use the term in its twofold sense, scarcely dates back more than half a decade. Even as late as 1896, when the great International Exhibition of Graphic Art took place at Vienna, Austrian etchers, with the exception of a few engravers of the old masters, were conspicuous by their absence. It is not surprising, therefore, if we find that the noblest branch of the graphic arts, which, perhaps, above all others is based upon severe and time-honoured tradition — the work of the steel point upon the copperplate — has not ranked foremost among the latter productions of Austrian artists. THERE may, perhaps, be found still another, and even more psycho- logical explanation to account for this. The average talent of the Austrian artist — his artistic temperament — lies, on the whole, in a different direction. It is in the free development of fancy and taste, in the happy adaptation of form and colour to decorative purposes, that he generally finds the best opportunity for developing his powers. He is a born decorator. Severe and penetrative artistic conceptions are not, as a rule his strongest side ; but he delights in multi- coloured pageants — a field not altogether encouraging for the develop- ment of the gentle and patient art of etching.

MOREOVER, that essentially modern phase of etching, which, while uniting the hard and digging scrape of the burin or the lighter stroke of the dry point with a variety of dainty colour schemes, has contributed so largely to the perfection of colour-printing of late — a process so successfully initiated by French artists of high rank — this new process of coloured etching has not,to my knowledge, been hitherto practised to any extent by living painter-etchers in Austria. Yet the movement seems even in Vienna to gain ground by degrees, though limited for the present to reproductive engraving. WILLIAM UNGER, though not an Austrian by birth, has taken up his abode in the Austrian capital, and holds a professorship at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. His etchings, after the old

Austrian

Dutch and Flemish masters, Rembrandt and Rubens in particular, are universally appreciated, though it must be admitted that they are not all of equal strength and value, some of his numerous plates failing to do full justice to the breadth and spirit of the originals, while others are extremely good. His large plate after Titian's painting of the so-called Himmlische und Irdische Liebe (Profane and Divine Love) may be named among his most successful transmuta- tions of colour into the mellow effects of the mezzotint plate. PROFESSOR UNGER is generally regarded as the senior etcher and tutor of a generation of gifted "juniors." In fact he has inspired quite a number of younger men to work with the engraver's tools, and it would appear, from the entirely independent way in which several of his pupils and friends have developed in different directions, that his tuition and advice have not exercised any restrictive influence upon the individuality of the talents placed under his care, but, on the contrary, have been helpful in allowing free scope for each talent to find its own way by following its peculiar inclinations. AMONG the younger generation, Mr. Alfred Cossmann, a pupil of Unger, has been developing his talent in a decidedly individual manner. He was born in 1 870 at Graz in the Steirmark, and, after studying at the School of Arts and Crafts of the Oesterreichische Museum fur Kunst und Industrie in Vienna — principally in the ceramic department — he began etching under Prof. Unger's directions, and has now been working independently for the last three years, after a strict course of technical training in the various methods of reproductive engraving.

IN the plate entitled A Tumult — An unlucky Democrat, the artist has taken up a modern theme. There is suggestive force of a quite ex- ceptional character in it, a hot breath of feverish agitation. There is, in fact, an abundance of imaginative expression, which, while intensely true, stops only just short of caricature. Work of this kind, thoroughly modern in spirit and cut out from life in this earnest manner, is deserving of attention not merely from a technical point of view, but in a higher and broader sense. This young artist is, in my opinion, gifted with more than talent. There is an element of strong human sympathy in him, mingled with that scarcely percep- tible ironical vein which marks the artist of genius. COSSMANN employs a variety of technical methods, combining them as the subject may require. The above-mentioned plate was etched completely, and then the aquatint was put in for background, middle tones and some pieces of the clothes and hair. ANOTHER artist of uncommon parts, Mr. Ferdinand Schmutzer,

Austrian

member of the Secessionists, has of late been very successful. He studied some years in Paris, where his strong sense of the picturesque was rapidly developed together with that fine feeling for the relative values of light and shade and broken lights which marks the born painter-etcher. His newest plates are excellent, some being of un- usually large dimensions. He has of late turned to portrait etching, and gained a gold medal at the Paris and Dresden Exhibitions. Schmutzer also made the experiment of etching the figure of a lady just about to mount a horse, nearly half life size, perhaps the largest plate in existence. This may be noted for a curiosity, though the practical and artistic value of such tours deforce seems questionable. SCHMUTZER is certainly a very strong etcher, with an excellent sense of atmospheric effect and harmonious design quite in unity with his fixed purpose and uncompromising vigour of performance. He has studied well the old masters, entering deeply into their secrets, but nevertheless remaining true to himself. Old masters, in cases like these, instead of depriving the younger men of their per- sonality, have a peculiar power of widening their range of vision. This is the case with Schmutzer, and we may look forward to his future work with increased interest and confidence. EMIL ORLIK is already well known to readers of The Studio.. He is to-day, take it all in all, perhaps the most skilful all-round draughtsman among the Austrian artists as a body. He is gifted with a capacity for changing from one mood, manner or method into another with a nervous, quick mental receptivity quite marvellous. He knows no limits, no prejudices, no preferences. If he makes up his mind to take in the spirit, say, of the art of Japan, he feels and draws and paints or lithographs like a Japanese. The varieties of his technical methods are at once subtle and free, delicate and strong, and he very seldom repeats himself. OF the work of Mr. Rudolf Jettmar as an etcher and draughtsman I have had the opportunity of speaking on a former occasion (see The Studio, Vol. xix. No. 85). His imagination seems to be perpetually at work in a free, fantastic spirit of mind, forming and dissolving forms like strains of music without end. He is a native of Galicia, having been born at Krakau in 1867. He has studied in Vienna, Karlsruhe, Italy, and Leipzig, and in 1897 returned to Vienna, as a member of the Vereinigung bildender Kiinstler Oesterreichs. THE art of engraving proper has been traditionally practised among Austrian artists for generations, and so we find also among the modern men some very able artists using line engraving as a medium for the interpretation of the touch of the painter's brush, reduced

Austrian

to the simple gradations of black and white. The reproductive engraver represents for the fine arts what the translator does for literature : he must be above all an interpreter. He must penetrate into the centre of another's personality and also into the technical spirit of the original — that peculiar medium of individual expression so frequently overlooked, yet, in truth, inseparable from any art worthy of the name.

AMONG the contemporary reproductive etchers and engravers, the Polish artist, Mr. Ignaz Lopieiiski has attained a high standard of technical execution, combined with a very delicate artistic feeling for what may be termed the soul of the picture he is translating. LOPIENSKI was born at Warsaw in 1865. He began his studies at first as a sculptor and medallist in Vienna under the direction of Professor Bengler, then at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, whence he returned to Vienna, and finally again to Warsaw. HE is above all an interpreter of his native land, that low desert plain of wild flat country, where the poor peasant people are still held in serfdom by the rich landowners, those broad spaces of wilderness, with ill-fed horses and starving vegetation, commonly known by the name of Poland, comprising parts of the Russian, German, and Austrian Empires. The plate here given, entitled ^ Winter Night, is engraved after a painting by another Polish artist. Prof. Wierusz-Kowalski. It shows a wide expanse of snow in a moonlit winter's night, rendered more lonely still by a few ^torm-torn pines and firs, looming spectre-like against the sky, with its twinkling stars half extinguished, as it were, by the glaring reflection of the snow. The ground shows the footprints of a pack of hungry wolves assembled in the background, as if holding a sort of council. The solitary beast in the foreground, with his tail drawn in, is sniffing up into the starry heavens, and one may just faintly discern his warm breath like a vapour against the still, icy-cold air. There is a weird loneliness in the scene which words fail to give. THE masterful technique of the plate in question is evident. There are unity and concentration, combined with elaborate execution, though by no means any over-minuteness.

IN conclusion, we may say that, although experiments outside the sphere of black and white do not yet figure among the achievements of Austrian etchers, yet what they give is good genuine work. Whatever the results of their efforts in the old medium, they are deserving of our earnest attention.

WiLHELM SCHOLERMANN.

Austrian

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"PORTRAIT." FROM THE [ETCHING BY WILLIAM UNGER

Plate i

Austrian

"PEASANT GIRL SEWING" FROM THE ETCHING BY FERDINAND SCHMUTZER Plate 3

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Plate 3 — "a chicken"

from the etching by alfred cossmann

Plate 4 — "a tumult — an unlucky democrat"

FROM the etching BY ALFRED COSSMANN

Austrian

"THE WATCHMAN." FROM THE ETCHING BY ALFRED COSSMANN Plate 5

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Plate 7 — "admonition"

from the etching by emil orlik

Plate 8 — " wind on the plain — the coming of autumn "

from the etching by emil orlik

Austrian

"READING THE NEWS" FROM THE ETCHING BY FERDINAND SCHMUTZER Plate 9

Austrian

i^T" ^'M

"THE CLIFFS." FROM THE ETCHING BY RUDOLPH JETTMAR Plate io

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN HUNGARY. By ANTHONY TAHI.

HE etching, especially the coloured etching, can have no history, boast no tradition, with a people whose whole artistic deveopment is still so recent as that of the Hungarians. In those countries, however, where modern art has attained its greatest height, such as England, France, and Germany, the line engraving, together with the far inferior steel-plate, has held the field the longest. The whole tendency of art has been so strongly opposed to pure line, that really it is no wonder such a process as etching, demanding as it does eminently efficient treatment and handling should have been altogether neglected by many artists.

WITH the birth of a richer, a more highly-coloured vision, and particularly since our artists began to abandon their rigid bias and no longer scorned to interest themselves in all varieties of artistic work, the graphic arts — etching, lithography and occasionally xylo- graphy— once more came into favour.

CERTAIN it is, so far as Hungary is concerned, that, from one cause and another — the difficulties of the process, and notably the indifference of the public — the number of artists who have applied themselves to colour-etching is still quite insignificant. Our artists are greatly to blame for this state of things, for the majority of them make light of everything save easel-work, and think nothing else worth their notice.

WHILE in other countries, such as England, Belgium, France and Germany, etching-Associations have been in existence for nearly twenty-five years past, with the happiest results ; while, moreover, the public taste has been stimulated and raised by the publication of admirable reproductions of this class of work, we in Hungary have been absolutely without anything of the sort until last year, when a " Graphic Club " was founded ; and up till now it has produced no tangible results.

THE poor figure we cut in regard to the graphic arts must be largely attributed to the fact that Hungary has really no art-market of its own, and that it lies remote from all the international art centres.

Hungarian

AS I have already observed, the number of Hungarian artists engaged in producing original etchings is very small. Most of these are painters, who recognise the necessity of expressing themselves in more than one artistic medium, and of having more than one outlet for their energies.

WHEN, nearly a quarter of a century since, the writer of these lines desired to learn the technique of etching, there was in the whole country only one man capable of giving him practical instruction therein. This was the copper-engraver Jeno Doby, at present the doyen of Hungarian etchers ; for he has abandoned line engraving and devoted himself exclusively to etching. Still, even now he cannot give up the graver : thus, his etchings are marked by a strong and well-disciplined sense of line. His original etchings are very few. Doby occupies the Chair of Etching at the Budapest Applied Art School, where among his pupils were B. Chabada, A. Szekely, and Edvi-Illes.

ETCHING owes much also to Professor Lajos Raiischer of the Budapest Polytechnic, who by his example has aroused and fostered a love of the art among many of the young artists studying under his guidance. At first, especially in his views of Budapest, the architect betrayed himself by his stiff, precise drawing of the archi- tecture, and his subordination of the picturesque side of his scenes ; but soon these blemishes were overcome, and his fine natural style asserted itself with effect, especially in his aquatints, which are full of expression. A notable feature of all his plates is the care he bestows on his subject in order to bring out its entire value. ZSIGMOND LANDSINGER'S first etching was Arnold Bocklin's Heiliger Hain, which he did in Florence.

HERE too originated the Portrait of ^ocklin, that energetic and powerfully designed life-size plate, which so characteristically and vividly reproduces the head of the genial Swiss Painter. The inti- mate friendship which sprang up between Bocklin and Landsinger resulted also in the production of another plate, Fafner der Drache, executed by Bocklin himself as a monotype. Landsinger's etchings are conspicuous for thorough mastery of material, and for dainty yet forceful handling of flesh tints.

VIKTOR OLGYAI studied under William Unger in Vienna and under Theodore Alphonse in Paris. As he originally intended to devote himself entirely to the graphic arts, and only later took up oil-painting, his technical knowledge of etching is remarkable. He is pre-eminently a draughtsman, and though his plates are finely toned, the most notable thing about them is their sense of line.

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Hungarian

Some of his best works are contained in an album of ten plates •entitled " Winter," and other notable ones are The Oak, The Mill, and Way of Cypresses.

ALADAR EDVI-ILLES is an admirable water-colourist, this being clearly seen in his etched plates, which are remarkable for the strong tone he infuses into his colours. In his Cemetery the colour in the warm autumnal foliage is very happily realised, while his powerful treatment of the storm-laden sky makes the whole plate really dramatic.

A MANIFOLD and an eminently rich talent was that of Akos F. Aranyossy, who died all too young a few years since. He studied in Munich with Raab and treated with equal certainty figures and landscapes alike. In his Portrait of Bishop Bubics the delicate ■careful modelling of the flesh is particularly noticeable ; while in his plates entitled The Washerwoman and Geese it is the water that •chiefly attracts one's attention. His premature death was a heavy loss to Hungarian etching.

ON the plates by Arpad Szekely the draughtsmanship is con- spicuous ; moreover he shows an obvious desire to impart strong tone to his method. He strives, often with success, to treat the various aspects of nature — soil, water, cloud, or vegetation — each in its own particular manner. The motives he especially affects may perhaps be considered to demand more colour in their treatment, •consequently there is often a certain lack of harmony between the :subject and its realisation in his plates.

ERNO BARTA in his various plates shows a decided talent in the direction of the mezzotint. His manner is powerful and deep and warm in tone. Perhaps he would be still more successful were Jiis modelling somewhat simpler and broader.

BELA CHABADA concerns himself chiefly with the reproduction of the works of modern Hungarian artists, who have found in him a most capable and intelligent interpreter. His original mezzotints are marked by a misty delicacy which is most attractive. OTHER of our artists who have applied themselves to etching are Kalman Dery, Henrik Pap, and Jozsef Rippl-Ronai, the latter a pupil of Kopping and of Raab. Latterly he has been devoting his energies exclusively to lithography, which of recent years has been gaining more and more adherents among artists.

Anthony Tahi.

" FEBRUARY." FROM THE ETCHING BY VIKTOR OLGYAI

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MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN HOLLAND. By PHILIP ZILCKEN.

URING the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury, etching, which had flourished so splendidly in Holland in Rembrandt's time, was almost completely abandoned. About 1850 some painters — Mollinger, Jan Weissenbruch and Roelofs — made a number of interesting plates, which nevertheless lacked the free and artistic treatment that makes etchings so delightful. IT was the well-known Austrian etcher, Unger, who once during a sojourn in Holland induced Josef Israels, Mauve, and some other painters of the same group, to varnish copper-plates, and to make on them rapid or more elaborate improvisations, many of which have all the charm of the subtlest etchings. Most of these plates are exceedingly rare, and they cause regret that those refined artists did not oftener practise this delicate art. C. STORM VAN GRAVESANDE, whose work of this kind is well known, lived at that time in Belgium, where he worked under the guidance of Felicien Rops. He rapidly gained so great a reputation that Philip Gilbert Hamerton, in his book on Etching and Etchers, devoted a considerable number of pages to this painter-etcher. Hamerton says of him, in 1876, speaking of his print, Au bord du Geins, pres a^Abcoude : " This is one of the most perfect

ETCHINGS PRODUCED BY THE MODERN SCHOOLS, SO PERFECT INDEED, THAT IF I WERE RESTRICTED TO THE POSSESSION OF SIX MODERN

ETCHINGS, THIS SHOULD BE ONE OF THEM." Storm vau Gravesande has produced a great many plates ; actually about four hundred. In recent years he has abandoned pure etching and has devoted himself almost entirely to " dry-points." In this class of work I think his most typical prints are to be found. In them he succeeds in expressing perfectly the slow-flowing waters of the placid Dutch streams, the quiet surface of the Laguna of Venice, and sometimes the rough ^waves of the North Sea beating upon the sandy lowland beaches. With but a few lines he expresses much, and his work supplies a very complete survey of Holland's picturesque landscape. STORM VAN GRAVESANDE takes a place apart in this school of etching. He has worked chiefly in Holland, but lived many

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Dutch

years in Belgium and Germany, and it was only a few years ago that he returned to his native country.

ISRAELS has kept up his etching in recent years, and a good number of prints of his exist. They are all true etchings, in the sense that they consist of pure line-work, sometimes carried out direct, sometimes elaborated in different states. This great artist has interpreted in this way some of his favourite subjects — luminous and harmonious interior effects, and bright, brilliant beach scenes, with fishermen's children playing on the sands. All these works betray a personal, expressive technique, with masterly contrasts of light and shade, and are full of intense, penetrating feeling.

JAMES MARIS, when he commenced etching, made about four very small plates — a bridge, a couple of mills, and a print showing a sketch of his wife and his eldest daughter. These plates have all the qualities, of similar ones by Rembrandt. The delicate and expressive drawing,, the few well-placed lines, are quite masterly. Mauve made more plates, many of which are lost,* among them some little gems containing all his personal qualities of feeling, tone, and expressive drawing. MATTHEW MARIS executed at that time one very small plate — now exceedingly rare — a girl with a lamb and a baby ; but year& afterwards he undertook to make a reproduction of the celebrated " Semeur," by Millet.

IN order to train himself again in etching he then commenced a number of plates, but he himself considers these remarkable prints — that have already attained high prices — mere essays of little or na importance. The plate after the " Semeur " is a marvellous interpreta- tion^ not a mere copy^ of a masterpiece, by a genius, and in this respect it is certainly one of the most remarkable plates ever produced. Maris has added his own individual feeling to the grand conception, of Millet, and thus (a rare event) two artists of the same high rank have collaborated in creating a work of unique quality. JONGKIND, at the same epoch, made his well-known rapid,, expressive, and characteristic views of Honfleur and Le Havre, and his lively sketches of Paris and Holland. But modern Dutch etching owes its renown chiefly to the younger masters, who have devoted a great part of their time to this art, such as Bauer, Witsen, Dupont,. Miss van Houten, and others. Since 1889 they have regularly exhibited their works at the Great Paris Exhibitions, at Chicago,, Venice, and in Germany, with much success, while in 1900 they^ made a striking " hit " at the Exposition Universelle.

* The New York Public Library contains the only existing complete collection of these^ 2

Dutch

HERE it happened that the Dutch section of engraving, with about twenty-four exhibitors, obtained a number of awards as considerable as countries like England, Germany, and the United States, that had twice as many representatives, whilst one of the three chief awards in this section fell to Bauer.

EXCEPT Josef Israels, the celebrated artist who has now attained his seventy-sixth year, but whose youthfulness is as great as fifty years ago, the painter-etchers are " younger " artists, all of them between thirty and forty years of age, and not one of them devotes his whole time to etching. They all paint as well as etch, and to this is certainly due the fact that their etched work has qualities of a very genuine character.

BAUER is a remarkable type in modern art. Since his early youth he has had what Theophile Gautier calls ia nostalgie de VOrient^ and he has scarcely painted anything else but scenes in Constantinople, Cairo, or Hindustan. Nearly every year he spends about six months in travelling in Eastern countries, and he sees those countries (as he once wrote to me) " not as they are, but as they were a couple of hundred years ago." And he succeeds in expressing his vision ! NUMEROUS are now his etchings, consisting of about 200 small plates, rapid and slight — though perfectly complete — sketches, and several large prints, like his Procession^ The ^een of Saba, Aladdin, Morning on the Ganges, The Persian Feast, &c. &c., well known to collectors of etchings.

BAUER has all the qualities that characterise the real etcher, and when viewing his works one is frequently reminded of Rembrandt, because he has an analogous habit of composition, the same simple contrasts of light and shade, the same easy, subtle execution in simple, direct, never-hesitating lines. Bauer having a very personal indi- viduality, no other Dutch or foreign etcher can be compared to him. Gifted as he is with a talent for composition, and strong imagination and expression, he takes very high rank amongst modern etchers. CONSIDERABLE impulse was given to the art o^ etching in Holland when the Dutch Etching Club was created in 1880. Yearly exhibitions were held, and an annual portfolio was issued by the club. This impelled some of the younger painters, who would otherwise have abandoned etching, to apply themselves to it. AS the secretary of the Etchers' Club, I have been in a position to follow closely for the past twelve years the brilliant and remarkably "sincere" development of Dutch etching. In using the word " sincere," I mean that in Holland every serious artist takes his own course quietly, without any idea of imitation. It is a

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characteristic of Dutch artists that they work in their own way, following their own personal convictions, without paying attention to outside influences. And the result is individuality. AMONG such artists Willem Witsen and P. Dupont are notable types. WITSEN is the painter of the sluggish Dutch waters of Amsterdam and Dordrecht, reflecting the old, picturesque, many-coloured buildings, often dreary and gloomy, but always full of charm. Of all the subjects chosen for his water-colours he makes etchings, and they are as thoroughly elaborated as his other work. Adding some- times sulphur tints he obtains powerful efl!ects, never abandoning a plate before having completely expressed in it the effect, the colour, and the harmonious tone he seeks. For him every one of his plates must be a work of art.

DUPONT, who began his career with rapid, expressive etchings after nature, chiefly views of Amsterdam and its surroundings, has entirely changed his manner in recent years.

NOT satisfied with the brilliant effects achieved in his etched plates, he tried his hand some years ago at engraving. This work of his attracted considerable attention at the Paris Exhibition in 1900. He has since continued this most difficult work with increasing success, and now he is working on portraits, one of which, that of Steinlen, is worthy of particular mention. He still etches, but these plates are for him mere preparatory studies for his engravings. Being young, admirably gifted, and full of endurance and energy, much can be expected from him in the future.

MISS B. VAN HOUTEN, though little known, is a most striking etcher, too. She is a niece of the marine-painter Mesdag, and so, from her early youth, she has lived in an artistic milieu. When her studies were finished, she began to make some large plates after masterpieces, by Corot, Delacroix, Courbet and Dupre. After the last-named artist she made a very beautiful plate, so carefully and conscientiously elaborated that it gives exactly the tone, and the values, of the original. In this fine plate nothing is left to chance, but every touch is interpreted with rare and delicate skill. Miss Van Houten has also completed about a hundred original plates.

THESE plates show great strength and vigour. When she etches birds, tulips, sunflowers, or interior effects or heads, she works with deeply bitten, broad, strong lines. Such work could easily pro- duce black, heavy prints, but her delicate sensibility, her intense feeling for the things interpreted, save it from that evil, and her plates always express marvellously the tender substances of flower- petals, the soft plumage of birds, and the aerial distances in landscapes.

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TO add a few words about myself, I have completed during the last twenty years about four hundred and fifty plates, of which about two hundred are reproductions after the Marises, Mauve, Israels, Alfred Stevens, Rembrandt, Vermeer of Delft, &c. &c., while others are exclusively original landscapes, most of them after nature, and studies in dry-point after models, and a few portraits. THE artists I have mentioned are the principal figures in modern Dutch etching. Around them are working a good number of others, of various but real merit. My space being limited, I must content myself with a mere sketch of their various characteristics. AMONG the painters who have made many good and interesting etchings, mention must be made of W. de Zwart, a clever and brilliant landscape and figure-painter, whose expressive etchings are numerous.

TOOROP has done in the last few years some extremely delicate dry-points, chiefly figure studies. His etchings, like everything he produces, are very striking and personal.

JAN VETH, one of our most distinguished portrait-painters, has done many lithographs of celebrated Dutch-men, and also some fine etchings, of uncommon feeling and ability.

I MUST not forget, in this too short and too rapid enumeration, Etienne Bosch, who produced a great many plates, mediaeval subjects and views of Holland and Italy, among which the view of Sorrents is excellent in style and composition.

MISS ETHA FLES has done some "pure" etching, such as her Staircase at Rothenburg. Ed. Karsen, the somewhat Maeterlinck-like painter of gloomy, almost fantastic, Dutch dwellings, has done some plates of very peculiar and subtle interest. Ed. Becht has made some important soft-ground etchings, among which his Rising Moon is a very interesting plate done by means of a rarely used process. REICHER is a painter who, besides a couple of very carefully made plates after Breitner and after M. Maris, has drawn original land- scapes and some still-life subjects of striking directness of execution. W. O. J. NIEUWENKAMP was one of the first Dutch painters who went to Java. Having a very personal style, he brought from there some characteristic and interesting views.

A. KOSTER, after doing some views of the Pyrenees, applied himself to Dutch landscape, and reproduced views of the neighbour- hood of the Hague and Limburg, rendering the character of those parts of Holland in a remarkably truthful manner. AND now to complete this short sketch, I must add the names of some etchers of merit who have done a number of important plates

Dutch after our ancient and modern masters, but scarcely ever any original work.

IN the first place, Van der Weele, a painter in the style of Mauve, has done some very harmonious and lovely interpretations after that master. Some originals of his are of very good quality, for instance The Dead Lamb and Pigs Drinking. The same can be said of the little views of Haarlem and surroundings by Graadt Van Roggen, a hard worker who has also made very elaborate and carefully treated repro- ductions after J. Maris, Vermeer, &c., which display much patient labour.

PROFESSOR C. DAKE, of Amsterdam, has made a number of important plates after Mauve, Israels, Maris, Mesdag, &c., in a broad manner, full of ability, that have met with great popularity.

Ph. Zilcken.

Dutch

Plate i — "evening"

FROM THE ETCHING BY W. DE ZWART

Plate 2 — "a study of dutch houses"

FROM THE ETCHING BY W. WITSEN

{By permission of Mr. E. van Wisselingh)

Dutch

FROM THE ETCHING BY MISS B. G. VAN HOUTEN

Plate 4 — " la rue du jerzual a dinan "

FROM THE ETCHING BV A. F. REICHER

Dutch

{By i>trmission of Mr. E. van Wisselingh)

"LEAVING THE MOSQUE" FROM THE ETCHING BY M. BAUER

Plate 5

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*'k DUTCH CHURCH." FROM THE ETCHING BY W. O. J. NIEUWENKAMP Plate 6

Dutch

"PAUL VERLAINE IN THE ACT OF WRITING." FROM THE ETCHING BY P. ZILCKEN, AFTER A SKETCH

BY J. TOOROP

Plate 7

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Plate 8 — "in the limburg hills"

FROM THE ETCHING BY A. L. KOSTER

Plate 9 — " an old cottage "

FROM THE ETCHING BY E. BECHT

Dutch

''VESPERS." FROM THE ETCHING BY STORM VAN GRAVESANDE

Plate io

Dutch

"THE BAY OF SALERNO" FROM THE ETCHING BY E. BOSCH

Plate ii

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN BELGIUM. By FERNAND KHNOPFF.

ELGIAN etchers held an Exhibition in 1901 in the Galleries of the Cercic Artistique at Brussels, at which were received examples of the work of all artists interested in etching whether with the dry-point or what the French call eau forte. IN holding this remarkable Exhibition the primary aim of the Belgian Society of Etchers was to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of its foundation, and to prove the success of its efforts to recover the position it formerly held under the management of Felicien Rops. TO found in Belgiuman International Society of Etchers was the great ambition of Rops ; but his success had been long delayed by material difficulties. He did, however, at last manage to constitute the Society, and it was decided to issue an album with a portfolio of etchings, the first number of which appeared in 1875.

HER Royal Highness the Countess of Flanders had accepted the position of Honorary President of the International Society of Etchers, and the two plates she successively published in the album deservedly rank among the best of the many fine etchings which appeared in that publication.

THE greater number of those who exhibited at the Salon of the Society of Etchers were painters as well as etchers, and it was very interest- ing to note the great variety of their styles. Some few had insisted on going through what might almost be called a classic training, mastering to begin with every traditional process of the craft. Others had endeavoured to adapt the processes of etching to their own par- ticular mode of painting; yet others had set to work to discover new methods, using their etching tools in a haphazard way and trying experiments in biting in on grounds never before used ; whilst others contented themselves with merely transferring some study to copper. THE etchings of M. Baertsoen take rank amongst the most remark- able of the works exhibited. They are characterised by broad masses of light and shade, and their execution is thoroughly suited to the effect of chiaroscuro which it was evidentlv the aim of the artist to produce. It cannot be denied that there is now and then something almost coarse and harsh about the execution, but this very peculiarity

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Belgian

results in the better distribution of the ink when the impressions are being struck off, and enables M. Baertsoen to secure effects by the retroussage on which he sets such store and turns to such good account, without going to the extremes indulged in by so many of his fellow etchers.

MESSIEURS WYTSMAN and Van Rysselberghe, on the other hand, appear to scorn to avail themselves of the too skilful aid of the printer, and when their well-prepared and carefully-executed drawings have been reproduced, they have all the value of conscientious work. In his etchings M. Wytsman gives proof of his thorough study of the landscape scenery of Brabant, and delights in representing the noble and dignified lines of the grand masses of forest trees character- istic of the undulating country districts. M. Van Rysselberghe, too, in his portraits and sea-pieces avoids all superficial expedients, and endeavours in every case to faithfully interpret his subject. IT is qualities similar to these which give value to the works of Messrs. Coppens and Bartholome. M. Ensor has already won considerable reputation as an engraver, and his etchings of sea-pieces and landscapes, inspired by the scenery of Ostende and its neigh- bourhood, are remarkable for a delicacy of touch, which does full justice to the subtle effects of silvery light so characteristic of the Belgian sea-board.

THE works of Messrs. Laermans and Delaunois are remarkable for their very crude appearance. The etchings of M. Laermans, indeed, give the impression of having been engraved with the aid of a very old nail, while those of M. Delaunois do not appear to have been bitten in, but to have been vitriolised. For all that, however, the engravings of both these celebrated artists have, so far as art essentials are concerned, the same fine qualities as their paintings. It is the same with the Antwerp master, M. Hens, whose sea-pieces, in spite of their somewhat rough execution, are full of luminous brightness, and attracted special attention at the Exhibition of the Society of Etchers. MESSRS. Heins,Gailliard,Mignot, Romberg, Titz, and H. Meunier have all brought to bear upon their work with the etching needle that same facility of execution which they have gained by practice in making drawings for book illustration or in designing posters. LASTLY, there is only one Belgian painter-etcher who cultivates exclusively the process known as dry-point, and that one is the writer of these notes, who has engraved in that medium several drawings or studies in outline or shade.

IN his " History of the Fine Arts in Belgium " Camille Lemonnier defines very accurately that which specially distinguishes Messrs.

2

Belgian

G. Biot and A. Danse, who may be said to be at the present time the two engravers by profession who dominate the Society of Etchers : " FROM the very first time he exhibited, Biot manifested those qualities of distinction and grace which have since gradually developed into a completed individual style of great distinction. Delicacy, balance, and simplicity of effect, grace of sentiment, with something of timidity and reserve in the general scheme, these are the salient features of an art which is at the same time pleasing and severe, modifying classic stiffness by its contact with a grace altogether modern."

"THE art of Danse, on the contrary, is comparatively coarse, passion- ate, feverish. The hasty dashiness of the sketch is retained even in his completed work ; he loves tones which clash with one another, unrelieved black, sharp effects of light, rugged execution. Of the school of J. B. Meunier, on whose style he formed his own, he has retained nothing but the decision of stroke of the burin, with a certain grasp of the processes employed and some skill of handling. With him the etching needle is almost always pressed into the service as supplementary to the graver or burin ; it is it which gives to his plates their sharpness of line and richness of tone ; even to his most severely correct engravings it lends a certain capriciousness which would be repudiated by those who use the burin pure and simple." M. DANSE, however, is not content with producing a vast number of engravings, he also aspires to forming engravers; and whilst he was Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy of Mons in 1871 he founded a school of engraving in that town at his own expense. From this school issued, amongst others, Messrs. Lenain, Bernier, L. Greuze, and Luc'q, with M^"^^- Weiler, Wesmael, L. Danse, and Mme. Destree-Danse, the two last named the daughters of the master. M. LENAIN may justly be said to take first rank amongst contem- porary line-engravers. He handles the rigid graving tool with ease and subtlety, resulting sometimes in the production of effects more varied than those to be obtained in etching. A long study of the masterpieces of French engraving has done much to aid him in the development of his peculiar excellence — delicacy of execution. Moreover, a certain indefinable natural instinct, the result of his nationality, has led him to interpret well the grand production of >he painters of the Flemish Renaissance, and he has begun a series of fine engravings after the works of Rubens.

THE works of the engraver, F. Marechal, of Liege, have already been criticised in the Studio in an article published two years ago, and in another article which came out in the same magazine

Belgian

in 1898, under the heading, " Some Artists of Liege," the remarkable art-talent of M. A. Rassenfosse, the faithful friend and devoted disciple of the extraordinary genius Felicien Rops, was commented upon with considerable appreciation, and attention was drawn to his profound knowledge of all the processes of the engraver's craft. TWO other artists of Liege, Messrs. Donnay and De Witte, have attracted attention by some etchings full of originality and character. AMONGST the engravers who have turned their attention to taking impressions in colour must be named, as especially successful, M. Q. DE SAMPAYO, an artist of Portuguese extraction, who may be fitly included in this article on living Belgian engravers on account of his having studied under M. Rassenfosse and produced most of his work in Brussels. M. De Sampayo has himself carefully super- intended the translation into colour of his etchings, and with the aid of M. Van Campenhout, the skilful printer to the Society of Etchers, he has coloured several delicate plates a la poupee. IT was also by means of this process that the plates of Messrs. Romberg, Coppens, Gaudy, and those of the author of these notes were coloured, whereas those of Messrs. Titz and Schlobach were printed and coloured by what is known as the super-position process, that is to say, by the use of a succession of several plates, each marked with the most minute care and capable of bearing as many as three colours, provided those colours are very strictly deliminated. No doubt this process is decidedly easier for the printer, but, on the other hand, it is certain that greater delicacy and subtlety of colouring can be obtained by the process a la poupee,

Fernand Khnopff.

Belgian

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"A DUTCH WINDMILL" FROM THE ETCHING BY H. CASSIERS

Plate i

Belgian

"A ROMAN OUTCAST." FROM THE ENGRAVING BY A. DANSE, AFTER THE PAINTING BY E. WAUTERS

Plate 2

Belgian

Plate 3 — "three shots for a penny"

from the etching by f. gailliard

Plate 4 — " fantasia

FROM THE DRY-POINT BY M. ROMBERG

Belgian

Plate 5 — " a bleak landscape "

FROM THE ETCHING BY H. MEUNIER

Plate 6 — "a stormy evening, brabant"

FROM THE ETCHING BY R, WYTSMAN

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Belgian

Plate lo — " a bridge over the meusE

FROM THE ETCHING BY F. MARECHAL

Plate ii — "nocturne

FROM the engraving BY T. VAN RYSSELBERGHE

/

/

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN DENMARK &> NORWAY. By GEORG BROCHNER.

LTHOUGH the Danish Society of Etchers this year celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation, and although Denmark boasts two veteran etchers of more than sixty years' stand- ing, it is, broadly speaking, only during the last decade that Danish painters have taken to etching, a fact no doubt connected with the attention bestowed upon the etchings of Carl Bloch, both in his lifetime and more especially after his death. During the last few years, however, etching has become extremely popular with a number of Danish artists, amongst whom one or two have even, at least for the time being, laid aside the brush and taken to the etching needle instead. I believe that all Danish etchers are painters, and that, without any significant exceptions, they only do original work, so that of what may be called " professional " etchers Denmark has none. It can under these circumstances be no matter of surprise that much of what is characteristic of their work in oil — be it for good or be it for evil — also influences the nature and the quality of their etchings, in choice of subjects, in temperament and in other respects. Thus landscapes and seascapes, figure subjects and homely interiors, predominate; imaginary subjects arc dealt with comparatively rarely, and with many artists, honest, sober work is more in vogue than striking effectiveness or technical subtleties. Danish etchings may not always impress the beholder greatly at first sight or at a cursory inspection ; not so much, probably, as will those hailing, for instance, from England and France, but due appreciation of that love of nature, of that sincerity and delicate study which many of them betray, will not be long withheld.

TO the skill, talent and unusual energy of Carl Locher, Danish etching is greatly indebted. For three years Locher, then already a man turned forty and boasting an excellent reputation as a marine painter, studied in Berlin under Professor Hans Meyer, and had it not been for Lochcr's guidance few of his confreres would probably have taken to the etching needle. At the courses which Locher subse- quently arranged, celebrities like Anna and Michael Ancher and

Danish

Kroyer were amongst his pupils, and I believe it was a matter of general regret when he brought his teaching to a close. Locher was also the first in Denmark to produce large etchings, and that some of these are not more widely known outside his own country is no doubt due largely to the fact that the plates, in order to ensure the absolute limitation of the issues, were in several instances destroyed. IT may not be out of place to mention here that " The Studio," in its selection for reproduction, has wished to give most prominence to work in which the line has been allowed its full sway as against too much "net work" or "tone." In one or two instances the etchings have unfortunately been received too late to allow of their being reproduced. I should also like to take this opportunity of acknowledging the courtesy extended to me, not only by the artists, but also by the publishing firms of Winkel and Magnussen and Stender. LORENZ FROLICH divides with Vilhelm Kyhn the honour of being the Grand Old Man in Danish Art, not only as a painter but also as an etcher. I believe the immense span of sixty-three years lies between Frolich's first etching and his most recent one, which no one would suspect of being the work of an octogenarian. His right hand has not yet by any means lost its cunning, and his intimate knowledge of animal life is aptly demonstrated in this little etching — in the innate bad temper of the smaller dog and the good- natured, half playful indifference of the larger. It, however, illustrates but one side of Frolich's art, for he has etched a number of charming illustrations — religious {The Lord^s Prayer)^ poetical (Cupid and Psyche) and historical. These show him as a designer of the highest rank, full of imagination and power, and the possessor of a never-failing sense of the beautifiil. His contours are especially exquisite, one might almost say invariably so, but the details do not always seem to have interested him much, and I believe mechanical ground-work has in some cases been resorted to. In this latter respect he differs from his old friend, that most delightful and talented of landscape painters, VILHELM KYHN, who prefers responsibility for the entire effect himself, leaving nothing to the mercy of the printer. Kyhn has done a great number of etchings, none very ambitious in dimensions and some almost diminutive in size, but most of them possessed of that charm which is essentially peculiar to Kyhn, arising out of a deep, one is tempted to say tender, life-long love of nature, of sincere study, of a susceptible temperament, and supported by a well- schooled, and at times consummate, technique.

IT is a matter of regret that the clever painters, Anna and Michael Ancher, have not devoted more attention to the etching needle.

Danish

The former's Old Woman Reading is very attractive, and her husband's^ Three Fishermen is entirely characteristic of this painter's art. No' one is so familiar with the hardy, weather-beaten Skaw fishermen^ as he, and it goes without saying that his studies are admirable^ He has handled his needle with both skill and discretion ; and it is a pity that it has not been allowed to perpetuate more of his trusty friends.

PROFESSOR OTTO BACHE, the eminent animal painter, has only just made his debut as an etcher, but the outcome — Two Dogs Heads — augurs well. The wonderful verve and force and the keen, observant study which distinguish so much of his work in oil and with the pencil, will no doubt stand the Professor in good stead as an etcher.

H. N. HANSEN has a wider scope, and a more pregnant imagination than any other Danish etcher. He has of late years almost left off painting, and has done some admirable work with the needle, full of individuality and invention. True that his line is at times somewhat erratic and that a good deal of the effect in such cases is due to tone, but the result is often, more often than not, singularly happy, and some of his etchings possess a warmth and a colour, a poetic and, in some cases, an almost plastic beauty only rarely met with. The fine powerful head of his Florentine will bear out this. In his most recent etching, Potiphars Wife, the treatment is more delicate, and a happy blending of refinement and humour is observable in it. Some of his etchings charm by their classic beauty {Firenze, for instance), others by their generous humour (Don Bartolo) ; others again, and perhaps the best of them, by the fulness of their poetic mood and their great decorative effect (The Cestius Pyramid in Rome, Wild Flies the Hawk, The Old Mill, and many others).

SIGVARD HANSEN also in his etchings demonstrates his preference for the snow-covered landscape, and he depicts a wintry scene ably and effectively.

PROFESSOR HASLUND only now and again takes up the needle at long intervals. His work is on a small scale, but his line is good and true, and animal Ufe is his favourite domain. PROFESSOR FR. HENNINGSEN has, numerically, perhaps even less to his credit, but one or two little figure motifs of his are very deftly done.

AXEL HOU has etched for a considerable number of years. He is entirely self-taught, has experimented a good deal, and always makes his own needles and other requisites. His line is in some of his

Danish work both strong and characteristic, and his effect is solely obtained by etching. His portrait — portraits are his favourite subjects — of N, Hansen-Jacobsen, the well-known Danish sculptor, now living in Paris, is not only of much merit as a likeness — portraying as it does Jacobsen in an appreciative manner, and underlining the powerful individuality of his model — but it is a capital etching effectively designed. The introduction of some of the sculptor's work is done with discretion and skill.

PETER ILSTED must be counted amongst the best of Danish etchers, and it is interesting to see how closely his work with the needle resembles his work in oil. He is often inclined to go much into detail, but in spite of this he becomes neither sleek nor insipid. In his " Interiors," of which the Luxembourg has recently secured one, the simplicity of motif and the singleness of colour tend to produce an effect of chaste refinement, lacking a little perhaps in freshness, but telling their own tale with an earnest and charming sincerity. These qualities one finds again in his etchings, most pronounced perhaps in Girl at the Piano, although I prefer his portrait of his father.

E. KRAUSE is a young etcher of much promise, and it was quite by chance that he became one. His work is possessed of a very pronounced picturesqueness. There is warmth in his tone and he is a very clever draughtsman. He favours old-time buildings of topographical interest and beauty, and he prefers sombre night or late evening effects, which are mostly rendered by the aid of line- work, now and again sustained by a little tone. His 'The Six Sisters — six old houses in Copenhagen just demolished — illustrates in an ideal manner "a harbour city." The dark, rolling clouds, the waning light mirrored in the row of old windows and in the wet pavement ; the effective silhouette of masts and rigging standing out black against the nocturnal sky, and the cluster of seamen and dock-hands in the foreground, combine to render admirably the exact mood of the picturesque scene.

KROYER'S portrait of himself affords ample proof of what the artist can do as an etcher should he, as it is sincerely to be hoped he will, again find time and inclination to busy himself with the etcher's needle. His lightness of touch, his freedom and subtlety of treatment, are evidenced in this portrait, in which he has relied solely on the line, which is clever throughout, although perhaps here and there a little capricious. The likeness is excellent — frank, genial straightforward. His portrait of 0/d Kyhn — what an ideal artist's head it is, with the beautiful eyes and the long white hair and

4

Danish

beard ! — is delightful, and his etching of Grieg and hts Wife, done from his picture bought by the National Gallery of Sweden, is in its best impressions simply admirable, but much of its effect and tone depends upon the printing.

ADOLPH LARSEN has of late years become a very skilful etcher; he is careful and painstaking, a little timid perhaps, and deficient in temperament, in spite of which, however, he has several very good landscapes and interiors to his credit. He is probably best in some of his landscapes, in which the chaste, rarefied light of an evening sky has been rendered with much sincerity and feeling. There is also a very clever, although not altogether pleasing, portrait of himself, and if his extreme conscientiousness were only coupled with a little more breadth and warmth he would no doubt attain to still better results. CARL LOCHER I have already mentioned as one of the pillars it not the head corner-stone of the art of etching in Denmark. He combines a carefully trained technique with an open eye for the picturesque and a thorough knowledge of his subject, which is nearly always the sea, in its many and varied moods. There is a convincing breadth and " go '* in his wave-treatment, and the mirroring in the receding breakers is done with a master's hand. In his best work — it varies considerably in merit — Locher has proved himself an etcher of very high rank indeed.

SOREN LUND is very adequately represented by his etching of The Old Horse — an illustration to a well-known Danish verse. The toilsome life of the poor old lonely horse has run its course, and the Man with the Scythe — an aerial and phantastic mower — is ready for him. Within a small compass Lund has produced quite a weird and pathetic effect, and it will be seen that the line work is good and solid.

J. LUBSCHITZ is an enthusiastic etcher, who has given much time and study to his art, both at home and in Paris. He has invented a light varnish, and his positive process claims to be an improvement on Hamerton's ; there is also a special Liibschitz needle. In some of his etchings he confines himself entirely to dry- point, in others partly so, as for instance the sky in his recent large marine, exhibited at this year's Danish Royal Academy — a striking and effective seascape, the largest original Danish etching yet pub- lished. Liibschitz is a strong believer in the supremacy of the line, and unaided by tone printing he has produced excellent atmospheric effects. Influenced by Tolstoy, Liibschitz decided to go in for larger etchings, which might gladden the hearts and embellish the houses of the people, and this he has succeeded in doing to the full.

5

Danish

I believe it is owing to his initiative that men like Professor Bache, Professor Jerndorff and Professor Henningsen have taken to etching, and it is a matter of sore disappointment to him that Professor Hans Tegner, the famous pen-and-ink draughtsman, of Holberg and Andersen fame, did not persevere.

IT would have been a matter of considerable surprise had not Peter Monsted proved himself an accomplished etcher, inasmuch as he is an admirable draughtsman, and handles his brush with the utmost virtuosity. The accompanying landscape proves, however, that he has, and few Danish etchers arc capable of producing a finer effect than Monsted. It has been laid at his door that he was somewhat lacking in sincerity; be this as it may, one does not feel it in his etchings. In these, too, he shows with what skill he handles trees, singly or in clusters,. naked or in the fulness of their summer garb, against an often well-chosen atmospheric motifs or stagnant water in pond or ditch. He accounts in the deftest manner possible for the triple effect of what appears on the bottom through the cloudy transparency of the water, of what is mirrored in the water, and of what may be floating on its surface.

THORVALD NISS'S Danish Landscape is thoroughly characteristic of this highly gifted painter's art. It gives much of his dash and boldness and of that directness — of that instinctive directness — with which he knows how to render the exact mood, and often an awkward mood, of the subject before him, be it land or sea. His treatment is effective and convincing, although he is not by any means above taking liberties, from the strict etcher's point of view ; but in all his work there is personality and manliness, which fully condone for any merely academic shortcomings. When in his happy mood Niss stands head and shoulders above most of his fellows, and the National Gallery of Copenhagen, as well as one or two private collections, are indebted to his brush for some of their finest landscapes and, more especially, marine subjects.

TOM PETERSEN has a fine sense of the charm of quaint old-time views, several of which he has treated with very fair success. FRANTS SCHWARTZ one might be tempted to call the aristocrat amongst Danish etchers ; he is self-contained and complete, possessed of a thorough control of the technique. He has done a great many, over a hundred, etchings, the majority of which, perhaps, are rather intended for the collector's portfolio than for a more or less indis- criminating public. He often favours dry-point, and in some of his work confines himself entirely to this method. In many of his studies he demonstrates the keenness of his power of observation, at

6

Norwegian

other times he shows how well he is able to compose a picture. In The Annunciation the figure of Mary is charmingly simple and maidenly, and an excellent effect is produced by comparatively small means, a few lines sufficing for the soft folds of her garments and kerchief. The Three Kings aptly illustrates that passage of Heine which has been chosen for a motto. It is decorative and harmonious in its arrangement ; and there is much dead-man's dignity about the three skeleton kings.

IN Niels Skovgaard's Looking at the Snow the contrast between the children within and the wintry landscape without is cleverly and simply told.

NORWAY.

AT the eleventh hour some admirable etchings were received from JOH. NORDHAGEN, the well-known Norwegian etcher. Our arrangements were, however, so far advanced that we are only able to reproduce one, the Portrait of a Gentleman, an original work, in which the attention given to detail does not detract from its power and effectiveness. The forehead, the eyes, and the eyebrows, for instance, are perfect studies, and the masterly treatment has endowed this interesting head with an almost plastic beauty.

NORDHAGEN, who received the gold medal for etchings at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, has studied under Professor Karl Koepping in Berlin, and he has not only done a number of original etchings — studies of heads being his favourite subjects — but he has with his needle reproduced the works of several prominent Norwegian painters and of Rembrandt. We much regret the inadequate and cursory manner in which we are compelled to deal with such a prominent artist.

THE brilliant work of ANDERS L. ZORN has been so frequently illustrated and favourably criticised by " The Studio " that it is unnecessary to dwell further upon it here. Two admirable and characteristic examples of his etchings are illustrated, namely, Maja and A Mother.

Georg Brochner.

Danish

"PORTRAIT OF P. S. KROYER. FROM THE ETCHING BY HIMSELF

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"DANISH LANDSCAPE." FROM THE ETCHING BY THORVALD NISS

Plate 4

Danish

Plate 5 — " off the coast "

FROM the etching BY CARL LOCHER

Plate 6 — " bollemosen, efteraar ''

FROM THE ENGRAVING BY J. LUBSCHITZ

(By permission of Messrr. V. Winkel and Magnussen)

Danish

"A RISING WIND." FROM

THE ETCHING BY PETER

MONSTED

Plate 7

Danish

Plate 8 — "looking at the snow"

FROM the engraving BY NIELS SKOVGAARD

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Plate io — " dogs at play " from the etching by lorenz frolich

Plate ii — "the old horse"

FROM the etching BY SOREN LUND

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN FINLAND. By COUNT LOUIS SPARRE.

I have already remarked in my article in the special number of the Studio on Pen-and-ink Drawings, art of every kind is in its infancy in Finland. This is espe- cially true with regard to etching, which would appear to be behind every other branch of art production in that country. In fact, the first etching of native origin did not appear there until fifteen years ago. The author of this new departure was Victor Westerholm, an artist of first rank, who had previously devoted himself exclusively to the practice of painting. The art of etching was, in fact, little under- stood or appreciated by the public ; indeed, it really seemed some- times as if artists themselves took but a very lukewarm interest in it. By slow degrees, however, a taste for etchings has, so to speak, filtered into Finland, thanks chiefly, it is true, to the influences, brought to bear on that land by other countries, notably Sweden, its nearest neighbour, where the art of etching is held in very high esteem.

NOW many artists of Finland appear to be quite passionately devoted to the etching needle and the biting in acid, and even have their own presses set up at home, so that they may strike off their proofs for themselves.

I FANCY Edelfelt was the first to follow the example of Westerholm and use etching as a medium for expressing his art-impressions, and by dint of continuous work, combined with his usual mastery of handling and refinement of taste, he has succeeded in producing admirable results, and adding considerably to the many fine examples of his skill already given to the world.

GALLEN also — whose vivid imagination, supple talent, and natural skill of execution are unsurpassed by any of his fellow countrymen — has already produced a very great number of comparatively fine etchings. He handles his etching needle and bites in his plates with much the same ease as he displays in dashing off a sketch, painting a fresco, cutting an engraving on wood, or carving a piece of furniture. His versatility in dealing with different mediums of expression is

K I

Finnish

really extraordinary. Now he accentuates every tiny detail, giving the minutest attention to every corner of his etching plate, then his manner suddenly becomes broad and full of force. Moreover, he can also, when he chooses, adopt a light and elegant style, displaying a truly surprising delicacy of touch, as in the ex-libris of Professor Tikkanen.

THE etchings of Simberg are marked by a similar originality and individuality, by an equal power of quaint, sometimes even grotesque, imagination, as are his paintings and his drawings. One of the very finest examples of Simberg's peculiar talent and originality of con- ception is his Peasant at the Gate of the Kingdom of Death ; but the charming little work is more than that, it is a typical expression of the grave and speculative character, with its predilection to melan- choly, of the people of Finland. The Garden of Death is a phantasy, alike grotesque and humorous.

MISS HILDA FLODIN is an artist who, though still quite young, gives promise of very considerable talent. Full of eager ardour for work, she is unwearying in the production of paint- ings, drawings, and etchings, everything she sets her hand to being marked by real intelligence and true art-feeling. There is something alike broad and forcible in her style of plying the etching needle, and some of her work recalls that of the best masters of the past. She draws well and accurately, and it is easy to see that increased mastery of technique is really all she needs, so that there is no doubt of her soon remedying her faults of execution, by dint of earnest and continuous study.

THE etchings of Miss Ellen Thesleff display the same delicacy of touch as do her drawings. Her Finnish Landscape — Winter repro- duced here is full of refinment and charm.

ETCHING, properly so-called, is at present, with few exceptions, the only mode of engraving on metal practised by the artists of Finland. Etching in colour has not hitherto been attempted, and the so-called " soft ground " etching, mezzotint and " tutti quanti " processes are still unbroken ground, awaiting their pioneers. So virile and ready of expansion, however, is the new-born art of Finland, that it is not unreasonable to hope that in these directions also it will prove itself ere long worthy of the attention which was attracted at the Great International Exhibition at Paris in 1901 by the work of artists of Finnish extraction.

Louis Sparre.

Norwegian

{By permission of Mr. R. Gutekunst)

"MAJA." FROM THE ETCHING BY ANDERS L. ZORN

Plate i

Norwegian

(By permission of Mr. R. Gutekunst)

"A MOTHER." FROM THE THE ETCHING BY ANDERS L. ZORN

Plate 2

Finnish

Plate 3 — "Finnish landscape — winter"

FROM the etching BY MISS ELLEN THESLEFF

Plate 4 — "a good book"

FROM THE ETCHING BY MISS H. FLODIN

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"PORTRAIT OF A GENTLE- MAN." FROM THE ETCHING BY J. NORDHAGEN Plate ii

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN ITALY. By ROMUALDO PANTINI.

LTHOUGH the scope of this article does not include defunct artists, it seems fitting neverthe- less to recall the names of some of them. Antonio Fontanesi, Tranquillo Cremona, Tele- maco Signorini, are three names famous in the reformation of Italian art. They devoted themselves with as much ardour to etching as to the solution of the other great art problems, notably the plein-air theory. And as they were real artists in all they did, the technical expression of their engravings was equal to that realised in their canvases. Fontanesi was especially devoted to landscape motives, and did not remain indifferent to the influence of the French school of 1830 ; while Cremona's fine, bold, broad touch gave originality and delightful freedom to his plates. Signorini was essentially graceful and realistic. His literary leanings inclined him naturally to book illustration ; but his best work is to be seen in the album of twelve etchings dedicated to the " Mercato Vecchio " of Florence.

AKIN to the sentiment or Cremona was that of Mose Bianchi and Luigi Conconi, also of Milan. But Bianchi, while in his little etchings seeming to follow the same motives and the same methods as the master, reveals complete independence in his large Monaca de Monza, after one of his own paintings.

LUIGI CONCONI'S decorative breadth is conspicuous in his impressions of ancient Roman arches ; he rises to even greater heights in his finely suggestive etching Solitudine, Mention must also be made of other two Milanese artists — of noble but very diverse tempera- ment. I refer to Grubicy and Beltrami.

VITTORIO GRUBICY is a master, a leader, alike in etching, in teaching, and in propagandism. Starting from the logical conception that many effects of Nature — whose loveliness largely consists in the vigorous contrast of its chiaroscuro — can be expressed adequately in black-and-white, he has executed in Holland and in the Alps a number of etchings possessing a certain special note of melancholy. LUCA BELTRAMI is at once a most gifted architect and a historiographer of art ; but his severer studies have not prevented

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him from devoting himself assiduously to the eau-forte, some of his

works of this kind having been greatly praised in the Paris Salons,

His little etching, Dans r atelier de Pascal is a marvel of luminous

treatment, and among other good things of his must be named the

Rue de Chartres, which well illustrates his genial versatility.

IN Turin there is quite a group of etchers, all well known in Paris

as able " translators " of canvases. The two admirable eau-fortists.

Carlo Chessa and Celestino Turletti, figure in the splendid volume

wherein Giuseppe Giacosa has described the landscapes and recalled

the dark tales of the Castelli Valdostani and Canavesani. This portly

volume is, like the large edition of the " Medusa " (poems by Arturo

Graf), one of the most beautiful books published in Italy for years

past ; it is well illustrated by original etchings and edited by M. Roux»

THIS noble branch of engraving is cultivated by many Venetian artists,

prominent among them being Cesare Laurenti and Giuseppe Miti-

Zanetti.

MARIANO FORTUNY, Junr., one of our finest artists, who still

exhibits in the Spanish Salons, is also working in Venice, his

best things being his strange but luminous studies of the female

nude.

PROFESSOR COLOMBI, of Bologna, has produced several etchings

after his own genre paintings, displaying consummate certainty of

touch and a wonderful sense of perspective.

AUGUSTO SEZANNE, also a Bolognese, has done a fresh and

luminous aquatint, styled Springtime — a charming thing full of feeling

and decorative spirit.

IN Florence there is no School of Etching, but the city boasts one

young exponent of the art, Giorgio Kienerk, whose dry-points are

marked by agile and nervous grace.

GIOVANNI FATTORI, however, despite his advanced age,

remains an eminent master of our Italian etchers. His rapidity of

impression, sureness of movement, and boldness of outline, give

him a place quite apart from, and far above, the others. The

Tuscan Campagna, or the desolate Roman plains and marshes with

artillery horses figuring therein, form his favourite subjects ; and his

broad vision of the battles of 1859 serves to reassert and reaffirm those

technical qualities which go to make him our foremost, if not our

only, military artist.

WITH Fattori studied G. Viner, G. Micheli and Plinio

NomcUini, the last-named of whom has acquired much of his

master's energy of conception, while retaining a distinct personality.

The mysterious formation of his clouds and his waves are especially

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to be remarked, while his keen vision of reality and his sense of poetic significance are plainly seen in many of his works. THERE exists in Rome a " Reale Calcografia " — or Royal School of Etching — subsidised by the Government, which employs numerous artists and craftsmen who produce original work or reproduce the canvases of famous artists. But, unhappily, the principal object of this Royal Institution is to invest the modern etching with the studied uniformity of the old engravings. Some evidence of revival was seen last year, when in the prize competitions for etchings of national character, we had from Biseo his vigorous conception of the heroic battle of Dogali.

CESARE BISEO has done other etchings for the " Reale Calco- grafia " — notably views of the Palatine and the Coliseum — in a style the technique of which recalls Piranesi, but with more sense of atmosphere and poetry. His etchings show proof of diligent study and acute observation.

FRANCESCO VITALINI, since the exhibitions last year in Rome, Venice and London, has gained wide popularity by the highly delicate sense of colour displayed in his Roman etchings ; and, to avoid confusion, it is well to draw attention to his wholly original and personal technique.

OTHER Roman artists working in the medium of the eau-forte are Professor Maccari and Pio Joris, also Filibcrto Petiti and Signor Rossini, all of whom were worthily represented at the recent Black- and-White Exhibition ; also Giulio Ricci, a Bolognese etcher, who handles his graver with great delicacy and suggestiveness. Dino Savardo, of Padua, and Enrico Vegetti, of Milan, are two young men well deserving of notice.

PAOLO VETRI carries on at Naples the tradition of his kinsman Domenico Morelli. With great conscientiousness he has reproduced in eau-forte the picture of the Maddalena^ and the suggestive and original King Lear, with which tew Italians are acquainted. He is also thinking of reproducing on copper all the works of his revered master.

ROMUALDO PaNTINI.

Italian

Plate i — "king lear

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ETCHED BY PAOLO VETRI, AFTER D. MORELLI

Plate 2— "castello di graines

FROM THE ETCHING BY C. CHESSA

Italian

Plate 3 — " castelfusano

FROM THE COLOURED ETCHING BY FRANCESCO VITALINI

Plate 4 — "evening'

FROM THE ETCHING BY VITTORE GRUBICY

Italian

Plate 5 — " in the temple"

FROM the etching BY ENRICO VEGETTI

Plate 6— •• studies of animals

FROM THE ETCHING BY CESARE BISEO

Italian

Plate 7 — " in a Venetian lagune "

FROM THE aquatint BY G. MITI-ZANETTX

Plate 8 — " a stormy day in tuscany "

FROM THE ETCHING BY P. NOMELLINI

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Plate 14 — " springtime "

FROM THE AQUATINT BY AUGUSTO SEZANNE

Plate 15 — "sunlight in a dark lagune ='

FROM THE etching BY MARIANO FORTUNY, JUN.

MODERN ETCHING ^ ENGRAV- ING IN SWITZERLAND. By ROBERT MOBBS.

BRUN, in his valuable chapter on "Les Arts plastiques dans la Suisse allemande " in " La Suisse au XIX"^ Siecle," touches upon the relation of such living Swiss artists as Robert Leemann, Charles Theodore Meyer, Albert Welti and Hermann Gatiker to the remark- able revival of interest in etching which characterised the latter half of last century. There can be no doubt that these and other Swiss artists have contributed in no inconsiderable degree to the development of etching not only in their own country but also in Germany, and that their work will compare favourably with the best that has been accomplished in this branch of late years in any other country.

FOREMOST in this group, and fitly serving as a typical example of modern Swiss etchers, stood, till some thirteen years ago, that erratic, original, powerful Swiss artist Charles Stauffer of Bern. His death was a widely felt loss to Swiss art. To convince ourselves of StaufFer's greatness as an etcher we have only to study his characteristically beautiful portrait of his mother, or those portraits of Gustave Freytag, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and Adolphe Menzel which, as M. Brun says, " have, in their plastic rather than pictorial effect, never been surpassed." Stauffer utilised every means at his disposal, except the aquatint, obtaining wonderful results. He has left behind him one or two albums of etchings of rare value, containing work of extraordinary beauty and technical perfection.

WHEN we turn from this artist to Albert Welti we are confronted by quite another variant of the Swiss-German type of artistic tem- perament. Endowed with a rich, inventive, and in some sense sombre imagination, and possessing a marked predilection for sym- bolic and philosophic conceptions, his work bears the stamp of a strongly accentuated individuality, and occupies, in some sense, a place apart.

IN the treatment ot the portrait, Balmer is undoubtedly one of the greatest living Swiss etchers. We regret that examples of this

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artist's achievements, as well as those of one or two other artists, have come to hand too late for reproduction in this Number. We hope, however, that we shall have the opportunity of referring at length to their work in the pages of " The Studio." Balmer's etchings reveal a patient dwelling upon the subject till it has yielded up the innermost secret of its distinctive character and beauty. If ever an artist's work was expressive of himself and his best self, Balmer's is. His portraits of women and children reveal the working of an artistic temperament as sensitive as it is powerful. We have under our eyes an aquatint by this artist, the tone, shading and character of which are admirable.

IF the artists of Swiss-German origin have contributed not a little to the development of etching, their fellow workers in the French- speaking part of the country have been by no means behindhand. The etchings of Eugene Burnand and Evert Van Muyden possess the qualities of acknowledged masters in this branch of art. It was a happy day for Mistral when he lighted upon such an illus- trator as Eugene Burnand, for all that could be done by means of ** eau-forte " to evoke the characteristic beauty of Proven9al landscape, and to interpret the poet's great work, this artist has accomplished.

IN another domain Evert van Muyden's etchings of animal life in a wild, sylvan environment reveal an extraordinarily nervous vigour of treatment and concentration of expression, and a remarkable know- ledge and observation of the character and ways of " our brothers the animals."

RADOLPHE PIGUET'S album of etchings, dealing with subjects chosen from the National Exhibition opened in Geneva a year or two ago, is a delightful contribution to national art. M. Piguet has obtained marked success in dealing with the portrait. If he lacks the deeper feeling and power of the Swiss-German masters to whose work we have referred, his portraits reveal great skill as far as execution is concerned, and are graceful and captivating. IT is a matter for regret that Edouard Ravel has not been able to devote more time to etching, for the plates he has already executed are of rare quality and promise.

LIKE Charles Giron, Gustave Jeanneret has for many years devoted himself to the painting of Swiss landscape and national types, and is one of the most distinguished landscapists in this country. Though pre- eminently a painter, he has also turned his attention to other processes. ALL who are acquainted with present-day Swiss painting have felt the charm of Mile. Pauline de Beaumont's impressive landscapes. She has

Swiss

brought to etching the same patient study and delicate sensitiveness, and with the happiest result. Her treatment of the pensive moods and quiet aspects of Nature is always true and effective. WE should like to dwell at length upon the really remarkable achievements of Alexis Forel, for his UAbside de Notre Dame de Paris, A Gust of Wind, Morbihan, and certain other of his landscape etchings, are masterpieces.

MOST of the artists we have touched upon up to the present have long been before the public, and have had their due and well-merited meed of praise. The work of the rising school of Swiss artists calls for an equally just appreciation, not only because it holds in itself the promise of the future, but because it is expressive of a new departure, a fresh and most interesting development of Swiss Art. The members of this school, such artists, for example, as Bieler, Hodler, Vautier, Wieland, Amiet, Giacometti, Berta, Vallet, Dunki, Baud Rehfous, and others, are of widely differing artistic temperaments ; they are intense individualists, with " a personal vision of things " which is dearer to them than the formulas of the past, and with but one bond of union, viz., the endeavour to produce an Art that shall be national not merely in subject, but in essence, spirit, and treatment.

AMONGST the surest signs of the vitality of this school may be mentioned the unremitting search of its members for a more adequate expression of the artistic faith that is in them, their frank delight in their " metier," and the versatility of their gifts. Whether we turn to Amiet with his power of extracting the character of things without deforming it ; to Hodler with his rude, but vigorous workmanship and old Swiss temper ; to Edouard Berta, with his distinction in handling a subject, and his exquisite visual sensitiveness to colour ; to the robust talent and personal note of Hans Wieland as displayed in his fine lithographic plates and powerful drawings ; to Dunki's splendid treatment of military subjects ; or to Vallet's characteristic portraits of the Swiss peasant, we see signs of vitality, sincerity, and promise in the rising school of Swiss artists. WE cannot conclude this article without referring to the work of Giovanni Giacommetti, one of Segantini's best pupils. Devoted with a kind of natural piety to the study of the aspects of Nature in his native Grisons, he has already given us interpretations of mountain landscape in which the austere character of his subject is rendered with indisputable originality and feeling.

ONE of the finest etchings we have had under study is by this artist. The subject of it is Segantini on the Evening of his Death. In

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this work the pupil has rendered worthy homage to the great

master.

THE modern Swiss artist is turning with zeal to many branches of

art, and seeking to realise as complete a conception as possible of his

vocation and its requirements.

Robert Mobbs.

Swiss

"A BEAST OF PREY" FROM THE ETCHING BY E. VAN MUYDEN

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