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
4
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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;
5
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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
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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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FROM the etching BY E. W. CHARLTON, A.R.E.
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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.
British
"JOHN PHILLIP, R.A."
FROM THE ETCHING
BY A. W. BAYES, R.E.
Plate 9
British
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
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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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"NIGHT." A DRY-POINT
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"GUN AND SHOT WHARF, SOUTH-
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CONSTANCE M. POTT, 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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Plate 35 — "a bend in a mountain stream' from the mezzotint by john finnie, r.e.
(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
British
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
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BY MORTIMER MENPES, R.E.
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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.
s
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
American
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
<
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,
4
French
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
5
French
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
6
French
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 ;
French
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
French
''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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"jean HELLEU EMBRASSE par SA M^RE." from the dry point by P. HELLEU.
French
By permission oj M. Ed. Sagot)
"LA MAISON NEUVE." FROM
THE ETCHING BY A. LEPERE
Plate 8
French
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)
«« TrtTT "
TOIL
Plate 13
FROM THE ENGRAVING BY R. DUPONT
{By permission of M. Ed. Sagot)
French
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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French
"PAUVRE HERE. A STUDY
IN POVERTY." FROM THE
ETCHING BY STEIN LEN
Plate 23
French
"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*
German
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
German
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
German
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
German
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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German
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
German
"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
German
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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German
"ROCKS ON THE ISLAND OF
RUGEN." FROM THE AQUA-
TINT BY OTTO FISCHER
Plate 22
German
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"THE READER." FROM THE
ETCHING BY PETER HALM
Plate 23
German
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
^/
"PORTRAIT." FROM THE [ETCHING
BY WILLIAM UNGER
Plate i
Austrian
"PEASANT GIRL SEWING"
FROM THE ETCHING BY
FERDINAND SCHMUTZER
Plate 3
Austrian
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.
2
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
G I
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
3
Dutch
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.
4
Dutch
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
Dutch
*'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
Dutch
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
H I
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
:^^l^i^^btr^
"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
N
D
o
C/D
o
o
w
H
o
o
w
oc o
Si
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 9 — "the six sisters"
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from the engraving by e. krause
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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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" FINNISH LANDSCAPE "
FROM THE ETCHING BY
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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
L I
Italian
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
2
Italian
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
'^••'7
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
M I
Swiss
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
Swtss
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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"THE BEST OF FRIENDS"
FROM THE ETCHING BY
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485
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Holmey Charles^ ed«
Wodern etching and engraving
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