UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA" 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 1/k- 
 
 4- 
 
 8050
 
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS
 
 ETCHING & ETCHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE ' INTELLECTUAL LIFE,' ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
 
 1892. 
 
 145812
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS : JOHN WILSON & SON 
 CAMBKIBGE. 
 
 SIXTH EDITION.
 
 Art 
 Library 
 
 i 
 
 Hn
 
 WEET gij wat etsen is ? Het is flaneeren 
 
 Op 't koper ; 't is in 't zomerschemeruur 
 
 Met malsche vedelsnaren fantaseeren. 
 
 't Zijn hartsgeheimtjes, die ons de natuur 
 
 Vertrouwt, bij 't dwalen op de hei, bij 7 t staren 
 
 In zee, naar 't wolkjen in het zwerk, of waar 
 
 In't biezig meer wat eendjes spelevaren ; 
 
 't Is duivendons en klauw van d' adelaar. 
 
 Homeros in een nootje, en tien geboden 
 
 Op 't vlak eens stuivertjes ; een wensch, een zucht, 
 
 Gevat in fijn geciseleerde oden. 
 
 Een ras gegrepen beeldje in vogelvlucht. 
 
 't Is op 't gevoelig goudkleur koper malen 
 
 Met d' angel eener wesp en 't fulpen stof 
 
 Der vlinderwiek, gegloeid van zonnestralen ; 
 
 De punt der naald die juist ter snede trof 
 
 Wat in des kunstnaars rijke dichterziel 
 
 Uit fantasie en leven samenvieL 
 
 C. VOSMAER.
 
 KNOW ye what etching is ? It is to ramble 
 On copper ; in a summer twilight's hour 
 To let sweet Fancy fiddle tunefully. 
 It is the whispering from Nature's heart, 
 Heard when we wander on the moor, or gaze 
 On the sea, on fleecy clouds of heaven, or at 
 The rushy lake when playful ducks are splashing ; 
 It is the down of doves, the eagle's claw ; 
 'Tis Homer in a nutshell, ten commandments 
 Writ on a penny's surface ; 'tis a wish, 
 A sigh, comprised in finely-chiselled odes, 
 A little image in its bird's-flight caught. 
 It is to paint on the soft gold-hued copper 
 With sting of wasp and velvet of the wings 
 Of butterfly, by sparkling sunbeams glowed. 
 Even so the etcher's needle, on its point, 
 Doth catch what in the artist-poet's mind 
 Reality and fancy did create. 
 
 Translated by HoLDA.
 
 TO 
 
 FRANCIS SEYMOUR HADEN. 
 
 T T ERE is a book written to increase the public interest in 
 an art we both love ; and I dedicate it to you because, 
 in the more difficult way of practical demonstration, you have 
 well helped the same cause. It may be a useful service to 
 take a pen and tell a somewhat indifferent, or otherwise inte- 
 rested public, how great an art etching is ; but it is a far 
 higher achievement to take an etching-needle and compel 
 attention by the beauty of actual performance. The recep- 
 tion your etchings met with a reception unprecedented in the 
 history of the art must have been gratifying to your feelings 
 as an artist ; but I am sure that I interpret your sentiments 
 justly, in supposing that you felt a still keener and nobler 
 pleasure than that which attends any merely personal success. 
 You have the satisfaction of knowing that a great art, hitherto 
 grievously and ignorantly neglected, has, by your labours, 
 received an appreciable increase of consideration ; and that, 
 as a consequence of the celebrity of your works, many have 
 become interested in etching, who, before their appearance, 
 were scarcely even aware of its existence. It is rather with 
 reference to this result of your labours than to their purely
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 artistic value that I dedicate this book to you, though, at the 
 same time, it may be right to add briefly here, what I have 
 said more at length elsewhere, that of all modern etchers you 
 seem to be the most completely in unison with the natural 
 tendencies of the art. How much this implies, and what warm 
 approval may be expressed in this moderate way, the reader 
 will see elsewhere.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 PHE first edition of this work has been for some time ex- 
 hausted, and copies of it are only to be had occasionally 
 from dealers in rare books, at fancy prices. In the present 
 edition the book takes its permanent form, for it is stereotyped, 
 and care has therefore been taken about the revision of it. 
 Besides revising what was already written, I have brought 
 my work down to the latest dates by adding notices of the 
 most recent etchings of importance, and by explaining the 
 newest practical improvements in the craft of etching itself 
 which are of proved utility and accepted by eminent workmen. 
 The present edition contains, indeed, more than two hundred 
 pages of entirely new matter, so that it may be considered as 
 a supplement to the first. There are also eight illustrations 
 which did not appear in the first edition. 
 
 It is necessary to give a few words of explanation about 
 the plates. The book was originally illustrated with impres- 
 sions from original old and modern coppers which were got 
 together temporarily by dint of good luck, considerable ex- 
 pense, and infinite personal trouble. It was impossible to 
 purchase them, and when we had printed the number of copies 
 necessary for our first edition, we were obliged by our contract 
 to return the plates to their owners. We could not, if we
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 would, get those coppers together again, and it has been 
 thought desirable that the present edition should be cheaper 
 than it could have been with magnificently abundant illustra- 
 tion. It was therefore finally decided that the etchings should 
 now be of minor importance, and that they should be given 
 not at all as " embellishments," but simply to make the text 
 more intelligible. As an instance of this may be mentioned the 
 plate from Turner, copied from the " Little Devil's Bridge." 
 It does not exhibit Turner's power of composition, for it is 
 only part of a subject ; it cannot show his mastery over light 
 and shade, for the mezzotint which gave the light and shade 
 is omitted ; but it exhibits Turner's way of drawing and biting 
 his organic lines, and that is why it is given in this volume. 
 For this particular purpose it is positively more useful than 
 the original, since in the original the lines are much obscured 
 by dark mezzotinting, which was applied to the plate by 
 Charles Turner after J. M W. Turner had etched it. To make 
 the lines very plain, the printer has been told to print as simply 
 and clearly as possible, merely that the reader might see what 
 Turner's lines were like. The etchings from other masters are 
 in almost every instance portions of plates selected for some 
 special reason, and not to make the book look pretty. It was 
 suggested that by one of the remarkable new photographic 
 processes sufficiently accurate copies of etchings might have 
 been given at a cheap rate ; but it seemed that in a book of a 
 practical kind like this it was very desirable that the reader 
 should have plates really produced by the processes of etching 
 which are described and so often alluded to in its pages. I 
 therefore took the trouble to copy portions of plates by various
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 masters (a very heavy piece of work, though the result of it 
 looks so slight); and as students of etching can learn more from 
 real plates, when they know how they have been bitten, than 
 from any quantity of vague verbal explanation about getting 
 lines " dark " or " pale," I have also published my own private 
 registers of biting. Reviewers sometimes say very unkind 
 things of me for giving explanations of this technical kind, 
 which they neither know nor care anything about, but art 
 students write to express their gratitude, and only beg that 
 the explanations may be made still clearer and more precise. 
 Between the two I cannot hesitate. The satisfaction of being 
 in some measure useful to real workers is so substantial a 
 satisfaction, that it far outweighs any momentary annoy- 
 ance which may be inflicted by the sneers of an ill-natured 
 reviewer who may happen to be vexed with me for knowing 
 more about my own subject than he possibly can know. 
 At the same time hearty thanks are offered to many critics 
 who helped this book when it first appeared, and whose 
 cordial expressions of approbation no doubt largely contri- 
 buted to its success. 
 
 It was written originally with a view to certain purposes 
 of a kind that may be called permanent, and others which 
 were only temporary. I wished to help in transmitting the 
 good and sound tradition of etching this was the permanent 
 purpose ; but I wished also to exercise some influence of a kind 
 that might be practically useful on the work of the younger 
 men at the present time ; and this, in a certain sense, was a 
 temporary purpose. The best way to do this seemed to be an 
 outspoken criticism of some recent etchers who had influence
 
 xiv PREFACE. 
 
 because they were celebrated painters. It is a popular error 
 to imagine that because a man can paint cleverly he must also 
 be able to etch. The knowledge of a painter has usually, it is 
 true, been the magazine of material from which eminent etchers 
 have selected, by a high faculty of choice, what they put into 
 their etchings ; but when this selecting faculty is absent, the 
 knowledge of a painter ceases to be available in this art I 
 have myself actually seen accomplished painters trying what 
 they could do on the copper, and seen them puzzled, uncertain, 
 feeble, though they were anything but feeble with the brush. 
 " He has painted many a picture," says one who can etch, of a 
 painter such as I have just alluded to, "and by dint of search- 
 ing with opaque materials has even earned the reputation, such 
 as it is, of ' finish.' For the first time he finds himself under 
 the necessity of considering every stroke. He begins, and has 
 soon made a hundred where a master would have made one ; 
 but he goes on, and at the expense of many qualities which as 
 a painter he could have held dear, he arrives at last. ' How 
 finished ! ' says one ; ' How worthless ! ' another for the last 
 knows what the first, possibly, does not that it is one thing 
 to cover a plate with work until the effect has been obtained, 
 and another to obtain it with little, or rather with the appear- 
 ance of little. Etching is not painting, but an art (though in 
 close alliance with painting) in all respects distinct. He who 
 so mistakes its end, intention, and scope, as to overlay his work 
 till all brilliancy and transparence have gone out of it, is con- 
 founding two things, and only labouring to produce opacity." 
 Holding these opinions, I criticised some painters severely as 
 etchers, whilst admiring their pictures very heartily for their
 
 PREFACE. xv 
 
 own merits ; but some of the severer of these criticisms are 
 withdrawn from the present edition, as the book has now taken 
 its permanent form, and it is not desirable to perpetuate 
 much criticism of that kind, however just and necessary it may 
 be when first written. Thus the chapter on David Roberts is 
 withdrawn : it was inserted originally because his very poor 
 and unintelligent work in etching had been injudiciously held 
 up as a model. Mr. Holman Hunt also came in for a page 
 of criticism severe enough to convey the impression, as I 
 learned afterwards, of some personal vengeance or animosity. 
 As it happens that I have always felt a great respect for Mr. 
 Hunt's strength of resolution and honesty of purpose in his 
 career as a painter, and also for his accomplished skill (without 
 mentioning his higher gifts, which cannot be dealt with in a 
 parenthesis), I am glad to put an end to this misunderstand- 
 ing by withdrawing the page in question. A friend and corre- 
 spondent, who is himself one of the finest etchers in Europe, 
 told me that he thought highly of a small etching by Mr. 
 Holman Hunt, representing an Egyptian scene with the pyra- 
 mids, and the reader may rely upon his opinion. 
 
 A well-known English Academician, not an acquaintance 
 of mine, wrote to me to offer a piece of unasked-for advice, 
 which was to avoid mentioning living men in my writings, 
 because, he said, " it savours of cliqueism." In this, however, 
 as in other matters, a writer must exercise his own judgment. 
 Much of the sort of usefulness aimed at in the present volume 
 would not be attained if living artists were omitted from its 
 pages. My work with reference to living men consists almost 
 always in drawing public attention to their merits, and it seems
 
 xvi PREFACE. 
 
 better that this should be done for them whilst they are 
 alive, and can reap the benefit of any increase of reputation, 
 than after they are dead, when praise will be of no use to 
 them. I belong to no clique whatever, and I never have 
 belonged to any clique. Most of my work has been done in 
 a foreign country, and when in London or Paris I have gene- 
 rally been much too busily occupied to have time for the 
 cultivation of cliqueish sentiments. The volume the reader 
 holds in his hand is indeed a sufficient reply to such an accu- 
 sation as this, for it praises with equal warmth etchers of the 
 most opposite qualities and schools when their work has 
 seemed to be good in its own kind. 
 
 Another accusation which has been to some extent cir- 
 culated both in the English and American press may deserve 
 some words of answer. It has been said of my writings that 
 they exercise a bad influence by exalting mechanism above 
 mind, because they happen to contain a good deal of tech- 
 nical information. It is quite true that technical matters 
 always seem to me extremely interesting, as they do to all 
 who are not prevented by sheer ignorance from entering into 
 such questions ; all artists delight in them, and even in their 
 difficulties, as mathematicians delight in their problems, and 
 chess-players in theirs. But I have never regarded technical 
 skill as anything more than a means of mental expression, 
 and I have at all times earnestly and energetically maintained 
 the supreme importance of mental power in art, and as 
 energetically condemned the base mechanical skill which is 
 uninformed by noble thought and feeling. Those critics, 
 therefore, who have accused me of exalting mechanism above
 
 PREFACE. xvn 
 
 mind say what is contrary to the truth, and are guilty either 
 of unpardonable presumption in speaking of a writer they 
 have not read, or else of yet more unpardonable dishonesty 
 in wilfully misrepresenting him. My teaching about art sub- 
 ordinates everything to the mind of the artist, even that truth 
 to nature which a modern superstition regards as if it were 
 something sacred. The following extracts from writings 
 which have been before the public for years are sufficient 
 evidence of this, and the reader will find more recent matter 
 in the present volume, especially in the chapter on the 
 Revival of Etching in England, which maintains and confirms 
 the same principles. 
 
 " The art of etching has no mechanical attractiveness. If 
 an etching has no meaning it can interest nobody ; if its 
 significant lines are accompanied by many insignificant ones, 
 their value is neutralised." EtcJiing and Etchers, book L 
 ch. iii. 
 
 " A great etching is the product of a grandly-constituted 
 mind ; every stroke of it has value exactly proportionate to 
 the mental capacity of the artist ; so that a treatise on etch- 
 ing is necessarily a treatise on the mental powers of great 
 men." Etching' and Etchers, book i. ch. vii. 
 
 " Above all, it should be well understood that etching is 
 not, as some imagine, a fit pastime for small minds ; but that, 
 on the contrary, its great glory is to offer the means of 
 powerful and summary expression to the largest." Etching 
 and Etchers, book i. ch. vii. 
 
 "The etcher needs, no doubt, some manual skill, some 
 patience, and a moderate amount of care, but these avail him
 
 xviii PREFACE. 
 
 nothing if they are accompanied by the engraver's coldness. 
 The one capacity which makes all his other powers available 
 is the capacity for passionate emotion." Etching and Etchers, 
 book i. ch. xii. 
 
 " What makes a good etching so peculiarly precious is 
 that it gives us meaning severed as widely as possible from 
 mere handicraft. It is a lump of gold dug out of the artist's 
 brain, and not yet alloyed for general circulation. But when 
 artists thus trenchantly sever mechanism from mind, and offer 
 mind by itself, they discover, of course, that it is not a very 
 saleable commodity." Signed article in the Fine Arts Quar- 
 terly Review for January 1864. 
 
 " So far from being the most mechanical kind of engraving, 
 etching, as we understand it, is the least mechanical, because 
 the true etchers never think about mechanical perfections at 
 all, using lines simply for the expression of artistic thought." 
 The Etcher's Handbook, ch. xviii. 
 
 " We affirm that an etched line, as a good etcher draws it, 
 is less mechanical than a burin line, since its modulations, 
 produced by the operation of the intellect, or feeling of the 
 artist, are more numerous and delicate, because the tool is 
 more obedient. The anxiety to attain mechanical perfection 
 would probably injure an etcher by diminishing the spon- 
 taneousness of his expression." The Etcher's Handbook, 
 ch. xviii. 
 
 "The true finish lies in the intensity and successfulness 
 of the mental act, and that may be proved quite as much 
 by selection and omission as by hand-labour. Always 
 endeavour, in etching, to express your thought in as few
 
 PREFACE. xix 
 
 lines as may be, and to put as much meaning into each of 
 those few lines as it can possibly be made to convey. The 
 real finish in etching resides there." The Etcher's Handbook* 
 ch. xxii. 
 
 "The qualities of autograph would be sacrificed if me- 
 chanical exactness had to be obtained at all costs . 
 autograph is a mental expression in itself." Thoughts about 
 Aft, ch. xxiii. note. 
 
 It is always a mistake to attribute too much importance 
 to manual skill in etching, or in any other of the great arts. 
 When there is the true understanding of nature, and the true 
 artistic sentiment, manual skill usually comes with practice, 
 and the greatest artists never trouble themselves about it, 
 warning their pupils against anxiety on that score. Etching 
 and Etchers, book ii. ch. ii. 
 
 It would be easy to go on accumulating extracts of this 
 kind, but it is not necessary. Enough has been quoted to 
 show how audaciously dishonest it is to accuse me of setting 
 handicraft above spiritual power in the fine arts. 
 
 July 1875.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 anti Dualities of tfje &rt 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 num 
 
 ETCHING COMPARED WITH OTHER ARTS . . . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 DIFFICULTIES AND FACILITIES OF ETCHING .... 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE POPULAR ESTIMATE OF ETCHING 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CONNOISSEURSHIP 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 CRITICISM AND PRACTICAL WORK ...... 36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 FAVOURABLE AND UNFAVOURABLE ARTISTIC CONDITIONS . 40 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 COMPREHENSIVENESS . 43 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 ABSTRACTION ..... 47
 
 XX11 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 
 
 PAGB 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 
 SENSITIVENESS 
 
 53 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 
 PASSION 
 
 ?Q 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 
 
 63 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 
 
 66 
 
 ALBERT DURER 
 
 REMBRANDT 
 
 OSTADE AND BEGA 
 
 BOOK II. 
 utdj anU otter Schools, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 CHAPTER II. 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 73 
 
 97
 
 CONTENTS. xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BERGHEM, POTTER, DUJARDIN 101 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 VANDYKE AND HOLLAR ...... . . 107 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 t.'ANALETTI, RUYSDAEL, AND OTHERS . . . . .III 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 ZEEMAN ....... ..... 119 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 GOYA .......... 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JONGKIND ........... 128 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VAN S'GRAVESANDE ......... 133 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS ....... 138 
 
 BOOK III. 
 jfrendj Srfjool* 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE ..... 14? 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 CLAUDE , ....... J 57
 
 xxiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CAI.LOT AND BOISSIEU 161 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 MERYON 167 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 LALANNE 177 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 JACQUEMART 183 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 CHARLES JACQUE 189 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 DAUBIGNY 195 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 APPIAN 202 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 CHIFFLART 208 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL 2,12 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS .... aao
 
 CONTENTS. xxv 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 Efie ^ngltsf) Srijool. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND ..... 339 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 TURNER ......... . . 261 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WILKIE AND GEDDES ......... 273 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RUSKIN . ......... . 278 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 WHISTLER ........... 288 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 HADEN ...... . ..... 294 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 CRUIKSHANK AND DOYLE ........ 316 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 SAMUEL PALMER .......... 3 2 5 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 MILLAIS ............ 339 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 COPE, HORSLEY. HOOK ......... 34 1
 
 xxvi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PACK 
 
 CRESWICK, REDGRAVE, RIDLEY 345 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 TAYLER, ANSDELL, KNIGHT 350 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE 353 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 Wqt Interpreters of fainting, antr Copging in 
 .facsimile* 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING 303 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 ON COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE 398 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 Practical $ktes* 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE PLATE 47 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE NEEDLE 409 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 GROUNDS AND VARNISHES 411
 
 CONTENTS. xxvii 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PACK 
 
 THE ACID BATH 414 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE LABORATORY AND PRINTING-ROOM 415 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE ROLLER AND ITS USES 420 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 BITING 423 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 STOPPING-OUT 429 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 AUXILIARIES 433 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE AUTHOR'S POSITIVE PROCESS 435 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF ETCHING 436 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 DRY-POINT 440 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 PRINTING * . 441 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE 445 
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX 447
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 COVER AND TITLE-PAGE. 
 
 I. Designs on the back of this volume, above and below the title. 
 
 These designs of Plovers and Teal are from an etching by M. Bracquemond, 
 called Vanneaitx et Sarcelles (see page 225). They are as faithful an interpretation 
 of Bracquemond's manner as the material would permit They are intended to 
 show the appearance of an etched plate before it is bitten, the black representing 
 the smoked black ground in which the etching is drawn, and the gold the lines of 
 bare copper, which are afterwards to come black in the printing. All that is left 
 black on the plate is white in the printed proof. 
 
 The finer lines in this drawing are purposely run together into simple broad 
 lines, because they would not have printed distinctly in the gold. 
 
 2. Design in gold on black on the side of the volume. 
 
 This represents, as accurately as the materials would permit, the appearance 
 of part of Turner's plate called the Little Devil's Bridge (see page 272), when he 
 had just drawn the lines on the plate. The black represents the black smoked 
 etching ground, and the gold the copper as it was laid bare by the etching point. 
 The block with which this is stamped on the cover was reproduced photographi- 
 cally from an off-track (see page 444) from my copy of Turner's lines, which is 
 given at page 272. It is more nearly accurate than any other manner of reproduc- 
 tion would have permitted, but the lines are for the most part broader than 
 Turner's lines on the copper must have been, and they are all much less pure and 
 clear, as the reader will easily see by comparing them with those in my etching 
 after Turner. However, they have always the true direction, and the design may 
 be of use in preparing the eye of a beginner for the appearance of *a drawing on 
 metal in negative, which is all that it is intended for. 
 
 3. Woodcut on the Title-page. 
 
 This is a copy on wood, by Mr. Cooper, of one of Rembrandt's best portraits 
 of himself. It is, I think, the most perfect imitation of etching by wood engraving 
 that I ever saw. Mr. Cooper wisely selected a plate which could be reproduced 
 by accurately placed dots and lines, and which did not exhibit those qualities of 
 texture that cannot be imitated by wood-engraving. 
 
 The portrait here copied is that numbered 216 in M. Charles Blanc's Cata- 
 logue. It is called " Rembrandt au bonnet plat."
 
 xxx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 ETCHINGS. 
 
 All the etchings in this volume, with the exception of plates IX. and XIL, ar 
 copied by the author. 
 
 Plate IX. is an original sketch from nature by Lalanne, and Plate XII. is an 
 original sketch from nature by the author. 
 
 PLATE I. 0fP P 5 
 
 THE CORPULENT BEGGAR, after Rembrandt ... 90 
 
 PLATE II. 
 PORTRAIT OF OLD MOTHER, after Rembrandt ... 92 
 
 PLATE III. 
 PEASANTS DRINKING, after Ostade .... 100 
 
 PLATE IV. 
 COTTAGE ox A SHORE, after Weirotter . . . .114 
 
 PLATE V. 
 TREES, after Waterloo . . . . . .116 
 
 PLATE VI. 
 BOATS NEAR SHORE, after Zeeman . . . .122 
 
 PLATE VII. 
 SCENE IN OLD PARIS, after Callot . . . .164 
 
 PLATE VIII. 
 PALACE OF JUSTICE AND BRIDGE, PARIS, after Me'ryon . 170 
 
 PLATE IX. 
 FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND, by Lalanne (original) . . 182 
 
 PLATE X. 
 ROCKS AND PINES, after Turner ..... 272 
 
 PLATE XL 
 PART OF THE AGAMEMNON, after Haden . . . 308 
 
 PLATE XII. 
 POPLARS AND OAK, by P. G. Hamerton (original) . . 444
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 POWERS AND QUALITIES OF THE ART.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ETCHING COMPARED WITH OTHER ARTS. 
 
 I. WITH PAINTING IN OIL. 
 
 O ETTING aside the obvious difference in favour of paint- 
 ing, that it can represent colour, we find another 
 difference, scarcely less obvious, in the manner of inter- 
 pretation. The brush is a better instrument than the point, 
 because less conventional, since it does not necessarily resort 
 to lines, and lines do not exist in nature. So far, painting 
 is the higher art ; but it is not quite so well adapted to the 
 expression of transient thought. Oil-sketching may be 
 exceedingly rapid, but the medium does not under all 
 circumstances admit of memoranda so completely expla- 
 natory as those which may be obtained with the point. In 
 the most valuable oil -sketching, that in which the true 
 relations of masses of colour are accurately preserved, form 
 has to be sacrificed ; and yet form is usually more important 
 than colour in the expression of artistic ideas. The very 
 presence of colour entails, in hasty work, the abandonment 
 of form, because in coloured art bad colour is intolerable, 
 and good colour is not attainable at high speed, unless it is 
 made the chief aim of the artist. When an etching and an 
 oil picture are both produced in the same space of time, 
 the etching is likely to contain a more delicate definition of 
 many interesting points of form than the picture can. An 
 

 
 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 elaborate picture, the labour of weeks or months, may con- 
 tain more form than any good etching, because good etchings 
 are almost l always done quickly ; but the finished painting 
 loses in freshness what it gains in completion, and belongs 
 to a wholly different class of art. The aim of a laboured 
 picture is power by accumulation ; the aim of an etching is 
 power by abstraction and concentration. It is certain that 
 some very valuable qualities in oil painting can only be 
 attained by frequent correction and repainting ; the work is 
 'done over and over again, often scraped till the previous 
 work shows through, and then the broken tints so obtained, 
 and which cannot be obtained in any other manner, are 
 made available for the expression of natural variety and 
 infinity. It will be shown in the course of this volume that 
 some results of this kind are more or less attainable in 
 laboured etching, but they are not entirely in harmony with 
 the idea of etching as an independent art. If we remain 
 within the limits of true etching, and then compare it simply 
 with such oil painting as alone is competent to convey 
 rapid inspirations, we shall find that the worker in oil is 
 obliged to sacrifice much to colour which the etcher easily 
 preserves ; and farther, that the very heaviness of the 
 medium, when the painter sketches in thick colour, is an 
 obstacle to liberty of expression which the freely- gliding 
 point avoids. The modern habit of sketching in varnish is 
 in some respects more free, but the adhesiveness of the 
 varnish often interferes with perfect liberty, and has to be 
 continually corrected by additions of turpentine. In this 
 method, as in simple oil painting, the embarrassment of 
 colour of course remains. 
 
 J The reader will please notice the reserve implied by this word almost. Some 
 good etchers have worked slowly, and gradually completed their etchings by suc- 
 cessive processes. Justice will be done to these artists in their place.
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 
 
 2. WITH PAINTING IN WATER-COLOUR. 
 
 Water-colour approaches more nearly than oil to the 
 facility and freedom of etching, but even water- colour is 
 less direct. True water-colour, in which oqaque pigments 
 are not resorted to, attains its end by a series, often a long 
 series, of washes. The paper is subjected to treatment of 
 very various kinds, according to the caprice of the indi- 
 vidual artist ; but most water-colourists agree on one point, 
 they do not leave their first wash undisturbed ; they either 
 sponge it, or rub it with a rag, or rub it with a brush, or 
 take out whole patches of it to paint afresh on the white 
 paper beneath, and these processes are often repeated with 
 subsequent washes, so that there is a continual effacing or 
 alteration of work done. Now although etching admits of 
 correction, it is only on condition of revarnishing the plate, 
 and correction does not enter into the habitual processes, 
 but is resorted to in order to remedy mistakes. A tho- 
 roughly successful etching, an etching successful not only 
 in result but in its progress, does not involve anything of 
 the nature of a correction anywhere. All its touches 
 remain ; no subsequent work obliterates them ; shades may 
 be passed over them, but they remain visible still. It 
 follows that etching exacts more decision than water-colour, 
 and, consequently, more strongly tends to produce the habit 
 of decision in its practitioners. 
 
 3. WITH DRAWING IN SEPIA OR INDIAN INK. 
 
 Drawings in one colour, done with the brush, bear the 
 same relation to etching that water-colour does, with the 
 single difference of colour. A sepia drawing is likely to 
 have its relations of light and dark more accurately true 
 than an etching by the same artist, but is not so likely to
 
 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 rival it in vivacity of accent. 1 When a sepia drawing, com- 
 plete as a study of light and dark, aims also at delicate in- 
 dications of form, it becomes too costly in point of time to 
 note impressions whilst they are perfectly vivid. The 
 difference between sepia and etching, if the same time is 
 allowed to both, is entirely in favour of sepia if accurate 
 noting of light and shade is the object, and as entirely in 
 favour of etching if the artist wishes to draw attention to 
 points of character. It is exceedingly difficult in etching, 
 and without great labour and correction almost impossible, 
 to note all delicate weights of tone according to the wish 
 and intention of the artist ; but in sepia or Indian ink this 
 is so easy that where there is failure it may at once be attri- 
 buted to the artist's weakness in chiaroscuro. The first aim 
 of a sepia drawing ought to be perfect light and shade, 
 because that is the especial perfection attainable in the 
 method ; but for an etcher to make complete light and 
 shade his first aim would be barbarous, because it could only 
 be attainable in his art by great labour, and at the cost of 
 qualities more purely mental which ought to be the glory of 
 his work. 2 
 
 1 Unless the etcher has worked very laboriously for tone, and is a master of the 
 craft, in which case he may possibly get the relations of light and dark as in a 
 sepia drawing, but never easily. 
 
 2 There is a new school of etching which may be said to have come into being 
 since the first edition of this work was published, and which aims at nothing less 
 than the complete translation of oil-pictures into light and shade. The best men 
 have succeeded in this quite sufficiently to justify their attempt ; but the desire for 
 perfect light and shade is dangerous to the more important quality of expressive 
 drawing, and even to light and shade itself, for unless the true relations are attained, 
 the attempt to reach them ends in mere blackness or a general dulness of foul 
 greys, which is even worse. An etcher from pictures, who is in reality an engraver 
 using etching as a means of translation, will naturally give great effort to attain true 
 relations of tone ; but an original etcher ought not to make them his first object j 
 expression by line ought to be his first object.
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 
 
 4. WITH DRAWING IN CHALK AND LITHOGRAPHY. 
 
 Since chalk-drawings on paper and on stone have the 
 same qualities, they may be considered as one art. Litho- 
 graphy is richer than etching in the fulness of a touch, 
 c'est plus gras, its touch is softer and blends better. Some 
 pictures can be better interpreted by lithography than by 
 etching. For example, Troyon is admirably rendered by 
 good lithographers, such as Loutrel, Frangais, and Eugene 
 Le Roux, and their lithographs convey a better idea of his 
 manner than etching would. All that is said of etching as 
 an autographic art is equally true of lithography ; a lithe* 
 graph by Harding is just as truly his own as a drawing done 
 by him directly on paper. I have often felt surprised that 
 fine lithographs should not be more valued than they are ; 
 it is true that the world has been flooded with bad ones, but 
 the existence of bad performances in any art ought not to 
 produce the impression that the art is generally weak. No 
 one looks for great art in a lithograph ; yet lithography is 
 perfectly competent to express great ideas. But, though 
 quite as autographic as etching, and though an appearance of 
 richness is more easily attainable in it, lithography is so far 
 inferior to etching in precision and sharpness of minute 
 accent, that it is inconceivable how one of Rembrandt's keen 
 little visages could ever be fairly rendered by chalk on stone. 
 The points on which expression depends in the etching of a 
 face are so infinitely minute, that no blunt instrument can 
 render them, and the lithographer's chalk is always, when 
 compared with the etching needle, a blunt instrument. It 
 is also continually crumbling away under his hand, and the 
 very grain of the stone he works upon, though necessary to 
 detach and hold the particles of chalk on which his effect 
 depends, is an impediment to the clearness of lines. The 
 lithographer has one great advantage over the etcher, he can
 
 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 see what he is doing, and though drawings on stone always 
 look better on the stone itself than they do in the printed 
 proofs, the artist does not work in negative as etchers do, 
 but in black upon the pleasant warm tint of the stone, just 
 as if he were drawing in black chalk upon tinted paper. 
 
 5. WITH PEN-DRAWING AND INK LITHOGRAPHY. 
 
 In polite circles, where a knowledge of the fine arts has 
 not yet penetrated, it is customary to call pen-drawings 
 " etchings ; " and since the existence of the real art of etch- 
 ing is but little known, it will generally be found that when 
 a young lady is said to etch well it does not mean that she 
 bites copper-plates with acid, but simply that she draws 
 nicely with pen and ink. There are also persons more 
 advanced in the study of the fine arts, who, although aware 
 that etching and pen-drawing are distinct arts, believe never- 
 theless that their powers and capacities are identical. The 
 truth is, however, that there are several important points of 
 difference, all which, except one, are in favour of etching. 
 The pen is a very free instrument when compared with the 
 burin, but it is not so free as the etching-needle, and the 
 liberty of the artist is still further limited by the necessity 
 for avoiding blots, which easily occur in close shading. 
 Drawing with the pen may be divided into two distinct arts. 
 In its first, or simple form, pen-drawing consists of lines 
 variously disposed, but always drawn with ink of the same 
 strength ; in its more complex form, pen-drawing reaches 
 greater delicacy by using ink of infinitely various degrees of 
 dilution, from the palest that can be visible in a line to the 
 blackest that will flow from the pen. The first method can 
 only compete with the most primitive etching, because it can 
 only imitate etchings done in one biting ; but the second 
 can also, though at some distance, imitate the more complex 
 etchings produced by several bitings.
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 
 
 It remains to be observed that there is a marked distinc- 
 tion between etching and pen-drawing, as practical arts, in 
 the effect of pressure with the point of the instrument. If 
 you press with your pen you enlarge your line, so that 
 pressure becomes an important means of expression. In 
 etching, on the other hand, pressure ought always to be 
 absolutely equal, and the enlargement of the line can only 
 be effected by taking a blunter point. Pressure, in etching, 
 ought to be equal, because where it is too heavy the point 
 ploughs the copper and causes over-biting, and where it is 
 too light the varnish is not perfectly removed, though it may 
 seem to be, and the acid either produces no line at all or a 
 broken series of dashes and dots. We are so accustomed, 
 in the fine arts, to consider pressure as a means of varying 
 expression, that inexperienced etchers find the greatest diffi- 
 culty in reaching the steady equality of it which is necessary 
 to the success of the subsequent biting ; and this difficulty 
 is likely to be felt the most by etchers accustomed to express 
 themselves in arts, such, for example, as violin-playing, 
 where every crescendo is an increase of pressure, and every 
 diminuendo a diminution of it. 
 
 Pen-lithography belongs to the first of the two classes of 
 pen-drawing ; paleness cannot be obtained in it by dilution 
 of ink, but only by the thinness and paucity of the lines. 
 It follows that pen-lithography can never approach etching 
 in variety of depth, and can neither rival, on the one hand, 
 the delicacy of its fainter passages, nor, on the other, the 
 vigorous depths of its strongly-bitten blacks. If we add to 
 these inferiorities the comparative want of freedom caused 
 by the use of an instrument which may produce a blot if too 
 full, 1 or a vacant scratch when it runs dry, and which re- 
 quires replenishing every minute (a continual interruption to 
 the rapid utterance of thought), we have grounds for a com- 
 
 1 When the blot is intentional in pen-drawing, it is a great source of power, 
 and is constantly used by skilful artists.
 
 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 parison which is entirely favourable to etching. Pen-litho- 
 graphy has, however, the great advantages of showing the 
 result during the progress of the work, and avoiding the 
 dangers, whilst it misses the charms, of many bitings. It i. 
 Consequently far better suited for amateurs. 
 
 6. WITH DRAWING IN BLACK LEAD. 
 
 The black lead pencil has some definite advantages ovei 
 the etching-needle. It may be cut very broad, and in this 
 state will rapidly produce pale tints of fine quality, not to 
 be rivalled in etching without much greater labour. It will 
 also yield various degrees of blackness to a variety of pres 
 sure. As lead -pencils are made of different kinds, some 
 very hard and others soft and black, some with broad leads 
 for shading, and others to be cut to a fine point, very various 
 qualities are attainable in pencil-drawing. There may be an 
 infinite delicacy and precision with the point, an even breadth 
 of shade, and some considerable depth in the extreme darks. 
 It is, however, especially in these darks that pencil-drawing 
 comparatively fails, because it has an unpleasant tendency 
 to shine, and the blackest black produced with a lead-pencil 
 is always light in comparison with printer's ink. The degree 
 of freedom enjoyed by the designer in black-lead is greater 
 than the pen allows, but inferior to the freedom of the 
 etching-point. It may be observed, however, that for artists 
 who have not reached a very high degree of decision, this 
 freedom of the etching-point is too excessive to be altogether 
 an advantage. The lead-pencil depresses the surface of the 
 paper where it passes, and so makes for itself a shallow 
 channel whose sides are deep enough to prevent involuntary 
 slips ; but the surface of polished copper is so very smooth, 
 and the thin coat of varnish resists so little, that the etcher 
 has need of great firmness and precision in the hand itself, 
 for he can never safely rest upon the point. It follows that
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS, 
 
 pencil-drawing is a far easier art than etching, and in com- 
 mon with the other arts we have been considering, it has the 
 great advantage of being a positive art, etching (by the 
 process usually followed) being altogether negative. It is 
 scarcely necessary to explain these useful terms, borrowed 
 from photography ; but as a few readers may be uri- 
 acquainted with them, it may be well to add that a positive 
 art is one in which darks are represented by darks, and 
 lights by lights ; whereas in a negative art, such as etching, 
 darks are represented (in the direct work of the artist) by 
 lights, and lights by darks. This adds greatly to the 
 difficulty of etching, especially in the case of beginners, who 
 find themselves greatly embarrassed by the impossibility (to 
 them) of translating their work into its corresponding posi- 
 tive, as the printing-press will translate it. In sculpture, the 
 sculptor who makes a bas-relief works in positive, and the seal- 
 engraver and die-sinker in negative ; but the seal-engraver 
 has a great advantage over the etcher in being able to take 
 frequent proofs of his work during its progress, which the 
 etcher can only do after removing the varnish from his plate. 
 The finest pencil-drawings do not attempt depths of 
 shade, but content themselves with comparatively pale tones. 
 The worst pencil-drawings, t;hose of school-boys who pursue 
 the fine arts, usually abound in passages where great pressure 
 and much repetition, and very black pencils indeed, have 
 ended in the production of such brilliant black-leading as 
 might delight the eyes of an artistic housemaid. The blacks 
 of etching are safer in quality, for, at least, they never shine, 
 and easily reach an intense depth ; but the pale tones of 
 pencil-drawing are safer than the pale tones of etching. 
 As to the value of the two methods, much depends on the 
 kind of subject, and much upon the temper of the master. 
 A naked figure, by Gerome, is better in pencil, because its 
 modelling is truer and more delicate than any modelling 
 Gerdme could express with the etching-needle ; but an old
 
 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 man's face, by Rembrandt, is rendered more incisively with 
 the point than it could be with any other instrument. 
 
 7. WITH THE GRAPHOTYPE. 
 
 Since the Graphotype is a recent invention, it may be 
 necessary, first, to give a brief description of the process. 
 Finely powdered chalk is spread thickly on a metal plate 
 and then subjected to hydraulic pressure till it becomes a 
 solid mass with a beautiful white surface, slightly shining^ 
 but not inconveniently brilliant. On this surface the artist 
 draws in a glutinous ink, perfectly black, flowing from a 
 finely-pointed little brush ; the pen cannot be used, on 
 account of the friability of the chalk. The ink glues the 
 particles of chalk where it passes, and when the drawing is 
 complete the white spaces between the lines are easily 
 hollowed by rubbing them gently with a piece of velvet or a 
 light brush. The black lines remain in relief, like the lines 
 of a woodcut. The plate is then dipped in a solution of 
 flint and so hardened, after which a stereotype cast, or an 
 electrotype copy, is taken from it, and this stereotype or 
 electrotype serves to print from as a woodcut. 
 
 The most obvious advantage of the graphotype is that it 
 is a positive process in every sense. Not only is it superior 
 to etching in showing the artist black for black and white 
 for white, instead of glittering copper for black, and lamp- 
 black for white, but it is superior both to etching and 
 lithography in the entire absence of reversing ; the objects 
 that will be to the right in the print are to the artist's 
 right as he works. It is as easy as drawing upon paper 
 with a brush-point and ink of uniform thickness, in lines. 
 No brushwork in the painter's sense is possible, nor are 
 any more or less pale lines, but the lines may vary in 
 thickness. 
 
 The graphotype is as autographic as any process ever
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. i- t 
 
 invented, and the artist who is only able to draw, and has 
 not devoted much time to the special study of etching, 
 would find the graphotype a more faithful interpreter of his 
 intentions, because inexperienced etchers never accomplish 
 what they propose to themselves, and are especially liable 
 to disappointment in relations of tone. But the graphotype 
 can never supersede etching, being altogether a coarser and 
 heavier process, and neither capable of the delicacy and 
 extreme tenuity of line which distinguish etching, nor of its 
 invaluable variety of dark. 1 
 
 8. WITH WOOD ENGRAVING. 
 
 Wood engravers have never been more skilful than they 
 are now, and never more unfaithful to the true nature and 
 principles of their art. No art has been so unfortunate as 
 wood engraving, in being condemned from the first to pro- 
 duce results precisely the contrary of the results which are 
 naturally indicated by the method. If you take a wooden 
 block unengraved, and print from it as if it were a finished 
 woodcut, you will obtain a perfectly black patch the size of 
 your block. If you take a copper plate unengraved, and 
 print from it as if it were a finished etching, you will obtain 
 a white space, enclosed by four impressed but colourless 
 marks, produced by the edges of the plate, and called the 
 plate mark. If you engrave a line on both block and plate, 
 and then hand them again to their respective printers, your 
 new proofs will give you a white line on a black ground for 
 the woodcut, and a black line on a white ground for the 
 etching. The natural process of woodcutting is, therefore, 
 to leave the darks and mark the lights, showing always 
 the work of the tool as a definite white mark, every touch 
 
 1 The graphotype is one of the many processes that have been invented as 
 " substitutes for wood engraving," but it is not a perfect process, though it seems 
 to hold its ground to some extent commercially. It may do for coarse work, but 
 is of little use for the purposes of fine art.
 
 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 of it. But as it happens that paper is white and light- 
 coloured, for the most part, and as people are accustomed 
 to see drawings done in dark upon white, because it is 
 easier to make a very black line on white paper than a 
 very white line upon black, it follows that black upon white 
 has come to be considered by the world in general a more 
 natural and rational, and in every way more orthodox, 
 method of proceeding than white upon black. So the 
 wood engravers have all along been laboriously cutting out 
 bits of white to make us feel as if they had engraved the 
 black lines, and every hasty scrawl of the draughtsman has had 
 to be carefully cut round by them. Hence, wood engraving 
 has not been a genuine art, except in a few instances, nor 
 have its natural powers been duly cultivated. It has occu- 
 pied the position of some man of great natural ability, who 
 has had the misfortune to be bred to a profession for which 
 his faculties were always unsuited, who by dint of long 
 study and patience has taught himself to do what was 
 required of him, but who has left his true self uncultivated 
 and unexpressed. There are several instances of true wood 
 engraving in the illustrations of Gustave Dore ; but there 
 are many more examples of attempts to imitate other arts. 
 The most genuine wood engraving may be known at once by 
 the perfect frankness of its white lines, and the plain inten- 
 tion of its white spaces, as cut out lights, not mere intervals 
 of white paper. It may be objected that art more naturally 
 proceeds by black lines than by white lines ; but this is one 
 of the common illusions of custom. We are more accus- 
 tomed to see artists work in black lines than in white ; but 
 if the question be referred to nature, it will be found that 
 natural darks are relieved against lights, and lights against 
 darks, in about equal proportion, so that the power of 
 drawing white lines is just about as useful as the power 
 of drawing black ones. The next time the reader sees a 
 common hedge he will have an opportunity for testing this
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 13 
 
 doctrine, and will as often find light twigs against dark 
 places as the converse. 1 
 
 An attempt to compare wood engraving with etching is 
 embarrassed by the various false directions of wood engraving 
 as practised by contemporary artists. One of its recent 
 developments is the imitation of etching itself; and here, 
 of course, the false art remains at an infinite distance from 
 the true one. No wood engraving can ever reach the variety 
 of tint obtained by variety of biting ; and although modern 
 woodcutters are, as mechanics, skilful to a degree which 
 would have astonished Albert Durer, no surface printing 
 can give lines of such fineness and delicacy as may be 
 reached by etched lines, or dry-point scratches, with the 
 ink in them. The best way to compare the wood engraver's 
 imitation of etching with etching itself is to put such wood- 
 cut copies of Rembrandt's etchings as those published in 
 the " Histoire des Peintres" side by side with the originals. 
 The woodcuts in that publication are as good as any modern 
 imitative work whatever, so that the comparison is a fair 
 one. The character of the original is cleverly suggested ; 
 but the degree of reproduction attained is about that attain- 
 able in a pen-drawing, with thick Indian ink, never diluted 
 for lighter passages. 
 
 1 As instances of genuine wood engraving, by white lines and spaces, may be 
 mentioned the following subjects from Dore's "Quixote:" ''''Mais, Seigneur, 
 est-ce bonne regie de chevalerie que nous allions ainsi par ces montagnes comme da 
 tnfants perdus?" Vol. i. ch. xxv. engraved by Pisan. "Tandis qu'on naviguait 
 ainsi, Zora'ide restait a mes cotes." Vol. i. ch. xli. engraved by Pisan. "Enfin 
 au bout de trois jours on trouva la capricieuse Leandra dans le fond d'une 
 caverne." Vol. i. ch. li. engraved by Pisan. "J'ai deja fait, Seigneur Duran 
 dart, ce que vous m'avez commande dans la fatale journe'e de notre deroute." 
 Vol. ii. ch. xxiii. engraved by Pisan. " Je suis Merlin, celui que les histoires disent 
 avoir eu le diable pour pere." Vol. ii. ch. xxxv. without engraver's name. " La 
 se termine le chant de Pamoureuse Altisidore." Vol. ii. ch. xliv. engraved by 
 Pisan. In the last the reader may observe the frank cross-hatching of white lines 
 on the stones above the door. Some black lines are still preserved, however, 
 from habit, especially in the dresses of the ladies.
 
 14 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 Another kind of wood engraving is the imitation of burin- 
 work on copper or steel. By far the best instances of this 
 are the cuts after Durer's copper or steel plates in the work 
 just referred to, especially the " Melancholy," which is a 
 wonderful example of clear and minute line-cutting. To 
 compare work of this kind with etching is unnecessary, 
 because all the qualities of woodcut imitations of steel 
 engraving are possessed in higher perfection by steel en- 
 graving itself, which we shall shortly have to consider. 
 
 Next to woodcutting in avowed white lines, the kind of 
 work in which the engraver has most to do is the interpre- 
 tation of tints. In facsimile engraving, the engraver has 
 nothing to do beyond the removal of unstained wood, an 
 operation requiring no more intellect, though greater manual 
 skill, than the rubbing away of chalk in the graphotype. 
 But the accurate interpretation of tints requires great artistic 
 judgment, as well as great manual skill ; and the wood en- 
 graver who renders a washed drawing without missing any 
 essential relation of tone, and by means of lines invented by 
 himself, is exercising an art which, whether true or false in 
 its method, has claims of its own, and may be seriously 
 compared with etching. What first strikes us is a wide 
 difference in popularity, entirely in favour of wood engrav- 
 ing. Interpretative wood engraving (as opposed to fac- 
 simile wood engraving) is in the fullest and most extensive 
 sense popular. Many thousands of copies of woodcut illus- 
 trations are sold easily, when the same subjects, if they had 
 been etched on copper, would have found with difficulty two 
 or three hundred purchasers. This is due, in part, to the 
 greater cheapness of woodcuts, which may be cheaply 
 printed, and will yield immense editions without deteriora- 
 tion ; but it is also due, and in a still greater degree, to some 
 quality in wood engraving which charms the ordinary spec- 
 tator, and which is either absent from etching or neutralised 
 by some other peculiarity offensive to the uneducated eye
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 15 
 
 It is probable that this quality is an appearance of softness. 
 First-rate modern woodcutting, aided by the artifice of in- 
 serting various thicknesses of paper, so as to obtain a variety 
 of pressure in the printing, attains a degree of softness in 
 itself highly agreeable, and always delightful to the ignorant. 
 Etching, on the contrary, has a natural tendency to look 
 meagre and " scratchy," a tendency overcome only by the 
 most skilful masters. 1 If the reader will take the trouble to 
 compare Mr. Birket Foster's drawings on wood, as interpreted 
 by Mr. Edmund Evans, with the etchings of the same artist, 
 he will at once understand the popular feeling, though he 
 may not fully share it. The engravings are richer and softer 
 than the etchings ; they have more amenity. It is with the 
 fine arts as with individual men : amenity is a more popular 
 quality than freedom or truth. Etching is like those 
 characters in real life, too seldom appreciated at their full 
 value, who have abundant energy, great freedom of manner, 
 and an insight too keen to be always agreeable, and whose 
 intense personality and originality make them almost in- 
 capable of concession or conformity. Wood engraving is 
 usually executed in quite a different spirit. The engraver 
 does not work passionately, like the true etcher, but gives 
 patient and skilled labour to make his work pleasant to the 
 eye. His art is thus more in unison with the temper of 
 society, which likes a gentle manner and perfect training in 
 little things, and rather objects to intellect, if it disdains con- 
 ventional expression, and takes no pains to make itself agree- 
 able. The whole life of the wood engraver is devoted to 
 arts of interpretation, which the etcher disdains as mecha- 
 nism ; and it is to the perfection attained in these minor arts 
 that the popularity of modern wood engraving is due. 2 
 
 1 But entirely overcome by them. There are etchings by Rajon and Hedouin, 
 for example, in which the quality of softness, wherever the artist desired it, has 
 been as fully attained as it could be even in a chalk or charcoal drawing. 
 
 8 In the best wood engiaving there is often a lively sparkle due to the intelligent
 
 16 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 9. WITH ENGRAVING IN MEZZOTINT. 
 
 Having prepared his plate by roughening it all over with 
 a heavy tool, so constructed as to present a great number of 
 little sharp teeth, each of which produces a small indentation 
 and raises a corresponding bur, the engraver in mezzotint 
 starts from a point exactly opposed to that of the aquafortist. 
 His plate, before anything is represented upon it, yields an 
 impression which is entirely black, and a very rich soft black, 
 perfectly equal, and showing no line or mark of any kind. 
 The etcher's plate, on the contrary, yields a perfectly white 
 impression. The engraver in mezzotint, like the engraver on 
 wood, makes his plate lighter as he works, whilst the etcher 
 darkens his plate. There is also another difference, not less 
 important the etcher works by lines, and the mezzotint 
 engraver by spaces. The consequence of these differences 
 of method is a difference of quality and spirit. Every art, 
 so long as it is healthy and rightly pursued, tends to express 
 chiefly those artistic ideas which it can express most easily. 
 Mezzotint is naturally rich and soft, with the corresponding 
 defect of vagueness and want of precision in detail, and be- 
 cause its blacks are so full and perfect, and so cheaply ob- 
 tained, it has a tendency to blackness. Etching tends to 
 thinness and hardness, but is capable of any conceivable 
 degree of firmness and precision in detail. It would be 
 absolutely impossible to engrave in pure mezzotint one of 
 Rembrandt's etched faces on the same scale, without missing 
 some of those sharp and delicate accents upon which the 
 power of the work mainly depends. On the other hand, 
 although pure etching, without the bur raised by the dry 
 
 way in which the engraver has utilised touches of white, often very minute. You 
 seldom find this quality in etching, but it is perfectly attainable by the etcher who 
 chooses to make it one of his technical purposes. See the chapter hi this volume 
 on the works of Samuel Palmer.
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 17 
 
 point, 1 can never imitate the peculiar velvety softness of 
 mezzotint, it can fully rival its depth and richness of effect. 
 The two arts are to a considerable extent complementary of 
 each other. Pure etching, when not laborious in finish, has 
 a meagre look which mezzotint corrects, and mezzotint has 
 a want of energy and precision which a few etched lines may 
 often effectually supply. Mezzotint and etching are there- 
 fore often seen in combination, as in the " Liber Studiorum " 
 of Turner. Engravers' etching, in combination with mez- 
 zotint, is now popular enough, when helped by machine 
 ruling, for the production of large prints to hang in drawing- 
 rooms. The mezzotint gives a look of softness, and the 
 machine-ruling an appearance of neatness, which make the 
 etching pass current with the print-buying section of the 
 public. 
 
 10. WITH LINE-ENGRAVING. 
 
 The mechanical difficulties of line-engraving are so great 
 that they have naturally absorbed much of the attention of 
 line-engravers so much that the conquest of mechanical 
 difficulty has been too often regarded by them as the chief 
 aim of their lives, to the neglect of artistic qualities. The 
 degradation of line-engraving was complete when a tradition 
 had at length regulated every method of interpretation, and, 
 leaving nothing to the instinct and feeling of the workman, 
 prescribed for him where to put thick lines and thin lines, 
 and lozenges with dots in the middle. Having attained 
 skill in a difficult handicraft, the engravers became proud of 
 their accomplishments, and, forgetting that the only rational 
 use of them could be the interpretation of artistic ideas, 
 took to displaying them for themselves, without reference to 
 either nature or art. To cut lines regularly and put dots 
 neatly became an aim in itself. The instrument chiefly 
 used by line-engravers, the burin, is answerable for much of 
 
 1 See the chapter on Dry Point 
 C
 
 1 8 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 this lamentable aberration. No tool used in the fine arts 
 has less freedom. It is difficult to handle, requires the 
 application of an appreciable amount of force, and is always 
 slow, even in the most skilful hands. The lines which it 
 cuts are singularly pure and sharp, and it can vary both 
 their thickness and their depth, obediently to the pressure 
 of the fingers and the lower part of the palm. It describes 
 beautiful curves quite naturally, like a skate that bites in 
 ice, but it has great difficulty in following violent and minute 
 irregularities. Its operation on the mind of the artist who 
 uses it is always to make him patient and very attentive to 
 mechanical matters, for which he has to be perfectly cool, 
 and this coolness easily chills into coldness. If modern line- 
 engravers were in the habit of engraving their own inven- 
 tions, as Durer did, the chilling influence of the instrument 
 would have been less visible in their work, because a man 
 who expresses his own thought has always more heat and 
 vivacity than a man who only interprets the thought of 
 another. The misfortune of line-engraving has been that 
 mechanical dexterity has been made too absorbing a pur- 
 suit, and that it has been devoted too exclusively to copyism. 
 No art could long resist these adverse influences. Even 
 etching itself, free and original as it is, would lose much of 
 its freedom and all its originality, if the public required 
 from it mechanical perfection, and set it to the dull business 
 of copying finished pictures. 
 
 The decline of line-engraving, in the commercial sense, 
 has been due to its great costliness rather than to any 
 artistic deficiency, and as this costliness in money is merely 
 an expression for costliness in time, line-engraving cannot 
 flourish as etching may, in spite of public neglect, because 
 the practitioners of it cannot afford to pursue it without 
 reference to pecuniary results. Such an art as line-engrav- 
 ing cannot exist without liberal support, but the failure of 
 such support is not to be taken as any proof of inferiority
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 19 
 
 in the art. Line-engraving had great powers peculiar to 
 itself. It was especially adapted for the rendering of the 
 naked figure, whose elaborate curves and complicated model- 
 ling were well expressed by the burins of the great engravers. 
 As the interest in the naked figure has declined, and given 
 place to an interest in landscape and costume pictures, it is 
 natural that less value should be attached to a kind of 
 engraving which greatly surpassed other kinds of engraving 
 in the naked figure only, and which would be thrown away 
 upon the interpretation of popular modern art. Few naked 
 figures in pure etching have yet reached the perfect model- 
 ling of the great line-engravers, but on all other points the 
 artistic advantages rest with the etchers, however great may 
 be the mechanical charms of clean-looking burin work. 
 
 The wonderful landscape-engravers of the earlier part of 
 this century, Goodall, Wallis, Miller, and others, to whom 
 must be added Mr. J. C. Armytage, though not strictly line- 
 engravers, for they admitted etching and dry point work 
 (the bur being removed), have reached qualities which for 
 painter-etchers may be considered hopeless. Their marvel- 
 lous renderings of weights of colour in plates from Turner's 
 most delicate drawings, and especially their exquisite skies, 
 are quite beyond rivalry in such etching as painters may 
 safely attempt. All etched skies that I have seen, not 
 excepting the best of Haden and Rembrandt, and even 
 Claude, are either rude or simple in comparison with such 
 skies as the best in Rogers' Poems, and plates 63, 66, and 
 67 in the fifth volume of " Modern Painters." In Mr. Army- 
 tage's skies, machine-ruling has been admitted as a ground 
 tint, and the lights scraped and burnished out ; in the 
 illustrations to Rogers the skies are for the most part pure 
 dry point. A skilful etcher, such as Haden or Me"ryon 
 may give very intelligible hints of the mental emotion felt 
 by him in the presence of some splendid natural sky, but he 
 cannot render the sky itself, the evanescent delicacy of the
 
 20 ETCHING COMPARED 
 
 cloud-forms, their melting imperceptible gradations. But 
 the engravers have truly made plates of copper yield images 
 as closely resembling skies as the absence of colour and 
 feebleness of art's light may admit of; they have done 
 more than suggest, they have represented. 
 
 A brief recapitulation of the foregoing pages may be 
 useful before we proceed farther. 
 
 Etching is superior to oil-sketching in form, and to oil- 
 painting in freshness. It is inferior to both in truth of 
 tone, unless at the cost of immense labour, aided by un- 
 common skill. 
 
 It is superior to water-colour in decision and directness, 
 because its earliest work remains, being never obliterated 
 by subsequent washes and removals. 
 
 It is inferior to sepia-drawing in accurate rendering of 
 weights of light and dark, but superior to it in indications 
 of form. 
 
 It is superior to lithography in precision of minute form 
 and sharpness of accent, but inferior to it in richness and 
 fulness of touch. 
 
 It is superior to pen-drawing in freedom, variety, and 
 power, but inferior to it in not being sensitive to pressure. 
 
 It is superior to the lead-pencil in depth and power, but 
 inferior to it in equality of pale gradations. 
 
 ' It is superior to the graphotype in variety of depth and 
 in delicacy of line, but inferior so far as executive facility is 
 concerned in being entirely a negative art, whilst the grapho- 
 type is entirely positive. Etching is, however, superior to 
 the graphotype in freedom. 
 
 Etching is superior to wood engraving in freedom and 
 depth, but inferior to it in the kind of amenity which is 
 popular. 
 
 It is inferior to mezzotint in softness, but excels it in 
 firmness and precision. 
 
 It is far superior to line-engraving in freedom, but, unless
 
 WITH OTHER ARTS. 21 
 
 in exceptional instances inferior to it in the modelling of 
 flesh. Etching is also very far inferior to the best modern 
 point-engraving in the representation of skies. 
 
 The strong points of etching in comparison with other 
 arts are its great freedom, precision, and power. Its weak 
 points may be reduced to a single head. The accurate 
 subdivision of delicate tones, or, in two words, perfect 
 tonality, is very difficult in etching ; so that perfect model- 
 ling is very rare in the art, and the true representation of 
 skies, which depends on the most delicate discrimination of 
 these values, still rarer.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND FACILITIES OF ETCHING. 
 
 T N an article on Mr. Haden's etchings in the " Fine Arts 
 Quarterly Review," Mr. Palgrave gives some encourage- 
 ment to the general opinion that etching is one of the 
 easiest of the arts. " Mr. Haden has wisely chosen that 
 branch of art which lays by far the smallest stress on a 
 long course of manual practice. Engraving in its severest 
 forms must probably be placed below oil-painting or sculp- 
 ture in its manual demands. But the highest skill in 
 etching might be reached sooner than the skill to lay one 
 square inch of even lines with the graver." 
 
 Mr. Palgrave refers to the difficulty of manual execution 
 only, and there is much truth in what he says, but not 
 the whole truth. In speaking of an art like etching, it is 
 exceedingly difficult to detach manual from intellectual 
 qualities. In line-engraving this is easier, because in line- 
 engraving manual dexterities have been made a distinct 
 aim, and you know when a man can make lozenges of equal 
 dimensions, and put his dots exactly in the middle of them. 
 But the peculiarity of etching, and its great nobility as a 
 fine art, consist in its disdain of all mechanical or purely 
 manual dexterities whatever. The quality of an etched line 
 depends on its meaning, and on that alone. Skill in etching 
 is always complicated with considerations of feeling and 
 knowledge ; if you eliminate these anybody may etch, be- 
 cause anybody can make lines on a varnished plate as clear 
 and free as Haden's.
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND FACILITIES. 23 
 
 When Mr. Palgrave says that " the highest skill in etching 
 might be reached sooner than the skill to lay one square 
 inch of even lines with the graver," he does not tell us by 
 what sort of person this " highest skill " in etching might be 
 so easily reached. This is unfortunate, because the reader 
 may allowably infer that average humanity is understood. 
 
 The "highest skill in etching" cannot be reached at all 
 by the average aspirant. Thousands have attempted etch- 
 ing, and these include painters of considerable artistic culture 
 and experience. In this multitude you cannot find thirty 
 first-rate etchers : there are not twenty, there may be ten. 
 If there is any human pursuit wholly inaccessible to men of 
 ordinary powers, it is etching. In this respect there is 
 nothing comparable to it except poetry. Patient industry 
 and some imitative faculty may produce a passable engrav- 
 ing ; learning and long training an academic picture ; but 
 nobody can be taught to make fine etchings or fine poems. 
 
 Some pursuits require long labour, but reward all students 
 of fair ability who are willing to give the labour ; amongst 
 these are the common trades and professions. Other pur- 
 suits reward a few aspirants richly and speedily, but to men 
 of ordinary organisation give no return for a whole life of 
 toil. The first may be difficult, but are yet possible to all 
 sane men at the price of ten or fifteen years' labour ; the 
 second may be what is called " easy," and yet to nineteen 
 men out of twenty absolutely and eternally unattainable. 
 
 The highest skill in poetry might be reached sooner than 
 a comprehensive acquaintance with historical literature. 
 
 Yes, if you presuppose a Tennyson. 
 
 The greatest technical difficulty of etching not precisely 
 a " manual " difficulty, for it depends in great measure upon 
 the use of the mordant is the difficulty of arriving at the 
 relative weights of dark which the artist desires. 
 
 In this respect etching is far more difficult than any form
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND 
 
 of art where results are immediately visible. An artist 
 may be able to get the tones he wants in sepia, or with the 
 pen, and yet be altogether uncertain with the etching- 
 needle. 
 
 Etching is here more difficult than line-engraving, because 
 the engraver sees his plate, and has frequent proofs taken 
 during its progress, for his guidance. 
 
 A negative process is always so far more difficult than a 
 positive process. Drawing on wood, lithography, and the 
 graphotype, are technically easier than negative etching. 
 
 When the brush can be used for shading, instead of lines, 
 there is, so far, greater facility. Setting aside the difficulty 
 of colour, painting is easier than etching. 
 
 In an introductory letter by M. Charles Blanc, prefixed 
 to Lalanne's treatise on etching, occurs the following 
 passage : 
 
 " Ah ! si les dilettantes qui s'ennuient, si les artistes qui 
 aiment a fixer une impression fugitive, si les riches qui sont 
 blase's sur les plaisirs de la photographic savaient combien 
 est piquant 1'inte're't de 1'eau-forte, votre petit ouvrage aurait 
 un succes fou. II n'est pas jusqu'aux femmes elegantes et 
 lettr^es qui, fatigu^es de leur d^sceuvrement et de leurs 
 chiffons ne puissent trouver un delassement plein d'attraits 
 dans 1'art de dessiner sur le vernis et d'y faire mordre avec 
 esprit leurs fantaisies d'un jour." 
 
 It is very possible that if ladies in general were to take 
 up etching as they took up potichomanie a few years ago, 
 the sale of manuals on etching might become very consider- 
 able, but the cause of true art would gain nothing by the 
 spread of a delusive fashion of that kind. In the whole 
 range of the arts it is not possible to suggest one so unsuitable 
 for ordinary amateurs. Very much of the merit of an etch- 
 ing depends upon abstraction, and abstraction requires even 
 greater knowledge than elaboration. Etching must be done
 
 FACILITIES OF ETCHING. 35 
 
 rapidly and decisively, whereas when the untrained draughts- 
 man goes fast he always goes wrong, and when he is rigidly 
 decisive it is rigidity in error. A process to suit amateurs 
 should require as little abstraction as possible, and allow of 
 as much hesitation and correction ; above all, the effects of 
 work done should be clearly and immediately visible. The 
 most suitable art for amateurs is oil painting without the 
 embarrassment of colour. A tube of flake white and a tube 
 of Vandyke brown, a prepared milled-board, a selection of 
 hog brushes, and a little linseed oil, are the easiest materials 
 for an amateur to manage ; with these he can see what he 
 is doing, and may correct and efface as much as ever he 
 pleases. 1 But a copper plate covered with black varnish, in 
 which every line shows itself in glittering metal, an arrange- 
 ment of shading made wholly with a view to a future biting, 
 a needle that slips about on the smooth copper every time 
 the hand trembles or hesitates these are not favourable 
 conditions. 
 
 Having quoted two writers with whom, however greatly 
 we may respect their general ability, we find it impossible to 
 concur on this particular question of the supposed facility of 
 etching, it is agreeable to change the attitude of opposition 
 for that of cordial approval, and conclude the chapter with a 
 quotation which has our entire adherence. 
 
 In the "Fine Arts Quarterly" for June 1866, a writer who 
 preferred to remain anonymous, but who gave evidence of 
 unusual knowledge of his subject, as well as unusual enthusi- 
 asm for it, naturally found himself obliged to notice a delusion 
 which, however unworthy of serious attention, too generally 
 detracts from the estimation of etching to be passed over in 
 silence : 
 
 1 The new independent art of charcoal drawing as practised by tile clever French- 
 men who invented it, or rather established it upon a basis of its own, is also ex- 
 ceedingly well adapted for amateur study ; and, if properly pursued, at the same 
 time very instructive and rapidly rewarding.
 
 2 6 DIFFIC UL TIES AND FA CI LI TIES. 
 
 " Of all modern misapprehensions connected with etching 
 once accounted an art in which only a master could excel 
 is that which supposes it to be particularly suited to the 
 half-educated artist. The experience which has arisen out 
 of close observation and practice, and which enabled the old 
 etcher to express himself promptly and by simple means, is 
 in these days, it would seem, a proof that his treatment is 
 loose, and that he deals only in indications. The fact that 
 he has learned to select essentials and reject non-essentials, 
 and especially if he is able to do this before nature, that he 
 is merely sketching ; in short, the very qualities which even 
 a great artist is the last to arrive at simplicity and breadth 
 are, for some unaccountable reason, quoted to his preju- 
 dice if he happens to be able to observe them on copper. 
 For ourselves, we are well persuaded that etching, of all the 
 arts, is the one least fitted to the amateur ; supposing, of 
 course, the amateur to be the person he is generally described 
 to be. But there are amateurs of different degree." 
 
 1 The central difficulty, of a technical kind, in etching, and at the same time a 
 difficulty peculiar to this art, is the biting. By great delicacy of observation and 
 keenness of judgment in guessing how something is going on which you can never 
 quite clearly see, you may finally overcome this difficulty enough for practical pur- 
 poses ; that is to say, you may bite accurately enough for the plate to be brought 
 right ultimately by re-biting and partial rubbing-out with charcoal, but there will 
 ever remain a degree of uncertainty about biting, which is a very great difficulty 
 indeed. The reader will find much more on this subject towards the end of the 
 volume.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE POPULAR ESTIMATE OF ETCHING. 
 
 *~PHE existence of the art of etching is not yet generally 
 known. The word is generally known, but not the 
 meaning of it. As we have already observed, the word 
 "etching," in non-artistic circles, is used to express drawing 
 in pen and ink. 
 
 A curious sign of the degree of art-culture supposed to be 
 generally attained by our educated public is that the writer 
 in the "Times" newspaper, when reviewing Haden's etchings, 
 found it necessary to preface his observations with a brief 
 account of the process by which they were produced. 
 Another, and perhaps still more significant fact is that, when 
 a recent publication of the Etching Club was issued, the 
 subscribers were informed that "these etchings were drawn 
 on copper by the artists themselves, and are not touched by 
 any engraver." 
 
 When a person has become clearly aware of the existence 
 of etching as an art distinct from pen-drawing, and not in- 
 tended to be an imitation of it ; when he knows that an 
 etched line is bitten by acid in copper or steel, and that the 
 rest of the plate is covered with varnish, the line having been 
 laid bare by the passage of a needle which has removed the 
 varnish along its course, then he has reached the first stage 
 in the knowledge of the art. But he may still be liable to a 
 wrong estimate of etching, though he understands, in a rudi- 
 mentary way, its processes. He may believe it to be an un- 
 finished or inferior kind of engraving. An old printer, who
 
 28 THE POPULAR ESTIMATE 
 
 occasionally printed painters' etchings, but was more com- 
 monly employed upon engravings, divided the etchings of 
 engravers and those of painters into two categories, as being 
 " finished" and " unfinished." The plates of Rembrandt were 
 not, in his view, completed works, but attempts at engraving, 
 which had stopped far short of completion, because the artist 
 was unable to carry them farther. 
 
 There exists also an idea that etching is an " imperfect 
 art." It is not more imperfect than line-engraving, though 
 its limitations are different. Every art has its limitations. 
 No sculptor could ever carve a tree in marble, and yet we 
 do not speak of sculpture as an "imperfect art" The 
 powers and limitations of etching are fairly examined else- 
 where in this volume, and the writer's conclusion is by no 
 means unfavourable. Indeed, it is easy to show that the art 
 is unusually versatile. 
 
 A notion which could grow up nowhere but in England, 
 the natural home of theories about the dignity of occupa- 
 tions, is, that etching is beneath the attention of great 
 painters. The writer actually met with a printseller who 
 considered it beneath Landseer's dignity, as a knight and 
 Academician, to condescend to etch ! No serious refutation 
 can be given to objections of this kind. 
 
 These signs of apathy are briefly noticed here to mark 
 the stage we are just leaving. The reception of Mr. Haden's 
 etchings, and especially the intelligent and abundant criticism 
 which hailed them in the periodical press, was the dawn of a 
 greater enlightenment. Indifference to etching is wholly in- 
 compatible with high art-culture ; and if we really advance, 
 as we suppose ourselves to do, the true rank and importance 
 of the greatest of the linear arts cannot long remain hidden 
 from us. 
 
 Much of the enjoyment which we derive from art con- 
 sists in recognition of the truths which the artist intended to 
 express. But people recognise only what they already
 
 OF ETCHING. 29 
 
 know ; therefore this pleasure is very slight at first, and in- 
 creases with our acquired knowledge. And there are certain 
 forms of art so strangely abstracted and abbreviated, that 
 very great knowledge is required in the spectator to read 
 them at all, just as it is necessary to understand a language 
 thoroughly if we would read letters in it in a hurried hand- 
 writing, full of marks and abbreviations peculiar to the 
 individual writer. To the informed judge, this kind of 
 artistic expression is, from its perfect frankness, peculiarly 
 interesting ; to the ordinary spectator it is uninteresting, 
 because illegible. 
 
 The art of etching has no mechanical attractiveness. If 
 an etching has no meaning it can interest nobody; if its 
 significant lines are accompanied by many insignificant ones, 
 their value is neutralised. But if all the lines are significant 
 and the spectator unable to read their meaning, they must 
 seem to him quite as worthless as those of a bad etching 
 seem to a thorough critic. 
 
 Much of the popularity of engravings is due to the neat- 
 ness of the mechanical performance, which all recognise. 
 Machine-ruling is agreeable because it is so neat and regular; 
 mezzotint is pleasant because it is rich and soft ; some oil- 
 painting looks marvellously smooth. Almost every art, 
 except etching, has some external charm of this kind, which, 
 independently of mental expression, serves to secure the 
 approbation of the vulgar. It is because etching has no 
 attraction of this kind that it is not, nor can be, popular. 
 
 Since, however, etching relies on qualities of sterling 
 value, it can never cease to be highly appreciated by a 
 limited public of its own ; and in countries where general 
 art-culture is on the increase, this little public must always 
 be adding to its strength, and better able to make its 
 opinion listened to. 
 
 This little public, loving the art on high grounds, is 
 naturally fastidious. The buyers of etchings are more dim"-
 
 30 THE POPULAR ESTIMATE OF ETCHING. 
 
 cult to please than the buyers of pictures. The extensive 
 sale of bad etchings would do no good to the art, and, if 
 etching were popular, it is likely that many etchers would 
 work down to a low popular standard, as so many painters 
 are in these days compelled to do or starve. 
 
 It is a matter less for regret than congratulation that an 
 art should exist safe from the baneful influences of vulgar 
 patronage. This is the good side of unpopularity, and it is 
 enough to reconcile all who truly love what is noble and 
 genuine in etching to the general neglect of it. 1 
 
 1 Since this was written etching has become more popular, for it is now very com- 
 monly employed in the illustration of works upon art, artistic periodicals such as the 
 "Gazette des Beaux- Arts," the "Portfolio," the "Beitschrift fiir Bildende Kunst," 
 and especially to illustrate catalogues of picture collections. Much technical skill 
 has been developed by this kind of practice, but it may be doubted whether it is 
 likely to make the public understand great spontaneous work better than it did 
 before. On the contrary, the more we are accustomed to high finish of this 
 pictorial kind, the less are we likely to tolerate what may seem to us a ruder 
 expression. Besides, the expression of original thought in etching, which is the 
 essence of the art, is as little encouraged, with one or two exceptions, as ever it 
 was. Etching is now extensively used as one of the forms of engraving, for the 
 interpretation of pictures not painted by the etcher, but it is almost impossible for 
 an etcher to live by original work, however excellent
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CONNOISSEUR SHIP. 
 
 *^PHE greatest evil in the present relation of etching to 
 the public is, that in the little world that really cares 
 for it there should exist a too considerable proportion of 
 persons who are rather connoisseurs than amateurs. The 
 distinction between the two is worth insisting upon, because 
 true amateurs can do nothing but good to any art, whilst 
 connoisseurs, though of use in their way, and even necessary 
 in small numbers, mix their usefulness with much that is 
 positively harmful. 
 
 A genuine amateur is a person who values art because it 
 is good as art, and not because it is dear and rare. A 
 genuine amateur looks for artistic merits alone, and is so 
 entirely free from the passion of curiosity-hunting, that he 
 guards himself against the curiosity-madness as a man with 
 a great moral ideal guards himself against dipsomania. 
 The love of curiosity-collecting seems to him a weakness, 
 having some possible utility in the preservation of certain 
 objects in a half-civilised century like this, and so to be 
 tolerated till we finally emerge from the condition of 
 savagery ; but he sees clearly that it is not a love of art. 
 Somebody with the curiosity-mania happens to take up 
 button-collecting, or cork-collecting, or autograph-collecting, 
 or by accident he may be turned to the collecting of etch- 
 ings, which, on account of rare states, offers as much to 
 interest him as anything else ; but the true amateur knows 
 the difference between this fancy and the love of art for its
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF 
 
 own sake. One such amateur said, " I earnestly wish that 
 all works of art, good, bad, and indifferent, were just worth 
 as much as a gallon of atmospheric air, and no more ; we 
 should find out then who loved art and who didn't." A 
 man who could say that, and, having a collection of his 
 own, wish it heartily, had the spirit of the noblest amateur- 
 ship. That spirit desires what is good, but takes no pride 
 in the exclusive possession of it, and only wishes that others 
 might have the good things also, and the ability to enjoy 
 them. If I have a rare etching by Rembrandt, and am 
 happy and proud that other people want it, and envy me 
 because they cannot get it, I lie in the slough and mire of a 
 low egotism, and if I glorify myself as a lover of art on 
 these grounds I deserve no good report. A fair test of true 
 amateurship is the way people take the recent discovery of 
 steeling. In former times an etching on copper yielded a 
 few hundred impressions, and a dry-point about one-tenth 
 of the number, before the plate was worn into worthlessness. 
 The finest impressions were the earliest, and when the plate 
 became old it yielded impressions so wretched, that copies 
 of the finest Rembrandts, in the last stage of their existence, 
 are now not worth in the market more than a thousandth 
 part of the value of the earlier proofs, whilst the difference 
 in artistic estimation would be much wider, being infinite. 
 But in these latter days an ingenious Frenchman has called 
 in electricity to remedy this evil. He covers a copper plate, 
 after it is engraved, with a coating of steel so infinitesimally 
 deep, that it does not fill up the lightest scratch of the dry- 
 point. During the printing it is this coating of steel, and 
 not the copper, which has to bear the friction ; and when 
 the steel is worn through in any place it is easily removed 
 by a solvent which does not hurt the copper, after which the 
 plate may be re-steeled, and this may be repeated over and 
 over again, so that immense editions of etchings may in 
 these days be printed, without friction on the copper, only
 
 CONNOISSEUR SHIP. 33 
 
 on its thin steel coat. It follows, of course, that unless 
 especial care is taken not to benefit by this discovery, the 
 days of rare fine proofs in work done after this time are 
 over. Everybody will be able to get good proofs of the 
 work of etchers, just as everybody is able to get a correct 
 edition of Scott or Byron. Now this discovery is hateful to 
 lovers of etchings as curiosities, and altogether acceptable 
 and delightful to true amateurs of art. A true amateur 
 hates an impression from a worn plate, not because it is 
 common, but because it is bad as art : the relations of tone 
 having all gone wrong, and the most delicate lines being 
 lost altogether ; but the curiosity-hunter hates worn impres- 
 sions chiefly because they are common, and may be had of 
 the low printsellers on the Quai des Augustins, at ten sous 
 a-piece. The true amateur is glad of a discovery which 
 will make good etchings cheap by mere multiplicity of good 
 impressions, so that nobody will be tempted to exhaust a 
 plate. Would it be a bad thing if there were a million 
 perfect copies of Rembrandt's finest works ? Are there not 
 a million copies of Hamlet, and do we value Shakspeare 
 the less for his boundless publicity and illimitable possibility 
 of reproduction ? 
 
 Amateurship, in the higher sense, means the state in 
 which the love of art is chief, and everything else sub- 
 ordinate. In connoisseurship, knowledge is chief, and the 
 pride of knowledge, love being subordinate or non-existent 
 The glory of connoisseurship is to have ascertained and to 
 possess in perfect readiness many facts relating to work 
 done by famous men ; and these facts have very often no 
 connection whatever with artistic quality or natural truth. 
 It is a great thing for a connoisseur, for instance, to know 
 whether a plate is rare or common, a matter which, artisti- 
 cally, is of absolute indifference. Another great point in 
 connoisseurship is to be aware of the indications by which 
 different states are determined ; for instance, if in the first 
 
 D
 
 34 THE INFLUENCE OF 
 
 state of a certain plate by Rembrandt the end hair in a 
 dog's tail has a bur, and if in the second state this bur has 
 been removed with the scraper, a professed connoisseur 
 could scarcely avow his ignorance of the fact ; whilst from 
 the artistic point of view ignorance of such details is per- 
 fectly avowable, and is of no importance unless they 
 seriously affect the artistic quality of the work. No 
 amateur need be ashamed of not having the peculiar kind 
 of knowledge which belongs to connoisseurs. When Pro- 
 vidence ordained that there should be connoisseurs, it was 
 with a view to the preservation of thousands of minute 
 facts which the artistic class would have despised too much 
 to treasure them for the benefit of mankind. As the mania 
 for collecting curious things has rendered the general service 
 of preserving much that is valuable as an illustration of the 
 past, so the instinct which leads men to collect odd facts 
 makes these men of use as living books of reference. 
 
 The good which connoisseurs do, is to hand down from 
 generation to generation a mass of interesting traditions or 
 discoveries about what has been done in art ; the evil which 
 they do is to produce a too general impression that this kind 
 of knowledge is the knowledge of art itself. It cannot be 
 too clearly stated or understood that a man may have 
 immense artistic and critical acquaintance with some branch 
 of the fine arts and yet not be a connoisseur at all ; or he 
 may be an accomplished connoisseur in the usual accepta- 
 tion of the word, and yet have very little artistic or critical 
 acquirement. You find connoisseurs, who really are con- 
 noisseurs that is to say, they can tell you who did a thing 
 and when, and give a shrewd guess as to the price it would 
 be likely to fetch in the market and yet these men can 
 neither draw themselves, nor tell good drawing from bad 
 when they see it. They recognise works of art as we re- 
 cognise men's faces, without artistic study. They can tell 
 the touch of an artist as we know the handwriting on the
 
 CONNOISSE UKSHIP. 3 5 
 
 back of a letter, without waiting to see the signature. 
 People hear them talk about rare impressions, and curious 
 states of the plate, till they are finally persuaded that the 
 study of art means this, and nothing better than this. 
 
 Connoisseurs when they are rich are naturally collectors, 
 and even when a collector in his heart holds such knowledge 
 as theirs in slight esteem, compared with the higher know- 
 ledge of artists and true critics, he is, nevertheless, compelled 
 to become a connoisseur in self-defence. It is not safe to 
 buy old etchings without being guided in some measure 
 by connoisseurship, either in your own person, or in the 
 person of some quite faithful friend. Books written by 
 connoisseurs are very useful, as they save one the trouble of 
 remembering the facts they are always ready to communi- 
 cate. 
 
 The difference between connoisseurs and amateurs in 
 etching, accurately corresponds to that between bibliographers 
 and readers in literature. You may be great in the know- 
 ledge of the editions of books, or great in the knowledge of 
 the mental wealth of books. If an edition is correct and 
 legible, the wants of the student are satisfied ; but the book 
 collector prefers a faulty edition if it is rarer, and buys books 
 less because they are good literature than as rare and valu- 
 able curiosities. How seldom are great collectors great 
 readers ! how still more seldom are they select and critical 
 readers ! And so it is in the fine arts ; connoisseurship 
 seems little favourable to the study of the minds of great 
 artists. The habit of keenly looking for small facts, and 
 constantly making small observations, diverts the attention 
 from the mighty powers of the immortals.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CRITICISM AND PRACTICAL WORK. 
 
 amateurship nor connoisseurship is neces- 
 sarily critical. An amateur is merely a person who 
 loves art, and a connoisseur is a person who knows one thing 
 from another, which need not be on grounds of artistic merit. 
 A critic requires other qualifications. 
 
 It has often been asserted that the labours of artist and 
 theorist are incompatible, and that it is useless to attempt 
 both. By an irresistible instinct, however, some men are 
 driven to do both, and cannot endure to give up either, 
 practice seeming to them to be enlightened and guided by 
 theory, and theory to be most solidly grounded on practice. 
 The two seem like the lame man and the blind man, theory 
 being lame and practice blind ; and the lame man in the 
 table mounted upon the blind man's back, and they both got 
 on well enough. 
 
 But it is true that artists, as they are generally constituted 
 and educated, cannot be just critics, though their criticism 
 is usually interesting if the necessary allowance is made, in 
 each case, for the artist's point of view. The world of art 
 is divided into many small states or cliques, each as violently 
 prejudiced against the others as the common people in every 
 nation are against foreigners. International criticism is 
 valuable only if you never forget the nationality of the critic. 
 Englishmen accuse the French of being extravagant and 
 parsimonious in consecutive sentences, which only means 
 that the French spend liberally where the English spend
 
 CRITICISM AND PRACTICAL WORK. 37 
 
 little, and that by a necessary compensation the French are 
 careful where the English are liberal. So if we consider 
 artistic cliques as little nations, we shall find all pure artists 
 national, and criticising other cliques in that national way. 
 But the critic, in reference to cliques, must be cosmo- 
 politan. 
 
 Now to be cosmopolitan in the true sense does not mean 
 to be ignorant about what goes on in different nations. A 
 swallow is not cosmopolitan because he flies over many 
 lands ; and yet the present tendency of thought about 
 criticism is, that to avoid cliques and their narrowness it 
 must be confided to men who are just as much outside of 
 the art world as swallows are of the human world. 
 
 No person outside of practical art can criticise, and also 
 no practical person living in a narrow clique can criticise 
 justly. The true critic is a person who, having lived within 
 the cliques and learned their languages, can get outside of 
 them at any time by an effort of the will, and see them all 
 at about the same distance from himself. He knows them 
 from within, and he knows them from without, both kinds of 
 knowledge being absolutely indispensable to justice. 
 
 It is one of the current commonplaces that the age we 
 live in is great in criticism but not in art, and the present 
 Lord Lytton made a capital fable about a certain hen and a 
 weasel, the hen being the artist laying eggs, but in such dread 
 of the weasel (the critic), that at last she grew confused in 
 mind, and dreamed that she was the weasel himself, the con- 
 sequences being as follows : 
 
 This double identity made up of two 
 
 Her waking and sleeping self at last, 
 The hen's life into confusion threw 
 
 And over it daily and nightly cast 
 The spell of a two-fold trouble. By day 
 
 She lived in such dread of her midnight dream 
 That at length not an egg was she able to lay, 
 
 Yet this daily sterility did not redeem
 
 38 CRITICISM AND PRACTICAL WORK. 
 
 From its nightly plague her spirit tormented 
 
 When she by the dream's transforming power 
 Changed into a weasel, was discontented 
 At finding no more any eggs to devour. 
 
 So are we : who both author and critic in one 
 Miss the comfort accorded to either alone. 
 
 By alternate creative and critical powers 
 Is our suffering identity sundered and torn. 
 
 And the tooth of the critic that's in us devours 
 Half the author's conceptions before they are born. 
 
 This is admirably well put, and there are cases of which 
 it is quite true, but since it is our inevitable fate, as moderns, 
 to become critical in one way or other, our only chance of 
 safety lies in being critical with thoroughness of knowledge. 
 There may have been unconscious artists in former times ; I 
 doubt if there are any now ; the best of them I know com- 
 bine, as George Eliot does, the artist and critic in one per- 
 son, and are clearly conscious of what they are doing. It 
 may be quite true that the critic in them devours half the 
 author's conceptions before they are born, but as there is not 
 time in an artist's life to realise more than about one-tenth 
 of his conceptions, the only consequence is a more careful 
 selection of the few that can be realised, and, notwithstand- 
 ing their critical spirit, artists and authors are as prolific as 
 ever, laying as many eggs as their predecessors, and hatch- 
 ing them too. 
 
 As artists on the one hand try to enlighten themselves by 
 criticism, so the wisest and best of critics endeavour to get 
 light through practical work. Labour of that kind is good 
 because it shows us the technical limitations, and if the 
 critical reader comes to understand etching thoroughly he 
 may compel himself to a complete analysis by copying 
 works by different great masters, not on paper, but on 
 copper, and by forcing the copper to give the same results 
 as the print before him. Such experiments open our eyes
 
 CRITICISM AND PRACTICAL WORK. 39 
 
 more than any amount of time spent in turning over prints 
 in a portfolio. They are study in the true sense of the word, 
 and they have a good moral effect also, for they make us 
 recognise the qualities of other men who were always different 
 from ourselves, and in most cases superior to ourselves. 
 Consider how valuable to a critic about to write upon 
 Rembrandt, would be the experience of a practical kind 
 which Flameng went through in copying many of his etch 
 ings ! It would be half an education in itself. 
 
 Let us believe, what is assuredly true, that criticism and 
 practice may work harmoniously together in the same mind 
 if only they are wisely directed, and that the critical habit of 
 the modern intellect does not inevitably lead us to sterility. 
 Haydon is sometimes quoted as an example of the bad 
 effects which the critical habit produces in an artist, but all 
 his waste of effort was the consequence of insufficient critical 
 culture. Had he possessed a truly critical culture he would 
 have avoided the waste of energy which we deplore in him, 
 and either produced art-work within the compass of his 
 powers, or else directed them to other objects. So in a pro- 
 fessed critic, Mr. Ruskin, much of what is good in his writing 
 is due to his experience of practical art-work, and where he 
 is not so strong the weakness may generally be traced to a 
 deficiency of practical study. Thus he is strong on moun- 
 tains and architecture, because he has drawn both a great 
 deal, but not strong on figure-painting because he has drawn 
 the figure very little.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FA VO URABLE AND UNFA VO URABLE 
 ARTISTIC CONDITIONS. 
 
 CUCCESS in etching is as much an affair of organisation 
 as of artistic superiority. Rembrandt was not a greater 
 artist than Phidias ; but Rembrandt was so constituted as to 
 be the very type of etchers, their perfect representative, 
 whereas we may be sure that if Phidias could have tried to 
 etch he would have failed altogether. 1 So amongst living 
 artists, some of the best of them have been unable to etch, 
 though they have tried to do so, and some very imperfect 
 artists have etched well. For example, James Whistler is a 
 strikingly imperfect artist, but he is a fine etcher. 
 
 This may seem to imply that etching is an imperfect art, 
 a notion I have already contended against. It only implies 
 that etching is an art which pardons some imperfections in 
 favour of some good qualities. The fact is, that the limits 
 of Whistler as an artist are by no means the limits of the 
 art of etching ; that what he does in it is good, but that also 
 other things may be done in etching which are good, and 
 that Whistler cannot do, and never will be able to do. But 
 he has some of the qualities of a great etcher, and as to those 
 qualities which he has not, their absence is not seriously felt, 
 does not much interfere with our enjoyment of the artist's 
 work. For it is the glory of etching that it never exacts 
 
 1 Phidias might have used etching to multiply a sculptor's drawings, just as he 
 might have used any other autographic process, but it is highly improbable that he 
 would have developed any of the peculiar qualities of the art.
 
 ARTISTIC CONDITIONS. 41 
 
 completion, never compels an artist to go farther than he 
 safely can go. You must, of course, have certain positive 
 qualities to be able to etch at all ; but if you have these, 
 your want of other qualities is not likely to be painfully felt. 
 
 The conditions which are favourable and unfavourable to 
 etching may be broadly divided under two heads. Lines of 
 study which tend ultimately to concentration are so far 
 favourable ; lines of study which tend to elaboration are un- 
 favourable. 1 It does not signify by how much elaboration 
 your early studies may pass, if they tend steadily to concen- 
 tration, because you may make very elaborate studies indeed 
 with the deliberate aim of learning how to concentrate 
 powerfully. Some of the most powerful masters of concen- 
 tration have begun by working elaborately, and gradually 
 eliminated unnecessary detail, till, by a long labour of 
 thoughtful omission, they arrived at length at such summary 
 ways of work as best suit the purposes of etching. All that 
 has to be insisted upon is the tendency of an artist's mind 
 and work, not so much what he is doing at any particular 
 time. 
 
 Industry cannot make an etcher; it is a question of 
 temperament, with some industry to give manual skill. 
 Slow and timid temperaments are naturally disqualified for 
 an art which exacts decision. You may know from the 
 pictures of an artist whether he has a chance of becoming 
 an etcher. French painters usually etch sooner and better 
 than Germans ; and the English, as might be expected, have 
 facilities which lie somewhere between the two. The French 
 have a true conception of etching as a rapid and compre- 
 hensive art ; but when, as often happens, there is no genuine 
 individual faculty, they fall into emptiness and idle scrawl- 
 
 1 There are elaborate etchings which are also good ones, but these are rare, and 
 the words in the text are left for their general truth. Besides, even in the most 
 elaborate plates there are always passages of rapid and concentrated expression, 
 quite beyond the powers of a slow, undecided mind.
 
 42 ARTISTIC CONDITIONS. 
 
 ing. The Germans and English usually fail in another way. 
 When a Frenchman cannot etch, he flourishes about on the 
 copper with vain efforts at brilliance and freedom ; when a 
 German cannot etch, he elaborates the most highly-finished 
 and ridiculous compositions. The English have hitherto 
 preferred to fail after the German manner ; but it is probable 
 that since the influence of French ideas has been brought to 
 bear upon us, our bad etchers will fail rather in emptiness 
 of the rapid than the elaborate kind. It signifies nothing 
 whether empty work is rapid or elaborate, for in both cases 
 it is equally worthless ; but the French deserve some credit 
 for seeing in a dim way what ought to be aimed at, and the 
 Germans are a little to blame for their wonderful want of 
 perception of the best qualities of the process. 
 
 Sixteen years ago, when our painters were tending to 
 elaboration of the pre-Raphaelite kind, they were going in a 
 direction not likely to qualify them for etching. Now, when 
 they are painting more and more on the principles of abstrac- 
 tion, they are going towards that condition of mind hi which 
 men etch well. 
 
 It deeply concerns an artist's personal comfort whether, 
 if he attempts to etch, he is so constituted as to be able to 
 etch well naturally. No art is more discouraging to the 
 unqualified aspirant. Etching looks so delightfully easy, 
 that the disappointment at failure is proportionate to the firm 
 confidence in success. A man can draw well, and paint 
 agreeably, so he believes that he will soon be able to etch ; 
 and he does etch, but somehow nothing that he executes 
 seems to have the right degree of life in it ; it is life en- 
 tangled with rigid sinews of death, and veins in which the 
 blood is coagulated and cold. This is because his artistic 
 constitution does not easily throw off dead and superfluous 
 matter. It throws it off ultimately, or he could not paint, 
 but it does not get rid of it easily and at once ; and there- 
 fore, for etching, it does not get rid of it in time.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COMPREHENSIVENESS. 
 
 T N the planning of this work, I had given one chapter to 
 abstraction, and another to comprehensiveness, the diffi- 
 culty being which to put first. It seemed best to put com- 
 prehensiveness first, for this reason, that abstraction was 
 likely to be misunderstood without it ; for there exist many 
 kinds of abstraction which could only do harm to an etcher, 
 whereas if he once holds the idea of comprehensiveness in 
 all its breadth of meaning, he is safe. 
 
 An artist works comprehensively when he grasps his 
 whole subject at once, in all its relations, and works only 
 with reference to the whole. Etching is eminently compre- 
 hensive ; it does not, like other branches of design, encourage 
 the separation of natural qualities, and the exclusive devotion 
 to one of them. For instance, rigid outline drawing, such 
 as we find on Etruscan vases, is strongly opposed to the 
 spirit of etching, and that not because it is too abstract, but 
 because it excludes facts interesting to etchers, and so is not 
 sufficiently comprehensive. Again, water-colour blotting 
 would be almost as much opposed to etching, though in an 
 opposite direction ; for here, though we have light and shade, 
 and though things are seized by the middle instead of by 
 the contour, we suffer from a want of delicate accentuation 
 of form. If a single stroke in an etching is inserted with 
 reference to form only, and without reference to the general 
 light and shade arrangement of the whole work, that stroke 
 will go far to ruin it ; or if, in obedience to exigencies of
 
 44 COMPREHENSIVENESS. 
 
 light and shade, it forgets the right accentuation of form, 
 then there will be so much the less of that brilliance and 
 life on which the power of etching so largely depends. 
 
 There is the greater need to insist upon comprel 
 ness that our painters are not generally remarkabk 
 possession of it. They too often study things o, 
 another instead of seeing them all at once ; and the ; of 
 seeing many things at once is as essential to harmony in 
 painting as the corresponding faculty of hearing many 
 sounds at the same time is to the enjoyment of harmony in 
 music. It is not enough to see the leaf, or even the branch, 
 or the whole tree ; we must grasp the entire landscape, or 
 we are powerless. Our artists do sometimes grasp their 
 subjects largely, and then they might succeed if they were 
 not deterred by the feeling that what is called " finish " is 
 indispensable ; whereas this finish, when it consists in mere 
 elaboration of parts, is irretrievable ruin. The study of 
 etching may have the happiest influence on the progress of 
 painting itself, for it leads to a conviction that comprehen- 
 siveness is the first of artistic necessities. The artist who 
 has it, and keeps it, may add much else to it that is worth 
 having much delicate and minute observation, much craft 
 of arrangement and subtlety of hand. But for the painter 
 or etcher who has it not, whatever his other attainments, they 
 are of little value, because they can never display themselves 
 in the right time and place ; but, like the reminiscences of 
 people without tact, are always brought upon the tapis when 
 they can create nothing but irritation. 
 
 So long as we refer to etching alone, we cannot prove 
 the full value of the great qualities on which success in 
 etching depends. A great etching is the product of a 
 grandly constituted mind ; every stroke of it has value 
 exactly proportionate to the mental capacity of the artist ; 
 so that a treatise on etching is necessarily a treatise on the 
 mental powers of great men.
 
 COMPREHENSIVENESS. 45 
 
 Not every reader would see at a glance whether all work 
 as comprehensive or not, but most men know what com- 
 prehensiveness is in other departments of human endeavour. 
 .f faculty of seeing things in their just relations, the 
 ich checks our constant tendency to absorption in 
 - specialities. It keeps our work in due proportion, 
 by c piantly reminding us of the true extent of its great 
 fields-tor it embraces the whole field with its wide vision. 
 We are always tempted to settle in some pleasant nook or 
 corner of our possessions and leave the rest uncultivated ; 
 but if we have comprehensiveness, it will not allow us to do 
 this. The most striking characteristic of the comprehensive 
 intellect is its tolerance of necessary local evils and imper- 
 fections, its anxiety for great results only, and carelessness 
 of partial success. It is the faculty of generalship, which 
 knows that no battle can be won without sacrifice, and 
 consciously pays a price for its victories. 
 
 In ordinary life much of the narrowness that leads to 
 intolerance and Philistinism comes from the weakness of this 
 faculty. This narrowness is the essence of provincialism, of 
 the prejudices of caste, of that kind of patriotism which is 
 only the provincial spirit on a larger scale. In literature, 
 the want of comprehensiveness leads to an infinite amount 
 of wordy controversy. A hundred writers see a hundred 
 aspects of the truth, and each copiously argues that his own 
 view is the only view worth considering. Want of compre- 
 hensiveness is, however, of less consequence in current litera- 
 ture, especially in periodical literature, than in the fine arts, 
 because unity is less necessary in articles than in pictures, or 
 statues, or etchings. Many articles serve the useful purpose 
 of drawing attention to the subjects they treat of, without 
 being in themselves proportioned works of art ; they are 
 merely the talk of the day, well expressed and widely circu- 
 lated. But a picture or an etching is more than this, or at 
 least aspires to be more. It aspires to have artistic value :
 
 46 COMPREHENSIVENESS. 
 
 and there is no artistic value without unity, and unity is the 
 result of comprehensiveness. 
 
 But may not unity come from a certain narrowness also ? 
 May not the comprehensive intellect, which is alive to so 
 many aspects of things, introduce the fruits of too various 
 observations, and end by producing discord out of its very 
 opulence ? 
 
 This danger exists so long as an intellect is becoming 
 comprehensive, because, in this condition of gradual exten- 
 sion, the newest acquisition always has an exaggerated 
 importance, and is likely to be displayed and insisted upon 
 disproportionately, and even out of season. And there is a 
 narrowness which ensures a relative and unenviable safety ; 
 but we are not the less bound to urge the desirableness of 
 cultivating a large and comprehensive spirit. Above all, it 
 should be well understood that etching is not, as some 
 imagine, a fit pastyne for small minds ; but that, on the 
 contrary, its great glory is to offer the means of powerful 
 and summary expression to the largest. And we may be 
 assured that for a brief expression to be powerful it must be 
 concentrated from large masses of acquired knowledge. I 
 know not how many roses are needed for one small phial of 
 precious attar, but I know that there rises from every good 
 etching such a perfume of concentrated thought that a million 
 flowers must have bloomed for it in the garden of some 
 fertile and cultivated mind.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ABSTRACTION. 
 
 "CATCHING does not proceed so much by abstraction as 
 by comprehensive selection ; but abstraction has some 
 place in the art, nevertheless, and is to be admitted frankly 
 on certain occasions, and in a modified way very generally. 
 
 To understand what abstraction in art is, little more is 
 necessary than a reference to ancient sculpture and design, 
 especially Assyrian or Egyptian. That abstraction was 
 instinctive, and therefore in the best periods as much above 
 criticism as the instinctive labours of the lower animals. 
 What the Egyptian and the Assyrian both did, and what 
 even the more thoughtful Greek did also, though in a more 
 beautiful way, was to take certain facts of nature and leave 
 the rest. The facts which were taken were then treated 
 arbitrarily, or according to the dictates of fixed customs. 
 The facts which were left were no more regarded than if 
 they had never existed. 
 
 Abstraction may be of the most opposite kinds. There 
 is the abstraction of a Greek vase, and the abstraction of a 
 blot by David Cox. In the first, outline is the truth pre- 
 served, and effect the truth sacrificed ; in the second, outline 
 is sacrificed and effect preserved. And there are abstrac- 
 tions within abstraction. Thus, in outline work, we may 
 purposely eliminate all lines that are expressive of softness 
 and feebleness, so as to give a character of severity to our 
 work ; or we may eliminate the lines of strength, and lend a 
 yet greater languor to those of tenderness and voluptuous-
 
 48 ABSTRACTION. 
 
 ness. And in the modern blot for effect we may be taking 
 one set of tones or another, since complete imitation of tones 
 is as impossible as complete imitation of lines, and artists 
 take what they want of each, and that only. 
 
 Now the kinds of abstraction commonly resorted to in 
 etching are two. First, when an etcher knows that his art 
 cannot really imitate, he resorts to abstraction, and boldly 
 interprets. Secondly, when he could get nearer to imitation 
 if he chose to spend the time, but does not choose, then also 
 he works in an abstract manner. 
 
 If there is a strong probability that your technical skill 
 will not carry you through some difficult bit of imitation, 
 give us rather a piece of abstraction, however rude, which 
 may show that you have understood the thing to be rendered. 
 In the works of great etchers there is every conceivable 
 shade of gradation, from the most marvellous imitation tr 
 the strongest abstraction. Even in the same plate we ma) 
 often trace varieties of this kind. 1 Imitative finish may be 
 given to some central point of interest, and the execution of 
 the rest of the work may become more and more frankly 
 abstract till it reaches, in the outline of some cloud or dis- 
 tance, an abstraction as great in its way as that of an 
 Assyrian bas-relief. 
 
 1 A very remarkable and well-known instance of this is Rembrandt's famous 
 Hundred Guilder Print. The figures in the centre and those to the right are 
 wrought on principles of mingled imitation and abstraction, certain details, as, for 
 instance, the near arm and hand of the praying figure close to Jesus, being almost 
 purely imitative ; but in the figures to the spectator's left the principle of abstrac- 
 tion predominates, and to such a degree that a child's head is drawn in pure out- 
 line, and five or six strokes of the point are made to do duty (very efficiently) for a 
 man's beard. Rembrandt's work generally is a sort of play between the extremes 
 of imitation and abstraction, the degree of either that he chose to give being 
 dependent on his own momentary caprice a caprice, however, that was generally 
 influenced by subtle artistic considerations. For example, in the etching just re- 
 ferred to, Rembrandt used much abstraction in the figures to the left, because it 
 permitted him to leave a great deal of white paper as a contrast to the dark shades 
 on the right of the composition, and by this artifice he gained much breadth.
 
 ABSTRACTION. 49 
 
 Abstraction does not appear to be a rare power. Every 
 body is in the habit of exercising it in common life. It is 
 a common means of making things intelligible, and abstract 
 drawing is usually more intelligible to uneducated persons, 
 than the art which attempts a full rendering of nature. 
 When we teach children to draw, we begin, as the Egyptians 
 did, with rude, firm outlines ; when we narrate events to 
 simple people, we follow the same method, and purposely 
 leave out all delicate and complicated considerations. It is 
 not the abstraction of etching that makes it unintelligible to 
 tne people, but the complexity of the truths which it attempts 
 to interpret simultaneously. A strong outline that goes all 
 round its subject, though to the feeling of an etcher usually 
 detestable, would be easily understood, but a fragmentary 
 line which only indicates a quarter of a contour, and that 
 probably not the real contour after all, and which hints half- 
 a-dozen things, is likely, in the eyes of most people, to mean 
 exactly nothing.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SELECTION. 
 
 A BSTRACTION is, of course, a kind of selection! but 
 it is not the kind of selection that I desire to speak 
 of here. 
 
 Abstraction is too analytic a selection for our present 
 purpose. The artist who abstracts does not make a 
 summary of the whole truth before him, but takes out a 
 truth, and sets it forth in as evident a way as he possibly 
 can, in a much more evident way than nature's. He acts as 
 an anatomist who, having killed a wild animal for the sake 
 of its skeleton only, tore away every fibre of muscle and 
 threw it to his dogs ; after which he set himself to clean the 
 bones by boiling them, and, being installed in his museum, 
 erected his white and perfect bone structure without a 
 thought of the flesh that the dogs devoured. This is abstrac- 
 tion a process of analysis followed by many rejections and 
 few reserves. 
 
 The selection of which I would now speak is synthetic, 
 and its object is to remain synthetic to the utmost possible 
 extent. It does not try to detach one truth from its fellows, 
 but to give the sum of all the truths. By means of this 
 synthetic selection a master in etching will fully convey the 
 ideas of structure, of light and shade, and of local colour, 
 with the same set of touches. The more complex the 
 expression, and the simpler the means used, the greater will 
 be the power of the master. 
 
 In the infinite treasuries of natural truth some orders of
 
 SELECTION. 51 
 
 fact are better suited to etching than others are, and although 
 the comprehensiveness of the great etcher makes him alive 
 to all these orders of fact, his judgment in selection leads 
 him to decided preferences. He desires to be as synthetic 
 as possible in his view, and as broadly receptive, yet he 
 knows the limitations of his art ; and though anxious to 
 express the sum of all the truths, is obliged in selection to 
 look with especial care for the kind of truth which etching 
 renders best. This is done, however, in the case of every 
 truly noble etcher, in simple prudence, not from pride some- 
 times indeed from real humility, as when a master does not 
 like his own more elaborate renderings of certain truths, and 
 prefers to indicate them by some rapid and seemingly care- 
 less interpretation, in which, if there is any contempt at all, 
 it is not of nature, but of the artist's own poverty of 
 resource. 
 
 On some spots on the coast of England, especially, if I 
 remember well, on the north shore beyond the castle at 
 Scarborough, there are sands mixed with fine particles of 
 iron. The children take magnets with them there, and so 
 separate the iron from the grains of sand. They want the 
 iron, they do not want the sand, and they are fortunate in 
 possessing an almost magical implement, which at a touch 
 separates the one from the other. 
 
 So acts the selecting genius of great etchers. Though 
 truly comprehensive and synthetic, and quite remote in 
 general feeling from the abstraction of Assyrian sculptors, 
 they find, nevertheless, in nature certain treasures to them 
 especially precious, and which they easily draw to themselves 
 by a constant and sublime magnetism. He who has not the 
 magnet cannot select in this unerring way. You cannot 
 teach selection of this kind ; you may talk and write till you 
 are weary, but you will not advance one student a step 
 nearer to the mysterious and instinctive power of choice, 
 which is the privilege of genius alone.
 
 52 SELECTION. 
 
 All that can be done, all that in such a treatise as this 
 any writer can be expected to do, is to remind readers if 
 they know it already, and tell them if they do not, that this 
 selection is essential to all good etching, this lordly and high 
 choice, which is authorised by the most comprehensive know- 
 ledge of the wealth of nature. 
 
 But selection, I may be told, even selection of this 
 synthetic kind, is equally necessary in painting, and therefore 
 need not be treated of here, in a book devoted to what be- 
 longs peculiarly to etching. It is necessary in all painting, 
 except in the abstract schools which reject it in favour of 
 abstraction, but it is far more important, relatively to other 
 qualities, in this more rapid and summary art of etching. If 
 a painter cannot select at once, he gets the superfluities out 
 of his work by a slow and painful process, like a long malady, 
 or hides them under equally superfluous elaboration. But an 
 etcher who cannot select rapidly is lost
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SENSITIVENESS. 
 
 T FIND that great etchers are decidedly a more sensitive 
 body of men than line engravers, and more generally 
 sensitive than some celebrated painters. Certain schools of 
 painting have definitely encouraged insensitiveness to whole 
 orders of truth, under the pretext of style ; but etching, being 
 an obscure and neglected art, has fortunately been too much 
 despised by the professors of the grand style to be very 
 actively injured by them. If any student, however, chooses 
 to take Agostino Caracci for his model, he may, no doubt, 
 arrive at insensitiveness even in etching. 
 
 Sensitiveness in ordinary life is so often spoken of as a 
 weakness or a fault, so often attributed to morbid conditions, 
 that it is needful to claim a right consideration for a kind 
 of sensitiveness, which is neither a fault, nor a weakness, 
 nor a disease. The work of the great men is usually at the 
 same time both exquisitely sensitive, and capable of demon- 
 strations of strength so overpowering, that it seems brutal to 
 minds which have neither its tenderness nor its force. The 
 softer intellects are not rough in this noble way, and so they 
 resent the strong markings of the great etchers as a kind 
 of affront to their own refinement ; but, on the other hand, 
 neither have they the etcher's exquisite sensitiveness, and 
 though it does not irritate them as the apparent coarseness 
 does, it gets no recognition from them, and remains outside 
 their estimate of the artist. 
 
 Whoever aspires to be an etcher should try to be sensi-
 
 54 SENSITIVENESS. 
 
 tive in the best sense. True sensitiveness is not disease, 
 but the highest life of the purest health. It is easily lost, 
 in the turmoil of the common world, or so far injured as to 
 leave nothing but an occasional capability of noble pleasure. 
 How are we to keep it if we have it ? It may be lost in 
 too busy intercourse with men, but so also it dies in the dull 
 apathy of long solitude, and the Shepherd on Ben Cruachan 
 has as little of it as the apprentice in the Strand. Its 
 most fatal enemies are over-stimulus and deficiency of 
 stimulus. 
 
 In great capitals, the over-stimulus comes in a hundred 
 forms. One very injurious form of it is too many pictures 
 and prints. We will not rail against exhibitions, since they 
 are inevitable, and the best method hitherto devised for the 
 publication of new paintings ; but it is well to guard our- 
 selves against the invasion of mere quantity. No man 
 living can really study more than ten fresh works of art a 
 day ; he may glance at more in order to select the ten, but 
 he cannot study more. Who would expect any one to read 
 more than ten volumes a day ? And is there not as much 
 in a painting or etching that really deserves to be studied 
 as in most volumes ? Londoners and Parisians seem to 
 have extensive views of the quantity of art a man may 
 digest in a given time ; and so far as I have been able to 
 calculate, they expect a critic to make up his mind on two 
 hundred pictures per day, with a stiff volume on aesthetics, 
 and a new book-illustrator every evening. 
 
 Errors in this direction may be avoided if we remember 
 that the mind has a digestion just as the body has, and 
 that it can only take in a certain limited quantity of aliment 
 in the twenty- four hours. Excesses are paid for by a loss 
 of tone, a loss of sensitiveness, a loss of appetite. Then 
 both art and nature lose their charm, and good work cannot 
 even be enjoyed, far less executed. 
 
 In the country, on the other hand, from the want of fresh
 
 SENSITIVENESS. 55 
 
 stimulus in the sufficiently frequent sight of new works, 
 people fall into that mortal dulness which is one of the well- 
 known marks of provincialism. It is admitted amongst 
 artists that no painter can absent himself very long from 
 capital cities without declining in power ; and even landscape 
 painters, whose material lies in Alpine valleys or Highland 
 glens, pass regularly some considerable portion of the year 
 in the ugliest capital in Europe. 
 
 The best life is that which includes both town and 
 country, and does not in either allow itself to be invaded 
 and overwhelmed by quantity, either of art or nature. The 
 powers of one man in the presence of the immense accu- 
 mulations of the race must always be infinitely little, and 
 an individual human being can no more study all the art in 
 the world than he can eat all the food in the world. Etching 
 is a pleasanter study in this respect of quantity than painting 
 is, for the number of etchers is limited ; and since the art has 
 never received great encouragement, few artists have left 
 great quantities of etchings behind them. The danger to the 
 sensitiveness of etchers is not so much from seeing too many 
 etchings as too many pictures. 
 
 In beautiful scenery the faculties may be dulled by too 
 much nature, as well as too much art. Amongst great 
 mountains we are especially exposed to a spirit of reverie, 
 which makes us gaze for ever and do nothing. What we 
 can do seems so little, what they are so much, that we are 
 likely to fall into contemplative indolence, unless roused by 
 the ardour of scientific research, or the necessity for money- 
 getting. Neither of these motives leads to the study of 
 etching, and there is always some probability that an etcher 
 who should persistently absent himself from fine collections, 
 and live in the midst of a too magnificent nature, would 
 injure his artistic sensitiveness, by too much stimulus of the 
 one kind and too little of the other.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EMPHASIS. 
 
 T N all human communication, -when there is energy enougn 
 to move men, there is emphasis in oratory, in literature, 
 in acting, in painting, in common daily talk, in music, even in 
 the pantomime of gesture. 
 
 All emphasis in design is, and must be, a departure from 
 the rigid truth. Emphasis with pencil or etching needle is 
 the exaggeration of some point which has powerfully struck 
 the artist, or to which he intends to direct the attention of 
 the spectator. And such exaggerations are departures from 
 the truth in more ways than one ; they obscure other facts, 
 and destroy the equilibrium of nature. Yet a design without 
 emphasis would be uninteresting, except as a curiosity ; it 
 would certainly have no interest as art. Any human com- 
 munication in which the strict order and proportion of nature 
 should be followed would fail of its effect upon mankind. 
 The principle is, that you are not to tell mankind all that has 
 occurred, but what it concerns them to know. Now in every 
 event of history, and in every natural scene, there are 
 millions of minute facts which nobody cares about or needs 
 to care about facts which, if narrated, would only overcharge 
 the hearer's memory uselessly, and hinder him from giving 
 due attention to the great points. Your time and his being 
 limited, you tell him what seems to you of most importance ; 
 and to impress this on his mind you drive it home with a 
 hearty thrust of emphasis, like a man charging a gun. Artists 
 do exactly the same thing, and etchers especially, for a par-
 
 EMPHASIS. 57 
 
 ticular reason. The more elaborate a work is, the less, as a 
 general rule, is emphasis resorted to because when there is 
 time to make a full exposition of a matter, there is the less 
 need for violence in statement. If you have to reply to an 
 adversary in one sentence, you make it a biting epigram ; if 
 you have an hour before you, it tells better to demolish him 
 with studied moderation. Now the etchers, in comparison to 
 the painters, are not accustomed to lengthy utterances. To 
 be brief and go to the point at once is a quality which they 
 aim at. This brevity naturally leads to an emphatic manner 
 of work, and it may be observed that the same etcher who 
 strongly emphasizes in a rapid sketch on the copper is far 
 more sober in statement when he works on a laboured plate. 
 
 But there is a kind of emphasis, necessary to all etching, 
 even the most laboured, and which readily escapes attention. 
 It is the delicate accentuation that lives in every stroke, like 
 the caressing bow-pressures of an accomplished violinist 
 You think there is no emphasis at all, that the etcher has 
 been telling you plain facts in a plain way, and yet you have 
 been interested and pleased. If you have been interested, 
 it is quite certain that there must have been emphasis ; the 
 simple truth would have left you cold. And yet you are in- 
 terested in nature, and there is no emphasis there. Very true, 
 but there was emphasis in the way you looked at nature ; 
 your emotion supplied then what the emotion of the artist 
 must supply for you in art. 
 
 And might not a spectator's emotion in the presence of a 
 literally true etching supply a kind of emphasis also, as it 
 would before nature ? 
 
 It might perhaps, but it never does. No strictly accurate 
 drawing that I have ever seen has had the power to move a 
 single spectator. Accurate work that is, work without 
 emphasis is always passed by with indifference. It does 
 not tell men what to look for, or why they are to look at all, 
 and so they do not feel under any obligation to look. An
 
 58 EMPHASIS. 
 
 artist is a person who undertakes, or ought to undertake, to 
 establish a human communication between nature and man- 
 kind ; and all good human communication is preceded by 
 selection and enforced by emphasis. 
 
 Yet we must not be too emphatic. With cultivated 
 people the most effectual emphasis is very subtle and deli- 
 cate, avoiding violence, and seeming rather to arise from the 
 courteous wish to spare trouble to the audience, than from 
 any eagerness to compel attention. If an artist will listen 
 to the best conversation that is to be had, and also to the 
 best music, he may safely carry so much emphasis as he will 
 have heard there into his own practice. There is a difference 
 between such just and necessary stress as this and the vio- 
 lence of bad manners and bad art
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 PASSION. 
 
 *"PHE mechanical labours of the line engraver, extending 
 sometimes over several years on a single plate, require 
 industry and steadiness rather than passion. No passionate 
 temperament could easily bring itself to make careful lines 
 with a burin when the only result of a thousand days spent 
 in such work should be a translation of another man's 
 thought. Great skill is needed, and infinite patience and 
 care, but no tormenting and disturbing emotion. Hence the 
 best line engravers seem to be either men of cold tempera- 
 ment originally, or men who have learned the necessity for 
 coolness in their art, reserving the fire that is in them for 
 other studies, or for their amusements. 
 
 But with the etcher these conditions of success are re- 
 versed, at least in the order of their importance. He needs, 
 no doubt, some manual skill, some patience, and a moderate 
 amount of care, but these avail him nothing if they are 
 accompanied by the engraver's coldness. The one capacity 
 which makes all his other powers available is the capacity 
 for passionate emotion. To feel vividly, to be possessed 
 for a few hours by some overmastering thought, and record 
 the thought before the fire has time to die out of it this is 
 the first condition of success in etching. 
 
 Therefore all schools of art which try to suppress passion 
 are injurious to etching, and nobody can be an etcher who 
 either belongs to them or believes their doctrines. The 
 classical school in figure-painting, and the topographic school
 
 60 PASSION. 
 
 in landscape, have never produced a good etcher. Of course 
 neither of these schools set itself to the suppression of all 
 passion, for the classical designers have illustrated scenes of 
 very strong passion indeed, and even the topographic land- 
 scape painters have, or had at the beginning, a passionate 
 devotion to topographic truth ; but they have both encou- 
 raged a cold indifference to much that no etcher can afford 
 to regard coldly. The classical figure-painters, in the pur- 
 suit of a learned ideal, taught themselves to despise the 
 aspects of the common world, and to this day have a lofty 
 contempt for every artist who is humble enough and intel- 
 ligent enough to take an interest in it. The topographers, 
 on the other hand, though they make an exception in favour 
 of Turner, whose genius they recognise, regard the deviations 
 from literal truth which, in the works of less famous painters, 
 are due to genuine passion, as a want of conscientiousness 
 and a blamable laxity of principle. 
 
 The student who desires to etch is earnestly recommended 
 to keep clear of all doctrine which endeavours to chill his 
 feeling in any way. To etch well, an artist hardly can be 
 too passionate in his likings. Etch what impresses you, and 
 as it impresses you, and let no theorists poison your mind 
 with the virus of a morbid conscientiousness.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FRANKNESS. 
 
 "CATCHING is eminently a straightforward art, which is one 
 great reason for its unpopularity. People do not like 
 plain lines that tell rude truths ; they prefer fancy arrange- 
 ments. No good etcher will condescend to fancy arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 The delightfulness of etching, to us who care for it, is 
 especially this frankness. No art is so entirely honest ; 
 painting and engraving have almost always some question- 
 able ingredient of attractiveness, some prettiness or polish to 
 suit widespread but lamentable tastes. The etchers, with 
 few exceptions, have not attempted to make themselves 
 agreeable in this way, probably from a conviction that their 
 art is so inherently unpopular that it would be of no use. 
 The consequence is, that of all artists they are the most 
 simple and direct. They are as cunning, and crafty, and 
 subtle as you will in the artifices of method, but it is an 
 honest cunning that aims only at qualities really worth hav- 
 ing ; and if these can be reached in a simple way, the 
 simple way is always preferred. In saying that etching is 
 an especially honest art, I mean that it does not resort to 
 apparently difficult ways of doing easy things, in order to 
 get credit for difficulties overcome. On the contrary, it is 
 remarkable for preferring apparently simple ways of doing 
 difficult things. So unpretending is it, that the master- 
 pieces of the art attract no attention from the general public, 
 and people who cluster in a close group round a showy
 
 62 FRANKNESS. 
 
 picture, will pass without a glance the most exquisite ex- 
 pression of an aquafortist. 
 
 Etched lines look coarse and awkward very often, the 
 lines of shading seem irregular, pains are not taken to hide 
 the errors of the artist ; sometimes he roughly corrects, and 
 lets you see that he has corrected. It happens even that 
 defects in the varnish have been allowed to remain in the 
 bitten copper, and print themselves on every proof taken. 
 Etchers seem to be an idle, careless set of men, who do not 
 finish properly. They are not sufficiently polished, not in 
 harmony with the usages of society. These wayward, 
 eccentric strokes of theirs show a too rampant and irrepres- 
 sible individualism ; if they would learn to shade evenly as 
 the engravers do, and make neat curves and lozenges, would 
 it not be much better ? Frankness may be well on due 
 occasion, but we may have too much of it. 
 
 This is the way many people feel about the frankness of 
 etching, if they do not say so.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 SPEED. 
 
 TN the letterpress which accompanied Mr. Haden's etch- 
 ings a letter of his was quoted, in which he spoke of the 
 advantages of etching an entire plate at one sitting. The 
 unity of impression so obtained was, Mr. Haden thought, an 
 important gain, and enough to counterbalance much elabora- 
 tion. Looking through Mr. Haden's own etchings by the 
 light of this expression of opinion, we find some which may 
 have been finished at one sitting, and others which must 
 have required a longer time. It will be found in practice 
 that a sketch on copper may be effectively done in a sitting, 
 but that an etching in which the full resources of the pro- 
 cess are brought to bear will occupy several sittings. It may 
 be also observed that when an etching, supposed to be exe- 
 cuted at once, is afterwards corrected and carried through 
 several states, the sittings required for these corrections 
 ought to be taken into account, and that it is not accurate 
 to class such a plate amongst plates etched at one sitting. 
 If this is strictly attended to, it will be found that an exceed- 
 ingly small proportion of etchings have really been exe- 
 cuted in the way Mr. Haden advocates. 
 
 It is right, however, to insist on a certain value in mere 
 rapidity. A rapid stroke, when not so rapid as to miss the 
 necessary modulations, is generally better than a slow one, 
 and a concise expression preferable to a diffuse expres-
 
 64 SPEED. 
 
 sion.* The way to attain true speed is to spend a great deal 
 of time in looking, and having decided upon the strokes to be 
 laid, lay them at once, and leave them. It is told of John 
 Phillip, that when he painted he showed no sign of hurry, 
 but would look hard at nature and then lay a few firm 
 touches, not to be disturbed, and that in this careful way he 
 was really getting his picture forward rapidly. So in etching, 
 there should be no unthinking haste, but every line should 
 be determined upon before it is made. 
 
 A good principle to remember is, that for an etching to 
 look fresh we must avoid weariness. This is why Mr. Haden 
 recommends a single sitting ; it seems to him that the fresh- 
 ness of the mind, its first virgin impression of a subject, may 
 be kept three or four hours, but not very much longer. 
 Before the mind acknowledges fatigue it loses its keen interest 
 in the subject which occupies it, and this keen interest is 
 what we have mainly to rely upon for the vivacity of our 
 work. A jaded etcher is sure to spoil his plate. Without 
 making a rule to etch only plates of one sitting, which would 
 confine us to sketching, it is quite necessary to stop before 
 the mind wanders or goes on another tack. The plate, if 
 not yet sufficiently advanced to be printed, may be laid aside 
 and completed at some future time, when the freshness of 
 
 * Every question about art has two sides, and this question about speed is not 
 an exception to the rule. There are qualities which come of speed and qualities 
 which come of deliberation. However, there is such a thing as deliberate speed, 
 and I should never advocate any other. 
 
 Rembrandt gives examples of all degrees of speed and all degrees of deliberate 
 slowness too. Sometimes he aims at the qualities that rapidity attains when 
 directed by knowledge and genius, sometimes at the qualities that infinite patience 
 may attain under the same high mental guidance. The great versatility of etching 
 permits the most opposite treatment. Your work may be as swift as handwriting, 
 or it may be as slow as the progress of an engraver's burin ; good work has been 
 done in both ways. I should say, never work quickly from bravado, nor slowly 
 from an exaggerated conscientiousness, but choose the rapid or slow expression as 
 it harmonises with your tempei and accommodates itself to your thought
 
 SPEED. 65 
 
 interest in it may return to us. If this freshness should not 
 return, the plate is better abandoned.* 
 
 * Landseer attached as much importance to speed in painting as some etchers 
 have attached to it in their own art. He painted quickly on principle, and settled 
 everything about his composition before going to work, spending marvellously little 
 time in the actual setting forth of his ideas upon canvas. He was fully alive to 
 the fact that rapidity is a good thing in itself, provided only you have knowledge 
 enough, and provided that the knowledge is at your fingers' ends. After one of his 
 amazing feats of speed he felt a profound satisfaction, not in the half-miraculous 
 achievement, but in having got his thought well expressed whilst it remained fresh 
 and vivid in his mind.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MOTIVES. 
 
 HP HE motive of a picture is not so much material as 
 spiritual. It is a certain condition of the mind, pro- 
 duced by the subject, and which the artist, in rendering- that 
 subject, desires to reproduce in the minds of spectators. 
 This is the reason why great artists so often choose subjects 
 which seem trifling, and also why Philistinism always mis- 
 understands and despises art What a great landscape- 
 painter attempts to render is not the natural landscape, but 
 the state of feeling which the landscape produces in himself. 
 Since etching is especially an art of feeling, an art in which 
 feeling is supreme and mechanism nowhere, it is very im- 
 portant that the etcher should be able to enter into the true 
 conception of artistic motives. 
 
 A motive should never be valued according to the 
 popular estimate of its importance, nor even by the effect 
 it may produce on some other artist. If you listen to the 
 people, you may be prevented from studying in some region 
 quite full of good motives ; it seems barren and uninterest- 
 ing to them, and they will make you believe that it is barren. 
 So even an accomplished artist may mislead you by his 
 report of a place ; he may find nothing there suitable to his 
 own idiosyncrasy, and yet for you it may be full of treasure. 
 The converse of this is also true, though not quite to the 
 same extent. A district may be popular, it may even be 
 very attractive to some good painters, and yet you may not 
 find there what you want This, however, is likely to occur
 
 MOTIVES. 67 
 
 more rarely, because if a district is popular there is sure to 
 be either sublimity or beauty in it ; and although it may 
 not be the particular sublimity or beauty which most closely 
 touches you, it is always probable that some phase of these 
 will awaken your interest. 
 
 Every artist has theories about the choice of subjects 
 which are merely personal and do not concern others, yet 
 he believes them to be universally applicable. We have to 
 guard ourselves against the strong personal feeling of our 
 artist-friends, especially when it expresses itself in negation 
 and discouragement. They are always ready to say that 
 subjects are unfit for pictorial treatment when they are not 
 in harmony with their own personal constitution. Almost 
 anything is a subject, but it only becomes a motive when 
 an artist is moved by it. An etcher ought never to care 
 about subjects, but should etch motives only. 
 
 To do this requires great faith, great confidence in our 
 feelings and impressions. This faith is assailed on every 
 side by the scepticism of people who do not see as the 
 artist sees ; but he should not let these attacks disturb him. 
 Other people do not see what he sees, because they are not 
 himself; but if he is quite faithful to his own impressions, 
 he will gain sympathy in the long run, not from everybody, 
 but from those who are near enough to him to enter into 
 his ideas. 
 
 One of the great advantages which results from perfect 
 fidelity to motive is the unity of each piece of work when 
 it leaves* the etcher's hand. Under the impulse of a feeling 
 he has produced a work, and the feeling will have fused the 
 material into a whole. What we most need for unity is an 
 unreserved surrender to our impression, a simple faith that 
 what has moved us is worth recording, however poor and 
 uninteresting it may seem. 
 
 And as submission to every real motive is a duty, so are 
 resistance to and rebellion against false motives and half-
 
 68 MOTIVES. 
 
 motives which are only subjects. There are endless beauties 
 and sublimities which do not make our innermost chords 
 vibrate ; we just admire them, and that is all. The condition 
 of mind which tries to etch a subject from a cool acknowledg- 
 ment that it is good material, is as widely remote from the 
 condition of a noble etcher as flirtation from passionate 
 love. 
 
 This faith in our own personality is not vanity, it is not 
 a blamable excess of self-confidence, but merely a right 
 understanding of the necessities of art. It may even arise 
 from a kind of modesty which will not attempt things out 
 of its own province. There is a close connection between 
 true modesty and self-respect, and etchers ought to cultivate 
 both. They should have modesty enough to hinder them 
 from attempting things merely from ambition, because other 
 men have done them and become famous ; and they should 
 have self-respect enough to have a full though quiet con- 
 viction of the value of their own feelings and impressions. 
 In this state of mind an artist finds something more and 
 better than mere subjects, and nature abounds for him in 
 motives.
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 THE DUTCH AND OTHER SCHOOLS.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ALBERT DURER. 
 
 T *\URER was so magnificent a master in the powers and 
 qualities he cared for and aimed at, that it is the more 
 necessary to remember the limitations of his art. His draw- 
 ing is, in its way, superb ; his management of the burin 
 above criticism ; his chiaroscuro quite arbitrary and false ; 
 his knowledge of local colour apparently slight, and never 
 certainly to be depended upon ; his aerial perspective null. 
 
 We know Durer by his engravings mainly ; but he could 
 etch, and was a true etcher, though he practised the art little. 
 Two of his etchings are described below. 
 
 The mechanical perfection of his handicraft as a line- 
 engraver does not concern us here, and must be passed with 
 this simple mention, though it is a tempting subject But 
 Durer's mind concerns us ; and, admirable as was the perfec- 
 tion of his manual work, he does not owe his greatness to 
 that, but to mental originality and force. 
 
 He was one of the most grave artists who ever lived. 
 His gravity went so far that he could do things which, in a 
 jesting age like ours, would have been criticised and carica- 
 tured without mercy. For instance, imagine what would be 
 said if an English academician painted " Samson killing the 
 Lion " as Durer designed that subject, or even such composi- 
 tions as his " Knight and Lady," or the " Satyr and Lady 
 behind the Shield with the Death's Head," or the woodcut 
 of the " Visitation." These, in their way, are all truly great 
 art, but great art of a kind which would not be possible in 
 this century, on account of our highly developed sense of the 
 ridiculous, and our levity.
 
 7 2 ALBERT D URER. 
 
 There is a quality in all Durer's work which gives it 
 inexhaustible interest ; it always makes us feel that we have 
 not yet got to the bottom of it, that there are meanings in it 
 deeper than any we have yet read, and that closer and more 
 intelligent study will be rewarded by farther knowledge and 
 fuller enjoyment. His intense seriousness, his powerful and 
 somewhat morbid imagination, gave him a tendency to philo- 
 sophical and poetical suggestion somewhat beyond the range 
 of graphic art It is easy to propose solutions of Durer's 
 enigmas, but what he really intended, in some of his most 
 elaborate plates, will perhaps remain for ever a mystery. 
 Who knows what was in Durer's mind when he engraved 
 the "Great Horse" ? Certainly his purpose was not simply 
 the designing of a muscular quadruped. 
 
 It would not be difficult for a writer who, for many years, 
 has loved and studied the noble work of Durer, to occupy 
 several pages with the expression of his long-accumulating 
 thought ; but any elaborate study of this master would be 
 out of place here, because it would have to be based upon 
 his engravings, and not upon his etchings. Even of the 
 etchings themselves it would be an affectation to say very 
 much beyond this, that they are right in workmanship, and 
 as good in conception as the artist's other religious pieces. 
 It was not in the conception of scenes of sacred history that 
 Durer far surpassed his contemporaries. 
 
 St. Jerome. The saint is seated in a rocky place, with a 
 book before him on a rude table made with a board placed 
 upon stones ; there is a lion at his feet and a little water. 
 (Dated 1512.) 
 
 The Virgin and Child. The Virgin is seated on the 
 edge of a rude trough rilled with hay or straw. To her left 
 is an old man with a long beard, and behind her are three 
 figures a woman and two men. The reader will find a 
 very rich impression of this etching in the British Museum 
 the upper proof on page 1 8 of the Durer volume there.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 REMBRANDT. 
 
 "C7VERY art has its great representative master, and the 
 representative etcher is Rembrandt. He was so consti- 
 tuted, and he so trained himself, as to become, in his maturity, 
 the most consummate aquafortist who has hitherto appeared. 
 There is, however, a difficulty in writing about him which 
 does not present itself in the case of less celebrated artists ; 
 he has been made the subject of such unlimited eulogy, that 
 the sincere expression of critical appreciation must seem 
 faint and pale after the ardours of genuine or affected fanati- 
 cism. Rembrandt is what the French call a god of art. The 
 phrase sounds a little blasphemous to English ears ; but, 
 whether blasphemous or not, it describes with perfect accuracy 
 the relation of certain famous artists towards their admirers. 
 Rembrandt and one or two others are in a very strict sense 
 the gods of connoisseurs, and the kind of homage they receive 
 is not critical, but has the nature of worship or adoration. 
 After that the critic has a discouraging task before him, for 
 however loud his praise, it is inaudible in the unceasing 
 chorus of traditional hymn-singing; and however mild the 
 expression of a doubt, it is likely to be resented as a species 
 of atheism. False enthusiasm of all kinds is often consider- 
 ably noisier than true enthusiasm ; and it is not easy for a 
 critic, whose admiration is only based on careful study of the 
 works of an artist, to emulate the ardour of those who have 
 never studied him at all.* Considering, therefore, that no- 
 
 * The enthusiasm about the classical writers (not merely Latin and Greek, but
 
 74 REMBRANDT. 
 
 thing in the way of phrase-making can be expected to equal 
 what has been accomplished already in honour of the name 
 of Rembrandt, the present writer abandons the rhetoric of 
 eulogy to more adventurous and enterprising authors, and 
 confines himself to a simple analysis of Rembrandt's qualities 
 and powers. 
 
 Technical skill is not the highest gift of an artist, but it 
 is his most necessary accomplishment, for without it he can- 
 not worthily realise his conceptions, however elevated. This 
 is a truism, and has been said before in various ways, but it 
 may be well to say it in this place once again, because Rem- 
 brandt holds his supreme rank primarily on technical grounds- 
 Let us, for the present, set aside the question of his intellec- 
 tual power, and reserve considerations of taste, inquiring 
 simply whether he could really etch, or whether his work, 
 like that of many other clever painters who have etched, is 
 foreign to the true genius of the art. 
 
 A great French painter gave this counsel to his pupils : 
 " tibauchez toujotirs." Our English art language is so limited 
 that we cannot translate the word ebaucher, which means, the 
 
 * . 
 
 preparatory brushing-in of a picture ; but what the painter 
 intended to recommend was the practice of carrying forward 
 the picture, always on the same principle of comprehensive 
 sketching, until at last it reached a sufficient completion, 
 being brought to it insensibly, as it were, and without any 
 fixed intention of finish ; the finish coming of itself after 
 much sketching upon and within sketching. The advice was 
 excellent, even as addressed to painters ; but etchers need a 
 like belief even more urgently. An etching should always 
 be conceived purely as a sketch, and what people call a 
 " finished " etching ought to be nothing more than a sketch 
 carried farther. Rembrandt was always technically safe 
 
 of all countries) is always loudest in the case of persons who read them little or not 
 at all, on the same principle, it may be supposed, which makes religious bigotry 
 most energetic in those who expend little energy in the direction of moral effort
 
 REMBRANDT. 75 
 
 because he never lost hold of the idea of the sketch, and his 
 most laboured work is still strictly conceived on the principles 
 of sketching. 
 
 At this stage in our study of the great master it may be 
 well to pause, for there exists a widely-spread misapprehen- 
 sion of the nature of a sketch. Sketching is held to be an 
 easy form of artistic expression, because it is rapid and 
 apparently slight when done, but the knowledge required 
 for a sketch is as great as that needed for a " finished " 
 drawing, the only difference being that, the slighter and 
 swifter the expression, the greater is the necessity for 
 comprehensiveness and selection. It is only the most 
 accomplished artists who, in any true sense, can be said to 
 sketch at all, because it is only when the facts of nature are 
 thoroughly known that the most necessary ones can be 
 selected from the mass. One of the common illusions of 
 dilettantism is the belief that the talent of the sketcher is 
 easily accessible, but the amateur is just as likely to rival 
 the finish of Van Eyck as the liberty of Rembrandt. 
 
 Rembrandt always sketched, and his most finished work 
 is sketching carried forwards. 
 
 The adherence to this principle is philosophically right 
 and defensible, on the ground that, whenever we see com- 
 prehensively, we see nature itself as a more or less advanced 
 sketch, never in perfect completion. When we lose artistic 
 comprehensiveness and become analytic, as, for instance, 
 when we examine the buckling of harness before starting 
 for a drive, we do not see the object as a sketcher would, 
 but at such times we do not see at all in the artistic sense ; 
 we are, for the time being, blind. 
 
 The next notable fact about Rembrandt is, that he saw 
 and etched with the most various degrees of abstraction, so 
 that his sketching passes from the very slightest and rudest 
 croquis to what is popularly accepted as finished work. All 
 these degrees of abstraction he had constantly at command,
 
 76 REMBRANDT. 
 
 and used them sometimes in the same plate, passing with 
 subtle gradation from one to the other, as it suited him, and 
 so leading us to dwell upon what he considered best worth 
 our study. 
 
 So that, if we take the whole series of the plates of 
 Rembrandt, we shall find separate illustrations of sketching 
 in all degrees of abstraction ; and also, if we take certain 
 particular plates, we shall find in each of them a concentra- 
 tion of these various interpretations of nature ; but, however 
 near the apparent approach to " finish," the most elaborate 
 work is still pure sketching. 
 
 Another point which distinguishes Rembrandt from many 
 inferior aquafortists, is his manly use, on due occasion, of 
 the frank etched line. He knew the beauty and the value\ 
 of it, and was so far from trying to dissimulate it in deference 
 to popular taste, that he laid it boldly and bare wherever he 
 saw the need of it, even in his most careful and elaborate 
 performances. ^/There is only one Englishman, Haden, who 
 has used the line in this direct, effectual way, and Rem- 
 brandt taught him. Turner could use it, also, but he looked 
 always to mezzotint to help him out. Of modern French- 
 men, Lalanne, Appian, Chifflart, Jongkind, and Daubigny 
 employ the free line with various degrees of success, but no 
 one has ever yet used it like Rembrandt ; and in this respect 
 even the greatest of the old masters are feeble in comparison 
 with him all, except Vandyke. 
 
 He was very various in method, so that some amateurs, in 
 ignorance of the usual processes of the art, have attributed 
 to him secrets peculiar to himself. There is no evidence, 
 however, that Rembrandt did more than employ the pro- 
 cesses known to all etchers, and the peculiarity of his work 
 was not a peculiarity of method, but a surpassing excellence 
 of skill. So little is generally known about etching, that 
 men who have a reputation for connoisseurship are sometimes 
 unacquainted with the details of practice, so that the little
 
 REMBRANDT. 77 
 
 artifices of method, which any one may learn who will take 
 the trouble, appear to them mysterious and inexplicable. 
 It may be well to guard the reader against a mistake to 
 which he may be exposed in reading French criticisms of 
 Rembrandt, in which some impressions of his plates are said 
 to be in the mantire noire, a phrase commonly employed for 
 mezzotint. Rembrandt never engraved in mezzotint, but he 
 sometimes, in printing a plate, left ink on its surface so as to 
 give a certain richness which bears some resemblance to 
 mezzotint ; and the maniere noire of the French writers 
 refers, in the case of Rembrandt, simply to this way of 
 printing. 
 
 It is not always easy to say positively of small portions 
 of Rembrandt's work, whether it was done with the etching- 
 needle or the dry-point ; and this proves an extraordinary 
 mastery of the latter instrument, which in less skilful hands 
 cannot approach the freedom of the needle. In these cases 
 the way to ascertain the fact is by reference to the earliest 
 proofs, before Rembrandt had removed his bur. 
 
 The criticism most interesting to general readers is that 
 which refers to mental rather than technical characteristics, 
 and it would be wrong not to attempt some estimate of 
 Rembrandt as a mind studying nature and humanity, rle 
 was a robust genius, with keen powers of observation, but 
 little delicacy or tenderness of sentiment, and he lacked the 
 feminine element which is said to be necessary to poets. He 
 understood certain classes of men quite thoroughly, and 
 drew them with the utmost perspicacity men with whom 
 his robust nature had sympathy. He had an extraordinary 
 apprehension of natural dignity and majesty, proving thereby 
 the true grandeur of his own mind, for it is only minds of a 
 very high order that see the grandeur of men who enjoy 
 little worldly rank and consideration y XKembrandt had little 
 sensitiveness, it seems, as regards the delicate beauty of 
 young women, but he understood and this is rarer the
 
 78 REMBRANDT. 
 
 venerableness of some old ones. He drew a great many 
 Biblical subjects, and a few very immoral ones ; whether he 
 was religious or not is uncertain ; it is possible that he may 
 have availed himself of the Bible as a convenient repertory 
 of material, full of fine artistic suggestion, and having the 
 advantage of being universally known. On the other hand, 
 though there is undeniable licentiousness in some of his 
 etchings, his mind does not seem to have dwelt much upon 
 subjects of that kind, and he took them probably merely 
 because they came in his way, as incidents of human life a 
 state of feeling which the scrupulous reticence of our age 
 may easily misinterpret. /He cared very little for beauty 
 and grace, despised prettiness, calmly tolerated all manner 
 of hideousness, and admired nothing so much as a certain 
 stern and manly grandeur, resulting from the combination 
 of habits of reflection and much experience of the world. 
 
 The doctrine that great artists are the product of the 
 circumstances that surround them, has been so much insisted 
 upon of late, that the reader will easily see the applicability 
 of it to Rembrandt as an etcher. The visible marks of 
 character in the men he knew were so strongly traced, and 
 their whole aspect so available for his purpose, that he had 
 the advantage of continual study, even in the common inter- 
 course of life. A Londoner in the nineteenth century misses 
 this, unless he is a caricaturist, for the activity of modern 
 existence is destructive of the kind of dignity which Rem- 
 brandt loved, and our costume is not compatible with any 
 true grandeur of demeanour. A still worse evil than our 
 fidgetty activity and mean costume, is the want of clear 
 individuality in our faces : we are trained in the repression 
 of all visible feeling beyond a small range of polite and 
 exceedingly mild emotions, so that our joy never gets beyond 
 a smile of quiet satisfaction, nor may our sorrows command 
 more than a gentle expression of regret. But Rembrandt 
 lived in a time when people bore upon their faces a frank
 
 REMBRANDT. 79 
 
 record, not only of recent feeling, but of all the intensity of 
 the feelings which had moved the muscles and moulded the 
 physiognomy during the whole course of their lives, and he 
 took the greatest delight in studying living records of this 
 kind. The human interest of his work is, therefore, exceed- 
 ingly great ; and his portraits, especially, become for us 
 living acquaintances. The same intensity of individual 
 character is carried through his ideal subjects, and his imagi- 
 nation does not rest satisfied with anything less than personal 
 knowledge of every individual man and woman in his etchings, 
 even though of minor consequence in the action. 
 
 The reader who has not yet studied Rembrandt system- 
 atically, but wishes to do so, may conveniently prepare himself 
 for the etchings themselves, by making himself familiar with 
 the photographs from them, and with the Catalogue of 
 Charles Blanc, which is illustrated by forty plates of Flameng, 
 the most spirited copies of etchings ever executed in such a 
 considerable quantity, and with sustained excellence. 
 
 Since Rembrandt was a productive etcher, it is wise to 
 divide his work into classes, according to subject, and this 
 has been done for us already by M. Charles Blanc. From 
 these classes the student may select representative examples. 
 Those described below are sufficient to give a very clear idea 
 of the genius of Rembrandt in its full variety of expression. 
 
 As the reader has just been recommended to avail himself 
 of the assistance of photographs and copies, it may be well 
 to say a few words as to their especial utility. 
 
 A photograph never fairly represents an etching, and is 
 never, in any sense, a substitute for the original plate ; but 
 the forms are retained, though the brilliant quality of the 
 work is in a great measure lost ; and a set of photographs 
 serve to remind us of the plates themselves, or to prepare us 
 for the study of the originals, by making us at least familiar 
 with their subjects and composition. The value of photo- 
 graphy has been forced upon the writer's attention with
 
 8o REMBRANDT. 
 
 especial effect, because it was at one time proposed to illus- 
 trate this volume by means of photographs from the great 
 etchers, but the quality of photographic reproductions generally 
 was found so unreliable as to technical merits, that the plan 
 was finally abandoned.* When the photograph from an 
 etching is placed side by side with the original, it is found 
 wanting in clearness and purity of line ; the lines occasionally 
 fail where most delicate, and passages of close but still open 
 shading are represented by something like a washed or blotted 
 tint. On the other hand, no etched copy is to be absolutely 
 relied upon, though some very wonderful imitations exist 
 imitations whose Chinese fidelity deceives all but the most 
 accomplished connoisseurs. Notwithstanding these defects 
 photographs and etched copies may, however, be accepted 
 for what they are worth, and used, not as substitutes for the 
 originals, which should be studied in preference whenever the 
 opportunity occurs, but as reminders and records. Flameng's 
 copies are marvellous for their spirit and truth, and may be 
 recommended as interpretations of the mind of Rembrandtt 
 It is not necessary to repeat here what is known of 
 Rembrandt's life ; the reader will find details in M. Blanc's 
 biography which will interest him, but our knowledge of 
 Rembrandt's existence is not very complete. It is certain 
 that he was passionately fond of art, and an eager collector, 
 being willing to buy art as well as to sell it. He had a 
 keen knowledge of human nature, and knew how to catch 
 connoisseurs by the bait of rarity, making different states 
 
 * Etchings are now reproduced by the " Heliogravure Amand-Durand," with 
 a wonderful yet not quite absolutely perfect fidelity. The plate in his process is 
 really etched, whilst photography ensures its accuracy in the direction of the lines. 
 
 t Here is the title of M. Blanc's Catalogue of Rembrandt's works with 
 Flameng's illustrations : 
 
 " L'CEuvre complet de Rembrandt, decrit et commente par M. Charles Blanc, 
 ancien Directeur des Beaux-Arts. Catalogue raisonne de toutes les Eaux-fortes 
 du Maitre et de ses Peintures, orne de Bois graves et de quarante Eaux-fortes 
 tirees i part et rapportees dans le texte. 2 vols. Paris : L. Guerin, editeur. 
 Dep6t et vente a la librairie Theodore Morgand, 5, rue Bonzparte "
 
 REMBRANDT. 81 
 
 of plates on purpose to gratify them in this respect. It 
 appears to be positively known that he had a printing-press 
 in his own studio, and took proofs with his own hands, as 
 every true etcher ought to do. 
 
 The value of his etchings has increased greatly since his 
 death, and never more than during the last few years. A 
 sing e copy of his whole work could not be brought together 
 for less than twelve or fourteen thousand pounds even 
 supposing the possibility of making a complete collection. 
 
 The plate of " Christ healing the Sick " was called the 
 Hundred Guilder Print, because Rembrandt sold a copy of 
 it for that sum. At M. de Burgy's sale, in Amsterdam, in 
 1755, an impression, in the first state, before the diagonal 
 lines on the neck of the ass, sold for 84 guilders (?} 
 This afterwards became the property of Mr. Barnard, at 
 whose sale (London, 1798) it was bought by Mr. G. Hibbert 
 for 33 : i : 6. Mr. Hibbert's collection was sold in 1809, 
 and Mr. Esdaile bought this impression for 41 : 7 : 6. 
 When Mr. Esdaile's collection, in its turn, came to the 
 hammer, this impression fetched 231, Mr. Holford being 
 the purchaser. Another impression was bought by Mr. 
 Smith, at Baron Verstolk's .sale, in Amsterdam, 1847, for 
 less than 140, and sold, not long ago, at Mr. Charles Price's 
 sale, to Mr. Palmer, for 1180. An impression in the 
 usual state was sold at Mr. Carew'ssale,in 1835, fori6 : ios.; 
 at M. Debois's sale, in Paris, 1844, for 1 12 ; and at that 
 of Mr. Johnson (London, 1860) for 160. 
 
 One of the best instances, of the money-value which 
 attaches to mere curiosity, quite independently of art, is 
 Rembrandt's " Sleeping Dog." He originally etched this in 
 one corner of a plate measuring about four inches and a 
 quarter wide by two and a half high, and afterwards cut it 
 down to three and a quarter wide by one and a half high. 
 Only one impression, in the first state, is known, which sold 
 
 at Mr. Hibbert's sale, in 1809, f r l : IOs - The Duke of 
 
 G
 
 82 REMBRANDT. 
 
 Buckingham subsequently obtained it for 6 ; and at his 
 sale, in 1834, it brought 6 1. In 1841 the British Museum 
 gave 120 for it. The difference between this copy and 
 an ordinary one is exactly six square inches of white paper, 
 so that the British Museum actually gave a little under 
 twenty pounds per square inch for some blank paper which 
 Rembrandt considered injurious to his etching, since he 
 diminished the size of the copper. The essential point, as a 
 matter of curiosity, was that this white paper should be within 
 the plate-mark. This may be taken as a typical example of 
 that purchasing for curiosity which is so distinct from the 
 love of art. If the size of the copper had been beneficial to 
 the etching, Rembrandt would not have reduced it. Artisti- 
 cally, therefore, in Rembrandt's opinion, the needlessly large 
 copper was a defect, and the first state not the best. But, 
 in questions of price, curiosity always influences more than 
 art, and an artistic defect will be extravagantly paid for, if 
 only it is a proof of rarity ; especially if, as in this instance, 
 it is connected with some odd circumstance, of a character 
 sufficiently trivial to awaken the interest of persons whose 
 love of art is languid. 
 
 SACRED SUBJECTS. 
 
 Hagar dismissed by Abraham (Blanc, 3 ; Bartsch, 30; 
 Claussin, 37 ; Wilson, 37). The references to the regular 
 catalogues will save the space that would be occupied by 
 descriptions, and allow us to devote the whole of these pages 
 to pure criticism. 
 
 This is one of the most perfectly delicate of all Rem- 
 brandt's etchings. The sureness of the faint thin lines on 
 which the expression of the faces chiefly depends, the 
 masterly reservation of reflections and half-lights in open 
 shading, the opportune omission of labour where omission 
 was better than toil, justify our admiration. Observe the
 
 REMBRANDT. 83 
 
 thoroughly characteristic drawing of Sarah's old hands and 
 grimly satisfied face ; the strokes are so few that you may 
 count them, and so thin that it needs clear sight even to see 
 them. The face of Abraham is just as good, and the beard 
 is indicated with a dozen strokes towards the edge of it, the 
 rest being left to the imagination. 
 
 Abrahams Sacrifice (Blanc, 6 ; Bartsch, 35 ; Claussin, 
 36; Wilson, 39). Independently of its very fine composi- 
 tion, and the magnificent style in the drawing of Abraham 
 and the angel, this plate may be especially recommended as 
 a fine example of the free etched line, which is everywhere 
 perfectly frank and full of vital energy. 
 
 Jacob and Laban, sometimes called Three Oriental 
 Figures (Blanc, 7; Bartsch, 118; Claussin, 120; Wilson, 
 122). This is one of those plates of Rembrandt, more 
 numerous than is generally supposed, of which the original 
 coppers still exist. The fact is that a considerable number 
 of Rembrandt's original coppers are still in material exist- 
 ence, though the greater part of them have been so much 
 deteriorated by wear, and so injured by retouchings and 
 rebitings, as to be artistically valueless. The most delicate 
 plates have, of course, suffered most. In this plate of 
 "Jacob and Laban," the only part which has suffered serious 
 injury is the black shade in the doorway, which is con- 
 siderably paler than in the earliest impressions. Close lines 
 always give way soonest in the printing, and a modern 
 crev can scarcely be trusted, if not steeled, up to a hundred 
 copies ; but when the lines are kept well apart, and not too 
 shallow, they will yield large editions without material in- 
 jury. All the popular plates of Rembrandt which still exist 
 are now in the most advanced state of consumption ; they 
 are even more unsubstantial than that, they are ghosts. 
 
 The Presentation in the Temple (Blanc, 23 ; Bartsch, 50; 
 Claussin, 54; Wilson, 55). There are three "Presentations 
 in the Temple," but this may be easily known as the larger,
 
 84 REMBRANDT. 
 
 upright one ; it is further distinguished by the French critics 
 as the one en manitre noire, by which they mean that the 
 plate has been heavily inked. The brilliancy of the sacer- 
 dotal vestments is rendered here with a power so extraordi- 
 nary, that the plate is a great technical feat. The lines are 
 coarse and rude, but so entirely synthetic and intelligent in 
 their arrangement, that the splendour of gold, and jewels, 
 and embroidery, is fully suggested to the imagination, 
 The high priest, who is standing, is one of the most im- 
 posing figures amongst all the creations of Rembrandt, 
 who had a keen appreciation of sacerdotal dignity and 
 magnificence. 
 
 Repose in Egypt (Blanc, 31 ; Bartsch, 58; Claussin, 62 ; 
 Wilson, 63). This plate is so very slightly bitten as to be 
 exceedingly pale, but M. Charles Blanc believes that this 
 feebleness was intentional. Great artists, in their designs, 
 have often drawn whole pages of such extreme delicacy and 
 paleness that their work is half invisible, and its finest pass- 
 ages to be apprehended by the imagination alone. It is a 
 kind of artistic caprice, like the faint playing of a musician 
 when he imitates music in the remote distance. A plate in 
 this condition is in a very good state to be carried forward 
 in pure dry-point. 
 
 Jesus Christ preaching (Blanc, 39 ; Bartsch, 67 ; Claussin, 
 71 ; Wilson, 71). One of the finest of Rembrandt's sacred 
 subjects, and, in its original state, one of the most simple in 
 execution. The copper belonged to Norblin, the engraver, 
 who laboriously retouched it. At Norblin's death it was sold 
 to Mr. Colnaghi. As an example of genuine etcher's work 
 an early impression is unexceptionable. 
 
 The Return of the Prodigal Son (Blanc, 43 ; Bartsch, 91 ; 
 Claussin, 95 , Wilson, 96). Here again is one of the exist- 
 ing coppers, remarkable chiefly for the frightful hideousness 
 of the principal figures. Rembrandt may have desired to 
 indicate that the unfortunate youth had become swinish
 
 REMBRANDT. 85 
 
 from companionship with swine, but surely there could be 
 no especial reason for the ugliness of his father. There is, 
 however, much dramatic truth, and even some tenderness, in 
 the arrangement of the group. 
 
 Clirist healing the Sick (Blanc, 49 ; Bartsch, 74 ; Claussin, 
 78 ; Wilson, 78). This is the famous etching known as 
 'The Hundred Guilder Print," and of which a single impres- 
 sion has been sold for the enormous sum of 1 180. There 
 are several other plates by Rembrandt at least equal to this 
 in artistic quality, but from its large dimensions and the 
 delicacy of its finish, as well as the impressiveness of the 
 subject, and the force with which the scene is realised, "The 
 Hundred-Guilder Print" is usually considered the most im- 
 portant work of the master; and the unprecedented sum 
 which has been lately given for it will only tend to confirm 
 the supremacy of its position. No etching was ever better 
 finished, as true etchers understand finish. The labour is 
 by no means equal throughout, but is skilfully expended 
 where most required, and economised where it could only 
 have interfered with the concentration of the thought. The 
 realism that pervades all that Rembrandt ever did, does not 
 even here give place to any vain attempt at style, and yet 
 the work has style of its own kind, though not in the narrow 
 classical sense. The subject is one with which we have been 
 rendered too familiar, by many artists, for it to exercise its 
 full power on the imagination ; and it requires great effort 
 in the modern mind, detached as it is from the idea of the 
 miraculous, to realise the actual presence of a teacher who 
 could enforce his doctrine by relieving his hearers from their 
 heaviest personal calamities. We must try, however, to 
 sympathise with their eager hope and grateful rejoicing, if we 
 would understand the expression on all these expectant 
 faces. 
 
 There is a good deal of dry-point work, and towards 
 the left Rembrandt took care to remove the bur, which
 
 86 REMBRANDT. 
 
 destroyed the balance of the chiaroscuro. The market 
 value of an impression in the first state, before Rembrandt 
 had improved and completed the plate, is, of course, much 
 greater than that of a perfect copy, Rembrandt's opinion 
 being held of slight importance by connoisseurship, in com- 
 parison with the merit of rarity and the evidence of an early 
 impression. There is a curious logical fallacy involved in 
 the anxiety for evidence that an impression is an early one. 
 Why are early impressions valued especially at all ? Because 
 they are supposed to be of better quality than later ones. 
 But if quality is the object, what is the necessity for evidence ? 
 Is not quality its own evidence ? Connoisseurship first seeks 
 early impressions for their quality, and then distrusts its own 
 judgment as to the very thing it seeks, and so is obliged to 
 look for marks by which an early impression may be known. 
 For instance, in the case of this very etching, connoisseurs 
 tell the first state by the absence of certain diagonal lines 
 on the neck of the ass. 
 
 Descent from the Cross by Torchlight (Blanc, 58 ; Bartsch, 
 83 ; Claussin, 87; Wilson, 88). Although the great "De- 
 scent from the Cross" is much more generally known, and 
 may be considered, in a certain sense, more sublime, I have 
 an especial liking for this ; the work is so right and manly, 
 and the composition so natural and yet so full of art. The 
 way in which the sheet is thrown upon the bier, and the 
 masculine indications of its folds, are a lesson for our modern 
 etchers. If the value of such work as this had been rightly 
 understood by the modern English and Germans, they would 
 have avoided half their errors. 
 
 The three Crosses (Blanc, 53; Bartsch, 78; Claussin, 
 8 I ; \Vilson, 8l). In the short chapters of the First Book, 
 I spoke of frankness and passion as necessary elements in 
 great etching, and of speed as a quality in itself desirable, 
 when not obtained at the cost of necessary modulations in 
 line. This etching of " The Three Crosses" is, of all Rein-
 
 REMBRANDT. 87 
 
 brandt's important plates, the most passionate, the most 
 frank, and the most swift. Large as it is, the composition 
 is nothing more or, would it not be better to say that it is 
 nothing less ? than a rapid memorandum of a true vision ; 
 one of those visions seen only by men of great imaginative 
 endowments. So far as we may presume to speculate on the 
 operation of these mysterious and rare powers, we may infer, 
 from the extraordinary energy of the manipulation and abso- 
 lute disdain of popular requirements, that the one object of 
 Rembrandt in taking this great copper was to fix his vision 
 for ever, without regard to anything but the sublime verity of 
 the transcript. The plate afterwards underwent very rough 
 treatment at his hands ; much of the early work was effaced, 
 and several afterthoughts were added ; which changes of in- 
 tention only serve to prove the ungovernable ardour of the 
 first inspired and passionate hour. Rembrandt was in the 
 habit of keeping coppers by him ready varnished, and I 
 have little doubt that in this instance the plate was ready 
 to his hand when the light from heaven came. Many a 
 reader may have lost patience with me when I occupied 
 whole pages with purely technical considerations, but the 
 entire value of this magnificent plate depends upon a techni- 
 cal facility the ease and freedom with which the etching- 
 point glides upon the copper, at any speed and in any 
 direction. It is certain that if Rembrandt had been set to 
 record his conception with the burin, he must either have 
 restrained his passion whilst the slow tool ploughed its pain- 
 ful way, or renounced his task as hopeless. 
 
 The Death of the Virgin (Blanc, 70; Bartsch, IOO ; 
 Claussin, 103 ; Wilson, 105). Every lover of art comes, 
 in time, to have private predilections which he cannot 
 always readily account for and explain. Thus, of all the 
 plates of Rembrandt, " The Death of the Virgin " is the 
 one that fascinates and moves me most. In all the qualities 
 of art there are at least four of Rembrandt's etchings which
 
 88 REMBRANDT. 
 
 fully equal this ; yet not one of them absorbs me so com- 
 pletely. The solemnity of fast approaching death, the gravity 
 of the stately high-priest and the calm physician ; the sorrow 
 of others present, the pale face upon the pillow, and the 
 helpless hands upon the counterpane, are elements of a 
 scene which renews itself too frequently ever to lose its 
 interest In the upper air of the lofty room, angels wait for 
 the spirit which the nations will adore as the Queen of 
 Heaven ; ard the scene has a grandeur more than royal, for 
 it has the sublimity of art. Considered as etching, the work 
 is so sound and right, so various in degrees of finish, and so 
 masterly in choice and direction of line, that " The Death of 
 the Virgin " may be taken as one of the great typical ex- 
 amples of what etching may be, and ought to be. If the 
 reader would give half-an-hour to a fine impression of 
 this plate, he would understand for ever after the painful 
 and almost indignant feelings with which we hear men de- 
 preciate etching in the vanity of their superciliousness. 
 
 ALLEGORIES AND FANCIES. 
 
 Youth surprised by Death (Blanc, 79; Bartsch, 109; 
 Claussin, ill; Wilson, 113). The figure of the young 
 man in this exquisite etching is by far the most elegant of 
 all Rembrandt's creations ; indeed, perhaps, the only one 
 which has, in any marked degree, the character of elegance 
 at all. There is a singular delicacy in the whole of the 
 plate, very notably in the hair and head-dress of the women. 
 It has been beautifully copied by Flameng. 
 
 A Lion Hunt (Blanc, 87 ; Bartsch, 115 ; Claussin, 117 ; 
 Wilson, 119). A rapid and hasty sketch full of fire and 
 spirit, and curiously resembling in its peculiar inspiration, the 
 ideas of Eugene Delacroix. 
 
 The Bathers (Blanc, 117; Bartsch, 195; Claussin, 192; 
 Wilson, 192). Of course, no artist is to be judged by his
 
 REMBRANDT. 89 
 
 ivor.st productions ; but Rembrandt is so great that he can 
 well afford to be frankly criticised. He seems to have been 
 absolutely indifferent to the beauty of the naked figure, but 
 he never went lower than this in the recording of its 
 hideousness and degradation. We might compare these 
 men to gorillas or baboons, but they are more repulsive; 
 because the ideal of the baboon does not involve the beauti- 
 ful, whereas the ideal of man reaches to the Apollo Belvedere. 
 What sort of satisfaction Rembrandt could find in the sketch- 
 ing of these pitiable objects, is a mystery. They have not 
 even life enough to enjoy their bath like men, but are as 
 miserable and shivering as they are shapeless. 
 
 THE BEGGARS. 
 
 Rembrandt etched about twenty-five subjects of beggars, 
 several of which are exceedingly felicitous and curiously 
 picturesque. As the plates of some of these subjects still 
 exist, they are sold at low prices ; but, although the lines of 
 one or two that I have examined are certainly Rembrandt's 
 own lines, they have been apparently rebitten to make them 
 last longer. Of course, when a plate has been rebitten by 
 other hands than those of the etcher himself, it can no longer 
 be considered a strictly original work. The direction of the 
 lines is what the artist intends it to be, but not their depth. 
 
 The reader will find several fine copies of Rembrandt's 
 " Beggars " in M. Blanc's Catalogue. One of the finest, in 
 some respects, is No. 145, " Mendiants, Homme et Femme." 
 Only two impressions of it are known to exist ; one in the 
 Cabinet at Paris, the other in the Museum of Amsterdam. 
 The plate was a failure, and Rembrandt probably destroyed 
 it ; but though the face of the nearer figure is a blot, and 
 though the execution generally bears the same relation to 
 common drawing that the almost illegible manuscript of an 
 excited author bears to the rounded pothooks of a schoolboy,
 
 90 REMBRANDT. 
 
 still it is very grand work. Another very fine beggar is No. 
 149, "Gueux a gros Ventre." Observe the masterly eco- 
 nomy of labour in the cloak and boots ; the boots especially 
 are splendid examples of fine swift treatment of costume. 
 
 ACADEMICAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 There are about a dozen etchings of the naked figure by 
 Rembrandt. Some of these are very common, as the plates 
 belong to M. Bernard, of Paris, who still prints editions of 
 them. The naked man seated on the ground (Blanc, 160 ; 
 Ba. 196 ; Cl. 193 ; W. 193) is a very good piece of evidence 
 as to Rembrandt's matter-of-fact interpretation. It is simple 
 realism, quite devoid of aspiration. The model was a poor 
 one, with no form, and Rembrandt seems to have felt no 
 impatience, but to have copied the bad shapes quite con- 
 tentedly. He accepted ugliness without repugnance. The 
 naked woman whose feet are in water (Blanc, 164) is an in- 
 stance of bad form of another kind. The young man had 
 no form because he was meagre ; this woman has none 
 because she is fat : both etchings are as repulsive as photo- 
 graphs of ill-chosen models. And yet these two reasons are 
 not the ultimate statement of the matter, for there is a lean 
 ideal and a fat ideal ; there is a leanness which has a 
 spiritual beauty, and a fulness which has a sensual and 
 material beauty ; the early Italian painters knew the first, 
 and Rubens knew the second, but Rembrandt knew neither. 
 Yet he had an ideal, but we need not look for it in his 
 studies of the naked figure, lean or fat ; his ideal was not 
 corporeal, but mental, and is to be found in his best portraits, 
 and in many personages in his religious subjects, who are as 
 personal and individual as portraits. 
 
 The "Diana at the Bath" (Bl. 165 ; Ba. 201 ; C. 198 ; 
 W. 198) is little better, in point of form, than the woman 
 with her feet in the water, but the figure is well poised, and
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 THE CORPULENT BEGGAR (GUEUX A GROS VENTRE). 
 AFTER REMBRANDT. 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 90.) 
 
 THE CORPULENT BEGGAR (Gueux a Gros Ventre). 
 After Rembrandt 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Light scratches in background ..... 
 Darker lines on edge ..... 
 Finer lines on cloak, face, top of cap, and shadow in background 
 Darkest lines of cloak, boots, and shadow of boots . 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 32 
 50 
 
 First proof taken, it having been thought unadvisable to carry the 
 biting to its extreme limit for fear of over-biting. The darkest 
 lines were therefore still somewhat weak, and needed rebiting. 
 Plate covered for rebiting, but all lines protected except the 
 darkest. 
 Darkest lines bitten 20 minutes more, making their total 
 
 70 
 
 In the printing, this plate is well wiped with the canvas only, which 
 leaves a slight tint of oil It has then been lightly retrousste on all the 
 darkest lines. The face is not retrousste, nor are the thin scratchings.
 
 REMBRANDT. 91 
 
 most admirably drawn, technically. This is by far the finest 
 of all Rembrandt's naked figures, much finer than the Antiope, 
 for instance, though the pose of the Antiope is good, if the 
 forms are not. 
 
 PORTRAITS. 
 
 It appears to be very difficult to etch a good portrait, if 
 we are to judge by the rarity of successful attempts. There 
 are scarcely any modern etched portraits worth mentioning, 
 and very few older ones, except those of Rembrandt and 
 Vandyke. Rembrandt owed something of his success in 
 portraits to constant practice on the best of all models 
 himself. He etched his own portrait more than thirty times 
 over, in various dresses an amount of egotism for which any 
 modern etcher would incur the most severe reprobation of 
 reviewers. He had a picturesque physiognomy, and was as 
 good a subject as any he was likely to find ; nor have we 
 the right to blame an egotism which, in his case, was purely 
 artistic, and very far removed from any vulgar sentiment of 
 vanity. Rembrandt knew that he was a good subject, and 
 found that in this instance the model readily complied with 
 the requirements of the artist ; so he often sat for hours 
 before his looking-glass, and etched the keen, plain visage he 
 saw in it. He etched his old mother seven or eight times, 
 and his wife half as often : the old woman had a capital face, 
 and her illustrious son, then young and obscure, drew it with 
 the utmost intelligence and affection. His early portrait of 
 her (Bl. 193 ; Ba. 354 ; C. 343 ; W. 348) is one of the most 
 perfect of all his works. He was twenty -two years old then, 
 and already a great master-etcher. One might expatiate 
 long on the firm and exquisite truth with which the wrinkled 
 face has been studied, and yet the wrinkles are hot mapped 
 out in a servile Denner-like manner, but always largely 
 interpreted with reference to expression and anatomy. See 
 how they are accentuated on the temple as it passes into the
 
 92 REMBRANDT. 
 
 shade ; how the reflected lights are kept clear under the chin, 
 where they have scarcely a perceptible breadth ; how the few 
 thin hairs are drawn with their wave of curl ; how the half 
 extinguished eye retains its remnant of calm light; how the 
 placid lips, full of experience and quiet capacity of irony, 
 meet in their sage reserve ! There is another very fine 
 portrait of the same old lady (Bl. 196 ; Ba. 345 ; C. 333 ; 
 W. 339), an extraordinary tour de force in the rendering of 
 an old woman's face, and technically remarkable for its 
 translation of various local values of black in the veil and 
 dress. Of Rembrandt's portraits of himself, two may be 
 especially mentioned, the " Rembrandt with the Sabre and 
 Aigrette" (Bl. 232; Ba. 23 ; C. 23 ; W. 23), and "Rem- 
 brandt appuy< " (Bl. 234; Ba. 21 ; C. 21 ; W. 21). The 
 first of these two portraits gives us Rembrandt in his charac- 
 ter of a lover of strange and picturesque costumes, of which 
 he had a considerable collection ; the other represents him, 
 very probably, in the dress he usually wore, and is that from 
 which most of us derive our idea of his person. He lived in 
 an age when a man might dress picturesquely without being 
 hooted or laughed at, and so indulged his artistic instincts 
 very freely. No more picturesque scene can be imagined 
 than the interior of Rembrandt's house, full of all things 
 that his eyes desired : of arms, and carving, and porcelain, 
 of rare tissues, of statues and busts, of pictures, of quaint 
 furniture, of tapestries, and animals and plants, of spoils of 
 earth and sea. In the midst of all these things sat that 
 illustrious and immortal genius sat, as we see him in this 
 portrait, himself not less picturesque than the things around 
 him, a masculine and robust man, knowing the aspects of 
 life, and scrutinising all things with those sharp, penetrating 
 eyes. What interested him most in the living world around 
 him was neither the loveliness of women, nor the grace of in- 
 fancy, but the thoughtful faces of mature and intelligent men. 
 Thus he drew Cornelius Ansloo, a celebrated preacher of those
 
 PLATE II. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF OLD MOTHER, 
 BY REMBRANDT. 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE II. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 92.) 
 
 PORTRAIT OF OLD MOTHER, by Rembrandt. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Palest lines at roots of hair, on forehead, behind head, at lower right- 
 hand corner, etc. ...... 
 
 Darker touches on wrinkles, thin dark lines elsewhere, hair, etc. 
 Other dark but thin lines ...... 
 
 Darkest lines . 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 30 
 45 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 Plate covered again with black ground, and a number of lines and 
 touches which had been omitted now drawn in their places, and bitten in 
 the same proportion as above. 
 
 Second proof taken. Some lines and touches reduced with the scraper, 
 I others deepened with the burin. 
 
 In pnnting, this plate is wiped with canvas only, and not retroussie.
 
 REMBRANDT. 93 
 
 days ; Asselyn, a painter of reputation ; Ephraim Bonus, a 
 physician ; Clement de Jonghe, a famous publisher of prints ; 
 Janus Lutma, a well-known goldsmith ; the Burgomaster 
 Six, and other personages, in almost every instance remark- 
 able for an appearance of strong understanding or venerable 
 dignity which compels us to remember and respect them. It 
 may have been a subtle flattery on the part of Rembrandt 
 to give to his sitters a wise and meditative look, as other 
 portraitists add beauty to the features, and dissimulate 
 physical defects ; but there was a sturdy frankness in Rem- 
 brandt's nature which inclines us rather to the belief that he 
 would not have condescended even to this delicate species 
 of flattery, and that there existed in his models, at least, a 
 strong suggestion of the qualities he attributed to them. 
 The one rare merit of these portraits is that they never seem 
 to lay traps for our admiration, and have no anxiety to 
 please. The Burgomaster Six is reading quietly at his win- 
 dow, without a thought of the world beyond ; Ephraim 
 Bonus is thinking not of us, but of the patient whom he has 
 just left upstairs ; Uytenbogaert, the gold-weigher, is entirely 
 absorbed in his accounts. The difference between these por- 
 traits and too many modern ones is, that these have dignity 
 without pretension, whereas the others have pretension with- 
 out dignity. The execution is sometimes exceedingly mar- 
 vellous, as, for instance, the modelling of the gold-weigher's 
 face, the moustache and imperial of old Haaring, and the 
 eyebrow of Janus Lutma. Whenever the hands are given, 
 as in the lesser Coppenol, the Ansloo, and the Lutma, they 
 are drawn in a simple and direct way, but with singular 
 attention to the character and constitution of the man. 
 Whilst on the subject of execution, we cannot omit to men- 
 tion the remarkable silvery beard worn by a nameless old 
 man with a fur cap. It is nearly all done by suggestion 
 and omission, but the fulness and softness of it are perfectly 
 expressed. There is an art very useful to etchers, by which
 
 94 REMBRANDT. 
 
 the imagination of the spectator is made to do half the 
 work ; Rembrandt understood this, and often had recourse 
 to it with much cunning. By telling you what the hairs are 
 like on the left side of the beard, he makes you believe that 
 you see hairs on the right, though in reality he gives you 
 nothing there but a space of blank paper. 
 
 LANDSCAPES. 
 
 Though Rembrandt's draughtsmanship in the figure was 
 often incorrect as to proportion, it was always scientific and 
 based upon anatomical studies, which we know to have been 
 amongst the artist's valued and beloved pursuits. But he 
 did not draw animals so well as men, nor trees so well as 
 animals, and was, in short, much less scientific as a landscape- 
 painter than as a master of the figure. We all know how 
 the study of landscape has lingered be-hind the study of the 
 human body ; but, because many of the old masters brought 
 to the execution of landscape-subjects that grand and govern- 
 ing manner which they had learned in another branch of art, 
 and because they could, at least, express their sentiment, 
 which was often noble and just, it has resulted that their 
 reputation is considerable, notwithstanding the limitations of 
 their knowledge, and that, even in these days of more accurate 
 research and keener interest in the facts of the external world, 
 these old masters still hold their ground against the rivalry 
 of the most cultivated moderns. Thus Rembrandt's manner 
 in landscape is better than that of any modern, except Turner 
 and Haden ; and our skilful English landscape-painters, 
 notwithstanding their far greater knowledge of the various 
 effects of nature, have a littleness of expression with the 
 etching-needle which places them in a lower rank as artists. 
 This is the distinction which connoisseurs universally feel, 
 and which makes them often unjust towards the moderns, 
 and blind to their especial superiorities. I have not space
 
 REMBRANDT. 95 
 
 to enter into the difficult question of what constitutes greatness 
 of style, but may say that Rembrandt had it, that Claude 
 had it in another way, and that the success of Haden was 
 mainly due to the possession of it. 
 
 Rembrandt etched about thirty landscapes of various 
 degrees of finish. The slightest and most rapid of them all 
 is the " Bridge of Six," of which Gersaint tells the following 
 story : Rembrandt used to visit his friend, the Burgomaster, 
 at his country-house, and one day, dinner being served, behold 
 there was no mustard ! The Burgomaster sent his servant 
 into the village to get some, and Rembrandt made a bet 
 that, before the mustard was placed on the table, he 
 would etch a 'plate. He etched this bridge, which was 
 visible from the dining-room window. The point of interest 
 in this anecdote is that Rembrandt took a plate which was 
 already grounded, and that he had several with him so pre- 
 pared. An etcher ought always to have plates ready, because 
 the trouble of grounding one may often prevent him from 
 seizing a good opportunity. Another point proved by the 
 story, is that Rembrandt etched from nature directly, not, 
 perhaps, as a general rule, but at least that he had no objec- 
 tion to the practice. The " Bridge of Six " is a rapid and 
 slight sketch of no especial merit or interest 
 
 The reader will find, amongst the landscapes of Rembrandt, 
 several very fine examples of the use of the dry-point. One 
 of the finest is the " Landscape with the three Cottages " (Bl. 
 3 1 8), in which the bur is used with great power, though with 
 an exaggeration of blackness. The same power, with the 
 same exaggeration of rich blacks, may be found in othei 
 plates, especially in the "Bouquet de Bois " (Bl. 323), which 
 is entirely engraved in dry-point. The " Landscape with tha 
 Tower " and the " Landscape with the Square Tower "(Nos. 
 324 and 319, in Blanc's Catalogue (are inspired by a very 
 true landscape sentiment, and remain always in the memory 
 The "View of Omval" (Bl. 312) and the "Cottage with th
 
 96 REMBRANDT. 
 
 Great Tree" (Bl. 326), are, perhaps, the finest examples of 
 Rembrandt's masterly use of the needle in pure etching. 
 The distances in both plates are remarkable for ease and 
 simplicity of manner. 
 
 It is always, however, a mistake to attribute too much 
 importance to manual skill in etching, or in any other of the 
 great arts. When there is the true understanding of nature, 
 and the true artistic sentiment, manual skill usually comes 
 with practice, and the greatest artists never trouble themselves 
 about it, warning their pupils against anxiety on that score. 
 The distinction between the possession of manual skill and 
 artistic genius is perfectly illustrated in the case of Flameng, 
 the engraver who etched the wonderful copies from Rem- 
 brandt in M. Blanc's Catalogue. I have no hesitation in 
 saying that, in manual skill, Flameng is equal to Rembrandt,* 
 or to any etcher who ever lived ; and yet, in the first edition 
 of this work, I did not think it necessary to mention Flameng 
 amongst modern etchers, whilst I gave an entire chapter to 
 Daubigny, who is clumsiness itself (or was, at that time) in 
 comparison with him. If Rembrandt had no higher claim 
 on our consideration than mechanical ability with the point, 
 he would not deserve mention in the records of an art whose 
 glory is to spring directly from the mind. 
 
 * This assertion, bold as it may seem, was fully confirmed later by the publi- 
 cation of Flameng's copy, in facsimile, of the famous Hundred-Guilder print, a 
 copy which in all technical qualities is simply equal to the original. Flameng has 
 his due place in this edition amongst the etchers who interpret the works of 
 painters.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 OSTADE AND BEGA. 
 
 ""T^HE repugnance which a refined modern gentleman, full 
 of scholarly ideas and delicate sympathies, feels for the 
 sort of humanity in which Ostade delighted, is strong enough 
 in many instances to counterbalance all the technical qualities 
 of the artist, and permanently repel the student. Ostade is 
 not the only painter who has studied the habits of the 
 peasantry : we have just seen that Rembrandt had a predilec- 
 tion for beggars, and the cottages of poor French farmers and 
 labourers have, during the last few years, been the favourite 
 studies of a class of painters by no means wanting in refine- 
 ment, whose representative is Edouard Frere. Poverty is not 
 a disqualification in the living subjects of a picture, and it is 
 probable that the most refined artists, if obliged to choose 
 between the interior of a rich tradesman's dining-room, or 
 the interior of a Highland bothy, or a chaumitre in the 
 Morvan, would prefer the rough floor, and rude furniture, and 
 simple inhabitants, to the carpets and mahogany, with their 
 living accompaniments in broadcloth and fine silk. The 
 poor do not repel us in Faed, or Frere, or Duverger, but 
 they are very repulsive in Ostade and Bega, so repulsive 
 that we only endure them for the sake of the accomplished 
 art. 
 
 In justice to ourselves, let us say that it is not the poverty 
 which repels us, but the insensitiveness of the painter to all 
 that is best amongst the poor : his incapacity to recognise the 
 true refinement of the rare and delicate natures which ait dis- 
 
 H
 
 98 OSTADE AND BEGA. 
 
 guised in mean apparel, his blindness to that beauty of charac- 
 ter and countenance which is not aided by the arts of luxury. 
 It is not to be believed that when Ostade and Bega studied 
 the Dutch peasantry, the whole of the poor population of 
 Holland was lost in bestiality, or that all the nobler feelings 
 of human nature were utterly crushed out of it by the weight 
 of care, like the juice from trodden grapes. And yet their 
 peasants are universally mere animals, incapable of tenderness 
 and thought, capable only of instinctive cares and besotted 
 sensuality. The males pursue the females, the females give 
 suck to their young, and the height of satisfaction is a 
 swinish contentment in the fulness of the belly and the 
 apathy of the brain. 
 
 But, though on the human side there is nothing in this 
 class of art to delight a modern public, it has often technical 
 merits of a rare order. Ostade, especially, was a composer 
 of remarkable ability, combining in the most felicitous way 
 the two compositions of form and chiaroscuro. He was 
 very inferior to Rembrandt in the variety of his execution. 
 Rembrandt had many resources of method which were inac- 
 cessible to Ostade ; but Ostade had always craft sufficient 
 for his purpose, and could reach with great certainty the 
 effects of light, the transparencies, the accentuations which 
 gave him pleasure. It would be an interesting subject for 
 speculation how an artistic accomplishment, which in its way 
 certainly proves much visual and manual cultivation, was 
 compatible with such deadness of the heart and such apathy 
 of the intellect. Cases of this kind seem to prove that 
 technical skill in the fine arts is possible without mental eleva- 
 tion, but they do not demonstrate the vanity of artistic culture 
 generally. It was something for Ostade that he could at 
 least see when his peasants composed well, and that he could 
 enjoy the lights and shadows which gave a sort of sublimity 
 to their habitations. An accomplishment may be worth 
 having, without working the miracle of giving nobility to a
 
 OSTADE AND BEG A. 99 
 
 low nature, and we do not despise the classical languages 
 and theology because they were the accomplishments of 
 Dean Swift. The truth is, that not only artistic learning and 
 skill, but all kinds of learning and skill, may be attained 
 without much advance towards nobleness ; yet this does not 
 prove them to be without a utility of their own. It is a fine 
 thing to etch well, or read Greek well, or perform the sword 
 exercise well, independently of moral results ; and the sort 
 of praise due to Ostade is that which may be justly accorded 
 to those who excel in their particular craft. 
 
 Bega had a still lower nature than Ostade himself, and, 
 though forcible and clever, had not even that kind of refine- 
 ment which Ostade possessed. There is nothing of Bega's 
 comparable to Ostade's " Family " for delicacy of the artistic 
 kind ; but as he was certainly a true etcher, though of a de- 
 graded school, it seemed right to mention him in this book. 
 The observations on Ostade's coarse interpretation of peasant- 
 life apply in their full force to Bega. 
 
 Early states of Ostade's etchings are now of great value, 
 and have risen much in the market during the last twenty 
 years. In 1838, Mr. Wilson's set was sold for 105. Mr. 
 Seguier afterwards gave 159 : I2s. for the same set, which 
 was sold again in 1844 for 309 : 153., and again in 1846 
 for .500. It is now worth a thousand guineas, ten times 
 its value twenty years ago. 
 
 OSTADE. La Famille (Bartsch, i. 378, 46). The reader 
 would do well, when he has the opportunity, to refer to the 
 proof in the British Museum, on page 54 of the first volume 
 of the Ostade Collection. It is the most perfect work of the 
 master, and quite remarkable for lighting and composition. 
 Ostade's sense of what was necessary to the support of a 
 group, is like the artistic instinct which led the Gothic 
 builders to use buttresses and low chapels round their edifices, 
 and which in nature gives artistic value to the slopes of debris
 
 ioo OSTADE AND BEGA. 
 
 at the feet of mountains, For example, in this etching the 
 composition rises always towards the right, and is buttressed 
 by slopes to the left. See how amply the figure of the man 
 is supported by the boy and the dog, and by the seated 
 woman. This law of diminution to the left is carried out in 
 the most trifling accessaries, in the basins above the door, in 
 the spaces between the three cross-pieces nailed to the beams, 
 in the two boards near the ladder, in the openings of the bed 
 and the door. If the woman had advanced her left foot in- 
 stead of her right, the man behind her would not have been 
 so well supported ; and if the little dog had been absent, the 
 buttressing on that side would not have been continued to 
 the ground. The lighting is, of course, intended to give im- 
 portance to the group ; there are admirable reflections and 
 transparencies in the shade. 
 
 Of Ostade's small plates, the reader is recommended to 
 study (for their directness of manner) the bust of an old 
 peasant with a pointed cap, and the smoker in an oval. The 
 "Hurdy-gurdy Player" (dated 1647) is a curious instance of 
 careful rendering of the folds of dress. 
 
 Some of Ostade's original coppers exist in Paris, but they 
 are so worn that impressions are now worthless. 
 
 BEGA. Le Cabaret (Bartsch, v. 240, 35). A group of 
 peasants in an ale-house, with a very dark shading behind 
 the figures ; a brilliant and effective plate, but coarse in 
 conception, and wanting in the artistic subtleties that dis- 
 tinguish the masterpiece of Ostade. 
 
 Bega's common fault of too much blackness in shadows 
 is equally visible in a clever little figure with a short cloak, 
 " L'Homme avec la Main dans le Pourpoint " (Bartsch, v. 228, 
 10). The most delicate bit of work by Bega is the woman 
 in the lozenge, " La Femme portant la Cruche " (Bartsch, v 
 228, 9). The dress is very cleverly accentuated
 
 PLATE III. 
 
 PEASANTS DRINKING, BY OSTADE, 
 A portion of a larger Plate representing a Village Feast 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE III. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 100.) 
 
 PEASANTS DRINKING, by Ostade, a portion of a larger 
 Plate representing a Village Feast. 
 
 Copied by the Author 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Light shade on flag ....... 
 
 5 
 
 Lightest parts of tree ....... 
 
 10 
 
 Distant tree ........ 
 
 25 
 
 Other tree, cottages, and distant figures .... 
 
 35 
 
 Foreground figures ....... 
 
 So 
 
 Foreground '. ....... 
 
 70 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 Plate covered again with black ground, and many lines drawn which had 
 been overlooked in the first drawing. These were bitten like their neigh- 
 bours as above. A light shade was also added here and there over lines 
 already bitten, and this was bitten from five to ten minutes. 
 
 The plate was finished with a little light dry-point work here and there, 
 and a few touches with the burin. 
 
 Plate wiped with the hand in printing. The immediate foreground 
 retroutsl.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 BERGHEM, POTTER, DUJARDIN. 
 
 HPHE great industry of Berghem, and his accurate know- 
 ledge of cattle, give him a certain firmness and pre- 
 cision with the point which are amongst the chief reasons 
 for his reputation as an etcher. Nothing tends more to the 
 popularity of an artist than a neat and clear manner, as free 
 as possible from those vague seekings after excellence which 
 are the marks of advance and aspiration ; yet this very neat- 
 ness is a quality which the higher criticism regards with 
 dubious approval, because, though it proves the attainment 
 of skill, it fixes the limitation of effort, and too frequently 
 implies the abandonment of noble aims. Berghem and 
 Verboeckhoven have this neatness, but Turner and Troyon 
 have none of it ; and our suspicions as to the value of the 
 quality are fully confirmed by a comparison of these artists. 
 Berghem had a kind of elegance often rather out of place in 
 the subjects he chose, and his shepherds and shepherdesses 
 attitudinise with airs and graces that belong rather to the 
 rustics of Florian than to those of the actual world. His 
 shadows were exceedingly transparent, and his reflections 
 bright ; he had the art of using emphasis well (with a view 
 to the kind of result he aimed at) and he had absolute 
 manual skill. But I cannot consider him a great etcher, and 
 should rank him as nearly as possible on the same level 
 with the modern Gauermann. 
 
 One has a natural tenderness for Paul Potter, because 
 he died so early (at twenty-nine), and produced such clever
 
 102 BERG HEM, POTTER, DUJARJDfA' 
 
 pictures. He had clear sight, a firm hand, a most excellent 
 memory ; but no imagination, and very little power of com- 
 position. No painter who ever lived retained a more vivid 
 image of an animal after having seen it, nor could any painter 
 copy that image better. But his art was never much more 
 than a very brilliant copyism of facts, though since these 
 facts were usually of a nature which the memory alone could 
 enable him to record, his art is on that account more wonder- 
 ful than the patient literalism which copies a helmet or a vase. 
 Paul Potter had points of superiority over Berghem in his 
 entire freedom from false elegance ; he was quite unaffected, 
 exceedingly clear and accurate in handling, yet not vain of 
 his precision, nor at all anxious to display it. He etched 
 with spirit, but was deficient in freedom, and did not sketch, 
 nor see things with the comprehensiveness of a great sketcher 
 like Rembrandt. I admire his power of memory, his vivacity 
 and spirit, his genuine love of animals, his knowledge of 
 animal construction, his certainty of hand ; but consider that 
 his weakness in comprehensive sketching and want of imagi- 
 nation disqualify him for a place in the first rank. 
 
 Karl Dujardin is one of those artists who, whilst enjoying 
 a great reputation amongst the class of connoisseurs who 
 never work from nature, retain slighter hold on our admira- 
 tion when our judgment has been fortified by much practical 
 study. He learned his horse by heart, and his cow, and his 
 sheep, and his pig, and his donkey, and his goat ; and being 
 able to draw them in a regular manner, and in any common 
 attitude, set them in fancy landscapes of the kind which con- 
 noisseurs receive as a sufficient representation of nature. 
 There is much truth in the attitudes of Dujardin's animals, 
 and the power of drawing them as he did is by no means to 
 be attained easily, for it requires great labour and a certain 
 natural gift ; yet such animal design as his cannot be 
 accepted as of first-rate excellence, because it is too methodi- 
 cal, and wanting in artistic synthesis. He is inferior in
 
 BERGHEM, POTTER, DUJARDIN. 103 
 
 skill and knowledge to Paul Potter, but nearly of the same 
 rank in point of artistic conception and imagination, and 
 quite free from the misplaced elegance which often spoiled 
 the work of Berghem. He was not a good etcher, because 
 he could not sketch well ; but his name could not be omitted 
 in a work on etching, on account of his considerable reputa- 
 tion. His stiff, precise lines are not to be recommended for 
 imitation, and his ignorance of landscape was complete. His 
 merits are a certain knowledge of animals, expressed with 
 perfect sincerity, and a dexterity sufficient for his purpose. 
 His lighting is often luminous, but his chiaroscuro was feeble 
 because he had not the least idea of the value of local colour 
 when translated into black and white ; and in most of his 
 etchings local colour is altogether omitted. 
 
 A curious instance of purchasing for curiosity occurred in 
 the case of some animals by Berghem. He etched two sets 
 of six each, and one of these sets was executed on a single 
 copper, afterwards divided. Only one impression taken be- 
 fore the division is now known, and the British Museum paid 
 120 for it. The present value of that proof is about 
 400, and its only superiority over good impressions of the 
 six separate plates is a matter of pure curiosity, depending 
 upon the not very interesting or important fact, that there 
 is only one large plate-mark instead of six smaller ones. 
 
 BERGHEM. The Rivulet by the ruined Monument. With- 
 out elaborate description, the reader may recognise this plate 
 by the woman who is seated in the foreground, with her left 
 foot in the water whilst she wipes the right. There are 
 other figures, and cows, and goats, and sheep. There are 
 traces of sculpture on the monument, especially the bas-relief 
 of a horse. This is one of Berghem's most brilliant and 
 characteristic etchings. The brilliancy is obtained, in a great 
 measure, by vigorous little bits of dark inserted in places 
 where the artist had a fair pretext for their introduction.
 
 104 BERGHEM, POTTER, DUJARDIN. 
 
 Plates of this class are usually kept very light, but the etchers 
 were always on the look-out for such little spots of intense 
 black as that under the woman's armpit here : when these 
 were vigorously marked, a certain liveliness was the result. 
 The student will observe the neat sharp draughtsmanship in 
 the cattle, and the rather dandified elegance of the cowherd 
 with the pole, and the woman who is washing her feet. 
 
 The Piper (Bartsch, v. 257, 4). A man on an ass meets 
 a pedestrian with a bagpipe, and talks to him, showing him 
 the way with his hand. Behind the piper is a man driving 
 sheep and cows. To the right are many trees, and in the 
 distance a softly-wooded hill. The group in the middle has 
 a picturesque outline, and is exceedingly rich in shade. 
 The work in this central group is generally of fine quality, 
 but there is a somewhat morbid softness, not altogether 
 masculine, in the distant foliage. 
 
 The Shepherd by the Fountain (Bartsch, v. 259, 8). Of all 
 Berghem's plates this is the most characteristic of the master. 
 The figures pose like models who have learned their business 
 well, but not very like the peasants of actual life. The 
 animals are all remarkable for an extraordinary clearness and 
 neatness of execution. Observe especially the head and leg 
 of the cow in the foreground. The shadows are kept exceed- 
 ingly transparent, and the reflections light ; the bucket is an 
 epitome of Berghem's practice in these respects. 
 
 The Goat's Head with the black Forehead (Bartsch, v. 
 267, 19). A piece of very exquisite execution of its kind, 
 especially in the horns and the dark hair on the goat's fore- 
 head. There is also a small plate with two goats' heads 
 executed with equal skill. Work of this kind approaches 
 more nearly to modern ideas of etching than that of the old 
 masters can be generally said to do. It is not unlike 
 Gauermann in manner, and the best work of the English 
 Club is of the same class.
 
 BERG HEM, POTTER, DUJARDIN. 105 
 
 PAUL POTTER. Two Cows in the foreground, one standing, 
 the other lying down ; Herdsman and three other Cows in 
 middle distance. The original copper is the property of M. 
 Galichon, of the Gazette des Beaux Arts. It may be con- 
 sidered fairly representative of Paul Potter. It bears out my 
 observation, that he did not sketch. The two cows are pre- 
 sented with great force and with much brilliancy of effect ; but 
 the lines have never the freedom of great etching, and are, in 
 fact, a sort of engraving with the etching-needle. The fore- 
 ground plants are studied leaf by leaf, in the pre-Raphaelite 
 manner, and with the pre-Raphaelite deficiency of synthesis. 
 The three cows in the background, instead of being freely 
 sketched according to the more artistic system of Rembrandt, 
 are here engraved with a dry formality quite opposed to the 
 spirit of etching. The same formality may be observed in the 
 foliage, which is bad, and in the leafless tree, which is, if 
 possible, worse. 
 
 The Bull (Bartsch, i. 41, i). This is one of the most 
 firm and brilliant of Paul Potter's works, and the qualities of 
 it are concentrated in the head, though there are fine indica- 
 tions of form on the body of the animal. There is a class 
 of his etchings which have no pictorial completeness, but are 
 simple studies of individual animals. Considered as studies, 
 and without especial reference to the peculiar qualities of 
 etching, these are always remarkable, and sometimes even 
 astonishing. This bull is one of the best. 
 
 Three studies of Horses ; Le Cheval de la Frise (Bartsch, 
 i. 47); Le Cheval Fremissant (Bartsch, i. 49, 10); La Mazette 
 (Bartsch, i. 41, 13). These three studies are amongst the 
 strongest things that Paul Potter ever did. The first is an 
 illustration of power in repose, the second of eager excitement, 
 the third of melancholy decrepitude and of death. The 
 most marvellous of the three is certainly the neighing horse 
 which is a brilliant feat of memory. The other two may have 
 been studied more at leisure.
 
 too BERG HEM, POTTER, DUJARDIN. 
 
 KARL DUJARDIN. Cow, Sheep, and Herdsman, with a city 
 in the distance. The best thing here is the head of the cow, 
 which may be taken as a perfect example of Dujardin's most 
 successful work. So, on the other hand, is he not unfairly 
 represented by the childish weakness of the distant landscape. 
 There is not the least merit of any kind in the trees and hill, 
 and the buildings all lean to the left, in defiance of gravita- 
 tion. There is no local colour ; and tree, and hide, and grass, 
 are all left white in the light. 
 
 A Ruin near a stream, Artist sketching. Since there are 
 no cattle here, but only a landscape and buildings, we can 
 expect nothing but feebleness. This is modest and unpre- 
 tending work, based upon the notions of landscape prevalent 
 in the seventeenth century ; but it is surprising how it was 
 possible for a man who had really studied the construction 
 of animals, not to have clearer insight into that of inanimate 
 nature. Such work as this is as inferior to the etching of 
 Haden or Lalanne, as the water-colours of a modern school- 
 girl to the work of Richardson. It sometimes happens that 
 an artist will compensate for his sins against natural truth by 
 the mere power of his workmanship ; but here, as in all 
 Dujardin's landscapes, the etching is as technically weak as 
 the interpretation of nature is unintelligent and inadequate.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 VAND YKE AND HOLLAR. 
 
 T N the course of the last few pages there has not been very 
 much eulogy of the unqualified and enthusiastic kind. 
 Good etchers are exceedingly rare, having hitherto been 
 produced in Europe at the rate of about two in a century. 
 It is possible that, notwithstanding the divergence of opinion 
 on the subject of the rank and capabilities of the art, which 
 unhappily subsists between the present writer and the large 
 majority of the general public, there may, nevertheless, be 
 more harmony between us than we supposed. The public 
 is indifferent to all etchings whatever ; the critic is indifferent 
 to all but a very few etchings. 
 
 No true critic can be indifferent to Vandyke. He is one 
 of the great princes of the art, a royal master who is to be 
 spoken of only with the most profound respect He had all 
 the great qualities ; he had perfect freedom and exquisite 
 refinement ; he used the needle with admirable ease and 
 grace, and his masterly force was restrained and tempered 
 with a cultivated severity. But it is inevitable that a genius 
 of this kind, whose purposes were few, and who always kept 
 steadily to the path where success ever attended him, should 
 not offer matter for so much commentary as the less 
 admirable and less wise, but more various and audacious 
 artists who have undertaken many different enterprises, and 
 alternately surprised the world by unexpected triumphs and 
 almost unaccountable failures. A writer, cunning in his 
 craft, who found himself obliged to supply many pages about
 
 io8 VANDYKE AND HOLLAR. 
 
 Vandyke, would have recourse to speculations about the 
 personages he painted, and the history and characteristics of 
 their age ; so that the artist himself would become nothing 
 more than the pretext for a dissertation on manners and 
 events. But of Vandyke himself, as an etcher, little more is 
 to be said than the few sentences already written. His aims 
 were few, his choice of means instinctively wise and right, his 
 command of them absolute, his success complete. 
 
 Hollar was not a painter, but a most industrious engraver, 
 and it has rarely happened hitherto that a professional 
 engraver has produced original etchings of great artistic 
 value. The training of an engraver is injurious to originality, 
 and restrictive of freedom, it has also the drawback of being 
 almost exclusively manual and interpretative ; and there is 
 always a great danger that the engraver who attempts 
 artistic etching will fall into the set methods which have 
 become habitual to him, and think less of the great artistic 
 exigencies than of that manual neatness and polish which, as 
 an aim in itself, great artists have ever disdained. There 
 have, however, been one or two exceptions to this rule ; and 
 though it is generally true that, to become a great etcher, it 
 is necessary to be first a great painter, it is also the fact that 
 one or two engravers, by profession, have etched occasionally 
 in the high artistic sense. The great majority of Hollar's 
 etchings are not to be recommended as examples of this 
 particular art, but one or two of them have a rare and 
 delicate beauty, which gives him a certain rank. 
 
 The proofs of Vandyke's etchings have greatly increased 
 in value of late years. At M. Sdguier's sale, in 1844, they 
 averaged from three to eight pounds each, and were then 
 thought to be very dear. At recent sales they have produced 
 sums varying from eight to thirty pounds. Mr. Marshall's 
 set, which a few years ago might have brought eighty or 
 ninety pounds, was knocked down at his sale (i 864) for 400. 
 It may be considered certain that, as etching becomes better
 
 VANDYKE AND HOLLAR. 109 
 
 appreciated, the plates of Vandyke will attain still higher 
 prices.* 
 
 VANDYKE. Lucas Vorsterrnans. The execution of the 
 portrait itself, including the draper}', is quite magnificent, but 
 the background is rather unfortunate in its formality. The 
 regular horizontal lines are wanting in vivacity, and the little 
 dots between them complete the appearance of mechanism. 
 Whenever Vandyke falls into anything like mechanism, it is 
 sure to be in a background ; and on this account I should 
 sometimes prefer an early state, before the background was 
 added. In the portrait of Vorsterrnans the hair is very free 
 and beautiful, and there are some remarkably fine darks in 
 the drapery, especially to the left side. 
 
 Justiis Suttermans. There is much nobility in the well- 
 set, intelligent head ; but the wonder of execution in this 
 portrait is the costume, especially on Suttermans' left shoulder, 
 where the lightness of the lace-collar contrasts with the firm 
 and elaborate drawing of the gatherings of the cloth. Observe 
 the good sketching of the right hand, and the way in which 
 the finish of the left shoulder passes gradually into free and 
 loose indication below the waist. 
 
 Franciscus Vrannx. A grand old fellow, with a strong 
 kind-looking face and observant eyes, which he was accus- 
 tomed to use, for Vrannx was a painter of Antwerp. Observe 
 the masterly indication of the irregular moustache and small 
 beard, and the flowing lines of the mantle. 
 
 Joannes Snellinx. One of the most genial of all Van- 
 dyke's portraits, and technically one of the finest. The 
 countenance beams with good humour, and the etching is 
 luminous and lively. The figure, in this instance, has received 
 no injury from its background of sky and cloud. 
 
 * A complete set of Vandyke's etchings has lately been reproduced by M. 
 Amand Durand, in heliogravure, and the set is very precious to a student of 
 etching, from the rarity of the originals. The price is sixty francs.
 
 no VANDYKE AND HOLLAR. 
 
 HOLLAR. Gentleman playing on a Guitar. The Hollai 
 collection, at the British Museum, is so very extensive, that it 
 may be well to inform the reader that this is the last plate 
 in the sixth volume there. The guitar-player is seated near 
 an open window, through which are visible a tower and some 
 shipping. The guitar is of curious construction, being double- 
 scrolled. The player has long hair, a beardless youthful face, 
 and very beautiful, somewhat feminine hands. This etching 
 is remarkable for a quite extraordinary delicacy of treatment, 
 and a most exquisite taste. It is not so vigorous as the work 
 of Vandyke, but fully equal to him in elegance. The metho- 
 dical habits of the engraver recur most in the window-opening, 
 and are especially observable in the mechanical treatment of 
 the sky. There is a great deal of lovely curvature in the 
 guitar and the player's hands, and it is probable that Hollar 
 may have felt the utility of the stiff window lines as a con- 
 trast. The tonality of the whole plate is quite perfect in its 
 own key. 
 
 The Long View of Greenwich. Recommended for study, 
 only on account of the distance and the observatory. The 
 foreground, which is covered with dull engraver's work, is 
 curiously barren and uninteresting, and even the sky is 
 mechanical
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CANALETTI, RUYSDAEL, AND OTHERS. 
 
 'T^HERE is a certain clearness of manner, and simplicity 
 of purpose, in Canaletti, as an etcher, which makes 
 his work esteemed, not only by connoisseurs, who usually 
 follow tradition in their estimate of works of art, but even by 
 true critics and artists. It is possible that a reason for the 
 reputation of his etchings may be that, although he lived 
 sufficiently long ago to be accepted with the respect given 
 by connoisseurs to old masters, he has much of that modern 
 feeling for the picturesque which most of us secretly enjoy, 
 and which, in this case, we may legitimately applaud. If 
 Canaletti were a living contemporary, connoisseurship would 
 be less satisfied of his merits ; for connoisseurship, like the 
 Catholic Church, waits a hundred years before it canonises 
 its saints. 
 
 Canaletti's work is clear, and simple, and honest ; but it 
 has very little freedom, a moderate appreciation of beauty, 
 no grace, and no imagination. He saw that Venice was 
 picturesque, and in him the modern enjoyment of architecture, 
 as a pictorial subject, found its first adequate expression ; 
 but we have better architectural painters in these days ; and 
 though good etchers are always very rare, we have one or 
 two men who etch better than Canaletti. The word which 
 best characterises him is respectable mediocrity, but it is 
 mediocrity still, however respectable. 
 
 His subjects were usually well selected, and his effects 
 pictorial, though of the most ordinary kind. His etchings
 
 ii2 CANALETTI, RUYSDAEL, AND OTHERS. 
 
 would have greatly benefited by a more thorough study of 
 tonality ; in several of the most important there are obvious 
 faults of relation, chiefly due to a timidity about the values 
 of near shadow and of local colour. In slighter work than 
 that of Canaletti there may be much frank omission, even of 
 tonic relations ; but he laboured his plates all over, and 
 when he failed in this respect it was not the bold transgres- 
 sion of consummate science, but the hesitating error of half- 
 knowledge. 
 
 Ruysdael has an immense fame amongst connoisseurs, 
 especially on the Continent ; but this is one of those cases 
 in which the modern study of nature is sure to drive the 
 student either into secret revolt or open rebellion. I say 
 nothing here of his pictures, which are out of my present 
 subject, and the reader may worship Ruysdael as a "god of 
 painting," if that kind of devotion is necessary to his spiritual 
 comfort ; but of Ruysdael, as an etcher, I say simply that 
 he is down somewhere in the fifth or sixth rank. It is 
 intelligible that when work like that of Ruysdael is held up 
 as the work of a great master, the majority of the public, 
 not having time to investigate the matter for themselves, 
 conclude that the whole art of etching is imperfect. 
 
 Salvator had magnificent gifts of a certain kind, but was 
 not a great etcher, because he did not insist upon the especial 
 powers of the art. All that Salvator did in etching might 
 be done equally well in engraving, and he really aimed at 
 the artistic objects of the great Italian engravers. Some of 
 his plates are admirable in their way, but they are all bad 
 examples of etching. The finest of them, to my mind, is 
 " The Abandonment of CEdipus," which is sufficiently studied 
 below. 
 
 Dietrich was exceedingly clever, manually, and very 
 various in manner, but he was remarkable only as an 
 unusually apt imitator of other men's work. His talent, in 
 this respect, was nearly equal to the wonderful gift of our
 
 CANALETTI, R UYSDAEL, AND OTHERS. 113 
 
 contemporary, Flameng, and would have been better em- 
 ployed in copying rare plates of the great masters than in 
 attempting subjects of his own choosing. He is mentioned 
 here because, if the reader listens much to the prevalent 
 ideas about etchers, he may be led to waste time in studying 
 him, and embarrass himself with speculations as to which, of 
 all the various manners in which Dietrich worked, was the 
 manner of Dietrich. I doubt whether he had any manner. 
 A plate is mentioned below as being, in all probability, the 
 nearest expression of his personal feeling ; but most likely 
 it is, as to workmanship, a reminiscence of some engraver 
 unknown to me. 
 
 Everdingen produced a considerable number of etchings, 
 of which by far the greater proportion are wholly unprofitable 
 for study. Considering the century in which he lived, Ever- 
 dingen was, however, remarkable for a genuine love of wild 
 scenery. He loved rocks and mountain-streams, with cottages 
 and chalets, and so far is in unison with our modern senti- 
 ment. I am rather prejudiced in his favour on this account, 
 and should have been glad to praise him heartily if he had 
 been a more powerful aquafortist. He worked generally in 
 a clear and intelligible way, and several of his plates are 
 very pretty. As an aquafortist he reached a certain moderate 
 skill, sufficient for the expression of his ideas, but had not 
 much power of hand or nobility of style. He was also 
 destitute of invention. 
 
 Waterloo and Weirotter are represented by examples 
 given in this book. They were both accomplished men in 
 their way ; and Weirotter is especially remarkable for his 
 industry. Waterloo had a great liking for sylvan scenery, 
 which he represented as well as any landscape-etcher of his 
 time, but without either the tenderness of Claude, the 
 grandeur of Salvator, or the accurate knowledge of the 
 moderns. Weirotter was very fond of picturesque buildings, 
 of which he etched an immense variety, usually composing 
 
 I
 
 r 14 CANALETTI, R UYSDAEL, AND OTHERS. 
 
 them very happily with other materials, such as marine 
 subjects, figures, and landscape. He had the great artistic 
 quality of being able to reach the tonality he aimed at, in 
 which he seems to have had a certainty equal to that of a 
 painter, and many of his etchings are almost as complete, in 
 this respect, as pictures. They are frequently luminous and 
 agreeable in aspect ; they are also much nearer to the feeling 
 of modern students of the picturesque than the work of older 
 masters usually is. The copy from Weirotter given herewith 
 is a good instance of this, for the interest of the artist in the 
 detail of the old cottage, and the way he follows its ins and 
 outs, are very modern indeed. I find, on the whole, that 
 Weirotter rises in one's estimation as time goes on, which is 
 the^best proof of substantial qualities in an artist. In the 
 plate given here the cloud is too hard and rocky, but the 
 sky is (at least in the original) very pure and equal in tone, 
 and the buildings are treated very skilfully, every line being 
 studied with the utmost care throughout the variety of its 
 inflections. 
 
 CANALETTI. La Torre di Malghera. A white tower to 
 the right, and two low buildings to the left of it ; mountains 
 in the distance, and water in the foreground, with a boat 
 under the building, and a gondola coming into the picture, 
 on the left. There are clouds in the sky, which is etched 
 with much labour. The water is entirely rippled. 
 
 Of all Canaletti's etchings this one is the most luminous 
 and the most modern in its choice and interpretation of 
 subject. The buildings are etched with much force and 
 considerable freedom, but the sky is too mechanical. 
 
 Le Procuratie e S. Ziminian. A large, open place in 
 Venice. To the right is the corner of a lofty building with 
 balcony shades, and to the left another building with arches. 
 There are high Venetian masts in the open square. This 
 etching is truer, as to general tonality, than any other by
 
 PLATE IV. 
 
 COTTAGE ON A SHORE, 
 Part of larger Plate by WEIROTTER 
 
 Copied by the Autkor.
 
 PLATE IV. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 1 14.) 
 
 COTTAGE ON A SHORE, part of a larger Plate by 
 Weirotter. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Extreme distance 
 Sky . 
 Shaded cloud . 
 Promontory with figures 
 Cottages and cote 
 Foreground, water, and boats 
 
 4 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 25 
 40 
 60 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 The plate was now covered for rebiting, and all the darkest portions 
 were rebitten from five to fifteen minutes more. 
 
 Second proof taken. 
 
 The plate was now covered with the black ground, and light shades added 
 wherever wanted. These were bitten from eight to sixteen minutes. 
 
 Third proof taken. 
 
 The plate was finished by reducing some of the palest lines in sky, 
 cloud, and distance, and by adding a very few with the dry-point 
 
 It is printed very simply indeed, being cleanly wiped and not retreusste.
 
 CANALETTI, RUYSDAEL, AND OTHERS. 115 
 
 Canaletti, but the subject is somewhat formal, and much 
 inferior, as picturesque material, to those which Canaletti 
 found accidentally in places less generally known. 
 
 RUYSDAEL. The Little Bridge (Bartsch, i. 3 1 1, i). This 
 is one of Ruysdael's important plates, and the subject in 
 nature was no doubt exceedingly picturesque, but the artist 
 has not fully availed himself of the fine quality of his 
 material The rendering of decayed thatch and rough wall 
 is considerably inferior, in point of skill, to good modern 
 work ; and the relation of masses is so entirely lost sight of, 
 that the plate, as a whole, is feeble. There is little composi- 
 tion, for the etching is merely a study : but, such as it is, 
 more might have been made of it. 
 
 The Travellers (Bartsch, i. 313, 4). A rivulet running 
 through a forest. A large forest-tree stands towards the 
 left, with its roots in the water ; a smaller one has fallen 
 forwards across the stream. On the right hand are three 
 travellers on the river-bank, and above them a space of sky 
 with clouds. 
 
 This may be quite fairly taken as a representative of 
 Ruysdael's landscapes. One cannot refuse to it the merit of 
 a certain picturesque wildness, for which Ruysdael had an 
 instinctive feeling ; but only those connoisseurs who make 
 themselves the uncritical echoes of tradition would ascribe 
 either to this plate, or to any other of its class, any especial 
 value as an interpretation of nature, or any considerable rank 
 as art. It is work of nearly the same value, though not at 
 all of the same kind, as that of the modern French etcher 
 Etienne ; yet I did not think it necessary to give special 
 mention to Etienne in my account of the French school, and 
 should probably have omitted Ruysdael in this place, if his 
 great reputation had allowed me to pass him in silence. 
 
 SALVATOR. The A bandonment of(Edipus. The shepherd
 
 ufc CANALETIT.RUYSDAE^AND OTHERS. 
 
 is tying CEdipus by the feet to the trunk of a great chestnut- 
 tree. There is much grandeur in the design of this tree, 
 and the arrangement of the figures. Many contemporary 
 landscape-painters, especially Mr. M'Callum, could draw a 
 fine tree, with closer imitative veracity, but there is a magni- 
 ficent passion in this design of Salvator's, and a determined 
 intention to make us feel certain striking elements of forest 
 sublimity, which are not common in any school, and always 
 exceedingly rare amongst the literal designers. We are 
 made thoroughly to feel the great height of the tree, and 
 the vast reach of its far-spreading intricate branches. Its 
 trunk rises like a lofty tower, and its clustered leaves poise 
 themselves above our heads like the wings of innumerable 
 birds. These qualities, however, might have been equally 
 well given in a pen-drawing ; and neither this, nor any other 
 etching of Salvator, insists upon the especial advantages and 
 superiorities of etching as an independent art. Salvator, 
 like many other artists, employed etching as a convenient 
 process for the multiplication of his drawings, just as in 
 these days he might have employed the graphotype ; but he 
 was not, in the peculiar and especial sense, an etcher. 
 
 DIETRICH. The Satyr in the Peasants House. A satyr 
 having paid a friendly visit to a peasant, accepts his hospi- 
 tality, and attempts to eat hot soup wLh a spoon ; but, not 
 being accustomed to utensils of that kind, declines, with 
 much energy of gesture, to repeat the experiment. There is 
 plenty of vivacity in the action, and the group is engraved 
 with considerable skill. I use the word engraved purposely, 
 because this is rather engraving with the needle than free 
 etching. 
 
 EVERDINGEN. Cottages by a Torrent (British Museum > 
 Everdingen, vol. i. p. 19). Two chalet-like cottages to the 
 left ; a stream flowing down amongst rocks over a weir made
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 TREES, 
 Part of a Landscape by WATERLOO. 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 116.) 
 TREES, part of a Landscape by Waterloo. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 
 In this little landscape the organic lines and the shading are more distinctly 
 separated than is common with the older masters. It may be taken as a good 
 exam pie, of method. The plate passes through two distinct states, one for organic 
 lines and the beginnings of deep shades, the other for light shadings, which are 
 thrown over what is already done as a semi-transparent veil 
 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Clouds and distance . 
 Lightest parts of trees . 
 Foliage generally in light 
 Dark parts of trees 
 Trunks and figure 
 Foreground 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 30 
 
 45 
 55 
 65 
 
 First proof taken. The plate was now covered again with black ground, 
 and all the light shading was added. This was bitten from seven to 
 twelve minutes. 
 
 Secpnd proof taken. A little light shading with dry-point was added 
 here and there. 
 
 In printing, the plate was cleaned with the hand, and then retrousste in 
 the foreground and nearest tree to the right.
 
 CANALETTI,RUYSDAEL,AND OTHERS. n; 
 
 of a trunk of pine ; rocks and rising land to the right ; pines 
 and other trees. Four goats in the right corner, and three 
 other goats on a shaded rock near the middle of the etching. 
 
 I think this is the most charming of all Everdin b en's bits 
 of wild river scenery. It is very fresh in treatment, and it 
 is evident that the artist had a real liking for rocks and rude 
 cottages by wooded hills and streams. 
 
 The Man near a Gap in a Fence (British Museum, Ever- 
 dingen, vol. i. p. 19). A little hill with a wooden cottage 
 on it, and a wooden fence in front of the cottage all knocked 
 down ; there are some pigs and goats, and a man who is 
 walking down from the cottage happens to be near an open- 
 ing in the fence whence the title. The sky is clouded, and 
 there are a few trees behind the building. 
 
 This subject, though simple, is agreeably composed, and 
 much use is made of the variously-inclined stakes in the 
 broken fence. In the quality of freshness this etching is 
 equal to the preceding one, and both are above the usual 
 average of the artist. 
 
 WATERLOO (the plate of which a portion is given herej. 
 Waterloo often etched studies of trees, and this is one of 
 the best examples amongst many plates of his. The reader 
 will see that Waterloo had clear ideas of the richness, and 
 fulness, and softness of foliage ; that he studied the projec- 
 tion of its masses, and could group his trees effectively. The 
 black shadow, in the left-hand corner, forming a triangle with 
 the edges of the plate, is a conventionalism very commonly 
 found in the landscape-art of Waterloo's time. 
 
 WEIROTTER. A River Scene (British Museum, vol. ii. p- 
 5 6). A group of boats, with sails, in the afternoon sunshine, 
 their stems towards the spectator. Men are taking an anchor 
 in a small boat to the right, and two men are rowing in 
 another small boat to the left, over which is a windmill on
 
 n8 CANALETTI,RUYSDAEL,AND OTHERS. 
 
 the shore. For its brilliant lighting, clear composition, and 
 fine tonality, I think this is the best of all Weirotter's river 
 subjects, and, on the whole, his most desirable etching. 
 
 Civita Vecchia. A round tower to the left, from an 
 opening in which men are bringing merchandise down an 
 inclined plane to a boat. The tower and other buildings 
 are relieved against dark trees, and there are large white 
 clouds in the lower part of the sky, against which come the 
 yards of several lateeners. The foreground is entirely water, 
 calm, but slightly rippled, with boats. This is a very 
 characteristic example of Weirotter, for it includes all the 
 kinds of material which he most enjoyed. The plate is 
 bright and effective ; but a greater etcher would not have 
 given to it such steady equality of labour. Weirotter could 
 arrange a subject well, and had much manual ability; but 
 he had not the wayward choice, the delicate emphasis, the 
 charming caprices, and inimitably wise omissions of the 
 nobler aquafortists.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ZEEMAN. 
 
 TN the proportion of space allotted to each master, in the 
 course of the present volume, I have usually been guided 
 by considerations which have little to do with the estimate 
 of his rank and importance which is most generally prevalent. 
 The popular estimate of an etcher's rank is not based upon 
 his etchings, which are never popular, but upon his paintings ; 
 and etching is so little understood, that when an artist has 
 painted well and etched badly (David Roberts and Eugene 
 Delacroix are recent instances of this), his plates easily 
 obtain a greater degree of attention than they deserve. But 
 even if the general estimate of an etcher's work deserved 
 serious attention, which it does not, the question of merit 
 would not of itself decide the extent of space which ought 
 to be allotted to him. It may easily happen, as in the case 
 of Vandyke, that the most distinguished qualities may 
 belong to an artist of whom very little is to be said, whilst 
 some far inferior man may suggest whole pages of observa- 
 tions on the practice of the art, which ought not to be sup- 
 pressed merely because they are not connected with some 
 illustrious name. The subject of this volume being much 
 more the art of etching than the men who have practised it, 
 I have gone very much upon the principle of writing when 
 I had something to say, and stopping short when nothing 
 more remained that seemed to be worth communicating, a 
 principle which is often fatal to the strictly proportionate 
 treatment of a subject, but which nevertheless has the one
 
 120 ZEE MAN. 
 
 great compensating advantage, that the writing is not 
 forced. 
 
 Zeeman was not noticed in the first edition of this work, 
 because there did not seem to be any special reason for 
 noticing him. He has a chapter in this edition, because 
 from the direction of the most recent etching it is clear 
 that the danger of contemporary students lies in the ambition 
 to be elaborate, and especially in the desire to realise every- 
 thing, without leaving anything to the imagination. The 
 practice of some etchers of the Dutch school may be useful 
 as an example of simplicity of treatment, and Zeeman 
 especially is an excellent instance of this. I am far from 
 wishing to set him up as a great etcher ; he never was great, 
 but he worked on clear and simple principles from which he 
 never departed, and modern work may be done upon the 
 same principles whenever we choose to adopt them. Zee- 
 man's art was formal and naif, and not nearly so rich in 
 various knowledge and observation as the art of the most 
 accomplished moderns, but it is quite possible to express 
 much richer knowledge than he ever possessed by the means 
 which he employed. There is no necessity to adhere 
 minutely to his artistic recipe, it is enough to understand 
 what is really worth attention in his principles. 
 
 His artistic recipe was to divide the scene into three 
 planes distance, middle distance, and foreground; the dis- 
 tance to be very pale, the middle distance rather dark, and 
 the foreground invariably black. Sometimes there were four 
 planes, in which case there would be two middle distances ; 
 but it was never consistent with Zeeman's recipe to have a 
 light foreground and a dark distance, though such a combina- 
 tion occurs very frequently in nature. 
 
 We need not trouble ourselves about any recipe of this 
 kind. Modern art has got far beyond that stage, and places, 
 as nature does, its lights and darks where they are needed 
 for the most various effects.
 
 ZEEMAN. 121 
 
 What we may learn from Zeeman and other artists of 
 his time is the value of a clear decision about the interpreta- 
 tion of nature. His mind was quite made up about the 
 extent to which he meant to go in realisation. All very 
 luminous and even spaces were to be represented by blank 
 paper, fine gradations in them being left to the imagination 
 of the spectator. Shades and reflections were broadly and 
 quietly given, it being always clear whether a mass was in 
 shadow or in light. Texture was suggested by direction of 
 line rather than by actual imitation of the quality of surfaces. 
 One consequence, to Zeeman himself, of the adoption of 
 these principles was that his works are never muddled by 
 anxious experiments. All that he intended to do he could 
 do without any painful struggling to put accident on his 
 side. Therefore, it may be well for any one who is wearied 
 with such struggling to remember that the true ark of safety 
 is to be found in self-imposed limits to interpretation. In 
 imposing such limits upon our intentions, we do not accept 
 " imperfection," as it is sometimes called. All art which is 
 perfect as far as it intends to go is wholly perfect, and truly, 
 in the best sense, finished. In this sense Zeeman's etchings 
 are more finished than a great deal of modern work which 
 is far more laboured ; and if the great purpose of art is to 
 convey impressions, then these etchings are successful, for 
 they always fully convey the impression which the artist 
 intended to communicate. 
 
 I. Marine Subject. Two boats with sprit-sails and lee- 
 boards are leaving shore. In the right-hand corner a man is 
 hauling a small boat in with a boat-hook on the highest of 
 seven stakes which rise out of the water. There are sails in 
 the distance, and a square tower, with a glimpse of land. A 
 few clouds in the sky, and birds to the right. 
 
 This etching quite gives the idea of a tranquil Dutch sea 
 picture, with afternoon sunshine on calm water. The boats 
 are drawn with perfect knowledge, and the reflections will
 
 122 ZEE MAN. 
 
 bear criticism. A little thing is often of much importance 
 in art Here the shadows cast by the sprits upon the sails 
 give most of the impression of sunshine. 
 
 2. Marine Subject. Here it is low tide, and a sloop is 
 ashore on the right. There are several figures of men on 
 the sands, and a group of boats are drying their sails in the 
 middle distance. In the distance to the right we have a 
 church, with a spire and other buildings ; to the left, five 
 boats with sails. The water is dead calm. 
 
 The distance and middle distance are very slightly bitten, 
 and the sky a blank, except a few pale clouds and a little 
 horizontal shading at the top. It was Zeeman's way some- 
 times, when he wanted to give an idea of calm sky, to rule 
 a few horizontal lines at the top, and to the left, but he left 
 the rest blank. From the length of the shadows cast this 
 must be morning or evening. It is worth observing with 
 how few lines the calm sea is represented. The whole 
 distance is exquisite in temperance and delicacy. 
 
 3. Marine Subject. Sailing-boats receding into distance, 
 the nearest of them with a flag at the poop, as well as at the 
 peak and mast-head, and a square-sail under the bowsprit, 
 a man-of-war in the distance to the left, three punts and 
 several men in the foreground. 
 
 Nothing is better adapted than shipping for the study of 
 distances, because ships can be placed so conveniently at the 
 intervals that the artist may desire. This plate, part of 
 which is copied for the present work, is quite a model of 
 this very useful kind of study. In the early stages of 
 practice subjects of this kind will be found especially useful 
 for the definite purpose which they give to three or four 
 distinct and successive bitings, as the distances are marked 
 by clear intervals, and not by difficult gradations.
 
 PLATE VI 
 
 BOATS NEAR SHORE, 
 Part of a plate by ZEEMAN. 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE VI. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 122.) 
 BOATS NEAR SHORE, part of a Plate by Zeeman. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 The most distant boats, the clouds, and the sail of the nearest boat 
 but one ........ 
 
 The nearest sailing boat, and the hull of the nearest but one 
 Water near foreground ...... 
 
 Water in the immediate foreground ..... 
 
 Foreground figures ....... 
 
 Darkest things in foreground ...... 
 
 7 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 45 
 65 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 The plate was now as intended, except that some of the palest lines, 
 having been purposely overbitten (7 min.), had to be weakened with the 
 scraper and burnisher, whilst other lines had to be introduced. This was 
 done with the burin. 
 
 The plate is printed simply, with slight retroussage. It is wiped with 
 canvas, not with the hand.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GOYA. 
 
 J" T has not been part of the plan of this book to give 
 either biographical detail, or much commentary on those 
 qualities of artists which lie altogether outside of the artistic 
 qualities. It is easy, under the pretext of art-criticism, to 
 fill volumes both larger and more readable than this with 
 matter in which purely artistic studies are a very inconsider- 
 able ingredient ; and I am clearly aware that a shrewder 
 literary craftsman would have thrown the art of etching 
 altogether into the background, and amused his readers with 
 pleasant stories about the adventures of Salvator and the 
 amorous intrigues of Goya. Resisting these temptations, I 
 have kept in view one purpose only, the study of etching as 
 an art, and have given space to etchers only so far as they 
 have either really excelled in the art, or at least had the 
 reputation of excelling in it. 
 
 Whoever cares to know about the life of Goya may find 
 full information in M. Charles Yriarte's "Biography" (pub- 
 lished by Plon, 10 Rue Garanciere, Paris, 1867), which, 
 though a narrative of facts, is the most extraordinary romance 
 of artist-life imaginable. Goya was a man of very remark- 
 able endowments outside of art. He had immense physical 
 energy and courage, and at least as much moral audacity. 
 He was ready to measure swords with any bully who might 
 present himself, and sought adventures of this kind in the 
 disorders of the public streets. His numerous illustrations 
 of bull-fights are derived from personal experience in the
 
 124 GOYA. 
 
 arena, but he defied things even more dangerous than any 
 mere animal rage, for he was openly revolutionary in 
 religion and politics, exposed himself to the hostility of the 
 Inquisition, and even violated the rigid etiquette of the 
 Court of Spain. His successes with the fair sex were 
 innumerable ; his strength and courage, his easy self-confi- 
 dence and conquering address, made him a master in the 
 arts of gallantry, and he had mistresses in every rank of 
 life, from the women of the common people to the most 
 exalted ladies of the court. 
 
 Goya had imagination, but of a frightful sort, like the 
 imagination of a man suffering from delirium tremens ; yet 
 this imaginative familiarity with evil spirits does not seem 
 to have affected the happiness of his existence, a happiness, 
 such as it was, based on the substantial realities of the most 
 robust health and complete professional success, with the 
 satisfaction of all the appetites of an energetic animal nature. 
 His etchings are the expression of his violent and ebullient 
 personality ; they 1 are full of passion, but it is observable that 
 there is no trace of any delicate or tender sentiment, or rather 
 that what in other men would have been a sentiment of this 
 kind, as, for instance, pity for the sufferings of the afflicted, 
 takes, in Goya, the form of protest and antagonism, and be- 
 comes a furious cry of hatred against the oppressor. M. 
 Yriarte tells us that in Spain there exist pictures by Goya 
 which prove artistic delicacy and good taste, that there are pas- 
 sages of sweet colour, and feats of tranquil and loving finish ; 
 but I am compelled to doubt whether M. Yriarte's enthusiasm 
 for the subject of his book may not have led him to regard 
 those works too favourably. It is certain that he immensely 
 exaggerates Goya's rank as an aquafortist, in attributing to 
 him great technical skill, and especially in saying that he 
 has " few rivals in the practice of his art." I have met with 
 a small original etching by Goya, "The Prisoner," of which 
 the copper belongs to M. Lefort, and that plate is good even
 
 GOYA. 125 
 
 as an etching ; the quality of the work is really fine. This 
 may be considered to prove that Goya was capable of etch- 
 ing well occasionally, but to etch well was not his usual 
 practice. He generally etched rashly, audaciously, and with- 
 out the slightest care or pains to reach any beautiful or 
 agreeable quality. It is quite possible that a good painter 
 may be a bad etcher ; there are several instances of this 
 amongst our contemporaries ; and it is also possible that 
 his etching may bear some of the worst marks of presump- 
 tuous amateurship. Goya was original in manner, because 
 he took up the process without profiting by the experience 
 of his predecessors ; but ignorance is generally original, for 
 it has no traditions. It is natural that literary men should 
 like to write about Goya, because he is an excellent subject, 
 and very strong things may be said about his works without 
 overstepping the limits of simple truth. A well-known 
 living poet wrote a volume entitled " Chastisements," and at 
 the close of some verses of extraordinary force, said grimly 
 to his victim, " I hold the red iron, and I see thy flesh 
 smoke !" This is exactly the temper of Goya : he was 
 always inflicting chastisements, always holding red branding- 
 irons, and watching the steam hissing from the shrivelled 
 cuticle, and the bubbling blood. [Of all the great satirists, 
 he is nearest to the nature of a fiend. It was here that his 
 power lay, in his Satanic hate and scorn, not in the mastery 
 of a refined and delicate art It is right to add that, though 
 licentious to the depths of his being, he had more sympathy 
 with certain great modern ideas than any other famous 
 Spaniard. He was a son of the great revolution, and liberal 
 in feeling, though attached to a dissolute court. His works 
 have an important philosophical bearing, often disguised to 
 evade the Inquisition, and he tried to make men disgusted 
 with the horrors of war. Even his immorality is sometimes 
 only a protest against the still deeper legal immorality of 
 the mar i age de convenance.
 
 126 GOYA. 
 
 Bull-fighting; Plate 3. An artist who undertakes to 
 illustrate the science of bull-fighting ought at least to be 
 able to draw the parts of a bull. The ignorance of con- 
 struction is here so complete, that the nostrils are repre- 
 sented by two small round holes, the eye is out of proportion 
 and badly set, and the ear is not in its right place. There 
 is not a single instance, in all the thirty-three illustrations of 
 bull-fighting, of an eye or an ear even tolerably well drawn. 
 In one or two plates the nostrils are a little better than 
 these, but Goya's most general notion of a nostril, either in 
 a bull or a horse, is a round hole bored with a large gimlet. 
 He has never in a single instance drawn the ear of either 
 animal. 
 
 Bullfighting: Plate 7. Goya's childish ignorance of 
 animal form was seldom more strikingly manifested than in 
 the wretched little bull in the right-hand corner of this plate. 
 There was no difficulty in the attitude, for it is the easiest 
 of all possible attitudes ; and, since it is the same as that of 
 Paul Potter's bull, the reader may advantageously compare 
 the two animals. Paul Potter had not the fire of Goya, nor 
 his ferocity, but he condescended to study nature, which 
 Goya did not, and so taught himself the proportions of the 
 creature, and the shape of its most important joints. To 
 begin at the ground, look at these hoofs and fetlocks ! Could 
 the bull gallop with them ? Could he even stand on them ? 
 
 Bull-fighting : Plate 10. If you take an old rocking- 
 horse, and char its head with fire, and then smear what 
 remains of its face with thick white paint, you will possess, 
 in sculpture, a work of art, accurately corresponding in 
 scientific truths and artistic value to this wonderful horse of 
 Goya. The combination of ignorance with assurance never 
 ended in the production of art more hideously corrupt. Its 
 formlessness is like the falling away of the putrefied % flesh. 
 The art here is not merely lifeless, but it is rotten not a 
 pleasant word to use, but the most appropriate. 
 
 Caprices; Plate 23, Aquellos Pol bos. The first two
 
 GOYA. 127 
 
 words of a Spanish proverb, which means, " From this dust 
 comes that mud." The subject is a woman condemned by 
 the Inquisition, and clothed in the frightful and fantastic 
 costume which its victims had to wear. It is the nearest 
 approach to good etching by Goya that I remember. The 
 figure is simply and vigorously indicated, and there is nothing 
 unnatural or distorted in the attitude. 
 
 Caprices: Plate 30, Porque esconderlos ? ("Why hide 
 them ? ") An old man wants to hide his money-bags, and 
 his heirs are laughing at him, because they know that, how- 
 ever closely he clutches them, his death will shortly place 
 them in other hands. Nothing can exceed the hideousness 
 and baseness of these figures ; and the curious thing is that 
 Goya evidently liked to contemplate such baseness. 
 
 Caprices : Plate 3 6, Mala Noche. Two wretched women 
 out in a dark, windy night, their dresses blown about. There 
 is some poetry here, of a terrible kind, and the plate is 
 impressive. Goya's system of aquatinting for light and 
 shade, though artistically far more less complete than Turners 
 mezzotint, from the all but total absence of gradation, is here 
 sufficient for his purpose, and gives the necessary violence of 
 opposition to the white petticoats of the women, and the 
 necessary blackness to the night. 
 
 The etchings of Goya are in several different series : 
 The Caprices, 80 plates ; The Disasters of War, 80 plates ; 
 Bull-fighting, 3 3 plates ; The Proverbs ; and The Prisoners. 
 He also etched a series of horses after Velasquez, and a 
 series of dwarfs after the same master, besides many original 
 separate plates. Many of these are now rare, and I have 
 only studied about two hundred of Goya's etchings ; enough, 
 however, to convince me that, though he had certainly the 
 genius of a satirist, and plenty of imagination of the most 
 horrible kind, his etchings have little artistic value, and owe 
 their great fame to the fascination of their incomparable 
 horror, and a kind of philosophical reflection whose bitterness 
 suits our taste.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JONGKIND. 
 
 TN the first edition of this work I noticed Jongkind in a 
 chapter devoted chiefly to the minor Frenchmen, but 
 further study has decided me to give him a chapter to him- 
 self, as it happens that the qualities he relies upon are still 
 most rare in the modern schools. The purpose of his art 
 as an etcher may be explained in a few words. All land- 
 scape-painters make memoranda of impressions, which must 
 of necessity be done very rapidly if they are to be worth 
 anything, because the effects in nature change so fast that 
 they cannot be sketched at all by a slow hand. Jongkind 
 has so far trusted to the intelligence of the public (or of the 
 small cultivated public to which he addresses himself), as to 
 make memoranda of impressions directly upon copper, and 
 print them. This is the whole explanation of his work as 
 an etcher. But now comes the person living outside of art, 
 who, when he sees one of these etchings, feels first puzzled 
 and then offended, and thinks that both artist and laudatory 
 critic must be making fun of him. " Could not any child of 
 ten years old do as well ? " The true answer to this ques- 
 tion (it is not an imaginary question) is, that, rude as this 
 sketching looks, and imperfect in many respects as it really 
 is, the qualities which belong to it are never attained in art 
 without the combination of talent approaching to genius, 
 and study of a very observant and earnest kind, quite beyond 
 any possible experience of infancy. The right way to esti- 
 mate work of this nature is to look upon it as the artist's
 
 JONGKIND. 129 
 
 manner of noting down an impression in all its freshness. 
 Jongkind succeeds in doing this, either by an unconscious- 
 ness which is itself a great gift, or else by an effort of will 
 strong enough to set himself entirely above the criticism of 
 ignorance. There is something approaching to sublimity in 
 the courage which was needed to send plates of this descrip- 
 tion to the printer. All landscape-painters have made 
 memoranda of this class, though they rarely make them 
 quite so well, but Jongkind is the first who has had the 
 courage to publish them. It seems like the rashness which 
 tempts Providence to set these things before the French 
 bourgeois, or the English Philistine, for the only public they 
 are fit for is a public of true amateurs or artists ; but who- 
 ever can really read them is in a fair way for being able to 
 read all painting that sets itself honestly to the rendering of 
 the mental impression in its unity. * 
 
 Jongkind is invaluable to the student of etching as an 
 example of simple line-work pushed to its utmost extreme. 
 
 * Although the most ignorant people laugh at Jongkind because they cannot 
 see the difference between his brevity of expression and the meagreness of a child's 
 work, it so happens that two of the best etchers in Europe, in writing to me about 
 other matters, incidentally expressed their approval of Jongkind, and I find in 
 Charles Baudelaire's L'Art Romantique a hearty and intelligent appreciation of his 
 work, which may be worth quoting here. 
 
 "Chez le meme editeur (Cadart) M. Jongkind, le charmant et candide peintre 
 Hollandais, a depose quelques planches auxquelles il a confie le secret de ses sou- 
 venirs et de ses reveries, calmes comme les berges des grands fleuves et les hori- 
 zons de sa noble patrie singulieres abreviations de sa peinture, croquis que 
 sauront lire tous les amateurs habitues a dechiffrer Tame d'un artiste dans ses plus 
 rapides gribouillages" 
 
 Whether the etchings of Jongkind are more frequently abbreviations of his 
 painted work or sketches done from nature or recollection, I cannot quite 
 certainly inform the reader ; but in any case the word "abbreviation" is rightly 
 used by Baudelaire, and if the reader thinks of these etchings as an excellent kind 
 of shorthand in which the expression is abbreviated to the utmost, he will come 
 very near to a right understanding of their purpose, though it is not possible fully 
 to appreciate their singular and curious merits as an interpretation of nature with- 
 out studying nature itself. They are full of keen observation of natural facts and 
 effects.
 
 i jo JONG KIND. 
 
 He gives as few lines as possible, never dissimulating them, 
 and never attempting any shade or gradation that would 
 require much craft of biting. Such biting as he does give 
 is quite simple and decided, about three bitings to each 
 plate a good vigorous black (no mistake about that), a 
 middle tint, and a pale tint for distance. The shading is 
 generally open, but runs very close for contrast in some 
 passages, such as the black hull of a ship. He is always 
 careful to economise labour in shading for fear of spoiling 
 the vivacity of his plate, which it is so very easy to do. 
 Thus the open sky with him is blank paper, and so is calm 
 water, only waves and reflections being indicated by lines. 
 He sketches clouds in frank line, broad and bitten shallow. 
 He resorts also sometimes to a kind of blotting, like that of 
 the ink in pen-sketching. 
 
 The town of Maasslins, Holland. A skating scene on a 
 canal to the right, elevated above the level of a plain to the 
 left, and divided from it by an embankment. There is a 
 great windmill to the left, and the town with its churches is 
 in the distance. Plate dated 1862. 
 
 Readers who have studied Topffer will remember what 
 he says about the difference between identity and resem- 
 blance. If an artist draws a thing quite accurately, he gives, 
 not something resembling the form, but the actual form 
 itself as it strikes the retina. But it is possible to give a 
 resemblance of the form, very remote from identity, and yet 
 much more interesting to the spectators, interesting even 
 from the very contradiction between its demonstrable inac- 
 curacy, and its curious look of truth. This may account for 
 the strange interest of the skating figures in this composi- 
 tion. Are they men and women ? Certainly not, for men 
 and women so constructed could never walk much less 
 could they skate. They are mere puppets, no more, yet 
 such lively puppets that they give us the notion of skating, 
 far better than more elaborately drawn figures would do if
 
 JONG KIND. 131 
 
 their action had been less happily conveyed, whilst from the 
 system of execution used being exactly the same as that for 
 the surrounding landscape, they harmonise with it perfectly. 
 It is very interesting to notice with how little labour Jong- 
 kind suggests a gradation. One is suggested (not realised) 
 in the water, and another in the cloud near the mill. The 
 spectator's imagination immediately supplies what is want- 
 ing. 
 
 Entrance to the Port of Honfleur. (Dated 1863). As 
 there are no clouds in this sky, the artist has wisely left it 
 perfectly blank, because white paper (or paper with the 
 slight tint left by the ink when the plate has not been 
 cleared with whitening) expresses the serenity of the pure 
 sky with a perfection that would be most probably lost if 
 any attempt were made to shade it, whilst the gradation in 
 the shading would probably be too imperfect to satisfy a 
 delicate taste. We are made at once to feel that the light 
 comes from the spectator's left by the shadows from the two 
 masts of the brig, which fall towards the right. The water 
 is expressed by a few widely-separated wave-marks. There 
 is a little very light tinting of transparent shade upon the 
 pier and distant houses. The steamer close to the pier 
 (apparently a mere confusion of blotted black lines) is a very 
 clever representation of the effect of a steamer upon the eye 
 at that distance. There are two cutter-rigged boats to the 
 left in the middle distance, and a rowing-boat with four men 
 in it, over the signature. All these are remarkable for great 
 liveliness and motion, and, as in all Jongkind's etchings, when 
 anything is moving at all we are made to see and feel that 
 it is moving. 
 
 View of the Railway Port at Honfleur. (Dated 1866.) 
 A singularly awkward subject to choose, with disagreeable 
 perspective lines of rail and quay edge, and a perfectly blank 
 space in the middle. It is worth study only for its perfect 
 unity and truth of impression, for it gives you exactly the
 
 132 JONGKIND. 
 
 feeling of being at one of those uncomfortable railway ports 
 where you are generally liable to be run over by a waggon, 
 and to be tripped up by a rope in attempting to get out of 
 its way. The sky is cleverly treated with its few thin 
 diagonal clouds, and the calm water to the left is expressed 
 with a few wavy lines for prolonged reflection from boat and 
 vessels. If the reader has the plate, by all means let him 
 observe the very summary execution of the little cock -boat 
 with its two inhabitants. 
 
 Sortie du port de Honfleur. (i 864.) To my feeling this 
 is the best of Jongkind's plates. It is composed of water 
 and sky, with shipping and boats, and there is a lighthouse 
 on the shore in the distance on the right hand, and a large 
 building to the left. The sky is cloudy, and darkens to the 
 right with powerful open shading, so energetic that it seems 
 as if done with sabre-strokes, but it is not deeply bitten. 
 The black hull and masts of the brig in the foreground to 
 the left are bitten very energetically, and are a very fine 
 example of powerful treatment of near material. The water 
 is translated by open lines indicating ripple, or a generally 
 calm surface and reflection, both being expressed with great 
 knowledge, though most laconically. There is some parti- 
 cularly clever treatment of shallow broad lines about the 
 steamer to the right, and some masterly black blotting as in 
 a pen-sketch. As usual, there is much motion in the boats 
 that move under sail or oar, which enhances the tranquil 
 majesty of the stationary brig.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VAN S'GjRA VESANDE. 
 
 n^HIS etcher was not included in the first edition of the 
 present work because his etchings have been published 
 subsequently. I think that he has a fair right to the dis- 
 tinction of a separate chapter for the following reasons : 
 
 There are few etchers in any age who are at the same 
 time simple in their methods of work, and original. The 
 proportion of such etchers at the present day is small indeed. 
 There have never been so many etchers at one time as there 
 are now, yet out of the hundreds who practise the art it is 
 difficult to find more than a very few who express ideas of 
 their own directly and harmoniously. It is sometimes 
 believed that such summary expression of original concep- 
 tion is very easy, and almost beneath the attention of 
 accomplished artists, who are able to carry their work very 
 far forward in the direction of what is popularly considered 
 to be " finish ; " but the truth is, as any one who likes to try 
 it will soon discover for himself, that the power of etching 
 simply and beautifully at the same time is very rare. It 
 has always seemed to me, and it seems to me still, that this 
 gift is the gift for an etcher, and it is so because it saves him 
 a world of technical trouble in the regrounding of plates, 
 rebiting, rubbing out with charcoal, and so on, all which toil 
 of a manual kind is a loss of time which might be spent in 
 what is more essentially art
 
 i 34 VAN S' GRAVESANDE. 
 
 M. de Gravesande * has published two portfolios of etch- 
 ings, the first consisting of thirteen plates, including the 
 title, the second of ten plates. In each collection there are 
 etchings which might have been omitted without loss, simple 
 studies from nature, without sufficient artistic significance to 
 afford a substantial reason for publication. It is necessary 
 to draw the line somewhere, and I think it ought to be 
 drawn between works which have composition, or what looks 
 like it; that is some relation between their component parts, 
 and those in which there is no such relation. Simple studies 
 of objects are valuable to the artist, but may be kept for his 
 private use.f 
 
 Le lac d'Abconde. Part of a lake with a flat shore. 
 Two windmills and some trees in the distance, pollard 
 willow, and rushes in the foreground, to the right. A sailing- 
 boat on the water, and also a small boat in which a man is 
 sculling. Long clouds slightly sketched in the sky, and a 
 few wild ducks. 
 
 The most noticeable thing here is the treatment of the 
 water, which is full of real knowledge, expressed with the 
 utmost simplicity of method. There is a broad band of 
 ripple in the distance, then a calmer interval which reflects 
 
 * Carel Nicolaas Storm van S'Gravesande is a Dutch gentleman, with the title 
 of Jonkeer, and a son of the Vice-President of the house of Representatives, who 
 is also a member of the Council of State. He studied for the bar, and took the 
 degree of Doctor of Law at the University of Leyden, but, having a strong taste 
 for art, quitted legal studies for the career of a painter, to which he has remained 
 faithful since, for the occasional pursuit of etching can scarcely be considered an 
 infidelity to the Muse of Painting, however jealous she may be. As the subject of 
 this notice published his etchings at Brussels he translated his name into French 
 for the convenience of the southern public, and called himself Charles de Gravesande. 
 
 t It appears, too, as if in his second publication M. de Gravesande had 
 associated together plates too widely different from each other in size, so that the 
 smaller ones are injured by too much margin, a matter well worth noticing, as it 
 happens to engage our attention. It is a great mistake to suppose that a margin 
 cannot be too large. An unreasonably wide space of margin makes an etching (or 
 drawing) look insignificant instead of enhancing its importance.
 
 VAN S ' GRA VESANDE. 1 3 5 
 
 the windmill, or rather just recognises it. The boat is sailing 
 on another space of ripple, and little waves come washing in 
 amongst the rushes. The group of trees in the distance is 
 treated comprehensively in masses, but the pollard willows 
 to the right seem coarsely drawn when you think of the 
 delicate beauty of a real willow. 
 
 A u bord dtt Gein prh A bconde. 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. The material 
 is nothing but a river shore with a few trees and bushes, 
 and a windmill. The sky and water are both great tranquil 
 spaces of white paper, the one varied by four or five very 
 light streaks of cloud, and a few birds, the other by bits of 
 vegetation rising above the surface, and a ripple here and 
 there. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that the 
 tender and delicate beauty of the shading on th,e windmill 
 and distant foliage, and of the corresponding reflections in 
 the water, is equal in the quality of softness to the softest 
 work in a chalk or charcoal drawing, whilst in the strong 
 deeply-bitten markings on the nearer shore and foreground 
 there are a vigour and decision which belong to etching 
 alone. This etching is indeed a perfect model for three 
 great qualities whose union is rare indeed. It is both very 
 tender and very strong, and at the same time very re- 
 served in the best and wisest way. The consequence is 
 the harmony of a complete impression, in which nothing is 
 insufficient and nothing excessive. The reserve is most 
 visible in the treatment of water and sky. An etcher has to 
 choose, for open sky, between the tranquillity of blank paper 
 and the gradation to be obtained by shading. The gain by 
 shading is doubtful, because the gradation is likely to come 
 wrong ; the loss in any case is certain, because no shading 
 can ever have the purity and repose which in blank paper 
 come so near to the quality of sky. Therefore in an etch-
 
 VAN S'GRA VESANDE. 
 
 ing like this, the blank paper is far from being meaningless ; 
 it means the spotless, lineless texture of sky and water 
 which in nature is so pure. 
 
 LfEscaut d Burght, prh Anvers. A shore with a small 
 jetty and landing-stage, boats in the foreground, and a 
 steamer and sailing vessels in the distance. This plate is 
 beautifully composed (observe, for example, the utility of 
 the two oars), and the distant boats are skilfully introduced. 
 M. de Gravesande's boats and boatmen are always full of 
 life, even when the man is a speck on shore or the sail a 
 speck on the horizon ; and his study of water deserves praise 
 for thoroughness and temperance, for its true indication of 
 the perspective of rippling surfaces, and that delicate noting 
 of reflections which marks what is most faintly perceptible, 
 and rejects all arbitrary theories of what the water pheno- 
 mena ought to be for a subtly intelligent observation of 
 what they are. 
 
 Entree de foret. The entrance of a dense pine-forest, 
 no sky visible nor any distance, as the eye can only pene- 
 trate a few yards into the gloom amongst the trunks of the 
 pines. In the foreground is a narrow and rough road going 
 into the forest. 
 
 This plate is almost entirely etched in strong, deeply- 
 bitten markings, like Turner's etched work. It is one of the 
 most impressive sylvan subjects I ever met with, and at once 
 reminds us of Dante. Not only are the deep markings well 
 etched, but there are also most skilful shadings and salissures 
 of the copper between the lines. 
 
 Le Retour de la Peche. Women coming back from the 
 fishing on the sea-shore under a high cliff. They are just 
 descending a rude wooden stair set against a strong sea-wall, 
 with massive beams and planks. 
 
 This large plate is more in the direction of tone etching 
 than the artist's earlier works. The cliff is all in shade, and 
 so are the figures. The wood-work is powerfully etched
 
 VAN S'GRAVESANDE. 137 
 
 in line. The scene is poetical and impressive, but not 
 beautiful. 
 
 Pecheurs sur la c6te de Normandie. Rocks on the shore 
 at low tide, with a few women seeking shell-fish amongst 
 the weeds. Sea calm, without boats. A few light clouds 
 in the sky. 
 
 Remarkable as the simple and poetical rendering of a 
 true motive. It makes you feel exactly as you would feel 
 in the dreary place itself, with nothing visible out to seaward 
 but the calm water and calm sky, and nothing more in- 
 teresting or beautiful on the shore than rude rocks and poor 
 fisher-folk gathering a scanty subsistence before the tide 
 rises. The panoramic length of the drawing aids the 
 dreariness of the impression, for we see that, however far 
 we look to right or left, the scene is still the same, with 
 no hope of anything less melancholy than stones, and sand, 
 and salt-water.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS. 
 
 TT was not the original design of this book to mention any 
 artists but those who etched their own compositions, for 
 when an etcher interprets a picture he ceases to act as a 
 creative artist, and becomes merely a translator. The 
 important position, however, which etching has assumed of 
 late years as one of the branches of engraving, will not per- 
 mit me to pass in silence so accomplished an executant as 
 Unger, but since for the same reason it has become neces- 
 sary to mention several other etchers from pictures, I have 
 preferred to group them together in a chapter towards the 
 end of the volume, in which their special branch of the art 
 is studied in a more connected way than it could have been 
 if the materials had been scattered throughout the book. It 
 would be impossible, in such a chapter, to omit the works of 
 William Unger, and at the same time it would be very dif- 
 ficult to do him justice when occupied with original etchers, 
 because an entirely peculiar kind of criticism has to be 
 applied to an etcher who interprets painters. There is 
 always, in such a case, a great risk of confounding the 
 painter and etcher together, and of attributing to the latter 
 merits which are not his own, or shortcomings for which he 
 ought not to be held responsible. A critic will therefore do 
 wisely to keep the two classes of etchers apart, and the 
 same reasons may make the separation a convenience to the 
 reader also by removing some causes of perplexity. 
 
 Amongst original modern German etchers, the best of
 
 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS. 139 
 
 those known to me is Gauermann. His etchings of animals 
 are often delicately accurate in detail, and in such a piece 
 of work as the drawing of a goat's horn he will often prove 
 a rather surprising skill. It would nave been no more than 
 justice to give him a separate chapter, or at least to study 
 one or two of his principal plates, and some readers may 
 think it strange that so hasty a sketcher as Jongkind should 
 be so honoured when Gauermann is passed with a simple 
 mention. Let me explain, therefore, that in my view of the 
 art, which will probably be found to be the correct one, no 
 accomplishment in the representation of details, however 
 exquisitely they may be done, can atone for the absence 
 of that far higher kind of study which sees things in 
 
 their mutual relations as parts of an artistic whole. Accur- 
 
 i 
 
 acy in separate detail may be reached with painstaking, by 
 workmen of the most ordinary intelligence. Open any 
 French book of science or travel, illustrated carefully by 
 the best wood-engravers of the day, and you will find 
 details of the most astonishing minuteness, often almost 
 rivalling those of the photograph ; indeed this very clever 
 handicraft has been carried to such a pitch of perfection of 
 late years, that it seems impossible for it to be carried 
 farther. Such study of detail in scientific or mechanical 
 illustration is precious for its utility, but in the fine arts 
 detail is never precious unless in absolute subordination to 
 some artistic scheme which embraces the whole work, and 
 even then the detail is worth having only just so far as it 
 helps the greater unity in its effect upon the mind. The 
 study of detail for itself is positively injurious to compre- 
 hensiveness of sight. Examine a leaf on a tree, and whilst 
 your attention is occupied with the individual leaf, you will 
 not see the branch as a whole, still less will you see it in its 
 true relation to the background of hill or sky. The most 
 idle of all idle occupations is to spend time in "finishing" 
 things which will never take their proper place in the com-
 
 t40 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS. 
 
 position. Until everything is in its right place it is no use 
 thinking about finish, and when the parts are in right rela- 
 tions to each other, very little finish will be needed. The 
 enormous Kunstverein (German Art Union) etchings are 
 amongst the most curious examples of wasted labour in the 
 world. The hastiest scrawl of any artist who can truly see 
 half-a-dozen things at once is worth a lifetime of such mis- 
 taken industry. Mere skill with the fingers and patience in 
 labour, without selection, without comprehensiveness, with- 
 out emphasis, without passion, are offensive in proportion to 
 their very success. The more a dull etcher practises the 
 art, and the more assiduously he trains himself in the sort of 
 base dexterity which dulness devises, the more hopeless does 
 his work become. 
 
 The full severity of these remarks is deserved by the 
 work of the true German Philistines, but there are some 
 Germans whom it would be unjust to write against quite so 
 energetically. Gauermann, above mentioned, is not dull, 
 but only rather too observant of truth in detail to see truth 
 in mass. The landscapes of Zimmermann and Wurthle are 
 not without some comprehensive energy, but still not suffi- 
 ciently free and intuitive for great etching, and Morgenstern 
 (who punningly signs himself Morgem:-) is somewhat bolder 
 than Zimmermann, but deficient in lightness and grace. 
 Eberle finishes cleverly in a pretty modern way, and Brenn- 
 hauser is skilful to a degree which only makes one regret 
 the misapplication of his abilities. 
 
 It has happened, since the first edition of this book ap- 
 peared, that many etchers in different countries have sent 
 proofs of their plates to me. In this way I have enjoyed 
 opportunities for becoming better acquainted with the state 
 of the art in different parts of the world. The tradition of 
 the old Dutch etching lingered into our own century in the 
 person of an etcher named Trooftwyk, who died young, and 
 left a little series of plates behind him, which were founded
 
 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS. 141 
 
 on the practice of Potter and his school, not, I believe, as a 
 conscious revival of a past state of art, but simply and sin- 
 cerely as a tradition. This etcher, though so near our own 
 time, seemed wholly untouched by modernism in his com- 
 positions, but in isolated subjects he once or twice rivalled 
 the beautiful detail of Gauermann, and showed a modern 
 temper and sympathy with animal life, especially in his 
 affectionate studies of dogs. All his cattle, on the other 
 hand, are seen through the medium of the traditional Dutch 
 etching of another time, and have the spirit of it so com- 
 pletely that one might easily suppose them to be the very 
 cattle which browsed and sunned themselves in the Holland 
 of two hundred years ago. 
 
 Contemporary Italian etching appears to owe what 
 activity it possesses to French influence chiefly. The Duke 
 of Sartirana has etched one or two plates which may be 
 mentioned honourably, especially one which appeared in the 
 publication of the French club for 1869, entitled "En Italie. 
 La Peche aux Grenouilles" This was quite artist's work, 
 although the author was an amateur. Other plates by the 
 same etcher prove a careful study of tone in masses, not 
 always sufficiently sustained by adequately rendered form. 
 In this instance etching is a family tradition, as the father of 
 the present Duke of Sartirana practised the art assiduously. 
 Amongst modern Italian painters who seem to have the 
 genuine etcher's gift, I may mention Bianchi of Milan, but 
 he has produced very little, not choosing frequently to lay 
 aside the brush for the etching-needle. Alberto Maso Gilli 
 is an excessively skilful realist, who represents the comedy 
 of bourgeois existence with undeniable force, both of expres- 
 sion and execution, but it is a kind of talent which, though 
 startling for the vivid reality of its effects, is essentially 
 vulgar in more respects than one. The very brilliance of 
 the trompe fctil, so successfully aimed at, is vulgar in itself. 
 Every imaginable artifice is resorted to in order to obtain a
 
 1 42 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS. 
 
 deceptive relief. Figures are set in strong lamp-light against 
 black backgrounds till they stand out like models, and they 
 are shaded with a completeness that leaves nothing to the 
 imagination. There can be no question, however, as to the 
 manual and technical power with which the purpose is ac- 
 complished ; sometimes, indeed, the technical power is so 
 striking, that a more refined artist might well envy the pos- 
 session of it. In " Un Rimprovero " a wife is taking a 
 malicious pleasure in letting her husband know that she is 
 aware of some infidelity ; the woman's face is for the most 
 part in strong shadow, and it would be difficult to find in 
 the greatest works of the greatest masters a more thorough 
 piece of work than the shading of that face, in which every 
 gradation is attended to, and every reflection, even to the 
 faintest. The different expressions of the two faces are as 
 life-like as they possibly can be, but all this technical and 
 other ability is" employed to tickle the tastes of a very low 
 section of the vulgar continental public. 
 
 Etching is now practised in every country sufficiently 
 advanced in civilisation for any thorough culture of the fine 
 arts. Paris is the metropolis of etching, but of what is done 
 there this is not the place to speak. There is a good deal 
 of etching activity in places often too scattered for good 
 results. The position of an etcher, for example, in some 
 remote locality in America or Australia, is not favourable 
 to rapid progress, because he may be stopped by technical 
 difficulties in what French artists call la cuisine de I'eauforte, 
 or he may not. direct his studies from nature towards the 
 kind of skill and knowledge which is specially most useful 
 to an aquafortist. An isolated etcher, however, is better off 
 than an isolated painter, because he can easily get examples 
 of good work which may be purchased cheaply when rarity 
 is not an object, whereas good pictures are always costly 
 things, and the isolated painter sees little but his own can- 
 vases. Very curious instances of the effects of isolation
 
 MODERN GERMANS AND OTHERS. 143 
 
 reach me from out-of-the-way places in different parts of 
 the world. For example, an American sent me a series of 
 large etchings of lake scenery in his own country, in which 
 all the trees were well drawn, some of them even remarkably 
 well drawn, with a strong sense of sylvan beauty, and much 
 evidence of observant study ; yet, at the same time, all the 
 other components of lake scenery, mountains, water, rocks, 
 and foreground vegetation, were done with exactly the 
 degree of knowledge which is common in the works of 
 school-girls. Now, if this etcher had not been so much 
 isolated, some artist-friend would have told him to direct his 
 studies more equally. Other solitary students get into 
 difficulties with their chemicals, not being able to deal pro- 
 perly with acid and copper. They complain, too, of their 
 distance from a competent printer who would test their 
 plates in various ways. Then they let themselves be influ- 
 enced by friends who know nothing about the art, or about 
 any art, and so toil after false finish. The consequence is 
 that there is very little good etching done anywhere in the 
 world by students who are not in communication with Paris 
 and the leading etchers there.
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 THE FRENCH SCHOOL.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 
 
 "P^OR the last fifteen years the practice of etching has 
 gradually become a more and more important branch 
 of artistic work in France, and now the French school is not 
 only the most active in Europe, but it is so influential that 
 all other schools are directly affected by it. At first the 
 art was revived by a few isolated artists, including some of 
 the most distinguished painters, who etched a few plates for 
 their own satisfaction. In this way Eugene Delacroix 
 etched a little, so did Meissonier, Daubigny etched more, 
 Charles Jacque gave still more attention to the art, and at 
 last a great number of painters pursued etching sufficiently 
 to attain a certain degree of skill. Then came Meiyon, who 
 did not succeed as a painter, but gave himself entirely 
 to etching, and so expressed a rare and original genius. 
 Lalanne, too, a very clever artist in black-and-white, who 
 worked but little in colour, found etching much to his 
 taste, and produced many plates. Martial, a very accurate 
 draughtsman of streets and buildings, became a most pro- 
 ductive etcher, and issued hundreds of careful studies on 
 copper, which proved his mastery of the process. Jules 
 Jacquemart, who had worked before in water-colour, took 
 to etching with the rest, and astonished every one by an, 
 unexampled truth and delicacy in the rendering of still life, 
 so that his works were at once appreciated by all who valued 
 beautiful representations of beautiful things. In this way 
 the impulse was given, and the art was alive again. Then
 
 148 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 
 
 a young and energetic publisher, M. Alfred Cadart, deter- 
 mined to devote himself to the publication of etchings, and 
 gathered round him the scattered artists and amateurs who 
 had revived the art. He founded a club, called the " Societe* 
 des Aquafortistes," which published some fine things, and a 
 good many plates that tried to be fine but were not ; yet, 
 however defective may have been many of these attempts, 
 they were singularly free from the bourgeois or Philistine 
 spirit, and addressed themselves to the appreciation or to the 
 indulgence of the genuine critic or artist, rarely to the tastes 
 of the vulgar. The SocittZ issued a monthly publication of 
 five plates, which gave place later to a smaller periodical 
 issue, called L' Illustration Nouvelle, in which a more equally 
 good quality was aimed at, and in some measure attained. 
 Finally, in 1874, M. Cadart began to issue an annual port- 
 folio of much higher average quality than either of the 
 two monthly publications. During the twelve years which 
 elapsed from 1862, he had also published a great number 
 of independent collections of etchings by various artists, 
 many of which deserved the serious attention of the public. 
 
 Although M. Cadart was the only French publisher, 
 and, indeed, the only publisher in the world, who has made 
 etching his specialty, several others in Paris have included 
 it amongst other kinds of engraving which they brought 
 before the public. The most noteworthy instance of this 
 is its employment by M. Hachette for his unprecedented 
 edition of the four Gospels, illustrated by Bida with 128 
 pictorial compositions, which were all etched by Bida him- 
 self and fifteen other etchers. The enormous sum of money 
 lavished on the production of this work would never have 
 been risked twenty years ago on an enterprise which de- 
 pended upon etching for its success. At that time a 
 publisher determined to invest fifty thousand pounds in a 
 monumental enterprise would have selected line-engraving 
 as a matter of course, and the intensity of the general
 
 THE RE VIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 149 
 
 prejudice against etching, both in the trade and out of it, 
 would have prevented him from even taking it into con- 
 sideration as an admissible kind of art. Times are changed, 
 however. 
 
 The fame and splendour of this great publication, of 
 which a hundred and forty proof copies on Dutch paper 
 were sold at ^80 apiece, whilst 20 was the price of an 
 ordinary one, ought not entirely to eclipse many minor 
 publications which have been illustrated with a few plates. 
 
 Several other publishing houses have employed etching 
 as a means of book-illustration for works of the highest 
 class in Editions de bibliophile. Messrs. Marne, of Tours, for 
 example, have used it for their magnificent editions of La 
 Fontaine, Pascal, Bossuet, Boileau, Fenelon, Madame de 
 Sevigne, and La Bruyere, all which are illustrated in etching 
 by Foulquier. The tasteful printer and publisher, Jouaust, 
 whose charming editions of old books are so well known 
 to collectors, has brought out the tales of the Queen of 
 Navarre and the Decameron of Boccaccio with etchings 
 by Flameng, all inventions of his own, which entitle him to 
 honourable mention as an original etcher, independently of 
 his rank as an engraver. In this way the public is becoming 
 familiarised with etching, which no longer appears strange 
 and unfashionable. This result is also due to the steadily- 
 maintained influence of two periodicals, L? Artiste and the 
 Gazette des Beaux A rts, both of which have for many years 
 employed etching as their principal means of illustration. 
 Daubigny contributed plates to L 'Artiste in 1840, 1842, 
 and subsequent years, and the same periodical gave en- 
 couragement to other artists at a time when the demand 
 for etchings was so slight that they had little chance of 
 reaching the public without the regular circulation of a 
 magazine. This magazine was founded in the year 1831, 
 and, though not remarkable for much refinement of taste, 
 has rendered an appreciable service to the fine arts by
 
 150 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 
 
 disseminating lithographs and engravings of various kinds, 
 many of which have been of a high character. It has never 
 been exclusive with regard to the kind of engraving em- 
 ployed, and it willingly admitted etchings of the most 
 artistic kind (such as those of Charles Jacque and Dau- 
 bigny) at a time when they were by no means generally 
 popular. The editors appear to have consulted very differ- 
 ent tastes, for some of the lithographs which they inserted 
 could with difficulty have been tolerated by any one capable 
 of appreciating the etchings, and they even gratified lady- 
 subscribers with coloured plates of the fashions. What is 
 truly painful, however, is not so much to see common art 
 admitted into a periodical as to see great art systematically 
 excluded because it is not likely to please the multitude, 
 and the credit which L' Artiste deserves is for not having 
 excluded work of a high kind, which always appeals to 
 a limited and cultivated public of its own. Along with 
 much that was coarse or meretricious in taste, this periodical 
 has issued some of the very best work, both in lithography 
 and etching, which has ever been produced in Europe ; and 
 if the revival of etching is traced to its sources it will be 
 evident that one of those sources is the manner in which 
 L? Artiste was edited, and the liberality with which it pro- 
 vided for the tastes of a minority. It not only encouraged 
 Daubigny and Charles Jacque at the commencement of 
 their careers, but it has since then encouraged other genuine 
 artists, such as Flameng, Veyrassat, Bracquemond, Soumy, 
 and Queyroy. The foundation of the Gazette, which 
 occurred much later (in 1857), was also a fortunate occur- 
 rence for the development of etching. This periodical has 
 been favourable to etching, not only directly by the publica- 
 tion of etched plates, but also indirectly, by keeping itself, 
 with admirable consistency, far above all condescension to 
 the bourgeois or Philistine spirit, both in its criticisms and 
 its illustrations, most especially perhaps in the courageous
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 151 
 
 practice of printing the honest rough sketches of artists just 
 as they made them. There are hundreds of things in the 
 volumes of the Gazette which it is utterly impossible that 
 any Philistine should understand, and which must seem to 
 the bourgeois mind as ugly as they are incomprehensible ; * 
 so, as the periodical addressed itself to the educated public 
 only, it could employ etching, and has done so with good 
 results. The effect of an encouragement given to a particu- 
 lar branch of art is often felt afterwards in unexpected 
 directions. Trained by working for the Gazette, a group of 
 etchers found themselves able to undertake work of a like 
 quality beyond the limits of the periodical, and this led to 
 the habit of etching galleries of pictures, or selections from 
 them, a practice the limits of which it is impossible to 
 foresee. 
 
 The influence of one man is sometimes of the very great- 
 est importance even in those movements which appear to 
 be the result of a tendency generally prevalent Thus, in 
 the revival of etching, the engraver Leopold Flameng has 
 given a strong impulse to one branch of the art, that which 
 concerns itself with the interpretation of painting. He was 
 born at Brussels, of French parents, in 1831. At the age 
 of sixteen he was a sufficiently good engraver to contribute 
 plates of his own to a publication on the galleries of 
 Florence. As his knowledge of art increased, so did his 
 feelings of rebellion against the kind of engraving which at 
 that time was considered the only legitimate kind. He 
 could not endure the pursuit of mechanical regularity as an 
 aim in itself, and soon perceived that the greatest artists of 
 the past had been superior to such an idle pre-occupation. 
 
 * Such pen-sketches, for example, as the Martyre de St. Laurent, from a picture 
 by M. Lehoux, drawn by the author (published June 1874), and the Lever de Lune 
 & JSrmenonville, from a picture by M. Moullion, drawn by the author (published 
 August 1874). The boldness with which the Gazette publishes things of this kind, 
 which are perfectly intelligible to artists, but sure to irritate the ignorant, proves 
 that the periodical in question relies upon a very highly cultivated public.
 
 152 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 
 
 " Nanteuil, Edelinck, Drevet," says Flameng in a letter to 
 me, " n'etaient pas esclaves de la taille militaire (ainsi 
 nommde par M. Charles Blanc) des travaux bien alignes et 
 des tlegants treillages (expression d'Ingres) ils ne recherch- 
 aient que la perfection du dessin, la grace et la souplesse dans 
 l'6xcution." Flameng perceived, too, that in the work of 
 the great time there had been a certain rapidity in produc- 
 tion. A picture of importance was finished, and followed 
 very shortly by an engraving from it. " Edelinck ne met- 
 tait qu'un mois a graver un portrait admirable ! " Flameng 
 felt much discouraged by the condition of public taste in his 
 own time. Great engraving seemed to be killed outright 
 killed by Wille and Bervic, who gratified the public taste for 
 mechanical regularity by an extreme purity of incision and 
 an excessive manual skill, which it became their chief pur- 
 pose to display. "These men," says Flameng, "were not 
 artists, but ingenious artisans. To the misfortune of modern 
 art they transmitted their skill and their artistic ignorance, 
 and even at the present day they condemn their successors, 
 who follow the same path, to spend long years upon plates 
 which dazzle the eyes with a superficial brilliance beneath 
 which is nothing. It is like the silk dress on a lay figure." 
 In Flameng's opinion the commercial death of line- 
 engraving was not due to photography, as has been sup- 
 posed, but to the excessive striving after mechanical perfec- 
 tion, which involved such a terrible sacrifice of time. Pub- 
 lishers abandoned it because, after investing great sums of 
 money, they had to wait many years before the plate could 
 be ready for publication, so that the general interest in the 
 subject of it had often already evaporated. Flameng per- 
 ceived that etching had not this inconvenience of slowness, 
 that an etched plate might be produced in a reasonable 
 time, and that the great etchers had not troubled themselves 
 about that mechanical regularity which is the bane of art. 
 He therefore resolved to study etching especially, and see
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 153 
 
 what could be made of it. At that time he came to Paris, 
 where he worked at first obscurely, but after a while was 
 noticed by the justly eminent critic, M. Charles Blanc, who 
 was then engaged in founding the Gazette des Becuix Arts. 
 M. Charles Blanc at once perceived that Flameng was a true 
 artist-engraver, and that he would work in the genuine 
 artistic temper. He was therefore engaged as a con- 
 tributor, and has remained one down to the present day. 
 His work for the Gazette was in itself a training in the very 
 kind of artistic engraving which he desired to do, because, 
 from the admirable intelligence with which that periodical 
 was conducted from the first, every contributor was encou- 
 raged to think and feel as an artist. 
 
 Let me now briefly allude to another point in the history 
 of French etching which cannot be altogether omitted : 
 the position of the art in the public exhibitions. When 
 Flameng began to exhibit there was no chance for an etcher 
 to be honoured with any recompense whatever. The exhi- 
 bitions at that time were entirely under the control of the 
 Institute, a body not likely to welcome very warmly the 
 artistic endeavours of men who deviated from what was 
 then the established routine. This state of things was put 
 an end to by the Count de Nieuwerkerke, Surintendant des 
 Beatix Arts under the Second Empire. When, as a conse- 
 quence of his reforms, the jury was formed, independently 
 of the Institute, by universal suffrage amongst exhibitors, it 
 was more impartial, and soon recognised etching as an im- 
 portant branch of engraving. Flameng received medals in 
 1864, 1866, and 1867. In 1870 he received the Cross of 
 the Legion of Honour. 
 
 M. Charles Blanc, a critic not at all given to excesses in 
 the use of epithets, and far too accomplished a writer to 
 forget, even for an instant, the necessity for distinguishing 
 between shades of expression, calls Flameng " illustrious " 
 tillustre graveur an adjective always reserved, in French
 
 54 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 
 
 criticism, for the one or two men in a generation whom pos- 
 terity is likely to remember. The epithet is not misplaced 
 in this instance. Flameng is really one of those illustrious 
 men whose labours make epochs in the history of the fine 
 arts. He is a thoroughly great engraver, an artist-engraver 
 of the highest rank. Even if isolated, he would have had a 
 place in the history of art ; much more then is he secure of 
 such a place through the tradition already established by his 
 pupils, such as Laguillermie, Massaloff, and others. Though 
 but just in the noon of life, Flameng is already chef d'faole, 
 and chief of a school such as has not been seen since the 
 days of Rembrandt ; a school which interprets painting with 
 a sympathy, freedom, and power, which are not to be found 
 in the same degree in any other class of engravers. M. L^on 
 Gaucherel has a place too in the history of art, for the same 
 reason. " My best works," he says with a beautiful modesty, 
 "are my pupils." Amongst them may be counted such 
 artists as Rajon, Le Rat, Courtry, Duclos, Lalauze. 
 
 The one thing which strikes us in this French revival of 
 etching is the sustained and extended energy of the move- 
 ment. Although some English newspaper-writers, even in 
 considerable journals, are only just now beginning to be 
 really aware that there is such an art as etching, and are 
 wondering and laughing at it as a strange half-intelligible 
 new thing, like South Sea islanders when some puzzling 
 astronomical apparatus is landed upon their shores,"' the 
 plain truth is that the French revival was begun more than 
 twenty years ago, and has been gathering strength ever 
 since. And in saying this I am much within the truth ; for 
 if you take as examples the careers of two living veterans, 
 Charles Jacque and Daubigny, you will discover that- their 
 earliest plates were produced before 1840. The very first 
 plate by Jacque is dated ten years earlier, but that is a copy 
 
 * See a quotation from the Times newspaper in the chapter on the Revival of 
 Etching in England.
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE, 155 
 
 after Rembrandt, a worthy beginning. Observe too that 
 since 1840 Jacque has steadily continued, and that in 1866 
 his ceuvre amounted already to 420 plates. Daubigny 
 began to etch in 1838, and in 1841 he exhibited several 
 etchings at the Salon. Meryon was at work on his series 
 of Parisian subjects in 1850. Flameng exhibited in 1855. 
 These dates are quite sufficient to show that the movement 
 is not of yesterday, though the general public is only just 
 now beginning to be aware of it. 
 
 The great increase in the number of etchers dates from 
 1860 or thereabouts. It would be better for any fine art 
 that its practitioners should be few and able, if that were 
 possible, rather than numerous and for the most part unskil- 
 ful. What really happens, however, in the history of the 
 fine arts is this : There are many mediocrities in a genera- 
 tion, and a few men of true genius, so that it almost seems 
 as if, in the arrangements of nature, the crowd were necessary 
 in order that the men of genius might be produced. There 
 is a general state of sentiment amongst those who concern 
 themselves about art, which urges them in some especial 
 direction at a particular time ; and the men of genius either 
 lead the crowd, drawing it after them, or else go with the 
 crowd at first, and afterwards rise out of the midst of it, 
 lifting themselves, as it were, upon its shoulders. Charles 
 Jacque, Daubigny, and Flameng, were leaders, pioneers ; 
 Rajon, Le Rat, Laguillermie, followed a movement already 
 begun, but rose higher than most of those who followed it. 
 
 Few movements in art have been, on the whole, so 
 decidedly successful as this revival of etching in France. It 
 will occupy a very important place in the artistic history of 
 the nineteenth century. The chiefs of the revival have not 
 only made etching quite truly a living art again, but they 
 have pursued a course of study so wisely chosen that it has 
 led them to an absolute executive equality with the very 
 greatest etchers of the past The art is not merely alive
 
 156 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN FRANCE. 
 
 again, but it is alive in perfect strength. Never, indeed, in 
 the history of the fine arts have so many thoroughly accom- 
 plished etchers been gathered together within the walls of a 
 single city as there are at this hour in Paris. We do not live 
 in some short after-glow, some partial return of splendour 
 passed away, but in the full bright light of the morning.* 
 
 * Since this chapter was written, a new art periodical has been started in Paris 
 on a scale more important than either of its predecessors. The name of this new 
 magazine is L'Art ; it is published weekly, and each number contains, in addition to 
 other illustrations, one etching regularly, with the occasional addition of another. The 
 principal living etchers are on the list of contributors, and their chief business is the 
 reproduction of pictures. The advantage of L'Art over other periodicals is the great 
 size of its pages, which are in quarto grand colombier, a size measuring seventeen inches 
 by twelve. The first number contained a remarkably clever plate, by Rajon, from a 
 picture by Pieter de Hooge in the National Gallery (the Courtyard of a Dutch House), 
 but it is quite impossible for any periodical to keep up to that level regularly ; there are 
 not enough first-rate etchers in the world to do the work. However, the proprietors of 
 L'Art seem determined to enlist the best ability of the day, and if their venture succeeds, 
 as we may hope that it will, the art of etching from pictures will be supported by three 
 periodicals in Paris. It would be well, perhaps, if these periodicals gave rather more 
 encouragement, proportionally, to the independent art of etching, which has aims and 
 purposes of its own not unfrequently forgotten in the anxiety to interpret, by great 
 labour and often with doubtful success, the tones and textures of painting. But of this I 
 shall have more to say in another place.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CLA UDE. 
 
 "T^HE position of Claude as a landscape-painter may be 
 briefly defined before we consider him as an etcher. 
 He was the first artist who made landscapes thoroughly 
 charming by means of artistic and harmonious composition, 
 and beautiful effects of light. By these means he captivated 
 the connoisseurs of his time, and became the father of 
 modern landscape. But he had an essentially classical 
 mind, and therefore could not enjoy pure and wild nature 
 like Englishmen and Americans of the present day, and his 
 study of nature was never very deep or passionate. By 
 long labour, and on account of his artistic aim for he thought 
 more about art than about facts he came to possess on 
 some points a very extraordinary technical skill ; and this 
 skill, in combination with his pretty composition and agree- 
 able effects, has sufficed, and will probably always suffice, to 
 maintain his reputation. The modern study of nature has 
 proved that Claude was often scientifically weak, but it has 
 not dethroned him as an artist ; and although many of us 
 can see that he was ignorant of much that has since been 
 added to the common stock of information, we cannot prac- 
 tically beat him on his own ground. 
 
 His superiority as an etcher is chiefly a technical 
 superiority ; he could lay a shade more delicately, and with 
 more perfect gradation, than any other etcher of landscape ; 
 he could reach rare effects of transparency, and there is an 
 ineffable tenderness in his handling. These are his chief
 
 158 CLAUDE. 
 
 claims to our consideration, and he is so strong on these 
 points that such accomplished moderns as Haden and 
 Samuel Palmer have a great reverence for his name. Add 
 to these qualities a certain freedom and spirit in his lines, 
 which served him well in near masses of foliage, and a 
 singularly perfect tonality in one or two remarkable plates, 
 and you have the grounds of his immortality as an etcher. 
 He was great in this sense, but not great in range of intel- 
 lectual perception, and his genius at the best is somewhat 
 feminine. He has left a few unimportant and weak etchings, 
 but he has also left half-a-dozen masterpieces, which the 
 severest criticism must respect. One merit of his is not 
 common in his modern successors the extreme modesty of 
 his style ; no etcher was ever less anxious to produce an 
 impression of cleverness, and his only object seems to have 
 been the simple rendering of his ideas. He sincerely loved 
 beauty and grace, and tried innocently for these till his touch 
 became gentler than that of a child's fingers, yet so accom- 
 plished that the stubborn copper was caressed, as it were, 
 into a willing obedience. 
 
 Le Boumer : second state (Dumesnil, i. 13, 8). A herds- 
 man is seated near a pool of water which his cows are cross- 
 ing. Beyond the pool is a magnificent group of trees. To 
 the left of these trees are the remains of a temple, and, above 
 the herdsman, a distance with hills. For technical quality of 
 a certain delicate kind this is the finest landscape etching in 
 the world. Its transparency and gradation have never been 
 surpassed. The most wonderful passages are in the great 
 masses of foliage which have been, as it were, tenderly 
 painted and glazed with the point. The composition is very 
 beautiful ; and, though the study of nature is less accurate 
 than in some modern work, there is a noble movement in 
 the trees which accurate draughtsmen often miss, and which 
 an etcher, of all artists, is bound to interpret and preserve. 
 
 Le Soleil conchant ; second state (Dumesnil, i. 19, 15).
 
 CLA UDE. 159 
 
 A seaport at sunset. To the left, an arch of triumph in 
 shadow, and trees ; then a round tower, some battlements, 
 and a square tower ; after which two ships, and a distance 
 of hilly coast. To the right is another tower, near which is 
 the setting sun. 
 
 This etching is remarkable for the inexpressible tendei- 
 ness of its sky. When heretics and unbelievers say that 
 skies cannot be done in etching, it is always convenient to 
 answer them with a reference to this plate ; but the truth is 
 that although the sky is marvellously tender, and in this 
 respect undoubtedly the finest ever etched, the cloud-forms 
 are so simple and so little defined that Claude's success in 
 this instance has not solved more than one of the great 
 sky-problems. 
 
 Le Troupeau en Marche par un temps cCorage (Dumesnil, 
 i. 22, 1 8). Easily recognised by the massive fragment of a 
 ruined temple to the left. The temple has Corinthian columns, 
 of which three only are visible. A flock of cattle and goats 
 is driven by a man and a dog in the direction of the temple. 
 In the middle distance, to the right, is a rising ground with a 
 castle on it. Between the castle and the temple is a lake 
 with a village on its shore, and beyond the lake, in the 
 extreme distance, are mountains. The reader is recommended 
 to study more particularly the third state. 
 
 Claude seems to have had a sensitive and delicate nature, 
 more capable of enjoying the softly gradated sky of a fine 
 afternoon than the grandeur of gathering storm. The sky 
 here is curiously feeble and ineffectual, but the etching is 
 one of Claude's best, and especially deserves to be studied 
 for the piece of ruined temple, which is etched more firmly 
 and substantially than any other piece of architecture by him. 
 
 La Dame villageoise (Dumesnil, i. 28, 24). What follows 
 refers to the first state only. The subject is generally 
 exceedingly pale, and Claude has here made an experiment 
 in the direction of mezzotint, by slightly roughening the
 
 160 CLAUDE. 
 
 surface of his copper to obtain a tinted distance. The 
 foliage is exceedingly graceful, and, though the plate is 
 obviously an experiment, and an unsuccessful one, it is by 
 no means the least interesting of the series. 
 
 Scene de Brigands (Dumesnil, 5. 1 6, i 2). There is a 
 mass of trees to the left, at the foot of which are dock-leaves. 
 Towards the bottom of the trunk these trees are crossed by 
 a palm-tree, and under the palm-tree a man is attacked by 
 brigands. The distance is mountainous, and the middle 
 distance wooded. The point of interest here is the contrast 
 between the firmness and brilliancy of definition in the palm- 
 leaves and other foreground foliage, and the tender quality 
 of work in the distance and sky. 
 
 Berger et Bergere conversant (Dumesnil, i. 25, 21). 
 Not so rich in tone as some other etchings of Claude, but 
 free and grand in manner. The trees to the right have a 
 stately grace, and there is an extreme elegance in the tree 
 that divides the composition. There are some rolling clouds, 
 and there is little repose in the unquiet lines of the fore- 
 ground ; but the shepherd and shepherdess can have their 
 talk without paying much heed to so finely artistic a con- 
 sideration. 
 
 La Danse sous les arbres ; second state (Dumesnil, i. 14, 
 10). The central figure is a woman with short petticoat; 
 above her a group of trees. To the left is a woman with 
 tambourine, and four villagers are seated on the trunk of a 
 fallen tree. Foliage enriches the subject to the right and 
 left, and between the trees we perceive openings of hilly 
 distance. This plate is remarkable only for the manual 
 freedom in the foliage.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 C ALLOT AND BOISSIEU. 
 
 TT has already happened to me several times, in the course 
 of this volume, to mention artists when they enjoy great 
 reputations, even though I may have little personal sympathy 
 with their work. There is always, however, something to 
 interest us in the criticism of any artist, whether we like him 
 or not, for there is always a lesson to be learned. I believe 
 that no true etcher will get much good by the study of 
 Callot, because his manner was usually far more that of an 
 engraver than a genuine etcher ; but he was a man of great 
 genius and wit, and when he chose to use the point like a 
 true etcher he could do so very effectually. The bits of true 
 etching occur rarely, and only in parts of his works ; the 
 mass of what he did is spoiled, as etching, by reminiscences 
 and imitations of the burin. When the reader has studied a 
 few of the genuine etchers, he will at once see for himself in 
 what failure of this kind consists, and even so great a reputa- 
 tion as that of Callot will have little power to disturb the 
 tranquillity of his judgment. These great reputations are 
 so often due to something else than technical quality, or the 
 faculties which lead to high technical accomplishment, that 
 it is never any reason to conclude that an artist is to be 
 recommended as a model for imitation merely because he is 
 famous. 
 
 I have copied a small portion of one of Callot's etchings, 
 the gateway and bridge to the right of the Tour de Nesle. 
 The reader will at once observe that the bit I have copied is 
 
 M
 
 i02 C ALLOT AND BOISS1E U. 
 
 a composition in itself, and this leads us to one of Callot's 
 most curious defects. His larger subjects are not complete 
 compositions, but half-a-dozen minor compositions fastened 
 together in a sort of panorama. Any one of these, taken 
 by itself, looks more like a picture than the whole engraving 
 did, with its superabundance of ill-arranged material. In 
 this respect Callot differed as widely as possible from the 
 modern French school, which has understood that unity is 
 the first necessity of art, and has also perceived that a large 
 simplicity of subject is one of the easiest means by which 
 unity can be attained. Callot's power of composition was 
 often very great in little groups and bits, if considered 
 separately ; for example, there is a group of horses taken to 
 bathe in the river just under the Tour de Nesle, which is 
 grand enough to be a sketch for a noble picture ; the com- 
 position of it is as fine as it can be, but utterly thrown away 
 in the midst of so distracting a plate, where there is so much 
 conflicting material. What really secured Callot's fame was 
 the original and very life-like manner in which he treated his 
 figures. He had endless inventions in putting his little 
 people into what seemed natural groups. They are often 
 defectively drawn, glaringly out of proportion, and interpreted 
 with the strongest mannerism, but they act and live in the 
 great human comedy, and not even the most insignificant of 
 them are mere lay figures or dolls. As to their proportions, 
 the heads are generally too small, often ludicrously so. 
 Durer gave the head as an eighth of the body, and the 
 antique sculptors made it rather larger. Callot makes it 
 sometimes a ninth, and sometimes even a tenth. In the 
 plate entitled, 
 
 Ces pauvres gueux pleins de bon aduetures 
 Ne portent rien que des choses futures, 
 
 the player in the right-hand corner has so small a head in 
 proportion to his legs that the diameter of the calf is equal 
 to the whole distance from the chin to the top of the skull,
 
 C ALLOT AND B OISSIE U. 1 63 
 
 which would be a monstrous deformity in the living human 
 being, if ever such a misproportion occurred. Callot's exces- 
 sive mannerism is obvious. Its chief peculiarity is the habit 
 of reducing everything as much as possible to a peculiar 
 kind of curve, rather like the curve of a goose quill and 
 feather. If the reader will look at Callot's work with a view 
 to this curve he will be surprised by the frequency of its 
 occurrence. The chiaroscuro of his etchings and engravings 
 ought not to be criticised on the same principles as if it 
 were an attempt at complete chiaroscuro. It is a simple 
 indication of the direction in which the light falls, no more. 
 The texture of Callot's shaded surfaces is often not only 
 imperfect, but positively offensive, especially when he made 
 trellis-work with the burin, a plague to the eyes. He was 
 one of the very worst draughtsmen of landscape who ever 
 lived ; his trees are mere sausages, with tufts of grass for 
 leaves ; but he drew buildings with a sense of the picturesque 
 in architecture very rare in his own age, so that his records 
 of them are interesting in the highest degree, and we only 
 regret that they should be so few. 
 
 Boissieu is much more dangerous than Callot, on account 
 of his uncommon skill in the very things that a young etcher 
 is anxious to acquire. He could lay his tones with as near 
 an approach to absolute certainty as any etcher need hope 
 for ; and, in short, he was such a clever fellow that he could 
 do with his hands whatsoever his mind imagined. But all 
 this cleverness, though maintained by inexhaustible patience 
 and untiring industry, led only to delicate renderings of 
 distant tones, and a vulgarly deceptive imitation of nearer 
 objects. Boissieu could etch a tub till it looked as if it had 
 been photographed ; and he could etch a distant hill till it 
 looked as soft and grey as a hill in an old picture ; but both 
 tub and distance were always irremediably uninteresting as 
 fine art. Boissieu was an extraordinary master of vulgar 
 imitation, in which no etcher ever surpassed him ; and he
 
 1 64 CALL T AND B OISSIE U. 
 
 proved at least this, that there exists in etching a fund of 
 imitative resource which may be drawn upon to an extent 
 little dreamed of by people whose one idea about art is, that 
 it is the imitative copyism of objects, and who hate etching 
 because it is too interpretative for their taste. We shall 
 come later to an imitator of a far higher order, Jules Jacque- 
 mart : but even Boissieu had settled the question as to 
 whether etching, in skilled hands, could or could not imitate 
 things accurately. 
 
 CALLOT. La Tour de Nesle. The Tour de Nesle is to 
 the right, near the middle of the composition. Beyond it 
 are the towers of Notre-Dame in the distance, the Pont Neuf, 
 and several church steeples, besides blocks cf houses. The 
 foreground is animated by a variety of figures, some in boats, 
 some on horseback, others on foot. 
 
 The distant view of Paris is beautiful, and the various 
 distances are carefully preserved. There is some bad per- 
 spective, as in the tower itself, where the rings of masonry 
 are wrong. A set of circles, seen in perspective, the circles 
 being at various elevations above the spectator, offers just 
 one of those little perspective problems which puzzle an 
 artist who is not quite sure of himself. The figures have the 
 usual intense vivacity of Callot's men and women they are 
 all alive and doing something ; this is a power akin to that 
 of Cruikshank, who, by a similar energy in movement, has 
 given life to figures so small that the faces are hardly visible. 
 It is a sort of pantomime that fills this foreground from side 
 to side ; every group is amusing, and a child might pass half- 
 an-hour in inventing histories of the actors. 
 
 I need not expatiate on the great historical and topo- 
 graphical interest of this etching ; its value, as a record of 
 Paris in Callot's time, is almost inestimable. 
 
 The Louvre. Another view of the Seine, but this time 
 looking down the stream, with the Tour de Nesle to the left,
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 SCENE IN OLD PARIS, NEAR THE TOUR DE 
 NESLE, by CAI.LOT. 
 
 Copied by the Author
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 164.) 
 
 SCENE IN OLD PARIS, NEAR THE TOUR DE NESLE, 
 by Callot. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 
 This is a very small portion of the large plate which was published in the first 
 edition of this work. In the original the burin may have been a good deal used. 
 In the copy it has not been used. 
 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Distance and lightest touches on foreground .... 
 Middle distance ....... 
 Darker parts of middle distance ..... 
 Foreground ........ 
 
 12 
 25 
 
 35 
 So 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 Plate not retouched. 
 
 In printing, this plate has been first well wiped with canvas, and then 
 lightly retroussie in the foreground and the house to the right, but the 
 retroussage is strictly limited to these portions.
 
 CALLOT AND BOISSIEU. 165 
 
 seen from the other side. The water is crowded with high- 
 sterned galleys, with masts and many oars. The sails are 
 furled, the long pennons are powdered with fleurs de lis. It 
 seems to be a royal procession by water ; the quays are 
 crowded with figures. 
 
 This is a good instance of the way Callot used to spoil 
 his etchings, by employing engraver's methods of work. In 
 the buildings to the left, the shading, which was at first per- 
 pendicular, has been ruined by a set of unmeaning diagonal 
 lines, which produce a very unpleasant reticulation. There 
 is a mechanical rigidity in the building which is contrary to 
 the freedom of etching. The indications of cloud are weak 
 and engraver-like ; they have nothing of the quality of 
 liberal and noble art. The group of buildings just behind 
 the Tour de Nesle is in the highest degree picturesque 
 that is, we see that the buildings themselves must have been 
 picturesque ; but if they had only been reserved for Meryon, 
 how much they would have gained in the delineation ! 
 
 BOISSIEU. Vue du pont et dn chateau de Sainte Colombe, en 
 Dauphine. A battlemented and turreted castle to the right, 
 with a mountain behind it. Under the castle are a mill and 
 landing-stages ; then a river with a bridge, and to the left of 
 the bridge a massive tree ; to the left of the tree a ruin, with 
 arch beneath. In the foreground a landing-place, projecting 
 from a stone pier to wooden supports, and near the landing- 
 place a boat with large rudder, the boat containing barrels, 
 etc. There are several figures two men sitting on tiller, man 
 and woman sitting on end of pier, woman and boy walking 
 with a dog, man fishing, man standing leaning on his stick. 
 
 There is a considerable artistic craft. The distances are 
 kept well, relatively. The foreground is vigorous, with a 
 tendency to old-fashioned trifling here and there. The 
 reflection of the boat is careful, the work on the boat 
 tending to elaborateness, firm and good in light, but in
 
 1 66 C ALLOT AND B 01 SSI E U. 
 
 shadow needlessly black. The form of the mountain, as in 
 all art of that time, is wanting in firmness and knowledge. 
 
 Entree du village de Lantilly. A pale delicate sky with 
 some indication of cloud, a building to the right, with a 
 square mass like a tower roofed in the low pyramid form, so 
 often seen in southern countries. There is a staircase with 
 a low gable. There is a large tree to the left, with the trunk 
 partially denuded. The manual delicacy of the work in the 
 sky is very admirable, but the imitative rendering of the 
 tree-trunk is puerile, though skilful in a high degree. On 
 the whole, this is one of Boissieu's best etchings. 
 
 Les Tonneliers (the large print). Scene, the interior of 
 a wine-cellar. Persona, four men ; namely, a cooper striking 
 circles with his hammer, two cellar-men carrying wine in a 
 tub suspended on poles, a third standing and looking at the 
 spectator, holding a pitcher on a barrel. 
 
 This etching is mentioned for the marvellous imitative 
 finish in the barrel to the left not to recommend it for 
 imitation, but as a curious example of what may be accom- 
 plished in etching, in that direction, by an artist more skilful 
 than intelligent. 
 
 Vue du Passage du Garillano, en Italic. A pale sky, 
 with a few clouds, chiefly to the right. A mountain, a city 
 on a hill in the middle distance, an aqueduct to the right. 
 A river with a ferry-boat ; in the boat a carriage and pair, a 
 .man on horseback, and several other people. In the fore- 
 ground, to the left, a horse going to drink at a trough, a 
 man with him, another man, a woman, two children, and a 
 dog. In the right-hand corner is a man on horseback, 
 galloping away. 
 
 This is a very perfect etching of its kind. The tone is 
 most successfully reached everywhere. Many nobler etchers 
 might be glad of this technical certainty in getting the tone 
 just pale enough and just dark enough. It is a rare accom- 
 plishment, even amongst clever men.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MERYON. 
 
 \\ T HEN our enlightened century reflects on the ignorances 
 and injustices of the past, it is apt to be well pleased 
 with its own luminous superiority. Albert Durer was 
 wretchedly poor, and John Milton got an instalment of five 
 pounds on the completion of " Paradise Lost," but Mr. Frith 
 and Miss Braddon are paid in thousands. And are not 
 French artists rich and fortunate now ? Has not Meissonie* 
 just sold a picture for six thousand pounds? 
 
 No doubt, on the whole, both artists and writers are better 
 paid in these days than they have ever been before ; and 
 although both occupations are more crowded than ever, there 
 is a better chance now than there was formerly for a good 
 workman in either to obtain recognition during his lifetime. 
 But the favour of the public, and the rewards that it brings, 
 do not always find out and encourage the best men ; and 
 there has never been an age when an artist of rare and 
 peculiar power was more exposed to the mortification of 
 seeing vulgar work liberally remunerated, and noble work 
 passed in neglect. 
 
 The case of Charles Meryon is one of those painful ones 
 which recur in every generation, to prove the fallibility of 
 the popular judgment. Meryon was one of the greatest and 
 most original artists who have appeared in Europe ; he is 
 one of the immortals ; his name will be inscribed on the 
 noble roll where Durer and Rembrandt live for ever. A few 
 persons now living know this as well as I do, but these few 
 belong to a small and highly cultivated class, with which
 
 i68 MERYON. 
 
 the great art public has very little in common. An intelli- 
 gent writer upon art said, not very long ago, that artists had 
 no occasion to complain of the public, because, if the matter 
 were inquired into, it would be found that every artist had 
 his own public. This is, no doubt, in a certain sense true ; 
 every writer and every artist is appreciated by somebody, if 
 only he has some sort of talent and accomplishment ; but 
 for an author or an etcher to live by his work he needs more 
 than this little group of friends. Three customers will keep 
 a painter from starving for a year, but no composer of printed 
 matter could live if he had only three readers. An etcher 
 is a composer of printed matter, and he needs a public 
 sufficiently large to remunerate him adequately for his time, 
 that is, at least two hundred regular buyers. Now, to 
 find two hundred regular buyers, he requires ten times that 
 number of students and admirers ; and it is not always easy 
 to excite the serious interest of two thousand people. A 
 public which is not extensive enough to enable its favourite 
 to live by his labour, is for all practical purposes not a 
 public at all ; and it is in vain to tell an author that he is 
 unreasonable to wish for more than a hundred readers, or an 
 etcher that he is foolishly anxious for notoriety when he is 
 not satisfied with the approbation of the cultivated few. The 
 suffrage of the cultivated few is very desirable, and there is 
 more intellectual and artistic encouragement in the quiet 
 praise of ten competent persons than in the applause of 
 multitudes ; but the very love of art itself compels an artist 
 to wish for a public not only educated, but numerous ; 
 because, without either a numerous public or independent 
 private fortune, he cannot continue to work. Meryon was 
 sorely tried by public and national indifference, and in a 
 moment of bitter discouragement he destroyed the most 
 magnificent series of his plates. When we think of the 
 scores of mediocre engravers of all kinds, who, without one 
 ray of imagination, live decently and contentedly by their
 
 MERYON, 169 
 
 trade, and then of this rare and sublime genius actually 
 ploughing deep burin lines across his inspired work, because 
 no man regarded it ; and when we remember that this took 
 place in Paris, in our enlightened nineteenth century, it makes 
 us doubt whether, after all, we are much better than savages 
 or barbarians. Now that plates can be preserved by steel- 
 ing, the etchings of a man like Meryon would sell by tens 
 of thousands if the world knew their value ; but when such 
 work as this is set before the vulgar public, it is like casting 
 pearls before swine. 
 
 Meryon was born in Paris in 1821, the illegitimate son 
 of an English father. Much of the unusual delicacy of 
 perception which distinguished him as an artist, is attributed 
 by M. Burty to maternal influence. He studied mathematics 
 with much industry and application, and entered in 1837 
 the naval school of Brest. As a naval officer he visited 
 many remote shores, sailing even round the world, and 
 always employing his leisure hours in sketching everything 
 of interest that came in his way. But, though Meryon loved 
 the sea, and had a fraternal affection for sailors, his health 
 was not robust enough for a life of that kind, and he was 
 obliged to abandon his profession. Being already an intelli- 
 gent practical amateur, he endeavoured to become an artist ; 
 and, with the intention of adopting painting as a profession, 
 took lessons of M. Phellippes, a former pupil of David. As 
 a painter, Meryon did not succeed, probably from anxiety 
 to produce pictures without the necessary technical education. 
 Whilst suffering from disappointment in this ambition, he 
 happened to meet with M. Eugene Blery, who directed his 
 attention to etching. Meryon studied etching for several 
 months with M. Blery, and employed this time fruitfully in 
 the analysis of plates by the elder masters, which he copied 
 as exercises. This preliminary study was followed by 
 excursions in Normandy and a visit to Bourges, a picturesque 
 old city not very far south of the Loire.
 
 70 MERYON. 
 
 Before undertaking the series of original etchings on 
 which his fame will rest, Meryon laboriously employed the 
 art in the translation of other men's work, or in the execution 
 of more or less uncongenial commissions. What developed 
 Mdryon was his passionate wish to preserve some adequate 
 memorial of that picturesque old city of Paris which has 
 disappeared before the constructive activity of Haussmann 
 and Louis Napoleon. If old Paris had been likely to 
 remain a generation or two longer, it is possible that we 
 might scarcely have heard of M6ryon, because half the 
 quality of his work is due to the intensity of his affection 
 for remains whose destruction he foresaw with the most 
 bitter regret, as a near and irremediable misfortune which 
 he had no power to avert. But if an artist cannot save an 
 old building which he -loves, he may at least secure a 
 memorial of it, a memorial better than the fidelity of the 
 photograph, because it expresses not only the beauty of the 
 thing itself, but the pathetic affection of the one human soul 
 that cares for it. It became, then, the object of this artist 
 to make a series of etchings in which the old tourelles and 
 quaint streets of Paris should be preserved for future times, 
 and when he undertook this task he had already made him- 
 self the most accomplished architectural etcher, not only of 
 this century, but of all centuries ; not only of France, but of 
 the world. The opportunity for the exercise of Imperial 
 encouragement was exceptional and splendid ; and if the 
 Government had known its duty, Meryon would have been 
 commissioned to do perfectly, and on a far more extensive 
 scale, what he did imperfectly in the face of absolute public 
 indifference and the stern possibility of starvation. 
 
 So, without encouragement of any kind, this great artist 
 patiently laboured, etching with the strangest and most 
 novel union of sobriety of manner with depth of poetical 
 feeling. He printed a few copies of his plates, and left 
 them with different booksellers and dealers in engravings ;
 
 PLATE VIII. 
 
 PALACE OF JUSTICE, AND BRIDGE, PARIS ; 
 Part of a plate by MERYON. 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE VIII 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 170.) 
 
 PALACE OF JUSTICE, AND BRIDGE, PARIS, part of a 
 Plate by Meryon. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Lightest touches in extreme distance ..... 
 
 Sky 
 
 Distant building and paler ripples ..... 
 
 The remote pepper-box towers ..... 
 
 The nearer pepper-box towers . . 
 
 Lighter parts under arches ...... 
 
 Darker parts under arches with building to the left, and farther boat 
 Nearest arch with nearest boat 
 
 3 
 10 
 
 IS 
 20 
 
 25 
 35 
 45 
 55 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 The plate having been bitten as intended, there was nothing to be done 
 except add a few lines which had been omitted. The plate was covered 
 again with black ground, and these lines added and bitten thirty minutes in 
 Dutch mordant. 
 
 Second proof taken. 
 
 A few fine lines added in sky and water with dry-point A few burin 
 lines inserted here and there under the bridges. The splay of the arches 
 made visible by making the shade lighter with the burnisher. 
 
 Plate printed simply, being wiped with canvas only, and then very slightly 
 retroussle in the foreground and dark arch to the left
 
 ME ~R YON. 171 
 
 but the stream of life rolled past in its ceaseless flow, and 
 paid as much attention to these jewels as the waves of the 
 Mississippi give to some lost treasure on its banks. This 
 neglect seems to have produced the first visible symptom of 
 a mental malady, which clouded, with varying degrees of 
 darkness, the remaining years of the unhappy artist's life. 
 After living in the asylum at Charenton, where he continued 
 in some measure the practice of his art so long as physical 
 health remained, Meryon at length passed out of an exist- 
 ence made wretched by poverty, sickness, insanity, and by 
 the apathy of an age unworthy of him. Meryon became 
 subject to the hallucination that he was surrounded by 
 crafty and secret enemies, who were constantly plotting 
 against him. 
 
 As an etcher Meryon was remarkable for great cer- 
 tainty of hand combined with extraordinary caution. When 
 at work from nature he stood, and without support of any 
 kind, held both plate and mirror in one hand, laying the 
 lines with the other, and so steadily that the most skilful 
 etchers marvelled at his skill. No work ever done in the 
 world has been more absolutely honest, more free from 
 executive affectation or pride of method. He had great 
 subtlety and delicacy of observation, and a perception of 
 truth so clear, that it is strange how such bright insight 
 can have been compatible with any cloud or malady of 
 the mind. His work was sanity itself, by its perfect 
 and equal acceptance of various facts, by its patience and 
 steadiness in study, by its caution and moderation in 
 manner. Thus, as I pointed out some years ago, Meryon 
 was picturesque, but not narrowly and exclusively pictu- 
 resque ; for when a pure line occurred in a modern or 
 Renaissance building, he gave it with marked attention to 
 its especial quality of purity. It is, perhaps, to this very 
 capacity for appreciating purity that a certain peculiarity of 
 Meryon may be due, which has occasioned a doubt whether
 
 172 ME R YON. 
 
 he ought to be considered a great etcher, in the strict sense, 
 or a great original engraver. He did not sketch so much 
 or so freely as good etchers usually do, and there is a 
 severity in his manner not always compatible with the ease 
 of true etching. Nevertheless, I class him amongst true 
 etchers on account of his frank use of the explanatory line, 
 which is the chief test; added burin or dry-point work does 
 not prove impotence with the etching-point, and is little 
 more than a sort of glaze. 
 
 Considered psychologically, the work of Meryon is highly 
 curious. It is thoughtful, reflective, intensely personal, and 
 full of strange hints of a passionate fantasy, secret and sub- 
 dued. This mental quality, far more than the manual 
 dexterity of the artist, is the secret of his inexhaustible 
 charm. He is a sort of enigma for us. which we are always 
 trying to solve. Victor Hugo, with the clear eye of a poet, 
 saw at once this mental fascination, and saw that Meryon 
 needed to be strengthened by all possible encouragements 
 in his great struggle with the Infinite the infinite of Paris, 
 the infinite of the sea. This was said in Victor Hugo's 
 peculiar way he can never write without some allusion to 
 the Infinite or the ocean but in this case the word was 
 not inapplicable. Meryon was evidently an artist of vast 
 and vague aspirations, though a dull critic might be pre- 
 vented from seeing this by the unusual precision of his 
 manner. Beyond the actual buildings which he drew, there 
 are suggestions of long and lonely meditation on life and 
 nature, on time and space, and the bewildering abysses of 
 immensity. 
 
 Le Stryge. At an angle of one of the towers of Notre- 
 Dame there is a horned and winged demon who perpetually 
 contemplates Paris, his head resting on his hands, and his 
 elbows on a flat ledge of stone. He looks down the Seine 
 towards the pavilions of the Tuileries, and his stony eyes
 
 MERYON. 173 
 
 have watched through the long centuries the changes on its 
 banks. The face wears an expression of quiet and con- 
 tented observation ; from the Middle Ages, when this demon 
 first looked from his lofty post, there has been sin enough in 
 the great city to afford him uninterrupted satisfaction. He 
 saw the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and felt warm glad- 
 ness in his heart of stone whilst the chants of thanksgiving 
 rose musically in the choir below ; nor was he less inwardly 
 gratified when the slow processions of carts took the nobles 
 to the guillotine and the chanting priests were silenced. 
 Those uncouth ears have heard the roar and tumult of 
 revolution and the clamour of the near bells that shook the 
 grey towers in the hour of triumph, when the versatile 
 priesthood praised God and the powers that be. Nor have 
 public crimes or public miseries been the demon's only con- 
 solation. Night after night he hears the low splash when 
 the suicide leaps into the water, and a steady continuous 
 murmur of long lamentation and blasphemy. 
 
 When Meryon took the Stryge for a subject, it was with 
 ideas of this kind. If we deduct the malignant feeling which 
 may be attributed to a demon, the position of one who, from 
 a lofty height, surveys the life of a great city, is simply the 
 position of genius relatively to the multitude of men. And 
 Meryon himself, who was a genius of the order most given 
 to reflection and solitude, did not draw his demon without 
 some considerable amount of sympathy. Four ravens are 
 flying about him in the free air, like the dark and morbid 
 thoughts that visit a lofty but too much isolated mind ; and 
 thus, as we know, was Meryon himself assailed. 
 
 I am not quite sure whether the obviously false tonality 
 of this plate may not have been intentional, as the same 
 fault certainly was in some engravings of Albert Durer ; but 
 when a critic allows these things to pass in a work which he 
 admires, his silence may be imputed to ignorance. The 
 intense black in the street under the tower of St. -Jacques
 
 74 MERYON. 
 
 destroys the impression of atmosphere ; though at a consider- 
 able distance, it is as dark as the nearest raven s wing, which 
 cannot relieve itself against it. This may have been done 
 in order to obtain a certain arrangement of black and white 
 patches, but it seems unfortunate, and is certainly untrue. 
 The tower of St.-Jacques is, however, very right and beautiful, 
 and so is the curious distance over the roofs. 
 
 La Pompe Notre-Dame. If the reader will refer to 
 Turner's Rivers of France, he will find a subject called the 
 " Hotel de Ville and Pont d'Arcole," in which the picturesque 
 object that engaged Turner's attention and induced him to 
 make the drawing is evidently a curious building in the 
 middle of the river, and in the centre of the composition. 
 This building consists of a tower and two wings, and it is 
 entirely supported on a substructure of wooden scaffolding. 
 This is the pump which has furnished a subject for Me"ryon. 
 His remarkable precision of hand, and his usually wise 
 moderation in light and shade, have never been better 
 exemplified. Take, for example, the exquisitely gentle 
 curvature in the three main lines of the tower, and the entire 
 absence of exaggerated blackness throughout the whole plate. 
 Many of the wall surfaces are in the shade, but it is shade 
 illuminated by reflection. The intricate arrangement of the 
 massive carpentry is expressed with evident enjoyment and 
 a strong sense of construction. 
 
 L'A bside de Notre-Dame de Paris. The tonality here is 
 somewhat less accurate than in the plate just criticised, but 
 the questionable passages are chiefly in the bridge and 
 houses ; and the cathedral is a wonderful piece of work. 
 There are, no doubt, many living engravers who could get 
 quite safely through pieces of architecture not less elaborate, 
 and many photographs have been taken from this very 
 position, which, as copies of the building, are much more 
 mechanically perfect. The value of work of this kind is due 
 to an exquisite artistic sensitiveness, which has presented
 
 MERYON. 175 
 
 the subject to us in such a way as to give it poetical 
 interest. 
 
 Tourelle, rue de la Tixeranderie, demolie en 1851 . The 
 general reader may feel interested in this plate on account 
 of its subject, which is one of those picturesque corner-turrets 
 that the Scottish architects borrowed from the French, and 
 which give so much character to many an old tower north 
 of the Tweed. This was one of the finest examples which 
 had escaped destruction down to the middle of the present 
 century, and its demolition coincided with the erection of the 
 first Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. From the artistic point 
 of view this tourelle was worth considerably more than Sir 
 Joseph Paxton's enormous shed, but its disappearance was 
 not thought an event of much importance, except by a few 
 eccentric people, like Meryon, who do not always estimate 
 things by a tariff of material values. Readers who intend 
 to etch may find here much profitable study in the explana- 
 tory use of lines which constantly follow either the perspec- 
 tive of surfaces or the direction of shadows ; and the plate 
 has the additional advantage of showing, in a marked degree, 
 how moderate and refined is Meryon's understanding of the 
 picturesque. The stately turret and the free foliage of the 
 vine about its base would have had charms for any sketcher, 
 but Mdryon alone could have seen the full artistic available- 
 ness of the modern chimneys and roof, and the contrasting 
 value of the ugly modern house to the left. The explanatory 
 use of line has, in one point, been carried a little too far. 
 There is an attempt to render the appearance of wood, by a 
 somewhat puerile imitation of its grain. It may be observed 
 also that Meryon's readiness to accept unpicturesque material 
 has made him a little too tolerant, when he gives us the 
 bit of wall in the foreground forming an acute-angled triangle 
 of the most painfully mechanical sort. 
 
 La Rue des Toiles, Bourges, It is not easy to procure 
 the etchings of Meryon, which, for the most part, are out of
 
 176 MERYON. 
 
 print, the plates having been destroyed ; but the " Rue des 
 Toiles " was given by the etcher to a friend of his, and I 
 hired the copper for the Fine Arts Quarterly Review, in which 
 it appeared in January 1864. The subject is a picturesque 
 mediaeval street ; and though the etching is not so good as 
 those mentioned above for it has been over-bitten, and 
 there is some confusion in the tonality it gives, nevertheless, 
 an idea of Meryon's qualities as a mediaevalist. Victor Hugo 
 is known to be one of his warmest admirers, and these quaint 
 details have much in common with Hugo's picturesque 
 descriptions. 
 
 Le Pont Neuf. Early proofs of the latest state in which 
 all the dry-point work is given, show Meryon quite at his 
 best The Pont Neuf is the most picturesque of existing 
 Parisian bridges ; and however superfluous its projecting 
 turrets may have seemed to the utilitarian mind, they were 
 always delightful to artists. This plate has been engraved 
 for no other purpose than to show two of these turrets to 
 the very best possible advantage ; they are in full sunshine, 
 whilst all the rest of the plate is either in subdued middle 
 tint or sombre depths of shade. From the impenetrable 
 gloom under the massive arches to the aerial delicacy of the 
 distant street, there is the widest range of executive resource ; 
 but whatever has been done either in massive arch, or flow- 
 ing water, or many-storeyed houses, or clouded space of sky, 
 has been done always in honour of these two -turrets on the 
 bridge. Even the third turret, that nearest us, has been 
 sacrificed to them and cast into intentional shade ; and 
 when Meryon comes to the rounding of the far-projecting 
 cornice, where the gleam of sunshine falls, he follows every 
 reflection with an indescribable pleasure and care. The 
 wonder is that the delighted hand could work so firmly here, 
 that it did not tremble with the eagerness of its emotion and 
 fail at the very instant of fruition.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LALANNE. 
 
 TV/TAXIME LALANNE is the first artist who ever 
 received knighthood for his qualities as an etcher. 
 When the King of Portugal conferred upon him the Order of 
 Christ, it was expressly in recognition of the value of his 
 etchings ; but the King of Portugal is an etcher himself, and 
 knows good work when he sees it. 
 
 No one ever etched so gracefully as Maxime Lalanne. 
 This merit of gracefulness is what chiefly distinguishes him ; 
 there have been etchers of greater power, of more striking 
 originality, but there has never been an etcher equal to him 
 in a certain delicate elegance, from the earliest times till now. 
 
 He is also essentially a true etcher ; he knows the use of 
 the free line, and boldly employs it on due occasion. So 
 far his work is very right, but it has the fault of too much 
 system. Lalanne has reflected much upon his art, and has 
 decided in his own mind Jhat certain methods are good 
 methods, and so he sticks to these on all occasions with a 
 fidelity that amounts to a fault. No one can doubt, on 
 looking at any plate by Lalanne, for example the one in this 
 book, that he is a master of his craft, that he quite knows 
 what he is about, that he is always perfectly safe, and will 
 make the needle express anything he intends to express ; 
 but then, on the other hand, there is no reaching of the 
 mind beyond, no vague yearning after unattempted excel- 
 lence, nor any of those half-failures that attend undefined 
 and unlimited aspirations. 
 
 N
 
 178 LALANNb. 
 
 The defect of too much system may be due in this 
 instance, as it certainly was in that of Harding, to the habit 
 of giving lessons. Few artists who give lessons escape from 
 the temptation to invent and apply a definite method to 
 everything, because such definite methods are the secret of 
 apparent rapidity in teaching. If a great artist tried to 
 make an amateur-pupil follow him in his searchings for un- 
 attempted expressions of unknown thoughts, if he himself 
 became the " hierophant of an unapprehended inspiration," 
 as Shelley said that poets are and he included painters 
 amongst poets then the only consequence would be that 
 the pupil would be left behind, alone in the pathless wilder- 
 ness. A teacher who honestly tries to make his pupils learn 
 something, endeavours to simplify art for them ; that is, he 
 eliminates the vagaries of special research, and makes art as 
 systematic as possible. In doing this he runs infinite risk 
 of spoiling his own art, by abandoning all that he finds to 
 be unteachable ; in other words, all that is rarest and best. 
 
 Rue des Marmousets (Vieux Paris). A capital bit of 
 street-sketching. In this street dwelt of old a pastry-cook, 
 who, with the help of his neighbour the barber, murdered a 
 man in the pastry-cook's house and made pies of him, which 
 were highly appreciated by the public. " C'est de terns 
 immemorial que le bruit a couru qu'il y avait en la cite de 
 Paris, rue des Marmousets, un patissier meurtrier, lequel 
 ayant occis en sa maison un homme, ayde a ce par un sien 
 voisin barbier, faignant raser la barbe : de la chair d'icelui 
 faisait des pastez qui se trouvoient meilleurs que les aultres, 
 d'autant que la chair de rhomme est plus delicate, a cause 
 de la nourriture, que celle des aultres animaux." In M. 
 Lalanne's etching the lines of the old houses, curving slightly 
 and leaning back from the street, are followed with much 
 interest and enjoyment, and every accident in wall or window 
 is made the most of. 
 
 A Bordeaux. A view of the city of Bordeaux, which has
 
 LALANNE. i 79 
 
 the honour of claiming Lalanne as one of its distinguished 
 citizens. One of the least interesting of his plates. No 
 doubt the cathedral spire and lofty tower with the scaffold- 
 ing set up all round it are indicated with rare delicacy ; no 
 doubt the line of houses along the quay is suggestive of 
 much wealth and large population ; and the long bridge and 
 the shipping are cleverly put in ; and the boat in the fore- 
 ground serves, with its black mass, as a vigorous repoussoir. 
 Nevertheless, the plate is dull, and its dulness is to be attri- 
 buted, I imagine, to the impervious blocking-up of the view 
 by that too long and regular line of houses that stretches 
 entirely across it. 
 
 Demolition pour le percement du Boulevard St.-Germain. 
 Though the conventional black shadow crosses the fore- 
 ground, there is great delicacy and truth in the tall tower- 
 like scaffolding, the houses in the middle distance, and the 
 beautiful dome of the Pantheon, visible beyond, like a 
 mountain-crest pale and delicately outlined, seen beyond a 
 middle distance of rugged cliffs and a foreground of scattered 
 boulders. 
 
 Demolition pour le percement de la Rtte des fecoles. The 
 foreground is dark again under the conventional black 
 shadow, but a glancing side-light illuminates an irregular 
 block of houses, bringing their picturesque projections^into 
 strong relief. To the left is a delicate, light spire, probably 
 that of the Sainte-Chapelle, seen through haze, and executed 
 like the cathedral of Bordeaux in the plate criticised above. 
 This spire, and the distant bit of street under it, are full of 
 mystery, and by their extreme delicacy of tint give great 
 force to the intentionally rude work in the foreground. It 
 is a fixed principle with Lalanne to draw near objects with 
 heavy and open lines, and distant ones with light and close 
 lines, keeping a regular gradation between the two of gradu- 
 ally increasing refinement, as the needle passes from the 
 foreground. Like all good etchers, he is very particular in
 
 i8o LALANNE. 
 
 making his lines explanatory ; the direction of the shading 
 in this foreground, always various, always carefully thought 
 out, is an excellent instance. 
 
 Vue prise du Pont St.-Michel. One of the most charm- 
 ing scenes which the improvements in Paris have opened out 
 to us, and the most beautiful etching hitherto published by 
 the French Club. The majestic domes of the new Louvre 
 rise in their strange, accidental, unaccountable way above 
 the long line of the great palaces of royalty and art ; the 
 Pont Neuf is just under them, all in shadow except its 
 picturesque projections that catch the sunshine, and its grace- 
 ful curve to the right, where it joins the brilliant quay. Soft 
 reflections from the noble bridge fall undisturbed amongst 
 the resting barges ; and groups of trees whose artistic value 
 the Parisian edile knows so well, stand by the noble river, 
 having no more fear of the axe than if they sunned themselves 
 on the loneliest shore of all her hundred leagues. 
 
 Aux Environs de Paris. The foliage is very graceful 
 and elegant, but the excessive love of waved lines in spray- 
 drawing has led to some want of woody quality. It is the 
 garden of one of those delightful habitations where the 
 dainty taste of the Parisian architect has exercised itself in 
 the free country, and where a rich man who is aesthetic 
 enough to know the value of a beautiful dwelling may enjoy 
 the possession of it in peace. 
 
 A Neuilly, Seine. Notable for the same elegance as the 
 preceding subject. The water is not sufficiently studied, but 
 the foliage is beautiful. 
 
 Paris. Vue prise du Pont de la Concorde, The largest 
 etching by the artist, but by no means the best. The 
 indication of distances is true as to tone, but neither the 
 water nor the foliage is sufficiently studied. The water is 
 not level, and there is an abuse of straight lines in the shading 
 of the foliage. The plate is an attempt to introduce etching 
 as a decoration for walls ; this etching is intended for framing.
 
 LALANNE. 181 
 
 It would be interesting to see further attempts in this direc- 
 tion, which might make the art somewhat more popular . 
 but it may be doubted whether it is generally wise to attempt 
 very large plates. 
 
 Chez Victor Hugo. A series of twelve small etchings, 
 some of which are remarkable for a minute delicacy, obtained 
 without sacrifice of breadth. The best are the " Salon 
 Rouge," the " Galerie de Chene," the " Cheminee de la 
 Galerie de Chene," and the " Look Out." The " Porte de la 
 Galerie de Chene," and the " Cheminee de la Salle a 
 Manger," may also be mentioned. These plates are not 
 far removed in manner from contemporary English work, 
 and are as good as the best of Horsley and Cope. As 
 studies of still-life they are very admirable, but too photo- 
 graphic in their system of chiaroscuro, often losing detail in 
 black where detail is still clearly visible in nature. Victor 
 Hugo inhabited, when in exile, an ugly modern house, the 
 inside of which he made as romantic as possible, with carved 
 wood and collections of various kinds. The incongruousness 
 between the Philistinism of the house itself, and the poetry 
 of its contents, is very glaring, and would make the place 
 even more intolerable to any one with a sense of fitness 
 than a Philistine dwelling consistently furnished on the 
 principle of Philistinism. 
 
 Trait 6 de la Gravure a VEauforte (plate 3, opposite page 
 66, first edition, lowest of the three subjects on the plate). 
 M. Lalanne has published a useful treatise on etching, much 
 better than any of its predecessors, and illustrated by his 
 own hand. This little landscape-subject is the most delicate 
 and most graceful landscape-etching ever executed in France 
 since Claude's time. It is perfectly charming, and well 
 worth the price of the whole book. The trees are rich and 
 majestic, the water liquid, the bit of foreground vigorous and 
 frank, the distance delicate and aerial. It is an epitome of 
 Lalanne's excellence; and the only misfortune about it is,
 
 1 82 LALANNE. 
 
 that, since it is published, not as a work of art, but as an 
 illustration of method, nobody will pay any attention to it. 
 
 A Fribourg, Stiisse. A portion of this etching is given 
 here, and the reader will be able to gather from it all the 
 essential peculiarities of Lalanne's method from the fore- 
 ground to the distance. He will also at once recognise the 
 ease and certainty of Lalanne's execution, qualities of the 
 greatest importance in this open and frank kind of etching.
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND, by MAXIME LALANNE. 
 A portion of the original plate.
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 182.) 
 
 FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND, by Maxima Lalanne. 
 
 A portion of the original plate. 
 
 The following table of bitings is conjectural, as an accurate register was not 
 kept at the time. It will be found, however, very nearly accurate, having been 
 ascertained by experiment on another copper. 
 
 BITINGS. 
 
 Nitric acid and water in equal quantities. 
 Bath (not artificially heated) 65 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 Extreme distance ....... 
 
 Distant towers, etc. ....... 
 
 Street and distance to right ...... 
 
 Trees, fountain, and central house, with small kiosk, also upper 
 buildings to left ... .... 
 
 Deepest lines in foreground ...... 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 30 
 
 This plate has probably not been retouched. It was done from nature, 
 and is a perfect example of Lalanne's manner in original sketching. 
 
 The nitric acid used is at forty degrees, which means that when the pese- 
 acide is set to float in the pure acid, the surface of the liquid will coincide 
 with the fortieth degree on the register. This gives the degree of density of 
 the acid. 
 
 l
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JACQUEMART. 
 
 T ULES J ACQUEMART is the most marvellous etcher of 
 J still-life who ever existed in the world. In the power 
 of imitating an object set before him he has distanced all 
 past work, and no living rival can approach him. Jacque- 
 mart has no invention, little art in composition, and probably 
 neither a very retentive memory nor any profundity of 
 thought, but he sees more clearly, and draws what he sees 
 more exquisitely, than anybody else. He has pushed imita- 
 tion in etching to the utmost imaginable refinement, and 
 developed it to the utmost possible force. The union of 
 these two qualities, force and refinement, was never more 
 perfect, even in the work of the great men of the past; but 
 it must be remembered that Jacquemart, though a true king 
 in his art, is king of a minor realm. He is amongst etchers 
 what Blaise Desgoffe is amongst painters, an unapproachable 
 copyist of matter. 
 
 Such copyism as this amounts, in its way, to genius. 
 The beauties which Jacquemart sees and reveals in a master- 
 piece of goldsmith's or lapidary's work are for the most part 
 imperceptible by the common eye. Like a true artist and 
 poet, he teaches us what to look for ; and we come at last by 
 his guidance to perceive magic qualities in the precious relics 
 of the past, till cups of crystal and agate, and sword-hilts, or 
 chalices of gold, are for us themes of inexhaustible wonder, 
 objects of unwearied interest and contemplation. I never 
 knew the glory and beauty of noble old work in the precious
 
 1 84 JACQUEMART. 
 
 stones and metals till Jules Jacquemart taught me. The 
 " Joyaux " of the Louvre were familiar to me, but a veil 
 hung between me and their true splendour ; and it was only 
 when Jacquemart had etched them one by one that I learned 
 to know them truly. An egg of crystal belonged to a 
 fortune-telling gipsy ; her eyes could see magic figures in its 
 watery clearness which revealed to her the hidden mysteries 
 of fate ; often have others looked into it, but always without 
 apprehending the secret things of destiny. So we have our 
 precious gems and vases, and we never know their inner 
 wonder and significance till there comes a genius like 
 Jacquemart, when suddenly the scales fall from our eyes, and 
 for the first time in our lives we see ! So true is this that 
 the study of Jacquemart's etchings has definitely increased 
 my enjoyment of common objects, such as plate and crystal 
 on a dinner-table, and the veinings of marble, and the trans- 
 parencies of jewels ; I apprehend subtle lustres and reflec- 
 tions in these things which were once imperceptible to me, 
 and I know that the difference is due to the etchings of Jules 
 Jacquemart I know this as positively as a man who has 
 been successfully operated for cataract knows to what surgeon 
 he owes the recovery of his sight. 
 
 Jacquemart has etched some landscapes and views of 
 cities which show no sign of remarkable artistic powers. He 
 has also published a work on book-binding, giving soft- 
 ground etchings of many old designs, all executed in the 
 prosiest possible way, and as unlike what he does now as the 
 ugly duckling to the swan. His portraits are sometimes 
 clever, and his compositions of flowers still more so, but it is 
 conceivable that another man might attain the degree of 
 skill shown in these etchings. When Jacquemart illustrated 
 porcelain for a work of his father, " Histoire de la Porcelaine," 
 he began to be inimitable ; and when he was commissioned 
 by M. Barbier de Jouy to illustrate the jewels of the Louvre, 
 he stood at last on his own ground, master of his subject,
 
 JA CQ UEMAR T. 185 
 
 master of his means, safe from all human rivalry, a prince in 
 a little fairy princedom of his own, full of enchanted treasures, 
 full of gold and opal and pearls, of porphyry and sardonyx 
 and agate, of jasper and lapis lazuli, all in the deepest and 
 truest sense his own ; for what rich man ever so truly 
 possessed these things ? 
 
 Histoire de la Porcelaine (plate 6). The etching repre- 
 sents a Chinese dinner-plate and two cups. Jacquemart's 
 principle of imitation has evidently been to give the greatest 
 importance to local colour, and to admit only just so much 
 effect as may be necessary to indicate the form of the object. 
 There is effect, however, though often infinitely subtle, in 
 every etching in the work ; one side of an object is always 
 more strongly lighted than the other side, and the light in 
 its passage reveals, by hints of ineffable delicacy, the pro- 
 jections and hollows of the porcelain. The relation of local 
 colour to chiaroscuro is here strictly that aimed at by Paul 
 Veronese, and is precisely the one best fitted for the repre- 
 sentation of painted ware. There are two personages ; a 
 lady in her garden, and her lover scaling the wall ; both have 
 black hair, which, in each case, occurs on a part of the plate 
 which is in full light, but Jacquemart takes no notice of this* 
 and makes the hair as black as he possibly can. This is 
 justifiable because both heads are surrounded by perfectly 
 white porcelain, which by contrast would make the hair strike 
 us as two patches of absolute black, even in full light 
 
 Histoire de la Porcelaine (plates 14 and 15). Especially 
 marvellous for the imitation of texture and surfaces. If the 
 reader will observe the way in which Jacquemart has imitated 
 the craquelt and the souffle in the two vases of plate 14, and 
 the lower part of the tea-pot in plate 15, and then study the 
 rich colouring of the upper part of the same tea-pot, he will 
 agree with me that when etchers fail to render texture, it is 
 either because they disdain it, or because they have not
 
 1 86 JACQUEMART. 
 
 mastered the art, and not from any defect inherent in the 
 nature of the process. 
 
 Huit Etudes et Compositions de Fleurs. It is not necessary 
 to offer special criticism of any of these compositions, but I 
 may direct attention to qualities which are common to all of 
 them. The true nature of the petals of a flower has never, 
 to my knowledge, been so well expressed in art. The petal 
 of a flower, considered simply as tissue, is quite unlike any- 
 thing we are accustomed to manufacture. It is never of the 
 same thickness throughout, it is never precisely of the same 
 shade, it bulges and curls, and softly droops and falls till its 
 surfaces are presented to the light in a thousand unimaginable 
 ways. Alone amongst draughtsmen, Jacquemart has fully 
 comprehended this ; and as his hand, better than any 
 other human hand, has rendered the hardness of porphyry 
 and the inflexible fragility of porcelain, so also it has most 
 truly interpreted the tender shades and complex delicate 
 lines on which depend the untidiness of the poppy, and the 
 beauty of the rose. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaiix de la Couronne ; Plate 2, Vase antique 
 de Sardoine. There is nothing in the form of this vase to 
 merit the labour of Jacquemart, for it resembles a common 
 pitcher; but as the material was dark and very highly 
 polished, the whole object is covered with various reflections, 
 which are imitated with a degree of force and audacity ex- 
 tremely rare amongst copyists of such things as this. Jac- 
 quemart had a studio in the Louvre, and there the precious 
 vases were brought to him ; they stood upon his table till he 
 had done with them, and the table was near to a window. 
 This window is reflected over and over again on the polished 
 surface of the stone, and the reader may observe how much 
 of the brilliancy of the etching depends upon the contrast 
 between the white sky in the window-panes and the black 
 shades where they are not reflected. He may also perceive 
 the utility of the straight lines of the window-frames, which 
 
 !'
 
 JACQUEMART. 187 
 
 are here curved in very various directions, and express by 
 their curvature the form of the surfaces which reflect them. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaitx ; Plate 6, Vase antique de Porphyre. 
 An Abbot of St. Denis had an Egyptian vase of porphyry, 
 and, wishing to make use of it for his altar, had a great 
 golden eagle added to it. In Jacquemart's etching the chief 
 marvel is the imitation of the speckled and polished porphyry, 
 which is amazing. The wings and neck of the golden eagle 
 are interpreted with work as simple in manner as an ordinary 
 pen -drawing, yet clearly expressing the nature of the thing. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaux ; Plate 1 8, Vase de Jaspe oriental. 
 The goldsmith's work on this vase is attributed to Cellini, 
 and I mention it for the contrast in manner .between the ex- 
 treme precision of the etching on the golden handles, and the 
 mystery of mingled veining and reflection in the jasper. 
 That piece of jasper is marvellously pre-eminent, even in this 
 catalogue of marvels. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaux : Plate 1 9, Hanap de Cristal de 
 Roche. A drinking vessel of the time of Francis I. cut in 
 rock crystal, in the similitude of a fish. Of all the substances 
 Jacquemart has imitated, crystal is certainly the most diffi- 
 cult, because it affords so few vigorous oppositions. It is 
 especially difficult when set by itself, in this way, without the 
 help of a background or of any opaque object for contrast. 
 The power of cutting clearly is a point of sympathy between 
 the etcher and the carver of the crystal, and the etcher be- 
 comes for the time, by sympathy, in imagination a crystal- 
 cutter. .When Jacquemart did this he thought of crystal 
 only, and of copper-plates not at all. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaux : Plate 20, Coupe de Jaspe oriental. 
 I think this is the most exquisite cup, in point of form, in 
 the whole French collection. Observe the sure drawing of 
 the rim, six curves all made different by perspective, and in- 
 expressibly difficult. See also the different treatment of the 
 two handles and of the dolphins below the cup.
 
 1 88 JA CQ UEMART. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaux : Plate 23, Dragcoir de Cristal de 
 Roche. Here is the same perspective difficulty in the draw- 
 ing of the rim, in still greater complexity. There is a fine 
 flow in the lines, in the raised centre of the cup, like the 
 lines that the reins take when a man drives many horses 
 abreast. After etching a bright transparent thing like this, 
 with such beautiful and elaborate curves, Jacquemart could 
 etch a wave, if only it would stay for him ; but the condition 
 of consummate imitative work is always that the subject 
 must stay to be studied. 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaux: Plate 28, Saliere de Lapis Lazuli. 
 There is so much local colour here that when once we have 
 been told the material, we see it as if it had been painted, 
 with all its depths of azure, and glittering faults of pyrites. 
 The methods of work adopted here are entirely different from 
 those used in the preceding subject, for Jacquemart is so 
 versatile, and adapts his art so readily to the imitation of 
 various materials, that every new kind of matter exacts from 
 him the invention of new arrangements of line 
 
 Gemmes et Joyaux : Plate 30, Coupe de Jaspe oriental. 
 There is a little group at one end of this cup, Neptune and 
 Amphitrite, which may be taken as a more than commonly 
 severe test of Jacquemart's power of drawing. It is very 
 beautiful ; even the hands, notwithstanding their minuteness, 
 are given with perfect accuracy. Observe the lightness of 
 the pale golden trident, and its contrast with the rich dark 
 of the jasper.* 
 
 * In this portion of the work I adhere to my first plan of describing original 
 etchings only, but the reader will find in the present edition a section on etching 
 from pictures which includes an estimate of Jacquemart's labours in that kind.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHARLES JA CQ UE. 
 .TD EADERS who wish to know more about Charles Tacque 
 
 < 
 
 and his labours than I have space for here, are 
 recommended to procure M. Guiffrey's " Catalogue of Jacque's 
 etchings," which was published in 1866 by Mdlle. Lemaire, 
 1 1 o Boulevard de Magenta, Paris. 
 
 Charles Jacque was born in Paris in 1813. At the age 
 of seventeen he was placed with a geographical engraver, 
 but did not like the work, and enlisted as a soldier. His 
 military career lasted seven years, during which he was 
 present at the siege of Antwerp. After his return to the 
 life of a civilian, Jacque spent two years in England, where 
 he worked as a draughtsman on wood ; and these seem 
 to have been his only absences from France. He had 
 relations in Burgundy, and during his visits to these relations 
 he found the material for many of his best etchings. 
 Burgundy is a very good country for an etcher ; the rustic 
 life is more than usually picturesque, and there are plenty of 
 old buildings and bits of good landscape. The true French 
 picturesque is seldom seen in greater perfection than in 
 Burgundy ; it exists there in the most profuse abundance, 
 but in odd places where no one but an artist would know 
 how to discover it Jacque had the right instinct for material 
 of this kind, and made good use of it, as many an etching 
 of his still testifies. His farmyards and scenes of rustic life 
 are most of them reminiscences of this region, and to me 
 who have lived in Burgundy for years they have a familiar
 
 1 90 CHARLES JA CQ UE. 
 
 air, a look of home, which proves that they render not only 
 the details of local truth, but the spirit of the land. 
 
 Charles Jacque is a painter, and a constant contributor 
 to the Salon. I dislike his paintings for their false and un- 
 pleasant colour, but he knows sheep and poultry well, and 
 is a master of rustic life. His skill in drawing poultry may 
 be. partly accounted for by the fact that he is himself a dis- 
 tinguished fancier and breeder. 
 
 Of his quality as an etcher it is not easy to speak briefly. 
 Some of- his works are manly, others effeminate ; some are 
 imitative, others in a high degree interpretative ; some are 
 rapid and intuitive, others slow and painfully laborious. 
 The total result is that he will certainly be remembered as 
 one of the master etchers of our time. He has etched 
 more than four hundred plates, and out of these hundreds a 
 selection might be made which, in its way, would bear a 
 comparison with much of the most famous work of past 
 centuries. 
 
 Charles Jacque can work, when in the humour, in as 
 genuine a way as any master whatever, but he is subject to 
 a hankering after dainties in execution, which are not whole- 
 some, artistic pastry and sweets, which a masculine appe- 
 tite ought not to desire. He draws very admirably when 
 the subject of his drawing is one that he has a great 
 affection for ; I have noticed, for instance, that in his farm- 
 yards the utensils are drawn with a degree of truth and pre- 
 cision very unusual in art, and no man ever drew poultry 
 better. He does not really draw trees, however, though he 
 conveys the sentiment of landscape. His deep and sincere 
 love of simple country-life gives a great charm to many of 
 his etchings, and is entirely conveyed to the spectator. A 
 sentiment of this kind escapes analysis, but communicates 
 itself in a wonderful ineffable way. No artist ever had the 
 sentiment of rusticity in a purer form than Jacque. This is 
 quite a different feeling from the great passion for landscape,
 
 CHARLES JA CQ UE. 1 9 r 
 
 and artists who have the nobler passion scorn it The 
 sentiment of rusticity is strictly a classical one ; that is, it 
 springs up always towards the close of rigidly classical 
 periods in art. It is quite natural that Troyon, Charles 
 Jacque, Rosa Bonheur, and such others, should arise at the 
 close of the classical movement which ended with Ingres. 
 Of all the rustic artists Charles Jacque has the simplest and 
 purest feeling ; and his Parisian contemporaries, who for the 
 most part are indifferent to the noble landscape-passion 
 enter without difficulty into an idyllic poetry of this kind. 
 Notwithstanding our Northern breeding, and the influences 
 of our recent literature, we may also enjoy a rusticity which 
 is genuine and sincere. 
 
 A Pastoral. A flock of sheep with a shepherd and dog. 
 Further description is unnecessary, because the plate, although 
 without title, is the frontispiece to M. Guiffrey's Catalogue. 
 I mention it on account of the probability that the reader, 
 if interested in Charles Jacque, will either procure the Cata- 
 logue or already possess it. 
 
 The chief merits of this little pastoral are unity of manner 
 and simplicity of purpose. It has a delightful appearance 
 of ease, and belongs to that small class of artistic perform- 
 ances in which there is, strictly speaking, no study, but only 
 the results of study. In one sense, we have here the work 
 of three hours, in another the work of thirty years. The 
 subject may be taken as representative of Jacque's pastorals 
 generally ; the landscape is so commonplace as to seem 
 insignificant, yet its very triviality gives a familiar look ot 
 truth. The only variety in the land is a difference of level 
 of about a foot, forming a kind of step which repeats itself 
 on the sheep's backs as they slowly advance together. 
 There are three or four willows beyond the sheep, and two 
 young ash-trees on this side of them, but their treatment is 
 freely interpretative, and the leafage is not more studied
 
 192 CHARLES JA CQ UE. 
 
 than the grass in the foreground, which is represented by a 
 few open and careless strokes. 
 
 Une Ferme (Guiffrey, 189). The farm has two gables 
 and a thatched roof beyond. There are two walls, one to 
 the left coming near to the spectator, and above which are 
 seen the trees of an orchard whose branches overhang and 
 cast shadows down it. The other wall is at right angles to 
 the line of building, and in the shade ; beyond it rise lofty 
 trees. A flock of sheep, in a state of much hurry and 
 excitement, are driven by a shepherd and his dog in a 
 direction away from the spectator ; amongst the sheep are 
 two cows, and a third cow is driven by another man along 
 the shaded wall. In the immediate foreground are a cock 
 and four hens on a dunghill. 
 
 This is one of the finest of Charles Jacque's farms ; in 
 some of them the finish is pushed unnecessarily far, but the 
 work here is serious and manly. The texture of the long 
 wall with the gables is as good as Decamps', and the colour- 
 ing of the roofs and of the dark tree masses is boldly right 
 and true. The action of the crowding sheep is given with 
 perfect vivacity. There is an apparent rudeness in the open 
 shading of the sky which pleases me by its frank avowal that, 
 although a rough wall may be translated imitatively as to 
 texture, sky and cloud cannot be. Painters have a supersti- 
 tion that every subject needs an escape into the remote 
 distan'ce, and nine men out of ten would have knocked down 
 the wall to the right and given us, in place of it, a league or 
 two of landscape. Charles Jacque has acted much more 
 wisely ; he needed the inclosure as a characteristic of farm- 
 precincts, and as an element in the expression of homeliness. 
 
 PetitSy petits / (Guiffrey, 187). A boy is seated on a 
 board, which rests upon two barrels, and a little girl leans 
 upon the same board near him. The boy is feeding poultry. 
 
 If this etching had appeared in one of the best publica- 
 tions of the English Club, it would have borne comparison,
 
 CHARLES JA CQ UE. 1 93 
 
 as a specimen of essentially modern finish, with the best 
 work of Hook or Frederick Tayler ; and although the* 
 Germans have made laborious attempts in the same direc- 
 tion, they have not yet surpassed such work as this. I feel, 
 however, with regard to this plate, and others of a like quality 
 by the same master, the same sense of approval, under 
 protest, which I have already expressed in speaking of 
 Boissieu and others. The subject is charming, the composi- 
 tion admirable, and the execution skilful beyond praise ; but 
 this is not the kind of skill that a noble etcher ought to care 
 for and aim at. These tours de force in soft shading, like 
 chalk spread with the stump ; these little specks of reserved 
 light, like touches of white on a lithograph ; these pretty 
 bits of accurate imitation on hoops of barrel and plumage of 
 bird, however dexterous and inimitable in their way, are 
 scarcely worth the toil they cost 
 
 If we think of this simply as a picture, our criticism is 
 disarmed, and we can but do homage to its sweetness and 
 truth. There is poetry in the very title, Petits, petits ! 
 The children are not artist's models, but real country- 
 children feeding their favourites, as it seems to us, in some 
 quiet corner where no one sees them. It is an hour of happy 
 idleness ; the simple meal is ended, but one morsel of bread 
 remains which these grateful fowls may share. 
 
 L'Hiver (Guiffrey, 195). In the middle of the foreground 
 a youth is seated with a stick between his legs ; he turns 
 his head to look at a girl who is driving two cows. He 
 himself has the charge of eleven pigs. To the right is part 
 of a pool of water, and above the swineherd the border of a 
 wood. The etching is signed in the right-hand corner, " Ch. 
 Jacque, 1 864." There is a want of brilliancy in this etching 
 amounting almost to dulness. The figure of the swineherd 
 is easy and natural, but it is the only really good thing in 
 the plate. There are many trunks of trees which are neither 
 scientific nor imaginative. The subject is agreeably arranged, 
 
 O
 
 1 94 CHARLES JACQ UE. 
 
 but feebly executed. It is pretty, and only pretty a criti- 
 "cism which equally applies to several other works by the 
 same artist 
 
 Le Labourage (Guiffrey, 182). A man ploughing with a 
 pair of horses. The horses are drawn with great truth, and 
 all the details about the harness and plough are rendered 
 with careful fidelity. The figure of the man is less success- 
 ful, and the landscape is somewhat meagre and poor. A 
 more powerful landscape-painter would have drawn the dark 
 earth, as it turns over and falls from the ploughshare, with 
 far greater force than this. The earth here looks as much 
 like spread hay as the cloven soil
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 DA UBIGNY. 
 
 \ \ 7HEN a critic has been long devoted to the practical 
 study of art, he may often arrive, by means of 
 experiment, at conclusions concerning the especial powers of 
 artists, which must be inaccessible to the pure theorist 
 Some years ago the present writer had an unfeigned con- 
 tempt for Daubigny, on the ground of his ignorance or 
 negligence of form ; but some practical attempts in oil-colour 
 and etching, to attain the qualities of Daubigny's work, 
 convinced him that whatever might be the shortcomings or 
 defects of that artist, he deserved at least our most respect- 
 ful consideration. The accurate delineation of form has not 
 been amongst his purposes, and so it has come to pass that 
 he either cannot draw, or will not ; but let us ever remember 
 that he has purposes, and that the abandonment of form is a 
 deliberate sacrifice made for the attainment of these ends. 
 What Daubigny cares for, and aims at, is an artistic unity 
 of aspect ; and as he paints or etches invariably for this 
 unity, thinking of the whole only, and never about parts, 
 except as portions of the whole, it has come to pass that he 
 apparently neglects the parts, and so an animal or a branch 
 may be shapeless, but the picture is not shapeless. Whether 
 the result attained may or may not be worth such great sacri- 
 fices, may be doubtful, but it does not seem doubtful to me. 
 I feel satisfied that Daubigny, both as painter and etcher, has 
 found his true expression, and that this expression in his 
 case is well worth the sacrifice of accuracy in form. But
 
 196 DAUBIGNY. 
 
 might he not, by perseverance, have drawn better without 
 missing artistic unity ? I believe not ; I believe that any 
 attempt to preserve such drawing as is popularly considered 
 good, would have nullified his whole work, whilst the far 
 more arduous ambition of thoroughly good draughtsmanship 
 would have turned his efforts into quite a different channel ; 
 so that the Daubigny whom we know would have had no 
 artistic existence. There are many varieties of bad drawing : 
 there is Daubigny's, which is perfectly honest, and never sets 
 itself up for more than it is, nay, which is willing to pass, 
 and does constantly pass, for even less than it is ; and there 
 is the laborious and pretentious bad drawing, which is 
 popularly considered very good, and which always escapes 
 censure, except from true students. Take, for instance, a 
 cow, by some popular cattle-painter, with every bone in its 
 body out of place, and every joint so constructed that an 
 animal built in that fashion could never walk ; these defects 
 will not attract notice if only there is a certain appearance 
 of precision, a certain sharpness of touch, and neat brushwork 
 on a carefully imitated surface. A cow by Daubigny is not 
 in reality more badly drawn, but then everybody sees its 
 shapelessness at the first glance, because Daubigny has none 
 of the tricks of the painter who works for the market, and in 
 the simplicity of a noble artist-nature scorns the little artifices 
 by which ignorance is concealed. The one thing that he 
 aims at he secures : he aims at unity, and he secures unity. 
 This unity of aspect is in reality intimately associated with 
 unities of sentiment and thought, and springs from them. 
 Daubigny does not think much, or feel much, about the cow 
 and the branch : it is the whole landscape which charms and 
 attracts him ; and in his actual work his attention never 
 quits the picture to apply itself to this or that portion of his 
 materials. 
 
 The rough, and apparently " unfinished," etchings of 
 Daubigny may seem easy to the inexperienced, and a certain
 
 DAUBIGNY. 19; 
 
 proportion of them are, no doubt, failures, even if considered 
 strictly from the artist's point of view. But if the reader 
 will study those mentioned below, and then attempt to do 
 free work in the same sense, and with the same direct- 
 ness and simplicity of intention and method, he will find the 
 task more arduous than it perhaps appears. The difficulty 
 of this simple and straightforward etching consists in its very 
 simplicity and straightforwardness. When a plate has 
 evidently been tormented and mended till it came into shape, 
 there is some hope that by labour and correction we may 
 arrive at a like result ; but when these means are forbidden 
 to us by the very nature of the thing to be imitated, the 
 difficulty is greatly increased. What Daubigny does, as an 
 etcher, may not seem at first sight very astonishing, but he 
 expresses himself, and he expresses himself at once. It is 
 like apt and ready oratory, of which the excellence lies quite 
 as much in promptitude as in power. 
 
 All this may be said without endorsing the weakest and 
 most trifling etchings of Daubigny. There are several plates, 
 for instance, in the "Voyage en Bateau," which are too 
 trifling to be criticised, and in which the facetiousness of the 
 artist has led to a momentary forgetfulness of art 
 
 Voyage en Bateau: le Dejeuner a VAtiberge. Five men 
 are seated at table on rush-bottomed stools, and under a 
 vine ; they are drinking coffee and smoking pipes after 
 dejeuner. (The first plate of the series, and one of the best.) 
 As a simple sketch on the copper, this may be taken as a 
 model for honesty and simplicity of workmanship. The 
 foliage of the vine is not very good, considered separately 
 as foliage, but it takes its place well in the composition. 
 The etching holds well together, and the relations of tone 
 are unexceptionable. Observe the rapid indication of the 
 vine shadow on the wall, in free open lines running in the 
 right direction. The figures are true landscape-painter's 
 figures, and drawn without pretension.
 
 198 DAUBIGNY. 
 
 Voyage en Bateau: la Recherche de I'Auberge. Two 
 figures, one holding a lantern, are seeking their way in a 
 dark night. The cabin of the boat is just visible low down 
 to the left, and there are some dark houses to the right. 
 The sky is cloudy, but there is subdued light in two grey 
 spaces behind the formless clouds. This is very genuine and 
 perfect work of its kind, and there are some very fine pas- 
 sages. The various lights and darks immediately above the 
 lantern, and especially the obscurity near the cover of it, are 
 amongst the finest. 
 
 Voyage en Bateau : Daubigny travaillant dans sa Cabine. 
 One of the most interesting, as well as one of the best, of the 
 series. A gleam of sunshine lights the canvas on which 
 Daubigny is working, and one or two other canvases which are 
 leaned against the wall of the cabin. The rest of the 
 plate is either in shadow or more or less illuminated by re- 
 flection. The lighting is true and good, and the use of the 
 etched line everywhere frank and right. The reader may 
 amuse himself by enumerating the contents of Daubigny's 
 little floating studio. They are not luxurious, and the only 
 signs of self-indulgence are a rather extravagant supply of 
 onions and short pipes, and a coffee-pot. There are also a 
 gridiron and a frying-pan, and three wine-bottles. These, 
 with bare shelter and the bed that is turned up in the corner, 
 are ample materials for happiness, if only those canvases 
 get on prosperously. Better a little cabin like this, with the 
 satisfaction of doing good work, than the most splendid studio 
 in Paris, with an inward conviction of incapacity. I would 
 rather be Daubigny here, and cook my own dinner and 
 make my own bed, than be a certain Commander of the 
 Legion of Honour whom I could name, who, in his palace 
 of the Champs-Elyse'es, is compelled by the devil to paint, 
 year after year, with the clear knowledge that he is a char- 
 latan. 
 
 Voyage en Bateau : la Nuit sur la Rivttre. The boat
 
 DAUBIGNY. 199 
 
 is to the left of the etching, lighted by a lantern. The 
 opposite shore is dimly visible, and both sky and water are 
 covered with dark shading. There is nothing here but a 
 sentiment ; and if the mind of the reader is inaccessible to 
 that sentiment, the etching for him will be meaningless and 
 absurd. In that case let me beg him to pass it without 
 bitterness of condemnation. The present writer's experiences 
 of boats and tents give him the key to Daubigny's motive. 
 The little cabin is alone on the dark water, under the dark 
 sky; the shore is formless, vague, impenetrable. The only 
 shelter is in that tiny floating house ; the only light from the 
 candle in that lantern. 
 
 Voyage en Bateau: les Aides. A lot of children with 
 a small four-wheeled waggon take Daubigny's things for him 
 to the boat. A sketch of this kind opens the great question 
 whether landscape-painters ought to attempt figure-subjects 
 or not. These figures have no pretension to correct draughts- 
 manship, and yet severe figure-painters are delighted with 
 them. This may be explained by the fact that, if there is 
 little power, there is still less pretension. The artist does 
 not pretend to draw the figure otherwise than as he has been 
 always accustomed to draw it for the enlivenment of his land- 
 scapes. The children are beautifully grouped, and the 
 action of the boy in front is free and lively. 
 
 Pare a Moutons : le Matin (A large plate which appeared 
 in the first number of the French Etching Club's publica- 
 tion). The subject is the inside of a sheep-fold at early morn- 
 ing, the dawn brightening on the horizon above the level line 
 of paling which crosses the etching from side to side. There 
 are a few low trees and a little hut on wheels, with a low 
 swelling in the land, beyond the paling, crowned by some 
 distant bushes, and a small windmill to the left. The sheep 
 are grandly grouped, and still seem heavy with sleep. A 
 long flight of birds is coming from the east The impression 
 conveyed is dreary and uncomfortable, with a good deal of
 
 200 DAUB1GMY. 
 
 solemn and sad feeling. The execution is frank and appa- 
 rently coarse. 
 
 Le Gue. Twelve cows are just going to cross a broad 
 river with a herd-boy behind them. A large tree extends 
 its branches over the water. The opposite shore is bare and 
 uninteresting. 
 
 An etching of this kind is not to be criticised bit by bit ; 
 its one merit is a certain largeness of aspect. Referring the 
 reader to the earlier chapters of this book for fuller commen- 
 tary on these qualities, I may say here that the plate before 
 us is valuable for its frankness and comprehensiveness, not 
 for any accuracy or beauty of design. The cows are all out 
 of drawing,- the branches are ungraceful, the foliage is ugly, 
 the sky is coarse, and the distance poor ; yet, in spite of all 
 these faults, the etching is not only a fine one, but one of the 
 finest executed in this century. Directness of intention and 
 amplitude of aspect are perfectly compatible with the most 
 obvious imperfections in parts. 
 
 Les Vendanges (this is Plate 161 in the publication of the 
 Soci/t des Aquafortistes). It is quite a remarkable instance 
 of Daubigny's obtuseness and inaccuracy as a draughtsman. 
 The oxen are.no more like oxen than sacks of flour, except 
 that they are decorated with horns. The wheels of the char 
 resemble nothing so much as very broad-brimmed straw hats 
 balancing themselves miraculously on the edge of their brims. 
 All the beauty of the vine leafage is neglected, and the 
 figures of the vignerons are no better than the oxen. There 
 are hills in the distance and clouds in the sky, but 
 both hills and clouds are formless. And still I keep this 
 etching, and value it, because it is a perfect harmony both 
 in sentiment and in tone, one of the most absolutely 
 harmonious plates I know. The least bit of accurate draw- 
 ing, or of what engravers call "finish," in any one detail, 
 would have ruined the whole work unless it could have been
 
 DAUBIGNY. 201 
 
 carried out over the entire extent of it.* It is not to be 
 supposed that Daubigny is quite unable to draw a cart-wheel 
 or a cow's horn ; and when he drew these in this apparently 
 puerile way, we may rely upon it that he knew what he was 
 about. The purpose of this etching has been a certain unity 
 of aspect, which has been purchased by the sacrifice of many 
 truths which another artist might have been unwilling to 
 surrender. 
 
 * And even if such finish had been carried out over the whole extent 9>t the 
 etching, there would have been a definite loss to set against the gain. We should 
 not have had what we have now, but another thing altogether, not an improve- 
 ment, but a substitution.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 APPIAN. 
 
 IV yTY admiration for Appian's work as an etcher (he is a 
 charming painter also) was already great several years 
 ago, but the more I see how rare his qualities are in con- 
 temporary art, or in any art, the more I feel disposed to 
 value them. His work is always quite easy and graceful in 
 manner, never strained, never betraying an effort, and it 
 hardly ever fails to charm by a most delicate feeling for the 
 poetry of natural landscape. The lightness, or the apparent 
 lightness, of his hand is such that the wonder is how the 
 point can remove the ground sufficiently to ensure regularity 
 of biting ; were he sketching with a silver point on unglazed 
 porcelain the touch could hardly be more aerial. Although 
 in etching a real equality of pressure is an unfortunate 
 necessity, the proof ought to produce the illusion that the 
 etcher has played piano or forte just as he pleased, and in 
 the best of Appian's etchings this illusion is complete. 
 Another good quality in his work is that each plate, however 
 large or however small it may be, is conceived from the first 
 as a whole, and the first conception is never departed from 
 for the disproportionate realisation of some obtrusive detail. 
 It would be easy to criticise little bits of his work by taking 
 them separately, easy to say that he does not draw a leaf or 
 a blade of grass, a kind of criticism the more specious that 
 it affects to proceed from a superior accuracy of knowledge ; 
 but the answer is that Appian sees always in masses, and 
 gives quite as much detail as is consistent with the preserva-
 
 A P PI AN. 203 
 
 tion of the mass. His drawing of branches and sprays, for 
 example, whenever they happen to come clearly against what 
 is behind them, is always perfectly delightful, and quite as 
 much detailed as it need be, with light and shade hinted at or 
 expressed almost to the very extremity of a twig. So truly 
 does he interpret the character of trees, especially of denuded 
 trees in late autumn, with a few leaves lingering here and 
 there, that in nature they remind me more frequently of 
 Appian than of any other landscape-painter. Anybody 
 whose eye is accurate may in course of time draw branches 
 and sprays with a photographic truth of detail, accompanied 
 by that tightness and hardness of execution which are so 
 common in the works of the younger English painters; and 
 it is not very difficult, on the other hand, to get masses 
 tolerably right in tone when drawing is altogether abandoned ; 
 but rare indeed is the combination of delicate drawing with 
 due attention to the large pictorial relations ; rare indeed is 
 the good taste which can suggest a beautiful detail exactly 
 where it is needed, without ever making it too obtrusive or 
 too conspicuous. It would be an injustice to limit this praise 
 to Appian's execution of trees, though it is here that the 
 elegance of his taste is most evident. He is fond of rocks 
 and stones, and makes them substantial enough (in his 
 pictures the rock-texture is always as good as it can be), but 
 nobody can make a rock elegant. The finest of all Appian's 
 qualities, however, is a certain poetry of sentiment which 
 pervades his subjects, especially his river-subjects under even- 
 ing light. In these he becomes truly the artist-poet, and, as 
 there is a perfect harmony between the dreamy sentiment 
 and the effortless execution, the effect of the work is marred 
 by no harsh accent. 
 
 I. A large plate, the engraved surface of which measures 
 14^- inches by 8^, the copper being very much larger. The 
 subject is a rocky river-bed in summer when the stream has 
 ceased to flow. A man on the right is drawing a net from
 
 204 APPIAN. 
 
 a deep pool. In the right centre of the composition is a 
 bridge with two arches, and to the left there are great over- 
 hanging masses of rock which cast broad shadows. 
 
 This is a very fine study of rocks and little else. The 
 figure and net are beautifully introduced, and both water 
 and sky are well treated, but not important, except as quiet 
 spaces with a little variety in them. The beetling masses 
 of rock, with their vast shadows, are everything in the 
 picture, and are studied with much thoroughness, fractures 
 and all. Rocks are not generally a very grateful subject of 
 study. They stand still to be drawn, which is something, 
 and they afford fine shadows, but it is always extremely 
 difficult to make them interesting. The interest of this 
 rocky river-bank lies in the fact that the huge stony masses 
 overhang and seem to threaten. 
 
 2. A plate about the same size as the preceding. It is 
 a study of a more open stream with small rocks. The rising 
 bank to the left is covered with copsewood, out of which rise 
 two young trees (oaks apparently, at least the nearer one) 
 almost entirely denuded of their leaves. In the distance is 
 a rising land, with two cottages to the right. There are 
 clouds in the sky. In the foreground are ducks and a drake 
 flapping his wings. 
 
 This is one of the most masterly of Appian's etchings in 
 execution, and so harmonious in tone that I conclude it 
 must have been done from one of the artist's pictures. The 
 sky and distance are delightful in quality, the sky apparently 
 sketched in dry point, and the bur removed. The distance, 
 which is bitten, has almost the softness of oil. The foreground 
 of course is much more strongly accented, with black shades 
 here and there. The reader may observe with advantage 
 the art with which the water is shaded, its lightest space 
 being small and very central, and the skilful management of 
 what is intended to be distinct and what is intended to be 
 confused. The drake, for instance, and the tree to the left
 
 APPIAN. 205 
 
 are distinct things amidst a good deal of delightful mystery 
 and confusion, and both are very beautifully drawn. 
 
 3. Souvenir. Easily recognised by a windmill in the 
 middle. To the right of this is a sailing boat, to the left 
 another windmill. On a rocky bank to the right is a build- 
 ing with a low tower, like a remnant of feudal times. All 
 this material is reflected in calm water. 
 
 Nothing is more difficult than the treatment of the sky 
 in etching, and the best way generally is to leave the open 
 sky quite blank, preserving thus its serenity at the expense 
 of its gradation. If any shading is attempted it must not 
 be mechanical, which would be fatal to the harmony of the 
 plate. In the present instance the sky is shaded in fine 
 taste with strokes, generally horizontal in tendency, but never 
 stiffly horizontal. As the sky is lightly bitten the effect is 
 good. 
 
 4. Au Valromey (A in}. A little stream, with rocks and 
 trees, and the slope of a rocky hill. 
 
 Some of the shadows here are overbitten, especially one 
 to the left, which is far too black. The quality of the 
 foliage, wayward sprays and branches, rocky ground and 
 sky, is delightful. 
 
 5. A very small plate, the engraved portion measuring 
 4^ inches by 2-| inches. The subject is a country path or 
 wild road, with a single figure coming towards the spectator. 
 Behind the figure is a group of poplars and other trees, lower 
 and more massive. To the right is a rising ground ; to the 
 left a pond, with land rising behind it. The sky is lightly 
 shaded, and a few clouds are sketched near the horizon. 
 The signature is in the upper left-hand corner, with the date 
 1865. 
 
 This little etching is one of the best examples of Appian's 
 charming way of treating what is generally thought common- 
 place and uninteresting scenery. Out of the undulations of 
 a country which is only just not perfectly level, with a few
 
 206 APPIAN. 
 
 poplars and a pond, he makes a little gem of landscape, to 
 be treasured and remembered. 
 
 7. Une Mare. Environs de Rossillon. One end of a 
 solitary pool of water in rough ground. A stork is standing 
 by the pool, and there are wild stems and branches in the 
 upper part of the composition, which is an upright one. In 
 the left-hand upper corner is the signature of the artist, with 
 the date 1867. 
 
 This has always seemed to me the most exquisite piece 
 of free branch and stem drawing in the whole range of French 
 etching. It is this, and much more than this ; for not only 
 are the trees full of an inexpressible waywardness and grace, 
 but the whole work the bit of rocky bank, the little inlet 
 of calm water, the sweet distance, and the delicate sky ; all 
 this material forms a perfect harmony, presented to us with 
 the true passion of a tender and sensitive artist. No one 
 but an artist can know how much this little place must 
 have been loved before it could be etched so. 
 
 8. Marais de la Burbanche (Ain). In the middle of the 
 composition is a rock or big boulder-stone, with smaller 
 stones to the right, and similar ones in the distance. Near 
 the central one is some light foliage. To the left the ground 
 rises suddenly in a steep bank. There is water in the fore- 
 ground resembling a calm pool in a stream, and by the 
 water are three storks. The sky is lightly clouded, and 
 in the left-hand upper corner is the date 1868 after the 
 artist's signature. The general effect is that of a calm 
 evening. 
 
 One of the loveliest and most perfect bits of quiet land- 
 scape of a melancholy kind I ever met with. Nothing can 
 be more harmonious than this etching, it affects the mind 
 like music. 
 
 9. Un Soir Bord du Rhone a Rix (Am). One bank of 
 the Rhone only is seen, with hills beyond, which are reflected 
 in the calm water. A boat is just coming to land with
 
 APPIAN. 207 
 
 figures and small animals (sheep, I think). The sky is 
 charged with rain-clouds. Dated 1869. 
 
 Fine in feeling and quite masterly in execution. One of 
 those scenes which ought to make anybody a poet, at least 
 until the last light has died out of the west, and the shining 
 river is finally darkened for the night I like the sobriety 
 which can abstain from exaggeration of the hills they have 
 truly the hill-poetry and not the mountain-poetry, which is 
 very different. 
 
 I o. Un Soir cCAutomne Environs de Rossillon. A reach 
 of a narrow calm river with boats close to the land, and a 
 figure in one of them ; the ground is nearly flat, but rises 
 gently to the left, where there are trees. The distance is 
 dark and very mysterious. The sky is clouded, and the 
 plate is dated 1874. , 
 
 The kind of poetry with which this etching is charged as 
 fully as black and white art ever can be is quite peculiar to 
 our century. Painters have felt the charm of twilight from 
 the early days of their art in Italy, but it was another charm 
 than this. It was the richness and peace of twilight which 
 they loved, the deep golden glory of it, if that can be called 
 glory which has no radiant splendour, but only a wondrous 
 glow, suffusing everything with that warmth of colour which 
 fills the air on a southern summer eve. Here we have the 
 poetry of another twilight, of grey clouds, and purple 
 distances, and red leaves darkening in the brown of the 
 nearer woods, the sad twilight after rain in autumn, when all 
 the earth is wet and chilled, and the pools in the marshes 
 fill. Here am I writing of colour as if the print before me 
 were not in mere black printing-ink, which I suppose it must 
 be chemically, but it brings the colouring of such a scene as 
 vividly before the " inward eye " as a picture to the actual 
 sense.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CHIFFLART. 
 
 TN the first edition of this book Chifflart was not studied 
 in a separate chapter, but had only a paragraph amongst 
 minor etchers. A more extended notice appears to be due 
 to him, because his plates are, at the same time, very original 
 in conception, and very pure examples of a particular kind 
 of technical work in etching. He is far indeed from being 
 faultless, and is not at all what a severe and prudent critic 
 would recommend as a "safe man," but with all his errors 
 he has really something to express, and expresses it with the 
 utmost directness. Suppose a man of active and wild imagi- 
 nation, who sits down with a large copper before him, waits 
 a little till a scene or an action presents itself to the inward 
 eye, and then sketches it as quickly as possible on the copper 
 itself without any intermediate memoranda, before the 
 imaginative conception has lost anything of its vividness. 
 This is Chifflart's manner of working, at least in the plates 
 I intend to speak of here ; and now let me say something that 
 needs to be said about the way in which criticism ought to 
 deal with work that is so produced. It would be most 
 unjust to require from it the qualities which belong to 
 thoughtful and painstaking labour, which gives days or weeks 
 to the elimination of its own errors. The model is not called 
 in that the artist may correct the mistakes of his memory 
 and imagination by a reference to nature, nor does he finish 
 his shading any more perfectly than his design, for if he did 
 there would be one of those executive contradictions which
 
 CHIFFLART. 209 
 
 destroy the harmony of art. If one of these hurried impro- 
 visations, in which the forms are all confessedly imperfect, 
 were to be shaded as Le Rat would shade a finished head 
 after Bellini, the result would be unendurable. Chifflart is far 
 too completely the artist to tolerate the slightest approach to 
 false finish * of any kind ; therefore, when he improvises, he 
 shades just as he draws, hewing out the forms by means of 
 shadow, but no more. The drawing is everywhere inaccurate, 
 yet not more inaccurate than the drawing in the hasty sketches 
 of the great masters. That of Rembrandt is often equally 
 imperfect, that of Michael Angelo occasionally. Michael 
 Angelo's rough sketch of the " Fall of Phaeton " is even more 
 shapeless, especially in the animals (which have puddings for 
 bodies, with impossibly small heads and legs all out of pro- 
 portion), than the worst of ChifHart's sketches. 
 
 I. Surprise. Six horsemen surprised by lionesses. The 
 men are naked, but armed with spear and bow. One horse 
 and man are down, under the feet of the others. A lioness 
 has seized the man on the nearest horse, whose companion is 
 attempting his deliverance. His horse, in turn, is attacked by 
 another lioness, which two riders are going to spear. An 
 archer on horseback is aiming at a lioness bounding through 
 the air. 
 
 Grandly composed and full of movement. The energy of 
 the action will seem over-strained to a cool spectator who 
 does not realise the scene ; and everything is indeed over- 
 accentuated in the drawing, but it is grand genuine work, full 
 
 * What I mean by false finish is a superficial finish applied to anything which 
 has not yet been prepared to receive it. It would be false finish to polish a statue 
 before it had been hewn into the proper shape. It is false finish in painting to 
 attend to surface before you have got things into their places. It is false finish in 
 education to advance to subtle and delicate distinctions before broader and simpler 
 ones have been fully apprehended. In the work of mechanics the file precedes 
 emery paper, and a coarse file precedes a fine one. The only finish which is worth 
 anything is that which comes when everything has been prepared for it ; thai it is 
 well worth having, if rightly applied, both in etching and other arts. 
 
 P
 
 2io CHIFFLART. 
 
 of right abstraction, and so honest that the most glaring 
 mistakes have been corrected without effacing, the consequence 
 being that a man's wrist is in two positions at once, and one 
 lioness has four ears. Men and animals are full of expression. 
 The nearest horse is mad with fear, the men are full of valour, 
 the wild beasts eager, agile, ferocious. 
 
 2. Un Jour de Recompense. A classical distribution of 
 rewards, seen from a grotesque point of view. A struggling 
 crowd is righting its way up to the temple of Fame, where a 
 radiant priestess is holding out laurel crowns, whilst trumpeters 
 blow their trumpets. Raised high above the contending 
 crowd, laurelled, white-robed, and holding palms in their 
 hands, sit the few who have been successful. The unsuccess- 
 ful are either elbowing and crushing each other, or else 
 abandoning the contest with vacant or dejected faces. 
 
 This is so sketchy that you can hardly make the figures 
 out, but it is full of grim humour. The faces of the stupid 
 bloated man, and the thin, peevish, disappointed man, who 
 have abandoned the contest, are both capital. 
 
 3. The Sarcophagus. A classic sarcophagus in a grove, 
 with a meagre, sad-faced man seated and leaning upon it ; 
 another behind showing his naked shoulders ; and a third on 
 the sarcophagus itself ; this last perhaps supposed to be carved 
 m marble. 
 
 The seated figure is very finely conceived, and the whole 
 composition is powerful. The shoulder-blade of the man 
 behind is unpleasantly salient, but the thinness of the seated 
 figure is not without grandeur. The plate is simply and 
 powerfully bitten. 
 
 4. Plutus. A hideous figure is scattering coins from a 
 horn of plenty. I think this is not Plutus, but only his 
 minister ; the god must be the personage lightly outlined in 
 the upper sky, who holds a scourge in his right hand with 
 extended arm. Men are praying and fighting for the coins ; 
 one is stabbing another; strong men are wrestling on the
 
 CHIFFLART. 211 
 
 ground where the gold is scattered ; women are exposing their 
 bodies. A mask, which has fallen off, is lying on the ground. 
 This plate certainly exhibits some of the worst effects of 
 the struggle for wealth, but it is incomplete, morally, by its 
 omission of the good effects. The desire for gold does not 
 only produce murder and fornication, but also many an 
 honourable industry and many a marvellous art. 
 
 5. Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus is just driving his 
 lance into the monster, and Andromeda, naked, with flowing 
 hair, is still fastened to the rock by her wrists. The action of 
 Perseus is fine but not new. The beast is suitably heavy and 
 monstrous, something between a bear and a hippopotamus. 
 The bending of the lance is a good idea. Andromeda is 
 heavy and ungraceful, the left leg especially shapeless from 
 the knee to the foot. Surely Perseus would never have asked 
 Cepheus to let him marry such an Andromeda as that. 
 
 6. Perseus, having slain Medusa, holds out her severed head. 
 The right foot is on the gorgon's body, the left on a plateau 
 of rock. Perseus is sheathing his sword with his left hand. 
 
 This is the best and most thoroughly studied figure amongst 
 the improvisations, but it is a pose which the etcher may have 
 studied in nature previously, and remembered. It is a good 
 instance of a simple way of treating the naked figure when 
 truth of texture is not aimed at. The texture here is rather 
 that of bronze than of flesh. It is possible that some readers 
 may conclude from this and other plates that etching cannot 
 render flesh texture, but this would be an error. In hasty 
 sketching it is very difficult to convey the idea of texture if 
 you shade enough to indicate the modelling, because any 
 coarse or hard shading ruins it at once. The best way is to 
 leave white paper to do duty for flesh as much as possible 
 when you have not time to shade delicately.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 
 
 IV/T ADOLPHE LALAUZE is one of the most skilful 
 original etchers in the modern French school, but he 
 has not yet produced very much. The best of his works are a 
 little series often plates entitled Le Petit Monde, representing 
 the occupations and amusements of children. We learn from 
 a preface by M. Montrosier that the artist's own children were 
 the models from which he drew, so that he worked with a 
 double affection, the artistic and the paternal in one. The 
 result is very charming, the little incidents are really such as 
 occur in child-life, and they are presented with the most 
 accomplished skill. There are two little girls and a baby, 
 besides a doll and a dog. The incidents all take place at 
 home, in a pretty French appartement with polished inlaid 
 floors and tasteful furniture, which is all lovingly studied as 
 so much still-life, though in due subordination to the figures. 
 Most of the little groups are prettily composed, and one or 
 two quite beautifully. Amongst the incidents are such subjects 
 as the " Drawing Lesson," the " Music Lesson " (in which we 
 see nobody but the two little girls, studying as earnestly as 
 possible), " Baby's Soup " (an administration of soup to the 
 young gentleman), " Baby is very good " (in which baby is in 
 his cot, and one of his sisters amuses him with a bunch of 
 currants, whilst the other plays on the mirliton). All these 
 plates are treated with the most perfect technical mastery, 
 combining great ease of manner with a brilliant truth of both 
 texture and tone. The last-named plate especially is a fine
 
 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 213 
 
 one, beautifully composed, and full of surpassingly good 
 qualities in execution. It would be a great mistake to suppose 
 that because the subjects of this little collection are taken 
 from the nursery, whilst the plates themselves are popular 
 with children, they are unworthy of serious criticism. On the 
 contrary, the artist has done his best with them, and made 
 them works of art in the higher sense. 
 
 Veyrassat's labours as an etcher may be divided into two 
 parts his copies from pictures, and his original designs on 
 copper. The latter alone concern us in this place. He has 
 etched a few rather large plates, such as " Le Bac " (the ferry- 
 boat), which are skilful and manly in workmanship ; but by far 
 the most delightful of all Veyrassat's etchings are the little 
 ones. There are ten or a dozen of them which I would will- 
 ingly have described in detail, were it not that they are all 
 executed upon precisely the same principles, and are really 
 the same etching in different forms ; I mean that the artistic 
 problem to be resolved is the same in the different little plates. 
 It will be enough, therefore, to explain what the problem is, 
 and to show how the artist has overcome the difficulty of it in 
 any one of these instances. 
 
 A great secret of success in etching is to keep the arrange- 
 ments for chiaroscuro simple, and to have a few kinds of 
 texture as different as possible from each other, in order to 
 obtain striking contrasts. Veyrassat's scale, in his small etch- 
 ings, consists mainly of four notes, an intense black, for which 
 a black animal is introduced as a pretext, two middle tints 
 for earth, hay-stacks, loaded carts, lighter animals, and part of 
 the sky, and lastly a very pale tint for the sky alone. At the 
 top of the scale the blank paper takes its place as the highest 
 treble. Then, in textures, we have about four textures kept 
 very distinct, and all equally well done. Black velvet in the 
 black animal, a coarse liny texture for foreground earth and 
 vegetation, a much softer and closer texture for such things 
 as hay-carts at a little distance, and lastly a very fine delicate
 
 2T4 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 
 
 texture for skies. Now the reason why these etchings are so 
 charming as technical music is because the artist has thoroughly 
 mastered these few elements of effect, so as to use them in all 
 their strength of contrast, and yet at the same time in perfect 
 harmony, and as he works with few and widely-separated 
 means of expression, they do not get confounded together by 
 miscalculations in the biting. It is impossible to be more 
 judicious ; the only wonder is that such a skilful artist should 
 be so little adventurous, and rest contented with the repetition 
 of one success. It remains to be observed that, with reference 
 to natural truth and idyllic charm, few artists of the modern 
 rustic school have so happily expressed themselves. All 
 Veyrassat's groups of animals and peasants in the field are 
 full of nature, and of art also, the art being successfully con- 
 cealed, except in such very obvious points as the perpetual 
 contrast of a white horse with a dark one. 
 
 Martial is an etcher of extraordinary industry. His collec- 
 tion of etchings on old Paris contains no less than three 
 hundred plates, and besides this great work, he has published 
 several other collections, such as the Salons of 1865, 1866, and 
 1868, Paris in 1867, Paris during the Siege, Paris Burnt, Paris 
 under the Commune, the Women of Paris during the War, the 
 Sailors at the defence of Paris, Les Prussiens chez nous, etc. 
 The first etching I remember seeing by Martial was the " Porte 
 de la Sacristie du College a Bcauvais" and that etching was so 
 very conscientious, besides being such sound work, that I after- 
 wards studied everything by the same artist which happened to 
 come in my way. There is some very rich and perfect work in 
 the Totirelle de V Hotel Schomberg. In the Rue du Pantour St. 
 Gervais the curious slope and curvature of the old Parisian 
 house-fronts are quite rightly felt and rendered ; and in the 
 Rue des Prtcheurs a gothic carved tree at the corner of the 
 house, bearing ecclesiastics for fruit, is imitated with much 
 delicacy. As might be expected from the usual effects of 
 practice, M. Martial's labours have developed great manual
 
 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 215 
 
 skill. He has mastered, and mastered long ago, the technical 
 difficulties of etching, so as to express himself fully in the art 
 without being hampered, as less accomplished men are 
 hampered, by the torturing sense that they are saying less 
 than they mean, or something else than the thing they mean. 
 The fine arts are like spoken languages in that. Until you 
 have become absolute master of a language, you cannot speak 
 it at all without either saying less than you intend or something 
 else than that which you desire to say ; but a master expresses 
 his thought with simple precision. The technical skill of 
 Martial is extraordinary, and a few years ago, before skill in 
 etching became more general in France, he had scarcely an 
 equal in this kind of ability. For example, Martial would go 
 to a gallery of pictures and make sketches there in his note- 
 book, and afterwards go home and take several large plates 
 of copper, and write on the copper an account of the pictures, 
 and illustrate it as he went on by many sketches of them 
 etched in the text, feeling quite sure that every one of the 
 sketches would be successful. What would happen to most 
 men if they attempted such a feat would be this : One of the 
 sketches on each copper would perhaps be successful, and the 
 rest comparatively failures : so that to preserve the successful 
 bit it would be necessary to cut all the rest of the copper away. 
 Martial's Lettre sur tEauforte was a feat of that kind. On 
 four large plates he gave a written account of the old process, 
 quite complete as to that process, and illustrated it as he went 
 on, throwing a sketch in here and there, exactly where it was 
 wanted, and all the sketches came quite right. Many another 
 feat of cleverness has he accomplished. In one of his plates 
 we have a great Parisian shop-front, with everything seen 
 through the windows exactly as things are seen through plate- 
 glass ; and the obscure interior of the shop seen through the 
 open door: and then the positive clearness of the outside of the 
 house, with its windows, and gas-lamp, and the architectural 
 decorations about the arched entrance at the corner, and the
 
 i6 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 
 
 local colour of the paint, altogether as ungrateful a subject as 
 an artist might be condemned to execute yet rendered with a 
 simple, straightforward mastery over a hundred difficulties. 
 Another very remarkable etching of the same class (though on 
 a smaller scale) represented some houses at the angle of the 
 Boulevard des Capucines and the Rue de la Paix, now demol- 
 ished (including Tahan's shop). In this plate, all the relations 
 of light, and most of the local colour too, were given with re- 
 markable precision, whilst the drawing was neat and firm, as 
 drawing must be to deal successfully with modern street archi- 
 tecture. The recollection of many other plates by Martial 
 enables me to give an estimate of him as an artist, which, as his 
 manner is entirely formed, will probably continue to be accu- 
 rate. His two best qualities are a brilliantly clear conception of 
 facts and perfect manual skill. He has no creative imagination, 
 nor any tenderness ; and therefore his work, though always 
 admirable, can never be charming ; never have any hold upon 
 the heart. But notwithstanding this restriction, it is eminently 
 valuable work in its own way, and future students of the 
 history of Paris will be, or ought to be, very grateful for it. 
 This is historical art in the truest and best sense, genuine 
 history of what the artist has witnessed, first of that old Paris 
 which Napoleon III. demolished, and then of those other and 
 more fearful demolishings executed by shell and flame. 
 Centuries hence such records will still be interesting, indeed 
 the longer they are preserved the more interesting will they 
 assuredly become. 
 
 LALAUZE. La Le$on de Dessin. Two little girls are seated 
 before two chairs, and very busily engaged in drawing. This 
 etching deserves especial attention for its extreme refinement 
 in interpreting the quality of things. It quite belongs to the 
 highest class of object-study, that in which imitation is not 
 slavish but artistic and intellectual. The treatment of all 
 textures is admirable here, but I think the golden glittering
 
 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 217 
 
 mystery of the picture-frames is the most unusual in the 
 degree of its refinement. Lalauze truly sees as an artist, not 
 fixing his attention upon one element of appearances to the 
 detriment of the rest, but seeing the whole together, indicating 
 just what is really visible at the distance, and not the smallest 
 detail more. A gilt picture-frame is an excellent test of this 
 peculiar capacity for seeing, since we knoiv far more of the 
 construction of a frame than we ever see at once, and the 
 temptation to draw from knowledge rather than sight is very 
 strong, on account of its far greater facility. The great 
 technical merit in M. Lalauze's work is its surpassing truth of 
 texture, and this is not obtained at any very great cost of 
 labour, but simply by thoroughly understanding the nature of 
 the appearance to be interpreted. In this plate we have the 
 dress and hair of the little girls, the oak parquet and chairs, 
 and the wall with the picture-frames, all perfect in their way. 
 I hope, however, that the reader will not conclude, from the 
 space just given to praise good texture here, that I attach 
 more importance to it than it deserves. It gives a great charm 
 to etching, and to painting also, a charm which has never been 
 more appreciated than in our own day, when it is even one 
 of the first essentials to any considerable popularity ; but there 
 has been great etching, and great painting too, without any 
 texture whatever. A higher merit in M. Lalauze is to under- 
 stand the nature of children so perfectly as he does, and to be 
 able to draw them without falling short of expression on the 
 one hand, and without caricaturing it on the other. 
 
 VEYRASSAT. Making a corn-stack. A tiny plate measur- 
 3^- in. by 2 in. A cart with three horses is near a stack and 
 unloading. Three men are on the stack and one on the cart 
 There are two white (or light grey) horses, and one dark horse. 
 
 This may be taken as one of the forms of the Veyrassat 
 etching. The dark horse supplies the low note, the pale 
 cloudy sky behind the figures gives the treble, and the inter-
 
 2i8 LALAUZE, VEYRASSAT, MARTIAL. 
 
 mediate tones are supplied by the landscape, stack, cart, and 
 upper sky. Although the plate is so small, the texture of the 
 foreground is very coarse and open, which affords a strong 
 contrast with the textures of the stack and animals, and these, 
 again, very different from each other, are both very different 
 from the sky. It is in fact a quartett of textures playing to- 
 gether harmoniously, and the difficulty is not so much to 
 imagine these various modes of execution as to make them 
 yield their strong contrast without a discord. 
 
 MARTIAL. Theatre du Vaudeville. A large plate repre- 
 senting one of the prettiest street corners in new Paris. Pub- 
 lished in 1868. 
 
 This is a very good example of the strong, clear realism 
 with which Martial interprets a subject. All is drawn with 
 the most perfect firmness, and nothing shirked. The straight 
 lines are ruled as in mechanical draughtsmanship, but no 
 merely mechanical draughtsman could have put in the sculpture 
 as it is given here, nor the trees and living figures. On the 
 other hand, it would be difficult to find another artist who 
 would patiently copy all the details which Martial has 
 copied, such for example, as the lettering of the signs. To 
 the right we have Bignon, Glacier, Restaurant de Foy ; to the 
 left Salons du Cafe Americain ; and between these a great 
 number of other inscriptions, all as legible as they would be 
 in a photograph. So the panels in front of the Restaurant 
 de Foy are copied with perfect accuracy. But although 
 details are so strictly attended to, the plate produces a strong 
 effect at a little distance also. No etching conveys more 
 perfectly the idea that you are in modern Paris. 
 
 Nobody could go through such a piece of work as this 
 without being thoroughly matter-of-fact in his ways of seeing 
 and feeling. It is prose of the most resolute kind, without a 
 trace of poetry. All that surprises me is that photography 
 should not have prevented this kind of work by doing it still
 
 LALA UZE, VE YRASSA T, MAR TIAL. 2 1 9 
 
 better. All that Martial attempts here the photograph can 
 do more thoroughly and completely still. And yet it seems 
 as if so far from discouraging this etcher by anticipating his 
 peculiar work, photography had positively been accepted by 
 him as a teacher. There are evident signs of a photographic 
 influence here, in the black shadows under the balconies, for 
 instance, the black spaces in windows, etc., and the black tree 
 near the theatre, all in strictly photographic chiaroscuro. The 
 reader will understand, however, that I have not selected this 
 plate as showing the limits of M. Martial's abilities, but his 
 exceptionally matter-of-fact temper. There are a hundred 
 plates of his which show more delicacy, and many which give 
 proof of a more desirable kind of power.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 QUEYROY, COROT, BRACQUEMOND, GAUCHEREL, FEYEN- 
 PERRIN, LEGROS, BRUNET-DEBAINES, DE ROCHEBRUNE, 
 CHAUVEL, CHAIGNEAU, ABRAHAM, VILLEVIEILLE, BAL- 
 FOURIER, SOUMY, DE LONGUEVILLE, BALLIN, LANCON, 
 DETAILLE, DE NEUVILLE. 
 
 T-TAVING studied in some detail a few of the more 
 eminent French etchers, I now find myself restricted, 
 by the limits of this volume, to a simple mention of the 
 others, and of some of their principal works. It may easily 
 happen that artists thus hastily alluded to may in future 
 years distinguish themselves more than they have hitherto 
 had time or opportunity for doing, and so deserve separate 
 chapters in some future treatise on the art, written by another 
 critic who will have the advantage of seeing our age from a 
 greater distance. It is always difficult to be strictly just, and 
 in this case the difficulty is greatly complicated by the fact 
 that etchers have had to be selected quite as much because 
 their plates were striking examples of very different styles of 
 work as for qualities which may be considered meritorious. 
 The activity and energy of the French school are so great 
 that every year adds new names to the list, and every year 
 some etcher already known to the public finds his relative 
 position altered, either by his own labour or the labours of 
 his contemporaries. It is therefore utterly impossible to give 
 an account which shall remain permanently true of a school
 
 VARIO US FRENCH ETCHERS. 2 2 1 
 
 which, being full of life, has life's incessant transformations. 
 When etching was a dead art it was possible to sit down and 
 give a systematic and proportionate account of its past his- 
 tory, but now that it is alive again, and more vigorously alive 
 than ever it was before, the history which is complete when 
 written will be behind the age a year after publication. It is 
 as unsatisfactory in this respect as a " Dictionnaire des Con- 
 temporains" 
 
 The transition from amateur to artist is always a very 
 difficult one to accomplish, even when there are perfect leisure 
 and liberty for study, accompanied by an industry not to be 
 discouraged. About fifteen years ago M. QUEYROY was an 
 amateur, but by hard work and perseverance, accompanied 
 by the kind of talent which consists rather in seeing things 
 clearly as they are than in the gift of invention, he has become 
 an artist of considerable skill. The etching of his which, on 
 the whole, is the finest, is a large plate of Loches. This plate 
 is good, especially for its breadth of light-and-shade, and its 
 noble simplicity of treatment. The near dark tower to the 
 left is as grand as it can be, and the water is very good and 
 true, but there is a trace of old amateur practice in the fine 
 old gateway which is glaringly out of drawing on account of 
 its bad perspective.* M. Queyroy does not seem to have 
 studied perspective scientifically, which, for the representation 
 of architecture, is an omission much to be regretted. Another 
 thing which I observe in this generally noble plate of Loches 
 is that the etcher has been too ready to substitute straight 
 lines for what in the reality would be varied or interrupted 
 lines. For example, the roof of the old gateway and that 
 of the round tower nearer to the foreground are both outlined 
 with straight lines ; in the real thing they would certainly 
 have been broken by the tiles, and very probably also in- 
 
 * The side of the gateway which is in shade is nearly right. That which is 
 lighted is altogether wrong, because the lines, if prolonged, would never reach 
 what ought to be the vanishing point
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 fleeted by the yielding of the woodwork under them. Mr. 
 Ernest George has drawn the same gate, and gives it a very 
 picturesque outline, perhaps exaggerated ; but if so, exagge- 
 rated in the artistic direction as this in the mechanical. The 
 tendency to ruled lines in M. Queyroy's manner is also very 
 marked in his vast plate of the magnificent House of Jacques 
 Cceur at Bourges, which is quite an architect's rendering of a 
 building clear and good of its kind, yet not like the etching 
 of painters. Notwithstanding these criticisms, however, which 
 I print merely because they may be of some use in directing 
 the attention of other etchers to possible causes of imperfec- 
 tion which may be very easily avoided, I am far indeed 
 from undervaluing M. Queyroy's work. His etchings, already 
 very numerous, will possess a lasting interest as records of 
 old France. He is always animated by an honest love of his 
 subject ; he has also quite sufficiently overcome the diffi- 
 culties of art to express himself with perfect clearness. The 
 Rue des Arenes at Bourges is one of M. Queyroy's most per- 
 fect plates. The Rue des Arenes is an old street with 
 tourelles, and both mediaeval and modern houses, which M. 
 Queyroy has etched with equal care rather too equal care, 
 perhaps. He introduces figures well, not hesitating to draw 
 them on rather a large scale in his more important plates, 
 and grouping them very naturally. 
 
 I have never been a believer in the theory (rather com- 
 monly received amongst painters) that anybody who can paint 
 can also etch if he will only condescend to do so. Etching is a 
 most peculiar art in many respects, and even the simplest 
 forms of it are not so simple as they look, for it is as difficult 
 to make a simple thing look brilliant and effective as it is to 
 get at effect by great labour. It is a great help, no doubt, 
 for an etcher to be a good painter before he sets to work on 
 the copper, because a good painter understands drawing and 
 light-and-shade, which are the foundation of all graphic art ; 
 nevertheless it must be allowed that great painters sometimes
 
 VARIO US FRENCH E TCHERS. 223 
 
 etch a little too condescendingly, and take up the needle less 
 in the spirit of a student who has to learn a new and difficult 
 art, than in the spirit of a strong man, accustomed to heavy 
 weights, who by chance has to carry a light one. The most 
 extreme instance of this is the landscape-painter COROT. As 
 he is a very celebrated artist, somebody persuaded him to 
 etch, and the consequence was that he sketched on the copper 
 as if he had been making a pochade with the brush. Now, in 
 oil-painting, this kind of sketching is of use, because it gives 
 tone and colour, though at the sacrifice of form, but in etching 
 such work could never have much value unless all the tones 
 were of the most wonderfully delicate truth, which they are not 
 likely ever to be. Corot is not ignorant of form, but he aban- 
 doned the study of it many years ago in order to direct his 
 attention exclusively to a certain kind of effect. In the three 
 etchings of his which are before me as I write, " Souvenir 
 d'ltalie" " Pay sage d' Italic" and "Environs de Rome" (all 
 published in the early days of the Soci'et'e des Aquafortistes), 
 the want of some kind of form is very painfully apparent. It 
 is hard to see how etching can abandon drawing altogether, 
 especially when such definite forms as tree trunks are brought 
 quite into the foreground. Then Corot has no sense whatever 
 of the use of line (having thought and worked so much with 
 the brush), and the consequence is that he runs all his lines 
 together in a wild scribble for shading, the only apparent 
 object being to cover the copper as fast as possible with 
 something, however artless. It is scribble, scribble every- 
 where, without a plant in the foreground or a leaf upon a 
 branch, the ensemble presenting at a little distance very much 
 the appearance of the preparatory rubbing-in with which an 
 artist prepares his paper for a charcoal drawing, the only 
 difference being that whereas the quality of rubbed charcoal 
 is exquisite, that of etched shading like this is decidedly 
 unpleasant And yet, in spite of these defects, the few etch- 
 ings of Corot have one merit and charm they do certainly
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 recall to mind, by association of ideas, his charming work in 
 oil, so full of the sweetest poetical sentiment. All sins are 
 forgiven to the true poets. Corot may not be a great poet, 
 as Turner was, but he is a true one. He feels the mystery 
 of nature ; he feels the delightfulness of cool, grey mornings 
 and dewy evenings ; he feels the palpitating life of gleaming 
 river-shores and the trembling of the light branches wherein 
 the fitful breezes play. He has an intense sense of the glim- 
 mering indecision and mystery of natural appearances, and he 
 does not, as it seems to us, draw and paint with precision 
 simply because his attention does not fix itself on that which 
 is precise.* 
 
 It would be unjust to omit an etcher of such masculine 
 power as BRACQUEMOND, but his works are not always 
 executed upon right principles, though his error has been 
 quite of an opposite character to the formlessness of Corot. 
 The veteran landscape-painter thinks only of relation, and 
 not about individual form, but (in the plates at least which I 
 now refer to) M. Bracquemond gives individual form with the 
 utmost force and truth, without the slightest thought of rela- 
 tion. He contributed some plates to the Socittt which were 
 perfect examples of this system of work, and of the perfection 
 and imperfection that it leads to. One of them, Le Haut dtui 
 Battant de Porte, represents part of a door in a farmyard, with 
 four victims nailed to it, a crow, two hawks, and a bat. Each 
 
 * It is a remarkable proof of the value of a direct expression, however defective 
 in its manner, that Corel's etchings, with all their faults, should convey a better 
 notion of the peculiarities of his genius than the far cleverer plates which Bracque- 
 mond executed after Corot's pictures. When Bracquemond translates Corot, all 
 the pensive tenderness and lightness of touch are lost. Corot is a sensitive dreamer, 
 dwelling in a world of his own. Bracquemond has a strong, clever, tough nature, 
 admirably fitted for representing the field sports of strong men as, for instance, in 
 his capital sporting print, "Unearthing a Badger" tht: physical lif of animals, 
 and such aspects of the external world as are to be apprehended by men in general 
 who lead active lives and are a good deal out of doors. It is quite impossible that 
 -uch a nature should have enough in common with that of Corot to be ab'e to 
 under a single thought of his.
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 225 
 
 of these is drawn with the utmost strength of imitation, but 
 each of them is independent of the rest, and might be detached 
 as a separate study. One feels this even more strongly in 
 Vanneaux et Sarcclles (lapwings and teal) ; each bird is studied 
 separately, the whole force of the artist's attention being con- 
 centrated upon it exclusively, without embracing the compo- 
 sition as a whole. A large flower comes against the nearest 
 lapwing ; every petal of it is strongly outlined, and then the 
 surface is flatly shaded without any modulation from incidence 
 of light. The principle of this work is not at all a bad 
 principle for some kinds of decoration ; it is quite right on a 
 dinner-service or a screen, and we are very familiar with it in 
 Japanese art ; but it is wrong in pictorial art, and consequently 
 in artistic etching, which ought to be synthetic above all 
 things. At a later date M. Bracquemond began to study 
 more synthetically, and one result of this change of purpose 
 was " The Hare," which appeared in the Portfolio for May 
 1872. In this plate the artist still gave evidence of his know- 
 ledge of animal life, for the attitude and expression of the 
 hare were as good as those of the birds in earlier works ; but 
 he now seriously attempted a general effect, and to some 
 extent succeeded in an experiment with line and stipple, 
 whilst the foreground plants, instead of being heavily outlined 
 as before, were now treated as if they had been lightly sketched 
 with a brush. The revolution in manner was therefore com- 
 plete, since in the purpose of the artist synthesis had been 
 substituted for analysis ; and if M. Bracquemond had pursued 
 etching regularly afterwards there can be little doubt that he 
 would have taken a decided rank amongst the best etchers of 
 the age. Unfortunately, however, for this particular branch 
 of art, he accepted an engagement at Sevres which has since 
 occupied all his time. 
 
 M. LEON GAUCHEREL is a well-known engraver who has 
 brought to etching the knowledge of form acquired in another 
 art. He is also a very skilful painter in water-colour. His 
 
 Q
 
 226 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 labours have been chiefly architectural, archaeological, and 
 decorative. All M. Gaucherel's etchings are distinguished by 
 great clearness and knowledge, but they are generally rather 
 hard and severe in manner, being conceived more from an 
 architect's or an engraver's point of view than from a painter's. 
 One of his plates, representing a narrow canal in Venice, 
 between a garden and a lofty house, with a narrow footbridge 
 at a considerable height above the water, appeared in the 
 Portfolio for December 1873, and maybe considered in all 
 respects a representative example, having all the clearness of 
 his work with its good drawing and perspective, and also the 
 peculiar hardness just alluded to, which extends even to the 
 foliage. M. Gaucherel has occasionally etched from pictures, 
 and I shall have to recur to this part of his labours in another 
 chapter. He was also one of the artists who etched Bida's 
 designs for Hachette's magnificent edition of the Gospels ; and 
 I may add (though this has nothing to do with etching) that 
 he engraved on steel nearly three hundred ornaments for that 
 wonderful book, and engraved them in a manner so faultless 
 that it excelled all previous work in the same kind. 
 
 M. FEYEN-PERRIN has often etched from his own pictures, 
 which for some time past have represented rather melancholy 
 subjects, found on the coast of Brittany, amongst the fishing 
 population. He has much true natural sympathy for the 
 pathos of a hard life, especially as it touches women ; so, whilst 
 too many of his brethren were painting the demi-monde of 
 Paris, Feyen-Perrin went to study a nobler though less 
 elegant kind of life on the sea-shore. He is not, however, a 
 marine painter in the ordinary sense of the word, but one of 
 the Great French rustic school akin to Millet and others, only 
 studying the peasantry on the coast, with the influence of the sea 
 upon their lives. I think the finest of Feyen-Perrin's etchings 
 is the one called Vanneuscs de Cancale. Two women are 
 winnowing on the shore of a broad estuary. I have rarely 
 seen a plate which with such simple means of execution con-
 
 VARIO US FRENCH E TCHERS. 2 2 7 
 
 veyed ideas of texture and tone as well as form, and I shall 
 have more to say of this plate in relation to the art of etching 
 from pictures. The same qualities, though in a less striking 
 degree, are visible in "A Sailor's Infancy," which was published 
 in the Portfolio (May 1873). This plate is, however, a better 
 instance than the "Vanneuses" of the sort of pathos which 
 distinguishes the artist's work. A mother is seated on one of 
 the great blocks of a pier with her infant in her arms, and the 
 sea and sky for a background. She is awaiting the arrival of 
 a fishing-boat, visible in the distance ; meanwhile she looks 
 rather sadly on the baby in her arms, as if thinking already 
 of the time when he also must leave her in the fishing-boats. 
 In these plates, although they are done from pictures, we have 
 the perfect originality of the artist, since the pictures are his 
 own, and the needle does no more than interpret the execu- 
 tion which best expresses his own thoughts. When an etcher 
 works from pictures done by another hand the case is entirely 
 altered. 
 
 M. LEGROS, who is now very well known in England as 
 a painter, has etched what are specially and justly called 
 " painters' etchings ; " that is to say, the kind of work which a 
 painter may do by natural genius and by the help of the 
 artistic experience gained in working with the brush. I have 
 already mentioned Corot as another instance of this ; but there 
 is a difference between the two artists which is much in 
 favour of Legros, who, being a figure-painter, must be depend- 
 ent upon form, and can never entirely neglect it as Corot 
 does in his landscapes. M. Legros uses the etching-needle 
 without at all troubling himself about what may constitute 
 the good and judicious management of it or the contrary, 
 hence his etchings have an inexperienced and amateurish 
 look in direct contrast with the strong mental gifts which 
 express themselves in this simple way, and give a sterling 
 value to the work in spite of all executive deficiencies. The 
 texture of his shading, at least in some of his earlier plates, is
 
 228 VARIO US FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 faulty in a peculiar way which I will try to describe. The 
 lines run together, and produce little black patches by chance, 
 where they were not, could not be, definitely intended by the 
 artist. There appears to be no knowledge of the resources of 
 the art, except a difference in depths of biting ; the same thin 
 needle is used everywhere with little variety of texture. The 
 best piece of execution that M. Legros has hitherto produced 
 is Le Bonliomme Mistre, and this is conceived rather like an 
 old woodcut ; however, it is a thoroughly fine piece of work 
 in every way, and shaded and bitten in most perfect harmony 
 with the subject. The mental qualities of this artist's work 
 are always nobly serious, and must seem strangely so to those 
 who believe in the universal levity of the French temperament 
 The legend of La Bonhomme Mishe is this : Saints Peter 
 and Paul visited one day a very poor old man, who possessed 
 a hut and a pear-tree, and offered to grant him any wish that 
 he might form, so he did not ask for wealth, but simply 
 requested that whosoever climbed up into his pear-tree might 
 not be able to get down again without his permission. In this 
 way he caught a thief or two, and at length came Death to pay 
 Le Bonhomme Misere a visit. The old man received him 
 very pleasantly, and just begged him to be so good as to 
 climb the pear-tree to get a certain ripe fruit which hung on 
 one of the upper branches. Once there, Death could not get 
 down again without the old man's express permission, so a 
 treaty was concluded between them in consequence of which 
 Misery dwells for ever upon the earth. M. Legros has chosen 
 the moment when Death is up in the pear-tree holding out 
 the pear in his skeleton fingers, and old Misery is looking up 
 at him. The imaginative conception of the whole scene is 
 worthy of some great solemn-minded old northern master. 
 There is something awful too in the plate of the Bell-Ringer 
 in the gloomy steeple chamber, with two children looking up 
 at the bell, half in dread, whilst the ringer's grave face and 
 bent figure indicate rather the fixed habit of a serious mind
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 "subdued to what it works in," than any fear of the loud- 
 voiced thing that swings and rings above him. I like too 
 very much the open and sweet gravity of the monk's portrait 
 in a small square etching which just contains the head and 
 neck, and cowl thrown back ; it is the face of a man whose 
 thoughts rise far above the miserable details of the present, 
 and dwell in the contemplation of the eternal. The large 
 plate of a girl, a priest, and an old man coming out of church 
 (the old man telling his beads), is full of the same sweetness 
 and noble gravity. The girl has the aspect of a Madonna, 
 and the men's faces are noble studies, both of them. Unfortu- 
 nately, from the want of technical skill, the three heads are so 
 exactly on the same plane that the girl appears gigantic. M. 
 Legros has always taken a peculiar artistic interest in the 
 Roman Catholic worship. Many an artist has been struck 
 by the splendour of its ceremonies, by its golden and silk 
 embroideries, candles, ornaments, imagery, incense ; but these 
 things do not attract Legros ; he turns to the monk in his 
 rough garment, and to the poor peasant maidens and old 
 men in the humble village church, watches them as they pray, 
 and draws them with an instinct of sympathy which, in its 
 own peculiar kind, has no precedent in the fine arts. 
 
 Few etchers of the modern French school have produced 
 such uniformly good work as M. BRUNET-DEBAINES. Two 
 little plates of his published by Cadart, La Place Royale a 
 Dole and A Verdun siir le Doubs, are in their way simply 
 perfection, faultless little gems of true etching like the little 
 plates of Veyrassat, everything being well expressed that it 
 was necessary to express at all, and not a stroke too much. 
 Considering how little M. Brunet-Debaines has published in 
 the way of original etching, it is surprising that he should be 
 able to do such work as this, drawn evidently with the most 
 enviable facility, and beautifully right both in all the delight- 
 ful detail which is given of picturesque towers and houses, 
 and in the shading of important masses. In other subjects,
 
 230 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 where buildings occur whose architectural importance exacts 
 a strict attention to perspective and to constructive detail, 
 this artist goes through his work without neglecting either 
 truth of construction on the one hand or pictorial effect on 
 the other ; and it would be difficult to find in the etchings of 
 architects or painters a manner of work better calculated to 
 explain, at the same time, how an edifice was built and how 
 it looked in sun and shadow. The tower in the Rue des 
 Grands Degrts d Blois and the side of Notre-Dame de Bourges, 
 with its window and doorway, and what is above the doorway, 
 are both good instances of this. M. Brunct-Debaines is also 
 one of the best living etchers from pictures, and I shall have 
 more to say of him in that capacity. 
 
 The subject of architecture brings me to the work of M. 
 DE ROCHEBRUNE, who etches it with great precision and rich- 
 ness of detail, combined with powerful light and shade. Two 
 magnificent interiors of his * have been published by M. 
 Cadart in his annual portfolios (1'Eauforte en 1874 and 
 1'Eauforte en 1875). M. de Rochebrune is a painter of noble 
 birth who has the rare privilege of living in one of the grandest 
 of the old French chateaux, so that for these two subjects he 
 had only to look at two sides of his own studio, and draw the 
 chimney-piece and the door, gigantic constructions of semi- 
 barbaric magnificence fit for some royal ha41 of the Elizabethan 
 period. These etchings, which are large, are full of strong 
 work in their kind, and prove a resolute determination to draw 
 everything fairly and thoroughly, a determination which is 
 rarely found in unison with such a vigorous sense of effect. 
 The same substantial qualities may be observed in other 
 works by M. de Rochebrune even when the subject is much 
 less striking. He has illustrated the chateau of Chambord, the 
 Louvre, the Hotel Cluny, the chateaux of Blois, Pierrefonds, 
 Ecouen, and the cathedral of Strasbourg. 
 
 * Cheminie de Fatdier de Terre-Neuve, Vendee, and Porte de F atelier de Terre- 
 l\~/euvt.
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS 231 
 
 The French school is so rich in etchers of ability, whose 
 number increases yearly, that it is impossible in a book like 
 this to avoid omissions which may already be considered un- 
 just, and which are likely to appear much more so a few years 
 hence, when artists now beginning their work shall have 
 developed themselves completely by practice. Amongst 
 those who ought not to be omitted, since they have taken part 
 in the movement for a good many years, M. CHAUVEL deserves 
 respectful mention for his clear drawing of landscape and 
 genuine manner, as exemplified in such plates as A Fleury 
 Marne, which is simply and well etched, and preferable to his 
 more laboured work, such as that in La Grenouille et le Bcenf. 
 A good specimen of his work, a scene with tree trunks in the 
 foreground and an effect of rain in the distance, under the 
 title Environs de Rouen, was published in VEauforte en 
 1874. There was no waste of labour in this plate, which con- 
 veyed the intended impression perfectly. In the first year of 
 the Soci'et'e des Aquaf artistes M. CHAIGNEAU contributed a 
 plate called Montons en Plaine, which I thought then, and 
 think still, one of the best examples of modern etching of a 
 simple kind, being at the same time right in manner, true to 
 nature, and poetical in feeling. The figure of the shepherdess 
 is almost sublime in her simple dignity, as she glances over her 
 sheep. The landscape, without being minute, is grand and 
 true, the play of light in the corn being very beautiful. Like 
 Daubigny's Pare d Moutons, this is a genuine pastoral poem, 
 but here we have an additional satisfaction in the truth with 
 which every sheep is studied and drawn. Another plate by 
 the same artist, Femme Gardant des Moutons, is too coarse in 
 texture to be held in the hand, and does not look well or come 
 well together at a less distance than six or eight feet from the 
 spectator. This is a point which deserves the serious attention 
 of etchers. If their works are to be published in portfolios or 
 books, they cannot safely be etched on the same principle as 
 if they were to be hung on the wall of an exhibition. There
 
 23 2 VARIO US FRENCH E TCHERS. 
 
 is evidently a limit to coarseness of texture in shading a limit 
 beyond which the lines cease to be shading altogether and 
 become simply black bars with white spaces between them, or 
 a network like a wire fence. M. ABRAHAM'S etchings of land- 
 scape deserve mention for a masculine and direct manner, but 
 show little trace of any tenderness in feeling. The best are 
 Environs de CJititeau Gontier and Bords de POndon, the first 
 a scene in a forest amongst the boles of ancient trees, on rocky 
 broken ground, well composed, and quite giving the impression 
 of such a place ; the other a piece of lowland river-shore, with 
 tall thin graceful trees just well enough drawn to make one 
 regret that they were not treated with the tenderness of 
 Appian or Lalanne. It is not without pleasure that I mention 
 here the name of VlLLEVIElLLE, a landscape-painter of much 
 feeling, who died, like our own Girtin, in early manhood. He 
 had an exquisite sense of landscape beauty, which, however, is 
 not nearly so apparent in his etchings as it is in his work in 
 oil, which had the additional charm of a warm sunny colour 
 not common either in the French school or in any other. A 
 carping critic might here observe that I am going beyond the 
 province of this book in speaking of an etcher's capacity as a 
 painter ; but it is not so, for in looking at an etching by Ville- 
 vieille I think, and think regretfully, how he would have 
 painted the same subject. His etched work is so far inferior 
 as to convey hardly anything of the painter's charm and 
 sweetness. The two plates under the same title, A Nohant- 
 Vicq one representing an old thatched cottage, and the other 
 an approach to a bridge under trees are both interesting 
 plates, but the latter is very violent in its lights and darks, the 
 foliage being quite white in the lights, and all cast shadows 
 as black as unmitigated printing-ink could make them. This, 
 however, may have been due simply to technical inexperience, 
 for in another plate by the same artist, En Picardie, which was 
 given in the first edition of this work, Villevieille had recourse 
 to the roulette for his general tone, and escaped all false vio-
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 233 
 
 lence, attaining in place of it a harmony very like that of his 
 pictures. The last-named etching is very simple in subject, 
 but pervaded by a tender melancholy, which makes it linger 
 in the memory for long. 
 
 M. BALFOURIER is a very experienced landscape-painter, 
 who occasionally etches his own pictures. His system of work 
 is simply to begin by putting in all organic markings and 
 biting them rather deeply, after which he passes a veil of 
 shading over the work to be bitten much more lightly. In 
 some of his plates this division of processes is even too apparent, 
 so that the work does not seem harmonised, but in others the 
 technical method is quite successful ; and as the artist always 
 chooses curious and interesting subjects his best plates are 
 well worth preserving. I can heartily recommend two of 
 them, Marais fres cFElche (Espagne) and Une Usine d la 
 Cran ( Var), both admirable interpretations of the picturesque 
 of southern Europe. I observe that in M. Balfourier's work 
 the immediate foreground and the far distance are rarely of 
 much importance, but that nearly all his interesting material 
 is to be found on the nearer middle distance, or what the 
 French call le second plan. This is extremely judicious, 
 because at that distance landscape material is most con- 
 veniently situated for a kind of study combining breadth with 
 intelligible detail, and there is much less risk to the general 
 harmony than there would be in a minute study of what lies quite 
 close at hand. M. SOUMY, who was a Prix de Rome, has, I 
 believe, done little in etching, but two of his plates, published 
 under the same title, Forges d'Allevar en Daupkine, are very 
 charming, in a rather old-fashioned way, reminding one of Ever- 
 dingen, and quite as good as the best work of that master. 
 In these plates the artist treats broken ground and picturesque 
 buildings very happily, with much breadth of light and shade, 
 and considerable truth of tone. The BARON DE LONGUE- 
 VILLE is a naval officer and an amateur, but a very skilful 
 amateur. No marine-painter whom I remember has better
 
 234 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 
 
 expressed the majesty of a modern war-fleet. He is fond of 
 naval magnificence, and understands it both artistically and 
 as an observer of seamanship. The objection to his work is 
 the grave artistic error of losing his darks in absolute black, so 
 that his shadows are usually quite black. This is a complete 
 mistake, due to a want of study of the inevitable artistic com- 
 promises. In the plate entitled Sous Voiles coiirant grand 
 I argue this fault is visible only in the shadows on the nearest 
 sails ; but some other plates as, for instance, Au Mouillage 
 and En Mcr are altogether spoiled by it. In the first 
 mentioned of these subjects the student cannot fail to remark 
 the admirable rendering of the effect of six different distances 
 on the appearance of a ship ; this is the artistic purpose of 
 the etching, and with right artistic cunning the nearest ship 
 is brought close to the most remote one. The water is very 
 liquid and good, and the sense of being at sea perfectly 
 communicated. In the Sous Vapeur a steam fleet is going at 
 speed on calm water, clouds of black smoke issuing from 
 every funnel ; I have never seen the sublimity of a steam 
 war-fleet more impressively rendered. M. de Longueville 
 has perfect mastery of his materials, and can do all he wants 
 to do in etching, but he seems to have no aspiration beyond 
 the lively and truthful rendering of what he knows. M. 
 BALLIN is more ambitious ; some of his plates of marine 
 subjects are interesting historically, and have besides a 
 picturesque interest of quite a peculiar kind, since they set 
 before us the high-pooped ships that sailed and fought two 
 hundred years ago. This kind of restoration is still quite 
 possible, for we have ample evidence as to the construction of 
 the ships, and the sea remains ever the same. M. Ballin 
 appears to feel very strongly the grandeur of the old naval 
 engagements, and draws them with great spirit. Since the 
 war of 1870 there have appeared two or three very clever 
 etchers of military subjects, such as Lancon, Detaille, and De 
 Neuville. LANCON draws animals capitally, a talent which
 
 VARIOUS FRENCH ETCHERS. 235 
 
 stands him in good stead when he has to deal with such a 
 subject as Boulevard Montrouge, 1871, with the dead animals 
 lying about on the pavement, or the trooper's horse in Fau- 
 bourg, 30 Aout soir 1870, or the dead horses in Route de 
 Mouzon, 31 Ao2it 1870, which are represented with frightful 
 truth amongst the corpses of their riders. DETAILLE, a 
 favourite pupil of Meissonier, who has become celebrated as a 
 painter very early in life, etches with consummate ease and 
 skill, which may be attributed to his habit of making clever 
 croquis of what he sees for subsequent use in his pictures. 
 His two plates, Un Uhlan and Trompette de Chasseurs, are as 
 good as anything well can be in that light-handed sketchy 
 manner, being full of the closest observation expressed with 
 admirable ease. Any critic can say that these are "mere 
 sketches," because all the paper is not blackened ; but he who 
 knows what good drawing is, and where to look for it, will 
 find more of it in a horse's leg by Detaille, sketched from 
 memory in five minutes, than in many a laboured engraving. 
 M. DE NEUVILLE is a painter of soldiers in action and repose, 
 and a clever sketcher on copper ; his Mobiles a la Tranchee, 
 Siege de Paris, is a good example of the strong character 
 which he puts into his work, every face and every attitude 
 being a separate and strikingly truthful study. With this 
 name I close a chapter already too long for the reader's 
 patience, and yet too short for any adequate study of those 
 etchers who have not been noticed separately. So much 
 energy and so much genuine talent are now to be found in 
 the French school of etching, that the members of it are 
 already too numerous to be spoken of with a fair allowance 
 of space and study to each. We can do no more than simply 
 acknowledge their honourable perseverance, and the very 
 considerable degree of artistic success which has already 
 attended it.
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 T N a work intended for English readers, it is an excusable 
 degree of patriotism to give rather more space to the 
 English school than would be strictly due to it according to 
 the rules of absolute impartiality. The names of English 
 artists are already known to the reader, and he will expect, 
 it may be supposed, an account of what they have done in 
 etching. But let me warn him at the beginning that he is 
 not to expect any great enthusiasm or activity in the English 
 school. There is no sustained energetic work in this art in 
 England ; it is not encouraged here, as it is in France, by 
 great publishing enterprises succeeding each other rapidly ; 
 nor, on the other hand, is there much of that heroic temper 
 amongst English artists which will persevere in an unremu- 
 nerative pursuit, simply for the love of it, and from a feeling 
 that a noble art ought to be kept alive for its own sake. 
 
 In considering the difference between France and Eng- 
 land in this respect, we find that the reasons for it are easily 
 discoverable. The ordinary Englishman measures the graphic 
 arts exclusively by their powers of imitation ; he has no 
 conception of any higher faculty in the artist, or any wider 
 liberty. If you want the key to all his thinking about graphic 
 art, here it is. When there is much imitation of a clever 
 kind, he rather likes the art and thinks it is good ; when there 
 is little imitation, the art puzzles him and he passes it by. 
 Nor is this view of the subject entirely confined to those who 
 are wholly uneducated in art. It is so much a part of the
 
 24 o THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 national temperament that some of the ablest artists and 
 some of the best-informed critics are never wholly delivered 
 from it, but are always liable to fall back into it, and to for- 
 get all larger and nobler ideas, either in the pleasure of 
 simply imitating nature, or else in the kindred delight of 
 enjoying such imitation when it has been cleverly and suc- 
 cessfully accomplished. Even Mr. Ruskin tells the students 
 at Oxford that the painting which is likest nature is best, and 
 quotes with approbation Leonardo da Vinci's assertion, 
 excusable only in an age when criticism was childish though 
 art was strong and great, that the mirror is the master of 
 painters, and that the proper way to test the merits of a 
 picture is to compare it with the reflection of the living model 
 in a looking-glass ! This is a thing which in modern times 
 could be said only by an English critic, and only to an 
 English audience. The conception of art as something dis- 
 tinct from simple imitation is too generally admitted on the 
 Continent for such a doctrine to be listened to or tolerated 
 there, and the critic who acknowledged it as his own would 
 be answered at once by innumerable voices, " We know better 
 than that ; we know that the true power of art is exhibited 
 in forms which are not imitation, and are not compatible with 
 imitation ; that the work of the artist, as distinguished from 
 that of the simple copyist of matter, is full of deviations from 
 the truth as it would be seen in a mirror, these deviations 
 being not faults to be corrected, but essential parts of the 
 artistic expression, without which the work would be mind- 
 less. We know that the real labour of the artist (though the 
 vulgar may not be aware of it) consists, not in giving a 
 mirror-like image of things precisely as they are, but in a 
 personal and original interpretation of their aspects, far, 
 indeed, from the literal truth of a reflection on metal or on 
 glass." 
 
 It may seem that this question has more to do with paint- 
 ing than with etching, but the truth is that the state of
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 241 
 
 general opinion with regard to imitation affects all the fine 
 arts which concern themselves with the representation of 
 natural objects. If you think that drawing is to be an imita- 
 tion of nature and not an interpretation, there is hardly any 
 piece of thoroughly great work in etching which will not 
 be offensive to you, but if, on the other hand, you have ac- 
 cepted frankly the higher and greater conception of the fine 
 arts, which leaves the pictorial artist as free to express himself 
 as the musical or poetical artist, then the very peculiarities 
 which would have irritated you before for their obvious lack 
 of imitative truth, may possibly afford you a noble pleasure 
 on other grounds, either as expressions of human energy or 
 tenderness, or else because they may suggest to you some 
 glorious or beautiful sight in nature to which they bear 
 hardly any imitative resemblance. 
 
 The acceptance or refusal of etching in England, and the 
 possibility of forming a great school of etchers in this country, 
 depend more upon the public feeling about imitation than 
 upon any other peculiarity of taste. So long as the idea 
 prevails that the best art is that which is most like the reflection 
 of nature in a looking-glass, so long will the work of the great 
 etchers appear wilfully false and wrong, and there will be little 
 public encouragement to follow in their footsteps, and to 
 labour for the acquisition of any skill which would ultimately 
 resemble theirs. 
 
 How deeply rooted this idea is may be seen in the current 
 criticism of the newspapers, which too often proceeds on the 
 tacit assumption that art has nothing to do but copy some 
 natural model, and that the best art is that which imitates it 
 most closely. " All art," said the Morning Post when review- 
 ing the first edition of this work, " is essentially mechanical ; 
 the needle, the burin, the pencil, the brush, these are all 
 machines or tools worked by the hand to copy what the eye 
 beholds, and the faithfulness of the copy constitutes the 
 merit of the work. No graphic delineation can portray the 
 
 R
 
 2 42 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 invisible, no artist can figure feeling ; this must be extracted 
 by spectators themselves out of the imitated forms, as his was 
 excited by the view of the originals." 
 
 Here you have a perfectly clear and intelligible expres- 
 sion of the prevalent English theory about art. Here it is 
 clearly stated that the work of the artist is mechanical, that 
 his only business is to copy what his eye beholds, and that 
 the faithfulness of the copy constitutes the merit of the work. 
 It is the mirror-theory taught officially to the Oxford under- 
 graduates. It has the advantage of an extreme simplicity, 
 and it has also the advantage of being the first theory of art 
 which suggests itself to every totally uneducated mind, so 
 that it is always sure of an immediate reception. The "leading 
 journal," the Times, is awakening to the possibility of an 
 artistic expression not strictly imitative, but the first dawning 
 perception of the strangely new truth (familiar to every 
 French critic since his boyhood) half bewilders the writer 
 and half amuses him, so that he is not quite sure whether he 
 ought to laugh at interpretative work or to treat it rather 
 respectfully. Here is an extract from the greatest newspaper 
 in England : 
 
 " The Hare A Misty Morning, by P. Braquemond. On 
 first looking at the etching it produces upon the mind the 
 impression of a bad dream. A hare with one huge solid ear, 
 the fore part of its body in bright light, the hind part scarcely 
 visible, squats in the foreground. In the middle distance are 
 three strange shadows of other hares running at speed in 
 different directions, and, farther off, three pigmy shadows of 
 men. The resemblance to nature is remote, and yet this is a 
 very good etching. The truth is, that the work of the etcher 
 can, in many of its branches, be appreciated only by an 
 educated eye. The etcher does not reproduce nature ; he 
 translates it into a language of his own, a language abounding 
 in subtle interpretations conveyed with extraordinary delicacy 
 and harmony, but a language which very often appears but
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 243 
 
 gibberish until we have mastered it. Then again the etcher is 
 ambitious. He plumes himself on attempting things which 
 might be deemed far beyond the scope of the black line, which 
 is all he can work with. When he makes these attempts, as 
 in the etching before us, he appears to fail ridiculously, until 
 we come to understand his method, when we are lost in 
 astonishment at the dexterity of his needle. His lights and 
 shadows, falser to nature even than those of photography, are 
 blacker and brighter than anything in earth and heaven ; we 
 may often take our choice whether his lines and scratches are 
 intended for water or dry land, for clouds or mountains ; but 
 if we surrender ourselves to a competent teacher, we shall soon 
 find it pleasant to be schooled in this strange tongue, and 
 learn what an artistic treat is locked up even in this one-eared 
 hare, with the bright breast and inky body, and in the queer 
 abnormal shadows which mean ' a misty morning ! ' ' 
 
 Now, the writer of the above criticism is certainly in a very 
 different position, intellectually, from that of the contributor 
 to the Morning Post, whose doctrine I quoted previously. He 
 sees that in one art, at least, namely, in etching, there is such 
 a thing as interpretation, but he cannot help feeling that it is 
 too novel an idea to be taken quite seriously at first, so he 
 writes of it as of some strange new thing, though Rembrandt 
 died more than two hundred years ago. He does not seem 
 to be aware that if etching is interpretative, all artistic drawing 
 is so too, nay, that even painting is so, especially in the 
 greatest works. What surprises me in such criticism as this 
 is its perfectly uncultured tone. Ideas about art, which have 
 long been the common property of all cultivated Europeans, 
 are utterly unfamiliar to the critic's mind. He writes upon the 
 subject as you would expect some remote Australian colonist to 
 write about it for some petty colonial newspaper, intended to 
 edify the occupants of the nearest sheep-runs. And yet he is 
 writing in the capital of one of the greatest and richest nations 
 in Europe, for its most influential newspaper, and about an
 
 244 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 art which came to perfection two hundred years before he was 
 born ! A word more, and we will leave this kind of criticism 
 to those for whom it is intended. The writer in the Times 
 cannot even read common drawing. He laughs at Bracque- 
 mond for having drawn a hare with one ear, whereas, in 
 Bracquemond's plate, the hare has two ears, erect and back to 
 back, he also sneers at the artist for not having shown the 
 hind quarters of the hare more clearly, as if more of them 
 could have been seen in that position, and he is puzzled by 
 the local colour of the white fur and the brown, which seems 
 to him an unaccountable sort of light and shade. And it is to 
 a critic of this degree of culture and capacity that the Times 
 entrusts the reputation of great artists and its own ! * 
 
 It would be unjust to leave the impression that we have 
 no more advanced art-criticism than the specimens which I 
 have just quoted, but they are fair examples of what may still 
 be presented in the centres of English enlightenment, without 
 calling forth either protest or contradiction. What is wanting 
 in England is a general understanding of the true nature of 
 artistic expression, which would enable the national mind to 
 judge of these things for itself. It is not a matter of opinion, 
 but of demonstrable fact, that great art is an entirely different 
 thing from the reflection of material objects in a mirror, and 
 this is quite clearly understood in other countries by cultivated 
 people, whether professedly art critics or not ; why, then, 
 cannot it be understood in ours ? Take the finest living 
 models you can find, dress them or undress them as you will, 
 take the biggest and best of mirrors, and then try to arrange 
 your models and your light till the reflected image looks 
 like a picture by Raphael, or Titian, or our own Sir Joshua 
 
 * It may be observed that this contributor to the Times had to spell the names 
 of two living artists in the course of his notice, and that he managed to spell them 
 both wrong, though they were printed in capital letters in the volume of etchings 
 which he was reviewing. What degree of accuracy in observation is to be expected 
 from such a writer ?
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 245 
 
 Reynolds ! Do what you will, the reflected image will never 
 resemble masters' work, but will seem only what it is, a reflec- 
 tion of simple nature. There never was a tableau vivant that 
 really looked like a picture, the tableau vivant, when cleverly 
 arranged, looks like a grouping of artists' models, but no more. 
 So it is with landscape. Take your looking-glass out into the 
 finest natural scenery you can find, it will never show you 
 noble pictures of landscape, but only things like photographs 
 with the addition of colour, and a far more brilliant light 
 Our fathers had a fearful and wonderful invention which they 
 called a "Claude glass," a black mirror, which blackened 
 nature for them, till they fancied that it looked like the old 
 pictures in their galleries. They did, indeed, by this ingenious 
 contrivance, mix the dirt of old pictures with the pure hues of 
 nature, and so brought nature to the dinginess of the art which 
 they admired, but not a branch of a tree, not an outline of a 
 hill, accommodated itself in the mirror to the exigencies of 
 artistic composition. All of Claude that the " Claude glass " 
 gave, was the dust of two centuries in the darkened varnish ; it 
 imitated neither the beauty of his arrangements nor the ten 
 derness of his feeling. 
 
 Now, when you go into the heart of the matter, and by a 
 thorough analysis of good artistic work endeavour to find out 
 in what it differs from the reflection of natural objects in a 
 mirror, you will soon discover, if your eye is sufficiently 
 educated to discern differences of form, that the artist has 
 been incessantly altering the appearances of things and forcing 
 them into conformity with some conception in his own mind. 
 It is by these alterations, and by these alone, that he can 
 express his personal tastes and feelings. If all artists re- 
 flected nature as the mirror does, you would not, in a gallery, 
 be able to recognise the work of different painters without the 
 help of their signatures. All personal style in art is an altera- 
 tion of nature. Every preference, every affection, destroys 
 that impartiality of the mind which would be necessary to the
 
 246 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 reflection of pure truth. Even what is popularly praised in 
 art as truth is never exactly true, but is an exaggeration of 
 some particular kind of truth, exhibited at the expense of 
 others. 
 
 If people knew this, and knew how false in many ways is 
 the art which seems to them most true, they would enter 
 more easily into that kind of mutual understanding or tacit 
 convention which is assumed by every powerful etcher to 
 exist between himself and the public. It is a convention in 
 some respects resembling that between the reader and the 
 author of a book, by which the latter avails himself of letters 
 and words for the conveyance of his ideas ; in some respects, 
 I say, or to some extent, but etching is never quite so purely 
 conventional as the signs of writing are. For example, the 
 word " sunset " immediately suggests to the mind of an 
 English reader the setting of the sun, but the word is absolutely 
 conventional ; the choice of the letters which compose it, and 
 of the shapes of the letters, has not been determined in the 
 least by reference to any natural fact of form or colour ; and 
 many other words in other languages convey precisely the 
 same idea. Now let us see how a sunset would be represented 
 in painting first, and then in etching. Suppose it is a red sun- 
 set, and suppose that the best landscape-painter in the world 
 nas painted it. He has represented it, let us say, by a disc 
 of vermilion or red lead, but however skilfully he may have 
 laid on the colour, there will still be so much conventionalism 
 in the representation that it will not be recognisable by any 
 one entirely outside of art and its conventions. Show it to 
 an agricultural labourer, who often sees natural sunsets, the 
 chances are that he will take it for a cherry. Now an etched 
 sunset, equally well done, will have been done on the assump- 
 tion of even more conventions than the painted one, and not 
 only the agricultural labourer, but people of far higher educa- 
 tion than his may not be able or willing to enter into these 
 conventions, especially if they are looking for what they think
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 247 
 
 is imitative accuracy. The etcher will probably make his sun 
 with a black outline for the round disc, and then put other 
 black marks radiating from it, so that the spectator will say, 
 " it is not like a sunset, it is much more like the nave and 
 spokes of a cart-wheel." What are we to reply to such a piece 
 of criticism as this ? We can only answer that it is an under- 
 stood thing amongst people conversant with the language cf 
 etching, that such signs are to represent the orb and its 
 radiance together. And now we come to the very hottest of 
 the everlasting battle between the criticism of knowledge and 
 the criticism of ignorance. The ignorant critic says, " ah, yes, 
 I see that the merits you affect to discover in these marks, 
 when they are made by the men whom you call great in etch- 
 ing, are purely fictitious merits. This thing that resembles a 
 cart-wheel is conventionally understood to stand for a sunset, 
 and it is the fashion amongst connoisseurs to call it very 
 clever, but it does not resemble nature. In nature the sun 
 has not a black outline, and there are no black lines radiating 
 from him on the sky." 
 
 This is the sort of objection to interpretative etching which 
 we meet with very frequently in England, because the concep- 
 tion of art simply as a means of imitation is so very prevalent 
 amongst our countrymen. The answer to it is not difficult to 
 find, but it is difficult to make it clear to those for whom it 
 ought to be made clearest. The fact is that, although the 
 black marks are not like nature, the manner in which they 
 are drawn upon the copper will most distinctly convey to 
 every competent critic the evidence of the artist's knowledge, 
 or betray his ignorance. There are no lines in nature, and 
 yet lines are a most efficient means of recalling nature to the 
 mind, and of expressing the concentrated experience of great 
 artists. If you will not grant any postulate to art, if you will 
 have absolute imitative accuracy, the painted sunset will be 
 inadmissible also, for although the oil-paint may render the 
 sun's colour, it cannot give his light, nor anything like his
 
 248 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 light, and the peasant might have reason on his side, all things 
 considered, if he concluded that the painted sun was more like 
 a cherry than the dazzling orb of day. 
 
 Painting comes to us with the postulate : " Let it be 
 granted that a lower light shall be understood to represent a 
 higher light," and in all great interpretative painting there are 
 so many other postulates besides, that it is always difficult to 
 read until we are used to it. Etching comes with the chief 
 postulate: "Let it be granted that the line, though in itself 
 not true to nature, may be admitted as a means of expression." 
 There are also many minor postulates, but especially this one : 
 "Let it be granted that all truths are not to be given, but 
 only a selection from them." 
 
 The granting of such postulates as these establishes between 
 the artist and the spectator a certain agreement which may 
 be called a convention, and in this sense both painting and 
 etching are very conventional arts. But I wish to mark a 
 clear distinction between this kind of necessary mutual under- 
 standing and what a sound criticism would denounce as a blame- 
 worthy conventionalism. Let me give two instances to make 
 my meaning plain. There is a right convention between 
 educated spectators and educated artists, by which it is agreed 
 that the dull and low light of oil-paint shall be understood to 
 mean the splendour of the sun. This convention is a right 
 one, because it is in obedience to the nature of things, for 
 without it a sunset could not be represented in painting. Now 
 let me give an instance of bad and foolish conventionalism. 
 There was a conventional understanding amongst amateurs 
 some time ago that the green of landscape was not to be 
 painted. There was nothing whatever in the art which 
 opposed itself in this instance to the free rendering of nature. 
 Oil-paint, and water-colour also, could render green with great 
 truth and power. The obstacle to the employment of this 
 colour carne from a purely arbitrary conspiracy amongst con- 
 noisseurs and amateurs, by which they had determined that
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 249 
 
 when fresh greens were introduced into a picture the work 
 should be understood to be a bad work of art. Foolish con- 
 ventionalisms of this kind appear as if they were devised for 
 the express purpose of restraining the development of the fine 
 arts, and although they originate with persons who profess to 
 take an interest in the advancement of art, their influence is 
 wholly noxious, and original men have to .spend their force in 
 contending against them, as Constable contended against the 
 absurd prejudice which I baye-juit mentioned as an example. 
 Now, in comparing the English with the French mind in 
 relation to fine a-% I should say that English people generally 
 are much less lu/ble to this latter kind of prejudiced conven- 
 tionalism than the French are, and that so far they have a 
 very great superiority over the French, but that, on the other 
 hand, they are just as far inferior to the French in the capacity 
 for entering into right conventionalisms and for granting 
 necessary postulates. The English public has for the last 
 twenty years been singularly free from all conventional preju- 
 dices about the fine arts, and there is no country in the world 
 where new practices in painting have so good a chance of 
 being fairly estimated on their merits as they have in England. 
 But the English seem to have a peculiar difficulty in entering 
 into those tacit understandings which the fine arts must always 
 presuppose. Let me give an instance of what I mean. In 
 Mrs. Oliphant's admirable novel A Son of the Soil, she gives a 
 fine description of a rainbow, and then permits her readers to 
 see what a young English gentleman thinks about it. "Young 
 Frankland at the window could not help thinking within him- 
 self what a beautiful picture it would make ' if any of those 
 painter-fellows could do a rainbow.' " * Let us try to get to 
 the bottom of young Frankland's ideas on the subject He 
 thinks a rainbow cannot be " done " in painting, because his 
 
 * Observe the note of contempt with reference to artists "those painter- 
 fellows. " This is quite usual in English fiction. The reader will find an essay on 
 the subject, entitled " Artists in Fiction," in my Thoughts abcut Art.
 
 2 .so THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 eye does not receive the same sensations from a painted rain- 
 Bow that it does from a real one, or, in other words, the 
 "painter-fellows" cannot imitate the rainbow absolutely. Here 
 is just , one of those very numerous occasions on which the 
 artist presupposes a tacit understanding between art and 
 criticism, or what I have called a necessary convention. Paint- 
 ing cannot give the splendour of the rainbow, so we have the 
 postulate : " Let it be granted that the painted rainbow is not 
 to be so splendid as the natural ene." Frankland does not 
 understand this ; he does not see that the "painter-fellows " 
 ought not to incur contempt because they have not done that 
 which they never pretended to do. He doe^s not enter into 
 the convention which is necessary both to thd practice of art 
 and to its enjoyment. He is intensely English in this ; it is 
 an intensely English idea that the purpose of art is imitation, 
 and that where imitation is not achieved, art is a failure. Now 
 let us go a step farther. For a painted rainbow let us substi- 
 tute an engraved one. What would young Frankland say to 
 that ? He would say that the engraver was an idiot to 
 attempt it. How can you imitate a rainbow with black lines ? 
 The answer to all such criticism as this is that the artist pre- 
 supposes a certain understanding between himself and the 
 spectator. In the picture the convention was that art should 
 not be expected to imitate natural light, in the engraving that 
 neither light nor colour should be imitated. But a finished 
 engraving might still imitate the gradation and semi-trans- 
 parency of a rainbow, and, in fact, these qualities have been 
 often rendered in engraving. Yet even these are not indi- 
 spensable to a work of art. A rainbow may be " done " with 
 a few strokes of the etching-needle, or with common pen and 
 ink, and be quite noble and valuable work. Hardly any 
 imitation is possible with these limited means, yet they are 
 right in art, and imply no weakness or folly on the part of the 
 great artists who have so often used them. By the help of a 
 convention into which the spectator is invited or supposed to
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 251 
 
 enter, such artists appeal not simply to his eyes, but to his 
 memory of nature and his imagination. When the spectator 
 is ignorant of the convention, he may sometimes fancy that 
 the artist insults his common sense, and certainly it is not to 
 common sense that noble art-work ever did or will appeal. It 
 appeals to far higher faculties, to our memories of the beauty 
 that has been, and our dreams of the beauty that has never 
 been, to our perception of the most subtle truth in nature, and 
 our delight in seeing such truth commented upon, and even 
 modified, by the free and masterful action of human genius. 
 
 It is because the English have hitherto understood art 
 much more as a copy than as a suggestion or an expres- 
 sion, much more as a substitute for imagination than as a 
 stimulus to it, that they have been moved with great difficulty 
 by all the forms of art which appeared to them " unfinished." 
 For the same reason the minor artists have in England been 
 exposed to an especially lamentable waste of labour, the too 
 well-known "malady of detail."* 
 
 Yet a true principle of good work in drawing was stated 
 in England quite plainly a hundred years ago by Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds. In his fortieth note on Du Fresnoy's poem on the 
 art of painting, when he dwells upon the necessity for breadth, 
 he gives an instance to show what breadth is. 
 
 "To illustrate this, we may have recourse to Titian's 
 bunch of grapes, which we will suppose placed so as to re- 
 ceive a broad light and shadow. Here, though each indi- 
 vidual grape on the light side has its light, and shadow, and 
 reflection, yet altogether they make but one broad mass of 
 light : tJie slightest sketch, therefore, where this breadth is pre- 
 
 * This is an expression of Charlet's, and a just one. The attention to detail at 
 Jie expense of the large relations between masses, is due to an overwrought state 
 jf the attention which does not indicate perfect mental balance. A good instance 
 of it in poetry is in Tennyson's Maud (xxiii.), where the morbid hero is so taken 
 up with a tiny shell on the Breton shore, that it occupies an inordinate space in the 
 poem (twenty-nine verses), though it is an accidental bit of detail. This is quite 
 characteristic of the morbid mind.
 
 252 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 served, will have a better effect, will have more the appearance 
 of coming from a master-hand, that is, in other words, will 
 have more the characteristic and generale of nature than the 
 most laborious finishing where this breadth is lost or neglected" 
 
 A century later Mr. Seymour Haden wrote an article in 
 the Fine Arts Quarterly Review, which inculcated the same 
 principle. 
 
 " What, then, is the amount and kind of previous know- 
 ledge and skill required by the etcher ? It is an innate 
 artistic spirit, without which all the study in the world is 
 useless. It is the cultivation of this spirit, not arduously but 
 lovingly. It is the knowledge that is acquired by a life of 
 devotion to what is true and beautiful by the daily and 
 hourly habit of weighing and comparing what we see in 
 nature, and thinking of how it should be represented in art. 
 It is the habit of constant observation of great things and 
 small, and the experience that springs from it. It is taste 
 which, a celebrated painter once said, but not truly, is rarer 
 than genius. The skill that grows out of these habits is the 
 skill required by the etcher. It is the skill of the analyst and 
 the synthetist, the skill to combine, and the skill to separate to 
 compound and to simplify to detach plane from plane to fuse 
 detail into mass to subordinate definition to space, distance, 
 light, and air. Finally, it is the acumen to perceive the near 
 relationship that expression bears to form, and the skill to 
 draw them not separately but together." 
 
 There have never been wanting, since art was practised in 
 England, countrymen of ours who understood these things, 
 and, therefore, who understood etching, but they have been 
 too few in number to encourage sufficiently an art which 
 depends upon a multiplicity of buyers. It is necessary here 
 to enter briefly upon a question foreign to artistic considera- 
 tions, the purely commercial question. The fine arts depend 
 upon a sufficient sale of their products. This brings us to 
 one of the most surprising peculiarities in the commerce of
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 253 
 
 the fine arts, one of those peculiarities which no human being 
 would ever guess by his own wisdom, but which the experi- 
 ence of business teaches us. To a person not practically 
 versed in such matters, it would seem that the power of 
 multiplying a work of art would be a source of wealth to the 
 artist. It certainly would be so in any manufacture which 
 had simple utility for its purpose, and was not in any way 
 dependent upon opinion. No one could create a fortune by 
 making steel pens, if steel pens were not multipliable by the 
 million. Nobody could become rich by drawing designs on 
 calico, but calico-printers become immensely wealthy by 
 multiplying such designs. In the region of fine art, on the 
 contrary, the productions which are multipliable bring in 
 less to the producer than those which are not multipliable, 
 and it is positively a misfortune for an art that its products 
 should have facilities for being multiplied. Painting is luc- 
 rative, because every picture is unique. If pictures could be 
 printed in perfect colour, no single copy would be worth 
 more than a small fraction of what the original is now, and 
 it is likely that after deducting the expenses of printing, 
 with the profits of the publishing and the retail trade, the 
 net proceeds for the author of the work would be much less 
 than they are at present. There is, indeed, another side to 
 the question which we may not altogether overlook. When 
 the sale of a work of art is very great, then indeed the aggre- 
 gation of small profits on many copies is a compensation for 
 the loss of uniqueness in one of them. A very popular 
 novelist is a producer of works of art who finds it greatly to 
 his advantage to be able to multiply his products. But now 
 consider the position of the etcher. His work is not unique, 
 on the one hand, like that of the painter, and on the other 
 hand, although it could be multiplied as novels are, if there 
 were a demand for it, this is not practically an advantage 
 owing to the absence of such a demand. The etcher has, 
 therefore, to a certain extent the disadvantages of artists in
 
 254 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAA T L>. 
 
 colour and artists in language, without enjoying enough of 
 the advantages of either to be a compensation. His works 
 are multiplied, and therefore they are not unique, but they 
 are not multiplied enough. 
 
 The commercial experience of artists who can etch and 
 paint equally well is, that they cannot afford to etch. This is 
 the real reason why so little has been accomplished by the 
 English school. Collectors will give a thousand pounds, or 
 three thousand, for a picture, but they will give a high price 
 for an etching only when other people cannot get it, and in 
 the case of a new plate it is known that anybody can get it. 
 " Men do not purchase pictures," Archdeacon Fisher wrote to 
 Constable, "because they admire them, but because others 
 covet them." The truth is, that the motives for purchasing 
 are mixed, but that one of them is to have the satisfaction of 
 being envied. This accounts for the extraordinary value of 
 unique things. 
 
 Etching has been practically sustained in England by the 
 occasional labours of painters who have worked simply from an 
 interest in the art. A few of them have reached considerable 
 technical skill, even in this desultory way, and with this very 
 slight degree of external encouragement, one or two have 
 produced etchings which will bear comparison with the finest 
 work of other countries and times. Many amateurs have 
 attempted etching in England, and a very few have succeeded. 
 
 Etching clubs existed in England long before the founda- 
 tion of the French Soci'et'e des Aquaf artistes. The elder club 
 was composed from the first of many well-known painters, 
 who met together in a friendly way, and illustrated some 
 favourite poet, or combined to publish their own independent 
 inventions. Their first publication was the Deserted Village 
 of Goldsmith, accompanied by eighty etchings of small size, 
 and finished carefully. Many of them are very pretty, and 
 they have a predominating character, evidently derived from 
 the delicate little engravers' vignettes which were common
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 255 
 
 in the days of the annuals. There is no strong or immortal 
 work in the volume, but it is often interesting and even 
 charming, with a graceful drawing-room sentiment. It is 
 curious how this sentiment pervades the work of all the 
 contributors ; they never attempt anything beyond it, but rarely 
 fall short of it. In 1844 the club published a series of plates, 
 called Etched Thoughts, which included one or two charming 
 etchings by Creswick, but in this work the members of the 
 club no longer had in view the minute prettiness of their first 
 publication, and had not as yet replaced that prettiness by 
 any more serious quality. In 1847 the club illustrated Gray's 
 Elegy, and in 1849 Milton's r Allegro, these two series of 
 etchings being, in point of composition and artistic sentiment, 
 very like an average academy exhibition. In 1852 the club 
 illustrated the Songs of Shakespeare, and this was the most 
 beautiful of their publications. In it they fully developed 
 their manner of work, the results of former practice being 
 concentrated in each plate. The next four years pass without 
 any publication, but the year 1857 is marked by the issue of 
 thirty plates, entitled Etchings for the Art Union of London, 
 some of which are valuable. The next interval is longer still, 
 for it is not until eight years afterwards that the club issues 
 its following publication, entitled A Selection of Etchings by 
 the Etching Club, published by Cundall, 1865. This selection 
 consisted of twelve plates on a larger scale than was at that 
 time usual in England. On the whole, this is the strongest 
 work the club has issued. The Haden and Hook are both 
 exceedingly fine ; the " Summer Woods," by Redgrave, is a 
 charming piece of sylvan scenery ; the " Duenna's Return " is 
 Horsley's best etching ; the " Herdsman," by Samuel Palmer, 
 is one of his three noblest works, and the " Creswick " is at 
 least as good as Creswick's average, which was never a low 
 average. 
 
 The misfortune of the English Club has been that, in 
 endeavouring to please an uneducated public, it has too often
 
 256 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 aimed at making etching pretty. The art is versatile enough 
 for anything, and if you aim at prettiness you may attain it, 
 but every art has its own especial tendencies, and it does not 
 seem that the tendencies of etching lie in that direction. 
 A strong direct expression of consummate knowledge and 
 passionate feeling are what the art is best suited for, and 
 most of its grandest works are not only not pretty, but their 
 qualities are vigorously the opposite of prettiness. Whilst 
 fully recognising the different merits of English work, its 
 sincerity in the study of nature, its general absence of false 
 pretension, its good intellectual or literary qualities which 
 enable it to interpret the masterpieces of literature, often with 
 great liveliness and a true sympathy with the writers, I have 
 always regretted that on the technical and purely artistic side 
 it should have done so little towards educating a public 
 which needed educating so much. There has been a technical 
 mistake, too, in very much English etching, that of struggling 
 painfully after tone. The failures to which this led are so 
 obvious that they made me speak of some English etching, in 
 the first edition of this work, with a degree of severity which I 
 have since regretted, not that I wrote anything which was 
 untrue, but what I did write might have been expressed more 
 kindly. Yet I was not alone in the dislike to that kind of 
 shading which is at the same time elaborate and false in 
 its tonic relations. Mr. Ruskin wrote against it later, briefly 
 and decisively, going much farther than I had done, and 
 asserting that complete light and shade was never possible in 
 the art at all, whilst all good etchings were done with few lines, 
 a decision which at once condemns the entire work of the 
 English Club* and the greater part of foreign work along with it. 
 The plain truth is, that the more we learn of light and shade 
 the less we feel able to endure that which is patiently and 
 elaborately wrong ; and it is not much to be wondered at if a 
 critic is led to write severe things when he sees artists of 
 * Except here and there some outline sketch by a sculptor.
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 257 
 
 reputation taking great pains to shade properly, then trusting 
 their work to an acid bath which upsets the relations of all its 
 tones, and finally publishing the spoiled plate. This is the 
 reason why critics who love light and shade most are likely to 
 be the least tolerant of it after disasters in the acid, and it is 
 these very critics who are likely to insist most on the capacities 
 of the line in etching, because the line is so much less depend- 
 ent for its effect upon a precise accuracy in biting. 
 
 One of the most important events in the history of English 
 etching was the appearance of Mr. Haden's plates in 1866. 
 Full justice is done to the merits of these works in the present 
 volume, so that the reader will not suspect me of undervaluing 
 them, if I express my lasting astonishment at their immediate 
 and decisive success. The public was apparently very little 
 prepared to appreciate work of that uncondescending kind, 
 and the press had never shown much knowledge of the 
 subject, yet the native force of Mr. Haden's manner overcame 
 the general apathy, and great numbers of people who had 
 never heard of etching before, or who thought it meant draw- 
 ing with the pen, were made aware of the existence of the 
 art by the articles on Mr. Haden's publication. It seldom 
 happens that the fashion selects the best man, but in this 
 instance it really did so in one especial sense. Several 
 members of the Etching Club were more experienced artists 
 than Mr. Haden, but not one of them was so purely and 
 essentially the etcher. It was even an advantage to him to 
 be an amateur, for not having the habits of either a painter 
 or an engraver, he formed for himself a set of habits adapted 
 to his own peculiar branch of art, and entered into the spirit 
 of it without reference to any other. The quotation already 
 given from an article of his in a review has shown what that 
 spirit is. Not only was Mr. Haden's first publication entirely 
 successful, but when, some years later, he published an etching 
 of the Agamemnon, the public took copies of it (at three 
 guineas each) in such quantities that, as nearly as I can 
 
 S
 
 258 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 calculate, the time spent upon the plate must have been paid 
 for at the rate of a guinea a minute.* 
 
 As we are enumerating the different causes which have 
 aided the revival of etching in this country, it would be an 
 omission to pass entirely without notice the reception of the 
 present volume, which certainly proved an awakened interest 
 in the art. Although, in its first form, an expensive book 
 and a book on an unpopular subject, it rapidly made its way 
 and found a thousand buyers, nor has the demand for it 
 ceased with the cessation of the supply. We may therefore 
 fairly conclude that it may have had some influence upon 
 opinion, at least in drawing attention to the subject, and in 
 provoking the discussion of problems which we can never 
 thoroughly understand without enlarging our views of all the 
 graphic arts. 
 
 Soon after the first publication of this book, it occurred to 
 me that as there was no periodical in England which would 
 publish an etching,! it might be a good thing if a new one were 
 founded which would make etching an important part of its 
 system of illustration. I was much interested, at the same time, 
 in the new photographic processes which had been invented for 
 the reproduction of pictures and designs, and it seemed to me 
 that much might be done with these also. I mentioned this 
 idea to a friend who is a member of a well-known firm of 
 publishers, and he at once approved of it, so that we deter- 
 mined to start the Portfolio, an art-monthly, the first number 
 of which appeared on the 1st of January 1870. It is beyond 
 the province of these pages to say anything of the literary side 
 of this undertaking, which had its own purposes and its own 
 
 * This seems to contradict what has been already said in the present chapter 
 about the public indifference to etching, but the case of the Agamemnon is a very 
 singular exception to the general rule. The reader will understand that I cannot 
 mention instances of failure, which have been much more frequent. 
 
 t I mean as a work of art. A few etchings may have been published in one or 
 two of the older magazines, but simply as comic illustrations, or likenesses of cele- 
 brated men, not for artistic interest or quality.
 
 THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 259 
 
 difficulties. With regard to the illustrations, my plan was to 
 encourage etching chiefly, but, at the same time, to keep 
 well on the look-out for improvements in other processes, 
 and to adopt them as soon as ever they proved to be practi- 
 cally valuable. Although intended only for a cultivated class 
 of readers, the Portfolio succeeded in establishing itself, and 
 has gradually strengthened its position. It deserves mention 
 in this volume for the same reason which induced me to 
 mention V Artiste and the Gazette des Beatix Arts. It has 
 already published a very considerable quantity of etchings, 
 many of them by the best artists in Europe, and it is con- 
 stantly adding to their number. In one respect, however, the 
 result has been rather disappointing to me. I had hoped 
 that a periodical of this kind would be useful as an encourage- 
 ment to the practice of the art in England, but our most 
 active artistic contributors have hitherto been foreigners. 
 Even the series of etchings from pictures in the National 
 Gallery, which is the most important enterprise hitherto 
 undertaken by the Portfolio, an enterprise indeed of truly 
 national importance, has been hitherto dependent for its 
 realisation upon the talents of the best continental etchers, 
 who were induced to come to England expressly for the 
 undertaking.* Until the foundation of the Portfolio no 
 English publisher would give a commission for an etching, 
 except for comic illustrations to novels, which were ordered 
 for their comic, and not their artistic qualities, and etching 
 was employed for these because it could be done rapidly, and 
 because the caricaturists found that the facility of the point 
 was a convenience to them for giving expression to their 
 Harry Lorrequers and Charles O'Malleys. The true art was 
 
 * This has not been due to any prejudice in favour of foreign work on the 
 part of the editor, but simply to the fact that there are so few men in England able 
 to etch well enough, and that these few are always busy painting. It would be 
 impossible for the Portfolio to keep up to any high standard of production without 
 powerful help from abroad. There is a good deal of amateur activity in England, 
 but the produce of it is very rarely acceptable.
 
 26o THE REVIVAL OF ETCHING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 absolutely deprived of all encouragement in money,* and was 
 kept alive only by the occasional labours of a few painters 
 who pursued it in their hours of leisure. It was rather 
 fashionable at one time amongst ladies as an amusement, and 
 a manual of the process was published for their guidance ; but 
 an art which taxes to the utmost the powers of the most 
 accomplished artists, and their patience, is not well chosen as 
 a pastime, and is seldom persevered in long. 
 
 In looking to the future of etching in this country, I have 
 some hopes, but they are of a very moderate kind. The 
 Portfolio will go on doing its work, and prevent the appear- 
 ance of an etching from being utterly unfamiliar. Once 
 in a century some genius may appear and attract atten- 
 tion to the art, as Mr. Haden did. But before etching can 
 ever be generally understood in England there must be a 
 complete revolution in the national habit of thinking about 
 art. The majority of Englishmen have hitherto believed art 
 to be simply an imitation of nature ; they must learn to think 
 of it as an interpretation ; they have believed it to be the 
 work of the eye and the hand ; they must learn to think of it 
 as " the work of the mind." 
 
 * Except in the case of Mr. Haden, and even in his case, the encouragement 
 came unexpectedly after the plates were published at his own risk, and no: as an 
 inaucemeat to etch them.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TURNER. 
 
 I" N a work devoted exclusively to one branch of art, it 
 may be thought that artists ought to be studied only in 
 that ; but I find that their labours in other departments 
 throw light upon all their work, and when a painter has 
 done great things on copper, it is always interesting to know 
 what he has done on canvas. There is no difficulty here with 
 regard to Turner ; his pictures are so well known, even the 
 collection which was his bequest to the nation represents him 
 in all respects so perfectly, that every reader who cares about 
 art, and has been in London, is sure to have formed an opinion 
 of Turner from the original documents themselves. Even in 
 the case of American or colonial readers, the engravings from 
 Turner's pictures in oil and water-colour give an idea of his 
 quality as a painter sufficiently comprehensive for our purpose. 
 Of all his powers, the one which just now most immedi- 
 ately concerns us is the minute subdivision of weights of 
 colour, as lights and darks, which made his tonality so ela- 
 borate, so much more elaborate than that of the landscape- 
 painters who preceded him. This was the technical quality 
 which, more than any other, made his works translate them- 
 selves so well in engraving. I have said that perfect tonality 
 in etching is difficult and rare ; there are instances of it, but 
 these instances are not numerous. If we could suppose the 
 position of a critic who, whilst remaining entirely ignorant of 
 what Turner had done as an etcher, had nevertheless made 
 himself conversant with the works of all the notable etchers,
 
 262 TURNER. 
 
 we should not be far wrong in guessing that the critic's 
 strongest feeling of curiosity about the etchings of Turner 
 would be concentrated on this one point their tonality. He 
 would be anxious to ascertain how far this great master of 
 tonality had overcome the difficulty of it in etching ; and if 
 with this feeling he came across a collection of Turner's 
 plates, he would be much disappointed. Turner was a first- 
 rate etcher au trait, but he did not trust himself to carry out 
 chiaroscuro in etching, and habitually resorted to mezzotint 
 for his light and shade. His etchings were always done from 
 the beginning with reference to the whole arrangement of the 
 chiaroscuro, and he never laid a line with the needle without 
 entire understanding of its utility in effect. But the effect 
 itself, in Turner's etchings, is always reserved for mezzotint, 
 and it results from this habit of his, that Turner is not so good 
 an example for etchers, or so interesting a master to study, as 
 if he had trusted to pure etching for everything. 
 
 I had promised myself in this part of the book to avoid 
 technical matters as far as might be possible, because it 
 appears that when general readers come upon technical ex- 
 planations they have a way of skipping them. But with 
 reference to mezzotint and etching, and the manner of their 
 combination, some explanation of this kind is inevitable. 
 An etched shade, as the reader is already aware, is produced 
 by lines which are drawn with a point on a varnished plate 
 (the point removing the varnish where it passes), and after- 
 wards bitten in with aquafortis ; but a shade in mezzotint is 
 left, and the passages in mezzotint which are perfectly white 
 are the places where the plate has been scraped till the bur is 
 all gone, and then polished with a burnisher. When etching 
 and mezzotint are used in combination on the same plate, the 
 etching is done first, and in simple lines, which are bitten in 
 more deeply than they would be if the plate were intended 
 to remain a pure etching ; then the plate is roughened all 
 over with a tool on purpose, and which produces bur that is,
 
 TURNER. 263 
 
 a raising of little points of copper. These little points, which 
 are raised by millions, all catch the ink in printing, and would 
 yield an intense black if they were not removed. They are 
 accordingly partially removed with the scraper when lighter 
 darks are required, and the lighter the passage the more the 
 bur is cleared away, till finally in high lights it is removed 
 altogether, and the plate in these places is burnished. Now, 
 the difference between etching with a view to mezzotint, and 
 etching with no such intention, is very great. The etcher for 
 mezzotint is satisfied with selecting and laying down the most 
 necessary and expressive lines, the great guiding lines, and 
 does not trouble himself about shading, except so far as to 
 leave the plate in a condition to be shaded properly in mezzo- 
 tint : whereas the worker in pure etching not only gives the 
 selected and expressive guiding lines, but portions of shade 
 along with them, and at the same time ; and the more skilful 
 he is as an etcher, the more simultaneous he is in method, 
 giving shade and line together from the beginning, especially 
 if he works in the acid. 
 
 The power of Turner as an etcher was his power of select- 
 ing main lines, and drawing them firmly and vigorously. In 
 this respect no landscape etcher ever surpassed him ; and if 
 his etchings are studied as examples of line selection, they can 
 do nothing but good, if we only bear in mind that they are 
 preparations for mezzotint. 
 
 Another point that we cannot safely lose sight of is, that 
 they were not intended to be printed in black, but in a rich 
 reddish brown, so that the fear of over-biting was considerably 
 lessened, and in the heavy foreground markings Turner did 
 not hesitate to corrode the lines to such a depth that the paper 
 was really embossed in the printing, and a student of art who 
 had become blind, might recognise a particular plate by pass- 
 ing his ringers over the back of the impressed proof. One of 
 the most curious instances of this is the " Jason " in the " Liber 
 Studiorum." There is a shadow under the tree to the left,
 
 20 4 TURNER. 
 
 which is like the bars of a portcullis. The scales of the dragon, 
 the heavy indications of trees, the foreground markings of 
 vegetation, are all so bitten that the paper shows them behind 
 in deeply sunken hollows. From these tremendous corrosions, 
 Turner passed to light indications of distance, as, for instance, 
 in the unpublished plate of Dumbarton, which gives one of 
 the most delicate and charming distances ever etched. There 
 is a small rough etching of Eton, with a man ploughing, with- 
 out mezzotint, which is a good instance of Turner's tendencies 
 in biting, and is one of the most interesting of his attempts, 
 because it shows in exaggeration the sort of quality he aimed 
 at in etching. 
 
 It is not fair or just to Turner to judge him as an etcher 
 by taking proofs of plates which were obviously intended for 
 mezzotint, and many of which have since received mezzotint, 
 either from his own hand or that of his engraver. From a 
 desire to economise time, or perhaps simply from imitation 
 of Claude's " Liber Veritatis," Turner never relied upon etching 
 to render effect, and does not seem ever to have studied it as 
 an independent art. The kind of work he aimed at in etching 
 was an indication of form, like the pen-work with which he 
 would often add firmness and precision to a sepia drawing. 
 The wash with the brush was to be imitated in mezzotint, and 
 the difference between his combination of sepia and pen-draw- 
 ing, and his combination of mezzotint and etching, was chiefly 
 a difference in the order of procedure. When he worked on 
 paper, the broad washes were first given, and the pen-markings 
 added at the last ; but when he worked on copper, the lines 
 were etched first, and then the shades added by himself or 
 another engraver. This reversal of method offered, of course, 
 no difficulty whatever to Turner, who, having a perfect hold 
 of his subject, could treat it in any way he liked ; and what I 
 infer from his choice of this combination is, that Turner was 
 not anxious to win celebrity as an etcher, but merely used 
 etching and mezzotint as the most convenient processes
 
 TURNER. 265 
 
 for rendering his sepia studies. In this want of an etcher's 
 ambition lies the distinction between Turner and some other 
 great men who have employed the process. He made use of 
 etching as an auxiliary, and worked well within the limits of 
 the sort of etching he proposed to himself, but he never tried 
 what the process was capable of. It would have been much 
 more interesting to students of this particular art, if Turner 
 had been thrown entirely on his own resources, without the 
 help of mezzotint ; and it would have been especially interest- 
 ing to see how far in pure etching he could have rendered the 
 marvellous subdivisions of tonic values which we wonder at in 
 his pictures and drawings. As a mezzotint engraver, Turner 
 ranks exceedingly high, but his merits in that art are be- 
 yond our present purpose. One thing, however, cannot be 
 outside of our province, the possibility which etching pos- 
 sesses of happy combination with mezzotint, and of which 
 Turner so successfully availed himself. It is certainly a 
 fortunate quality in an art to be complementary of another 
 art, so that the two together produce results of remarkable 
 value at a minimum cost of labour. The great freedom and 
 force of the etched line, its immense power of firm and rapid 
 indication, are exactly the qualities in which mezzotint is most 
 deficient ; and though etching can by shading, especially if 
 helped by dry-point work, arrive at chiaroscuro not less 
 elaborate than that of the mezzotint engraver, it achieves 
 this at an expense of toil and effort which it is not an exaggera- 
 tion to estimate at three times the labour which he gives for 
 the same result. It is remarkable that, in spite of the value 
 now attached to the prints in the "Liber Studiorum," this 
 marriage of two arts so naturally complementary has not been 
 more frequently repeated ; but when Turner issued these 
 plates they had little success, quantities of fine proofs from 
 them were used to light fires, and if they have risen since then 
 in market value, so that a complete set of them is now worth 
 hundreds of pounds, the rise is to be attributed, not to any
 
 266 TURNER. 
 
 appreciation of their quality as art, but to the fame which 
 Turner acquired in other ways, and chiefly by popular en- 
 gravings from his water-colour drawings. When an artist has 
 once become famous, people buy his works whether they like 
 them or not, and they end by believing that they like them ; 
 but the prints in the " Liber Studiorum " have never been 
 really popular, and even now, when the public may still get 
 some of them for a few shillings each, they generally prefer 
 a showy print from Landseer or Frith. The combination of 
 etching with mezzotint may, however, as art-culture advances, 
 become sufficiently popular to be employed in landscape 
 illustration on a more extensive scale ; and if this should ever 
 be, the etchers of the future will have the advantage of models, 
 in the etchings of Turner, of which it is not too much to say 
 that on all technical points, in the application of artistic 
 judgment to method, they are so sound and safe as to be 
 beyond criticism. 
 
 Of his mental grasp, of his imagination, it is scarcely neces- 
 sary to speak here, but a few words on the preparatory studies 
 which led to his success as an etcher will not be out of place. 
 He was much in the habit of drawing forms with the point of 
 a sharply cut and rather hard lead pencil, and the transition 
 from this to the etching needle was natural and easy. In his 
 system of study he divided form from light and shade, and 
 afterwards carried out the division in his etchings, using the 
 needle for form and the scraper for light and shade ; but there 
 is a subtle difference between his etchings and his point-draw- 
 ings. In the point- drawings, form is often indicated with very 
 little reference to light and shade ; in the etchings the arrange- 
 ment for chiaroscuro is always present in Turner's mind when 
 he lays his lines, and he omits all lines which interfere with it, 
 or even which are simply useless to it. This is a great secret, 
 an open secret, yet one hidden from many artists and nearly 
 all amateurs. 
 
 It would not be right to leave Turner without acknow-
 
 TURNER. 267 
 
 ledgment of the very unusual manliness of his manner as an 
 etcher, a manliness unfortunately rare in the English school. 
 His grasp of rock and tree and mountain, his feeling of 
 wildness on desolate moor and black tarn, his fisherman's 
 sense of the strength of stout old boats, his understanding 
 generally of the nature of material resistance in everything, 
 are so masculine, that a few touches of his reveal more of the 
 true nature of matter in any form than the most laboured 
 work of our imitative school. A power of this kind is felt at 
 once by minds which are themselves capable of the same 
 masculine perception, though in far inferior degree, but it is 
 not possible to convey by explanation in what this power 
 consists. It is not in thickness of lines, or in depth of biting, 
 or in manual decision, for a line may be both broad and deep 
 and decided, and yet indicate no perception of the nature of 
 an object : it is in his intense sense of the nature of things 
 that such a man as Turner finds the elements of his force. 
 And a sense of this kind does not lead to popularity, because 
 it does not lead to prettiness. I have never met with a person 
 not artistically educated who, without being prompted, saw 
 anything in the etchings of Turner, still less perceived that 
 they were the strongest things done in modern times with the 
 etching needle. The perception of the nature of matter is 
 very rare in the educated classes, because education is far too 
 exclusively literary, and the most obtuse men in this respect 
 are the men of erudition. It would be easier to explain 
 such a power as this of Turner to a carpenter, or a stone- 
 cutter, or a boat-builder, than to a man who knows nothing 
 except books. 
 
 ALsacus and Hesperia. Of all Turner's etchings this is the 
 most remarkable for the grace and freedom of its branch- 
 drawing. It is a piece of simple brook scenery, and materials 
 not less graceful exist in abundance in all northern countries 
 which are watered by running streams. ^Esacus, the son of
 
 268 TURNER. 
 
 Priam, sought Hesperia in the woods ; and Turner, with that 
 love for water which characterises all true landscape-painters, 
 has assigned as the place of their fatal meeting one of those 
 sweet little solitudes which from time immemorial have been 
 dear to poets and lovers. She is seated on the gently sloping 
 ground at the edge of a shining pool ; the water has been 
 lately divided by stones, which to the left of the etching rise 
 visibly above its surface, but it pauses at the feet of Hesperia, 
 where she sits, as she thinks, alone. ALsacus, still unperceived 
 by her, has just discovered her, as he breaks through the 
 branching fern. Over the head of the nymph bends a boldly- 
 slanting tree, and where its boughs mingle, to the left, there 
 is a passage of such involved and wild and intricate beauty, 
 that I can scarcely name its equal in the works of the master- 
 etchers. Over the head of yEsacus, and between the trunks 
 of the two principal trees, is a glade full of tender passages of 
 light, which are chiefly due to the work in mezzotint, so that 
 this plate may be taken as a transcendent example of Turner's 
 power in both arts. The brilliant freedom of the etched 
 branches, the mellow diffusion of light in the tinted glade, are 
 both achievements of the kind which permanently class an 
 artist. 
 
 Dumbarton (unpublished). This plate was no doubt pre- 
 pared for mezzotint, but it is in some respects an advantage 
 for our present purpose that the mezzotint has not been added. 
 It is scarcely probable, considering the disposition of the lines, 
 that the effect of light and shade was intended to be a powerful 
 one. The artistic motive of the composition was space and 
 beauty, rather than force and contrast. The view is wide and 
 fair, and the last waves of the granite ocean which tosses its 
 highest crests on Cruachan and Ben Nevis come undulating 
 here in long slopes to the edge of the lowland plain. Out of 
 the Clyde the last expression of the exhausted mountain 
 energy rises far off the fortress-rock of Dumbarton. Against 
 this beautiful distance. Turner will bring no rudely contrasting
 
 TURNER. 269 
 
 tree, but gives us the slender and delicate acacia,* with all its 
 pendent flowers. Leading thus from the faint lines of the 
 distance to the stronger work of the foreground, he has 
 obtained by this transition a natural passage to the massiveness 
 of the great trees to the left. The reader is especially entreated 
 to allow himself to receive impartially the full and sweet 
 amenity of this composition, for there are etchings of Turner 
 in which his many-sided mind sought qualities very different 
 from amenity. 
 
 Weedy foreground. Man ploughing. This etching is not 
 to be confounded with the larger plate of the same subject 
 which was afterwards engraved in mezzotint. Over the plough 
 is a view of Eton College, and space has been left in the middle 
 of the plough for the introduction of another figure : to the 
 left a woman sits with a baby in her arms. The weeds in the 
 foreground are very heavily bitten, so as to give an impression 
 of great coarseness, but there is an etcher's intelligence even 
 in the rude marking. This habit of over-biting was 'due, as I 
 have already observed, to Turner's preparation for mezzotint, 
 and intention of printing in warm brown instead of black. 
 It cannot be recommended for imitation, unless under the 
 same conditions. 
 
 Invcrary Pier. Loch Fyne. Morning. This view of 
 Inverary shows as well as anything, in the " Liber Studiorum," 
 what sort of duty Turner intended his coarse etched lines to 
 do. The combination of etching with mezzotint was a marriage 
 of two opposite arts. Turner, therefore, avoided in his work 
 with the needle every kind of labour which might intrude upon 
 the domain of mezzotint ; he even did more than this, and 
 'purposely sought in every etched line a quality the very 
 opposite of that softness and tenderness of tint which became 
 his chief objects when he took up the tools of the engraver. 
 The striking contrast between methods of work in this plate 
 
 * The tree looks like an acacia (Robinia), but it is far north for one at Dum 
 barton, except perhaps in a garden.
 
 TURNER. 
 
 is focussed in the very centre of it. The pale mountain 
 towards Glen Falloch is engraved with aerial delicacy, the 
 morning shadows fall in soft gradations from the risen wreaths 
 of mist, and against the very tenderest passage of all, the 
 opening of the distant glen, come the stiff mast and coarse 
 sail of a fishing-boat, of the firmest and boldest execution. 
 The heavily etched anchor rising out of the shallow water in 
 the foreground sets its iron rigidity, by a similar contrast of 
 method, against the soft and liquid surface. To the left this 
 coarseness loses itself more gradually in greater manual 
 refinement, and the transition from the dark boat under the 
 pier to the far trees on the edge of the wooded hill is managed 
 by a subtle blending of lighter and shallower bitings with rich 
 full shades of mezzotint. The engraving here, as in the 
 " ^Esacus and Hesperia," was all done by Turner's own hand. 
 Jason. When I use the word "coarse" in speaking of 
 the etchings of Turner, or any other master, let it not be 
 understood in the artistic or intellectual sense, but only in 
 the common acceptation of the word, as we say that canvas 
 is coarse when the threads of it are thick and the spaces large. 
 There is as much artistic feeling in coarse canvas as in the 
 finest web from the Indian loom, and the coarseness or fine- 
 ness of a woven tissue is a quality merely relative to the 
 keenness of human sight. The work in Turner's "Jason," 
 which in common language may be justly called coarse 
 because the lines of it are thick and deep, is, in the intellectual 
 sense, considerably more refined than the most minute work 
 of the modern English and Germans. The combination of 
 the highest mental refinement with some roughness of 
 material accompaniment is as natural as that other very 
 common combination, of perfect visible finish with low intel- 
 lectual culture. The reader may remember Mr. Ruskin's 
 vivid commentary on the imaginative force in the conception 
 of this dragon ; and it may be observed with reference 
 especially to etching that its merely executive qualities are
 
 TURNER. 271 
 
 always, when in perfection, dependent on imagination. The 
 few rude strokes by which this dragon is made to live and 
 writhe, are, considered merely as etched lines, of a quality 
 incomparably superior to the most careful imitation of scales 
 which laborious dulness could achieve with a month's toil ; 
 and so with the wild branches of the fallen trunk on which 
 Jason leans as he watches his enemy, and the hasty sketching 
 of the skeleton in the corner. Of the mezzotint work I say 
 nothing, because it is not by Turner's own hand. 
 
 Calm. This subject is one of the most valuable in the 
 " Liber Studiorum," as an illustration of the distinct purposes 
 to which Turner applied etching and mezzotint. It is a 
 group of boats on glassy sea, within a mile of shore. There 
 is a small boat in the immediate foreground, with five figures 
 in it and no sail ; the central group is composed of hay-boats 
 and fishing-boats, their sails hanging idly from the masts to 
 catch the expected breeze. The cock-boat, with the figures, 
 is etched as coarsely and vigorously as possible ; the two 
 fishing-boats in the centre are etched with moderate strength ; 
 a hay-boat beyond is just indicated with the needle, and 
 beyond that the vessels are hardly etched at all, being made 
 out, almost exclusively, by various delicate tints obtained with 
 the scraper and burnisher. This is one of the most admirable 
 examples of complete tonality in the whole range of Turner's 
 works, but its value in this respect depends little upon the 
 etched lines. The lines are right and true in their places, 
 and could not be spared ; they give by their force an extra- 
 ordinary delicacy to the mezzotint, but almost all the tonic 
 values are obtained in mezzotint alone. It is evident that 
 Turner looked upon etching merely as the skeleton of his 
 work, and relied upon mezzotint for its softer beauty and 
 more attractive charm. 
 
 Little Devil's Bridge, over the Russ above Altdorft. The 
 heavy etching of the rock and pines to the left, and of the 
 riven tree on the isolated central rock, has the artistic advan-
 
 2 72 TURNER. 
 
 tage of harmonising with the rugged material. When the 
 foreground is occupied by things whose nature is opposed to 
 human effeminacy, and affords enjoyment to none but our 
 hardiest instincts, the iron pencil may be blunt and strong, 
 and the hand of the artist resolute ; but we might not safely 
 infer from the success of such work as this that it would be 
 well to apply a like method to all foregrounds. A living 
 aquafortist has advanced the theory that all foreground work 
 should be open and coarse, and that the lines should become 
 finer and closer as they recede into the distance. In the case 
 of a subject of this kind the theory is sound ; but when, 
 instead of an impression of wildness, we would convey an 
 invitation to repose, it may be wiser to allure the spectator^ 
 by surfaces which promise him ease. Mountain scenery 
 has hitherto been very incompletely illustrated in etching. 
 There are immense difficulties in the treatment of distant 
 effect which have not yet been overcome either by the old 
 masters or our contemporaries. Turner's use of mezzotint 
 was an evasion of these difficulties, and the effect of drifting 
 mist and broken light beyond the bridge in this design is 
 rendered in pure mezzotint
 
 PLATE X. 
 
 ROCKS AND PINES, 
 AFTER J. M. W. TURNER, RIA. 
 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE X. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 272.) 
 
 ROCKS AND PINES, after J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 
 
 Copied by the Author. 
 
 This '.j a portion of the foreground in Turner's well-known plate " Little Devil's 
 Bridge over the Russ above Altdorft, Switzerland." The lines are given without 
 the mezzotint to show Turner's way of drawing and biting his organic lines. 
 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Minutes. 
 
 The pines seen beyond the bridge ..... 
 The bridge itself ....... 
 Tops of the nearest trees ...... 
 Rocks and bottom of trunks ...... 
 
 H 
 44 
 64 
 
 77 
 
 In nitric bath composed of nitric acid and water in equal proportions. 
 
 Short immersion to enlarge lines ..... 
 
 5 
 
 First proof taken 
 Plate grounded for rebiting. 
 Plate rebitten with above nitric bath in the foreground 
 
 14 
 
 The broadest lines enlarged just at last with pure nitric acid for thirty 
 seconds. 
 
 Second proof taken. 
 Plate entirely covered with brush ground, and all omitted lines drawn 
 in their places. 
 Plate immersed in Dutch mordant heated as above . 
 
 60 
 
 Third proof taken. 
 
 This plate is printed here quite simply without retroussage, and cleaned 
 with the hand like a visiting-card.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WILKIE AND GEDDES. 
 
 V\ TALKIE has left two or three etchings of first-rate 
 quality which entitle him to a high place in the ranks 
 of the genuine etchers. His etching of the " Pope examining 
 a Censer," and his dry-point of a gentleman sitting at his 
 desk writing a paper for which a man is waiting, hat in hand, 
 are both equal to the best work of the old masters, and on 
 these two plates alone a reputation may be securely founded. 
 His small etching, " Reading the Will," is very inferior in 
 manner of work, though its dramatic interest is considerable. 
 A felicitous combination of etching and dry-point may be 
 found in the third state of a small plate by Wilkie, called in 
 the British Museum "Boys and Dogs." The subject is two 
 boys, a girl, and a dog ; the boys are making a seat with their 
 hands for the girl, who is not yet seated, but superintends the 
 arrangement. This etching is remarkable for the extreme 
 naturalness and ease of the attitudes, whilst the community 
 of purpose unites the little group very perfectly. In the first 
 state there is no dry-point work. 
 
 The characteristics of Wilkie's best plates are good com- 
 position and happy selection of line. His perception of 
 character was, no doubt, a very great and rare quality ; but 
 this will not save an etching from condemnation if, as etching, 
 the workmanship is commonplace or wrong. For instance, if 
 Wilkie had never done anything better than the " Reading of 
 the Will," I should not have classed him amongst great 
 
 T
 
 274 WILKIE AND GEDDES. 
 
 etchers. The dramatic conception is lively and good, but the 
 workmanship is uninteresting and commonplace. 
 
 Andrew Geddes was a good etcher, hitherto not sufficiently 
 appreciated. His dry-points are especially fine ; the one of 
 a little girl holding a pear is charming for its freedom and 
 grace. There is a portrait by him with the odd title "Give 
 the Devil his Due," very luminous and well modelled ; and 
 another portrait of a lady in a hood, of which the reader is 
 recommended to study an early impression of the fourth state. 
 The hood is exceedingly fine in dry-point work. His " Head 
 of Martin, an auctioneer at Edinburgh," is very clever and 
 characteristic : I only know one state of it. His landscape 
 without title (a clump of trees and wooden building under it) 
 is free, and right in workmanship. In the first state there is 
 no signature, and the sky is dirtied with sandpaper. In the 
 second state the sky is cleared, but light indications of cloud 
 are introduced: there is still no signature. In the third and 
 fourth states there is a signature in the right hand corner, and 
 a sulphur tint is introduced for cloud. Of these states the 
 second is technically the best, and may be taken as a fair 
 example of dry-point. This landscape and "The little Girl 
 with the Pear," like the "Pope and Censer" and "Gentleman 
 at his Desk " of Wilkie, are enough of themselves to entitle 
 the author to honourable mention. 
 
 WlLKlE. The Pope examining a Censer. As this is one 
 of the finest etchings ever produced in England, it may be 
 worth while to inquire what are the sources of its power. The 
 draughtsmanship is of that happy kind which, fully possess- 
 ing precision, allows itself perfect freedom. There is a close 
 analogy between freedom of this kind and the freedom of the 
 most beautiful manners. Clowns have freedom amongst 
 themselves, but they have not manners ; semi-gentlemen have 
 manners without freedom, because they think about rules, and 
 force themselves into a disciplined conformity ; but in the
 
 WILKIE AND GEDDES. 
 
 perfect gentleman the time of discipline is past, and his 
 manners are as free as if he had never submitted to it. The 
 work in this etching is so easy, and at the same time, where 
 necessary, so accurate and precise, that if it were the only 
 production of its author we should infer from it the long 
 labours of his youth. The firm drawing of the Pope's face and 
 the fingers of the left hand, the true and graceful festooning of 
 the rapid lines which indicate the censer-chains, contain the 
 two extremes of freedom and precision in method, between 
 which the greatest etchers range at will. The Pontiff has a 
 royal naturalness of attitude, and quietly examines the work 
 of the goldsmith, who presents it humbly on his knees. 
 
 The seat of Jiands. This plate has no title, but is marked 
 in the British Museum " Boys and Dogs." Two boys are 
 making a seat by grasping each other's arms, and a girl, who 
 is going to sit down upon it, is criticising the arrangement. 
 A dog precedes the party. It is a graceful little subject, like 
 those which were often adopted by the best portrait painters 
 of the last century in family groups. The execution is very 
 spirited and light. The rich dry-point work in the third state 
 has much improved the plate. The opportunity is a good 
 one for marking the difference between curiosity-collecting and 
 the love of art. I know not whether the first state of this 
 plate is rare or common, but I know that if the first state 
 is rare, and the third common, all genuine collectors for 
 curiosity will pay ten times as much for the incomplete as 
 they would for the finished work. It is only artistic criti- 
 cism which sets the highest value on the latest states. Of 
 course the plate must not be worn, but a real judge knows 
 a good proof when he sees it without any mark of rarity to 
 guide him. 
 
 Gentleman at Jiis Desk. A gentleman is seated in a large 
 arm-chair, and is writing a receipt at his desk. A man is 
 waiting for the paper, and stands behind the chair. The 
 gentleman's wife is looking on whilst he writes. There is a
 
 276 WILKIE AND GEDDES. 
 
 dog, which is scratching itself, and there are several small 
 details, such as a boot-jack, sticks, etc. Next to the masterly 
 indication of character in the faces and attitudes, this plate is 
 remarkable for its sound quality of dry-point work. If the 
 reader is a practical etcher, he ought to study the rich effect 
 of the background, the darks under the bureau, and near the 
 gentleman's feet, and the slight yet sufficient indications of 
 detail. 
 
 Reading the Will. A lawyer, who is seated on an old- 
 fashioned chair, with his back to the light and a large table 
 before him, is reading a will to expectant heirs. The study 
 of expression is of the kind which made Wilkie popular, and 
 need not be expatiated upon in this place. Wilkie seems to 
 have hesitated between two directions as an aquafortist. The 
 execution here is of the sort common in England, the execu- 
 tion of the " Pope and Censer" of a sort unfortunately not so 
 common. If etching were limited to work of this kind, it 
 would be truly no better than a somewhat easier substitute 
 for engraving ; having indeed the advantage of being executed 
 by the artist's own hand, but beyond this no special quality or 
 power. The steady equality of workmanship, the patience to 
 bring all things to an equal point of finish, may prove sanity 
 of mind and freedom from all morbid irritability of nerve, but 
 it proves also some dulness of perception by its very impar- 
 tiality, and a state of mind which differs from the high artistic 
 spirit by its perceptible tendency towards Philistinism. For 
 Philistinism penetrates even into the very realm of art itself, 
 and may be always known, even in its feeblest manifestation, 
 by a sort of prosy conscientiousness. 
 
 GEDDES. Little girl holding a pear. She is seated on the 
 ground, and wears a white dress ; her head is relieved against 
 a dark tree ; she holds out a pear in her left hand. The dress 
 is very slightly indicated. The whole work is in dry-point.
 
 W1LKIE AND GEDDES. 277 
 
 It is so natural and graceful that it reminds us of the portraits 
 of children in the best age of English portraiture. 
 
 Landscape. In cases where there is no title, which too 
 frequently happens with etchings, it becomes necessary to give 
 some brief description by which the plate alluded to may be 
 recognised. In this we have a clump of trees and a wooden 
 building. In the foreground to the left there is a low arch in 
 the earth, built of stone. In the later states there is a dark 
 cloud behind the building. With the exception of the cloud 
 the plate is executed in dry-point The subject is simple, and 
 Geddes was not a master of landscape, but his manner of 
 treatment suited the means used, and it may easily happen 
 that accomplished landscape painters, by attempting more, 
 arrive at less satisfactory results.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
 TT has been one of my purposes in the course of this volume 
 to direct the reader's attention to the most opposite kinds 
 of etching, in order that he might fully appreciate the versati- 
 lity of the art, and have the widest possible field for technical 
 choice if he intended to practise it. Mr. Ruskin's work in 
 etching is very different from that of all the artists whom we 
 have hitherto been studying, and, therefore, for that very 
 reason, if for no other, would probably deserve our attention. 
 But Mr. Ruskin has other claims than the originality which 
 springs from perfect sincerity. He draws landscape and 
 architecture with the most delicate feeling and the clearest 
 knowledge, so that, although not professionally an artist, he is 
 certainly an accomplished practical student of art. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin's merits as a draughtsman would perhaps have 
 obtained a more general and decided recognition if they had 
 not been overshadowed by his celebrity as a writer. The dis- 
 position to deny capacity in two different occupations is so 
 strong, that a good writer has always a peculiar difficulty in 
 obtaining recognition as a painter or draughtsman. This 
 prejudice is especially strong amongst professional painters, 
 who are generally slow to admit the merits of a student who 
 is what is called an "amateur," that is, who does not labour 
 for his bread. If they cannot deny the excellence of his work, 
 they will sometimes even go so far as to say " he did not do 
 it ; some artist did it for him." * 
 
 * An instance of this came one day under my own observation, and is mentioned 
 here because the case is a typical one. I was looking through the portfolios of an
 
 RUSKIN. 279 
 
 The exact truth about Mr. Ruskin's work in practical art 
 seems to be this : He is a thorough student, but not an artist, 
 and if not an artist it is rather from self-imposed limitations 
 than from any natural incapacity. I am not sure, however, that 
 in his thinking about art Mr. Ruskin has ever got quite clear 
 of the prevalent English conception of it as a simple imitation 
 of nature, already noticed in the chapter on the revival of 
 etching in England, and his practice seems to have been sub- 
 servient to this conception. The desire to represent nature as 
 in a mirror, and the feeling that the work is safe from criticism 
 when this is done as nearly as the means at the disposal of 
 the artist will permit, appears to lie beneath Mr. Ruskin's 
 practice and to account, at the same time, for its merits and 
 for its limitations. The mirror-theory advocated at Oxford 
 may be taken as evidence of this, and there is a sentence in 
 the preface to the fourth volume of Modern Painters which, in 
 a very few words, conveys to us the author's views of artistic 
 responsibility. Speaking of his own beautiful drawing, which 
 was engraved as a frontispiece to the third volume under the 
 title " Lake, Land, and Cloud," the author says " the sky is a 
 little too heavy for the advantage of the landscape below ; but 
 I am not answerable for the sky. It was there" 
 
 For this view of artistic responsibility all that can be justly 
 
 eminent painter who is usually very severe in his criticism of Mr. Ruskin, and 
 finding one of the best soft -ground etchings in the " Seven Lamps of Architecture," 
 I thought the opportunity a good one for bringing my friend to admit some artistic 
 capability in the etcher. To my great surprise, he entirely agreed in all I had to 
 say in favour of the plate ; but when I came to the conclusion, and congratulated 
 my fnend on having overcome his prejudices against the author of the "Seven 
 Lamps," he answered me with the following syllogism : "A man ignorant of art 
 cannot produce a good etching. Ruskin is ignorant of art, therefore Ruskin has 
 not produced this etching." 
 
 The fact that the plate was signed J. R. del. et sc. made no difference, and of 
 course the more I showed the command of means of which the plate gave evidence, 
 the less would my friend believe it to be Mr. Ruskin's work. Every good quality 
 in the work of art was considered, not as evidence that Mr. Ruskin was an artist, 
 but that, being an amateur, he could not have done it.
 
 2 8o RUSKIN. 
 
 said is that it may be admissible with reference to a study, 
 done for the student's own private instruction, and not in- 
 tended to be shown to the public. Suppose the case of an 
 artist and his pupil working together from nature. The artist 
 says, " your sky is a little too heavy for the advantage of the 
 landscape below ; " the pupil replies, " I am not answerable 
 for the sky, it was there" What, after such a defence, would 
 be the master's most fitting rejoinder ? It would be something 
 of this kind. He would say "Well, as a simple piece of 
 imitation it may pass, since you tell me that the sky was there, 
 but it would be well for you to begin to exercise your 
 judgment as an artist, and if this were a picture, instead of a 
 mere memorandum, you would be fully answerable for the 
 sky, and for everything else, whether it was there in nature or 
 not." 
 
 Mr. Ruskin is not alone in the belief that it is possible for 
 an artist to relieve himself from all the higher artistic respon- 
 sibilities, on the plea that what he has represented is a fact 
 It is a prevalent national error to believe this, and to think 
 that the test of truth is final.* It is not final. The essence of 
 art is not to copy arrangements which actually exist, but to 
 make more admirable arrangements of its own. When the 
 sky does not suit the landscape (which very often happens), 
 
 * I well remember being in the studio of an artist in London when a picture 
 by a younger painter was shown to me, and I criticised it on the ground that a 
 sharply-defined patch of very vivid green grass was injurious to the balance of 
 colour. "I am not answerable for the grass," said the painter, "it was there." 
 Then the elder artist said " Would you have him alter nature ? " Neither of them 
 seemed to be aware that an artist could be expected to exercise generalship over 
 his material. They seemed to think that if I did not acknowledge the infallibility 
 of nature it must be in deference to some conventional rule, and they said that, in 
 their opinion, nature was a better authority than conventionalism. Now what I 
 advocate is not authoritative conventionalism, but the use of the mind in ait, the 
 exercise of the artist's own judgment, of his own taste and good sense, in selection, 
 omission, emphasis, all in his original way, without reference to any conventional 
 rules whatever. The one thing which seems to me essentially unartistic is the 
 abdication of imperial faculties in order to bind down eye and hand to the servile 
 copyism of matter.
 
 JtUSKIN. 281 
 
 the true artist invents or remembers another sky which does 
 suit it, or he alters the landscape itself to enable it to support 
 the sky, getting harmony, at any rate, by an exercise of his 
 masterful will. This exercise of judgment and will is an 
 essential part of the work and duty of the artist, and he cannot 
 decline it, or excuse himself on the plea of fidelity to the facts. 
 
 I have said this so plainly, that it looks like a condemna- 
 tion of Mr. Ruskin's practical work in art, but it is not intended 
 to be that, it is intended only to mark a limit. Mr. Ruskin's 
 speciality in art has been to make studies, and he makes them 
 admirably well. Practical art, in his case, has been much 
 more a means of acquiring knowledge than of displaying his 
 personal force, which has been exercised (very powerfully) 
 through his writings. Now when drawing is employed either 
 simply to acquire knowledge or simply to communicate it, the 
 work does not challenge the highest aesthetic criticism. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin's etchings are of two distinct kinds, in soft- 
 ground and in the ordinary ground. In soft-ground etching 
 the plate is covered as usual, but the ground is mixed with 
 tallow to prevent it from hardening, and a piece of paper is 
 laid over it, on which the artist makes his drawing with a lead 
 pencil. When the paper is removed it brings off with it ground 
 enough from the surface of the copper to expose the latter 
 exactly to such a degree that the acid, in biting, will give a 
 granular appearance, like pencil marks on paper that is slightly 
 rough. This is transferred to the paper on which the etching 
 is printed, so that the proof has much of the quality of a 
 pencil drawing, or of a lithograph, but it may be helped by 
 subsequent work with the point after the plate has been 
 covered with the ordinary ground. Reserves of pure white 
 amidst dark shading may be made anywhere, even in minute 
 quantities, by touches of varnish with the brush before the 
 plate is bitten. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin used this process to illustrate the Seven Lamps 
 of Architecture, but apologised to the reader " for the hasty and
 
 282 XUSKIN. 
 
 imperfect execution of the plates." " Desiring merely to make 
 them illustrative of my meaning, I have sometimes very com- 
 pletely failed even of that humble aim ; and the text, being 
 generally written before the illustration was completed, some- 
 times naively describes as sublime or beautiful features which 
 the plate represents by a blot." The sincerity of this self- 
 criticism was proved later by the withdrawal of these etchings 
 from the work, and the substitution for them of engravings 
 from drawings by the author. 
 
 The plain truth appears to be that the soft-ground process 
 involves just the same difficulty of biting as the point process, 
 whilst there is an additional uncertainty about laying the 
 copper bare to the exact degree which the artist desires, hence 
 the liability to " blot," and rebiting is more difficult than in 
 line etching, if indeed it is not altogether impossible. Nor is 
 there anything in the result which is positively superior to 
 lithography, except a mere matter of convenience in getting 
 rid of the weight and fragility of lithographic stones, a con- 
 venience which is counterbalanced by the greater cheapness 
 of lithographic printing. For these reasons I intend to say 
 no more about soft-ground etching in this volume, except that 
 if the reader wishes to study it more thoroughly, he will find 
 examples of it in Cotman's works.* 
 
 Mr. Ruskin's work with the point in the ordinary ground 
 is either from studies of his own or after Turner. It is always 
 delicate in drawing, but intentionally very simple in the biting, 
 and, therefore, in comparison with the powerful and complex 
 work of the best professional etchers, it is elementary. The 
 
 * Soft-ground etching is one of those processes which appear extremely easy 
 when you read a description of them, but which are treacherous and difficult in 
 reality. You have nothing to do but draw with a pencil, remove your paper, and 
 bite. This is the technical theory, but in practice we find that details are often 
 muddled together, that intended gradations are often either spoiled or wholly 
 absent, and that weights of tone often come in wrong relations in the biting. The 
 process gives wonderful texture, however, sometimes, and for certain things, and 
 quality in some shades not unlike the good quality of the new photogravure.
 
 RUSKIN. 283 
 
 reader may study it with advantage for the extreme truth of its 
 forms and the accurate observation, whether of nature or of 
 art, which is proved by the choice of line and of shade. If 
 Mr. Ruskin has not gone farther in the direction of complete 
 chiaroscuro, we know that it is because he cares too much for 
 truth of light and shade to trust anything elaborate to so 
 hazardous a means of engraving as the acid bath. When he 
 wants a chiaroscuro study to be reproduced in its full strength, 
 he does not etch it, but has it engraved by Mr. Armytage or 
 Mr. Lupton. The wisdom of this is beyond dispute, yet it'is 
 not always necessary that art should be faultless in execution 
 in order to produce its impression upon the mind. The 
 imperfect etchings in the Seven Lamps are of themselves a suffi- 
 cient proof of this. Their imperfection is seen at once, and as 
 quickly forgiven forgiven for the sake of the life and feeling 
 which make them precious in spite of it. What does it matter 
 that some details should be blotted here and there, some 
 shades bitten too much or too little, when the result is that 
 ideas of nobleness or power are, if not quite accurately 
 expressed, at least very vividly suggested ? 
 
 Capital from the lower arcade of the Doge's Palace, Venice. 
 When the Seven Lamps of Architecture was published many 
 years ago, I knew little about any fine art, and less perhaps 
 of etching than of others which came habitually in my way ; 
 but this capital from the Doge's palace, from its magnificent 
 depth of shadow and the imaginative grandeur of its foliage 
 and birds, always had a singular attraction for me, and 
 increased my enjoyment of Gothic capitals generally. It is 
 rather a note of shadows than a study of forms, but the forms 
 themselves owe half their grandeur to the shadows they cast 
 The loss of detail in the shadows is not entirely defensible, 
 because there are generally reflections strong enough to show 
 more detail than is visible here ; but the hints and suggestions 
 in this etching have a stronger effect upon the imagination
 
 284 RUSKIN. 
 
 than work more completely made out, and it is to be ac- 
 counted a merit that whatever else is lost the artistic aspect 
 is always preserved, or at least its preservation has been the 
 etcher's principal aim. The first springing of the massive 
 mouldings above the capital suggests the weight of the entire 
 arch ; and though the system of light and shade resembles too 
 closely that of photography, there is a life in the marking of 
 the wild foliage and quaint long-beaked storks which photo- 
 graphy would not have given, for it is not wholly attributable 
 to him who carved the stone : the stone-cutter left, no doubt, 
 the lines of that cornice more simply mechanical than we see 
 them here, and for the picturesque charm of its now broken 
 and various surface we have to thank the artistic feeling of 
 the etcher. A classical designer neither could nor would 
 draw architecture in this way, because if a line had been 
 straight at first he would restore its straightness and draw it 
 rigidly with a ruler, ignoring accident and decay. Mr. 
 Ruskin's opposition to the classical spirit has been rather 
 artistic than philosophical ; but a man who aspires to be an 
 etcher can scarcely hate classicism too ardently, and a single 
 piece of cornice drawn mechanically, like the Roman Gate of 
 Autun in the " Saint Symphorien " of Ingres, would go farther 
 to ruin an etching than any of the technical imperfections in 
 this. 
 
 Part of the Cathedral of Saint Lo, Normandy. An arch 
 with small statues under canopies, above it a light gable filled 
 with tracery and decorated with crockets, terminating in a 
 finial. Behind this gable is a light gallery of tracery, at the 
 angles of which are pinnacles. There are several defective 
 and weak parts in this etching, but it is delightful for a 
 pathetic fidelity. Observe how every fragment of the beauti- 
 ful broken foliage between the crockets is noticed and recorded, 
 and how entirely free is the etcher from any temptation to 
 restore the fragments which are lost. When a stone is so far 
 decayed that the sharp lines of its sculpture are all gone, the
 
 RUSKIN. 285 
 
 mysterious hints of form which still remain in it are studied 
 with unabated interest The difference between this loving 
 and reverential spirit and the feeling which prompts French 
 municipalities to pull down such work as this because it is 
 out of repair, marks the antagonism between artistic and 
 bourgeoises ideas. On one side we have the love for nobleness 
 and a pathetic interest in the broken remnants of a glorious 
 art ; on the other a total indifference to artistic grandeur and a 
 mean intolerance of the marks of time. One of the character- 
 istics of modern Philistinism, both in England and France, is 
 its love of neatness and newness, and its incapacity to see what 
 is venerable in buildings or in men. 
 
 Window from the Cd Foscari, Venice. When artists draw 
 architecture well, they have always a strong constructive 
 instinct, a sense of the weight and strength of the materials, 
 and a knowledge of the uses to which they are put. The 
 great massiveness and solidity of the simple Venetian tracery 
 was never rendered in a way at once so powerful in effect and 
 so explanatory of construction. We see how the heavy stones 
 were hewn and placed, and we know why the dark glass was 
 set so far behind the sharp, plain cusps. The first merit of an 
 aquafortist is the power of explaining structure. 
 
 Arch from the facade of the Church of San Michele at 
 Lucca. Not entirely successful in the biting, one or two cast 
 shadows being exactly of the same weight with the shaded 
 side of the projections which cast them ; and yet, in spite of 
 this, and the excessive sacrifice of detail in shade, an etching 
 of more than usual interest, not only for the quaint richness 
 of its material, but for the bold preservation of local colour in 
 full light. The richness of the soft-ground process and its 
 suitableness for architectural illustration have seldom been 
 more completely exhibited, but after the removal of the var- 
 nish the plate has been reinforced with the point, whose assist- 
 ance is seldom altogether unneeded. There are grammatical 
 faults in the tonality, as, for instance, in the shadow on the
 
 286 jRUSKIN. 
 
 white and dark marble of the arch, which is of precisely the 
 same force on both ; but there are valuable gradations in the 
 sculptured mouldings, and much interesting variety of line. 
 The light on the wall behind the arcade, between the columns 
 under the shadow of the arch, is the best bit of illumination 
 in the whole plate. 
 
 Pass of Faido. Simple topography. An etching in few 
 lines, without any indication of light-and-shade, having for its 
 unique purpose the clear expression of the truth about moun- 
 tain form. The principal exercise of the mind in such work 
 as this lies in the selection of those lines which are most ex- 
 pressive of structure. This is a kind of drawing which would 
 be very useful to men of science if they could do anything so 
 truthful, which by some strange fatality they never can. As 
 I look at it, I think what a pity it is that De Saussure, for 
 example, had not been trained to work of this kind, instead of 
 being dependent upon the feeble draughtsmanship of his 
 assistants and the miserable engravers who reproduced their 
 drawings. The means used here are as simple as they pos- 
 sibly can be. The main lines are given, and a few markings, 
 that is all. There is no modelling and no illumination. Local 
 colour also is omitted. Yet with all these omissions such is 
 the explanatory power of the line that the mountain forms are 
 made plain to us. 
 
 For a scientific purpose, this kind of etching may be most 
 useful, but it cannot be practised by an artist without danger. 
 It is perilous for him, because in doing it he would no longer see 
 all the elements of landscape effect simultaneously, and give 
 a resume" of the whole, but would look only for the outline 
 and certain markings which exhibit construction, so becoming 
 blind to many other things which it concerns him equally 
 to observe. In a word, this etching is an example of abstrac- 
 tion, and abstraction of a kind which is rather scientific than 
 artistic. 
 
 There is a strong temptation to draw mountains on these
 
 RUSKIN. 287 
 
 principles from nature, because it is the only kind of deliberate 
 drawing which can be done from nature amongst mountain- 
 scenery at all. If you study such scenery in light and shade 
 or in colour, your memoranda must be so rapid as to miss the 
 delicacy of the forms. 
 
 Crests of La Cote and Taconay. A study of the same 
 kind as the preceding, but much more beautiful, on account 
 of the indescribable grace of the natural lines, which the artist 
 may have slightly exaggerated in his love for them. As an 
 etched study this is the most perfect thing of its kind I ever 
 met with. I doubt whether there is an artist living in England 
 who can draw mountains with Mr. Ruskin's knowledge of 
 structure and his lively sense of beauty, and I feel confident 
 that there is nobody out of England who can. We know, 
 however, what a price has been paid for this knowledge, how 
 many seasons of patient labour amongst the Alps, what long 
 self-discipline in observation, and in the art of recording 
 observation.* Few can appreciate the veracity of such 
 drawing ; no one can value it as it deserves to be valued who 
 has not given many a day to labours of the same order in 
 some noble mountain-land. 
 
 * I should have been glad to speak of some plates done after Turner, but can- 
 not do so in this place on account of my rule (a very necessary one) to confin* 
 myself to original work. The only exception to this rule will be a chaptev en 
 etching from pictures.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHISTLER. 
 
 TAMES WHISTLER is of American extraction, and 
 J studied painting in France in the studio of Gleyre. 
 As a student he was capricious and irregular, and did not 
 leave the impression amongst his fellow-pupils that his 
 future would be in any way distinguished. He never 
 entirely submitted to the French academical discipline, and 
 his artistic education, like that of many English artists, 
 seems to have been mainly acquired by private and inde- 
 pendent study. 
 
 As an artist who by this time has fully expressed at 
 least his tendencies, Whistler may be fairly estimated now. 
 He has very rare and very peculiar endowments, and may 
 in a certain sense be called great, that is, so far as great- 
 ness may be understood of faculties which are rather 
 remarkable for keenness and originality than range. The 
 faculties which he has are pre-eminently of the artistic 
 order ; he is essentially a painter and etcher, not a dramatist 
 or poet ; he is never literary, but always pictorial. And in 
 his pictures and etchings it is the most artistic points that 
 interest him most not so much the natural material as 
 what may be done with it. His oil-pictures are experiments 
 in colour-harmonies, and his etchings are notes of strange 
 concurrences of line. Whether he really loves anything I 
 have never been able to determine, but he has a predilection 
 for the wharves of the Thames, which, in a warmer tempera- 
 ment, would have grown into a strong affection. Whistler
 
 WHISTLER. 289 
 
 seems from his works I do not know him personally to 
 be not altogether expansive or sympathetic, but self-con- 
 centrated and repellent of the softer emotions. His work is 
 often admirable, but it is rarely affecting, because we can so 
 seldom believe that the artist has himself been affected. It 
 is very observant, very penetrating, very sensitive even, in a 
 peculiar way, but not poetically sensitive. Though edu- 
 cated as a figure-painter, Whistler has given no proof of his 
 interest, either in the events of history or of the common life 
 around him ; and a figure, for him, is useful chiefly because 
 it can wear clothes of any colour he pleases. The only 
 people for whom he seems to have a sort of liking are the 
 Thames bargemen, and he has sketched them not unfaithfully, 
 with appropriate costume and short pipes. It would be 
 unfair, perhaps, to say that Whistler has no sense of beauty, 
 for he has evidently an instinct for beautiful arrangements 
 of colour, but it is not unfair to say that beauty of form is 
 not his object. Indifference to beauty is, however, com- 
 patible with splendid success in etching, as the career of 
 Rembrandt proved. What an etcher needs is not so much 
 a sense of beauty as of expression and variety ; and if a 
 choice had to be made between the man who enjoyed beauty, 
 but enjoyed nothing else, and the man who, without any 
 especial appreciation of the beautiful, read in everything the 
 marks which tell the story of its existence, we may rely upon 
 it that the better etcher of the two would not be the slave of 
 beauty. 
 
 Whistler is a master of line, but not of chiaroscuro. There 
 is seldom in his etchings any large arrangement of light and 
 shade, and the resources of art in tonic values are often pre- 
 maturely exhausted, so that to complete the picture we should 
 need some pigment a great deal blacker than printer's ink. 
 The lighting of his subjects is usually very much scattered, 
 but this is in harmony with their medley of material, and 
 there is no reason why an effect of breaking and scattering 
 
 U
 
 2 9 o WHISTLER. 
 
 may not occasionally be selected as a motive. Art is so 
 large, that it may express not only unity and repose, but 
 restlessness and confusion. In many of Whistler's etchings 
 the eye has no peace, and cannot find a space of tranquil 
 light or quiet shade; but after long familiarity with the art 
 that illustrates unity and repose, we find refreshment in this 
 very carelessness of unity, and even, if such a paradox may 
 be pardoned, a unity in their scattering and an aim in their 
 aimlessness. 
 
 Mr. Whistler has published a set of his plates since the 
 first edition of this work appeared.' 35 ' Let me especially re- 
 commend the Hungerford Bridge (for exquisite delicacy of 
 
 * It is unfortunate, I think, that etchings like those of Mr. Whistler and Mr. 
 Haden should be published at such a very high price and in such a small edition. 
 Money was certainly not the object in either of these cases ; the real object in 
 charging twelve or sixteen guineas for a few etchings is to convey the impression to 
 the public mind that they are very precious things, and it is certain that if the 
 etchings were published at a moderate price there is a class of collectors who 
 would cease to value them ; such is human nature. But, on the other hand, it is a 
 misfortune for the celebrity of the etcher that so few copies of his works should be 
 in the possession of those who really care about the art for itself, and who do not 
 estimate the quality of a drawing by the sum of money which was paid for it A 
 hundred copies of a publication can do but little for the fame of its author, a 
 thousand might do something. In literature we find that it is possible to sell books 
 by thousands without acquiring thereby any inconvenient degree of celebrity, and 
 we also find that cheap editions do not degrade books, but the contrary. A 
 reasonable way of publishing etchings is that adopted by Mr. Sijthoff of Leyden 
 for Unger's works, the price being i : 75. for the set of ten, mounted on boards. 
 A still cheaper and quite practicable system is that of M. Cadart, who issues an 
 annual portfolio at 2, containing forty etchings well printed on good Dutch 
 paper, but not mounted. Etchings cannot be decently issued independently for 
 less than this, but it is relatively a popular form answering to cheap editions in 
 literature. The Portfolio gives an etching every month for half-a-crown, besides 
 two other full-page illustrations and a quantity of text. I have an especial dislike 
 to the system of publishing very limited editions, and then destroying the plates to 
 create a small demand for the proofs as rarities. The greatest care should be taken 
 not to publish a single proof after the plate shows signs of wear, but until then 
 why not let everybody buy a copy who wants one ? I am particularly vexed with 
 M. de Gravesande for having destroyed some plates of his mentioned in this 
 volume when only a hundred copies had been printed. One feels that it is almost 
 useless to write about things which can be in the hands of so very few people.
 
 WHISTLER. 2 9 r 
 
 curve) ; the little girl leaning against a door-post in France, 
 a woman inside the house cooking ; a boy seated, and hold- 
 ing his foot (dry-point), hat on the floor, dress of black 
 velvet ; and the three subjects which follow. 
 
 Wapping- Wharf. The reader may know this etching by 
 the following indications. There is a house with bow -windows 
 to the right, and three common windows above. Over these 
 is a sign with the words, " Thames Police ; " a second house 
 bears the inscription, " Wapping- Wharf." The shores of the 
 Thames in London used to be picturesque, and the new 
 embankment will remove much material that is interesting to 
 artists ; but the picturesque of the London river is after all 
 nothing but a more entertaining variety of the universal 
 London ugliness. The Thames is beautiful from Maidenhead 
 to Kew, but not from Battersea to Sheerness. If beauty 
 were the only province of art, neither painters nor etchers 
 would find anything to occupy them in the foul stream that 
 washes the London wharfs ; but even ugliness itself may be 
 valuable if only it has sufficient human interest and fortuitous 
 variety of lines. The long brick streets, whose regularity 
 charms the least artistic section of the public, are as ugly as 
 Wapping Wharf, but they are not so available for etching, 
 because they have nothing accidental and unforeseen. A 
 subject like this is not only picturesque, but very quaint and 
 curious, full of all sorts of odd bits of detail that come together 
 in a strange way that amuses and occupies the spectator. 
 It takes some time to analyse any of Whistler's more com- 
 plicated river subjects, and we have a pleasure in the occupa- 
 tion, which is much enhanced by the singular skill of the 
 designer. In this particular etching attention may be 
 directed to the delicacy of work on the principal roof, and to 
 the rapid but subtle sketching of the barges and wherry in 
 the foreground. 
 
 Black Lion Wharf. I take this as a representative
 
 292 
 
 WHISTLER. 
 
 example of Whistler's peculiar qualities and faults ; the 
 faults being, as so often happens in art, inseparable from the 
 qualities, and not so much to be condemned as simply stated, 
 to prevent them from having an influence which might become 
 widely and permanently injurious. It is one of the Thames 
 wharfs seen across the water ; in the foreground we have a 
 man sitting in a barge, his arm resting on the gunwale. 
 Neat the shore is a schooner, a barge full of barrels, one or 
 two other boats, a landing-stage, a crane, several houses, and 
 two large warehouses, one with a long chimney. The roofs, 
 as usual, are studied with the utmost minuteness, and no 
 detail of window or balcony is missed. The schooner is very 
 finely indicated, but the foreground is slight in the extreme, 
 and is altogether out of relation to the rest of the subject. 
 The artist has exhausted all his darks in the details of the 
 shore : the blacks in a single bow-window beyond the 
 schooner have got down already to the very bottom of the 
 scale ; and as nothing in an etching can be made blacker 
 than pure printer's ink, the artist has no resource left for his 
 foreground, and so sketches it without attempting any 
 statement of its relation to that bow-window. But if we 
 concentrate our attention, as Whistler did, upon the buildings, 
 our study will be amply rewarded. Though the work is 
 very careful, it is by no means slavish, and differs from the 
 careful work of bad etchers more by keenness of observation 
 and vivacity of handling, than by any disdain for small facts. 
 If there is composition, it is so consummate as to be undis- 
 coverable ; but the very absence of it increases the appear- 
 ance of jumble which is so characteristic of the London 
 wharfs. Houses built without a plan, and figures who do 
 not trouble themselves about the rules of art, are the 
 materials that Whistler has sought : disorder and confusion 
 are the law of their visible existence, and not confusion of 
 the sort which in art is the most orderly arrangement ; and 
 as the absence of composition only helps the expression of
 
 WHISTLER. 293 
 
 character, so the sins against tonality give a striking look of 
 truth. The whole attention of the spectator is concentrated 
 on the wharf ; and if the houses there are considered without 
 reference to any nearer object, their tonality approaches 
 more closely to the strong oppositions of nature than any 
 delicate Turnerian interpretation. 
 
 Boats at a mooring Evening. Seven boats with masts 
 are fastened by ropes to a ring in a post on the right. There 
 is a large barge to the left, with five men on it. Behind 
 the boats is a bridge and a church tower ; on the shore, to 
 the left above the barge, there is a brick building with stone 
 facings, and a clock in a tower. The shore is crowded with 
 people, and there are figures ascending stairs. 
 
 Whistler's etchings are not generally remarkable for 
 poetical feeling, but there is a harmony in the thin lines of 
 these masts and in the festoons of the converging cables 
 that hold the boats, which approaches poetical synthesis. 
 The variety of inclination in the masts is very subtle and 
 beautiful ; a fan-like arrangement, artfully broken in the 
 middle by one contradictory vessel. There is some mys- 
 terious work in the bridge, and strong realism in the neat 
 brick building to the left. The fine strokes for cordage are 
 drawn with great certainty against the tender evening sky.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HADEN, 
 
 pRANCIS SEYMOUR HADEN is a London surgeon 
 in large practice, devoted to his profession, which he 
 pursues actively. 
 
 Francis Seymour Haden is an artist of rare endowment 
 and consummate practical skill. 
 
 These two statements may seem incompatible, but they 
 are both true. When a surgeon or other professional gentle- 
 man outside of art reads this, he will wonder how it can be 
 possible that a practical surgeon can be also a practical 
 artist ; he may even go a step farther, and decide in his own 
 mind that it is not possible. However, whether possible or 
 not, it is a fact. So, when an artist who has not seen 
 Haden's etchings, hears that he is a doctor and an amateur, 
 he may feel certain that the etchings cannot be worth much ; 
 but then the undeniable fact is that they are worth much, that 
 they are worth more than professional work generally, and 
 that it is difficult to find work of the same technical quality 
 amongst the productions of contemporary artists, either in 
 England or out of England. 
 
 This success of Mr. Haden as an artist a success which 
 is not due to any temporary fashion, but will be as permanent 
 as any other modern reputation of equal present importance 
 is the most interesting fact which can be adduced in 
 reference to the great question of amateurship, and it is 
 worth while to consider how far Mr. Haden's position 
 resembles that of other amateurs generally, and what hope 
 of a like success they may reasonably entertain.
 
 HADEN. 295 
 
 It is true that etching has been Mr. Haden's recreation, 
 and not the business of his life ; but drawing, which is the 
 foundation of etching, was employed by him as an auxiliary 
 in the study of anatomy, and men of great energy often 
 carry a spirit of resolution into their amusements, and a 
 determination to do what they undertake as well as they 
 possibly can, even when they have no intention of earning 
 money by it. The kind of recreation which Mr. Haden has 
 sought in art was not pastime, but diversion not a way of 
 passing time agreeably, so much as something to divert 
 great energies from their usual channel. He would never 
 have been an etcher at all, if he had always regularly 
 enjoyed the perfect health necessary to uninterrupted profes- 
 sional work ; but though his constitution is robust, there was 
 a time, some years ago, when its powers were so much over- 
 taxed that a very long rest was considered necessary, and 
 during this time of rest Mr. Haden produced the etchings 
 that we know. Since then his health has been re-established, 
 the practice of medicine resumed, and etching all but 
 abandoned. The production of an etching is too serious and 
 difficult a matter to be undertaken when the mind is pre- 
 occupied by other interests ; and though it may require few 
 hours to etch a plate, these hours must be preceded by 
 other hours of uninterrupted tranquillity, and there must be 
 no anxiety about work to be done, or appointments to be 
 kept, just when the plate is finished. An active surgeon or 
 lawyer, however true might be his natural gift as an artist, 
 however consummate his acquired facility, could not, in 
 short intervals stolen from his profession, get himself suffi- 
 ciently into the artistic frame of mind for the production of 
 good work. The reader would therefore greatly mistake 
 the conditions under which Mr. Haden's etchings were 
 achieved, if he supposed that the artist executed his plates 
 during the intervals of consultations. Though a surgeon by 
 profession, he had been compelled against his will to abandon
 
 290 HAD EN. 
 
 medicine temporarily, and sought occupation in etching ; 
 living, for the time, the life of an artist, and purposely 
 detaching his mind as much as possible from professional 
 cares and thoughts. That Mr. Haden has by nature a very 
 powerful and original artistic faculty I have no doubt, but it 
 is not so certain that he is naturally more artist than surgeon, 
 or that we ought to regret the devotion of his life to a career 
 outside of art. There are instances of men who are in profes- 
 sions which they dislike, and who seek in music or painting, 
 often also in the more attractive kinds of literary work, a relief 
 from the tedium of uncongenial duties. But the case of Mr. 
 Haden is so far from being one of these, that he is devotedly 
 attached to his profession, and quitted it for art only that 
 he might return to it later with re-invigorated energies. He 
 had long possessed a rich collection of etchings, and the 
 example of Whistler induced him to make a practical 
 attempt. The result was so far satisfactory as to be an 
 encouragement to perseverance, and Mr. Haden found in 
 etching the patience to endure a temporary pause in the 
 career of his serious ambition. Whilst etching the plates 
 which have won for him artistic fame, Mr. Haden had no 
 idea of showing his work to the public ; he did it for his 
 ov/n health and delight, and neither for our pleasure nor our 
 praise. 
 
 This last fact brings me to a consideration which is 
 favourable to the chances of amateurs. Artists who work 
 for money and reputation are obliged to consult the market, 
 to think whether their work is likely to suit the taste which, 
 for the time being, is prevalent ; and this often leads them 
 to much embarrassment and hesitation, and cramps their 
 true genius. They are like speakers on a platform : they 
 have to adapt themselves to an audience, and their success 
 seems to depend as much upon their knowledge of the 
 public as upon their knowledge of art. In saying this, I am 
 not speaking vaguely, but have living instances before me ;
 
 HADEN. 297 
 
 instances of men who, being compelled to go out of their 
 true path in order to earn their bread, become anxious 
 rather to please the public than to satisfy themselves, and 
 waste time and thought in the endeavour to adapt their 
 work to the general demand. I know these things from the 
 inside, and have seen the effects of this anxiety, the loss of 
 force and directness to which it leads, the loss of originality, 
 the extinction of enthusiasm, the sacrifice of truth. But the 
 artist who neither works for income nor reputation need not 
 suffer from this distracting cause. He goes directly to his 
 aim, which is the perfect expression of his thought. His art 
 is not a speech from a platform, but a sincere soliloquy in 
 the presence of nature and of God. 
 
 A case like Mr. Haden's is so exceptional that the reader 
 may have a difficulty in believing that he worked without 
 intending to publish. The idea of publication only suggested 
 itself when it had become evident that amongst the plates 
 already executed there was material for an interesting port- 
 folio. An intelligent French critic, M. Burty, saw their 
 value, and catalogued them, and the publication was accom- 
 panied by M. Burty's Catalogue. They were published in 
 Paris, and shortly afterwards in London, by Messrs. Colnaghi. 
 No issue of etchings ever had such rapid and complete 
 success. The reviews of them were very numerous ; all the 
 London papers noticed them, and every review was in a 
 strain of almost unmixed eulogy. The subscription list was 
 rapidly filled, though the price went beyond even English 
 custom, and in a few weeks one of the busiest surgeons in 
 London found himself one of its most celebrated artists. 
 
 A success of this kind is not likely to be repeated, but it 
 has done good service to the art by awakening an interest 
 in it ; and we who by warm praise made Mr. Haden's etch- 
 ings famous, will never have to repent our share in the work. 
 Whatever mistakes we have made, posterity will not say 
 that this is one of them.
 
 298 HA DEN, 
 
 How the skill came to him is still, after all explanations, 
 a mystery. No one ever before was able to do work of 
 equal quality after so little manual practice. The anatomical 
 drawing laid a foundation, and perhaps the manual precision 
 necessary in dissection, and still more in operations on the 
 living subject, may have developed a natural capacity to 
 apprehend form : but what is so curious is that the etchings 
 show no trace of a dominant sense of mere construction ; 
 that the scientific element is entirely subordinated to the 
 artistic impression, and this to such a degree that there is 
 no obtrusive display of structural knowledge, even where it 
 was fully possessed, and the figures hold their places as true 
 landscape-figures, when any other anatomist would have 
 become pedantic about muscles and bones. The structure 
 of trees is always powerfully rendered, and, whether in 
 foliage, or branch, or stem, the draughtsmanship is equal to 
 that of any contemporary landscape-painter ; but even here 
 there is no pedantry of science or system, and the trees are 
 drawn quite freely and innocently, as if the artist knew them 
 only by the intense gaze of a simple lover of nature. This 
 entire subordination of science to art, in a man scientifically 
 educated, is a proof of immense natural spring and elasticity 
 in the artistic faculty itself. A never-ending subject of 
 wonder to me in Haden's work is that it is not only art, but 
 pure art, art reigning unopposed in its own realm ; and 
 that the scientific training of the workman has not power to 
 embarrass him, but is easily laid aside, as the old knights 
 laid aside their stiff plate-armour to take their ease in robes 
 of pliant silk. 
 
 This etcher has had much against him : the constant 
 application of energy to other objects, the direction of atten- 
 tion to studies of a different order ; but one thing in his 
 hard professional life has been favourable, he has learned 
 what it is to observe and what it is to work. The miserable 
 failure of the mass of amateurs is due not so much to their
 
 HADEN. 
 
 299 
 
 having other work, as to their having no work, to their 
 lamentable ignorance of the nature of work generally. When 
 men have not some great pursuit, they abandon culture when 
 they leave school, and (as a distinguished living poet said to 
 me in a letter) "content themselves with the current enlighten- 
 ment of the epoch." But Mr. Haden has had for his main 
 pursuit one of the noblest and most stimulating of all studies, 
 so that he has never lost the habit of acquisition. 
 
 Of his place and rank among etchers it may be necessary 
 now to speak. He is frankly a pupil of Rembrandt, but so 
 thoroughly modern that tradition never stands between him 
 and nature. Haden has nothing whatever in common with 
 the English school of etching, and is only mentioned in this 
 place because he happens to be an Englishman, not as a 
 member of the school. His manner is so entirely in har- 
 mony with the nature of the art, that no man's work, except 
 Rembrandt's, is a safer example in this respect. There is 
 never, in an etching by Haden, that uncomfortable fatigue 
 which wearies us so frequently in modern work ; he never 
 even wishes to transgress the limits of the art, but works 
 happily within them, as a sea-captain commands his own 
 ship. Consequently, he never imitates engraving, or betrays 
 a hankering after other methods, or wants etching to do 
 more than it naturally can do. As every quality has its 
 corresponding fault, it may be added, however, that Mr. 
 Haden is so rapid and decided in manner, that he misses, 
 by his very decision, the charm of a certain rare and precious 
 and exquisite zVzdecision which one or two first-rate men 
 have had, and which is the last result of art. His temper is 
 rather active and rapidly intuitive, than quietly contempla- 
 tive ; and though his etchings prove that he is capable of 
 reverie and rest, he is so only at rare moments, his general 
 habit being emphatic and decisive. Of his imaginative 
 power, there is only evidence of this kind, that he turns what 
 he sees into something interesting and good ; but what he
 
 300 HADEN. 
 
 could do without nature or sketches, I am unable to say. 
 It is certain that he is not a literalist, not a prosaic work- 
 man ; and though the imaginative faculty in this case may 
 not be strong enough to be relied upon without reference to 
 nature, it is certainly strong enough to transform and inter- 
 pret nature. 
 
 Of the kind of material made use of* by this artist, it 
 may be observed, first, that he is a master of foliage, that 
 he has drawn some trees magnificently, both as to wood and 
 leaves ; there is no better stem or branch drawing than his 
 in all contemporary art. He draws boats and buildings 
 well, and water in the common varieties of calm and ripple, 
 but he does not seem to have attempted the sea-waves. He 
 draws land with great truth, especially pieces of river-bank, 
 but apparently does not possess any especial knowledge of 
 mountain structure or mountain effects. So his cloud studies 
 are confined to what may be seen in the lowlands. An 
 etcher having Haden's technical power, and perfect leisure 
 for some years, might do great and new things in mountainous 
 countries, if he had the right passion for their sublimities. 
 These victories are reserved for the future ; mountains have 
 been painted, but never etched.* 
 
 Out of Study window. The sky here may be a useful 
 example to etchers, as much for the prudence of the artist 
 as his courage. He has done those things which he ought 
 to have done, and he has also left undone those things which 
 he ought not to have done. This negative side of duty is, 
 for clever and accomplished artists, perhaps the more difficult 
 of the two. With the single exception of Whistler, there is 
 not another etcher in England who would not have killed 
 this sky in trying to finish iff These masses of heavy 
 
 * Except scientifically by Mr. Ruskin, as we have seen, and slightly by Turner 
 as a preparation for mezzotint. 
 
 t This was true when written, but I think that Mr. Chattock would now etch 
 uch a sky rightly if it came in his way.
 
 HAD EN. 301 
 
 cumulus might have tempted an ordinary etcher into a 
 painful struggle after imitative modelling, which would have 
 certainly ended in the loss of motion and energy. It would 
 be possible, no doubt, to do work even in etching more 
 imitative than this bold interpretation, but any truth which 
 long labour might have attained would have been dearly 
 purchased by the slighest diminution in the unity and 
 vivacity of impression. A natural sky, even of the most 
 slowly-moving clouds, is always so transient that copyism is 
 out of the question, and the more rapid the memorandum 
 the better does it harmonise with the fleeting nature of the 
 thing. What an etcher most needs to record is, first, the 
 composition, and then so much of the relations of tone as 
 may be necessary to suggest, but not imitate, the natural 
 light and shade. Whilst doing so much as this, the artist 
 should miss no opportunity of noting and accentuating the 
 lines of energy and motion. 
 
 Sunset on the Thames. The indications of cloud-form 
 here are much slighter than the strong sketching in the 
 preceding study, but the effect of light is given with such 
 magnificent force that the whole sky flames. As a proof 
 of the artist's subtle observation, may be mentioned the 
 horizontal elongation of the sun's disk behind the cloud 
 which, as it were, seems to draw it out into an oval, a 
 common optical illusion. The broad bright river flows 
 swiftly past the sun, bearing the laden barges. Etching of 
 this kind is purely interpretative : etching may be imitative 
 sometimes ; it is marvellously imitative in the work of Jules 
 Jacquemart, but Haden works always on the far higher 
 principle of interpretation, and has never done so more 
 conspicuously than in this instance. The wild scrawling in 
 the upper sky, the thick black strokes which to the right do 
 duty as solar rays, the faint scratches of dry-point which 
 cross the field of intensest light, the two broad bands to the 
 left which radiate like the sails of a windmill, and are in
 
 3 o2 HADEN, 
 
 fact shadows in the misty air all these things, and the 
 undulating lines which mark the flow of the rippling river, 
 are expressional expedients, which no simple imitator could 
 ever discover or apply. He might scrawl as wildly and 
 scratch as faintly, but it would not be the right scrawling 
 and scratching, and he might leave great spaces of white 
 paper like that in the upper sky, but he could not flood it 
 with this ethereal fire. 
 
 Whistlers House at Old Chelsea. It would have been 
 interesting to future students of etching, if Mr. Haden had 
 informed us which of these houses is inhabited by the great 
 etcher of the Thames. He has been kind enough to let us 
 know where Mr. Greaves, the boat-builder, carries on his 
 very useful occupation, but the Thames has had many 
 boat-builders and only one Whistler. There is magnifi- 
 cent power of drawing in this etching, and brilliant arrange- 
 ment of lights and darks. The foreshortening of the 
 bows of the barges, as seen from the sterns, is as good a 
 piece of work as one might hope to find in the Royal 
 Academy, and there is not a marine painter living who 
 would have drawn these barges better. Their immense 
 force as darks gives great delicacy to the bridge, and the 
 light foliage beyond it ; and their cumbrous weight as a 
 united mass adds greatly to the thread-like tenuity of the 
 rigging in the distance. Of the figures in the foreground, 
 it is fair to say that they are neither better nor worse than 
 Turner's. We have a woman in a state of much distress 
 because three little dogs are running after her, and she 
 displays her legs in a manner so pathetic as to excite the 
 sympathy of everybody but those two watermen with the 
 poles, one of whom seems rather amused at the incident 
 Both woman and watermen are in a high degree Turnerian ; 
 that is, they are true landscape-painter's figures, not to be 
 judged in themselves, but with reference to the houses and 
 boats they accompany. Rude as they are, they give life
 
 HADEN. 303 
 
 to the scene, and their execution is in harmony with that 
 of the inanimate objects about them. 
 
 The Towing-path. A sketch in dry-point, with a rather 
 high horizon and somewhat empty foreground, on which 
 a lady is walking with a Skye -terrier. It fs a river 
 scene, where the stream is divided by an island. This island 
 and both shores are enriched with foliage which is reflected 
 in the glassy water. There is some undulation towards 
 the foreground, but it is smooth and bright, and reflects the 
 sky. 
 
 When persons, not much accustomed to etching, come 
 across a dry-point, they are always very much taken by its 
 softness ; but if the tones of dry-point are richer, its lines 
 are poorer than the etched line. In pure etching, Mr. Haden 
 would have drawn better poplars than these, and the other 
 trees would have had more variety and richer detail. The 
 best work here is not in the trees, nor in the sky, but the 
 water. The reflection of the central mass on the island is 
 as soft and limpid as we may desire. When water is not so 
 absolutely still as to become a mirror, but yet sufficiently 
 smooth to reflect softly, it can be rendered as well with the 
 dry-point as any other instrument, for the lines needed are 
 all either straight lines, vertical, or horizontal, or else the 
 gentlest curves. The rich quality of dry-point work gives 
 the softness of such reflections perfectly. 
 
 A Simset in Tipperary. If the reader cares to compare 
 the powers of etching and dry-point, he may place this dry- 
 point side by side with the etching of part of the same 
 subject which appeared in the Fine Arts Quarterly Review* 
 The difference is altogether in favour of dry-point if richness 
 of tone is the quality sought, and just as favourable to etching 
 if we value variety of line. Much will depend on the parti- 
 cular impression to which the reader may have access. The 
 one before me is so clogged with ink that the signature is a 
 
 * See Fine Arts Quarterly Review, No. 3, New Series, January 1867. p. 119.
 
 304 HADEN. 
 
 blot, and the nearer trees a mass of undistinguishable dark. 
 But I remember other impressions printed less heavily, in 
 which all the richness of the subject was preserved without 
 this excessive confusion. To judge a dry-point fairly, we 
 must be past the stage in which its softness strikes and 
 captivates us, for this softness is merely a necessary property 
 in the process, and does not of itself imply merit in the 
 executant. The scene here is one of those charming 
 glimpses of river, where the stream reflects the sky before it 
 hides itself again under the dark woods. It is evening, and 
 the time seems later than sunset ; the copy before me might 
 pass for late twilight, so lost are the details in the inky 
 depths of shade. Landscape art is often dear to us from its 
 connection with healthy pleasures and agreeable reminiscences. 
 Let us suppose, that we may the better enjoy this plate, that 
 we have descended the river so far in a canoe, and are pausing 
 here whilst the sun sets beyond the dark forest. It must, of 
 course, be a river wholly unknown to us, and we ought to 
 feel a little anxiety and apprehension about our twilight 
 course through those solemn woods. 
 
 Shere Mill-pond, Surrey. The preparation for this 
 volume has compelled me to examine all the most notable 
 etchings which have been produced since the invention of the 
 art. In the course of these studies, I have looked over 
 several thousand plates, and, having selected two or three 
 hundred of the best, weighed their relative merits with the 
 most scrupulous care. The reader will, therefore, do me the 
 justice to believe that any expression of opinion to which I 
 commit myself has been preceded by long deliberation. It 
 is easy to blame ; and censure has always this element of 
 safety, that there is imperfection or at least limitation, in all 
 human endeavour, and that he who discovers faults places 
 himself on a judicial seat, whilst humble admiration implies 
 some acknowledgment of inferiority. A great critic of litera- 
 ture observed to me, that it needed courage to praise without
 
 HADEN. 305 
 
 reserve ; and there is so little reserve in what I am going to 
 say, that I need this courage now. 
 
 With the single exception of one plate, by Claude, this 
 is the finest etching of a landscape subject that has ever been 
 executed in the world. 
 
 The plate by Claude, alluded to above, is the one known 
 as " the Bouvier." We shall have more to say of Claude's 
 masterpiece in its due place. Such superiorities as it may 
 have over this plate of Haden's are compensated by other 
 and different superiorities in the English master, and the two 
 etchings may fairly divide our suffrages. In all fine art, 
 strength and delicacy are the extremes of expressional power, 
 and the stronger the strength and the more delicate the 
 delicacy, the larger in this sense is the compass of the artist. 
 In this plate we have both, and both in the supreme degree. 
 The strength is not expressed by violence, but by the 
 unimaginable richness of the great soft masses of near foliage, 
 and the rapid sketching of the nearest reeds. The wild duck 
 is put in with a few incisive lines of dry-point, so true in 
 movement that the bird is set before us with a vital force. 
 The heavy body hangs from the lifting wings, and the head 
 peers forward in the alarm of sudden flight. Under the 
 reeds the water is dark with full reflection, but where the 
 wild duck has just quitted it, there is a bright confusion of 
 momentary disturbance. The smooth little wavelets play 
 softly amongst the reeds, and their liquid swelling and the 
 flight of the bird that caused them are the only notes that 
 break a melody of repose. And as to the right hand we 
 have foliage in the utmost fulness of great masses, so in the 
 centre and to the left of the composition we have it in its 
 slenderest grace. There is no contrast in human or animal 
 form so marked and extreme as this. From the wild duck 
 to the heron, from the ox to the giraffe, the transition is not 
 so great as that from the orbed immensity of the full-foliaged 
 chestnut to the slimness of the young poplar, whose leaves 
 
 X
 
 306 HADEN. 
 
 may be almost counted, and whose trunk may be grasped 
 with the hand. But all these things are obvious, and may be 
 easily expressed in words ; that which is not so obvious nor 
 so easily written about, is the subtle play of soft gradations 
 like the modulations of tenderest music ; the passage from 
 all that is richest and fullest to all that is thinnest and 
 clearest, a transition managed without abruptness, without 
 violence, yet passing from extreme to extreme. 
 
 House of Benjamin Davis, Smith (Newcastlc-in-Emlyn, 
 South Wales). This may be taken as fairly representative 
 of Mr. Haden's sketches on copper. A sketch of this kind 
 may be easily done in three hours, if the artist is clever 
 enough to do it at all, and it may be done as conveniently 
 in the acid bath as out of it. Mr. Haden has a way of 
 leaving large white spaces in his foreground, so that sometimes 
 his compositions do not seem solidly based ; but the advan- 
 tage of a white space is undeniable when there is a fair 
 excuse for leaving one ; it affords repose to the eye, and 
 gives by contrast a value to the blacks, and consequently a 
 brilliance to the whole work, which are not otherwise so 
 easily attainable. These plates at one sitting have an 
 advantage on the score of freshness, but they can scarcely 
 be either rich in detail or complete in tonality, and when 
 good they are rather of the nature of artistic memoranda, 
 than works of deliberate purpose. In this case, although 
 the vehicles cast shadows, and the house is in full light, there 
 is a curious absence of illumination on the foliage, and the 
 plate has a confused look which is not altogether satisfactory. 
 
 Early Morning in Richmond Park. There is a faint little 
 inscription in dry-point to the left of the plate, from one of 
 the songs of Shakspeare, " The lark at heaven's gate sings," 
 and in the space of perfectly white paper, which is here 
 made to represent the bright early sky, the bird is faintly 
 visible. This poetical quotation may have been added when 
 the plate was retouched, for there is abundant dry-point work,
 
 HADEN. 307 
 
 and a roughening of the copper on the foliage, which indicate 
 labours subsequent to those with the needle. But whether the 
 quotation occurred to the artist in the presence of nature, or 
 not, the conception of the plate itself has a poetry of its own, 
 and it is filled with the freshness of morning. The contrast of 
 light and dark on the trunks of the great trees is somewhat 
 violent and excessive, and would not stand the test, the one 
 true test of tonality, of translation into colour. If a painter 
 took this etching and tried to make a picture from it, he 
 could not preserve this violence of contrast, for he could not 
 paint his tree with pure flake white on the side where the 
 sun strikes it, and pure ivory black on the other. There is 
 a sooty heaviness in these shades which really injures the 
 effect whilst apparently adding to its force ; but the trunks 
 are drawn with perfect knowledge of their structure, and a 
 masterly indication of bark. There is a little tree on the 
 lower land, the summit of whose foliage is caught by the 
 sunshine, and as it were, burnt by it in a glitter of silvery 
 flame as light as the white sky itself. This is an exaggeration, 
 but a permissible one, for it helps the expression of 
 splendour. There is an unaccountable salissure to the left 
 under the sun, which, whatever it may have been intended to 
 mean, expresses no object or appearance of objects visible in 
 distant landscape ; but though the plate has obvious defects, 
 it has the one great merit, which in etching makes almost 
 any defect pardonable, the unity of a genuine impression. 
 
 Battersea Reach. The same feeling which suggested the 
 introduction of the lark in the preceding subject has sug- 
 gested the balloon in this ; it helps to give the sense of space 
 and air, and reminds us that the white paper there is not to 
 be paper for us, but atmosphere. Mr. Haden's love for large 
 white spaces was never more strikingly manifested than in 
 the last or published state of this etching. In the earlier 
 state the river was crowded with boats, but now these have 
 been removed wherever it reflects the sky, and a vast bright
 
 3o8 HAD EN. 
 
 surface is left unbroken, a surface so bright that it is out of 
 relation to the actual whiteness of the sky, which we must 
 fancy a little brighter still. The massive sketching of the 
 buildings on the opposite shore adds, by its extreme solidity, 
 to the curious appearance of suspension between two voids. 
 This crowded shore, with its houses and prisons of stone, 
 seems to hang like a planet in the pure ether, or the Island 
 of Laputa in the air. This idea is the artistic motive of the 
 work, and the strange charm of the etching may be due to a 
 vague sense of the unexpressed analogy between these sub- 
 stantial buildings of Battersea suspended between two infini- 
 ties, and resting apparently upon nothing, and the stern prose 
 of the life of man between the two eternities. 
 
 The Agamemnon* The plate measures 1 6 in. by 7-|- in. 
 It is drawn upon to the edges. There is no margin on the 
 copper. Thus the plate-mark coincides with the edges of the 
 drawing, and there are no ruled lines. I think that it is wise 
 to arrange etchings in this way generally, because the ruled 
 lines are in too strong contrast with the liberty of the etched 
 ones, and the simple plate-mark is less formal. At the same 
 
 * This etching is not included in the portfolio which contains the plates 
 hitherto enumerated. It was published separately and more recently. No 
 etching ever published has been so successful, indeed the profits which it realised 
 immediately were so great as to equal the price of a firstrate picture in the 
 Academy, whilst if the time spent is considered, there have not been more than 
 three or four painters who have ever earned so much in so few hours. Far indeed, 
 however, from ideas of money-getting was the mind of the artist when he set about 
 his task. He had abandoned etching on account of professio :al duties, and it was 
 I who induced him to resume the point. I had just founded the Portfolio, and 
 begged Mr. Haden to etch a plate for the young periodical on our usual terms, 
 suggesting that the money might be handed over to some charity. He accepted, 
 and was glad to earn something in this way for the hospital he has founded. With 
 this view he went to etch the Agamemnon, taking the copper with him and work- 
 ing directly from nature, but the copper was too big for the Portfolio, so it was 
 decided he should do something else for us and publish the Agamemnon plate 
 separately. This was very fortunate, as it turned out, for it is quite possible that if 
 the plate had appeared in a periodical it might have attracted less attention, 
 whereas, having strength to stand alone, its importance was fully recognised.
 
 PLATE XI. 
 
 Part of the plate known as 
 "THE AGAMEMNON." 
 
 BY F. SEYMOUR HADEN. 
 Copied by the Author.
 
 PLATE XI. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 308.) 
 
 Part of the plate known *as "THE AGAMEMNON." 
 
 By F. Seymour Haden. 
 
 Copied by the Author, 
 
 This includes a very small portion of Mr. Haden's large plate, and does not 
 give any of his deepest foreground bitings. The importance of the cloud markings 
 in the sky can scarcely be understood without reference to the entire sky in the ori- 
 ginal. The sun, in this fragment, necessarily appears exaggerated in size, and the 
 buildings in the distance look mor-e carelessly drawn than they do in the original, 
 because of their greater relative importance in this small fragment 
 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit. 
 
 The palest lines about sun, sky, distance, and water . 
 
 Darker lines in distance ...... 
 
 Domes and buildings of Greenwich ..... 
 
 Dreadnought (hulk to left) and sail of barge and distant vessel, also 
 some ripple in water, and some of the lighter touches on 
 Agamemnon ....... 
 
 The Agamemnon (prow to the right) .... 
 
 Portion of barge in right-hand corner and foreground ripple 
 
 Minutes. 
 7 
 
 12 
 17 
 
 25 
 
 45 
 65 
 
 First proof taken. 
 
 Plate prepared for rebiting. 
 
 The portions rebitten were the domes and buildings of Greenwich (ex- 
 cept those behind the barge with the dark sprit-sail) also the Dreadnought 
 and sail of the barge, and the anchor of the Agamemnon. They were 
 rebitten for eight minutes. 
 
 Second proof taken. 
 
 Faint lines now added with the dry-point, or else obtained by reducing 
 with the scraper and burnisher some of those which had bitten seven minutes. 
 The Dreadnought is shaded with the burin over the etched lines. The 
 lower part of the Agamemnon, near the water, is shaded with dry-point 
 So is the buoy. Some lines in the Agamemnon are deepened with the 
 burin, others are reduced with the scraper. 
 
 This plate is printed as follows : The whole is first wiped with the can- 
 vas only (not the hand) and then the stern of the Dreadnought, the ripple 
 and portion of barge in the immediate foreground, and part of the Aga- 
 memnon, are retroussfs.
 
 HADEN. 
 
 309 
 
 time the slight depression of the etched surface is good and 
 assists the effect, making the margin like the frame to a 
 picture, and when ribbed or rough paper is employed the 
 etched surface alone is made smooth by pressure, whereas 
 when there is a copper margin the paper is smooth also 
 between the etching and the plate-mark. In the latter case 
 the formality of ruled lines is now frequently avoided by 
 letting the etched work of the drawing come up to an imag- 
 inary line rather irregularly. 
 
 The sentiment of this etching is very like that of Turner's 
 well-known picture, the TJmeraire. In the picture an old 
 war-ship of the heroic time is being towed to her last berth, 
 there to be broken up like a rotten cask ; in the etching 
 another such old war-ship has actually arrived at her last 
 berth, and the destroyers are already at work upon her. If 
 there is any sight in the world which can touch the heart of 
 an Englishman, it is this. Until now the ship has been alive 
 still, though superseded by later models, but now an official 
 decision has pronounced her to be dead, and sentenced her 
 to dissolution. She floats yet, and there are men in her, but 
 they are doing exactly the same work as the worms in a 
 dead war-horse. They have destroyed a good deal already. 
 Every mast and every spar is gone except the mizzen and 
 the flag-staff at the stern, and even that mizzen is bared of 
 its shrouds. From figure-head to taffrail the bulwarks are 
 cleared away, and the timbers stand up like a shattered 
 battlement, showing the sky between them. As the planking 
 is gradually torn off it will bare the ribs from deck to deck 
 down to the water's edge. But this is not to be done to-day, 
 so we may look at those long rows of port-holes till the sun 
 is down. No more battle-thunder will ever come out of them, 
 they are nothing now but so many windows without glass, 
 and provided with uncommonly thick shutters, some closed, 
 some partially lifted up. Now let us use our imaginations a 
 little and see the old ship as she was in the day of battle
 
 3 TO HAD EN. 
 
 with all her sails set, gliding swiftly and steadily towards the 
 enemy's line, silent as a charged thunder-cloud before the 
 lightning flashes. Not until she gets very near will she break 
 that ominous silence. Then suddenly half her port-holes 
 open together, half her guns thrust out their deadly muzzles, 
 a tongue of red flame leaps out from each, followed by a long 
 puff of smoke, and then comes such a roar ! Crash go the 
 flying balls into the enemy ! Well, we have all read such 
 descriptions, and we all remember how, 
 
 With thunders from her native oak 
 She quells the floods below, 
 As they roar on the shore, 
 When the stormy winds do blow ; 
 When the battle rages loud and long, 
 And the stormy winds do blow. 
 
 Perhaps these very lines may have been ringing in the 
 etcher's memory when he sat down to his task, certainly the 
 sentiments and recollections I have just expressed were his. 
 The Agamemnon was not to him merely a floating wooden 
 thing of rather a picturesque shape, nor was that figure- 
 head, with its British-Greek helmet and crest, merely a 
 reference to the war in Troy, for the wooden Agamemnon 
 had been in sublimer battle than any Grecian leader. 
 
 With such a subject as this for a motive, an etcher will 
 do manly work if the strength to do it is in him. And this 
 is manly work. I know very well the sort of criticism 
 which would be applied to this etching by a critic who had 
 recently acquired some knowledge of light and shade, and 
 felt proud of his acquirement. He would say, " With the 
 sun in that position many parts which are left white in the 
 etching would be strongly shaded, for example the figure- 
 head, fish-davit, and dead-wood about it ought not to have 
 been left white against that luminous sky, for they would 
 have come dark against it. The barge in the foreground in 
 the left-hand corner ought to have had its side very darkly
 
 HA DEN. 311 
 
 shaded indeed, and so ought the square timbers to the right. 
 It would even be impossible, with the sun in that position, 
 that there should be any white spaces on the side of the 
 Agamemnon whatever. On the other hand the side of the 
 other old hull in the distance ought to have been lighter, for 
 it really would in some degree catch the sunshine. The 
 buildings at Greenwich are not lighted as if the sun were 
 behind them, but as if it were on the opposite side of the 
 river. The only bit of true tone is the sprit-sail of the barge 
 near the bows of the Agamemnon, but there are so many 
 things to contradict it (for instance, the buoys at her stern) 
 that this bit of truth (and even the sprit-sail is too dark to 
 be quite true) only makes the general falsity more glaring. 
 As for the sky, the sun is exactly of the same tone as the 
 sky, and the sails behind the Agamemnon, and the water 
 wherever there is no ripple. 
 
 This is the kind of criticism which is often applied to 
 line-etchings, but I pay the supposed critic the very rarely 
 deserved compliment of presuming that he really does know 
 something about tone, and can put his ringer at once on the 
 tonic solecisms. The answer to all such fault-finding is 
 simply that a genuine artist, when he has achieved his 
 purpose, sets it at defiance. Art is not the slave of nature, 
 but an independent force using nature as a mine of materials. 
 An artist may fairly be blamed for ignorance of tone, he is 
 hardly ever blameable for wilful and open transgression in 
 view of some greater purpose. Now the tonic relations of this 
 plate are utterly false and indefensible. I admit it ; but then 
 I affirm at the same time that such a pretence to full light- 
 and-shade as would have quite contented a vulgar critic 
 would in all probability have been still worthless in itself 
 and purchased at the cost of everything which makes this 
 plate the strong performance that it is. The purpose of the 
 artist was not expression by shade, but expression by line, 
 and I think he has made his meaning plain. He pre
 
 312 HAD EN. 
 
 supposes, of course, a certain willing activity of sympathetic 
 imagination in the spectator, and also some intelligence. 
 Art of this kind certainly does not address itself to the 
 stupid portion of mankind, who would do well to keep out 
 of its way. It is taken for granted that when we have 
 seen that thin circular line so simply drawn above Green- 
 wich, we shall have memory and imagination enough of our 
 own to see the orb of fire, that the black marks in the sky 
 will be clouds for us, and those on the water ripples. Just 
 on the same principle it is presumed that those parts which 
 the etcher has thought it better not to shade will be shaded 
 more delicately and more truly by our own awakened 
 imagination. The most that can fairly be asked from work 
 of this kind is that the lines in it should be first well selected 
 and then soundly drawn. In this etching they are so. 
 
 I must ask the reader to give his attention in this place 
 whilst I endeavour to make clear a certain property of lines 
 which has never been critically considered. Let it be 
 supposed that you are working, or intending to work, in 
 pure line, that is to say, that you are using the line for 
 outlines or suggestions of outline, and for organic markings, 
 shading in the meantime as little as possible. You are not 
 intending to shade, and yet your markings, in proportion to 
 their quantity, will always inevitably be so much shading in 
 the general effect. For example, the figure-head, fish-davit, 
 etc., in the Agamemnon are not shaded at all, but only drawn 
 organically, and yet as a certain amount of black is laid on 
 the paper in so drawing them, the consequence is that the 
 eye strikes an average between this black and the white 
 spaces, so that the white spaces do not seem false until we 
 consider them independently. And so it is with the whole 
 side of the vessel. You may find many small spaces in it 
 which are certainly false, taken alone, but the effect of the 
 whole seen together at a little distance is very nearly right. 
 This principle may appear new to some readers, and yet all
 
 HAD EN. 313 
 
 line-engraving depends upon it, for even the grey tint in the 
 most delicate shading with the diamond does in reality 
 represent an average that the eye strikes between spaces 
 which are perfectly black and spaces which are perfectly 
 white. Hence, when an artist has done much for texture in 
 line, it is probable that he may have been shading at the 
 same time, almost without being aware of it. The type of 
 this volume is a kind of shading on the page, though quite 
 unintentional, and at a little distance it will make the page 
 look, not white and black, but grey. Now if the reader 
 returns to the Agamemnon with the conviction that every 
 black line in an etching is sure to tell as shade, he will 
 perceive that, merely by marking things or not marking 
 them, the artist has often suggested shade or left it unsug- 
 gested. For example, the sky is left very open about the 
 sun, but it is much more marked with cloud-lines as the 
 distance from the sun increases. You suspect no shading 
 here, and there is really none of an avowed kind, but all 
 these cloud-markings produce in the aggregate an effect of 
 shade, and do, in fact, give a gradation. So it is with the 
 markings for little waves upon the water ; they too give 
 graduated shade, though apparently intended to indicate only 
 form. Again, it is perfectly true that the barge in the 
 left-hand corner has nothing of what we call shading on its 
 side, where it ought to be very black if the exact truth were 
 given, but now see the subtle operation of the law just 
 indicated. That barge has very powerfully bitten markings 
 which make a dark mass of it as a whole, and the white 
 spaces, though broad, are so influenced by the near neighbour- 
 hood of the black markings that the mind is not shocked by 
 their falsity until it is pointed out, and even then speedily 
 forgives it. Replace those deeply-bitten thick markings by 
 pale ones, and the solecism would be at once intolerable. 
 The plain truth is that there is hardly any intentional shad- 
 ing whatever in this plate ; it is nearly all of it line-drawing of
 
 314 HADEN. 
 
 definite things, and yet the drawing is so managed and so dis- 
 tributed as to suggest shading besides. The whole secret may 
 be condensed into a precept. Keep open spaces in light parts, 
 let your lines be few there and also tJiin, but in darker parts 
 you may put more and stronger markings* I may observe 
 that even such things as the lines of cordage here have a 
 very important effect in the general distribution of light and 
 dark, though they do not look as if put there for that purpose. 
 
 There is a great deal of texture in this etching, especially 
 in the Agamemnon some would say too much but it pleases 
 me because it is explanatory of substance and structure, the 
 direction of the lines always answering to that of the plank- 
 ing. What I value more, however, than any texture is the 
 cunning selection of the most expressive lines in the flowing 
 water, as it eddies and washes past barge, and buoy, and 
 vessel. There is much firm good drawing too about the 
 cordage and the crane. Stretched ropes look easier to draw 
 than they really are, and they are seldom well done in etching. 
 There is always a slight curve in them, except in the shrouds 
 of a ship, which are screwed up like fiddle-strings, and even 
 here there is a curve sometimes. An etcher generally does 
 one of two things, either he rules the line and takes all the 
 life out of it by so doing, or else his hand is uncertain, as 
 Zeeman's was, and gives the curve weakly and tremulously. 
 It is rare to find the curve of a rope drawn at once truly and 
 decisively. 
 
 I remember that a critic, though without mentioning Mr. 
 Haden by name, wrote something about " attitudinising with 
 the free and frank line," in evident reference to my praise of 
 him. Now Mr. Haden certainly does not " attitudinise " with 
 the line, but uses it with the most unaffected simplicity of 
 
 * This is different from M. Lalanne's precept, and also from the usual practice 
 of engravers, who put many lines in light parts to get the effect of a grey tint. The 
 engravers also use many dark lines for shading, even when they are intended to 
 signify nothing else.
 
 HADEN. 315 
 
 purpose. The same critic said that Rembrandt's business 
 was not to show how he could do it, but what there is to be 
 done, implying that in the modern school of the line there is 
 an especial ostentation of cleverness in method. I should 
 be sorry if my praise of certain ways of interpretation led 
 any reader to the mistaken conclusion that the etcher who 
 uses them is a sort of performer, anxious to display his skill 
 in difficult manual tricks. A genuine artist always does 
 wish to do things in the best way, but this is not from vanity, 
 it is from the desire to do good work, which is a very honour- 
 able desire, the sign of a good workman. It is possible that, 
 as a critic, I may think more about the " how " than artists 
 themselves do. I do indeed attach very great importance, 
 to the "how," so much that a thorough knowledge of it 
 seems to me quite essential to sound criticism. There is a 
 sentence of Goethe which expresses what must be the feeling 
 of every critical student. " Generally," he says of Scott, " he 
 shows great knowledge of art ; for which reason those like us 
 who always look to see how things are done, find especial 
 pleasure and profit in his works."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CRUIKSHANK AND DOYLE. 
 
 "T^EW more interesting subjects could occupy a writer on 
 art than the various and truly original genius of 
 Cruikshank, but I cannot speak of him here with the fulness 
 which his inventive faculty deserves, because the art of 
 etching is, in his plates, so often subordinated to the purposes 
 of the caricaturist, that artistic quality is hardly ever their 
 principal aim, and it would be foreign to the design of a 
 work of this kind to enter largely into the discussion of 
 merits which, however deserving of honourable recognition, 
 are often moral and intellectual rather than artistic. Art, 
 with a great social or political purpose, is seldom pure fine 
 art ; artistic aims are usually lost sight of in the anxiety to 
 hit the social or political mark, and though the caricaturist 
 may have great natural faculty for art, it has not a fair 
 chance of cultivation. It would be a mistake, in a volume 
 intended to strengthen the position of etching as a fine art, 
 to direct attention to works whose interest is wholly different, 
 for to criticise them would be an injustice to the caricaturist, 
 and to speak much of their peculiar powers, a digression. 
 The reader may remember the exhibition of Cruikshank's 
 works, which took place a few years ago, at Exeter Hall. 
 There was a large oil-painting in the room, representing the 
 bad effects of drinking too much alcohol. Its social purpose 
 was no doubt excellent, but it lay outside of artistic criticism, 
 because there was no attempt at any one artistic excellence ; 
 no arrangement of form, no light and shade, no synthesis of
 
 CR UIKSHANK AND DO YLE. 3 1 7 
 
 colour. And so it is with very many of Cruikshank's etch- 
 ings ; they are full of keen satire and happy invention, and 
 their moral purpose is always good, but all these qualities 
 are compatible with a carelessness of art which is not to be 
 tolerated in any one but a professed caricaturist. ^. 
 
 There is, however, in Cruikshank, an artist within or 
 behind the caricaturist, and this artist is a personage of 
 exceptional endowment. His invention is vivid, and his 
 power of drawing the figures invented is singularly sprightly 
 and precise. There are etchings by Cruikshank, though 
 these are not numerous in proportion to the mass of his great 
 labours, which are as excellent artistically as they are notable 
 for genius and wit, where the stroke of the needle is as happy 
 as the thought, and where the student of etching may find 
 models, as the student of manners finds a record or a sugges- 
 tion. In etchings of this high class, Cruikshank carries one 
 great virtue of the art to perfection its simple frankness. 
 He is so direct and unaffected, that only those who know 
 the difficulties of etching can appreciate the power that lies 
 behind his unpretending skill ; there is never, in his most 
 admirable plates, the trace of a vain effort. 
 
 I never regretted the hard necessity which forbids an art 
 critic to shut his eyes to artistic shortcomings more heartily 
 than I do now in speaking of Richard Doyle. Considered 
 as commentaries on human character, his etchings are so full 
 of wit and intelligence, so bright with playful satire and 
 manly relish of life, that I scarcely know how to write sen- 
 tences with a touch at once light enough and keen enough 
 to describe them. But they are of no value as works of art ; 
 Doyle never selects a line as the great men do, and he does 
 not seem to take the least interest in local colour or chiaros- 
 curo. Though shading is employed to give projection to 
 the personages, Doyle's etchings are in reality conceived 
 only in outline, and his interpretation of nature is, when 
 considered from the artistic point of view, so artless as to be
 
 CRU1KSHANK AND DOYLE. 
 
 almost puerile. When he feebly attempts any effect of light, 
 he is always lost, and knows it ; in these cases he will frankly 
 abandon the effect in the same etching, when it becomes 
 inconveniently difficult. His sense of the nature of material 
 is quite undeveloped, and he never draws any object as if he 
 had looked at it. This absence of imitative study is not, in 
 Doyle, due to any noble abstraction, but is mere defect of 
 training or carelessness of art. It is probable that this art- 
 lessness is an essential element in the complex influences of 
 his caricatures ; the artistic statement is so thoroughly naif, 
 that we enjoy the satire the more, just as we laugh more 
 heartily at a child's portrait of his papa than at the serious 
 efforts of the scientific portrait-painter. But a critic who is 
 anxious to obtain for etching the sort of consideration which 
 is due to it cannot allow his readers to retain the impression 
 that such work as this of Doyle is what he understands by 
 "etching," and recommends as art, and it is a positive mis- 
 fortune that the popular idea of what etching is capable of 
 should be so often derived from work of this kind, the 
 circulation of which, from its connection with successful 
 novels, is usually much more extensive than that of artistic 
 masterpieces. Fifty contemporary Englishmen know Doyle's 
 illustrations of " The Newcomes " for one who remembers 
 Wilkie's " Pope examining a Censer ; " and when etching is 
 mentioned in general society, the associations which the 
 word calls up in the minds of the majority have less connec- 
 tion with the treasures of the British Museum than with the 
 pleasant companions of our domestic leisure. 
 
 The allusion to " The Newcomes " makes it impossible 
 for me to conclude these observations without acknowledg- 
 ment of the all but inestimable dramatic value of the 
 illustrations which accompanied it. Illustrations to imagina- 
 tive literature are too frequently an intrusion and an imperti- 
 nence, but these really added to our enjoyment of a great 
 literary masterpiece, and Doyle's conception of the Colonel,
 
 CRUIKSHANK AND DOYLE. 
 
 of Honeyman, of Lady Kew, is accepted at once as authentic 
 portraiture. In Ethel he was less happy, which was a 
 misfortune, as she was the heroine of the book ; but many 
 of the minor characters were successes of the most striking 
 and indisputable kind. Gandish and the Dther artists, the 
 military gentlemen, the dubious Englishmen and foreigners, 
 are all set before us with a veracity that is not the less 
 profound that it is illuminated in all its depths by the light 
 of a genial humour. 
 
 CRUIKSHANK. The Folly of Crime. The plate is oblong 
 and upright, the centre of it is occupied by an oval, which is 
 enclosed by a prisoner's chain. Outside of this oval frame 
 are ten minor subjects. The central composition represents 
 the edge of an abyss with a precipice. Smoke and flame 
 rise from the abyss, and near the edge of the precipice lies 
 the corpse of a murdered man. A demon is plunging into 
 the flame ; this demon holds a vessel on his head with both 
 hands ; the vessel contains jewels and money and bank- 
 notes. A powerfully-built man, having the aspect of a 
 felon, has quitted the corpse to clutch the treasure ; he has 
 planted his foot on a stone which has given way, and falls 
 from the precipice. The jewels rise as if they were serpents 
 to bite his hand ; the bank-notes fly away in the flame and 
 are burnt. Twelve demons, having glaring eyes and grinning 
 teeth, congregate in the dark sky over the man's head. Some 
 of them point at him derisively, and he wears a fool's cap. 
 The minor subjects are as follows : (i) A man in bed with 
 a heavy weight on his breast ; two hands issue from a cloud, 
 one bearing a pair of scales, the other a flaming sword. 
 Many serpents come from under the pillow and play about 
 his head. (2) Two men on a treadmill. (3) A prisoner in 
 the corner of his den is visited by his gaoler, who is bringing 
 him water to drink. (4-5) Two prisoners in chains. (6) 
 Criminal in a fool's cap lying in a heap of dung, and dying,
 
 3 2o CR UIKSHANK AND DOYLE. 
 
 or very ill, in the last extremity of poverty ; on the wall 
 behind him is a placard offering fifty pounds reward. (7) A 
 man in a fool's cap, starting at his own shadow ; there is an 
 advertisement on the wall offering a hundred pounds reward. 
 (8) A man running away with bags containing a hundred 
 pounds each, and putting his foot in a trap. (9) Man bearing 
 a log of wood, on which is inscribed, " for fourteen years ; " 
 there is a ship in the distance. (10) Man dragging a log 
 after him chained to his foot, and bearing upon his shoulders a 
 coffin, on which is inscribed, " for life ; " before him is his grave 
 with his spade sticking up in it. The sea and a ship show 
 that he is a convict in a penal colony. 
 
 This elaborate plate is as good an example as could be 
 chosen of Cruikshank's moral teaching. Its lesson, like those 
 of Hogarth, is made as direct and obvious as possible, and 
 even repeated under various different forms. The moral is 
 too coarse and palpable to be quite satisfactory to a very 
 thoughtful observer ; great criminals are not always fools, if 
 folly is only to be measured by the troubles into which it 
 brings itself; but the true philosophy of a subject so intricate 
 as this would be too subtle for the caricaturist, who simply 
 tells us that Jack or Patrick committed murder or felony, 
 and was sent to prison, and the treadmill, and Botany Bay. 
 Cruikshank's argument is, that because Jack by crime 
 exposed himself to punishment, and got punished, therefore 
 Jack was a fool to risk consequences so unpleasant. But 
 might not the same prudential argument be turned against 
 innocence itself ? And if we were as clever caricaturists as 
 Cruikshank, might we not compose a plate illustrative of the 
 folly of virtue ? If dishonesty lands its more artless practi- 
 tioners on dunghills, it also not unfrequently rewards its 
 craftier votaries with considerable comfort, and even luxury ; 
 and the readiness to lie when the world requires it has saved 
 many a man from social degradation. Some things ought 
 to be said and done which, if estimated in this prudential
 
 CR UIKSHANK AND D O YLE. 3 2 1 
 
 tvay, are follies, and nothing is proved against a criminal by 
 merely showing that his act may lead to unpleasant results. 
 A taste for reading the Bible, which is not now considered 
 blameable in this country, has brought hundreds within the 
 terrible grip of the Inquisition. Bad deeds are not distin- 
 guishable from good deeds by the reward they bring to 
 the agent ; and if homicide leads one man to hard 
 labour for life, so there have been instances where it has 
 opened paths to the loftiest social ambition. It is probable 
 that virtuous men enjoy a serene independence of out- 
 ward circumstances to which the vicious never attain ; 
 failure does not fret them, nor hardship weary them so much ; 
 but this inward peace is rather beyond our Hogarths and 
 Cruikshanks, and it is even beyond the sympathy of our 
 common public, which, in its commendable love for good 
 folks, is never quite content unless the novelist rewards them 
 with a carriage and pair. And even this inward peace of 
 the virtuous is not always to be counted upon, for virtuous 
 people are not always altogether satisfied with themselves. 
 
 Without being one of the most remarkable instances of 
 Cruikshank's unusual precision with the point, this etching is 
 accomplished and even brilliant in execution. There are 
 some admirable gradations on surfaces, as, for instance, that 
 on the left leg of the large central figure, and there is a 
 choice of means affording powerful contrasts of manipula- 
 tion. Observe the vigorous touches on the detached stone, 
 and the handling on the figure itself. The sea and sky in 
 the little subject mentioned above as number 9, are very 
 simple in method, but as good as the bits of distance in some 
 of the most celebrated old masters. 
 
 The Elves and the Shoemaker. There was a shoemaker 
 who worked very hard and was very honest. He had nothing 
 left but leather for one pair of shoes ; he cut it out and laid 
 it aside at night, and next morning found his shoes made. 
 As the workmanship was very good, there was no difficulty 
 
 Y
 
 322 CR UIKSHANK AND DO YLE. 
 
 in finding a purchaser, so the poor shoemaker bought more 
 leather and cut out several pairs of shoes, and laid the pieces 
 in the same place at night, and the next day found the shoes 
 finished with the same excellent workmanship. The process 
 was repeated, till the shoemaker became rich ; then he and 
 his wife determined to watch at night, to see how the shoes 
 were made, and they discovered that two industrious little 
 elves came and worked for them. Then the shoemaker and 
 his wife resolved in their gratitude to make clothes for these 
 elves, because they were naked, and they made little garments 
 and laid them in the room and watched for the elves, who 
 on their arrival, dressed themselves with great glee and ran 
 away capering out of the door, never again to enter it. But 
 the shoemaker and his wife remained rich ever after. 
 
 This pleasant tale, in a well-known book, Grimm's 
 "German Stories," was so well adapted to the genius of 
 Cruikshank, that it has suggested one of the very best of all 
 his etchings. The two elves, especially the nearer one, who 
 is putting on his breeches, are drawn with a point at once so 
 precise and vivacious, so full of keen fun and inimitably 
 happy invention, that I have not found their equals in comic 
 etching anywhere, and they are as supreme in their own 
 department of the art as Haden's "Shere Mill-pond," or 
 Claude's "Bouvier" in theirs. It is said that these elves are 
 regarded with peculiar affection by the great master who 
 created them, which is only natural, for he has a right to be 
 proud of them. The picturesque details of the room are 
 etched with the same felicitous intelligence, but the marvel 
 of the work is in the expression of the strange little faces, 
 and the energy of the comical wee limbs. 
 
 Return from a delightful Trip on the Continent. This is 
 a fair specimen of Cruikshank's simple manner. It is a scene 
 of sea-sickness ; a boatful of passengers, male and female, 
 are landing from a continental steamer. The sea is very 
 rough, and in the little transit the passengers suffer acutely.
 
 CR UIKSHANK AND DO YLE. 323 
 
 One old gentleman, who bends over the water, as people in 
 this lamentable condition are wont to do, has lost his hat and 
 wig, and there is intentional satire in the resemblance 
 between the cap of another passenger, whose loose ear-flaps 
 are lifted by the wind, and the headgear consecrated to fools. 
 Two thick sailors are rowing, and the women are in the 
 utmost misery and confusion. The adjuncts are sketched as 
 suggestively as those in the woodcuts of John Leech. The 
 spray leaps high, and the steam and smoke from the funnels 
 of the ship are carried away in straight lines by the gale. 
 
 Dougal MacCallum and Hutcheon. An illustration of 
 an incident in " Redgauntlet," narrated as follows by the 
 novelist : 
 
 "When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the 
 grave, sure enough the silver whistle sounded as sharp and 
 shrill as if Sir Robert were blowing it, and up got the twa 
 auld serving-men and tottered into the room where the dead 
 man lay. Hutcheon saw aneugh at the first glance, for there 
 were torches in the room which showed him the foul fiend, in 
 his ain shape, seated on the Laird's coffin." 
 
 This is one of the best of Cruikshank's many book- 
 illustrations. The union of comedy with solemn circum- 
 stances gives free expression to both the great faculties of 
 the caricaturist. Cruikshank is a comic etcher, and the 
 greatest comic etcher who ever lived, but his mind realises 
 the solemnity of death. This coffin lying in state, with a 
 monkey perched on the top of it, and two domestics horror- 
 stricken at the demoniacal apparition, is a subject very 
 suitable to a genius in which a sense of the ridiculous co- 
 exists with the most tragic earnestness. 
 
 DOYLE. A student of the Old Masters. Colonel New- 
 come is sitting in the National Gallery, trying to see the 
 merits of the old masters. Observe the enormous exaggera- 
 tion of aerial perspective resorted to in order to detach the
 
 324 CRUIKSHAtiK AND DOYLE. 
 
 figure of the Colonel. The people behind him must be 
 several miles away ; the floor of the room, if judged by aerial 
 perspective only, is as broad as the lake of Lucerne. 
 
 His Highness. Colonel Newcome is saluted by the 
 Indian. Observe the entire absence of local colour. The 
 Colonel's black hat and blue coat, and Barnes Newcome's 
 black evening costume have exactly the same weight of 
 colour as Colonel Newcome's white shirt-frill. 
 
 A Meditation. Clive is meditating in his studio on the 
 vanity of mediocre painting. The opportunity was a good 
 one for clever sketching of still life, but it has not been seized 
 upon or cared for, and Doyle has taken no interest in the 
 things that surround the artist, which are sketched quite 
 nnobservantly.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 "I "HIS artist is one of the few really great English etchers, 
 but as it results from the nature of his work that each 
 plate of his is very costly in time, and as he happens to be a 
 successful painter in water-colour, the consequence is that his 
 production in etching has been extremely limited. For reasons 
 which I have endeavoured to explain in the chapter on the 
 Revival of Etching in England, a successful painter, however 
 well he may be able to etch, can do so only at a sacrifice, and 
 etching is too laborious, as well as too much like the ordinary 
 work of a painter, to afford the refreshment of a recreation. So 
 long as human nature remains what it is, people will not highly 
 value a work of art which others can easily procure, so that 
 the more public the benefit which an artist bestows upon his 
 countrymen, the less will be his reward. If ever a true 
 appreciation of art shall become general amongst our des- 
 cendants, they will wonder how it was possible that Samuel 
 Palmer, to whom was given genius and length of days, and who 
 in his time, as they will see, was one of the most accomplished 
 etchers who ever lived, should have left behind him just half- 
 a-dozen plates. We can tell them how it happened, how one 
 who had mastered the art and loved it, neglected it year after 
 year, simply because his contemporaries did not value beauty 
 when it could be multiplied. 
 
 The work of this master in etching has been more than 
 once compared to mezzotint engraving. I said in the first 
 edition of The Etcher's Handbook that " the delightfulness of
 
 326 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 it might be preserved in mezzotint," and a critic in one of the 
 leading reviews said " Samuel Palmer is in fact a mezzotinter." 
 Such expressions as these are due to what is at first sight most 
 obvious in this master's way of etching, the richness of its light 
 and shade. Constable said that one reason why chiaroscuro 
 was of such great importance was because it first struck the 
 spectator. Now the light and shade of Palmer's etchings 
 might, indeed, be copied very accurately in mezzotint, and a 
 good mezzotint engraver would come nearer than any other 
 engraver to the general aspect and quality of the plates, but 
 a fuller study of the originals, and a sounder knowledge of the 
 resources of different arts, will prove that Samuel Palmer is 
 not simply a mezzotinter, not simply an imitator of mezzotint 
 in etching. The principle of his work is much wider than 
 that. It may be expressed in a single word eclecticism. 
 Etching is so versatile that you may imitate several different 
 arts by means of it, and, therefore, an artist skilful to avail 
 himself of this versatility may select the qualities which in 
 other arts seem to him most desirable, and combine them har- 
 moniously in one work. This is the true explanation of Palmer's 
 method. He is an eclectic, an artist who, although using 
 etching as his means of expression, remembers all along the 
 powers and qualities of other graphic arts, and adopts them 
 when he chooses, incorporating them into his own work, but 
 so ably that its unity does not suffer. It is quite fair to say 
 that he has adopted the qualities of mezzotint so far as they 
 are to be got by work that is bitten and not raised in a bur, 
 but it is not fair to imply that he limits himself to these 
 qualities. In the very same plate, which strikes you by its 
 resemblance to a mezzotint, you will find, if you look into it 
 more closely, that there is an abundance of well selected line- 
 work, not less masterly in choice, and right in expression than 
 that of Turner and Haden, though quite original, and conse- 
 quently different from theirs. And besides this line-work, if 
 you look more closely still, you will discover passages which
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 327 
 
 have the peculiar qualities of woodcut, I mean of such wood- 
 cutting as is done upon its own principle, and is not an 
 imitation of something else ; in other words, you will discover 
 passages where neither the organic line nor yet -the soft 
 mezzotint-like shade is the important thing, but where sparkling 
 touches of white, in the midst of intense black, are the true 
 means of expression. Besides these, it is easy to find spaces 
 in the more important plates which are treated with as near 
 an approach to line-engraving as would be compatible with 
 the harmony of the whole a harmony which is never forgotten, 
 and never marred. 
 
 Now if I want a comparison to illustrate the eclectic 
 character of such etching as this, I have one close at hand in 
 the language which I am using, the English tongue, which is 
 the most eclectic of all languages. The spirit of it is to choose 
 everywhere the means of expression which seem most con- 
 venient for the moment, and it does this apparently with little 
 regard to harmony, yet with a result which is perfectly har- 
 monious. He who has the privilege of writing this rich and 
 various language may be truly said to borrow his means of ex- 
 pression from Anglo-Saxon, from old French, from Latin and 
 Greek abundantly, yet he is not writing these languages, nor 
 any one of them ; he is writing English. Just so the language 
 which Samuel Palmer uses in etching is neither mezzotint, 
 nor woodcut, nor line-etching, but a pure original language of 
 his own, which I cannot call by any name but his. 
 
 As for the thcughts which he has to express, they are 
 pure poetry, and come to him from that rich realm of the 
 imagination which the poets only can find at all, and which 
 they find everywhere. There is more feeling, and insight, 
 and knowledge, in one twig drawn by his hand, than in the 
 life's production of many a well-known artist. Words cannot 
 express the qualities of such work as his, but we can say that 
 it unites the ripest and fullest knowledge with the most per- 
 fect temper, a temper of patience almost without limit, and of
 
 328 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 tenderness which is alive to all loveliness, even that which 
 is most lowly and obscure, hardening itself against nothing 
 that is beautiful. Rarely has an artist's maturity been so com- 
 plete. The work of his old age is like a great fine fruit which 
 has been in the sun for many days, until all its juices have 
 had just the full time and heat needed for the most perfect 
 mellowness, yet on which you shall not find the slightest sign 
 that it has hung on the branch too long. No young man 
 ever had the fulness of knowledge which is necessary for such 
 work as that, and few old men have had the serenity of 
 temper, or the powers of work, which are needed for such a 
 complete expression of their knowledge. 
 
 " During twenty years," I wrote in 1872, " Samuel Palmer's 
 work has become for me more and more beautiful, more and 
 more abundantly satisfying. It is so tender as to remind us of 
 all that is softest and sweetest in the heart of pastoral nature, 
 and yet so learned that it seems as if some angel had met the 
 artist in his studious solitude, and taught him. Imaginations 
 graceful as a maiden's dream, but without her ignorance, 
 teachings profounder than those of science, yet without her 
 pedantry, a serene spirit inherited from the true and great 
 poets of the times of old who are his fathers all these he 
 gives us with his art." 
 
 His aim as an executant is not consciously distinct from 
 passing thought and feeling, it is not thought of by the artist as 
 a purpose in itself. Here let me pause to consider one danger 
 concerning execution in the fine arts which I have not hitherto 
 dwelt upon, but which is serious enough to merit grave con- 
 sideration. A practised executant acquires a fatal facility, so 
 that at last he can execute without having either new thoughts 
 or new emotions. He has certain forms in the memory 
 like a printed schedule, and he fills them up mechanically, 
 without waiting till he has ideas to put under the several 
 headings. Nothing can be more convenient to the handi- 
 craftsman than this power of working without thinking, but
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 329 
 
 nothing is more dangerous to the artist. It hurries him along 
 whether he is ready or not, till his soul becomes a mere victim 
 tied to the tail of the executive habit which gallops away like 
 a wild horse, the bit between its teeth. As one art illustrates 
 another, and the fine arts are all subject to the same laws, I 
 may take the case of an orator whose tongue goes as fast as 
 it can whether the ideas are in time for it or not. The best 
 public speaker I ever heard avoided this error completely. 
 He spoke slowly when the thoughts followed slowly, and had 
 the courage to remain quite silent from time to time when the 
 thought was not ready for expression. It is far more trying 
 for an orator to do this in the presence of a thousand hearers, 
 than for an etcher in the solitude of his own room, and yet 
 graphic artists have rarely authority enough over the hand to 
 make it follow the mind instead of leading it. Samuel Palmer 
 said of Claude, "his execution is of that highest kind which 
 has no independent essence, but lingers and hesitates with the 
 thought, and is lost and found in a bewilderment of intricate 
 beauty." In this sentence we have the key to the writer's 
 own ways of work as an etcher : he dislikes execution, however 
 brilliant, which is not subordinate to the thought ; or perhaps, 
 to put it more accurately, the best execution, in his view, is 
 tentative, and submissively waits whilst the mind seeks, always 
 humbly following and endeavouring to obey, never hurrying 
 the executive processes till they get ahead of the perceptive 
 and inventive processes. And I venture to add that the 
 beautiful sentence in which Samuel Palmer described the 
 excellence of Claude is accurately descriptive of his own ex- 
 cellence, and I would have said of Samuel Palmer, if I had 
 known how to write anything so good, just these words, " his 
 execution is of that highest kind which has no independent 
 essence, but lingers and hesitates with the thought, and is lost 
 and found in a bewilderment of intricate beauty." 
 
 The Early Ploughman. This etching was first published
 
 330 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 in the first edition of the present work under the above title, 
 but on more recent impressions I perceive that Mr. Palmer 
 has added the inscription, 
 
 " The morning spread upon the mountains." 
 
 I always greatly admired this plate, but the full beauty of 
 it was unsuspected until Mr. Palmer set up a printing-press in 
 his own house, and his son began to take proofs under the 
 artist's direction. The earliest proof of this plate in my posses- 
 sion is of a state preceding the final one, and is touched upon by 
 the etcher to mark intended alterations, especially in the pop- 
 lars, the biting, however, is definitive everywhere,* and yet the 
 work looks comparatively grey and pale, owing to unscientific 
 printing. The impressions in the first edition of Etching and 
 Etchers are better, but are still far from doing full justice to the 
 plate. In November and December 1873, Mr. Palmer having 
 then established his private press, his son kindly took two proofs 
 for me, which for the first time made me fully acquainted with 
 the merits not only of this particular work, but of its author's 
 method of etching. The use of vigorous line-work in the 
 poplars and elder to the right may not be so obvious as it is 
 in Turner's etchings, which were shaded in mezzotint, but the 
 principle of it is the same, and the lines themselves are nearly 
 as vigorous as those of Turner. The execution in this part of 
 the work, indeed in most of the etching before us, is founded 
 upon the strong etched line for organic markings, whilst a 
 delicate close shading at a later stage of the process does for 
 it what the mezzotint did for Turner's etchings, or in other 
 words gives it shade and mass. The reader is requested to 
 guard himself against the almost universal confusion between 
 line and outline. He will find most vigorous line-work in 
 Palmer's etchings, yet hardly such a thing as an outline any- 
 
 * The reader acquainted with technical matters will learn with some surprise 
 that Mr. Palmer has never once had recourse to rebiting. This only shows the 
 remarkable skill with which he manages the acid a skill the more remarkable 
 that he has etched so few plates.
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 331 
 
 where. The losing and finding of beautiful detail amidst the 
 mysterious confusion of nature would indeed be altogether in- 
 compatible with outlines, which define things like countries on 
 a map. The ploughman here, and his team of oxen, are most 
 perfect examples of Palmer's manner of using line and shade. 
 There is a good deal of line, some of it deeply bitten, yet you 
 can hardly catch an outline, unless by accident as it seems, and 
 then it eludes you. The man and animals are softly lighted 
 by the dawn, and they are visible in the dim light with just 
 as much definition as they would have in a good painting, 
 and no more. Palmer's treatment of objects in the foreground 
 is opposed to Lalanne's doctrine, that foregrounds should be 
 etched in strong and open lines, for he sees that in nature 
 foregrounds are not less delicate than distances. In this plate, 
 the shading upon the man's shirt, and on the face of the light- 
 coloured ox, is indeed closer and finer in texture than that on 
 the distant mountain. 
 
 The sky is etched very much upon the principle of line- 
 engraving. It has two distinct textures, one over the other, to 
 give transparence and depth, a close texture in pale lines, and 
 a much more open texture in darker lines. There is much en- 
 graver-like skill (of a right kind) in the management of these 
 lines for shading. They run in varied curves, and always at 
 a safe distance from each other, so that there is no uninten- 
 tional doubling. Nothing can be more judicious than the 
 direction given to these undulating lines of shade. 
 
 All this technical commentary has left me little room to 
 speak of the artistic beauty of the conception, but the reader 
 is not to suppose that technical criticism deadens the feelings 
 which apprehend the true poetry and significance of art. On 
 the contrary, it is impossible to appreciate the full technical 
 merit of such work as this without at the same time knowing 
 what the lines mean, and sharing the sweetness of the 
 ineffable sentiment which they are intended to convey. It is 
 the sentiment of a poet and a painter, who loves the loveliest
 
 332 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 hours, and has watched them all his life. No sudden delight 
 in the unaccustomed spectacle of a sunrise ever yet gave the 
 town-bred artist such knowledge of the dawn-mystery as this. 
 Many a night has the etcher of this plate wandered in a land 
 of beauty from sunset to sunrise, from twilight to twilight, 
 from the splendour of the west to the splendour of the east, 
 watching through the gradual changes of the hours, and gather- 
 ing for us that rare learning of which his works are full. 
 
 The Herdsman. This plate was published in the Selection 
 of Etchings by the Etching Club, 1865. The subject is a 
 moonrise in a hilly country. To the left is a magnificent tree 
 (chestnut, I think) in full foliage, and under it the herdsman is 
 driving his cattle towards the farm which lies in the dark 
 hollow, and is made visible only by the moonlight which 
 catches the edges of the roofs and gables, and the smoke from 
 the chimneys. In the right foreground is the broken trunk 
 of a tree, which also catches the moonlight, and there is a 
 great sparkle and glitter of it upon the leaves in this part of 
 the etching. The hill is extremely dark, and above it the sky 
 is covered with a voluminous cloud. 
 
 The sky in this magnificent plate is etched upon the same 
 principles as that in the Early Ploughman ; the treatment, too, 
 of the figure and animals is like that of the ploughman and 
 his oxen, but the rest of the etching is done very much upon 
 the principles of woodcut, I mean that the artist, although he 
 has been working in black, thought rather of the white spaces 
 or specks which he reserved in the midst of it than of the 
 black itself. In the large chestnut the etched line is still 
 visible as a means of defining foliage, but the leaves and 
 trunk under the moon are all picked out of an intensely black 
 ground in touches of white. It is wonderful how minute are 
 many of the atoms of white which have a most important 
 influence upon the effect. Those in the dark hill are most of 
 them scarcely bigger than a pin's point, and yet they prevent 
 the darkness from being black, whilst at the same time they
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 333 
 
 give obscure indications of form, which make the hill really a 
 hill, and not a mere flat piece of black paper. The massive 
 tree to the left is one of the finest studies of foliage ever 
 etched. Every cluster of leaves has been carefully thought 
 out for itself, whilst the grandeur of the masses has been pre- 
 served as completely as it could have been in the most 
 energetic sketch. The little gleams of light along the edges 
 of the roofs reveal the various curves caused by the yielding or 
 irregularity of the timbers, and even in such a minor detail 
 as the goad on the herdsman's shoulder the utmost care is 
 taken to indicate its departure from mechanical straightness. 
 I could not mention a better example of pervading artistic 
 intelligence, which whilst never forgetting, even for an instant, 
 the unity of the whole work, applies itself nevertheless with 
 unfailing and unflagging attention to every detail, how- 
 ever apparently insignificant. It is scarcely too much to 
 say that there is not in this etching an atom of white or black 
 I will not say the size of a pin's head, but rather of its 
 point which is not there in obedience to a distinct artistic 
 decision. 
 
 The Rising Moon. This plate was published in 1857 in a 
 little set issued by the Art Union of London. The moon 
 has nearly but not quite disengaged herself from behind the 
 shoulder of a hill, and she lights a flock of sheep in the fore- 
 ground. The scenery is of the same order as that of the pre- 
 ceding subject. It is amongst the low hills of the south of 
 England, and we are looking down into a hollow, in which 
 nestles a large gabled mansion. A church tower is dimly 
 visible against a dark hill, a few poplars rise out of the hollow 
 against the sky, and a tree in the foreground catches the 
 moonlight in its leaves. To the right is a vast plain with a 
 level horizon, responded to by level lines of white cloud in 
 the elaborate sky. 
 
 This plate has the technical qualities of the " Herdsman," 
 but not in so striking a degree. The subject is very beautiful,
 
 334 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 with an aspect of more perfect repose and serenity than the 
 other etching. Notwithstanding the rather coarse texture of 
 the sky, it fulfils its purpose admirably, proving what a 
 peculiar thing interpretation is in art, and how opposed to 
 imitation. No natural sky ever showed texture of this kind, 
 with its strong markings of black lines and dots, and yet this 
 texture perfectly conveys to us the character of sky intended. 
 The whole plate is interesting as a study of texture, observe 
 especially the soft wool of the sheep with the moonlight on 
 it and in it. The figure of the rustic in his smock is beauti- 
 fully indicated by touches of white. 
 
 It seldom happens that Samuel Palmer does anything 
 which can be found fault with from the artistic point of view, 
 his arrangements of material being generally not only quite 
 above censure, but marked by a happy originality of artistic 
 thought and invention. In the present instance, however, he 
 has fallen into the well-known error which is commonly called 
 exaggerated perspective commonly but not quite accurately, 
 as the perspective itself may be free from exaggeration, 
 scientifically true, and yet sure to give a false impression. It 
 would be out of place to enter fully into this subject here, for 
 the few who understand it need no explanation, and the many 
 who do not would require a complete essay on the subject, 
 illustrated, which they would never take the trouble to master, 
 so I will say simply that the sheep here are not in false per- 
 spective, but in very injudicious perspective. They look 
 monstrously big, and the rustic who is coming home does not 
 look distant, he seems like a pigmy. The landscape is far 
 too beautiful and too interesting to be a mere background to 
 the sheep, and the sheep are too important to be nothing but 
 adjuncts to the landscape. Besides this there is not drawing 
 enough in the sheep for that scale. They ought to have been 
 drawn as Rosa Bonheur draws, and not mere bales of flesh, 
 wrapped up in wool, with a head at one end or the other. 
 
 The Morning of Life. This plate has also been called
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 335 
 
 "Work and Gossip." It is an effect of sunlight flaming 
 through branches of strong old trees, with their roots in a 
 narrow rivulet. In the rivulet some boys are washing sheep, 
 two others are dragging and pushing a ram to the water. A 
 girl on her hands and knees is gossiping with a youth. She 
 has been gathering fruit, and has a basket close to her, whilst 
 apples are scattered on the ground. 
 
 If classical education, in literature and art, never had a 
 worse effect upon modern performance than it has here, we 
 should not have a word to say against it. There is something 
 of Virgil's spirit here, something of Claude's, and I know not 
 what other beautiful associations with, or reminiscences of, 
 many another poet of the past who may have learned the 
 deep sylvan secrets, and known the joy and beauty of young 
 life under the greenwood tree. No doubt the love of nature 
 is evident enough in this plate, but at least equally evident is 
 the delight in noble art and the far-reaching memory of it, in 
 sweet sympathy with what the immortal poets have sung or 
 painted when they too were alive upon the earth, and knew 
 the glory and freshness of the morning. Hence this etching 
 is equally removed from the vulgarity of the realism which 
 has no associations, no memories, no melodies of old music in 
 the brain, and from the dulness of blind tradition, which can 
 only repeat what others have done without any insight, or 
 sentiment, or invention of its own. 
 
 A more magnificent piece of design in trunks and foliage 
 was never etched. The use of line here is very original and 
 extremely powerful. The originality of it consists in the 
 peculiar and unforeseen way in which the lines begin and 
 end, and in the apparently wayward yet profoundly intelligent 
 placing of the lines. They are not outlines, unless here and 
 there by accident ; they are simply markings put wherever 
 they would be most useful ultimately, and it is a very interest- 
 ing and profitable critical exercise to observe the curious 
 cunning with which this is always done. Another peculiarity
 
 33<> SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 about them deserves to be noticed. It is one of the few 
 defects of etching that the needle cannot enlarge and diminish 
 the line in the same stroke as the brush can, or even the pen ; 
 but here this defect is apparently overcome, and there is an 
 increase of thickness in the lines, which often begin with a 
 fine hair-stroke and become broad in the middle, ending again 
 almost imperceptibly. * These organic lines, strongly bitten, 
 are the skeleton of the subject, and over them is cast a veil of 
 shade, not deeply bitten, and with very little texture in it, .as 
 soft in quality as the shade in a charcoal drawing. 
 
 So much for the means employed. The knowledge of 
 effect is of course consummate ; it is proved more especially 
 by the way in which the blaze of sunlight fuses and burns 
 away, as it were, the branches and leaves which come between 
 us and the orb, carrying away even the solid edge of a strong 
 bough. Yet there is no exaggeration of light in the fore- 
 ground, for there is really a screen of branches between it and 
 the sun, admitting only a filtered light. As for the figures it 
 is impossible to introduce figures more beautifully in land- 
 scape. They are drawn with the most exquisite taste, and 
 with all the knowledge that is needed, whilst for combined 
 energy and grace of attitude they remind us rather of Stothard 
 or Flaxman than of any inferior men, though neither of these 
 great artists could have set figures in landscape as these are 
 set 
 
 The Full Moon. (From Bampfylde's "Christmas.") A 
 rustic is bringing his sheep into the fold close to a thatched 
 cottage. Children are coming to welcome him, and a little 
 girl is petting the dog. The door of the cottage is open, and 
 we see the plate-rack inside, and the housewife preparing the 
 table for supper. High in the sky is the full moon, over the 
 tops of the trees. 
 
 There is some particularly thorough branch-drawing here 
 in the near tree to the left. The figures are very beautifully 
 * This is probably managed by repeated touches with a fine point
 
 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 337 
 
 conceived, in movements at once most natural and most 
 graceful. As for the tonality of the plate, it is so perfect as 
 to produce, after looking at it for a little time, almost the 
 effect of illusion. It is one of the most thorough pieces 
 of etched chiaroscuro in existence, the notes of light and 
 dark being all faultlessly in tune, like the notes of a well- 
 played melody. 
 
 Sunrise. (Published in the Portfolio for November iS/a.'l 
 Another very perfect little plate, having on a much smaller 
 scale many of the qualities which we have already noticed in 
 " The Morning of Life." The sun is rising between the gable 
 of a farm-house and the trunks of trees in a wood. A herds- 
 man with his dog is driving two cows across the foreground. 
 In the left-hand corner a tiny cascade of water is falling from 
 the rock into a little pool. The trunks of the trees cast 
 shadows, and the ground is brilliantly illuminated by the 
 early light. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into any detailed description of 
 this plate after the criticism of the larger one in which the 
 same effect is rendered. In its own way it is like some pearl 
 or diamond without a flaw, but pearls and diamonds are very 
 common things upon the earth in comparison with etchings 
 of this quality. 
 
 Come, thou Monarch of the Vine! In the "Songs of 
 Shakespeare," illustrated by the Etching Club, the most per- 
 fect work which the club ever produced, Samuel Palmer had 
 two compositions, the larger one representing the arrival of 
 Bacchus amongst his worshippers in a wood where the vine 
 grows luxuriantly amongst the trees, and the other represent- 
 ing four plump, naked children gathering grapes from a vine 
 which creeps round a massive bole, and hangs from mighty 
 boughs. In these two subjects the figures are of much more 
 apparent importance than in the others which we have been 
 considering, in fact these are strictly figure-compositions. 
 The larger one is full of power and vivacity. Bacchus comes 
 
 2
 
 338 SAMUEL PALMER. 
 
 in a blaze of light, truly divine, and his worshippers receive 
 him with aves of extravagant ecstasy. The figure-drawing is 
 at once energetic and voluptuous, the action and composition 
 artistic in the extreme, quite in the temper of the great 
 masters. The whole scene is full of light, and life, and joy, 
 enough to make would-be revelling pagans of us all, eager to 
 be drunk with new wine in some warm southern bower, and 
 
 there sing 
 
 Come, them monarch of the vine ! 
 Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne ; 
 In thy vats our cares be drown' d, 
 With thy grapes our hairs be crown' d, 
 Cup us till the world go round ; 
 Cup us till the world go round !
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MILLAIS. 
 
 n^HE pre-Raphaelite discipline, which was a protest against 
 inadequate synthesis, and a temporary return to 
 analysis, was highly unfavourable to etching so long as it 
 lasted, but in the well-known career of Millais there came a 
 period of emancipation from excessive analysis, and this 
 would have been the time for him to etch. He did so a 
 little, but most of his talent as a sketcher in black and white 
 has been spent in drawing upon wood. Very many of his 
 drawings on wood have all the qualities of good etchings 
 which the difference of the two processes will permit. 
 His manner of sketching is an excellent manner for an etcher. 
 It is delicate without over-minuteness, and it is rapid and free 
 without neglecting anything essential. Some of the best 
 sketches by Millais are the little vignettes which accompany 
 the initial letters in "The Small House at Allington," such 
 for example, as the sketch of the large house with the squire 
 walking on the terrace (chap, xxxvii.). It may seem to care- 
 less observers a very easy thing to do such a sketch as that, 
 and no doubt it was done easily, but only a consummate 
 artist could have drawn it just in that happy way. The 
 croquis of the London houses, in one of which Crosbie and 
 Lady Alexandrina spent that delightful married life of theirs, 
 is also quite in the temper of etching ; indeed such a subject 
 as that would not be endurable in art if treated with any 
 nearer approach to imitation. But it is unnecessary to men- 
 tion instances, for nearly all the drawings on wood which
 
 340 MILLAIS. 
 
 Millais has produced since he abandoned pre-Raphaelitism 
 have been little else than etchings in spirit, though they are 
 technically woodcuts because they have been engraved by 
 the woodcutter. 
 
 There is, however, a very wide difference in delicacy 
 between these woodcuts and the original etched work of 
 Millais, a difference quite enough to make us deplore that 
 condition of the public taste which renders it an imprudence 
 for him to etch his own designs, when the finest line of the 
 needle would be safe for ever, and yet not an imprudence, 
 even for so successful a painter, to draw upon wood when 
 every line is imperilled by the burin of the engraver after- 
 wards. I have already gone into the commercial reasons 
 which account for this. The picture is profitable because it 
 is unique, the woodcut is profitable because it shares in the 
 large sale commanded by a popular novelist; but the etching is 
 neither unique on the one hand, nor popular on the other. 
 Yet it is a great loss to the fine arts when such a draughts- 
 man as Millais has to entrust his designs to the wood- 
 engraver instead of etching them himself. He has all the 
 gifts of the etcher, and if this earth were a world in which all 
 good gifts were valued at their worth, Millais would by this 
 time have entrusted many noble designs to the faithful keep- 
 ing of steeled copper. 
 
 The Voung Mother. This is the twenty-ninth plate in the 
 etchings published for the Art Union of London in 1857. I* 
 is the best etching by Millais that I have seen. The figure 
 of the young woman is very beautifully sketched, as she bends 
 over her infant and kisses the palm of its tiny hand. The 
 lines which indicate the folds of her dress are, in the lights, 
 very free and true ; but in the shaded parts the cross hatching 
 made use of is not quite so purely etcher's work. The High- 
 land cottages and sketch of shore in the distance show most 
 intimate knowledge of the true character of Highland scenery, 
 and much affection for it.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 COPE, HORSLEY, HOOK. 
 
 T JNTIL the plate of "The Life School, Royal Academy, 
 was exhibited by Mr. Cope in 1867, the position he 
 held as an etcher was on the usual level of our Etching Club, 
 but the " Life School " revealed more power and originality. 
 It was published in the first edition of this volume. 
 
 In Mr. Cope's earlier manner the cleverest thing I 
 remember is the study of the old man in the illustrations to 
 the "Songs of Shakespeare "(" Passionate Pilgrim"). That 
 figure was remarkably observant and truthful, and drawn 
 with unusual precision. There are several etchings by the 
 same artist of much inferior merit. 
 
 Mr. Horsley has etched a few really good things amongst 
 others not so good. His touch is often free and right, and 
 his still-life is usually admirable. When he spoils a plate, 
 which he has done occasionally, it is from over-work in 
 hatching. 
 
 Mr. Hook has done one magnificent plate, "The Egg- 
 gatherer," but his etching aims so decidedly at full tone that 
 when the relations of light and dark come wrong in the biting 
 the work is lost and spoiled. When tone-etchers succeed it 
 is well, their work looks rich and full ; but when they fail, and 
 they often do so from mere miscalculation about acid, not 
 from ignorance, the failure seems complete. Mr. Hook relies 
 much upon texture also, and little upon line, and the quality 
 of his work is always painter-like. The smaller illustration of 
 Shakespeare's song, " Who is Silvia ? " is the nearest approach
 
 342 COPE, HORSLEY, HO OR. 
 
 to line-etching that I know of his. When an artist has 
 reached such decided success as this we hardly like to dis- 
 courage him by suggestions of alteration in manner ; but if 
 Hook could keep his full and rich tonality, whilst adding to 
 it some liberty and emphasis of line, and some bolder use of 
 open line in shading, he might become an etcher of a higher 
 order. 
 
 COPE. The Li f e School, Royal Academy. This is a true 
 etching, and one of the manliest pieces of work ever executed 
 in England. The subject is a remarkably good one, because 
 it composes of itself so naturally, and because the effect of 
 chiaroscuro is so powerful. Of all recent attempts to render 
 the naked figure in pure etching, the model here is one of the 
 most successful, it is frank and genuine etcher's work ; the 
 reader is especially invited to notice the way in which the 
 reflected lights are reserved on the muscles of the back, and 
 the firm shading over them. The figures of the students are 
 very true and various in attitude. Much of the power of this 
 etching is due to the fearless use of the pure etched line, 
 which is often left to itself, as for instance on the floor and 
 screen, and when crossed by hatchings, as in the curtain, and 
 dark shade above the reflectors, never interrupted uselessly, 
 but for the simple purpose of obtaining necessary darks. 
 
 Winter Song. This is a fair example of the better sort of 
 English work. It is not yet strong etching, because there is 
 little power of line, but the shading is in its way honest, 
 though it would have gained by greater simplicity and open- 
 ness. Mr. Cope has produced other etchings of this class 
 which it is not necessary to criticise specially. He has 
 carried the kind of execution which has been chiefly aimed at 
 by the Etching Club as far as any of its members. 
 
 HORSLEY. The Duennds Return (in Mr. Cundall's series). 
 A duenna is coming back from a walk, and finds her charge
 
 COPE, HORSLEY, HOOK. 343 
 
 talking with a young gentleman at the window. This is a 
 much nearer approach to true etching than is usual in this 
 country. There is considerable freedom of hand, and the 
 value of local colour as light and dark appears to be fully 
 appreciated. The passage of light in the small panes above 
 the door is very beautifully given. The plate is signed J. C. 
 Horsley, 1864, and is decidedly the best work of the artist 
 known to me. 
 
 The Deserted Village (plate 61). The lower of the two 
 etchings on this plate, representing a spindle with an arm- 
 chair near an open window, is one of the most brilliant bits of 
 still life I know in modern etching. 
 
 Interior of a Weaver's Cottage (" Deserted Village," plate 
 29). The artistic motive of this little subject is intricacy, 
 which, illustrated in other ways, is a favourite motive of 
 Whistler's. There is a want of distinction in lights and darks 
 under the loom about the man's legs ; but, with that draw- 
 back, this is one of the cleverest little etchings in the volume. 
 
 HOOK. Gathering Eggs from the Cliff. I believe that 
 etching can go no farther than this in the imitation of the 
 effects produced in modern painting. This plate so entirely 
 expresses Mr. Hook's manner on canvas that it is not an 
 exaggeration to say that we may see in it the rich copal 
 glazes and the skilful dry touching, of which, as a painter, he 
 is such an accomplished master. This is less an etching than 
 a translation of oil colour ; but, in its own way, it is skilful 
 beyond praise. The scene is the front of a rocky cliff and a 
 wide expanse of sea with a high horizon. One boy is letting 
 down another by a rope from a ledge of rock, and a sea-gull 
 is flying within a yard or two of the robber. Other sea-gulls 
 are flying over the sea, and there is a line of white cloud on 
 the horiron. The local colour is everywhere so full that even 
 the grey on the near gull's back is carefully rendered, and 
 scarcely a touch of pure white is admitted anywhere except
 
 344 COPE, HORSLEY, HOOK. 
 
 in the distant clouds, and in the foam that breaks amongst 
 the rocks. Both cliff and sea are, I will not say etched, but 
 painted with all the artist's habitual wealth of colour, and it 
 needs but little imagination to supply the very hues themselves. 
 The Fisherman's Good-night. A fisherman is parting from 
 his wife and child, who are sitting on a high sea-wall to which 
 a strong ladder is bound firmly. The man is just descending 
 the ladder, and his right leg is straight whilst his left knee 
 rests upon the wall. The conception of this etching is almost 
 as painter-like as that of the one just criticised, but it is not 
 so successful in execution because there are obvious failures 
 in tonality. The two legs are one undistinguishable blot ; 
 and the side of the ladder, the man's waistcoat, and the clift 
 behind him, are all as nearly as possible of one tone. It is 
 quite curious how certain modern English etchers dread the 
 frankness of a clear line. If Rembrandt had had to etch that 
 ladder and that pair of trousers, he would have shaded them 
 with honest open strokes, presenting, it is true, no appearance 
 of paint, but far more explanatory of the thing. And even 
 when a great etcher is not very explanatory as will some- 
 times happen when the nature of material is half lost in un- 
 distinguishable shade he will throw his lines across it with- 
 out trying to soften them into the semblance of water-colour 
 washes. In this fisherman and ladder ten strokes are given 
 where two were necessary, and after all the subject is so little 
 explained that you cannot distinguish one leg from the other.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 C RES WICK, REDGRAVE, RIDLEY. 
 
 /^RESWICK etched very prettily, but his work was very 
 distantly related to the greater art which has sometimes 
 occupied our thoughts. Creswick's workmanship was delicate 
 and refined in the extreme, and his oppositions of tone were 
 usually just, but he had no independent and original interpre- 
 tation. The craft that he had learned, and he had learned it, 
 was taught him by the engravers, not perhaps in direct 
 personal counsel, but by an influence fully received, whether 
 consciously or unconsciously. If he had a bit of pasture- 
 ground to etch, or a piece of foliage, you are sure to find the 
 very touches with which professional engravers are accustomed 
 to do these things. Some of Creswick's vignettes are good 
 enough as engraver's work to be inserted in very carefully 
 illustrated books ; one or two of them might be published in 
 Rogers without giving any unpleasant shock to eyes just 
 fresh from the marvellous handicraft of Goodall. Considered 
 in this independent way, without reference to the art of etch- 
 ing as it was understood by Rembrandt and the great etchers, 
 the work of Creswick is of remarkable excellence ; but here, 
 as in so many other cases, we have to make the reservation, 
 that, however pretty and delicate it may be, this is not the 
 kind of work which an etcher ought to aim at or care for. It 
 is so very pretty, that, if issued separately from the work 
 of other men, it is probable that it would even be popular ; 
 but its popularity would do no good to the work of stronger 
 etchers. The fact is, that etching of this kind is already quite
 
 346 CRESWICK, REDGRAVE, RIDLEY. 
 
 popular enough there is much of it in modern landscape- 
 engraving ; and although the public rebels against powerful 
 etching, it accepts this without any audible complaint ; nay, 
 it does not even know that such work is etching at all, so 
 pleasant is it to look upon, but rather inclines to the belief 
 that it is graven work, the doing of which is a mystery. 
 
 Mr. Redgrave, the now veteran painter and writer upon 
 art, has also been a contributor to the publications of the Etch- 
 ing Club. The temper of his work is always studious and 
 sincere, and, besides these qualities, it has a certain tender- 
 ness of sentiment, but, from the technical point of view, it has 
 been injured by a striving after finish, which was due, in part, 
 to the habit of working on a small scale. In 1867 Mr. Red- 
 grave exhibited a plate at the Royal Academy which proved 
 that his earlier habits of almost painfully minute execution 
 were by no means inveterate. That plate was somewhat too 
 violent in oppositions, but it had the true spirit of etching, and 
 was not spoiled, as some of the earlier ones were, by too 
 much labour and too little selection. 
 
 Mr. Ridley is a rising and well-educated painter, born in 
 1837, who has etched a few plates, chiefly of shipping on 
 tidal rivers. He is a very genuine etcher, apparently of the 
 school of Whistler, but in those plates of his which have been 
 published up to the present time I do not see much evidence 
 of veiy keen or subtle observation, whilst they certainly (being 
 merely studies) exhibit no power of composition. His name 
 is mentioned here not as that of an etcher who has already 
 produced important works, but as an example of soundness 
 in study. There can be little doubt that if the art were 
 encouraged amongst us Mr. Ridley would soon become one 
 of its leaders. So far as he has hitherto gone he is on the 
 right track, but in his praiseworthy rebellion against the faults 
 of the superfine school he is temporarily primitive in method, 
 and seems at present to have little conception of the different
 
 CRESWICK, REDGRAVE, RIDLEY. 347 
 
 sources of power which are open to the aquafortist, or to deny 
 himself their advantages. 
 
 CRESWICK. A Roughish Road by the Loch-side. On the 
 rough bridle-roads which skirt those shores of the Highland 
 lochs which are little frequented by tourists, there are in- 
 numerable subjects far more beautiful and interesting than 
 this. It is always, however, a delightful moment when we 
 come at last, on horseback or on foot, to any place where the 
 road is within six feet of the water, and it is a point of 
 sympathy between Mr. Creswick and his present critic, that 
 the artist has felt the charm of getting down to the very lake 
 itself, even at a spot where the scenery is simple and common- 
 place. Creswick was seldom a powerful landscape-painter, 
 but he was always charming, and this little group of trees and 
 low irregular wall and little glimpse of smooth water have a 
 certain sweetness of their own. 
 
 The Deserted Village (plate 2). A watermill with a church- 
 tower to the left. In small vignettes of this kind the object 
 is usually an excessive delicacy of treatment which may 
 easily pass into effeminacy. The foliage here is very graceful 
 and light, but it is not masculine work. 
 
 The Deserted Village (plate 19). A broad river with a 
 bridge across it and castle on an eminence to the left, which 
 is connected by the bridge with a town on the other shore. 
 This river flows into a vast dark lake which is interrupted 
 only by the towers of the castle. Beyond the lake rises an 
 alp of immense altitude girdled by a rain-storm, above which 
 its snows rise in the serene air. This is one of the most 
 perfect and delicate little vignettes of Creswick, and as a piece 
 of engraving will bear a comparison with much professional 
 work. 
 
 The Deserted Village (plate 34). The central vignette on 
 this plate. The subject is a rustic bridge over a small river 
 in which some cows are standing ; beyond the bridge is a
 
 348 CRESWICK, REDGRAVE, RIDLEY. 
 
 clump of magnificent elms, and there is a church-tower in the 
 remote distance. The sweetness and beauty of this little 
 composition will be appreciated, I suppose, by every one. 
 The workmanship is very perfect of its kind, and, after the 
 reserves which have been made above, may be praised very 
 heartily. 
 
 REDGRAVE. Barbara. A vignette in the "Songs of 
 Shakespeare," which may be taken as representative of what 
 were the tendencies prevailing in the English school at the 
 time of its production. The plate is finished like a miniature, 
 and quite in the spirit of miniature-painting. Barbara is sitting 
 by the stream, according to the song, and her figure is 
 surrounded by a sort of framework of trees and plants, every 
 leaf of which is a separate and careful study, but there is less 
 careful attention to masses. This etching required the most 
 delicate printing, and could only be perfectly seen in the 
 early impressions on India paper printed for the Etching Club. 
 
 Corpse discovered in a Wood. The body, probably of a 
 murdered man, is found lying on its back in a little hollow 
 by a gentleman walking that way. This is one of the best of 
 Redgrave's very laborious plates. He would have painted 
 the same subject still better. 
 
 Silver Thames. Exhibited in the Academy, 1867. A 
 view on the Thames, very expressive of the character of its 
 scenery. Alternate gleams and cloud shadows give variety 
 to the lighting. The oppositions between the shaded and 
 the lighted trees, though by no means too strong for a state- 
 ment of that isolated natural fact, are, nevertheless, too strong 
 relatively to other things in the plate. For example, the 
 shaded side of the punt, though quite black, is not and cannot 
 be black enough relatively to the black distance, and the 
 reflection of the trees in the water is even lighter than the 
 trees reflected. The clouds are boldly put in, but are some- 
 what heavy and wanting in form. On the whole, however,
 
 CRESWICK, REDGRAVE, RIDLEY. 349 
 
 the plate is really an etching, though not yet of first-rate 
 quality, and real etchings are rare. 
 
 RIDLEY. North Dock. Artists are always teaching us to 
 see something in what we believed to be without interest. 
 Here is a chimney with a little building near it as ugly as 
 any in Lancashire, and yet it must be good material, for it 
 seems right in its place. The masts of the shipping, though 
 rudely sketched, give the effect of intricacy. There is not 
 much composition in the plate, but the manual work is simple 
 and free. 
 
 Draham Harbour* Rather better than the preceding. A 
 true etching in a simple manner ; the etched line is relied 
 upon everywhere. 
 
 Durham* The scenery of the river shore here is quite 
 remarkable for its ugliness, but the etching is on the whole a 
 good one, in spite of foul chimneys. Mr. Ridley's honest 
 objection to anything but the plain line sometimes leads him 
 to an unnecessary asceticism. The water and sky are here 
 exactly of the same vacant white, whereas the water would 
 have benefited greatly by a little delicate tinting in dry-point. 
 A reflection is always darker than the thing reflected, except 
 when there is a thin stratum of mist on the water-surface. 
 
 * These two titles "Draham Harbour" and "Durham" are given because 
 they are engraved under the etchings, but a correspondent in the north drew my 
 attention to their evident geographical inaccuracy. " Draham " probably means 
 Seaham ; as for Durham, it is not yet a seaport, whatever future engineers may do 
 for it Let me remind my correspondent, however, that a critic can only call 
 works of art by the names they bear, whether correctly or erroneously bestowed 
 upon them.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TAYLER, ANSDELL, KNIGHT. 
 
 T7REDERICK TAYLER carried the English manner as 
 far as any of his contemporaries. There is especially 
 one etching of his, in the " Songs of Shakespeare," which has 
 not, in that kind of work, been surpassed. But Frederick 
 Tayler had too distinct manners as an etcher : the highly 
 finished modern way, depending greatly on creve*s,* of vari- 
 ous depth, and on dry-point v/hose bur is removed ; and a 
 much simpler manner in which the qualities of highly-finished 
 etching were not aimed at. An example of each is criticised 
 below. I should say, judging from Mr. Tayler's skilful ?nd 
 rapid manner in water-colour sketching, and from the ability 
 displayed in the few etchings of his which have been pub- 
 lished, that he had all the natural gifts of a first-rate etcher, 
 and nearly all the knowledge, nothing having been wanting to 
 the full development of his powers in that direction but their 
 culture on a larger scale in works issued independently. 
 
 Ansdell is a very accomplished artist, and when he does 
 not think about etching at all, but simply sketches as he 
 would with a finely-pointed pen, he does work of a certain 
 value which value depends on his knowledge of animals, and 
 not on his knowledge of etching, in which he does not appear 
 to be especially interested. I should place a considerable 
 
 * To save the reader the trouble of referring to the book on Processes, I may 
 say here that the crevf (I know no English equivalent for the word) is a hatching, 
 so close that the separations of the lines crevent (give way, die, disappear) in the 
 biting. Creves are of various depth, according to the length of the biting.
 
 TAYLER, ANSDELL, KNIGHT. 351 
 
 value on some of his .simplest etchings, which are the best, 
 but they have little technical quality or power. 
 
 Mr. Knight has not been so industrious a contributor to 
 the works of the Etching Club as some other members. The 
 peculiarities of his manner are sufficiently indicated below, in 
 the criticisms of two of his plates. 
 
 FREDERICK TAYLER. The Forester's Song. From 
 beginning to end, this work proves an entire mastery of the 
 modern English system. The use of close hatching, by which 
 tints of various depths are acquired at the sacrifice of line, 
 has never been carried farther ; and if the reader cares to 
 study a good representative specimen of what English painters 
 understand by etching, I could not suggest a better. 
 Although on a small scale the drawing is so clever that all 
 action and expression is preserved in the hands and features 
 of the huntsmen. It is only, however, in fine early impressions 
 that the reader can judge of the technical qualities of this 
 plate. In later ones the black velvets show blotches, partly, 
 perhaps, from defective printing. 
 
 A Days Hunting in the Fens (in Mr. Cundall's series). 
 A gentleman out hunting is dragging his horse out of a dyke. 
 This etching has none of the executive finish of the preceding 
 one, and belongs to a different class. It is scarcely superior 
 in quality to much modern drawing on wood, nor is there any 
 work in it which would entirely defeat a first-rate modern 
 wood-engraver. The work in this plate is throughout sound, 
 frank, and honest in its own kind. 
 
 ANSDELL. The Sentinel. This magnificent study of a 
 stag will be found in the etchings published for the Art 
 Union of London. Considered specially as etching, it may 
 rank with such German work as that of Gauermann, but the 
 draughtsmanship is so intelligent as to surpass even the best 
 designs of Gauermann ; and I suppose no one could have
 
 352 TAYLER, ANSDELL, KNIGHT. 
 
 drawn such a stag better. In this kind of etching there is not 
 much technical superiority, because the technical difficulties 
 of the art are scarcely contended against ; but if we consider 
 the work simply as a drawing, we must admit that it is very 
 highly accomplished. The vivacity and precision in the stag's 
 eye and ears and nostril, and the true setting of the noble 
 head, prove thorough knowledge of the animal. However 
 this may fall short of great etching, there is no technical 
 failure, and the plate shows none of those painful signs of 
 mistaken and wasted labour so frequent in modern work. 
 
 Fellow-commoners. Donkeys and sheep on a common. 
 This is the eighteenth plate in those published for the Art 
 Union of London. The drawing of the asses and sheep is 
 not quite so brilliant as that of the stag just criticised, with 
 the exception, perhaps, of the foal which is lying down. As 
 in the previous subject, the artist has not attempted full 
 tonality, and the landscape is exceedingly slight. 
 
 KNIGHT. The Peasant and the Forest. One of the plates 
 in a volume called Etched Thoughts, published in 1844. It 
 may be noticed as a special variety of mistaken work. The 
 touches are innumerable, but they explain nothing ; the 
 labour has been unsparing, but it has led to nothing. The 
 man's gaiter, the bark of the tree and its section, are all exe- 
 cuted in the same manner ; there has been no selection, and 
 the consequence is confusion. 
 
 Drinking Song. This etching was published in the " Songs 
 of Shakespeare." It is interesting to me as a sort of forerunner 
 of Unger's work, which looks almost as if it were based upon 
 it. See the study of Unger in the chapter on etching from 
 pictures. 
 
 In this composition, which keeps well together, the artist 
 commemorates the old convivial custom of clinking glasses, 
 now fallen into disuse in England, though still kept up on the 
 Continent
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE. 
 
 TV/TR. CHATTOCK'S earlier studies in etching were very 
 matter-of-fact and almost photographic transcripts of 
 simple nature, but as he persevered his work gradually became 
 less prosaic and more imbued with the sentiment of an 
 artist. He is now one of the best etchers of landscape in 
 England. A specimen of his earlier manner may be found in 
 the Portfolio for May 1871, and if the reader will compare 
 that plate (" Bridge on the River Blythe ") with any recent 
 etching by the same artist, he will at once perceive in what 
 various gains of facility and force true progress in art consists. 
 The plate just mentioned is very truthful and honest work, 
 but the critical spectator perceives, at the first glance, that 
 the etcher has not yet begun to feel the power of the etching- 
 point, that he is trying timidly and carefully, and rather with 
 the seeking of the student than the decided volition of the 
 accomplished artist. A plate published in the Portfolio for 
 September 1873, which is criticised below, showed a surprising 
 increase of power both in the use of line and in light and 
 shade, but the etcher was still evidently rather overwhelmed 
 by his own hard sense of fact, so that there was a superfluity 
 of literal truth. Since then Mr. Chattock has published a 
 series of illustrations of Eton College and its neighbourhood, 
 which retain all that is needed of the substantial qualities 
 gained by his painstaking early literalism, but exhibit a much 
 more comprehensive sense of natural beauty and a finer feeling 
 for art. The ability displayed in this little series of etchings 
 
 2 A
 
 354 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE. 
 
 led me to think that Mr. Chattock would succeed in etching 
 from pictures, so he undertook for the Portfolio one of the 
 noblest landscapes by Gainsborough in the National Gallery. 
 The picture, in all its great qualities, was strongly opposed to 
 Mr. Chattock's earliest manner, yet such had been his advance 
 in art that he thoroughly shared its grand and solemn spirit, 
 and rendered it with so much skill that it is difficult to 
 imagine how it could have been rendered better. 
 
 Mr. George is an architect who having been accustomed 
 to make sketches during tours undertaken for study, conceived 
 the idea that he might make etchings from some of them and 
 publish them together in a volume. He has published two 
 such volumes up to the present date, the first entitled " Etch- 
 ings on the Mosel," the second, " Etchings on the Loire." 
 Each contains twenty plates, remarkably equal in quality, 
 and preserving so much of the freshness of a first impression 
 that if we did not know they had been done through the 
 medium of studies we should at once infer that all of them had 
 been etched from nature on the spot. On the whole, the second 
 series is better and more interesting than the first, good and 
 interesting as that was. Nothing can be more honest and 
 genuine than the work in all these plates ; there is no attempt, 
 in any of them, to pass off the result of accident as the result 
 of art, everything clearly is what the artist intended it to be ; 
 and this absence of affectation is carried so far that, although 
 some little bits of drawing here and there may appear ama- 
 teurish or even puerile, the artist has the courage to leave 
 them and expose himself to some degree of misunderstanding 
 rather than spoil the freshness of his plates by correction. 
 The principle on which they are executed is simplicity itself. 
 The serenity of the sky is always represented by white paper, 
 the imagination of the spectator being left to supply whatevei 
 gradation may be necessary. Clouds are lightly indicated 
 with a few lines, pale in tint and free in execution. Distances 
 are lightly sketched, but more shaded than clouds, foregrounds
 
 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE. 355 
 
 are often powerfully bitten, and between foreground and 
 distance there is an intermediate region where both deep and 
 shallow lines are used together, or one over the other, as 
 required. The only fault that can reasonably be found with 
 Mr. Qeorge's execution is rather too much scribbling here and 
 there, especially in foregrounds. However, many of the plates 
 are free from any objectionable scribble, and those in which 
 it occurs are still delightful in spite of it. 
 
 R. S. CHATTOCK. " When Rosy Plumelets tuft the Larch." 
 A plate published in the Portfolio for September 1873. 
 The subject looks as if it had been found just as it is, in some 
 commonplace part of English country. We are on the borders 
 of a wood, but it is merely a wood, without any of the 
 grandeur of a forest, and a rail-fence goes across the whole 
 subject. To the right is a bit of open field with sheep. 
 Between the trees is a small bridge of a single arch, but there 
 is no distance except this, which is not remote. Winter has 
 not yet given place to spring, the branches being without 
 leaves, but the " plumelets " of the larch are visible. 
 
 The plate is very effective as a strong piece of realistic 
 study, full of a very decided kind of truth. The work, how- 
 ever, is rude and northern in temper, giving you perfectly the 
 sensation of nature and bringing you within the very odour 
 of the larch-branches, yet not conveying any impression of 
 artistic beauty. You are simply by the wood-side, amidst 
 trunks that a wood-cutter might estimate quite accurately, and 
 there is nothing in this vigorous northern naturalism to remind 
 you of artistic sentiments and traditions. 
 
 Boveney Lock (" Sketches of Eton"). The difference be- 
 tween this plate and the preceding one is not great in truth 
 to nature, for both are as true as they need be, but here we 
 have more decided artistic power. The clump of trees in the 
 middle near the lock-house is in fine broad light and shade, 
 making a noble mass, whilst its depth of local colour is fully
 
 356 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE. 
 
 preserved. The flat land on each side of the river is skilfully 
 though slightly treated, and so is the distance, but nothing in 
 this plate proves the artistic power of the etcher so much as 
 the perfectly judicious management of the sky and the water. 
 It is a bright but cloudy day, rather showery, with glimpses 
 of blue sky, and the artist has conveyed the impression of all 
 this as completely by free point-sketching, not very deeply 
 bitten, as he could have done by the most patient engraving. 
 The water is quite a model for the wise use of line for ripple, 
 and of thin dry-point tinting between the bitten lines for 
 reflections. 
 
 Monkey Island. ("Sketches of Eton.") A particularly 
 clever piece of lowland landscape with water and poplars. 
 The reflections in the running water are simply and powerfully 
 drawn. In this plate Mr. Chattock uses to great advantage a 
 technical resource which is very familiar to him, that of em- 
 ploying thick lines and thin ones in the same place to get 
 transparency, the thin ones acting very like a glaze in 
 painting. 
 
 The College from the River. (Sketches of Eton.) One of 
 the richest and most brilliant etchings in the series. The 
 college buildings look exceedingly grand, with all their turrets 
 and battlements, and the manner in which the rippling river 
 just recognises them all in broken reflection is quite a lesson 
 for a student of landscape. The lighting is unusual, for the 
 front of the building is all in shade, and the sunshine only 
 catches the roof, and the low trees, and the grass between the 
 college and the river, but the effect is excellent, and all the 
 better in this instance that it enhances the impression (which 
 is the true one) of a grey, old building, darkened with the 
 gloom of centuries, situated in the midst of the ever-renewed 
 freshness of nature. 
 
 ERNEST GEORGE. Trier, the Market Place, Fountain, 
 and Rothes-Haus. I will leave Mr. George himself to describe
 
 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE. 357 
 
 the subjects of his plates, and then add a few sentences of 
 criticism. After speaking of the decline of Trier he con- 
 tinues 
 
 " There is, however, life and activity in the large market- 
 place, from which our sketch is taken. A handsome Renais- 
 sance fountain forms the foreground. As we saw it at harvest 
 time the figure surmounting it had in its arms a sheaf of 
 newly-reaped wheat which shone golden against a blue sky. 
 Market women were busy around it with their large baskets 
 of blooming fruit. Fantastic gables and high roofs enclose the 
 lively scene. Foremost of these old buildings is the Rothes 
 Haus in our picture with its steep slate roof and its carved 
 gables down the street. It is built of the red iron-stone on 
 which the city stands. It was once the Ratshaus, but is now 
 the comfortable hotel at which we stayed." 
 
 The two principal things in the etching are the house 
 just mentioned, and the fountain. In the foreground are 
 market-women with their baskets of produce. The fountain 
 is skilfully drawn, but rather over-bitten in the blacks, the 
 market-women, baskets, etc., are just of the quality we find in 
 the old woodcuts of such subjects in the Penny Magazine 
 no better, no worse, but the drawing and shading of the old 
 Ratshaus are to my taste very refined and delightful. The 
 building is all veiled in a delicate semi-transparent half-tint, 
 the light slanting down across it and catching the battlements 
 beautifully. 
 
 Schloss Elz. View of the Castle approached from Garden. 
 "Winding down a richly- wooded valley, we have all at once 
 before us the marvellous group shown in our sketch. Schloss 
 Elz is rising out of the lofty rock, round which the stream of 
 the Elz makes almost a circuit. Here is the most delightful 
 cluster of towers, turrets, and gables, dormer windows and 
 bartizans, making a broken outline against the sky." 
 
 Schloss Elz looks so much like the fancy of some artist- 
 poet that one has a difficulty in believing it to be real Mr.
 
 358 CHA TTOCK AND GE OR G&. 
 
 George has drawn all the upper part of the castle admirably 
 well, having evidently enjoyed the roofs and turrets as they 
 deserved, but he has not fairly drawn the rock on which the 
 castle stands, nor the bushes on the rock. Stronger* work 
 here would have benefited the plate considerably. 
 
 Angers. Hotel de Pinc'e, "We show in our etching a 
 white stone palace of the Renaissance period. This pic- 
 turesque chateau has been miscalled the H6tel des Dues 
 d'Anjou, but there is no evidence that those magnates ever 
 crossed its threshold. It is a princely dwelling, and was 
 erected by Pierre de Pined, one of a family in high favour at 
 the court of Francis I. The house is a characteristic example 
 of the buildings of a time when a broken and Gothic outline 
 was preserved after the introduction of pilasters, cornices, and 
 classic mouldings. The circular projections corbelled out 
 from the wall are favourite features in the work of this period, 
 and turret-stairs, as well as oriel windows and balconies, were 
 made to serve the architect in his scheme of light and shade." 
 
 This is a very beautiful example of the best qualities in 
 Mr. George's system of etching. Instead of the black opaque 
 blotches of printing-ink which do duty for shadows in vulgar 
 work, the shadows here are pale and luminous with reflection, 
 and rich in interesting detail, as they were probably in the palace 
 itself. Another thing which pleases me very much in this kind 
 of drawing is the reliance which the artist so wisely places on 
 very slight markings and distinctions. The outlines of the 
 palace against the sky are, on the lighted side, so faint and thin 
 as to be barely visible, yet the slightest unnecessary heaviness 
 in these lines would have gone far to destroy that aspect of 
 aerial elegance which lifts the building so much above the level 
 of prosaic architecture. Yet although there is much delicacy 
 in this drawing there is no weakness. All construction is 
 thoroughly understood and fully explained. Every important 
 
 * I do not mean blacker work, but drawing with more meaning, drawing 
 representing substance more decidedly.
 
 CHATTOCK AND GEORGE. 359 
 
 detail of pilaster, cornice, and moulding, every changing direc- 
 tion of wall-surface is made quite clearly intelligible although 
 it may not be drawn with the minuteness of the photograph. 
 
 Amboise, the Chdteau and Bridge. " Amboise, one of the 
 most quaint and charming spots of France, and a favoured 
 haunt of her kings, rises on a rock left of the Loire. It is 
 approached from the north by two massive bridges, whose 
 many arches span the shallow waters of the Loire, and of its 
 tributary the Amasse, which joins it here. High roofs still 
 cluster beneath the castle, though many old houses were 
 cleared away by Louis Philippe. At the angles of the rock 
 are huge round towers, most of them now roofless. 
 
 One of the best instances amongst these etchings of a 
 pleasant and mellow general effect The bridge is in deep 
 shadow, the light only just catching the parapet and tops of 
 the cut-water piers. The castle-eminence to the left, with 
 the trees above it and houses below, is also massed in shade, 
 but the chateau itself and the houses on the river-shore to the 
 right are in full sunshine and beautifully lighted. All this 
 fine material is treated quite in the temper of the true etchers. 
 No single piece of detail is more than sketched, and if you 
 take any separate thing, such as one window, one chimney, 
 one little figure by the shore, it will seem to you but slight 
 and careless work if you have not rather large conceptions of 
 art, but all these details are subordinate to the general 
 arrangement of the subject, which holds together with a per- 
 fection of unity very rare in modern etchings of such material. 
 In fact there is as much unity in this plate, and as mellow a 
 feeling for all that constitutes breadth and repose in art, as 
 there could be in a picture by some tranquil-minded painter 
 in love with the calm beauty of this royal dwelling by the 
 Loire, and forgetful of that dreadful day when from that 
 castle balcony the young Mary Stuart saw its waters laden 
 with more than a thousand Protestant corpses just freshly 
 slain before her beautiful eyes.

 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING 
 
 AND 
 
 COPYING IN FACSIMILE.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 FLAMENG, LAGUILLERMIE, RAJON, WALTNER, BRUNET- 
 DEBAINES, GAUCHEREL, MONGIN, WISE, LE RAT. 
 JACQUEMART, UNGER. 
 
 '"PHE recent history of etching offers this remarkable sub- 
 ject of reflection, that the art is now mainly employed 
 for a purpose not generally foreseen at its revival, and quite 
 outside of its earliest uses in the hands of the greatest old 
 masters. They used it because it was the most convenient 
 means for multiplying the precise expression of their own 
 ideas, and when the art was revived by painters in the nine- 
 teenth century, it was with the same intention. It is not 
 very many years since Flameng was the only engraver in 
 Europe who studied etching with a perfect faith in its power 
 to interpret pictures, and even he had given sufficient labour 
 to the burin to use it like a master. The example of the 
 greatest etchers of the past, so far from encouraging the idea 
 of interpreting pictures, tended always in the direction of 
 original work. Rembrandt, it is believed, never once etched 
 from a picture ; his plates are as much the independent out- 
 come of his genius as his works in oil, and each plate stands 
 by itself, whether slight or elaborate, as the sufficient and 
 unique expression of one thought of the master. An artist 
 gifted with any fecundity of invention has rarely the patience 
 to execute his works twice over, first in oil and afterwards on 
 copper, and it is only the professional engraver who can find
 
 364 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 in the interpretation of works by other men an interest and 
 stimulus sufficient to sustain him through such labour for 
 many years. When painters etched it was seldom from their 
 own pictures, still less from pictures by other artists. If they 
 thought it desirable to preserve some memorial of the works 
 which left their easels, a slight sketch on paper, with a wash 
 of shade, was enough to recall the picture to the memory, and 
 ensure, as in Claude's Liber Veritatis, its identification by 
 future purchasers. The time required to etch a picture satis- 
 factorily would in itself have been a decisive objection, but 
 besides this there was not until quite recently any great 
 accumulation of general experience about the best methods of 
 interpreting brush-work with the etching-needle, so that there 
 was hardly anybody in Europe who quite knew how it ought 
 to be done. If, th?n, it had occurred to a painter to keep a 
 record in etching cV: the pictures which he produced, he would 
 probably have confined himself to a simple memorandum in 
 line, done on the principles of a pen-sketch, without any 
 attempt to imitate handling and texture. Such a memor- 
 andum would have had its use, but could not, in the nature 
 of things, have conveyed to others anything like a perfect 
 conception of a picture which they had never seen. 
 
 The modern art of etching from pictures intends to go 
 very much farther than this, and does indeed, in skilful hands, 
 succeed to a degree which may well surprise a critic who is 
 thoroughly acquainted with the difficulties of the process. 
 The facility with which the etching-needle is handled in com- 
 parison with the difficulty of the burin, and the fact that it 
 is held in the fingers exactly as a brush is held, instead of 
 being pushed like the burin, are indeed greatly in the etcher's 
 favour, but the difficulty of getting accurate light-and-shade 
 by the use of acid is as much against him. In etching of a 
 simpler kind, when the lines are very decided and well sepa- 
 rated, partial failures in biting are not fatal to the quality of 
 the work, for the quality in line-etching depends upon the
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 365 
 
 amount of knowledge and feeling which is put into the Hne, 
 and even when the line is bitten too much or too little, the 
 knowledge and feeling originally put into it are still quite 
 clearly visible. But in shading, which is nothing but shading, 
 the case is altogether different. Here, if the tone is wrong 
 everything is wrong, and the tone depends almost entirely 
 upon the biting. 
 
 The general result of modern etching from pictures has 
 been this. Some wonderful things have been done, and 
 much that has been done is very satisfactory to painters, who 
 are unquestionably the best judges of a matter of this kind. 
 On the other hand a great deal of really bad a. id v?Je work 
 from pictures has been published, and is yet published in 
 steadily increasing quantity, work for which no true critic 
 either of etching or of painting would consent to be held 
 responsible. Etching from pictures has in "fact become a 
 regular business, and many artists have taken to . f . as a 
 resource when painting or engraving with the burin did not 
 bring a sufficient income. It is almost impossible to earn an 
 income by original work in etching, even for the most gifted 
 geniuses, but there is always a demand for the reproduction 
 of pictures in various forms, and it so happens that publishers 
 and their customers have perceived that etching can do this 
 with effect. The etcher has indeed many advantages on his 
 side when he interprets certain kinds of pictures. His range 
 of light and dark is as wide as it can be ; he can follow the 
 oil painter down into his lowest tones, even to the obscure 
 depths of gloom in the darkest old masters, and he can at 
 the same time fully suggest the brilliance of the fairest com- 
 plexion or the lightest costume. Persons who have never 
 studied the subject are very apt to imagine that the scale of 
 the different kinds of graphic art is much the same in all 
 cases, since they all have black for their lowest note, and 
 white for their highest, but this conception is very imperfect 
 and inaccurate. Compare etching, for example, with any one
 
 366 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 of the numerous photographic facsimile processes which are 
 made to print typographically along with printed text, the 
 blackest black which can be got by this surface printing is 
 grey in comparison with the depth of the etcher's blacks, and 
 at the same time the thinnest line in the photographic fac- 
 simile is thick and heavy in comparison with the faint lines 
 which an etcher can draw with the sharpened needle or dia- 
 mond point, so that he has the advantage at both ends of the 
 scale. Besides this, as we have already observed, a skilful 
 etcher has a great range of different textures at command, so 
 that he can follow the painter pretty closely in the suggestion 
 of surface quality, much more closely than the burin couid 
 possibly follow him. The needle is not a brush, and yet the 
 more visible the brush-work is the more easily the etcher can 
 explain to us how the painter used his instrument, for he 
 enjoys just as much liberty as the painter himself, and where- 
 ever a hog's bristle has left a marking he can imitate it. The 
 same facility with the point, and the fineness with which it 
 can be used in drawing, make it an excellent instrument for 
 the rendering of expression. Its superiority in this respect is 
 so marked, that some of the most eminent etchers from pic- 
 tures, when left free to choose their subjects, have willingly 
 interpreted painters who, like Franz Hals, made expression 
 an especial study. 
 
 In estimating work done from pictures, the reader is re- 
 quested to keep constantly present in his mind two principles 
 which are independent of each other, or nearly so, and which 
 when reduced to practice are found to be complementary of 
 each other, the principle of imitation and the principle of 
 interpretation. In working from nature the imitative prin- 
 ciple is a very dangerous one to admit without the most 
 jealous control, for when allowed to reign unopposed, it utterly 
 paralyses all the higher artistic faculties, but in working from 
 pictures the case is altered, and the etcher should imitate as 
 much as he safely can, even to the very touches if possible.
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 367 
 
 The reason for this difference is obvious. In working directly 
 from nature the model is simple nature without the interven- 
 tion of any human feeling, and if the artist were simply to 
 imitate in his studies, there would be no human feeling in 
 them whatever ; but when we have a picture before us the feel 
 ing of the painter has already fully provided that human ele- 
 ment which is essential to a work of art, and there is little 
 necessity to superadd a second human element from the 
 mind of the engraver. Whenever, therefore, the engraver can 
 accurately imitate the original painting, it is right for him to 
 do so, but there are times when such imitation is not possible. 
 There is much in painting which can never be imitated in 
 etching, but whenever the copyist perceives that he has to 
 confront one of these difficulties, he has always the resource 
 of interpretation which, far from making his work less admir- 
 able, is likely, if well done, to give it a higher and more inde- 
 pendent interest. The two things may embarrass a young 
 student, but every experienced artist or really cultivated 
 critic will at once perceive the clear distinction between them. 
 The best etchers from pictures imitate and interpret by turns, 
 just as it seems best to them, and are equally at home in 
 both. Rajon, for example, will imitate the black velvet of a 
 burgher's doublet in some old Flemish picture, till the imita- 
 tion has almost precisely the quality of the original painting ; 
 but when he comes to Turner's Temeraire he resorts boldly 
 to the most frank interpretation, and suggests to our imagina- 
 tion the subtle tones which he cannot set before our eyes. 
 Armed with these dual powers, there is nothing in painted art 
 which the etcher may not justifiably attempt. 
 
 Since etchers who work from pictures endeavour to ac- 
 commodate themselves as much as possible to the manner 
 and feeling of the painter, it follows that their own personal 
 style is often merged and lost in that of the picture before 
 them, so that it is not easy to define the qualities of an etcher 
 from pictures, as we have been defining those of the original
 
 3 68 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 etchers hitherto considered in this volume. The reader will 
 at once perceive the difficulty ; I for my part have felt it so 
 much that I find it impossible to say much of these etchers 
 personally without attributing to. one of them, as a distinction, 
 qualities which others have in an equal degree. For example, 
 as an original etcher of still-life, Jules Jacquemart acquired a 
 power so peculiar to himself that his plates were recognisable 
 at the first glance, like some original and familiar signature, 
 but since he has begun to work from pictures, many plates 
 have appeared by him, which, if his name were not attached 
 to them, might easily be attributed to another artist, even by 
 an accomplished critic, well acquainted with Jacquemart.'s 
 manner. There are plates by Flameng, Rajon, Waltner, and 
 others, which it would be just as difficult to recognise as their 
 handiwork. It is not easy, nor would it be right, for an etcher 
 to supersede, by a mannerism of his own, the mannerisms of 
 the different painters he interprets, but there is another reason 
 which has of late years caused a very definite loss of person- 
 ality in the etchers who copy pictures. A certain body of 
 general executive experience has formed itself, and is now a 
 common stock belonging equally to all who have thoroughly 
 mastered the art. The younger men try to acquire this as 
 quickly as they can, and the cleverest of them succeed in doing 
 so very rapidly. They usually come to the art with the ex- 
 perience of a student who has gone through the regular con- 
 tinental education in painting, so that they know a good deal 
 about the qualities of painting, and a moderate degree of 
 application suffices to make them perceive the value of the 
 common methods of interpretation or imitation with the 
 etching-needle, which they at once adopt. A young man so 
 prepared by previous general education in drawing and paint- 
 ing may soon become a clever etcher from pictures if he has 
 good abilities, and if he has fine taste and sensitive feeling, 
 with a naturally delicate hand, he may do really admirable 
 work in a few years. But this rapidity of progress in our
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 369 
 
 younger contemporaries, is due especially to the fact that the 
 way has been made plainer for them by the pioneers, especially 
 by Flameng. What occurred in the earlier part of this century 
 in landscape engraving has now occurred in etching, especially 
 in figure-etching from Dutch pictures a definitively best way 
 of doing things has been discovered and is already traditional. 
 We need not value the art less for this. An art may 
 render useful service which is not the outcome of personal, 
 individual genius. The engravers who interpreted Turner, and 
 interpreted him on the whole so astonishingly well, were a 
 school which had its methods in common. Take the volume 
 of the "Rivers of France" and try to guess who engraved 
 each plate, without looking at the engraver's name in the 
 corner. Those plates were done by twelve different engravers ; 
 can you recognise them by their work ? No, you cannot ; the 
 book is so homogeneous that it looks as if the designs had 
 been all engraved by one person. Exactly the same methods 
 of interpretation are employed throughout. And yet w r hat 
 consummate skill ! what admirable precision in dealing with 
 the most subtle distinctions of tone in those skies and water- 
 surfaces of Turner ! Here is a kind of engraving which, without 
 being personal, since twelve men could do it, is still most use- 
 ful and valuable, for it has rendered with exquisite delicacy 
 the work of a great genius, and multiplied it by thousands. 
 So it is already with this modern art of etching from pictures. 
 It is not the new invention or discovery of every etcher who 
 uses it, it is now very generally an acquired " business," and 
 yet its results may be well worth having. 
 
 Since, however, the etchers have so much in common, I 
 shall not give them separate chapters as I did to the original 
 men, but shall select for mention a few of their most important 
 works. 
 
 FLAMENG. The " Night Watch" after Rembrandt. It is 
 evident that in this ambitious and important plate M. Flameng 
 
 2 B
 
 370 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 has determined to give to the world a striking example of his 
 mastery as an etcher, and I was therefore the more surprised, 
 when the work first appeared, by an obvious fault in tonality, 
 the all but total loss of modelling in certain blacks where it 
 ought to have been distinctly visible. The central figure is in 
 full light ; this is evident, for his extended hand casts a shadow 
 on his companion, and his advanced leg casts another upon 
 the ground ; the face and collar, too, are strongly lighted, and 
 yet the doublet and breeches are a black blot, in which nothing 
 is distinguishable except a few little buttons. There is abso- 
 lutely no form whatever in them. This solecism is so glaring 
 that it strikes one at the first glance, and I expressed my sur- 
 prise about it to the artist himself. He wrote, in answer, that 
 the printer had overcharged the blacks in the printing, but also 
 that the picture itself is so loaded with dirt that it cannot be 
 properly seen, besides which it is hung in a little room badly 
 lighted so badly, that the etcher could never have made it 
 out at all without the occasional assistance of a direct sunbeam. 
 Flameng believes that Rembrandt's intention was not to 
 paint a " Night Watch " but a daylight effect, and that this 
 will 'become evident if ever the picture shall be cleaned and 
 hung where it may be visible. 
 
 I have mentioned this in justice to the etcher. In every 
 other respect the work is a marvel. If the reader has the 
 opportunity of comparing it with any of the common engrav- 
 ings of the same picture (for example, the woodcut in Charles 
 Blanc's Histoire des Peintres), he will soon perceive the value 
 of Flameng's masterly drawing, especially in the expression 
 of the faces, which in a work of this kind is the chief thing, 
 the source of its human power. After that two other qualities 
 are to be noticed the brilliant use of line on a white ground, 
 as in the shorter of the two central figures, the little girl, the 
 collar of the tall man in black, and elsewhere ; and in striking 
 contrast with this the soft, rich shading, especially of the large 
 clear obscure spaces in the background. If the student will
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 371 
 
 follow out the many different kinds of shading employed in 
 this work, he will perceive that they form in themselves a sort 
 of music, with notes often purposely harsh for contrast with 
 the suavity of others. It is not surprising that a clever and 
 experienced workman should find out many different ways of 
 using the etching-needle, but it is surprising that he should be 
 able to reconcile such very opposite qualities till they all sing 
 pleasantly together in one harmonious masterpiece. 
 
 FLAMENG. UAbreuvoir, after Troyon. This plate was 
 published in the Gazette des Beaux Arts for June 1874. I 
 mention it in this place as a particularly good example of an 
 etcher's subordination to the painter he interprets. Not only 
 have we here the feeling of Troyon, his unpretending yet sub- 
 stantial draughtsmanship, and his simple yet effective scheme 
 of light and shade ; but we have also, at least for any one who 
 knows the painter, a striking reminder of his very brushwork. 
 In the sky and distance especially the etching-needle has 
 become a brush, and the very strokes of Troyon's powerful 
 hog-tool are visible all over. So close an imitation of a 
 painter's manner is of more importance than some persons 
 may readily believe. It greatly helps to put us in unison with 
 his feeling. Such a picture as this would be robbed of half 
 its force if translated by some colo^ mechanical engraver ; but 
 the lively sympathy of the etcher with the painter places us in 
 direct communication with him, till we quite forget paper and 
 print, and see the painted canvas itself. 
 
 FLAMENG. Francis the First and the Duchess of fetampes, 
 after Bonington. This plate was published in the Portfolio 
 for January 1873. The reader may have seen the original 
 picture in the Louvre, a very brilliant little gem of colour. 
 This plate is just as brilliant a piece of etching; indeed at the 
 time of its publication it was, I believe, the most accomplished 
 piece of work which, in that particular kind, had ever been
 
 372 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 produced. The qualities most valued in modern painting 
 appear to be colour and texture (the most recent sales seem 
 to prove it more and more), with sparkle. This plate is all 
 full of texture and sparkle, with the suggestion of local colour 
 which black-and-white art can give. It is quite a typical 
 example of modern painting, with its little incident, its study 
 of costume, its exhibition of technical dexterity. M. Flameng 
 has thrown himself into the spirit of it as thoroughly as if he 
 had been the author of the picture. It has never seemed to 
 me that texture and sparkle were the highest qualities of art, 
 but the modern public delights in them, and here they are, 
 tant qitil en voudra ! 
 
 F. LAGUILLERMIE. A Dwarf of Philip IV. of Spam, 
 after Velasquez. This etcher has had the advantage of a 
 'more extended artistic education than is common in these 
 times. He was taught engraving by Riffaut and Flameng ; 
 he is also a Grand Prix de Rome, and a painter. He has 
 gone through laborious studies in Paris, Rome, Athens, and 
 Madrid. I mention this particular plate, which was published 
 in the Portfolio for April 1873, as a fine example of a very 
 free kind of interpretation. Any one who knows Velasquez 
 will be very strongly reminded of him by this etching, and 
 yet M. Laguille.rmie has worked quite in his own way, with 
 strong sabre-strokes for shading, and not the slightest 
 attempt to amuse us by pretty textures. The plate is one of 
 my great favourites. The subject of the picture is deeply 
 interesting, as the following paragraph, which I wrote in the 
 Portfolio, will explain : 
 
 " But there were differences amongst the dwarfs, which 
 Velasquez perceived with his keen, artistic intelligence, and 
 profound observation of mankind. One of them was merely 
 silly, another scowled hatred and envy from under his beetling 
 brows ; but this one, whose image is here before us, bears the 
 pain of a nobler suffering. O sad and thoughtful face, look-
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 373 
 
 ing out upon us from the serious canvas of Velasquez, though 
 the grave has closed upon thee for two hundred years, we 
 know what were thy miseries ! To be the butt of idle princes 
 and courtiers, and, worse than that, to be treated by the most 
 beautiful women as a thing that could have no passion, to be 
 admitted to an intimacy which was but the negation of thy 
 manhood, to have ridicule for thy portion and buffoonery for 
 thy vocation ; and yet to be at the same time fully conscious 
 of an inward human dignity continually outraged, of a capa- 
 city for learning and for thought ! all this was enough 
 indeed to drive thee to noble folios, that gave thee some sense 
 of human equality, some intellectual fraternity and con- 
 solation ! " 
 
 RAJON. Portrait of John Stuart Mill, after G. F. Watts, 
 R.A. M. Rajon is one of the most productive of the modern 
 etchers from pictures, and at the same time one of the surest 
 He respects himself, and never issues slovenly or careless 
 work, which cannot be said of all his brethren. It is not sur- 
 prising that he should interpret the qualities of painting well, 
 for he is a painter. 
 
 Mr. Watts has painted many portraits which have de 
 servedly taken rank amongst the most important pictures of 
 the age. It is almost a profanation to mention such art as 
 his, so full of intellect and earnestness, so serenely serious, on 
 the same page with the vulgar and brainless work which is 
 the every-day product of the regular portrait-manufacturer. 
 It is not necessary to define vulgarity in this place ; but I may 
 observe that if any one cares to possess what is the exact 
 opposite of vulgarity in portraiture, he may have it in this 
 noble etching from a noble picture. There is no idle flattery 
 here, no frivolous hiding of the signs of age, no lending of an 
 inappropriate gaiety. The tailor and hairdresser did not 
 determine the painter's work for him before he began it. One 
 purpose only occupied him to paint worthily a human head
 
 374 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 that was worthy of being painted. Perhaps, indeed, and 
 here is the only criticism I feel inclined to make, the costume 
 and body have been too much sacrificed to the head ; they are, 
 in fact, seen under different degrees of illumination. You see 
 as much of the body as you could distinguish in the gloom of 
 the latest twilight, but the face is in the ordinary daylight of 
 a room, in "a good gallery light," and every detail is visible. 
 Nor can it be fairly argued that the body is in shadow and 
 the head in light, as it would have been a great maladresse 
 to make the space of shade coincide so precisely with the 
 black costume as to create confusion between shade and 
 local colour. The flat equality of the dark background, in 
 which, at least in the etching, no gradation of any kind is 
 traceable, is also a mistake. It would be difficult to find, on 
 the dullest day, in the plainest room, a space so absolutely 
 without variety. The background and costume are both, 
 however, very cleverly etched, and the effect they produce is 
 like that of hearing two or three of the very lowest notes on 
 the double-bass. The depth of etching, in the lowest notes, 
 has seldom been more powerfully exhibited. The biting 
 of the coat is almost as deep as the bitings in Turner's 
 etchings. 
 
 The face is one of the very finest pieces of work ever exe- 
 cuted. Some people say that etching cannot render 
 modelling, and Mr. Ruskin says that it cannot represent 
 hair ; yet the modelling of this face is as thorough and ela- 
 borate as it could be in any kind of engraving, and the scanty 
 locks of hair, and thin whiskers, are rendered with a perfec- 
 tion of texture not to be denied. The whole face is inter- 
 preted by the most judicious use of line, but always for the 
 artistic purpose, never for mechanical display. All that is 
 done has for its object either the plain rendering of physical 
 structure, or the expression of character. Physically, you 
 have a strikingly thorough study of bone, muscle, and skin, 
 the last even to its wrinkles ; intellectually, you have the
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF P AIM TING. 375 
 
 thoughtful study of a thoughtful face, with the sadness that 
 remained upon it permanently after a great bereavement. I 
 can answer for the likeness ; all who remember Mr. Mill in 
 his latter years will recognise its extreme fidelity. It is well 
 that a portrait at once so artistic and so true should preserve 
 for our descendants the features of one of the few famous 
 Englishmen belonging to our age whom posterity is likely to 
 care about. 
 
 RAJON. The Dutch Housewife, after Nicolas Maes. The 
 original picture was a great favourite of Leslie's. In his 
 Handbook for Young Painters, he says, "There are few 
 pictures in our National Gallery before which I find myself 
 more often standing than the very small one by Maes, the 
 subject of which is the scraping a parsnip. A decent-looking 
 Dutch housewife sits intently engaged in this operation, with 
 a fine chubby child standing by her side watching the process, 
 as children will stand and watch the most ordinary operations, 
 with an intensity of interest as if the very existence of the 
 whole world depended upon the exact manner in which that 
 parsnip was scraped. It is not the colour and light and 
 shadow of this charming little gem, superlative as they are, 
 that constitute its great attraction ; for a mere outliae of it 
 would arrest attention amongst a thousand subjects of its 
 class, and many pictures as beautiful in effect might not 
 interest so much ; but it is the delight at seeing a trait of 
 childhood we have often observed and been amused with in 
 nature, for the first time so felicitously given by art." 
 
 I think Leslie would have been pleased with the way in 
 which Rajon. has interpreted the little picture. The etching 
 is charmingly simple in manner and very true in light and 
 shade. There is no strain or display in it anywhere. Great 
 artists, however, are great deceivers, and we should be inno- 
 cent indeed if we supposed that Maes and Rajon were as 
 guileless as they seem. The plain truth is that both picture
 
 37 6 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 and etching are full of subtlety and cleverness. The brilliantly 
 etched jug to the woman's right was not set there without 
 intention ; it corresponds to the head of the child, and so makes 
 that of the housewife central. The lighting is full of know- 
 ledge. The absence of all bravura in the treatment is in har- 
 mony with the homeliness of the subject. The plate was 
 published in the ortfolio for December 1874. 
 
 WALTNER. UAng'elus, after Millet. I am sorry to have 
 to preface my notice of this etcher with a word of blame, but 
 he deserves it for being so unreliable. When he likes, he can 
 etch as well as anybody, but he may at any time produce 
 hurried and slovenly work incredibly inferior to his best. I 
 must add that he is so very clever in the use of the dry point 
 and the burin that he very often resorts to them, so that the 
 most delicate parts of his work are engraved rather than 
 etched ; this, however, is not an objection when the burin work 
 is so ably done that it harmonises with what is bitten. 
 
 In this picture by Millet a man and woman are standing 
 near to each other and almost face to face in a vast and per- 
 fectly flat potato-field with a level horizon high up in the 
 picture. There is no other landscape than this, except that 
 the spire of a village church and a few trees and buildings are 
 visible on the horizon at a distance, but they are very small, 
 like the minute distances of Paul Potter. The man and 
 woman are French peasants who have been loading a wheel- 
 barrow with potatoes ; both have left off working for an 
 instant, and are praying, the man with bowed head, the 
 woman with clasped hands, whilst they hear the village bell 
 tolling the Angelus. It is impossible not to feel the deep 
 sense of rustic devotion in this most impressive work. After 
 the long day of dull labour in that monotonous field, flat and 
 ugly as a desert, these poor people hear the sound of the 
 evening bell from afar and forget their toil in prayer. The 
 etcher has entered quite heartily into the sincere and earnest
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 377 
 
 spirit of the painter, and has etched the picture with so much 
 good taste and feeling that the effect on the heart is quite 
 that of the original painting itself, and yet the slightest 
 mechanical ostentation would have at once destroyed it. 
 People used to say that etching was hard and " scratchy " 
 this plate is as tender as a charcoal drawing, and as true in its 
 light and shade. 
 
 WALTNER. Dans la Rosfc, after Carolus Duran. A nude 
 figure of a young girl which had a great success in the Salon 
 of 1874. This plate appeared in the Gazette des Beaux Arts 
 for June of that year. The nude, especially when of such a 
 subject as this, which requires the most delicate treatment, is 
 exceedingly difficult to deal with in any kind of engraving. 
 Readers who are familiar with the sort of prints which were 
 so much admired in the eighteenth century, when a profusion 
 of naked limbs of gods and goddesses were represented as 
 cushioned on rolling clouds, will remember how clouds and 
 thighs were alike seized upon by the engravers of those days 
 as pretexts for the exhibition of a certain skill in cutting clear 
 curves with the burin. Such treatment could never give the 
 natural texture, but was a negation and destruction of it. In 
 the etching before us M. Waltner has treated the nude with 
 the perception and sentiment of a painter. It is like fair 
 living flesh, and not like the back of a silver watch ornamented 
 with eccentric tooling. The outline is so soft that the eye, in 
 trying to follow, is constantly losing and finding it. The 
 modelling is wonderful, considering how limited is the scale of 
 light and dark where shadow itself is fair like shaded snow. 
 And yet the lights tell forcibly enough although there is so 
 little shade to help them. All the rounding of the beautiful 
 limbs and body is got by very simple and facile dry-point 
 sketching, aided perhaps by the burin, but if so by the burin 
 used quite freely and artistically as an etcher may fairly
 
 378 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 employ it.* The background of foliage and the foreground 
 of plants are all bitten, and so is the abundant hair. 
 
 BRUNET-DEBAINES. Interieur de Cour en Italie, after 
 Decamps. The original picture belonged to the Wilson col- 
 lection, and the etching was published along with many other 
 plates from that collection in 1873. The subject is simply a 
 picturesque courtyard, with rough walls, archways, and gal- 
 leries to pass from one house to another. There were great 
 opportunities, in a subject of this kind, for Decamps to enjoy 
 his singular powers of rendering rough textures, and also for 
 his strength of light and shade. M. Brunet-Debaines has so 
 completely reproduced the manner of Decamps in his etching, 
 that any one who, without knowing the original picture, knows 
 others of its class, by the master, will at once feel, after studying 
 this etching, that he has seen the picture itself. Rarely has 
 an engraver entered more completely into the tastes and 
 qualities of the painter he had to interpret 
 
 BRUNET-DEBAINES. Ruined Castle on a Lake, after Al- 
 bert Cuyp. It is by no means an easy thing for a good 
 modern landscape draughtsman, such as the etcher of this 
 picture, to go back to the landscape of the seventeenth century 
 and throw himself into it quite heartily. The qualities of such 
 a painter as Cuyp reside much more in pictorial harmonies 
 than in any great knowledge of nature. There is so much in 
 this picture which to an educated modern must seem poor 
 almost young-lady-like, if I may say so without offending 
 both connoisseurs and young ladies at the same time that 
 one may very easily overlook its two great merits of repose 
 and beautiful lighting. I was delighted, when the first proof 
 was sent to me, with the etcher's absolute forgetfulness of 
 
 * The burin has always been considered a permissible auxiliary tool for etchers. 
 It is very useful in that way, but, unless in skilful hands, dangerous to the harmony 
 of the work.
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 379 
 
 himself and his own knowledge in perfect subordination to the 
 painter. This is Cuyp absolutely, with his clear simple land- 
 scape, inartificial arrangement, and bright yet quiet afternoon 
 sunshine. The plate was published in the Portfolio for April 
 1874. 
 
 GAUCHEREL. The Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland, after 
 Hobbema. A most successful rendering of the curiously 
 clear, quaint, and stiff landscape of Hobbema, now so much 
 in fashion both amongst artists and connoisseurs. It is dif- 
 ficult to point out parts as especially worthy of commendation, 
 but I mention with pleasure the remarkably clear quality of 
 the sky and the distance, not because they are better done 
 than the trees or the road, but because the risk of failure in 
 them was much greater. (Portfolio, October 1874.) 
 
 GAUCHEREL. The Sun of Venice going to Sea, after 
 Turner. It is a matter of the most extreme difficulty to 
 translate Turner in etching, and it can only be done at all 
 by the boldest interpretation ; yet it so happened that all the 
 French etchers who have hitherto been employed by the pro- 
 prietors of the Portfolio in the National Gallery immediately 
 became enthusiastic admirers of Turner, and eagerly desired 
 to etch after him. This plate by M. Gaucherel is not quite 
 accurate in details, and it hardly tries to imitate at all, but it 
 conveys, I think, a very good idea of Turner's poetical con- 
 ception, and recalls the picture very strongly to the memory, 
 with its emerald waters, gaily-coloured sails, and dazzling 
 white distances. (Portfolio, November 1874.) 
 
 MONGIN. UEstafette, after Meissonier. A superior 
 officer of mature age is standing with his back to the fire, 
 smoking his pipe, and holding in his hand a letter just re- 
 ceived from the estafette, who is standing opposite a thin 
 man in cavalry uniform, booted and spurred, with a carbine
 
 380 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 slung behind him. Between these two, at a greater distance 
 from the spectator, sits a younger officer in cavalry uniform, 
 with his right arm resting on a table, the hand holding his 
 pipe, which he forgets to smoke in his anxiety to guess from 
 the expression of his superior's face the nature of the intelli- 
 gence just received. The costumes are those of the eighteenth 
 century, and so is the furniture of the room. 
 
 Every one knows with what thorough study and accuracy 
 of finish Meissonier always presents the details of his figures 
 and their surroundings, what a master he is of imitation, and 
 how careful he has generally been to select subjects which 
 permitted it. The present work is a striking example of the 
 painter's qualities, and a still more striking example of the 
 closeness with which a skilful etcher may echo the work of a 
 painter, though the echo is but in black and white. Let us 
 first do full justice to M. Mongin in the much higher study of 
 expression, let us not forget that the faces are of chief import- 
 ance here, and that they are rendered perfectly. We have 
 the imperturbable look of the old general who reads the letter 
 (you may guess about as much from his visage as from his 
 pigtail), the rather wearied and anxious look of the younger 
 officer, and the half-insensible but disciplined and military 
 profile of the estafette himself, who keeps up his soldierly air 
 though harassed by fatigue and want of sleep. This dramatic 
 interest is, however, soon exhausted, for we are aware that we 
 can never know the contents of the letter ; if we were in the 
 theatre, the actor would read it aloud to us, but this painted 
 actor is dumb and cannot even change his attitude, he must 
 stand for ever, as he is standing now, with booted legs wide 
 apart, in the attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes, and however 
 weary the messenger may be he can never quit this presence. 
 But such is the nature of pictorial art that when the interest 
 of the subject is exhausted, that of the skill with which it 
 has been represented remains. We follow, in imagination, 
 the artist as he works, and are delighted by the triumphs of
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 381 
 
 his hand. There is plenty of such technical interest in the 
 remarkable plate before us. The versatility with which the 
 etching-needle is made to imitate the appearance of different 
 substances marble, glass, leather, wood, cloth, fur, etc. and 
 the accuracy of shading and biting which gives their exact 
 relative values of light-and-dark, are in themselves interest- 
 ing to a student of art. If the reader had the plate before 
 him, he would perceive how many different kinds of treat- 
 ment the etcher has adopted to get the different qualities of 
 things deep bitings and shallow, close lines and open, sharp 
 accents and soft shades. I cannot see how Meissonier's 
 picture could have been engraved more accurately with the 
 burin even as to relative values of light-and-dark, but I 
 know very positively that no burin-work could ever have got 
 this variety and truth of texture, nor could it have followed 
 so closely the minute points of drawing on which much of 
 the fidelity of the translation into black and white depends. 
 
 WISE. The Triumph of Scipio, after Mantegna. This 
 plate was published in the Portfolio for January 1-874, and 
 was the first of the National Gallery series. The original 
 work is a tempera design in chiaroscuro a long frieze, of 
 which only a portion is given in the etching. I mention it 
 here as an instance of successful interpretation. It is not 
 really an imitation of Mantegna's work, but a bold and 
 powerful translation of it from the language of tempera into 
 that of a simple sort of etching. You see at a glance what the 
 work is, for no artifice conceals the strokes of the point, but 
 you would have a difficulty in guessing the exact nature of 
 Mantegna's painting, if you were not acquainted with it. In 
 spite of what has been said in the last few pages about the 
 imitation of texture in working from pictures, I do confess 
 that a certain independence on the part of the etcher is by no 
 means displeasing to me. This need not prevent him from 
 expressing the clearest understanding of the picture before him.
 
 382 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 LE RAT. Portrait of Leonardo Loredano, Doge of Venice, 
 after Giovanni Bellini. This is an uncommonly beautiful 
 piece of engraving, but whether it is quite fair to speak of it 
 in a book on etching may be doubtful. Let us take it as a 
 text for a short sermon about the transition from etching to 
 engraving. The etcher has generally a burin or two and a 
 few dry points amongst his tools, the latter, perhaps, sharpened 
 like burins with triangular sections and cutting edges. When 
 the biting has not done all that was expected from it, the 
 artist may feel indisposed to take the trouble of regrounding, 
 so he works with the burin a little, or a sharp dry point of 
 hard steel. After having done this often, he insensibly 
 acquires considerable skill, and is more and more tempted to 
 do it again. Finally this engraved work covers so much of 
 his plates that, as in the present instance, it is equal in 
 importance to the bitten work. Go a step farther still in 
 this direction and you have the acid employed merely to fix 
 a light design used for guidance, whilst the serious business 
 of the performance is entrusted to the graver. Some etchers 
 from pictures are now going so much in this direction that 
 there is a chance of their becoming real burin-engravers ulti- 
 mately. The plate before us was begun as an etching, and 
 then engraved upon till it reached its present condition of 
 high finish. Let me not be supposed to insinuate anything 
 against it, for it is an exquisite piece of work, which ought to 
 have satisfied both the Doge and grand old John Bellini if 
 they could have seen it. (Portfolio, January 1875.) 
 
 JACQUEMART. Repose, after Berghem. This and the 
 following plates by Jules Jacquemart were published by 
 Messrs. Colnaghi in a series from the Metropolitan Museum of 
 New York. The artist prepared himself for this task and 
 others of a similar character by the study of effect in etching, 
 instead of pursuing his marvellously successful studies of form 
 and texture in objects of still life. I well remember that
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 383 
 
 when this transformation began Jacquemart sent me a cer- 
 tain attempt in his new direction, which convinced me that he 
 was what Mr. Ruskin would call "a lost mind," and that 
 those terrible words about an English artist were applicable 
 even unto him "The change in his manner is not merely 
 Fall it is Catastrophe ; not merely a loss of power, but a 
 reversal of principle : his excellence has been effaced, ' as a 
 man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.' " 
 
 Meanwhile Jacquemart worked on in his new manner, 
 and the end and outcome of it was that he became able to 
 etch very well from pictures. I am not sure that the world 
 is altogether a gainer by the change, for this artist's original 
 etchings from beautiful or precious objects of still-life were 
 what nobody but himself could do ; whereas, however well he 
 may interpret a picture there are several other men in Europe 
 who can do as much. One or two of his plates are certainly 
 very superlative work, but a good many others do not rise 
 above the ordinary level of professional production. We 
 have, therefore, by this change, lost an artist of singular 
 genius, to enrich by the addition of a single name the list of 
 clever men who can translate pictures in an accomplished 
 professional way. 
 
 This plate after Berghem is, however, very far from being 
 commonplace. I had not supposed, when it appeared, that 
 etching could go so far as this in the imitation of a painter's 
 manner, and the peculiar success of it opened to me a most 
 interesting field of speculation and of hope. Photography in 
 its various forms renders touch with admirable fidelity, but 
 then it is grossly unfaithful in the interpretation of colour by 
 light-and-dark, and produces the wildest confusion by this 
 unfaithfulness, even in light-and-shade itself. On the other 
 hand, line-engraving cannot at all render the touch of the 
 picturesque painters ; it is perfectly suited to the interpretation 
 of the classical schools, but just as ill adapted to the more 
 informal manner of modern naturalism. The burin requires
 
 384 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 tranquil spaces, the etching-needle can easily follow broken 
 surfaces and ragged outlines. This we knew, but the novel 
 element in this plate from Berghem is the successful imitation 
 of luminous quality in the touches. In work of this kind the 
 touches glisten like dewdrops ; they are not paint, but an 
 artful assemblage of jewels. I wonder what Jacquemart 
 would make of the glitter in a dewy Constable ; he would 
 give it, I believe, with an unprecedented fidelity. Another 
 reflection which occurs is, whether Berghem could have etched 
 his own picture in this rich pictorial manner. We know 
 what his manner was in his etchings brilliant enough, but 
 neither pictorial nor rich. 
 
 A close examination of the workmanship in this plate 
 reveals so much of its secret as is dependent on method 
 merely, and not on sensitive interpretation. The lines are 
 never laid without great care for their tonic value ; and so 
 soon as any line, however short, however apparently necessary 
 to the delineation of form, would interfere in the least with 
 the tonic value of the painter's touch, it is suddenly abandoned, 
 and an empty space left to tell the rest of its story. Treat- 
 ment of this kind is as consummate, technically, as etching 
 can be. The line is used quite frankly everywhere, and there 
 is no attempt to hide it ; but, on the other hand, the artist is 
 never carried away by it, not even to the extent of the thou- 
 sandth of an inch. The entire absence of that tightness of 
 manner which very young artists often take for delicacy of 
 drawing, may possibly incline some of them to pass by this 
 work slightingly, as a careless sketch of landscape. Any one 
 of that opinion is invited, with due respect, just to copy the 
 face of the woman on its own scale. 
 
 JACQUEMART. The Moerdyck, after Van Goyen. The 
 sort of subject which Zeeman would have etched in his quaint 
 dry way, and it is highly interesting to observe the effects of 
 Jacquemart's wider experience. Zeeman evidently enjoyed
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 385 
 
 light, and space, and movement ; but he had no richness, no 
 unction, if I may use the word, nor did he understand fine 
 arrangements of chiaroscuro. This etching from Van Goyen 
 scarcely contains more lines, if they were counted, than one of 
 Zeeman's plates, and yet the difference of arrangement and 
 of manner makes this plate opulent and glowing. An ignorant 
 etcher would have given a month of useless labour without 
 getting either the light or the movement of these rolling 
 clouds, or the smoothness of this calm water. There is nothing 
 here but the bare etched line, as frank as possible everywhere, 
 and yet the varied employment of it, to any cultivated spec- 
 tator, suggests everything of the picture but its colour. 
 
 Though this is a merit of the painter's, let me add that the 
 composition of this sea-piece is as subtle and cunning as the 
 composition of a simple subject possibly can be. The concen- 
 tration of light in the middle, by the golden cumulus and its 
 reflection, the indication of perspective by the two lantern- 
 poles on the sandbanks, brought purposely near in the picture, 
 and contrasted in their leaning, the arrangement of the ships 
 and boats, all in pairs (a common practice with Turner also, 
 but not, as we see, invented by him) ; the smoke on the distant 
 sandbank and its reflection marrying earth to heaven and 
 water by a little central cloud all these things, and more 
 that I have not space to enumerate, prove the most thoughtful 
 artistic intention. Even the cannon-smoke from the ships of 
 war has its pictorial purpose ; it gives clouds close to the 
 water, and these clouds help the light, for that against the 
 focus of the picture is very much lighter than the other. 
 
 JACQUEMART. Interior of a Dutch Cottage, after Willem 
 Kalf. At the first glance, a critic half experienced in etching 
 might fancy that this plate had been very imperfectly bitten, 
 and that the etcher could not draw things clearly ; but he 
 would be much mistaken, for it is one of the cleverest in the 
 whole set. The subject is the obscure interior of a cottage, 
 
 2 C
 
 386 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 with an effect of dull daylight through an unseen aperture of 
 some kind. The play of imperfect light, the passage from 
 light to obscurity, have been rendered by the painter with 
 great care, and the one effort of the etcher has been to make 
 things clear just to the degree which the painter intended, and 
 no farther. On the part of Jules Jacquemart this must have 
 needed especial self-denial, for it so happens that there are 
 many things in this picture which, if left to himself, he would 
 have drawn far more brilliantly than the painter. To publish 
 an etching of this kind is certainly a very high compliment to 
 the art-culture of this generation, as it is rather strong meat 
 for babes ; but we are bound to praise the forgetfulness of 
 self and the simplicity of purpose in faithful interpretation of 
 the picture, which are evident throughout this work. An 
 uneducated public would see nothing in it would not even be 
 able to make out the objects which are indicated by chiaro- 
 scuro simply without any explanatory design, a touch of light, 
 a patch of shade, a half-light, and a reflection. What is the 
 woman doing ? I know, but leave the reader to amuse himself 
 by guessing, with the observation that all northern readers 
 will inevitably guess wrong. 
 
 JACQUEMART. Portrait of a Young Woman, after Lucas 
 Cranach the Younger. A very faithful and beautiful imita- 
 tion of a quaint portrait in the costume of the sixteenth 
 century, with a rich coif and necklace and a veil. There is an 
 infinity of exquisite work in this etching, not only in the 
 richly-patterned dress and background, but in the delicate 
 pale shading of the flesh a delicacy which adds much to the 
 force of the fine dark eyes and eyebrows. The face has a 
 serene, grave beauty of a very original type, and the expres- 
 sion conveys a mixture of tranquillity and firmness, implying 
 eminent domestic qualities. Beautiful as it is, however, this 
 plate may be taken rather as an example of the versatility of 
 etching than of its especial liberty and power. It is im-
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 387 
 
 possible, and it would be wrong if it were possible, to interpret 
 a severe and primitive painting like this with the go which 
 would be quite appropriate for an artist like Frank Hals. 
 Jacquemart's merit here has been to enter thoroughly into 
 the spirit of his original, and to bring to his work a delicacy 
 and right patience answering accurately to the feeling and 
 character of Lucas Cranach himself. 
 
 JACQUEMART. Elisabeth de Valois, Reine d"Espagne, 
 after Sir Antonio Moro. This was one of the most important 
 plates in the series from the Wilson collection. It is men- 
 tioned here for an especial reason. Elisabeth de Valois was 
 dressed as magnificently as possible when she was painted, 
 her costume was covered with embroidery and jewels. Here 
 then we have a complicated and not uninteresting study of 
 still-life, for the queen with her plain face and quiet pose is 
 really little more than a lay figure to carry all this ctalage of 
 satin and countless pearls big and little, with great square 
 gems of ruby, sapphire, or emerald, an amazing elaboration of 
 royal finery. Jacquemart feels perfectly at ease amongst it 
 all, nay even enjoys it, instead of losing patience, as many 
 would. He studies every separate pearl with its own light 
 and shade and reflection, he gives the sheen of satin and the 
 infinite details of the majestic millinery ; for such study as 
 this is half a return to the labours of his earlier manhood. 
 
 UNGER. Jeune Couple dans leur Salon, after Gonzales 
 Coques. Before considering this particular piece of work let 
 me make a few general observations about William Unger's 
 talent. It is difficult, in an age which has produced half-a- 
 dozen artist engravers of the very highest rank, to say which 
 of them is king ; but if any critic were to give the supreme 
 station to Unger he might maintain his decision by the argu- 
 ment that this artist has etched more plates of uniformly good 
 quality than any one else, whilst a few of his finest works,
 
 388 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 taken separately, will bear comparison with the finest of those 
 other distinguished interpreters of pictures whom we have 
 already studied in this chapter. In one power he certainly 
 surpasses every one of them, namely, in the critic's gift of 
 sympathy with very different kinds of talent. It does not in 
 the least signify what an original artist, who never translates 
 the work of other men, and who never writes about it, may 
 think of his rivals in this or any other age. The reader would 
 be much astonished if he could learn how much ignorance and 
 prejudice are perfectly compatible with a successful artistic 
 career. But when an artist undertakes to interpret the work 
 of many who differed in mental faculty and in technical 
 training, both from himself and from each other, he must 
 either enter heartily into their ways of thought or else grossly 
 misrepresent them. He then requires that rare gift of a good 
 critic which enables him to enjoy opposite kinds of work, and 
 to admire them with such perfect sympathy that for the time 
 being each may appear right and sufficing in its own order, 
 linger has this in perfection. I will answer for it that he 
 must be a very delicate and discerning critic of painting, that 
 his intelligence must be comprehensive and his appreciation 
 just. The mass of his etchings, taken together, are, in fact, 
 a commentary on many great painters, which, instead of being 
 written out in words, is drawn on copper with the point 
 Throughout it Unger speaks to us as clearly about the 
 pictures as Vosmaer, the distinguished critic, when he writes 
 Dutch or French. To possess these etchings is much less, no 
 doubt, in a general sense, than to possess the original pictures, 
 but there is a certain special, yet very intelligible, sense in 
 which it is somewhat more. We have here much of the 
 painter, but not all ; we have also something in addition, and 
 that is the intelligent explanation and commentary of an 
 observer who well knows what is admirable, and what is 
 personal and peculiar, in the executive expression of the great 
 painters whom he interprets
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 389 
 
 The picture before us, one of the most charming and 
 interesting representations of domestic life in the seventeenth 
 century which have been handed down to us, represents a 
 young gentleman and his wife in their small but tastefully 
 arranged drawing-room. The walls are covered with tapestry 
 to the height of the door, and above the tapestry are hung 
 Dutch landscapes, rather too high to be studied, but good as 
 panels for the decoration of the room. The lady is standing 
 at her open clavichord, the lid of which shows on the inside a 
 sylvan landscape with musicians. The gentleman is gravely 
 seated by the table turning the leaves of a book. On the 
 table are a globe, a statuette, and an hour-glass. There is an 
 indescribably charming air of learning, discretion, and artistic 
 taste in the whole scene. It seems to us that life must have 
 had true dignity, peace, and sweetness under these conditions. 
 And now please observe how absolutely linger throws him- . 
 self into this grave and quiet temper, and with what unhurried 
 sobriety every touch is laid ! We shall see him in other 
 tempers before we leave him.* 
 
 UNGER. Paysage Montagneux, after Rembrandt. This is 
 one of the most complete of Rembrandt's landscapes, and a 
 very fine and majestic composition it is. There is a river in 
 the foreground with a windmill to the right, a bridge of one 
 arch crosses the river, and a horseman is riding towards the 
 bridge. In the distance is a hilly country with trees and 
 some ruins. 
 
 * So far as we may judge by the etcher's portrait of himself on the title-page, 
 which by the way is one of the most consummate bits of free etching produced in 
 modern times, it appears as if his own personal feeling were not only very dif 
 ferent from that of the etching described in the text, but even strongly opposed to 
 it. Unger's own manner would be light, facile, and intelligent almost to excess, 
 but by no means distinguished for gravity or sobriety. That portrait of himself is 
 done in an excellent spirit for an etcher. The drawing is sound and strong, with- 
 out the least trace of any sort of pedantry, and the ease of it, which is the result 
 of real power and knowledge, is truly marvellous.
 
 390 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 The study of minute detail which prevailed in the Eng- 
 lish school some years ago is likely to make us undervalue 
 the qualities of such landscape-design as this, which relies 
 entirely upon mass ; but if the reader takes delight in the 
 fine artistic arrangement of masses he will enjoy this land- 
 scape much, and be very thankful to Unger for the quiet truth 
 of tone with which he has rendered it. The picture would 
 not be difficult to copy in charcoal or sepia, but it must have 
 been extremely difficult to etch, for it all depends upon tonic 
 relations, and if they had gone wrong in the biting the plate 
 would have been without meaning, for it has no strong 
 expressive lines to help it. Unger has rendered it in the 
 most unobtrusive way, and all has come just quietly right, 
 even to the palest tints of the distance and the sky. How 
 grandly Rembrandt has placed his ruin and supported it ! 
 
 UNGER. Buste de Femme, after Rembrandt. The lady 
 shows one hand, her left, which is gloved and holds a flower. 
 She wears a necklace of large pearls. 
 
 This is not one of the most striking plates in the series, 
 but it is assuredly one of the most perfect. The face is 
 treated with the greatest delicacy, and yet with consummate 
 ease. Observe the thoroughness of the skill and knowledge 
 with which the reflections are reserved. The texture has the 
 softness of flesh, and that of the costume and background is 
 vigorously opposed to it. Unger has entered so well into 
 Rembrandt's spirit that we recognise the great master at a 
 glance. 
 
 The eyes of this portrait are charming in their softness. 
 I think Unger has made the hair a little too wiry and coarse, 
 but the coarseness of texture in the dress is very valuable. 
 The glove is inevitably ugly, for in those days nobody 
 thought of such a thing as a glove that would fit the hand. 
 
 UNGER. Le Dormeur, after A. Van Ostade. A cobbler 
 is sitting asleep in a little corner close to a wooden partition.
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 391 
 
 He rests his head on his left hand, and has a very happy 
 look on his face as if his dreams were pleasant. Perhaps a 
 pot of beer may have aided in procuring this felicity. 
 
 The etching is very remarkable for its spirit of independ- 
 ence. It does not look as if it had been done from a picture 
 at all, but quite conveys the impression of a fresh and spon- 
 taneous invention of the etcher himself. Considered on its 
 own merits it is one of the very best etchings I ever saw ; the 
 work is so straightforward, simple, and expressive. 
 
 UNGER. Eau Calme, after Willem Van de Velde the 
 younger. The painter of this picture, which is now in the 
 gallery of Cassel, was only twenty years old when he exe- 
 cuted it, but few artists, however experienced, have so com- 
 pletely rendered the spirit of a scene. I mention it here, 
 however, chiefly to direct attention to the excessive delicacy 
 and self-restraint of the etcher in his interpretation of it 
 There is no attempt to copy the palest tones, but they are 
 just hinted at, and we imagine them. The picture is in a 
 very high key, a very light sky is reflected in calm water, and 
 white sails come against this in full sunshine. The only 
 darks are the hulls of the vessels, linger has contented him- 
 self with making us understand how light are the prevailing 
 tones, giving the forms of cloud and sail by drawing of 
 ineffable delicacy almost without shading. I strongly 
 approve of the judgment and taste with which this has been 
 done. We feel the light that there is in the picture much 
 more by this treatment than if an attempt had been made to 
 render the pale tones quite accurately, supposing (what is 
 very probable) that they would have been a little put wrong 
 in the biting. The fact is that this etching is a masterpiece, 
 and one of a very peculiar kind, which some younger etchers 
 who are breaking their hearts in struggles after perfect tonic 
 accuracy would do well to study. Such work as this saves 
 health and eyesight by intelligence.
 
 392 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 UNGER. Portrait cFHomme, after Tintoret. This is the 
 portrait of a young Venetian nobleman, perhaps twenty-seven 
 years old, or so, but nothing seems to be known about the 
 original except what may be gathered from the picture itself. 
 
 It is one of the grandest and most impressive portraits in 
 existence. The dark face of the deepest Italian complexion 
 already, and looking like bronze when set upon that large 
 white frill is high up in the corner of the canvas to your 
 right. The left hand of the portrait is hanging by his side, 
 gauntletted in a great leather glove ; the other, also gloved, is 
 placed upon a table. The costume is that of the sixteenth 
 century, but dark, grave, and without an ornament. The 
 attitude is erect and soldierly, but the main power of the 
 work lies in the expression of the face. The eyes are like 
 coals of fire. It may be doubted whether such another pair 
 of eyes exists in all the world of painting. When once they 
 have looked at you, no farther explanation of the man's cha- 
 racter is necessary. There are portraits of the thoughtful and 
 melancholy kind, which have awakened an unceasing curi- 
 osity, but this would excite fear in a timid person, and resist- 
 ance in a bold one. What a haughty scrutiny there is in that 
 glance, and in those lips what iron resolution ! This young 
 lord of Venice, whoever he may have been, was one whose 
 passion a woman might dread, and whose enmity a brave 
 man might think twice before incurring. Laws and civilisa- 
 tion have in our days so quelled the fire of individual natures 
 that we can hardly realise the time when passionate men 
 were as dangerous as volcanoes ; but there are a hundred such 
 in Italian history, who were not better neighbours than 
 Vesuvius. 
 
 Meanwhile we have forgotten Herr Unger, simply because 
 he has done his work so well. Only one thing needs to be 
 said specially about the etching, and it is this. Some plates 
 can produce their effect on the mind with little tone, but this 
 one positively needed the darkness of the costume, and the
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 393 
 
 darkness of the face ; the impression on the mind is partly 
 due to it. 
 
 UNGER. Portrait (Tun Chanoine, after Antonis Mor Van 
 Dashorst. This is one of the finest of the serious portraits in 
 Unger's portfolios. It is almost entirely in dark tones, and 
 the etcher has not succumbed to the temptation of enlivening 
 them by sparkle here and there, as a common engraver would 
 certainly have done with such a piece of work before him. 
 The dignity and sobriety both of the original painting and 
 the reproduction are, in their way, beyond praise. There are 
 no touches of light even on the eyes, and the small frills 
 about the neck and wrists are so much shaded that they do 
 scarcely anything to relieve the general gravity of tone. The 
 canon's countenance has the same gravity and seriousness, 
 but without any hard seventy. He looks charitable, but not 
 inclined to familiarity. Charitas habcnda est ad omnes, sed 
 familiar it as non expedit. 
 
 UNGER. Hail, Fidelity ! also designated Sir Ramp and 
 his Mistress, after Franz Hals. A more striking contrast in 
 both temper and execution than that between the picture 
 just criticised and this one could not be imagined. From 
 dignity and sobriety to their exact opposites seems a distance 
 not easily to be traversed ; yet as Unger could be grave with 
 the learned canon of Antonis Mor, so he can be jolly with this 
 merry gentleman of Franz Hals. It is not simply that the 
 faces here are gay, whereas the other was serious, but the very 
 touch of the point is changed. Hals had great dash and 
 decision in his handling, and a peculiar sort of flickering 
 brilliancy, which was due to his way of rendering surfaces 
 whenever he could by facets, and to his excessive taste for 
 strong accents. It was essentially a vulgar conception of 
 form and surface, but it had much too much vivacity. In 
 this vivacity the technical manner of Hals corresponded
 
 394 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 admirably with the sort of subject which he generally pre- 
 ferred ; so that he had one of the greatest merits an artist can 
 have, namely, a perfect harmony between mind-work and 
 hand-work. The painting here is full of dash and go. The 
 subject of the picture is a roystering blade in the height of a 
 merry hour, his glass raised high, his face beaming with 
 laughter and the spirit of loud jollity, whilst nestling under 
 the huge plume of his prodigious hat is the merry visage of a 
 woman, not pretty certainly, but able, as it seems, to enter 
 into the gentleman's frame of mind. The most respectable 
 personage here is the dog whose head appears in the corner. 
 This is the sort of life which Franz Hals lived, and this is 
 how he painted it. Anything more spirited than Unger's 
 translation of the picture it is impossible to imagine. All the 
 life and vigour of Hals are reproduced in it. 
 
 UNGER. Franz Hals and Lysbeth Reyniers, his second 
 wife, after Franz Hals. This is quite mild and respectable in 
 comparison with the other, but there is merriment here too. 
 The painter is seated under a tree in a garden with his wife. 
 Both are laughing heartily, and she has her hand affectionately 
 on his shoulder. The absence of a wine-glass seems an 
 unaccountable omission. Let us hope that the artist has 
 inward satisfactions arising from recent and sufficient potations. 
 He looks as if he had. 
 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Hals are most respectably dressed in 
 black cloth and black silk, and their linen is elaborately got 
 up not a little matter in those days of huge frills, and cuffs, 
 and collars. I mention the etching chiefly for the ease and 
 simplicity of its execution. 
 
 UNGER. The Governors of the Asylum for Old Men in 
 1664, by Franz Hals. In this picture the artist does all he 
 can to be serious, yet nevertheless puts a twinkle of merriment 
 into the face of an old man in the background, as if he were 
 irreverentially laughing at the worthy Governors.
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 395 
 
 The execution of this etching is an extreme instance of a 
 sort of work which Unger resorts to, particularly in interpret- 
 ing Hals, but which, considered in itself, is not to be much 
 commended. The whole of this work is in facets, and each 
 facet is shaded flat. Here there are four distinct tints of flat 
 shade, but no gradations. The love of angles and facets is 
 carried to an extraordinary excess in the badly-fitting gloves. 
 All this may be an accurate imitation of a strong mannerism 
 in the painter, but it would be a very bad mannerism in any 
 etcher who adopted it as a style of his own. 
 
 UNGER. Cephaleet Procris, after a picture supposed to be 
 by Guide Reni. It is the closing scene of the legend. Procris 
 is lying wounded in the forest, and Cephalus is touching the 
 fatal dart as if about to remove it. 
 
 I have selected this plate as a proof that Unger is not 
 bound down to the objectionable manner adopted in the one 
 last mentioned. This picture, whoever painted it, is done in 
 the mature Italian style, with full rounded forms, a great deal 
 of modelling, and (of course) a thorough study of gradation. 
 The landscape is rich and quiet, and put in with very fine 
 taste indeed. No one could guess that the same etcher had 
 executed this plate and those from Franz Hals ; and I do not 
 believe that there is another engraver in the world who has, 
 to anything like the same marvellous degree, the faculty of 
 adopting at will styles which are not only unlike each other, 
 but as strongly opposed as possible. Observe the careful 
 study of flesh and the consistent preservation of local colour 
 in the fair woman and the dark man, without loss of modelling 
 in either. 
 
 UNGER. Les Quatre Vackes, after Paul Potter. This 
 plate is not very striking at first sight, and the reader may 
 easily pass it by when he first turns over the etchings of 
 Unger, for it is neither black nor powerful. Nevertheless, it 
 is a singularly excellent example of a true etcher's way of
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 
 
 interpreting rather than imitating a picture ; and I suspect 
 that Unger himself must have been fully aware of its merits, 
 for I see that he has (very allowably) put his signature con- 
 spicuously in the upper corner to correspond with that of 
 " Paulus Potter " in the lower. Potter was a mere boy (only 
 nineteen) when he painted the picture, and there is really not 
 very much refinement of drawing about it ; but it is easier in 
 manner than the work of young men usually is, for there is 
 not the least strain or tightness. This facility has been 
 rendered very happily by a corresponding facility in the 
 etcher ; indeed it is a better etching than Potter would 
 himself have made of the same subject, for he was always 
 rather hard in manner as an etcher, though he drew well and 
 distinctly. If the reader has access to the plate, let him 
 observe the admirably slight treatment of the sky, on which 
 no vain effort has been wasted, and the open work of the 
 foreground. 
 
 There is a great deal of artist-craft both in Potter's 
 management of this very simple material and Unger's inter- 
 pretation of it. Four cows, a little old tree, a bit of fence, a 
 little common rough pasture ground, and in the distance a 
 tree or two, such as you may find anywhere this is all ; 
 and yet out of these materials the young Dutch genius con- 
 structed a picture which is a picture, and not a mere study as 
 so many are. He knew how to make the most of his material. 
 Such a work as this ought to be a consolation to artists who 
 live in unpicturesque localities. The materials of art are 
 everywhere, the makers of art are not so common.* 
 
 * A few wards of praise are due to the spirited publisher, Mr. Sijthoff of Ley- 
 den, for the manner in which these etchings of Unger have been published. They 
 are printed on fine Dutch paper, and mounted (pasted by the upper edge only) on 
 sufficiently good boards, in such a manner as to enter into the most carefully 
 arranged collections without farther change. They are accompanied by a text 
 printed with the greatest taste on very fine Dutch paper. The only objection I 
 have to make to the publishing of the set from old masters is that there is a diffi- 
 culty of reference. The plates are numbered, it is true, in the corner of the 
 boards, but there is no corresponding number in the printed text, so that the title
 
 THE INTERPRETERS OF PAINTING. 397 
 
 of the plate is not readily found. In the other publication from Franz Hals, this 
 is managed better. The title is well printed in red ink on a fly-sheet which 
 accompanies each etching. I observe that Mr. Sijthoff has three classes of impres- 
 sions of the Hals series artist's proofs on old Dutch or India, selected proofs on 
 India paper, and prints, which put the price of each etching at 75., 45. 6d., and 
 2s. 6d. , respectively. On the other hand, the series after various old masters is 
 printed in one class of proofs only, and issued at a price which puts them at rather 
 less than 2s. gd. each. Censidering the expense of text, covers, and portfolios, 
 and the cost of printing, mounting, and advertising, with the deductions of agencies 
 abroad, this is most reasonable ; and Mr. Sijthoff deserves our thanks for placing 
 works of real art, thoroughly well got up, within the reach of cultivated people 
 who have moderate incomes. I see that M. Vibert is having his pictures etched 
 by different etchers under his own superintendence, and that the series is to be 
 published in parts of ten plates each, at .20 the part, or 2 each plate. Of 
 course every one has a right to charge what he likes for his own merchandise, but 
 I have already expressed regret that the circulation of works of art should be arti- 
 ficially limited by excessively and unnecessarily high prices, intended to give them 
 a fictitious value as rarities. In the case of large plates which cost great labour, 
 such as a few of the most important by Flameng, a high price is an inevitable 
 necessity if the artist is to live by his work, but it is a necessity to be regretted 
 both in the interest of the public and for the artist's fame. One great difficulty is 
 the enormous trade percentages. I have known more than one instance in which 
 publishers charged fifty per cent merely as agents, and left the etcher to pay all 
 expenses of printing and advertising. M. Flameng is trying to avoid this by tak- 
 ing subscriptions at his own house (25 Boulevard Mont Parnasse, Paris) for two 
 new plates of his, after Rembrandt La Leyon cTAnatomie, and Les Syndics. He 
 prints three classes of proofs at 8, 6, and 4 each. Rajon published his por- 
 trait of Stuart Mill at five guineas for artist's proofs, and two guineas for proofs 
 after letters, but this was issued through the usual channels. There appears to be 
 a demand for early impressions ; but if the reader cares for artistic quality, and is a 
 judge of it, he will value impressions simply for their merits, whether early or late. 
 Unless in the case of drypoints, or etchings much retouched with drypoint (the 
 bur being left) the five-hundredth proof may be just as good as the fifth, and will 
 be better if the printer has been more lucky with it. A sufficient price ought always 
 to be charged to allow the printer to give plenty of time and care to his work, and 
 to destroy every defective impression. This is really important. The utmost care 
 should be taken about paper, too, but this need not make etchings costly, for a 
 sheet of the finest paper costs very little. 
 
 I much regret that Mr. Seymour Haden's very important plate after Turner's 
 Calais Pier, a plate measuring a yard square, is not yet published (June 1 875), so 
 that I cannot speak of it in this edition of my book. It will, however, in all pro- 
 bability, need no help from criticism. A great press has been built on purpose to 
 print it, paper has been manufactured specially, and costly real sepia has been pro- 
 cured from the Adriatic for the printing- ink.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE. 
 
 1 T is an excellent but at the same time a most severe and 
 irksome discipline, to copy etchings by great masters in fac- 
 simile. This may be done either by a student of the art for his 
 own instruction or by an accomplished master in order to popu- 
 larise noble works which in their perfect states are so rare as 
 to be inaccessible to all but a few of the most wealthy collectors. 
 The technical peculiarities of the old masters can never be 
 quite thoroughly understood by us until we copy them, and 
 the act of copying is a continual revelation, but the patience 
 that it requires is unimaginable so long as we have not tried 
 it. Young engravers with the burin are trained in the use of 
 their supremely difficult instrument by a discipline of this 
 kind, and although the etcher aspires to more freedom and 
 originality of manner, he may do wisely, at a certain period 
 of his career, to imitate their teachableness and forgetfulness 
 of self, in order to study, line by line, the means of expression 
 by which the immortal masters have given their genius to the 
 world. Such work whilst it lasts is slavery, and to some 
 utterly unendurable, but whoever can compel himself to 
 undergo it will come out of it with tripled strength. 
 
 Line by line, I have just said, for in this close application 
 of the copyist every line becomes a separate study needing a 
 distinct effort of observation and another distinct effort of 
 manual imitation. 
 
 There is not space in this volume to say much about the 
 copyists, though some of them have done marvellous feats.
 
 C OPYING ETCHINGS IN FA C SIMILE. 399 
 
 Many copies are so exact that collectors have to be carefully 
 on their guard against them. There is an etching by Rem- 
 brandt, of a beggar seated on a little hillock, which has been 
 so cleverly copied that Bartsch says it is difficult for the most 
 accomplished connoisseur to distinguish the imitation from 
 the original, and he has to show how it may be done by a 
 little difference in an insignificant mark which in the copy is 
 like an /joined to an ///, whilst in the original it is like the 
 letter ;/. We must leave these details to more voluminous 
 writers, and confine ourselves in this place to the study of a 
 single example, which, however, shall be a notable one. 
 
 Flameng s copy of tJie Hundred-Guilder Print. The illus- 
 trations etched by M. Flameng for M. Charles Blanc's Cata- 
 logue of the works of Rembrandt have long been familiar to 
 every student of the art, and we have known for years that M. 
 Flameng could copy Rembrandt with a degree of life and 
 truth which left little to be desired. Still it is probable that 
 the elite of the European art-public were not quite prepared 
 for the great technical triumph which M. Flameng achieved 
 in the year 1873. He produced a copy of one of Rembrandt's 
 most difficult and complicated etchings a copy which, if we 
 balance one quality against another, certainly far exceeds the 
 most perfect photograph in accuracy, whilst at the same time 
 it possesses as a piece of execution in etching all those 
 technical merits for which Rembrandt himself was famous. 
 In fact, this performance entirely confirms what I said of 
 Flameng several years ago, that he can overcome any techni- 
 cal difficulty which Rembrandt himself could overcome ; and 
 it is not an exaggeration of the truth to affirm, that there 
 exists in Europe in our own day a man who may be said to 
 possess the hand and eye of Rembrandt, though not that 
 force of imagination which was the source and motive of his 
 energy. 
 
 It may be difficult to convey to the atechnic reader that 
 full apprehension of the wonder of such work as this, which
 
 400 COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE. 
 
 will seize upon every etcher when he examines it. In a certain 
 sense, and for some peculiar reasons which will be given in 
 support of the assertion, it may be boldly affirmed that, as a 
 technical performance merely, such a copy as this is even 
 more wonderful than the original plate itself. There is a 
 freedom from restraint in all original artistic labour which is 
 not compatible with the duties of the copyist, and yet at the 
 same time the copyist has to play his part so perfectly as to 
 seem not less free in thought and hand than the original 
 artist whom he is imitating. Rembrandt may get a shade, 'n 
 the biting, paler or darker than he intended it, but who can 
 point out where his idea was imperfectly realised ? or even in 
 the drawing of a form a line may fail to correspond quite 
 accurately to his thought, and yet no critic who ever lr~ed 
 discovered the secret of that failure. The freedom of original 
 art is due to the impossibility of comparing the work of the 
 artist with that which it professes to represent ; but the copyist 
 knows that the very first thing any one will do when he has 
 the opportunity, will be to put his copy sHe by side with the 
 original and test it by two comparisons one for the general 
 effect and the other for every detail. Hence, in selecting a 
 work to be copied, we must remember that the more ease and 
 freedom there is in the original performance the greater will 
 be the difficulty of imitating it, and so true is this that painters 
 cannot copy their own sketches. It is easier to write a thing 
 for the first time freely in our own handwriting than to copy 
 our handwriting in facsimile. A child could make a labyrinth 
 of scrawls in a quarter of an hour which the most skilful 
 draughtsman could not reproduce without great care and 
 labour, and a considerable expenditure of time. 
 
 Now it so happens that this Hundred-Guilder Print offers 
 every conceivable difficulty to the copyist. It is a piece of work 
 in which great freedom of manner is united to an extraordinary 
 delicacy both of line and tone, and no copy can be successful 
 which does not render all those delicate lines and tones with
 
 COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE. 401 
 
 complete fidelity, whilst preserving to the full at least the 
 appearance of that freedom which Rembrandt really enjoyed, 
 but which in the copyist is nothing but the most consummate 
 acting. It is in a certain sense more difficult to copy an etch- 
 ing in etching than to engrave a picture which the engraver 
 may interpret as he chooses. Here there is no choice; what- 
 ever the master did the copyist must do after him. 
 
 The process, too, offers the peculiar difficulty that the 
 artist does not see his work during its progress, except at 
 qccasional intervals, when the etching-ground is removed from 
 the plate, and a proof taken between one state and another. 
 Then he has to draw every line in reverse ; and though he is 
 aided by tracing-paper and the mirror, this is still a very seri- 
 ous inconvenience. And for the intensity of his shades he is 
 dependent upon an auxiliary, which is proverbially difficult 
 to manage, and capable of unexpected treacheries the 
 acid. 
 
 There are passages in a work like this which put to the 
 severest test the capabilities of the executant, because if you 
 cannot conquer them at the first stroke you cannot conquer 
 them at all. There are faces which do not contain more than 
 a dozen lines, and upon the exactness with which these are 
 placed depends the whole expression of the countenance. 
 Let the hand tremble never so little, and its uncertainty will be 
 at once transferred to the copper in the weakness of a false 
 and ill-regulated line. Although Rembrandt was prodigal of 
 lines in transparent shades and half tones, he was most eco- 
 nomical of them when he pleased him to dessiner an trait, and 
 the copyist has no choice but to use a like economy. Now 
 when the expression of a face, perhaps the face of the most 
 important personage in the composition, is entirely dependent 
 upon the correct and skilful drawing of one stroke, which in 
 many such cases cannot be done slowly, and cannot be done 
 twice without effacing it entirely from the copper, the reader 
 will at once perceive the degree of sureness of hand and eye 
 
 2D
 
 402 COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE. 
 
 which is necessary for a feat of this kind, and he will, appre- 
 ciate the difficulty of a performance in which such feats must 
 be attempted over and over again. 
 
 M. Flameng was prepared for his task by a training much 
 more complete than that which etchers have usually received. 
 Men who loved and practised the genuine art of etching have 
 hitherto generally been painters who could not give time 
 enough to the copper to vanquish all its difficulties, and were 
 therefore obliged to content themselves with work which, 
 although it may have been roughly expressive of their ideas, 
 was often, from the technical point of view, rude and imperfect 
 in execution. Many amateurs have also attempted etching, 
 and one or two of them have succeeded in producing the kind 
 of work which a painter is most likely to achieve ; but neither 
 painter nor amateur can attain the technical power necessary 
 to cope with Rembrandt, unless he gives the time which 
 Rembrandt gave. M. Flameng has had a thorough engraver's 
 education, and is indeed at this moment one of the best burin- 
 engravers in Europe ; and, besides this, he has from childhood 
 been a passionate admirer of the great artist-etchers, whose 
 spirit is his own spirit, whose antipathies and preferences are 
 his own preferences and antipathies. Having studied Rem- 
 brandt all his life, and copied him not a little, he came to this 
 plate prepared for his great task by the thoughts and labours 
 of many previous years, and sustained and encouraged, more 
 than would have been possible to any one a little time since, by 
 that extension of a serious interest in etching which is one of 
 the most striking evidences of the increase of artistic culture in 
 Europe. It is something for a great engraver to feel and know, 
 when he engages in such an enterprise as this, that in every 
 capital in the civilised world there are at least a few intelligent 
 and cultivated persons by whom he will be gratefully and 
 immediately appreciated. This is not the sort of work which 
 the vulgar have ever cared for, and they may be left to their 
 showv prints ; but it fortunately happens that the cultivated
 
 COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE. 403 
 
 public is now just numerous enough to encourage any serious 
 artist who has the taste and skill to satisfy it 
 
 The value of a copy, in a case of this kind, is greater than 
 might be supposed. A fine impression from a fine copy is 
 nearer to the thought of Rembrandt than an impression taken 
 directly from one of his own coppers when they had been 
 worn by too much printing. A fine impression from a plate 
 etched by a copyist who can etch, is far nearer in quality to 
 the original work than any photographic reproduction ever 
 can be ; and beside this, copperplate printing is much more 
 regular and reliable than photographic printing, so that the 
 satisfactory proofs in an edition are likely to be far more 
 numerous. The photographic engraving on metal, for which 
 several different patents have been taken in England and on 
 the Continent, overcomes this last objection ; but in those 
 processes so much has to be done by biting and correction 
 that the risks of failure are considerable. A good copy, by 
 an artist who is technically equal to the master he has to 
 render, and who is in perfect sympathy with him, and repro- 
 duces him as a labour of love, is still, notwithstanding all 
 modern discoveries and inventions, the next best thing to a 
 fine early impression from the original plate itself. Were it 
 not that the self-sacrifice required would be almost super- 
 human, and the task so fatiguing as to deaden those very 
 sensibilities which are essential to its successful achievement, 
 one would be tempted to desire that M. Flameng should 
 re-engrave the entire ceuvre of Rembrandt. He has preferred 
 to etch on a large scale several of Rembrandt's most import- 
 ant pictures a task in some respects less onerous and more 
 interesting than this, since the etcher has been left free to 
 interpret according to his personal taste and feeling. 
 
 Few plates of Rembrandt illustrate so completely as this 
 one the various and very different qualities which in their 
 union have given him his supreme rank as an aquafortist 
 The finish of the shading, true and right finish very far
 
 404 COPYING ETCHINGS IN FACSIMILE. 
 
 indeed from " niggling " is as remarkable on the one hand as 
 are the sureness and selection of line on the other. The 
 chiaroscuro is arbitrary, of course ; Rembrandt's chiaroscuro 
 usually was arbitrary, and it would be easy to point out 
 impossible lights and shadows. But, whatever Rembrandt 
 had a mind to do, that he did in the most efficient and masterly 
 manner. If he wanted a shade to be liquid and transparent, 
 it became merely so much partial darkness, and you see 
 through it just what you ought to see and no more. If he 
 intended a form to be well defined, it will be clearly visible at 
 the right distance, though the means used be of the slightest. 
 If he wanted a light to sparkle, it became luminous like a 
 jewel. But enough of these technical considerations. The 
 technical craft is useful it is even indispensable ; but its best 
 employment is to lead us beyond itself to some thought that 
 may lift up our hearts. There is one pale, plain grave face in 
 the centre of the composition, surrounded by a nimbus of dim 
 glory, which is more affecting in this earnest northern art than 
 in the stately design of Raphael
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 PRACTICAL NOTES.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PLATE. 
 
 SINCE the first edition of this book was published I have written a little 
 work especially on the subject of processes, which is called The Etcher's 
 Handbook* That work includes descriptions of many different processes 
 which have been found to answer by different artists, and if the reader 
 cares to follow out all the various paths by which a good artist may arrive 
 at a technical success, he will find most of them indicated there. In the 
 present volume I shall confine myself to a description of two processes 
 which I have found to be practically the most certain and convenient, 
 and which have been used in the illustrations that accompany these 
 pages. 
 
 Etching remains, in all essential particulars, precisely the same art as 
 it was in the days of Rembrandt. Its manual difficulties and facilities are 
 precisely what they were then in the artistic portion of the work, and 
 when a plate is finished it presents exactly the same appearance as a 
 copper by one of the old masters. Several very important improvements 
 important, I mean, as they concern the practical workman, but not of 
 the slightest consequence to anybody else have, however, been intro- 
 duced in what may be specially called the work of the laboratory. The 
 object of these is to make the technical business more easy and agree- 
 able, and to bring it more entirely under the control of the operator. 
 Some experienced artists, in whom the traditional spirit is strong, and 
 who have attained their skill in the old ways, reject these improvements 
 altogether. M. Martial has recently published a treatise on etching 
 which simply repeats the old methods without even a word of allusion to 
 any newer ones, but the reader is not recommended to carry the conserva- 
 tive spirit to excess in an art which is half a science, and in which the 
 scientific spirit is really helpful. The great tradition of etching is not 
 affected in the least by these improvements of the laboratory, for drawing 
 with the point is precisely what it was before, but the scientific and purely 
 
 * It is published by Mr. Charles Roberson of 99 Long Acre. I may mention 
 for the convenience of the reader, that Mr. Roberson supplies everything necessary 
 to etchers, and I will take care, also for the reader's convenience, that everything 
 mentioned in this section of my work shall be visible in its material shape at Mr. 
 Roberson's. Letters have frequently reached me complaining that this thing or that 
 was not procurable in the shops, and it would be a pity if the enthusiasm of anyone, 
 with a natural genius for etching, were to cool for want of proper material supplies.
 
 4 o8 APPENDIX. 
 
 mechanical part of the work has been undeniably much improved during 
 the last few years, as the reader will soon gather from the following 
 pages. 
 
 If you get your plates from any good English makers you will seldom 
 have any trouble on account of their quality. I have been well supplied 
 by Mr. Wilson (Harp Alley, Shoe Lane, E.G.), and also by Messrs. 
 Hughes and Kimber (West Harding Street, Fetter Lane, E.G.). 
 
 The chief defects to be guarded against are excess, deficiency, and 
 inequalities of density. A plate good for engraving is homogeneous and 
 sound in substance ; a bad plate is often either too hard or too porous, 
 or both. After some practice the etcher may learn to test a plate in two 
 ways, either by engraving a few lines upon it with a burin, or by leaving a 
 few drops of diluted acid on its surface, and, after having washed them 
 away, examining the roughened surface they have left with the help of 
 a microscope. If the burin is used, the noise it makes will tell the ear, 
 and the degree of opposition will tell the hand, when a plate is too dense 
 to be of use, or when there are inequalities of density. The test by acid 
 informs the eye when the grain of the copper is irregular ; this cannot be 
 detected on the polished surface, but is seen easily when the acid has 
 removed the polish and shows the real grain of the metal. 
 
 Hammer-beaten coppers are preferred to rolled coppers, and an ex- 
 perienced artist wrote to me, " When you order your plates, always order 
 them to be extra-hammered." 
 
 It is well to order special attention to be given to the bevelling of the 
 edges. If the plates are printed upon certain kinds of paper they will 
 break the paper if they are not properly bevelled, and when the printer 
 sees this result he reduces the pressure on his roller to avoid it, the con- 
 sequence being weakness in the proofs. See that your bevelled edges 
 are well polished, so that they may print clean. 
 
 Copper is the only unobjectionable metal for etchers. Brass is un- 
 equal, and is never used for anything artistic. Zinc is a very porous 
 metal, but for rather coarse and picturesque sketches it may sometimes be 
 preferred. I believe Jeanron used it for his rough sketches. Formerly 
 the great objection to zinc was the small number of proofs which it 
 yielded, but this is now overcome by electro-metallurgy. A zinc plate 
 cannot be steeled, but it can be coppered, and with this protection will 
 yield an edition. Zinc may sometimes be useful to amateurs who desire 
 a small number of proofs to give to their friends, even without the coat of 
 copper, and then it is a very cheap metal to use. Sketches clone in a 
 simple way, without much delicate shading, as, for instance, caricatures, 
 may be just as good on zinc as on any other metal, but it is not suitable 
 for finished work. 
 
 Steel was more valued for etching formerly than it is now. It was 
 valued because it yielded large editions. A copper plate can now be 
 covered with a very thin coat of steel by the electro-type process without 
 injuring the artistic quality of the design, and the protected copper will 
 also yield large editions. The copper plate can also be dfc-steeled and
 
 THE NEEDLE, 409 
 
 r^-steeled several times, so that there is really no longer any reason for 
 etching on steel, and there is one most serious objection to it. One can 
 never trust a steel plate out of sight without anxiety. People are so 
 careless, even about the most valuable property, that they can seldom be 
 trusted to take care of things that rust easily corrupts. A very valuable 
 steel plate, by an eminent engraver whom I knew, was so entirely 
 destroyed by rust that the idea of publishing it had to be abandoned. 
 When copper plates are steeled we are still exposed to the rusting of the 
 steel coat through the carelessness of printers, but this is nothing in 
 comparison with the other danger, for though the rust may eat through 
 the steel coat it will not attack the copper, and the only inconvenience is 
 the slight expense of having the plate steeled over again. A short bath 
 in weak nitric acid and water will entirely remove the injured steel coat 
 without hurting the plate. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE NEEDLE. 
 
 ANYTHING in the shape of a pencil with a hard point will do for an 
 etching-needle. Steel is the material usually employed for etching-points. 
 They are very commonly set in wooden holders. The whole instrument 
 may be made of a single piece of steel. In that case it should be kept 
 thin from the point to the place held by the fingers, or else the eye would 
 be inconvenienced by it, for in doing fine work a thick instrument 
 troubles the draughtsman by always hiding some portion of the nork that 
 he desires to fee. It is a convenience to have the instrument in a single 
 piece, because when set in wood in the ordinary manner it becomes shaky 
 in time, if much pressure is used. Weight is not an objection, but the 
 contrary, for although an etcher's work must look as if his hand were 
 light, he must never draw very lightly in reality if he did, the point 
 would not entirely remove the etching-ground. It might be sufficiently 
 cleared away to show the copper, yet not entirely cleared away, so that 
 the acid could not attack the copper equally. This is especially likely to 
 happen to inexperienced etchers, because they retain from the practice 
 of some other art, such as pencil-drawing, the habit of varying their pres- 
 sure, and when they want to etch some delicate passage they instinctively, 
 and without reflection, press too lightly. 
 
 When the etching-needle is sharpened to a fine point, it may easily be 
 made so heavy that if loosely held between the fingers the mere weight of 
 it will remove the ground sufficiently, but with blunt points which are used 
 for thicker lines an instrument weighing 50 grammes is not heavy enough 
 to remove the ground without being aided by pressure. We have there- 
 fore to keep up the habit of applying pressure in all cases. 
 
 A heavy needle may be sharpened at the two ends to different degrees
 
 410 APPENDIX. 
 
 of sharpness. In this case it may be made thicker in the middle to gain 
 weight. 
 
 For work of great delicacy sewing-needles may be used, set in a metal 
 holder and held firmly in it by a little screw. They ought not to be thin, 
 nor long enough to be very flexible, as when too weak they are difficult to 
 draw with accurately. 
 
 It is these common sewing-needles, set in a holder, which are used 
 when working in the acid, as the reader will see in the account of my 
 positive process. 
 
 The needle ought always to be strong enough for the etcher to scratch 
 well into the copper itself without stopping merely at the surface, for if 
 he stops at the surface he may not be sure of removing the whole of the 
 etching-ground, even though it seems as if he did. 
 
 There has always been some difference of practice amongst etchers 
 about the sharpening of the needle. Some like it to come to a point (or 
 to a flat blunt end for the thick lines), others like it to have a cutting 
 edge like the end of a small chisel. There is a process called typographic 
 etching, in which a brass plate is covered with a thick coat of a white 
 composition like wax, and a very peculiar kind of needle is used to 
 remove this, which is too thick to be dealt with by the ordinary needle. 
 Having a set of these tools it occurred to me to try them in genuine 
 etching, and after a little difficulty at first, I found them singularly valu- 
 able. The instrument is, to begin with, nothing but a little round bar of 
 steel, a sixteenth of an inch thick. Two flat sides are made on the grind- 
 stone, which meet at an angle like a capital V in the section of the little 
 bar. The top or round part is ground down in the form of a snout, like 
 the snout of a field mouse, and there is a peculiar little edge at the very 
 end like the muzzle of the little animal. The needle is set in a piece of 
 beech, five inches long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. I believe 
 these tools were invented by a son of Mr. Dawson, the eminent land- 
 scape-painter, so for convenience let us call them the Dawson needles. 
 I discovered after some practice that one such instrument might be made 
 to give lines of three very different thicknesses, by simply turning it a little 
 in the fingers. One that I now use habitually gives me 
 
 1. A very fine line in the direction of the cutting edge. 
 
 2. A broader line with the top of the snout when used upside down. 
 
 3. A very broad line indeed when used side-ways. 
 
 This, of course, depends upon the way of sharpening the tool. The 
 practical reader will see at a glance the enormous advantage of holding 
 three instruments in one. It is an embarrassment just at first, but after 
 practice the hand becomes used to the capabilities of the tool, and by 
 turning it, quite unconsciously, between the finger and thumb, converts 
 it from one use to another.
 
 GROUNDS AND VARNISHES. 411 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 i 
 
 GROUNDS AND VARNISHES. 
 
 IN English, the resinous coat which protects the plate is usually called 
 the "ground," and the word "varnish" is reserved for that which is 
 applied with a brush. Let us first consider the nature of the etching- 
 ground. 
 
 The purpose of it is to protect the copper between the lines against 
 the action of the acid bath. It ought not to interfere with the use of the 
 needle by opposing any appreciable resistance, and it ought not to require 
 any kind of precaution in the etcher, who should never have to think 
 about it. 
 
 A really good etching-ground is of a very peculiar nature. It is suffi- 
 ciently hard without being brittle, and it is adhesive without being too 
 adhesive. It is easily removed with the point, and yet the minutest atom 
 of it that is left between two strokes will cling and remain and protect the 
 copper until the biting is all over. 
 
 I, have given a great deal of practical attention to the making of etch- 
 ing-grounds, and tried many experiments. After much laboratory work 
 and careful comparison, I arrived at the conclusion that the best ground 
 was that of Abraham Bosse, so I give the receipt for it here without 
 troubling the reader with any other. It is sufficiently, without being 
 unpleasantly, adhesive, it resists the acid bath quite perfectly, it offers no 
 appreciable resistance to the needle, and it is very easily laid on the 
 copper. 
 
 Bosses Ground. White wax, very pure, 50 grammes, gum mastic, 
 very pure, 30 grammes ; asphaltum, 1 5 grammes. 
 
 To make it you have a pan of water over a slow fire, and a clean por- 
 celain pot in the pan. Put the white wax first into the pot, and let it 
 melt. Then pound your gum mastic in a mortar till you have it in very 
 fine powder, and add it gradually to the wax, stirring with a clean little 
 glass rod. When the mastic is quite melted and thoroughly incorporated 
 with the wax, pound your asphaltum also in the mortar until it is in quite 
 a fine powder, and add it gradually, stirring all the time, and taking good 
 care that there are no little lumps of asphaltum. All the three ingredients 
 should be perfectly blended together, which they will not be if the mix- 
 ture is made carelessly. After stirring for some time longer, pour the 
 mixture into cold water, and when it is hard break it up into fragments, 
 and keep it in a wide-necked glass bottle with a glass stopper. If it 
 has been well made you will see that it breaks in a peculiarly pleasant 
 way. It is slightly elastic, but then breaks suddenly, clearly, and with a 
 peculiar sound. It should be a dull black, rather brighter in the breakage. 
 Etching-ground may be applied to a plate in a liquid state, as photo- 
 graphers apply collodion, by keeping it in solution. It may be dissolved
 
 4 i2 APPENDIX. 
 
 either in chloroform or ether ; it may also be dissolved in oil of lavender. 
 If you make the ether solution let it stand for three weeks, and then 
 decant the clear portion into another phial for use. Some years ago I 
 used these solutions, and valued especially that in ether, but now that I 
 employ the roller, which will be explained shortly, I have almost aban- 
 doned this manner of applying the etching-ground, except for the positive 
 process. When solutions are used the etcher should take care to distin- 
 guish between apparent drying, which takes place very soon, and real 
 drying, which may require many hours. 
 
 It is not easy to ascertain, without minute chemical analysis, what is 
 the composition of different etching-grounds sold ready-made. M. 
 Flameng tells me that those sold in London are too adhesive for his 
 taste, but that they resist uncommonly well. The consequence of a too 
 great degree of adhesiveness in the ground is, that when the etcher does 
 not actually cut into the copper, he may not entirely remove the ground, 
 though he thinks that he removes it, and as an extremely thin film is 
 enough to protect the copper, the acid will not attack his lines. I have 
 often been tormented by this inconvenience when using English ground, 
 and a very great inconvenience it is, for if some lines are attacked, whilst 
 others are not bitten at all, the result cannot fail to be a disappointment. 
 M. Flameng says that a disappointment of this kind occurred to him 
 when he used an English ground, but that he has never experienced it 
 with the French one he commonly uses. I made his ground the subject 
 of some experiments, and found it satisfactory, but for use with the roller 
 I prefer that of Abraham Bosse. 
 
 Each of the three elements in Bosse's ground is there for some special 
 reason, and has its own work to do. The mastic gives hardness, the wax 
 softness, the asphaltum adhesiveness. The mixture of the three in the 
 proportions given above secures that very peculiar balance of qualities 
 which is required in an etching-ground. Pitch is used in some grounds 
 to get still greater adhesiveness. Mastic and pitch would be brittle with- 
 out wax, but they would perfectly protect copper against acid. Wax pro- 
 tects copper, but it is too delicate by itself, except for the positive 
 process. 
 
 A White Ground. White wax, 50 grammes; gum mastic, 30 
 grammes. Melt the wax first as before in a pot surrounded with hot 
 water, and then add the gum mastic very gradually in powder. 
 
 This is the same as Bosse's ground without the asphaltum. It is 
 very transparent, but rather weak comparatively. Bosse's ground itself, 
 when applied very thinly with the roller, will serve as a transparent 
 ground if not smoked. 
 
 Etching-Pastes. The two grounds already described may be con- 
 verted into pastes for application with the roller, by simply melting them 
 and adding oil of lavender in greater or less quantity as the paste is 
 required to be more fluid or more stiff. Mix the oil thoroughly with the 
 ground by stirring with a glass rod. As for the quantity of oil required 
 vou can judge of that easily by letting a drop of the fluid oaste fall on a
 
 GROUNDS AND VARNISHES. 413 
 
 cold slab, when it soon solidifies as much as it can. If you find it too 
 hard, add more oil. The most convenient kind of paste for use with the 
 roller is just like the pomatum, sold by hairdressers, in consistence. It 
 is better that it should be rather too thin than too stiff, but it ought to 
 be stiff enough to stand and not flow. Whilst still hot and fluid pour it 
 into wide-necked glass-stoppered bottles, and after it sets pour a little oil 
 of lavender on the top of it to keep it frpm drying. With this precaution 
 you may keep your paste indefinitely. 
 
 Etching grounds for use with the brush. Take some of the paste just 
 described with a palette-knife and add to it enough oil of lavender to 
 make it sufficiently fluid for use with the brush. If you want a trans- 
 parent ground nothing more is to be added, but if you want your ground to 
 be black and opaque add lamp-black to it in impalpable powder with the 
 palette-knife, and rub the lamp-black and the etching ground thoroughly 
 well together till you have a sort of oil-paint. This black paint is a very 
 good ground to be laid with a brush, and it is very convenient for use in 
 certain circumstances. For example, a part of your etching is defective 
 and you would like to draw it over again without destroying the rest of your 
 drawing. Clean the ground off the defective place with a rag dipped in oil 
 of lavender, and when the copper is bare paint upon it with the black paint, 
 neatly joining up to the edges of what is to remain. Leave it to dry for 
 twenty-four hours, and then you can etch the passage over again. I must 
 warn the reader, however, that if the black paint is allowed to remain too 
 long (some weeks or months), it is apt to become brittle and shell off if there 
 is any excess of lamp-black in it. If properly mixed, and used within a 
 fortnight, it is perfectly safe, and a very great convenience to an etcher. 
 
 Stopping out Varnish. In the first edition of this work I gave three 
 old receipts for varnishes of this kind, and the reader will find others in 
 other books, but they are all defective. Either they are not fluid enough 
 for stopping out very minute portions of work quite conveniently, or else 
 they do not dry fast enough, or else you cannot work in them with the 
 needle if you want to lay fresh lines across the portions of the plate which 
 are protected by them. After many experiments, I hit upon a stopping- 
 out varnish which has the following qualities : i. It is as fluid as possible. 
 2. It dries at once. 3. It may be worked in afterwards with the needle. 
 
 To prepare it, make a saturated solution of white wax in ether.* When 
 this is left to settle there will be a part above, as clear as water, and a 
 part below, just like milk. The clear portion is what you want. Decant 
 this into another phial, and if you have any milky sediment, decant again, 
 till all is clear. Add to this about one-sixth of its volume of Japan varnish, 
 and mix well. You have now the best stopping-out varnish which has 
 yet been discovered, but as it dries very rapidly it requires a little pre- 
 caution in using. To use it pour a few drops of it into the tiniest bottle 
 you can get, with a very narrow neck, and then dip a small brush into 
 
 * Onlya little wax is required, as etherwill not really dissolve much. If, on settling, 
 there is more than a third of milky fluid, you can add more ether, shake the phial, 
 and let it settle again. The clear portion is a quite pure saturated solution of wax.
 
 4 i4 APPENDIX. 
 
 this, adding a drop now and then when wanted. Wash the little brush 
 frequently in oil of lavender and wipe it well. If the varnish gets too 
 thick you may thin it once or twice with a drop of ether, but when the 
 sitting is over throw away what remains in the tiny bottle, clean it well, 
 and take fresh varnish next time from your phial. There is no need to 
 make the varnish afresh each time, it will keep for years. 
 
 In this mixture the ether is used for greater fluidity and more :apid 
 drying than could be got by the use of turpentine ; the Japan varnish is 
 employed for its dark colour, its hardness, and its resistance to acid, the 
 wax is used to correct the hardness of the Japan varnish, so far as to per- 
 mit the etcher to work in it with the needle. 
 
 This varnish remains in perfect condition on the plate for some days 
 or even weeks, but in course of time the hardening power of the Japan 
 varnish so far overcomes the resistance of the wax as to make the varnish 
 brittle and therefore unfit to work in with the point. I have always found 
 that all ground in which Japan varnish is an ingredient became brittle in 
 a few months, but when we know this it is not an objection, as there is 
 plenty of time to etch the most elaborate plate before the brittleness 
 comes on. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ACID BATH. 
 
 ONE of the very greatest of recent improvements in the scientific part 
 of etching has been the discovery of the Dutch mordant. It is very slow 
 in operation, but at the same time very sure. With Bosse's ground it 
 enlarges the line but little, much less than nitric acid does. I cannot 
 conceive how any etcher, who has used it, can employ nitric acid again 
 except as an auxiliary, for a special purpose. 
 
 The Dutch Mordant. This invaluable mordant is composed as 
 follows : 
 
 Chlorate of potash, 20 grammes ; hydrochloric acid 100 grammes ; 
 water 880 grammes. Total, 1000 grammes, = i litre. 
 
 The way to make it is as follows. First heat the water by putting the 
 bottle containing it into a pan also containing water, and keep it on the 
 fire till that in the pan boils. Now add the chlorate of potash and see 
 that every crystal of it is dissolved. Shake the bottle to help the solution. 
 When no more crystals are to be seen you may add the hydrochloric acid. 
 
 Make a good quantity of this mordant at once, so as always to have a 
 plentiful supply by you. 
 
 The Nitric Bath. The acids commonly used for biting plates before 
 the introduction of the Dutch mordant were nitric and nitrous acids 
 diluted with water, usually with an equal quantity of water. 
 
 It is still necessary to keep nitric acid in the laboratory as an auxiliary,
 
 THE LABORATORY AND PRINTING-ROOM. 415 
 
 useful under certain circumstances, which will be explained later. Keep 
 it pure and dilute it when required to the degree necessary at the moment. 
 
 Perchloride of Iron, more or less diluted with water is an excellent 
 mordant. It bites deep and clear without enlarging the line much, and 
 there is no ebullition as there is with nitric acid. There is however the 
 objection that its dark colour rather prevents one from seeing what is 
 going on, and this is an insuperable objection for the positive process. 
 
 You may keep perchloride of iron in the laboratory as an auxiliary, 
 to be used in certain cases. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LABORATORY AND PRINTING-ROOM. 
 
 IT is always best, when it can be managed, to keep acids and other 
 chemicals out of the rooms you commonly inhabit. Any little place will 
 do for a laboratory if it is well-lighted. You may have your little printing 
 establishment in the same room. There ought to be two tables, and 
 plenty of shelves, with a few drawers. 
 
 Cleanliness is the great necessity in a laboratory. It ought always to 
 be kept as tidy and clean as possible. The room should be simple and 
 naked, so that everything in it may be easily dusted and washed. The 
 operator ought to make a rule that all shall be in perfect order at least 
 once a day, and keep his ritle. An evening inspection will ensure this. 
 You cannot carry order and cleanliness too far in a place of this kind, for 
 there is no certainty or satisfaction in chemical experiments without them, 
 and etching is always a chemical experiment. 
 
 Use nothing but glass-stoppered bottles, and have a large distinctly- 
 written label on each of them. Have all utensils as much as possible of 
 glass, or if not that at least of pure white porcelain. 
 
 77/i? Printing-press. For the convenience of etchers, I invented a 
 miniature press, which may be carried anywhere, and will give good 
 proofs. Mr. Roberson of Long Acre sells the smallest of these at two 
 guineas and a larger size at four guineas. M. Cadart, the publisher, also 
 constructed a small press, which is sold in London by Messrs. Dulau and 
 Co., 37 Soho Square, price six pounds. My object was to contrive a 
 miniature and very portable affair, which an etcher might put in his box 
 when travelling, and use anywhere, in an inn, in a friend's house, or even 
 out of doors when etching from nature.* M. Cadart's object was to con- 
 
 * I wish to make a few observations about the way of using those little presses, 
 as etchers sometimes write to me to complain that their proofs are pale and feeble. 
 As I first invented them, the roller terminated in a ring, like a ring-bolt. The 
 press was then to be temporarily fixed to any strong table or chimney-piece, by 
 means of a screw-clamp, and the printer was to insert a lever in the ring with
 
 4i 6 APPENDIX. 
 
 trive a convenient reduction of the ordinary printer's press, which, without 
 occupying much space, would still be a substantial piece of furniture. If 
 the reader can give a room specially to etching as a laboratory he will do 
 well to get one of M. Cadart's presses ; if not, he will find those sold by 
 Mr. Roberson more convenient, as they can be put out of the way in a 
 minute. More ambitious etchers may set up regular presses like those 
 used by printers. Mr. Haden's great press for printing the " Calais Pier " 
 after Turner is a magnificent and costly machine, perhaps the finest in all 
 London, Mr. Samuel Palmer, too, has a good press. If the reader 
 chooses to launch out a little in this direction he may spend from ^25 to 
 150 on his press without being cheated of a penny. 
 
 A press of some kind is not only desirable for an etcher, it is a positive 
 necessity. The habit of frequently taking proofs advances him in his art, 
 and in this sense it is not too much to say that the press is a silent but 
 severe master, always ready to point out the defects of our work, or to 
 encourage us when we deserve it. For etchers who live in the country a 
 press is especially necessary, the delays caused by sending the plates to 
 town every time that a proof is wanted are so annoying as to become in 
 time almost insupportable, and lead to a despairing abandonment of 
 correction. 
 
 The qualities of a good press are to have true motion, strong pressure 
 
 which he might turn the cylinder. Some amateur fancied that the ring was incon- 
 venient, and persuaded the maker to substitute a small wheel, to be turned with 
 the hands. Now the consequence of this "improvement" is, that the proofs are 
 necessarily weak, for if you put pressure enough on the roller by means of the 
 screws to give you a fine proof, you will not be able to turn it with so small a 
 leverage as the little wheel affords you. I therefore quite decline to be responsible 
 for the success of any of these little presses, which do not afford some means of 
 getting the necessary leverage. The original one in my laboratory has a ring, and 
 to move it I insert a strong lever more than a yard long, which is equivalent to a 
 wheel six feet in <ameter, the spokes of which are merely levers of the same kind, 
 fixed. When full pressure is on, I could not stir the roller without such a lever. 
 Another press in my laboratory has a wheel of eight spokes, each of them more than 
 a yard long. These are rather more convenient than the loose lever for a fixed 
 machine, but the loose lever is more convenient for one that is not always in 
 the same place. 
 
 A correspondent in America who has got one of the little presses from Eng- 
 land says, that he fears the little roller, from its small diameter, will not mount the 
 bevel of the plate, when there is pressure enough to give a good proof. Cer- 
 tainly it will not, unless there are slips of metal at the two edges of the travelling 
 board, to keep the roller at a certain height above the board, so that it may not 
 have to rise much upon the bevel. Suppose, for instance, that you are going to 
 take a proof with one of these little presses which has a plain travelling board and 
 a small roller. You put on a good pressure with the screws, the roller turns well, 
 and the board travels until the plate is brought to the roller, which then turns 
 round and round on the flannel, without rising upon the plate. You then reduce 
 the screw pressure, but the consequence is that you get a feeble proof. I explained 
 long since to the maker how this inconvenience was to be obviated, and here I will
 
 THE LAB OR A TOR Y AND PRINTING-ROOM. 4 1 7 
 
 and the least possible friction. The roller must of course be accurately 
 turned, for if it is not, the pressure will be unequal on different parts of the 
 plate. The travelling-board must also be well-planed, so as to be per- 
 fectly flat and of exactly the same thickness throughout. Perfectly good 
 proofs may be taken by means of wooden presses (Rembrandt and his con- 
 temporaries used them), but it is necessary to send the rollers to the turner 
 from time to time. In applying pressure by means of the screws the 
 etcher should take the greatest care to observe that the pressure is equal 
 at the two extremities of the roller ; for if it is not, one side of his proofs 
 will come feebler in the printing than the other side. 
 
 I will now give an inventory of things required in the laboratory and 
 printing-room. 
 
 I. A printing-press. 
 
 2. A simple kind of screw-press to flatten proofs. For small plates 
 a common copying-press will answer perfectly. 
 
 3. Copperplates. Keep your spoiled coppers (you will have a good 
 many such at first) and have them replaned. If strong at first they may 
 be replaned two or three times. The etching by Lalanne in this volume 
 is on a very thin copper, which has probably been several times replaned. 
 A correspondent thought this objectionable, because thin coppers curved 
 
 explain it again. Screw two narrow plates or bands of metal along the sides of 
 the travelling board thus, so that the roller may run on them as if on rails. They 
 
 should be a little thinner than the plate, and as long as the travelling board. The 
 plate to be printed is now to be laid between them. By this contrivance, which I 
 have tested in practice, the roller encounters no insurmountable difficulty, and the 
 pressure may be put on by the screws to any amount required, for the production 
 of a good proof. I can take proofs with the smallest of the miniature presses, as 
 clear and powerful as with a large one, and the reader ought to be able to do 
 the same. 
 
 I may add that Japanese paper is much easier to print upon than any other. 
 
 I have improved my own large press lately by the addition of guiding rails. 
 These rails are of iron, with a square section of half-an-inch. One of them is 
 screwed upon the board on which the small rollers run. The other is screwed 
 under the travelling board, and both are placed exactly in the middle, so that the 
 latter is just over the former. In my press there are four running rollers, three 
 inches in diameter. These are of wood, so the turner made a groove in each of them 
 for the guiding rails to fit into, and, therefore, when in action, each roller has the 
 lower guiding rail in it below, and the upper one in it above. The consequence 
 of this is, that the travelling board can never deviate in the least, for the rail on 
 the fixed plank makes the rollers go straight, and the rail under the travelling 
 board enables the rollers in their turn to compel the travelling board to go straight 
 The same improvement might be applied to smaller presses. 
 
 2 E
 
 4 i 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 under the press, but M. Lidnard, my printer, says that thin ones are as 
 easy to print from as others. 
 
 4. A roller for rebiting the French rouleau a revcrnir. I shall 
 write a little chapter specially on the various uses of this invaluable 
 Instrument. 
 
 5. Three pieces of plate glass, twelve inches by ten, and three-tenths 
 of an inch thick, like those used in photographic printing-presses. The 
 use of these will be explained in the chapter on the roller. 
 
 6. Dabbers. The best way to make a dabber is as follows : Havf 
 some horse-hair, some cotton-wool, and a piece of black taffetas silk, c 
 good quality. Lay the cotton-wool on the silk, first, in a circular shape, 
 about four inches in diameter, then lay a good heap of well-separated 
 horse-hair upon this. Draw the silk up all round and force the materials 
 inside into rather a flat shape. Tie the silk together, binding it with a waxed 
 thread, and cut off the superfluous silk. A dabber of this kind may be 
 cleaned with turpentine, or you may put a new cover on it and renew the 
 cover as often as you please, without making a new dabber. The readiest 
 way to clean a dabber is to heat it over a spirit lamp, and then briskly 
 wipe it on clean stiff canvas of the sort used in printing. Always keep 
 dabbers scrupulously clean, and in a box of their own. 
 
 7. Smoking tapers. What are called " cellar-rats " in France are 
 the best for this purpose. To make them, twist eight cotton threads 
 rather loosely together and dip them two or three times in molten bees- 
 wax. Twist a dozen of these dips together, warming them in warm water 
 to enable you to do it without breaking them. 
 
 8. A holder for smoking. A common little tin cup with a fl-it 
 bottom. You stick the smoking taper in this with wax, and it prevents 
 the molten wax from running on your fingers. An extinguisher. 
 
 9. A set of etching needles. See Chapter II. 
 
 10. A burnisher. This is a smooth steel instrument for polishing 
 copper by friction and pressure. It must be kept entirely free from 
 scratches or rust-pits. 
 
 1 1. A piece of deal with two grooves in it the size of your burnisher. 
 In one of these keep a little emery powder, in the other some tripoli and 
 oil. By rubbing your burnisher backwards and forwards in these grooves, 
 you will keep it bright. 
 
 12. A scraper. This is a three-edged tool, and its edges have to be 
 kept very sharp or they will scratch the copper. 
 
 13. A flat scraper shaped like a leaf, to be kept very sharp. When 
 properly held in the hand this tool will take shavings off the copper half 
 an inch or three quarters of an inch long. It is the most powerful 
 reducer of surface. 
 
 14. A good oil-stone to sharpen your tools. 
 
 15. An engraver's magnifying glass, to be held in the eye. 
 
 1 6. A larger magnifying glass, to be held in the hand. 
 
 17. Several photographer's trays for acid baths, etc. They are best 
 in glass, next best in white porcelain, after that come the gutta percha
 
 THE LABORA TOR Y AND PRINTING-ROOM. 4 1 9 
 
 trays, whose chief merit is that they are not fragile. Lastly, trays may be 
 made of wood, painted inside with a solution of Bosse's etching-ground in 
 oil of lavender. These answer fairly well, and are sometimes a conveni- 
 ence, as any joiner can make them, and the etcher himself can paint them. 
 I have several such which have been in use for years. If a leak occurs, 
 give a new coat of etching-ground. The greatest objection to them- is 
 that they cannot be used for everything as glass and porcelain can. Thus, 
 ycu cannot put schist oil or turpentine into them, or even ammonia, and 
 tfhey are only good for acid and water. 
 
 \ 18. A sufficient supply of bottles with glass stoppers for acid baths 
 and other chemicals. 
 
 19. A supply of chemicals, including nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, 
 perchloride of iron, chlorate of potash, pure alcohol, methylated spirit ot 
 wine (for lamp), oil of lavender, schist oil, shale oil, or petroleum for 
 cleaning,* liquid ammonia, ether, japan varnish, olive oil, asphaltum, 
 white wax, gum mastic, lamp black, and Bleu d' Argent. This last is for 
 'silvering plates for the positive process. It can only be got in England 
 of Mr. Roberson, 99 Long Acre. See Chemistry of Etching. 
 
 20. Finger-gloves in India-rubber. 
 
 2i. Willow charcoal. If you cannot get it conveniently from a 
 maker who is accustomed to prepare it specially for engravers, you must 
 make it. Take thick sticks of willow, remove the bark, cut them into 
 short lengths, lay them on the ground in a little stack, and cover them 
 entirely with red-hot wood cinders, and on the cinders heap wood-ashes, 
 so that no air can get to them. Leave them there an hour and a 
 quarter, or an hour and a half, according to the thickness of the sticks ; 
 then take them out and throw them into cold water. 
 
 22. Tracing-paper. 
 
 23. Gelatine tracing material. This is sold in thin sheets measuring 
 21 in. by 13 in. It is most invaluable stuff for all work that has to be 
 reversed. Artists' colourmen in London supply it. To use it you 
 scratch on it with a needle, removing the bur so raised with a strong 
 brush, and afterwards fill the scratches with black lead such as house- 
 keepers use, then, laying it face downwards on the grounded copper you 
 rub the back with a burnisher, which leaves a distinct tracing in com- 
 paratively light colour. 
 
 24. Emery paper, the very finest you can get. 
 
 25. Plenty of good blotting-paper, soft and thick. 
 
 26. A looking-glass for reversing. 
 
 27. Printing-ink. A special kind of ink is made for plate-printing : 
 typographic printing-ink will not do for this purpose. It is well to get 
 your ink ready-made from some experienced printer, or from Mr. Rober- 
 son. It is most troublesome stuff to make. 
 
 28. A dabber made of cloth rolled into a cylindrical shape, and firmly 
 
 * Schist oil is much the best cleanser. Petroleum is too volatile for the 
 purpose, and benzine is much too volatile, but good in other respects. Turpentina 
 does not c?*an so well as schist oil. and is much dearer.
 
 420 APPENDIX. 
 
 bound round with waxed thread. The edges of the cloth take the ink. 
 and the dabber is held as you hold a tumbler-glass. This dabber may 
 be about the size of a pint bottle, and not unlike it in shape. When 
 new, the end should be neatly cut flat with a sharp knife, and singed. 
 
 29. A plentiful supply of printer's canvas for wiping the superfluous 
 ink from the plate. 
 
 30. A small supply of old fine muslin, well washed till it is quite soft. 
 This is used for what is called retronssage, which will be explained 
 shortly. 
 
 31. The plate-heater (for heating plates for printing), which is a box 
 of sheet iron. It may be two feet long by twenty inches wide, and nine 
 inches deep, unless you intend to etch very large plates, when of course 
 you must have a heater big enough to warm the whole of your plate con- 
 veniently at the same time. 
 
 The inside of this box is to be kept full of hot air, which may be easily 
 managed by having a hole in the bottom of it big enough to admit the 
 chimney of an ordinary oil 'or petroleum lamp. If you have access to gas 
 ou can use it. French printers, from tradition, use charcoal cinders in 
 a flat tray inside the box, wjth ashes over them to keep the heat regular 
 for a long time. For occasional use a spirit-lamp does perfectly, but it 
 would be expensive to use it long. 
 
 32. A supply of paper for printing. If possible you should get a 
 supply of Japanese paper, another of Dutch, and one or two varieties ot 
 French and English papers. Paper-making for etchers is now very well 
 understood. If by chance you should run short of paper at any time, 
 and want to take a proof, remember that a good proof may always be 
 taken on any paper which is good for drawing upon in water-colour. 
 
 33. A marble slab and muller for printer's ink. A knife for the same 
 purpose, like a large palette-knife. 
 
 34. The very finest whitening. 
 
 35. A sponge to damp paper. 
 
 36. A flat brush, like a clothes-brush, to brush paper. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE ROLLER AND ITS USES. 
 
 THE roller is one of the great modern improvements in the technical 
 apparatus of etching. It is a cylinder of wood 8 inches long, by 4 inches, 
 with two projecting handles in its axis, each of them about an inch 
 thick, and 4| inches long. The roller is covered with thick smooth leather, 
 but between the leather and the wood there is a covering of thick flannel 
 to give elasticity. The leather is joined so neatly that the place where it is 
 cemented is hardly perceptible. It is drawn over the edges of the 
 cylinder, and tightened with strings like purse-strings, so that the edges
 
 THE ROLLER AND ITS USES. 421 
 
 are rounded and covered. The reader will perceive that although the 
 roller is a very simple machine, only a highly-skilled workman can make 
 it perfectly well. The best are made by G. Schmautz of Paris, and they 
 may be got from Cadart of Paris, or from Mr. Roberson in London. 
 The price of one in Paris is twenty francs. 
 
 The roller is delivered in a box, which is so constructed that no part 
 of the leather ever touches anything. The box is very important to pro- 
 tect the instrument from dust, and the roller is never taken out of its box 
 for longer than just the time necessary for its use. 
 
 It was invented at first for one purpose only, namely, to cover the 
 plate for rebiting, which I shall explain shortly, but etchers soon dis- 
 covered that it was also an excellent instrument for laying the first 
 ground. Before its introduction the dabber had been used for both pur- 
 poses, a very clumsy thing in comparison. 
 
 Laying the first ground with the roller. In the list of things useful 
 in the laboratory and printing-room, given in the preceding chapter, I 
 mentioned three pieces of plate-glass (see 5). They are extremely 
 useful when you employ the roller, though not absolutely indispensable. 
 Copper-plates, such as you etch upon, will answer the same purpose, and 
 so will marble slabs, but less agreeably to the operator. I use plate-glass 
 for its cleanliness and the perfect flatness of its surface. 
 
 Lay your plate, well-cleaned, on one of these glasses, and have the 
 others on the same table conveniently near. Now take your bottle of 
 etching-paste, that is your Bosse ground made into paste with oil of 
 lavender as already explained. See that there is no dust on your glasses. 
 With a perfectly clean palette-knife take some of the paste and spread it 
 equally on one of the glasses in a horizontal band about two inches broad. 
 If the paste is too thick for this to be done easily, add a few drops of oil 
 of lavender, and mix thoroughly well with the palette-knife. Now take 
 your roller and roll over and over again until you spread a film of paste 
 quite evenly on your glass. If the roller is rather over-charged with 
 paste (you will easily judge of this after a few experiments) pass it once 
 on the other glass to get rid of what is superfluous, then apply it to your 
 copper. You ought to be able to lay a thin and perfectly even coat of 
 paste by this means upon your copper. 
 
 When the paste is just of the right thickness and is the proper quantity 
 it simply dulls the surface of the glass, making it of a dead pale brown. 
 It ought not to look like treacle. You ought to hear a regular crisp sound 
 as the roller passes over the glass. After some practice the ear will tell 
 you when it is right. 
 
 The plate being now covered with a film of paste your next business 
 is to expel the oil of lavender from the etching- ground. The oil was 
 merely a vehicle like water in water-colour painting. It is easily got rid 
 of by heating the plate gently over a spirit-lamp.* When the ground 
 
 * To do this, of course you hold the plate in a hand-vice, with a bit of paper 
 to protect the polished side from the vice.
 
 422 APPENDIX. 
 
 looks transparent and loses its dead surface, it has been sufficiently 
 heated. 
 
 You may now cover the back of the plate with a little paste applied 
 with the dabber. 
 
 Whilst the plate is still warm you smoke it. To do this you light 
 your smoking taper (see preceding Chapter, 7), and when there is a large 
 flame, giving off smoke, hold your plate above it with the face downwards, 
 in such a manner that the flame may just touch the etching-ground. Move 
 the plate slowly in every direction, so that all parts of its surface may be 
 smoked alike, and none burnt. 
 
 After a very little practice you will be able to ground a plate much 
 more easily and incomparably more perfectly with the roller than you 
 possibly could- with the dabber. 
 
 Grounding a plate for Rebiting. It is well to practise what has just 
 been described before attempting to ground for rebiting, as much more 
 skill is required. 
 
 The purpose of this process is to cover and protect the smooth surface 
 of copper between the lines of a plate which has been already bitten, but 
 insufficiently bitten, in order that the lines may be exposed again to the 
 action of the acid, and deepened, without damaging the smooth spaces of 
 copper and without incurring the great labour which would be necessary 
 to clean the lines of the etching-ground with the point, if they were filled. 
 
 Having cleaned the plate thoroughly with schist-oil and whitening 
 and bread, you lay it as before on one of the glasses and charge your 
 roller with etching paste as before, taking especial care, however, this time 
 that it is not over-charged, and removing what is superfluous by rolling on 
 the second plate-glass if it is. You then pass the roller over the plate by 
 simply pushing the handles with the thumbs, not pressing in the least, as 
 that would fill the shallower lines. Roll over the plate twice in one 
 direction, and then twice at right angles to the first direction. Nothing 
 more must be done. If this has been done properly the smooth parts 
 will be well covered and the lines will not be filled except perhaps a few 
 of the very shallowest. You then expel the oil of lavender by means of 
 heat, as before. You do not smoke this time. Protect the back of your 
 plate as before, or with stopping-out varnish, and the edges also. You 
 then stop out with the same varnish all those parts of the plate which are 
 already sufficiently bitten, leaving the others to be acted upon by the acid. 
 
 The old-fashioned manner of rebiting was far inferior to this. The 
 dabber was used, and instead of employing the etching-ground in a paste, 
 according to the present practice, it was melted by heat on another copper- 
 plate. The consequence of this clumsy arrangement was that shallow 
 lines were often filled, and rebiting, except when very skilfully done, was 
 in a great measure illusory. You could deepen the lines which did not 
 want deepening, but not those which most needed it. The roller makes 
 rebiting much more practical, indeed some modern etchers bite shallow 
 at first on purpose, and do not give their extreme darks until they nave 
 seen a proof, when they get them by rebiting as required.
 
 131 TING. 423 
 
 Grounding a plate to add work -with the needle. A third and most 
 important advantage of the roller is that when the etcher wishes to add 
 work with the needle he is not absolutely obliged to use the transparent 
 white ground. The roller can lay a ground so very thinly and evenly that 
 even after it has been smoked the very finest lines which have been 
 etched already remain distinctly visible and the artist can work over and 
 between them. He thus sees much better what he is doing than in a 
 transparent ground, whilst he is just as well aware of what has already 
 been done. Another important advantage is that the black ground 
 resists acid more surely than the white one, which is always comparatively- 
 weak from the absence of asphaltum or pitch and lamp-black, besides 
 which a defective place is not so easily detected in it as it is in the' dark 
 ground. 
 
 If the reader has not a roller he may apply his first ground in solution 
 like collodion, by dissolving it in ether, in chloroform, or in oil of lavender 
 (see Chapter on Grounds and Varnishes), but when the plate has been etched 
 upon it is better to use the dabber, either for rebiting, or for subsequent 
 work with the needle, because a fluid ground would fill up lines intended 
 to be rebitten, and it does not properly protect the edges of lines which 
 are intended to be quite covered. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 BITING. 
 
 THE weak point of etching, which I do not attempt to dissimulate, is the 
 difficulty of biting accurately enough, that is to the exact degree of depth 
 which the artist would desire. There is always an element of hazard in 
 the biting, but our object ought to be at least the reduction of risk if we 
 cannot get rid of it altogether. 
 
 The reader is now fore-warned that he is to expect difficulties and dis- 
 appointments at this stage of the process ; at the same time certain 
 devices will be explained by which these difficulties have been much 
 reduced. 
 
 The qualities of a satisfactory biting are : 
 
 i. To be instantaneous and simultaneous in the first attack. Some 
 lines on the plate ought not to be biting whilst others are not yet affected 
 by the acid, for if this occurs the balance of the work will be destroyed, 
 even though the lines which were untouched at first should be attacked 
 subsequently. 
 
 2. To be regular in its operation. The biting ought not to go on 
 quickly for some time and then slowly, nor ought it to stop altogether 
 except at the will of the operator. 
 
 3. It ought to eat the lines in depth and not in breadth (or as little as
 
 424 APPENDIX. 
 
 possible) unless the artist desires to increase their breadth, when the acid 
 ought to do what he wishes. 
 
 4. The biting ought to be well under the control of the operator 
 from beginning to end. 
 
 Now let me explain some causes which often prevent these desiderata 
 from being realised. 
 
 First with regard to i. Etchers often suffer from the great annoy- 
 ance of seeing their plate attacked unequally. Some lines will be quite 
 deeply bitten, whilst others are not bitten at all. The consequence in the 
 proof may be imagined. A plate which was harmonious in the drawing 
 looks, in the printing, like the shattered fragments of a ruined inscription. 
 All its tones, too, have gone wrong, and it must either be repaired at the 
 cost of great labour, or else begun over again, with the risk of a similar 
 misadventure. What is the reason for this? M. Flameng gave it as his 
 opinion that the cause was too great adhesiveness in the ground ; M. 
 Greux, on the other hand, thought that the true reason was the state of 
 the copper before the ground was laid, which in his own case he con- 
 tended against by bathing it in acid and water, till water dropped upon it 
 would spread, and not run off in globules. I suffered at one time greatly 
 from this annoyance, so much that it seemed as if there were an evil spell 
 upon my plates, for the acid attacked the lines irregularly here and there 
 in patches, or one line would be bitten and the one next to it (although 
 apparently drawn in the same way) would resist the action of the acid for 
 several hours. I therefore made many experiments on etching-grounds, 
 especially with regard to the quality of adhesiveness, and I found in 
 accordance with M. Flameng's opinion that the less adhesiveness there 
 was in the ground, the less was the liability to an irregular attack in the 
 biting. This is why I recommend Bosse's ground. It is sufficiently 
 adhesive but not too much so, and therefore the etching-point easily 
 removes it from the true surface of the copper. When the adhesion is 
 excessive, the paint may often leave a thin film of ground upon the 
 copper not perceptible to the eye, but enough to defend it against acid. 
 But in addition to this I took two other precautions. First, I determined 
 that the surface of the copper should take water well before being 
 grounded, and found that the following treatment effected this better 
 than anything else. 
 
 1. Bathe the plate in the Dutch mordant (see Chap. IV.) for five 
 minutes, or till it is all stained dark. 
 
 2. Wash it well in clean water. 
 
 3. Bathe it in a mixture of equal parts of liquid ammonia and water 
 till the copper shows red all over. 
 
 4. Wash it well in clean water and leave it in the water for half-an- 
 hour. 
 
 After this treatment the surface of the copper offers no resistance to 
 water, but can be really wetted. It will therefore not resist an immediate 
 attack of acid in the acid bath if laid bare by the point. 
 
 I dry the plate over the spirit-lamp and do not touch it with any rag.
 
 BITING. 425 
 
 but remove dust with a clean camel-hair brush just before applying the 
 ground with the roller. 
 
 After adopting this system I had no more accidents of the kind 
 described above, but to make assurance doubly sure I forced myself into 
 the habit of cutting into the copper itself with the etching-point. If an 
 etcher were always quite sure of doing this it would be unnecessary for 
 him to trouble himself with precautions about the surface of the copper 
 he need not even clean it, but in the excitement of rapid work, 
 especially when it is done from nature, one is apt to forget to cut into 
 the copper, so that it is well to be sure about the state of its surface also. 
 The reader is now in full possesssion of means which will enable him to 
 contend against one of the greatest inconveniences which can occur to 
 him. 
 
 Now as to the requirement 2, regularity of operation. Is there 
 danger of irregularity? Yes, there is. What are the causes of it? 
 There are two or three causes, so we will take one at a time. One cause, 
 then, is a difference of temperature. You have founded your calculations 
 about the effects of biting upon an experiment performed under a certain 
 temperature. You afterwards bite a plate under another temperature 
 and are surprised to find the result different from what you expected it to 
 be. But you ought not to be surprised, for temperature is like the 
 regulator of a watch which makes it go fast or slowly. Heat makes 
 the acid bath bite fast, cold makes it bite slowly. Evidently, then, 
 there is a very simple way of obtaining regularity so far as heat can effect 
 it, and that is to keep your bath artificially at the same heat by means of 
 a thermometer and a lamp. I place my porcelain tray that contains the 
 bath on the plate-warmer which is commonly used to warm plates for 
 printing. I put the lamp under it and regulate the heat of the bath 
 to ninety degrees Fahrenheit, just as if I were giving a warm bath to a 
 delicate patient. I keep it steadily to that heat * till the whole operation 
 is over, and by this means, whether in the height of summer or the depth 
 of winter, I know what is done in a given time. Here, again, one of the 
 commonest causes of miscalculation is entirely obviated by the simplest 
 means. 
 
 There is a peculiarity about biting with nitric acid which requires to 
 be noted, for it cannot be got over. When many lines are close together, 
 as in close shading, they bite sooner than when isolated. Biting begins 
 in the closest work, and attacks the most isolated lines last. It creeps 
 into some lines gradually by a sort of contagion from some piece of close 
 shading, as an epidemic disease spreads into the thinly-peopled country 
 from dense centres of population. The Dutch mordant and perchloride 
 of iron both attack more regularly. 
 
 Another cause of miscalculation is this. The bath may be very strong 
 at first and then rapidly weaken. I will take an extreme instance. 
 
 * You need not put your thermometer into the acid. You can have a smaller 
 /essel on the same plate-warmer, containing pure water as an indicator.
 
 426 APPENDIX. 
 
 Suppose you apply nitric acid quite pure, with a brush ; the ebullition is 
 most violent at the beginning and the action of the acid is tremendous, 
 but in a short time its energy is expended, it has taken up so much copper 
 that it can dissolve no more and you have simply a thick nitrate of copper 
 lying on the surface of your plate. Here the energy is great at the 
 beginning and gradually but swiftly lessens ; evidently, then, you are not 
 to count upon the action of such a bath as if it were regularly continuous. 
 The same thing occurs in all cold baths in minor degrees, and now how 
 are we to combat it? 
 
 First, we may observe that the quicker and more energetic the action, 
 the quicker also is the decline of power in the bath, we, therefore, do well 
 to choose mordants which operate slowly, such as the Dutch mordant. 
 Again, the smaller the quantity of the mordant the sooner it becomes 
 charged with copper and weakened in its action. It is, therefore, an 
 excellent rule to have deep and large trays for the baths, and put a great 
 quantity of mordant into them. We can also refresh the bath from time 
 to time by pouring out a part of it and adding fresh mordant. Is there 
 any means of ascertaining how much the bath has been weakened ? Yes, 
 just as the thermometer informs you of its strength, so far as heat affects 
 it, so the colour informs you of its condition as to absorption of copper. 
 When it becomes of a very dark green you know that it has dissolved 
 much copper and weakened itself accordingly. Therefore, just as you 
 keep up to one temperature keep to one colour, a rich green, neither pale 
 nor dark. Mind that the depth of the bath is always the same, or you 
 will not be able to judge of the green. In the warm bath evaporation 
 concentrates the chlorate solution and so counteracts the weakening. 
 
 We have said that the action of the bath ought not to stop altogether 
 except at the will of the operator. The inexperienced reader will be 
 much surprised to hear that such a thing ever occurs, but it does occur 
 with all mordants. The lines, for some reason which we will endeavour 
 to ascertain when speaking of the chemistry of etching, are hollowed 
 down to a certain depth but then the acid strikes work and eats no 
 farther. A safe practical precaution against this is to take your plate 
 out of the Dutch mordant from time to time, put it in pure water of the 
 same temperature (plenty of water in a big tray), wash it thoroughly for a 
 quarter of an hour, and brush into all the lines lightly but effectually with 
 a camel-hair brush. If we could add ammonia to the water it would be 
 still better, but we cannot, because ammonia spoils the etching-ground 
 and causes it to come off in flakes. 
 
 We may now pass to 3. We said that the acid ought to eat the lines 
 in depth and not in breadth (or as little as possible) unless the artist 
 desires to increase their breadth, when the acid ought to do what he 
 wishes. 
 
 This is almost entirely in our own power. Powerful acid baths which 
 cause ebullition, as, for example, a strong nitric bath, greatly increase 
 the breadth of lines whilst they bite. Baths which operate slowly and 
 without ebullition, such as the Dutch mordant and perchloride of iron,
 
 BITING. 427 
 
 bite in depth without much disturbing the edges of the lines, unless the 
 etching-ground is very weak. For example, the Dutch mordant will not 
 eat much into the edges of the lines when the plate is well covered 
 with Bosse's ground, but it widens them much and steadily when the 
 plate is only covered with a thin coat of pure white wax applied in solu- 
 tion. Pure nitric acid", on the other hand, widens lines always and 
 enormously, upheaving all the small patches of ground which are left be- 
 tween the lines and carrying them away. The reader now perceives 
 that with different mordants and grounds we have the power of widening 
 lines or not as it pleases us. In some cases it is necessary to do so, and 
 then we choose either a weak ground (as in my positive procj-ss) or else 
 a strong ebullient mordant such as nitric acid. In general practice it is 
 however most desirable that lines should remain as nearly as possible 
 such as they were originally drawn ; hence the Dutch mordant and the 
 perchloride of iron mordant are precious resources for an etcher. A deep 
 narrow line prints clear, pure, and intensely black, it therefore greatly 
 helps to give a brilliant appearance to an etching. 
 
 The reader is especially requested to remember that lines are always 
 sure to be enlarged in rebiting, because the ground applied for that 
 purpose is always necessarily very thin, and it is not smoked. It is there- 
 fore prudent to use the Dutch mordant for rebiting, or a dilution of per- 
 chloride of iron, and to heat the bath little, say to 70 degrees, except in 
 cases where an enlargement of the lines is thought necessary to the rich- 
 ness of the effect, as it sometimes may be. 
 
 We said ( 4) that the biting ought to be well under the control of the 
 operator from beginning to end. 
 
 This is already to a great extent insured by the precautions I have 
 already indicated, but still farther precautions may be taken with advan- 
 tage. An excellent one is to have a tell-tale or indicator in the same 
 bath with the plate. This is a slip of copper-plate of the same quality 
 and covered with the same ground. The etcher draws upon this a 
 quantity of lines and shading resembling in quality the lines and shading 
 upon his plate. The tell-tale is then put into the bath along with the 
 plate, and from time to time it is taken out and a portion of the ground 
 removed, when the etcher sees at once what the acid has been doing, and 
 can judge whether it is time to stop out portions of the plate itself. To 
 make assurance doubly sure, he ought, however, before stopping-out, to 
 remove a little ground with the scraper from the portion of the plate 
 which he thinks is sufficiently bitten, in order to see positively that it is 
 so. Even then it will require some practice before he can really know 
 the state of his plate by seeing a little bit of the bare copper. 
 
 // is better to underbite a plate in the darks than to overbite it, because 
 if underbitten in these lines it is easily darkened afterwards by rebiting, 
 whereas when they are too much bitten it is difficult to reduce them 
 without spoiling the quality of any finer lines that may happen to be in 
 their immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 // is better, on the other hand, to overbite light and pale passages than
 
 428 APPENDIX. 
 
 to underbite them, for, if they are underbitten it is most difficult, if not 
 altogether impossible, to rebite them, because you can hardly ever cover 
 the plate with etching-ground without filling them up, whereas, on the 
 other hand, they are very easily reduced when overbitten, either by char- 
 coal or simply with the scraper and burnisher. 
 
 In concluding this part of the subject let me warn the reader against 
 two evils common in the work even of clever men, pitting, and rotten lines. 
 Pitting is the occurrence of involuntary dots which, if neglected, get very 
 deeply bitten and cannot then be removed without spoiling the work 
 round them rotten lines are lines which were intended to be continuous, 
 but which show interruptions and involuntary differences of quality. 
 
 Pitting may be due to impurities in the materials of which the etching- 
 ground is composed, that is, there may be minute particles of foreign 
 matter imperceptible to the naked eye but soluble in acid. Minute pitting 
 is produced purposely in this way in aquatint engraving. Asphaltum, it 
 appears, is usually more or less impure, containing various foreign sub- 
 stances which, being soluble in mordants, expose a plate to spotting. To 
 purify asphaltum the following method has been proposed by M. Deles- 
 champs. It may be powdered, and washed in water acidulated with hydro- 
 chloric acid. This dissolves the metallic oxides, and organic substances 
 float on the surface and may be removed. The asphaltum is then dried, 
 reduced to a very fine powder, and passed through a fine silk sieve ; this 
 retains the siliceous particles, and the asphaltum is now pure. White 
 wax is occasionally adulterated with potato powder. It is quite pure in 
 the clear ether solution, and accordingly, in my positive process, although 
 the ground is of the most extreme tenuity, pitting never occurs. Pitting 
 may sometimes be caused, when gelatine paper has been used for tracing, 
 by the pressure of the burnisher, which has either penetrated the ground 
 in consequence of little specks of roughness on the gelatine, or else 
 removed adhesive little specks of roughness in the ground itself. 
 Either cause is quite enough to expose the copper, and yet the naked eye 
 may not perceive it. Now, although pitting may be of very little conse- 
 quence in some parts of a plate, it may be its ruin if it occurs in others 
 in a face, for example. The best way to avoid it, after taking due pre- 
 cautions to get pure chemicals, is to put the plate, before biting seriously, 
 into a weak mixture of nitric acid and water. Dutch mordant darkens 
 lines, and pitting in a black ground is not perceptible to the eye when 
 this mordant is used. Nitric acid cleans copper and shows it light. 
 Whilst the plate is in the bath examine it well, and after a few minutes 
 remove it to a bath of pure water and pass a camel-hair brush all over 
 it. In the water you will discover pitting if it exists, but to help yourself 
 use a strong magnifying-glass. Remove from the bath and stop-out all 
 the spots with stopping-out varnish. The slight biting which has been 
 caused by the weak nitric bath is easily removed with emery paper after 
 the plate is bitten. 
 
 The commonest cause of rotten lines is this. The point, instead of 
 removing the whole of the ground along its passage, has only partiallv
 
 STOPPING- OUT. 429 
 
 removed it, so that the copper has been protected here and there. 
 Wherever it was protected there are necessarily interruptions. Another 
 cause may be that some foreign substance has been allowed to. get into 
 the line after it was drawn bits of loose etching-ground may have got 
 into it, or grease of some kind, perhaps from the etcher's own fingers, 
 if he has not used a hand-rest. 
 
 As a proof of what a very delicate affair biting is, let me tell the 
 reader an anecdote. I had drawn two elaborate little plates and left them 
 on my table, forgetting to put them in a protected place. A hot summer 
 sun came and looked in upon them the sun of a Burgundy July and so 
 the plates were heated and the ground softened. Still the drawing looked 
 perfectly clear, so the plates were put into a cool place and resumed their 
 former appearance. When it came to the biting, however, lo ! it was 
 impossible ! The sun, in heating the plates, had caused something to 
 ooze out of the etching-ground and varnish the lines imperceptibly to 
 the eye, but quite sufficiently to protect them against the acid bath. A 
 plate which is drawn upon should be kept in a safe covered place until 
 it is bitten, and should be bitten as soon as possible after it is drawn. 
 Plates may be kept in shallow well-fitting drawers, or in wooden trays 
 that may be laid one upon another. 
 
 It is a good precaution, whilst etching, to clear away all the loose bits 
 of etching-ground with a camel-hairbrush, so that you may not be tempted 
 to use the little finger, which would often choke the line. 
 
 When you bite a plate with nitric acid, small bubbles of gas arise in 
 the lines. If you leave these undisturbed, they will cause interruptions 
 in the lines, because, where the gas-bubble protects the copper, the acid 
 no longer bites. It is therefore necessary, in using the nitric bath, to 
 remove these bubbles continually with a small feather. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STOPPING-OUT. 
 
 THE best stopping-out varnish has been already described at the end of 
 the Chapter on Grounds and Varnishes, and also the way to use it, but I 
 wish to add a few practical hints which may be of service. 
 
 It is a good principle to keep lengths of biting very distinct from each 
 other. It is not wise to trust to biting much for gradation. Minute dif- 
 ferences of shade can hardly ever be insured by stopping-out. For 
 example, if an etcher were to stop-out after every five minutes of exposure 
 to the Dutch mordant, much of his labour would be thrown away. 
 
 Let me be quite absolutely frank with the practical reader on this 
 subject. Some account of personal experience is best in a matter of this 
 kind. 
 
 In theory a shade bitten twenty minutes and a shade of exactly the
 
 430 APPENDIX. 
 
 same kind bitten thirty minutes, ought to be very different in the printing 
 the latter ought to be much the darker of the two. In practice they 
 may be exactly the same. 
 
 I was etching a plate at the beginning of this year, after many years 
 of experience in these matters, and it had a dark back-ground entirely 
 shaded in the same way. To get two different shades I bit half the back- 
 ground for twenty, and the other half for thirty minutes. The result in 
 the printed proof was a shade of precisely the same tone and quality 
 throughout. 
 
 But now observe a very curious thing. I lowered the whole surface 
 of the copper with charcoal, and by this means got the difference of shade 
 which I desired, for now the part which had been bitten thirty minutes 
 showed distinctly as much darker than the other. 
 
 What did this prove? It proved that the part which had remained 
 longer than the other in the acid had really been bitten deeper, but at 
 the same time there was the evidence of the first printed proof that this 
 difference of depth in the lines made no difference in the printing. 
 
 Again. It has happened to me not once nor twice, but many times, 
 to try to get gradations in skies by stopping-out narrow bands from the 
 horizon upwards as the biting proceeded, and yet the result has been that 
 the shade was pretty nearly the same all over, so that the stopping-out 
 was a waste of time, for one biting would have sufficed for the result 
 obtained. 
 
 These are facts of positive experience, not theories. They are 
 directly contrary to the received theory of the subject. Can we get a 
 sound explanation of these facts ? 
 
 A deep etched line does not deliver all its ink to the paper. The 
 evidence of this is that when a proof has just been taken, the plate still 
 remains so much charged with ink that much ink comes out of the lines 
 if we cleanse them with petroleum and a brush. A narrow line, moderately 
 deep, gives as much ink to the paper as it can give, and you will not 
 make the line any blacker by deepening it still farther. 
 
 When lines are much widened at the same time that they are deep- 
 ened, they give off more ink because the paper is forced more into them. 
 In Turner's etchings the lines are embossed by the press. It follows from 
 this that with effervescing mordants, such as the nitric bath, which widen 
 the lines, finer distinctions of biting may be usefully observed than with 
 the quiet mordants which widen the line but little. 
 
 My advice is not to stop-out a plate more than twice or three times 
 before removing the ground and taking a proof. I have often been asked 
 by young etchers to give some fixed scheme of biting for their guidance. 
 I adapt the following from a paper which I wrote and fastened on the wall 
 of my own laboratory. The reader will perceive that it is for an elaborate 
 plate, a simple one may be carried through with much less trouble. The 
 reader will also perceive that very few bitings are given before a proof is 
 laken, and that the plate is often proved.
 
 STOPPING- OUT. 43 1 
 
 SCHEME OF ETCHING. 
 Dutch bath heated on plate-warmer to ninety degrees Fahrenheit. 
 
 i. The plate is covered with Bosse's ground. The etcher has drawn 
 upon it all the most important organic markings upon which the life 
 and meaning of his work depend ; the frontispiece to this volume 
 is an example of such markings. He immerses the plate for fifteen 
 minutes, then stops-out all the lightest markings in distances, etc., after 
 which he immerses for twenty minutes more, and stops-out the middling 
 ones, which are not to be very dark. Finally he immerses thirty-five 
 minutes for the darkest and strongest lines. The account, therefore, 
 stands thus : 
 
 15 min. 20 min. 35 min. 
 
 This represents the immersions, but the total of time during which 
 the acid has acted is 
 
 15 min. 35 min. 70 min. 
 
 2. A proof having been taken, the plate is now grounded again and 
 smoked as before, care being taken to fill up the lines sufficiently for their 
 protection. 
 
 All strong shading is now added to the plate with the point, but nothing 
 else. It goes through three immersions as before, with stoppings-out 
 between the first and second and the second and third wherever the 
 shading may appear sufficiently bitten. These immersions are 
 
 10 min. 15 min. 25 min. 
 
 which give in totals 
 
 10 min. 25 min. 50 min. 
 
 3. The ground having been again removed and another proof taken, 
 the etcher has before him a plate consisting of nothing but organic lines 
 and strong shading. If it has been well done it will have a firm and manly 
 look, but it will be wanting in delicacy. Parts of it will require a veil of 
 tender shade. He will, therefore, cover the plate again and shade it 
 wherever required with a fine needle. The bitings are now reduced to 
 two, 
 
 3 min. 6 min. 
 
 giving in totals 
 
 3 min. 9 min. 
 
 4. The ground having been removed once more and a proof taken, the 
 next question is Do any parts of the work require an increase of force? 
 If they do, it is to be got by rebiting in the lines already made, which has 
 been clearly explained in the chapter on the use of the roller. The etcher 
 will, of course, previously stop-out all those parts which he does not desire 
 to have rebitten, and he will use his own judgment about stopping-out 
 other parts after more or less immersion. 
 
 5. Even when a plate is in the advanced condition supposed in the 
 present case it may still require improvement of a particular kind. Its
 
 432 APPENDIX. 
 
 parts may require to be better brought together, it may be wanting in that 
 great quality of art unity. This is to be attained most easily by careful 
 retouching of parts, when you can see the whole of what has been already 
 done, and in order to do that, the plate ought to be covered with a trans- 
 parent, or what is called a " white " ground (see Chapter on Grounds). 
 But here we have to encounter a very serious difficulty. It is very easy 
 to apply a safe white ground to a smooth plate, but very difficult to make it 
 safe on a plate where there are deep lines already. The reason is that 
 the ground is always very thin and weak (unless great care is taken) on 
 the jagged edges of the hollows, which are soon exposed to the action of 
 acid, and when once they are attacked the disease spreads rapidly. 
 Suppose a plain traversed by deep ditches and covered with snow. There 
 may be plenty of snow in the ditches and on the flat surface, but there 
 will not be so much just on the angle between the two. The safest way 
 is to apply the white ground with the brush, plentifully, as it fills the 
 hollows well, and when one coat is dry you can give a second, using the 
 brush at right angles to the first direction in which you used it. If heat 
 is used to expel the oil of lavender, it must be with the greatest care, and 
 only just enough for the purpose, for when the ground is melted it always 
 by a sort of repulsion, avoids those very edges and angles which most 
 need its protection. Suppose, however, that you have succeeded in cover- 
 ing your plate safely, the next thing is to etch upon it, and by far the most 
 convenient way for seeing what you do is to put the plate in a bath of 
 Dutch mordant, not heated this time (as it is not desirable that its action 
 should be accelerated) and do what you have to do whilst the plate is in 
 the bath, using a fine needle (which the acid itself will keep sharp for you) 
 and beginning with the darkest parts, passing gradually to the lightest. 
 When the last are finished you must take the plate out at once and get a 
 proof. Old-fashioned etchers always treat this process as if it were 
 merely a display of temerity (as if one made displays of temerity in the 
 solitude of his own laboratory), but there are most substantial reasons for 
 its use. In the first place what you do in the transparent ground becomes 
 immediately visible, because the Dutch mordant darkens the line as soon 
 as it is drawn, and so lets you see it in its relation to other lines. Next, 
 you can get various depths of biting at different parts of your work, 
 without the time and labour of several different stoppings-out. What- 
 ever may be the (not very valuable) opinion of those who have never 
 tried it, I recommend this part of the process after much personal 
 experience of its utility. 
 
 6. The plate is now nearly finished, but a certain refinement may 
 be given to it by the use of the dry point, that is by engraving with a 
 steel point sharpened to a cutting edge. In light parts the very thin pure 
 lines which can be got by this means are often of great value, especially in 
 skies. In darker parts, the bur raised by the instrument is useful for a 
 certain softness and richness, but it is not much to be relied upon if a 
 large edition has to be printed. 
 
 This sketch of a system of etching is merely intended as a guide for
 
 A UXILIARlhS. 433 
 
 beginners in elaborate plates. A proficient artist usually goes on without 
 method, and employs this or that process just when he needs it or thinks 
 it would suit the convenience of the moment. In working from nature 
 one cannot wait for successive bitings, everything has to be drawn whilst 
 there is an opportunity for drawing it. The consequence is that stopping- 
 out, in these cases, becomes a long and tedious business ; to do it well you 
 require a very fine small camel-hair brush, fluid stopping-out varnish, and 
 endless patience. The task, for instance, of separating, by stopping-out, 
 the branches of a tree in the foreground from those of others behind it in 
 the middle distance, could never be performed satisfactorily by a hurried 
 or irritable artist. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 AUXILIARIES. 
 
 I. The Dry Point, mentioned in the last chapter, and to which I shall 
 return in a chapter devoted specially to its use, is an auxiliary of great 
 value which all approve and recognise. There are, however, other 
 auxiliaries more or less generally approved of. (See Chapter XII.) 
 
 2. The Burin. Much may often be done with the engraver's burin to 
 correct or reinforce a plate, especially in the shadows, but even if the 
 artist has the skill to use this very difficult instrument, he is much exposed 
 to a serious artistic danger. He may put so much burin work into a 
 plate that he will not be able to harmonise it properly with the etched 
 work, and then there will be the fatal result of ruin by discord, like the 
 permanent misery of a quarrelling married couple. It is not six months 
 since I engraved a sky altogether with the burin, and had to efface it 
 entirely, because of its technical dissonance with the etched work in the 
 same plate, though the engraved sky was of better quality in many 
 respects than the etched one which I substituted for it. The burin is 
 often extremely tempting for re-touches, as you have not to take trouble 
 about re-grounding and biting, and you see what you do at once. Burins 
 are kept very sharp, and pushed with the palm of the hand. 
 
 3. The Roulette. This is a very little wheel with a broad circumfer- 
 ence, which is cut into sharp points. As the wheel runs on the surface of 
 the copper it makes dots, all of which are visible in the printed proof. 
 It raises a small bur, which has exactly the quality of mezzotint, and in 
 fact is mezzotint. 
 
 Many lovers of etching have a strong prejudice against the roulette, 
 but I notice that they sometimes admire the result obtained, whilst 
 blaming the means used as illegitimate. Some artists have used it 
 beautifully in combination with a simple kind of line etching, which it 
 supports very well. Hervier's sketches of boats are charming instances 
 of this, and so is at least one etching by Villevieille, called " En Picardie." 
 They worked, in fact, exactly on the same principle as Turner did when 
 
 2 F
 
 434 APPENDIX. 
 
 he etched the Liber Studiorum plates to be finished in mezzotint, the 
 only difference being that the roulette is employed more lightly as a sort 
 of sketched mezzotinting. It ought to be used rather sparingly, and in 
 subordination to the etched lines, to sustain them. 
 
 4. The Berceau. This is the regular instrument used to produce 
 mezzotint. It is an expensive tool (worth about 305.), and is used simply 
 by rocking it from side to side like a cradle (whence the name). It pro- 
 duces points in great numbers (more than a hundred at each movement), 
 and these make a soft dark or rich black in the proof. They have 
 generally to be lowered with the scraper to paler tints. The professional 
 mezzotint engravers attain wonderful skill in the art of getting different 
 tones by this means. Mezzotint does not stand large editions well, but if 
 the berceau is used on the grounded plate and the dots bitten, then they 
 will print as long as etched lines. The effect is not so rich, but it is more 
 in harmony with bitten lines. 
 
 To get an intense black with the berceau it is necessary to go over 
 the same place very many times, holding the tool successively to all the 
 points of the compass. 
 
 5. The Cravate. This is Daubigny's name for an auxiliary which 
 may be mentioned. Cover the plate with etching-paste with the roller, 
 filling up the lines already etched, and then lay upon it a piece of taffetas 
 silk. Go over this with the burnisher or pass it once through the press. 
 Then remove it, and leave the etching-paste just as it remains on the 
 plate for two or three days to dry. Now stop out all parts which you 
 intend to leave quite white, and subject the other parts to the action of 
 the Dutch mordant, which will bite a granular tint upon the plate. You 
 stop out successively the parts which seem to you sufficiently bitten. 
 This only gives a succession of flat tints, but some gradation may be 
 afterwards introduced by the scraper and burnisher. Fine new muslin 
 may be used in certain plates, or parts of plates. 
 
 6. The Scft Ground. The old soft ground process may be used as 
 an auxiliary. Etching ground was mixed with an equal quantity of tallow, 
 and applied with a dabber, and smoked in the usual way. A sheet of paper 
 with a grain was then laid on the plate, and the artist worked with a pencil 
 on the paper. The paper when removed took away the ground where the 
 pencil had passed, and the acid in the bath bit the copper into a sort of 
 grain like a lithograph. In using the process as an auxiliary it is best to 
 begin with it and use the line work afterwards in the usual way. 
 
 7. Flat Sulphur Tints. Oil the plate liberally with olive oil, and 
 blow flour of sulphur upon this ; the sulphur if allowed to remain on the 
 plate will produce a flat tint more or less deep in proportion to the time it 
 remains. I have a great dislike to sulphur tints all over a plate, for they 
 are very heavy and dead, but they may sometimes be used with good 
 effect in deeply shaded parts. Some of Appian's best plates owe a great 
 deal of their charm to them. They are valuable for evening effects, to 
 sustain deeply bitten lines, when they produce the effect of highly artifi- 
 cial printing.
 
 THE AUTHOR'S POSITIVE PROCESS. 435 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE AUTHORS POSITIVE PROCESS. 
 
 A BRIEF explanation of my positive process may be useful to some readers 
 who do not possess the Pitcher's Handbook. 
 
 The plate is first simply cleaned with fine emery paper and then 
 silvered with Bleu cf Argent or Silver Cream. See Chap. V. 19, and 
 Chap. XI. 9. Bleu d'Argent may be thinned, if necessary, with water 
 or alcohol. 
 
 The silvered plate is now covered with white wax by applying the 
 clear solution of white wax. (See Chapter on Grounds and Varnishes, 
 paragraph on Stopping-out varnish.) It must not be heated to expel the 
 ether, but left to dry for at least twenty-four hours. This ground is very 
 delicate and must not be touched with the fingers. It is applied as 
 photographers apply collodion, being poured on the plate and rapidly 
 poured off again at one corner before it sets, with such a motion as to 
 spread it equally. 
 
 Sketch the subject very lightly, for your guidance, with a little thin 
 stopping-out varnish and a small camel-hair brush. Tracing is unsafe 
 on account of the delicacy of the ground. 
 
 Immerse the plate in a shallow and cold bath of Dutch mordant, 
 slightly charged with copper. Then with a fine needle etch the darkest 
 bits of it first and pass gradually to lighter parts, finishing with the 
 lightest. If your bath is right, every line will blacken the instant you have 
 scratched it, and you will see the effect in a black line on a white ground. 
 
 The lines are constantly enlarging, because the ground is purposely 
 delicate, therefore you have no need to use more than one sharp point. 
 Knowing this, you will etch all that are intended to be thick and powerful 
 organic lines in the beginning, advancing gradually to others, and reserv- 
 ing light veils of transparent shading to the very last, when they will act 
 as glazes. 
 
 If the plate is too big to be manageable in five hours, etch only a part 
 of it, and finish that, light, shading, and all. Then stop that out with 
 stopping-out varnish, or with white ground applied with the brush (the 
 first is safer, the second more convenient, because it leaves the work 
 visible, but it takes much longer to dry), and afterwards carry the plate 
 forward by finishing another part in the bath, and so on till all is done- 
 I have used the positive process for large and elaborate plates. 
 
 This process has two advantages ; the first, that the artist sees his 
 work in black lines on a white ground ; the second, that when he has 
 done drawing his plate is bitten with an elaborate variety of tone which 
 can only be equalled in the old process by the most laborious and tedious 
 stopping-out. There is consequently a great economy of time when the
 
 430 APPENDIX. 
 
 artist is skilful, but there is the disadvantage that he cannot correct 
 whilst he is at work, so that every stroke prints, neither can he reserve 
 small points of light in masses of shade which can so easily be done with 
 stopping-out varnish in the old process. My positive process is, however, 
 quite perfect and convenient in its own way, and has been greatly approved 
 of by some eminent artists, but it is not suitable for beginners, who ought 
 to be able to correct, and who cannot expect to calculate with much 
 accuracy the effect of biting upon each line when they make it. An artist 
 who etched (let us say) in Mr. Haden's manner would find the positive 
 process useful, and able to give what he wanted better than the old pro- 
 cess, because he could get many different depths of line without stopping- 
 out ; but an artist who desired to etch like the engraver-etchers who copy 
 pictures, would find the constant march of the acid too embarrassing for 
 him. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF ETCHING. 
 
 A FEW brief chemical notes may be of use to the reader. Professor 
 Barff, of the Royal Academy, has very kindly answered my questions on 
 this subject, and so have other scientific friends ; it is therefore hoped 
 that these notes may be relied upon. 
 
 All chemicals used in the etcher's laboratory should be in the pure 
 state in which they are sold to scientific chemists for experiments. 
 
 i. Hydrochloric Acid. When pure this acid is white and smokes 
 very little or not at all. The common hydrochloric acid of commerce 
 often smokes so much that it is quite unsuitable for use in the etcher's 
 laboratory, and especially in the positive process. This acid smokes 
 more in hot weather than in cold, and more when there is ammonia in the 
 atmosphere than when there is not any ammonia. However white it may 
 be, it will turn yellow after contact with iron. The impure acid usually 
 sold by druggists contains different things which do not much affect its 
 powers as a mordant, but only the pure acid is agreeable to use. The 
 worst is simply intolerable. Its yellow colour may be caused by the 
 presence of iron, or it may be yellow from the presence of free chlorine 
 gas. 
 
 2. Action of the Dutch Mordant. This mordant, as we see in the 
 positive process, stains the copper of a dark colour, which looks positively 
 black by contrast with the silver, and is in fact a dark red purple. The 
 copper is stained so deeply that you cannot rub the stain away without 
 removing some portion of the copper itself. 
 
 The dark stain is sub-chloride or sub-oxide of copper. 
 
 The chlorate of potash in the mordant produces chlorine d Pttat 
 naissant,
 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF ETCHING. 437 
 
 The work of the hydrochloric acid is to effect the disengagement of 
 chlorine. 
 
 ' Chlorate of potash is a magazine of chlorine, charged with it as much 
 as possible. It is this chlorine which, being disengaged by the acid, acts 
 upon the copper. 
 
 The chlorine has probably a double action. It may simultaneously 
 attack the copper directly, forming chloride of copper, and take up the 
 hydrogen of the water, setting oxygen at liberty, a rttat naissant, which 
 forms, with the metal, an oxide of copper. The hydrochloric acid may 
 dissolve this oxide. It has little action on the pure metal. 
 
 I have endeavoured to ascertain whether the Dutch mordant can be 
 prejudicial to the health of the operator, especially when he works in the 
 positive process. Enchlorine is given off, which is a very powerful body, 
 and which, untampered, would be dangerous. On the other hand, if the 
 laboratory is well-ventilated there is nothing to fear. In a small quantity 
 chlorine is positively useful as a disinfectant and preservative against 
 epidemic disease. In case of suffering from its use in an ill-ventilated 
 laboratory, the proper antidote is milk. 
 
 3. Action of Dutch Mordant and Ammonia in preparing plates. In 
 the chapter on biting I gave an account of a way of treating plates by 
 Dutch mordant and ammonia as a preparation for etching, I now 
 explain the chemical action. 
 
 The Liquid Ammonia dissolves the salt of copper which the Dutch 
 mordant has formed on the surface of the plate (that is the sub-chloride 
 or sub-oxide of copper). At the same time it lays the metallic copper 
 bare and free from all impurity. 
 
 4. Use of water in the Dutch Mordant. Water is essential for the 
 preservation of the chlorine in the chlorate of potash until it can act upon 
 the copper. If hydrochloric acid -is poured upon chlorate of potash in 
 crystals without the intervention of water, enchlorine is given off in dense 
 fumes, and the qualities of chlorate of potash are no longer available It 
 is necessary to dissolve the chlorate first in water before adding the acid. 
 Water is both a vehicle and a moderating and conservative element in 
 the mordant. 
 
 5. Action of Nitric Acid upon Copper. Nitric acid first oxidises 
 and then dissolves the copper. It does not darken the lines in biting 
 them as the Dutch mordant does by producing the sub-chloride of copper. 
 
 6. Arrested Bitings. This very unpleasant phenomenon, the despair 
 of etchers, is chemically explained as follows : 
 
 * There may be something more than this. A French friend offers the follow- 
 ing as a hypothesis. " L'oxyde de cuivre attaque par 1'ammoniaque doit donner 
 de 1'azotate de cuivre, et en depot du cuivre pur en poudre. L'oxygene de 1'oxyde 
 de cuivre se porte en partie sur 1' azote de I'ammoniaque pour former de I'acide 
 azotique qui s'unit a ce qui reste de 1'oxyde de cuivre et forme 1'azotate de cuivre. 
 Pure copper is oxidised in the presence of ammonia, and the oxide is then dis- 
 solved. Ammonia is thus a real mordant, but it cannot be employed as such, 
 because it injures the etching-ground.
 
 438 APPENDIX. 
 
 By allowing the mordant to remain long undisturbed on the copper, 
 a coat of oxide gets formed which is not dissolved as the acid solvent is 
 weakened. 
 
 Suppose this to represent 
 a magnified section of a plate, 
 and A C the depth of a line, 
 the oxide lodges at the bot- 
 tom, between C and D. At 
 D you have a solution of 
 chloride or nitrate of copper 
 according as you use the 
 
 Dutch mordant or nitric acid, and at A you have the pure liquid. 
 The specific gravity of the liquid at D is greater than that of the liquid 
 at A, so it remains in the hollow, and the action is to a great degree 
 retarded, if not altogether arrested. The remedy suggested is washing at 
 intervals in distilled water and the addition of fresh mordant to the bath. 
 There is potash in the chlorate, and this, as chloride, will make the liquid 
 thick, and impede, after a time, the solvent powers of the hydrochloric 
 acid.* 
 
 7. Perchioride of Iron. The action of perchloride of iron on copper 
 is essentially the same as that of the Dutch mordant. It produces 
 chloride of copper, and probably also oxide of copper, which it dissolves. 
 
 8. Effect of Iron on lines in the Dutch Mordant. The dark lines in 
 a plate covered with Dutch mordant may at any time be turned to a light 
 copper colour by touching the plate with an iron instrument. It is 
 suggested that in the presence of the iron the oxygen in the oxide of 
 copper flies to the iron, but what becomes of the sub-chloride? 
 
 9. Composition of Silver Cream to Silver Plates for the Positive 
 Process. With the help of a scientific friend I have tried to imitate 
 Levi's original creme d' Argent and succeeded perfectly. As this crime 
 d 1 Argent has not been procurable since the war of 1870 (when the 
 inventor probably died), the reader may be glad to know how to make it. 
 
 The first thing is to procure chloride of silver. This may be done as 
 follows : 
 
 Pour 60 grammes of nitric acid into a tumbler, and add the same 
 quantity of water. Put the tumbler into a small pan half filled with water, 
 which you set over the flame of a spirit-lamp. Throw a shilling into the 
 tumbler, and let the mordant boil five minutes. Remove from the fire, 
 and let the contents of the tumbler cool. The shilling will now be entirely 
 dissolved. 
 
 When the solution is cool, add to it 1 20 grammes of pure water, and 
 then pour into it, drop by drop, 25 grammes of hydrochloric acid. This 
 will immediately produce a white precipitate. Now transfer the whole 
 into a large glass and add pure cold water liberally, stirring well with a 
 
 * One chemist suggests that if the Dutch mordant is used, it may be a good 
 precaution to immerse the plate from time to time in a weak nitric mordant, after 
 washing it well with distilled water.
 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF ETCHING. 
 
 glass rod. This is to wash the precipitate. Let it settle to the bottom 
 of the glass and pour away the acid and water. Fill up again with pure 
 water and repeat the washing. Pour off the water again and wash the 
 precipitate a third and a fourth time in pure water. 
 
 You may now dry the precipitate between sheets of blotting paper and 
 on a warm glass. When it is dry weigh it. A shilling ought to give ten 
 grammes of chloride. 
 
 The next thing to be done is to dissolve your chloride. You begin by 
 making a strong solution of cyanide of potassium as follows : Put 80 
 grammes of water in a tumbler, and put the tumbler in a pan as you did 
 before with the mordant, till the water in the tumbler boils. Dissolve in 
 it 20 grammes of cyanide of potassium. When the solution is accom- 
 plished, put your 10 grammes of chloride of silver into the tumbler and 
 stir well for five minutes with a glass rod. Leave the solution to cool. 
 
 You have now a solution of chloride of silver in a solution of cyanide 
 of potassium, but it is too acid and too fluid. You therefore add 25 
 grammes of cream of tartar, and after that 50 grammes of chalk, stirring 
 well till all ebullition ceases. 
 
 The best way to use the silver cream is to apply it first with a camel- 
 hair brush and leave it for five minutes on the plate ; then rub the plate 
 with a clean rag till nothing is left but the metallic silver. 
 
 Chloride of silver may be made rather more promptly by simply 
 dissolving photographers' nitrate of silver in water and then precipitating 
 the chloride. 
 
 The following is the receipt in a condensed form : 
 
 Chloride of Silver . . . .10 grammes 
 
 Cyanide of Potassium . . 20 
 
 Water . . . . 80 
 
 Cream of Tartar . . . 25 
 
 Chalk . . . . 50 
 
 It is desirable to use as little water as possible, that the cream may 
 not be weak and thin. 
 
 Readers who are not accustomed to chemistry are warned that cyanide 
 of potassium is one of the most terrible of poisons. Even its odour pro- 
 duces disagreeable and alarming symptoms in some persons. Mind that 
 no drops of the strong solution get upon any little wound on the hand. 
 Ventilate the laboratory well immediately after making the silver cream.
 
 440 APPENDIX. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 DRY-POINT. 
 
 PLATES are sometimes engraved in pure dry-point with the bur left to 
 catch the printer's ink. This is not really etching, so it shall be passed 
 very briefly here, but it is an etcher's process, and therefore must be 
 mentioned. 
 
 The bur is the ridge raised by the tool as it ploughs the copper. When 
 it catches too much ink it is reduced with the scraper till it takes just 
 enough. The scraper must be used very cautiously. 
 
 A mixture of tallow *id lamp black is rubbed into the lines as the 
 work proceeds, that the workman may see what he is doing. 
 
 The raising of the bur does not simply depend upon the amount of 
 oressure exercised, but also on the angle at which the needle is held. 
 
 D 
 
 B 
 
 Let A B be the plate, and C D, C E, C F, the graver held in different 
 positions. With the exercise of precisely the same amount of force a 
 line drawn with the graver as at C D will be weaker than a line drawn 
 with the graver as at C E, and C F will draw a blacker line still, because 
 it will raise a higher bur. The inclination of the graver is of course 
 always made to the right. The line A B is supposed to be the plate on 
 which the reader is working. He is recommended to make experiments 
 on inclination in this way, and to take proofs in a press, that he may see 
 the result. An hour so spent will teach him more than a page of theory. 
 It is evident that without knowing this fact about inclination a dry-point 
 engraver is always liable to unintentional variations of force if he relies 
 upon bur for his effect. In cases where bur is not the object, inclination 
 is of much less consequence. 
 
 The reader must not think of dry-point as a thin and meagre art. It 
 may be made to look very rich, and this is not surprising when we 
 consider that it is really mezzotint in line, for the effect is got by bur 
 both in dry-point and in mezzotint. The hand is not nearly so free as it 
 is in etching, and this objection, together with the serious one that dry- 
 points will not safely yield large editions, has caused etchers' dry-point 
 to be much neglected.* 
 
 * With regard to this question of printing, I may observe that my large dry-
 
 PRINTING. 441 
 
 Engravers' dry-point is done on different principles In this the bur 
 is removed. An etcher may use it occasionally amongst his etched lines 
 in a manner very nearly resembling etching. Mr. Ruskin uses it very 
 skilfully in this way. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PRINTING 
 
 A FEW brief notes on printing seem necessary in this place, but the 
 subject is much too large to be treated with any thoroughness here. It 
 occupies more than 300 closely printed pages in Roret's Encyclopaedia. 
 If the reader wishes to pursue the subject further, and can read technical 
 French, he should get the little volume, which may be had separately.* 
 
 I presume that the etcher merely wishes to prove his plate and does 
 not care to print editions. If he desires to print a few proofs of his own 
 plates for sale he must apprentice himself for a week or ten days to a 
 good professional printer accustomed to print etchings for good artists. 
 
 The following brief directions are all that is needed for proving. 
 Heat your plate on the plate-heater (Chap. V., 31) until it is nearly as 
 warm as the hand can bear, then take up some printing-ink with a palette 
 knife, lay it on a corner of the plate-heater, and add a drop or two of 
 boiled linseed oil if it is too stiff to be easily dealt with. You then take the 
 dabber (Chap. V., 28), take some of the printing-ink up with it, and 
 ink your plate all over, driving the ink thoroughly well into the lines. 
 For the first proof it is even necessary to rub the ink well into the lines 
 with your finger. In using the dabber apply it with a strong rocking 
 motion all over the plate. Do not strike the copper with it, and never 
 slip or slide it on the copper. 
 
 When the plate is well inked all over take a piece of printers' canvas 
 crushed together in a large lump, but lightly, and wipe the plate with it 
 till the ink is in great part removed from the surface. To clear margins 
 and parts that are required to come quite white it is usual to employ a 
 rag damped with weak acidulated water which has potash in it and (in 
 
 point, in the first edition of Etching and Etchers, called Two Stumps of Driftwood, 
 gave looo copies (after being steeled) without perceptible wearing. On the other 
 hand, a plate of mine called The Tower of Vauthot was intended for the Portfolio, 
 but, by M. Flameng's advice, was not published in that periodical, because it was 
 found difficult to print it without injury beyond the first 100 proofs on Japanese 
 paper. This latter plate was an etching, but the whole of its effect was due to 
 work with the dry point. 
 
 * Encyclopedic Roret, Manuel de 1'Imprimeur en Taille-douce, prix 3 francs. 
 Paris, Librairie Encyclopedique de Roret, Rue Hautefeuille, No. 10 bis. The 
 reader will also find a good deal of curious technical information about etching 
 and engraving in another volume of the same collection, entitled " Graveur."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 France) a little quick-lime. The water is acidulated with nitrous acid. 
 The proportions used vary according to the taste of different workmen, 
 but this mordant must never be strong. 
 
 The plate is then cleaned as far as the printer intends with the soft 
 part of his right hand, which has been previously chalked by being passed 
 over a lump of Spanish white (the hand must not be overcharged with 
 chalk). The margin is cleaned with a rag chalked in the same way. 
 
 To ascertain the exact state of a plate it is necessary to clean it all 
 over, leaving no ink except what is in the lines, as visiting-cards are 
 printed. It is a good thing to do this for the first proof simply for sell- 
 information. 
 
 But to ascertain what the plate is capable of rendering, it may be 
 treated artificially by what is called artistic printing. 
 
 The two kinds of printing are quite different from each other, and a 
 plate may be etched for one or for the other. We will distinguish them 
 here as mechanical and artistic printing. Remember the visiting-card 
 as the example of the first. I cannot so easily name an example of the 
 second, because I cannot be sure that all artistic proofs of the same plate 
 are equal in quality to those which are accessible to me. However, I 
 will try to fix upon an example of the second, and it shall be the Laugh- 
 ing Portrait of Rembrandt by Flameng, which was printed with extra- 
 ordinary care and skill by Salmon for the Portfolio. It appeared in the 
 number for January 1872. The printing of that plate was so highly 
 artificial that the workman could only take a few proofs per day.* 
 
 Artificial or artistic printing has often been much disliked by artists, 
 because when badly done it is intolerable. Mr. Ruskin condemns it 
 altogether. Mr. Haden condemned it at one time, but has probably 
 changed his opinion since, for the Agamemnon is printed very artificially. 
 I too have had my time of rebellion against it, caused by ignorant and 
 tasteless work which pretended to be artistic, and only succeeded in 
 obscuring the intention of the etcher. The plain truth is, that when done 
 with ability, skill, and taste, artistic printing is a wonderful help to certain 
 etchings, and that some eminent modern etchers work intentionally in 
 view of it. The Laughing Rembrandt, for example, was etched on 
 purpose to be printed artificially, so that the only proofs which express 
 Flameng's intention are artistic proofs. On the other hand, etchings 
 may be done expressly to be printed like visiting-cards ; for example, 
 those of Mr. Ernest George, and those of mine in the first edition of mv 
 Etcher's Handbook, were etched to be so printed. In such cases the 
 brilliance of the white paper between the lines is counted upon as a part 
 of the effect, and must not be obscured by the printer, whose business is 
 simply to make every line clear and black. 
 
 * The whole edition was printed with the care usually given to a choice proof, 
 and under M. Flameng's personal supervision. All parties made some sacrifices 
 about the plate (publisher, printer, etcher) as a work of exceptional character and 
 importance. If the reader could see a bad or weak proof of the same plate he 
 would be very much astonished.
 
 PRINTING. 443 
 
 Artistic printing may be defined as that in which the smooth surface 
 of the copper between the lines is itself more or less charged with print- 
 ing-ink. This is done to enhance the effect by giving a rich and soft 
 obscurity to certain parts of the work. Without it the rich plates of 
 Flameng after Rembrandt would look comparatively meagre, and the 
 quality of his work would not be perceived or appreciated. 
 
 In artistic printing certain parts of the copper are more cleaned than 
 other parts. Some are cleaned perfectly, others are left charged with 
 much printing-ink. Some are first cleaned and then the ink is brought 
 over them afterwards by retroussage. 
 
 Retroussage is managed as follows. When you have removed the 
 superfluous ink from the surface of your plate by means of the canvas and 
 the chalked hand, you take a piece of very soft fine old muslin that has 
 been well washed and dried, and you play with this lightly over the part 
 of the plate which you desire to print most richly. It pumps the ink out 
 of the lines and spreads it between them on the smooth copper. This is 
 very easily done, and it can be done more or less as desired, so that it is 
 well under the control of the workman. The effect is often excellent when 
 retroussage has been judiciously employed. 
 
 Artistic printing has, however, often been carried much farther than 
 simple retroussage could carry it, and in the extreme of artistic printing 
 it is necessary to leave a good deal of ink on the darkest and richest 
 portions of the plate, softening it with the rag to equality of tone where 
 desired. 
 
 In open line etchings retroussage has the effect of making the lines 
 appear much broader, therefore when the lines in a plate of this kind are 
 too meagre, retroussage may be resorted to with advantage. 
 
 An etcher may etch from the beginning in view of artistic printing and 
 plan his effects for it, but when he has not done so it may sometimes 
 happen that this kind of printing will save a meagre or otherwise defective 
 plate by hiding its faults and bringing into more striking evidence what- 
 ever beauties it may possess. 
 
 The preparation of paper for printing must now be briefly explained. 
 If it were dry the oil of the ink would stain it unpleasantly ; it would not 
 be forced easily down into the lines nor spread by the roller along the 
 surface of the plate. An impression of an etching is really a cast of it 
 taken in paper instead of in plaster of Paris.* The lines, which are 
 hollowed in the copper, appear in relief upon the proof. The paper must 
 therefore be very soft, almost pulpy, and to effect this it is well wetted 
 and kept damp for a couple of days. An etcher who takes a proof 
 occasionally cannot keep damp paper always by him, so he is recom- 
 mended generally to sponge the sheet before using it. Sponging is 
 enough for some papers, but others are not sufficiently softened by it for 
 immediate use, so that it is a much safer rule to allow your sheet of paper 
 to soak for ten minutes in a bath of pure water, and afterwards lay it be- 
 
 * Proofs can be taken in plaster of Paris. Many an etcher has used it in the 
 absence of a press. They are simply casts from the inked plate.
 
 444 APPENDIX. 
 
 tween different sheets of blotting-paper, when you may use it at once. It 
 is a good precaution with all foreign papers except Japanese and Indian, 
 to brush them with a clothes-brush just before taking the proof. It dis- 
 engages the fibre at the surface, and better disposes it for penetrating into 
 the lines. 
 
 For proving a plate, pass it once through the press to take the proof, 
 and not once and back before lifting the paper, as printers do ; because 
 that often more or less perceptibly doubles the lines, and you want to 
 ascertain the exact truth about your lines. 
 
 See that your press, if a large one, is well supplied with four or five 
 good soft cloths to lay between the roller and your paper. Proofs may be 
 taken with two if they are thick and good. 
 
 If the paper slips along the plate and creases, the reason always is too 
 much friction somewhere in the press. Find out what causes the friction, 
 and remedy it. Keep axles well oiled. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that proofs are better for excessive pressure. 
 There is a certain (very considerable) degree of pressure which is neces- 
 sary to a good proof, but anything beyond it does no good and may create 
 inconvenience, if only by making the press more difficult to work. 
 
 When proving a plate it is very useful to take an off- track. This is a 
 paler copy of the proof, printed from it in reverse immediately after it is 
 taken. You simply put the fresh proof in the press instead of the plate 
 and lay damped paper upon it. You get an impression in reverse, that is 
 in the same sense as the copper itself, and this considerably facilitates 
 reference for retouches. In etching directly from nature without the 
 mirror -your drawing comes in reverse in the printing, so that there can be 
 no local resemblance. If anybody in the neighbourhood asks for a proof, 
 you will have to give him an off-track, or he will not recognise the place. 
 
 To dry proofs you require thick, soft, porous pasteboards (made on 
 purpose), always kept very clean, of course, and you put your proofs 
 between these boards under the pressure of a screw-press or heavy 
 weights. Do not put more than two proofs between two boards, and let 
 the proofs be back to back, with their faces to the boards. The principle 
 of drying proofs is exactly that of drying plants for an herbarium, for they 
 have to be dried and kept flat at the same time. Herbarium paper and 
 a botanist's drying-press would do, but boards are preferred for the more 
 certain flattening of the whole sheet on which the etching is printed. A 
 sheet of herbarium paper may be laid on the pasteboard to prevent it 
 from receiving an off-track from an etching which is thickly printed. 
 Change the pasteboards once, and keep them, when not in use, where 
 there is a current of air to dry them. They should then be arranged with 
 a space between every two of them for the air to pass freely over both 
 sides. 
 
 When you have done with printing for the day, be careful to clean the 
 plate thoroughly with petroleum, schist oil, benzine, or turpentine, so that 
 no ink may be left in the lines. It would harden there and be difficult to 
 ?t out afterwards.
 
 PLATE XII. 
 
 POPLARS AND OAK, a sketch from nature. 
 BY P. G. HAMERTON.
 
 PLATE XII. 
 
 (To be placed opposite page 444.) 
 POPLARS AND OAK, a sketch from nature, 
 
 By. P. G. Hamerton. 
 
 This little sketch is given as an example of a rapid and convenient way of wt 
 ing directly from nature on the copper. The author first drew all the orp" 
 markings, including the deepest indications of shade, out of doors in a sitting o 
 hours, but nothing more. The remaining history of the plate is given below. 
 
 BITINGS. 
 
 In Dutch Mordant, heated to 90 Fahrenheit 
 
 Minute 
 
 Outlines of clouds ...... 
 
 Organic lines in trees, and marks of deepest shading in them 
 Darkest organic lines and markings in shrubs and water 
 
 40 
 60 
 
 First proof taken. The plate in this stage consisted of nothing bui 
 organic lines and markings, with some indication of its deepest shades. 
 
 It was now covered again with the black ground. The sky was shaded 
 in horizontal lines, the whole of the water was shaded in vertical lines, and 
 the rising ground in the distance was shaded in crossed lines. Lights on the 
 water were stopped out with the brush. 
 
 The sky was now bitten in a gradation of stoppings out from four to 
 sixteen minutes, the rising ground was bitten eight minutes, and the vertical 
 shading on the water from ten minutes to twenty. 
 
 The plate is purposely not retouched in any way. 
 
 Second proof taken. 
 
 A more finished appearance might easily be given to it by the judicious 
 use of the scraper and the dry-point 
 
 There are some rotten lines in the sky, occasioned by their having been 
 drawn with too light a hand. They could easily have been corrected with 
 the burin. 
 
 This etching is printed very simply, being cleanly wiped. The water 
 and foreground shrubs are retroussts.
 
 THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 445 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 
 
 SEVERAL correspondents have requested me to write them a chapter on 
 the interpretation of nature in etching, showing the best means of render- 
 ing this or that kind of natural material. Such a subject would require 
 a volume, with innumerable references to the works of etchers, and a 
 thorough analysis of their ways of execution. I have already been tempted 
 to extend the present volume considerably beyond the limits of the 
 first edition, and could not without making it burdensome, include a 
 treatise on the interpretation of nature. I rather suspect, too, that 
 amateurs who want information of this sort are often in that peculiar 
 stage of art-culture when people believe that useful recipes can be given 
 for " doing trees " etc. The only really valuable and generally applicable 
 piece of advice which I can give is to select some good etcher whom you 
 really like, get two or three of his plates and copy them rigorously in fac- 
 simile. That will compel you to observe what methods of interpretation 
 were adopted by the etcher you have selected for your master, and 
 whilst you are at work copying, you may apply your mind to the closest 
 study of his ways. Very likely they will not suit you altogether, very likely 
 it will seem to you that the etcher might have done otherwise and done 
 better, which only means that you have a different idiosyncrasy from his. 
 When you are tired of him you may copy somebody else, and when tired of 
 copying etch directly from nature, only trying to think how your master 
 would have interpreted the sort of material before you. It is a great 
 thing that you should be firmly persuaded that interpretation is always 
 necessary. Good art is always interpretative, and good etching is most 
 especially so. The true and sound principles upon which the interpreta- 
 tion of nature in etching ought to be founded have been stated on pages 
 251 and 252 of this volume, especially in the quotations there. The 
 leading ideas of good etching are the interpretation of nature by the 
 selection of the most important lines and the separation of the most 
 important masses, with a suggestion of the most characteristic details. 
 But no teacher can convey to a pupil the faculty to make these selections, 
 and yet on that faculty the whole value of his interpretation must depend. 
 Therefore it is that such a book as this can never make an artist, but it may 
 render humble service to one who is already born with the true gift. And 
 if any such truly enviable favourite of Nature should by chance get hold 
 of the book in future years, let me wish him strength and long life to 
 continue greatly the tradition of a great art, an art which existed in all its 
 majesty some centuries before we were born, and which, in spite of coldness 
 and indifference, will survive as long as there is copper to make a plate 
 and acid to bite it
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 IT is necessary to give a few words of explanation about the use of this 
 index, which is at the same time a catalogue. 
 
 When this book was first published, a certain number of its readers, 
 in different parts of England and America, conceived the idea of illustrat- 
 ing it for themselves by forming collections of the etchings mentioned or 
 criticised in its pages. The plan was excellent, and deserved all possible 
 assistance and encouragement ; for, with the help of such a collection, the 
 reader would learn more about the art in the leisure of a few evenings 
 than the book could ever teach him by itself. I therefore determined, if 
 ever it arrived at a second edition, to give an index to the plates men- 
 tioned, which should at the same time be a catalogue of such illustrative 
 collections. The names of etchers are alphabetically arranged, and the 
 plates are numbered from first to last in Roman numerals. If the reader 
 will therefore put corresponding numerals on the etchings he possesses, 
 the present index will become at once a convenient catalogue for him. 
 The best way is to put the Roman numerals in the lower left hand corner 
 of the mount on which the etching is pasted, and the arabic numerals 
 (which refer to the page of this volume where the plate is criticised) in the 
 lower right hand corner of the mount. By this, reference becomes easy 
 either to the catalogue or the criticism, and the volume becomes a hand- 
 book to the reader's collection. 
 
 A few remarks about the arrangement of collections may be of use to 
 beginners who, having happily all before them, have not yet committed 
 themselves to a bad system. 
 
 There are several different ways of arranging and keeping a collection 
 of etchings, but they may all be reduced to three 
 
 1. The portfolio. 
 
 2. The volume. 
 
 3. The box with shelves. 
 
 The portfolio system requires no explanation whatever. Every one 
 knows what a portfolio is. I may observe, however, that all portfolios 
 should be made \vithJZafls, which are of immense utility for the prevention 
 of dust. 
 
 The volume system is the one in use at the British Museum. It is 
 convenient for a public collection, because it exposes least to the risk of 
 disorder. The volumes are made specially for the purpose with leaves of
 
 448 CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 stout board, each board having a hinge of its own. The etchings are 
 pasted to these boards by the upper edge only. This system is good for 
 a public collection, but not so good for a private one. The private owner 
 often shows his treasures to several friends at once, and then it is desirable 
 that they should be separate, and not pasted in a book. 
 
 The box with shelves, is merely a box which opens like a cupboard. 
 Inside it is arranged with shelves, which can easily be drawn out. The 
 shelves should be of very thin light wood, plain deal is best, or cedar for 
 a cabinet de grand luxe. 
 
 Qf the three systems, the last is quite incomparably the best. The 
 portfolio does sufficiently for a collection in its infancy, but portfolios 
 are awkward things, and become shabby in time, which gives a collection 
 an untidy appearance. You would require a great number of portfolios 
 for anything like a considerable collection. We all begin with them, of 
 course, but a time comes when they get too full, and too shabby, and then 
 is the time to set up the box system. 
 
 The most convenient way is to have the little boxes or cupboards of 
 one uniform height, so that you can build them up like stones in a wall. 
 Sixteen inches may be fixed upon for the height. As for the other 
 dimensions, they will depend upon the size of the mounts, of which more 
 presently. The little cupboards or boxes should have folding doors like 
 an herbarium cabinet, and (^please take note of this) the doors should be 
 so arranged by the cabinet-maker that when the boxes are built up like 
 stones in a wall, each little pair of doors shall open quite easily, without 
 catching their neighbours. 
 
 Having once carefully decided about the sort of box to be adopted, 
 you get the cabinet-maker to make enough of them for your present 
 wants, and then add others of the same kind as your collection increases. 
 The collection will thus always present a neat and uniform appearance. 
 
 The shelf should be an inch larger than the mount in each direction. 
 Do not waste space in having clumsy thick shelves. For the two smaller 
 sizes given below, the shelf need only be three-sixteenths of an inch thick, 
 for the largest but one it may be four- sixteenths, and for the very largest 
 five-sixteenths. 
 
 There may be ten shelves in each box. It is desirable for order and 
 convenience to have many shelves, and few etchings on each of them. 
 
 Now about the mounts. They are made to order of any size, but it is 
 far more convenient to take the sizes which are always kept in stock by 
 the artists' colourmen. I therefore give four sizes which include all that 
 is ever necessary, except for some very exceptional plate, such as Mr. 
 Haden's Calais Pier, after Turner, which ought to be framed and hung 
 on a wall ; besides, it is not mentioned in the present catalogue. For a 
 very rich collection the mounts should be hand-made, the best in the 
 world are Whatman's hand-made mounting-boards. More ordinary 
 machine-made English boards are still quite good enough, and they now 
 make boards in Germany from wood-paper which are extremely economi- 
 cal and still look very decent.
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 449 
 
 The following are the sizes required : 
 
 Demy . . Size 18 X 14 (4 sheet). 
 
 Royal . . 22 X 175 (4 sheet). 
 
 Imperial . . 28 x 20 (6 sheet). 
 
 Atlas . . 31^ x 24^ (6 sheet). 
 
 The Atlas boards will only be found necessary for such plates as the 
 large ones by Flameng after Rembrandt, but a well-ordered collection 
 ought to be able to give lodging to these, and to the big Rembrandts, 
 without treating them shabbily. Of the four sizes the Royal is most 
 generally useful, the Demy is given for small etchings, because it is a 
 positive injury to them to give them too much margin, they look lost in 
 the middle of a great board. 
 
 To mount an etching so as to make it enter into a regularly ordered 
 collection, you begin by cutting the margin to within an inch or less of the 
 plate mark all round. An inch is enough for large plates, and half-an- 
 inch for small ones, others may vary between the two. You then very 
 carefully paste, with stiff paste, about a quarter of an inch of the top edge 
 of the paper, so as to fasten it to the board, but leaving the rest free. 
 There is no other really satisfactory way of mounting etchings. If 
 fastened by the four corners they pucker in damp weather. 
 
 Many of the modern etchings in this catalogue can be easily procured 
 through the printsellers ; the older ones may be met with occasionally, 
 and at sales. The collector ought not to be discouraged because his 
 collection is incomplete the pleasure is to have an incomplete collection, 
 to which one adds a good impression from time to time. If the reader 
 cannot easily procure all the etchings in this Catalogue, he may often 
 supply the place of them temporarily by copies, or by photographs, or 
 photo-engravings, such as those by the Amand-Durand process. (See 
 page 109, footnote}. When these cannot be got the place may be tem- 
 porarily supplied by a careful tracing, which will remind you of the plate. 
 Unfortunately, in the great public collections, tracing is not permitted, but 
 sketching is, and a sketch of the original, on the same scale, is much better 
 than nothing. To have a perfect collection of originals is, in these days, 
 a luxury for Barons de Rothschild or Dukes of Westminster, yet com- 
 paratively poor men may have very interesting though incomplete ccllec- 
 tions. The great thing is to enjoy and appreciate the few good things 
 we have, and to enjoy the pleasure of gradually adding to them. 
 
 Many readers may wonder that French and English are mixed up in 
 the titles of etchings here. They are so chiefly for convenience of 
 reference to previous well-known catalogues, or else because a title may 
 not always have seemed conveniently translatable. Indeed, whenever 
 the French title is given in preference to the English one, there is always 
 some reason for it. In the case of Unger's etchings, for instance, I have 
 given the title in English when the catalogue of them was in English, and 
 in French when the catalogue happened to be published in French. 
 Sometimes I have given the title of an etching in French from simple 
 
 2 G
 
 450 CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 dislike to making a translation of my own which might not happen to be 
 in the form familiar to English collectors. For example, there is the 
 landscape by Rembrandt " Le Bouquet de Bois," a neat little French 
 title, very well known. Of course one might translate it, but I really 
 cannot tell by what exact title the plate is most familiarly known amongst 
 English collectors. Most of the good catalogues have hitherto been in 
 French, so that French titles have often a peculiar currency. 
 
 PACK 
 
 ABRAHAM ......... 232 
 
 I. Bords de 1'Oudon ....... 232 
 
 II. Environs de Chateau Gontier . . . . 232 
 
 ANSDELL ......... 35 
 
 in. Fellow-commoners ....... 353 
 
 IV. The Sentinel . . . . . . 351 
 
 APPIAN ......... 202 
 
 V. Marais de la Burbanche, Ain ..... 206 
 
 VI. Mare, une. Environs de Rosillon ..... 206 
 
 vii. Open Stream ....... 204 
 
 VIII. Rocky River-bed ....... 203 
 
 IX. Soir d'Automne, Environs de Rosillon .... 207 
 
 X. Soir, Bord du Rhone a Rix, Ain ..... 206 
 
 XI. Souvenir ........ 205 
 
 XII. Valromey, Ain ....... 205 
 
 BALFOURIER ........ 233 
 
 XIII. Marais pres d'Elche ...... 233 
 
 XIV. Usine a Oran ....... 233 
 
 BALLIN ......... 234 
 
 BEGA . . . . . . . . 97> 99 
 
 xv. Cabaret, le . . . . . . . . 100 
 
 XVI. Femme portant la Cruche ...... loo 
 
 xvn. Homme avec la Main dans le Pourpoint .... 100 
 
 BERGHEM ......... 101 
 
 xvni. Goat's Head with black Forehead . . . . .104 
 
 xix. Piper, the . . . . . . . . 104 
 
 xx. Rivulet by the Ruined Monument ..... 103 
 
 xxi. Shepherd by the Fountain ...... 104 
 
 BlANCHI ......... 141 
 
 BOISSIEU ......... 163 
 
 xxn. Passage du Garillano, en Italic ..... 166 
 xxni. Pont et Chateau de Sainte Colombe, en Dauphine* . . .165 
 
 XXIV. Tonneliers, les . . . . . 1 66 
 
 XXV. Village de Lantilly, Entree du . . . .166 
 
 BRACQUEMOND . . . . . . . 224 
 
 xxvi. Hare ....... 225, 242 
 
 XXVII. Haut d'un Battant de Porte ..... 224 
 
 XXVIII. Unearthing a Badger ...... 224 
 
 xxix. Vanneaux et Sarcelles .. 225
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 451 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BRUNET-DEBAINES ...... 229, 378 
 
 XXX. Interieur de cour en Italic, after Decamps ... 378 
 
 XXXI. Notre Dame de Bourges ..... 230 
 
 xxxn. Place Royale a Dole ...... 229 
 
 XXXIII. Rue des Grands Degres, a Blois .... 230 
 
 xxxiv. Ruined Castle on a Lake, after Albert Cuyp . . . 378 
 
 xxxv. Verdun sur le Doubs ...... 229 
 
 CALLOT ......... 161 
 
 xxxvi. Louvre ........ 164 
 
 xxxvii. TourdeNesle . . . . . . .164 
 
 CANALETTI ........ in 
 
 xxxviii. Procuratie e S. Ziminian . . . . , .114 
 
 xxxix. Torre di Malghera . . . . . .114 
 
 CHAIGNEAU ........ 231 
 
 XL. Femme Gardant des Moutons . . . . .231 
 
 XLI. Moutons en Plaine . . . . . .231 
 
 CHATTOCK ......... 353 
 
 XLil. Boveney Lock ....... 355 
 
 XLIII. Eton College from the River ..... 356 
 
 XLIV. Monkey Island . . . , . . . 356 
 
 XLV. Watering-place, after Gainsborough . . . 354 
 
 XLVI. When Rosy Plumelets tuft the Larch .... 355 
 
 CHAUVEL ......... 231 
 
 XLVII. Environs de Rouen . .. . . .231 
 
 XLVIII. Fleury, Mame ....... 231 
 
 XLIX. Grenouille et le Bceuf . . . . . .231 
 
 CHIFFLART ........ 208 
 
 L. Jour de Recompense ...... 210 
 
 LI. Perseus and Andromeda . . . . . .211 
 
 Lil. Perseus, having slain Medusa, holds out her severed head . 211 
 
 Lin. Plutus ........ 210 
 
 LIV. Sarcophagus . . . . . . . 2IO 
 
 LV. Surprise ........ 209 
 
 CLAUDE ......... 157 
 
 LVI. Berger et Bergere conversant . . . . .160 
 
 LVII. Bouvier, le . . . . . . .158 
 
 LVIII. Brigands, Scene de ...... 160 
 
 Lix. Danse, la, sous les arbres . . . . .160 
 
 LX. Danse Villageoise. . . . . . .159 
 
 LXi. Soleil Couchant ....... 158 
 
 LXII. Troupeau en Marche par un temps d'orage ... 159 
 
 COPE ......... 341 
 
 LXiiI. Life School, Royal Academy . . . . 342 
 
 LXIV. Winter Song ....... 342 
 
 COROT ......... 232 
 
 LXV Environs de Rome ...... 223
 
 452 CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 LXVi. Paysage d' Italic ....... 223 
 
 LXVII. Souvenir d' Italic .... . 223 
 
 CRESWICK. ........ 345 
 
 LXVIII. Deserted Village, plate 2 ..... 347 
 
 LXix. Deserted Village, plate 19 . . . . . 347 
 
 LXX. Deserted Village, plate 34 ..... 347 
 
 LXXI. Roughish Road by the Loch-side . . 347 
 
 CRUIKSHANK ........ 316 
 
 LXXil. Dougal MacCallum and Hutcheon .... 323 
 
 LXXIII. Elves and the Shoemaker . . . . .321 
 
 LXXiv. Folly of Crime . . . . . . 3 ! 9' 
 
 LXXV. Return from a delightful trip on the Continent . . . 322 
 
 DAUBIGNY ........ 195 
 
 LXXVI. Aides, les ....... 199 
 
 LXXVII. Daubigny travaillant dans sa Cabine . . . .198 
 
 LXXVIII. Dejeuner a 1' Auberge ...... 197 
 
 LXXIX. Cue, le . . ...... 200 
 
 LXXX. Nuit sur la Riviere ...... 198 
 
 LXXXI. Pare a Moutons : le Matin . . . . 199 
 
 LXXXil. Recherche de 1'Auberge ...... 198 
 
 LXXXin. Vendanges, les . . . . . . 200 
 
 DELACROIX ........ 14? 
 
 DETAILLE ......... 235 
 
 LXXXIV. Trompette de Chasseurs ...... 235 
 
 LXXXV. Uhlan, un ....... 235 
 
 DIETRICH . . . . . . . .112 
 
 LXXXVI. Satyr, the, in Peasant's House . . . . .116 
 
 DOYLE ......... 317 
 
 LXXXVII. His Highness ....... 324 
 
 LXXXVIII. Meditation ....... 3 2 4 
 
 LXXXIX. Student of the old Masters ..... 3 2 3 
 
 DUJARDIN, KARL ........ 101 
 
 xc. Cow, Sheep, and Herdsman, with a City in the distance . 106 
 
 XCI. Ruin near a Stream, Artist sketching .... 106 
 
 DURER ......... 71 
 
 xcii. St. Jerome ....... 72 
 
 xciil. Virgin and Child ...... 7 2 
 
 EVERDINGEN . . . . . . . .113 
 
 xciv. Man, the, near a gap in a Fence . . .117 
 
 xcv. Torrent, Cottages by . . . . . . Il6 
 
 FEYEN-PERRIN ........ 226 
 
 XCVI. Sailor's Infancy . . . . . . 227 
 
 xcvu. Vanneuses de Cancale . . ... . .227
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 453 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FLAMENG . . . . . . . . 151, 369 
 
 xcvur. Abreuvoir, after Troyon ..... 371 
 
 xcix. Francis I. and the Duchess of Etampes, after Bonnington . 371 
 C. Hundred-Guilder Print, Flameng's copy of . . 399 
 
 ci. Night Watch, after Rembrandt .... 369 
 
 GAUCHEREL ....... 225, 379 
 
 Cil. Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland, after Hobbema . . 379 
 
 cm. Canal in Venice ...... 226 
 
 civ. Sun of Venice going to Sea, after Turner ... 379 
 
 GAUERMANN . . . . . . . . 140 
 
 GEDDES ......... 274 
 
 CV. Give the Devil his Due ..... 274 
 
 CVI. Head of Martin, an auctioneer at Edinburgh . . . 274 
 
 CVII. Landscape ....... 277 
 
 cvni. Little Girl holding a Pear ..... 276 
 
 GEORGE ......... 354 
 
 CIX. Amboise, Chateau and Bridge .... 359 
 
 ex. Angers, Hotel de Pince ..... 358 
 
 cxi. Schloss Elz, View of the Castle approached from Garden . 357 
 
 CXII. Trier, the Market-place, Fountain, and Rothes-Haus . 356 
 
 GILLI, ALBERTO MASO ....... 141 
 
 cxin. Un Rimprovero ...... 142 
 
 GOYA ......... 123 
 
 CXiv. Bull-fighting ; plate 3 . , . . .126 
 
 CXV. Bull-fighting ; plate 7 ..... 126 
 
 CXVI. Bull-fighting ; plate 10 ..... 126 
 
 cxvil. Caprices ; plate 23, Aquellos Polbos . . . 126 
 
 cxvill. Caprices ; plate 36, Mala Noche .... 127 
 
 cxix. Caprices; plate 30, Porque esconderlos t . . .127 
 
 GRAVESANDE, VAN S' . . . . . . . 133 
 
 cxx. Abconde, le Lac de . . . . . .134 
 
 CXXI. Escaut a Burght pres Anvers .... 136 
 
 cxxil. Foret, Entree de . . . . .136 
 
 CXXIII. Gein, pres Abconde, au bord du. . . .135 
 
 CXXIV. Peche, Retour de la . . . . . . 136 
 
 cxxv. Pecheurs sur la c6te de Normandie .... 137 
 
 HADEN ......... 294 
 
 CXXVI. Agamemnon, the ..... 257, 308 
 
 CXXVII. Battersea Reach ...... 307 
 
 CXXVIII. Early Morning in Richmond Park .... 306 
 
 CXXIX. House of Benjamin Davis, Smith (Newcastle-in-Emlyn, South 
 
 Wales) ....... 306 
 
 cxxx. Out of Study Window ..... 300 
 
 CXXXI. Sunset in Tipperary ...... 303 
 
 cxxxil. Sunset on the Thames ..... 301 
 
 CXXXlii. Shere Mill-pond, Surrey ..... 304
 
 454 CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 cxxxiv. Towing-Path ....... 303 
 
 cxxxv. Whistler's House at Old Chelsea .... 302 
 
 HOLLAR ......... 108 
 
 cxxxvi. Gentleman playing on a Guitar . . . .no 
 
 cxxxvii. Greenwich, the long view of . . . . .no 
 
 HOOK ... . . . . 341 
 
 CXXXVIII. Fisherman's Good-night . . . 344 
 
 CXXXIX. Gathering eggs from the Cliff .... 343 
 
 HORSLEY . . . . . . , . 341 
 
 CXL. Deserted Village ; plate 61 . . . . . 343 
 
 CXLi. Duenna's Return ...... 342 
 
 CXLII. Weaver's Cottage, interior of . , . . . 343 
 
 JACQUE ......... 189 
 
 CXLill. Ferme . . . . . . . 192 
 
 CXLIV. Hiver. ....... 193 
 
 CXLV. Labourage . . . . . . .194 
 
 CXLVI. Pastoral ....... 191 
 
 CXLVII. Petits, Petite !...... 192 
 
 JACQUEMART ....... 183, 382 
 
 CXLVIII. Coupe de Jaspe Oriental ..... 187 
 
 CXLIX. Coupe de Jaspe Oriental ..... 188 
 
 CL. Drageoir de Cristal de Roche . . . .188 
 
 CLI. Dutch Cottage, interior of, after Willem Kalf . . 385 
 
 CLII. Elisabeth de Valois, Reine d'Espagne, after Sir Antonio Moro 387 
 CLIII. Fleurs, Huit etudes et compositions de . . .186 
 
 CLIV. Hanap de Cristal de Roche . . . .187 
 
 CLV. Histoire de la Porcelaine ; plate 6 . . . .185 
 
 CLVI. Histoire de la Porcelaine ; plates 14 and 15 . . . 185 
 
 CLVli. Moerdyck, after Van Goyen .... 384 
 
 CLVIII. Repose, after Berghem ..... 382 
 
 CLIX. Saliere de Lapis Lazuli . . . . .188 
 
 CLX. Vase de Jaspe Oriental . . . . . 187 
 
 CLXI. Vase Antique de Porphyre . . . . .187 
 
 CLXII. Vase Antique de Sardoine ..... 186 
 
 CLXIII. Young Woman, Portrait of, after Lucas Cranach the younger 386 
 
 JONGKIND ......... 128 
 
 CLXIV. Honfleur, entrance to the Port .... 131 
 
 CLXV. Honfleur, Sortie du Port ..... 132 
 
 CLXVI. Honfleur, view of the Railway Port . . . .131 
 
 CLXVII. Town of Maaslins, Holland .... 130 
 
 KNIGHT . . . . . . . . 35 1 
 
 CLXVlll. Drinking Song ...... 352 
 
 CLXix. Peasant and the Forest ..... 352 
 
 LAGUILLERMIB .... . . 155, 372 
 
 CLXX. Dwarf of Philip IV. of Spain, after Velasquez . . 372
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 455 
 
 LALANNE ......... 
 
 CLXXI. Bordeaux, a . 
 CLXXII. Concorde, Pont de la, Paris ..... 
 
 CLXXIII. Demolition pour le percement de la Rue des Ecoles 
 CLXXIV. Demolition pour le percement du Boulevard St. Germain . 
 CLXXV. Environs de Paris ...... 
 
 CLXXVI. Fribourg, Suisse ...... 
 
 CLXXVII. Hugo, Victor, house of, twelve small Etchings 
 CLXXVlil. Landscape in the Traitf de la Gravure & FEauforte . 
 CLXXIX. Neuilly, Seine ...... 
 
 CLXXX. Rue des Marmousets (Vieux Paris) .... 
 
 CLXXXI. Vue Prise du Pont St. -Michel .... 
 
 LALAUZE . ... . . . . . . 
 
 CLXXXII. Baby is very Good ...... 
 
 CLXXXIII. Baby's S&up ...... 
 
 CLXXXI V. Drawing Lesson ..... 2 
 
 CLXXXV. Music Lesson ...... 
 
 LAN9ON ......... 
 
 CLXXXVI. Faubourg, 30 Aout soir, 1870 .... 
 
 CLXXXVII. Boulevard Montrouge 1871 ..... 
 CLXXXVIII. Route de Mouzon, 31 Aout 1870 .... 
 
 LEGROS . . ' \ . . . . . . 
 
 CLXXXIX. Bell-Ringer ....... 
 
 CXC. Bonhomme Misere . ..... 
 
 CXCI. Coming out of Church ..... 
 
 LE RAT ......... 
 
 cxcu. Leonardo Loredano, Doge of Venice, Portrait of, after 
 Giovanni Bellini ..... 
 
 lX)NGUEVILLE, DE ....... 
 
 CXCin. Au Mouillage ...... 
 
 CXCiv. En Mer ....... 
 
 cxcv. Sous Vapeur ...... 
 
 cxcvi. Sous voiles courant Grand Largue .... 
 
 MARTIAL ......... 
 
 cxcvn. Houses at the Angle of the Boulevard des Capucines and 
 the Rue de la Paix . ... . 
 
 CXCVIII. Lettre sur PEauforte ..... 
 
 CXCix. Porte de la Sacristie du College a Beauvais . 
 
 cc. Rue des Precheurs ...... 
 
 CCI. Rue du Pantour St. Gervais .... 
 
 CCll. Theatre du Vaudeville ..... 
 
 CCIII. Tourelle de 1'Hotel Schomberg .... 
 
 MEISSONIER ........ 
 
 MERYON ......... 
 
 CCIV. Notre-Dame de Paris, Abside de . . . 
 
 ccv. Pompe, la, Notre-Dame ..... 
 
 ccvi. Pont Neuf . ....
 
 4S CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ccvil. Rue des Toiles, Bourges . . . . 175 
 
 CCVIII. Stryge, le . . . . . . .172 
 
 CCIX. Tourelle, Rue de la Tixeranderie . . . . 175 
 
 MILLAIS ......... 339 
 
 ccx. The Young Mother ...... 340 
 
 MONGIN . . . . . ... 379 
 
 CCXi. Estafette, after Meissonier . . . . .379 
 
 MORGENSTERN ........ 140 
 
 NEUVILLE, DE ........ 235 
 
 ccxn. Mobiles a la Tranchee, Siege de Paris . . . 235 
 
 OSTADE . . . . . . . . . 97, 98 
 
 ccxni. Famille, la . . . . . . .99 
 
 CCXIV. Hurdy-gurdy Player ..... too 
 
 PALMER ....... . 324 
 
 CCXV. Come, thou Monarch of the Vine . . . 337 
 
 CCXVI. Early Ploughman ...... 329 
 
 ccxvii. Full Moon ....... 336 
 
 ccxvm. Herdsman ....... 332 
 
 CCXIX. Rising Moon ...... 333 
 
 ccxx. Sunrise . . . . . ' 337 
 
 POTTER, PAUL ....... 101, 102 
 
 ccxxi. Bull, the ....... 105 
 
 CCXXil. Cheval de la Frise ...... 105 
 
 CCXXI 1 1. Cheval Fremissant ...... 105 
 
 CCXXIV. Cows, two, in foreground, Herdsman and three other Cows 
 
 in middle distance ..... 105 
 
 CCXXV. Horses, three Studies of . . . . 105 
 
 ccxxvi. Mazette, la . . . . . . . 105 
 
 QUEVROY ......... 221 
 
 ccxxvn. House of Jacques Cceur at Bourges . . . 222 
 
 ccxxvin. Loches . . . . . . .221 
 
 CCXXIX. Rue des Arenes at Bourges .... 222 
 
 RAJON . . .... 373 
 
 ccxxx. Dutch Housewife, after Nicolas Maes . . . 375 
 
 ccxxxi. John Stuart Mill, portrait of, after G. F. Watts, R.A. . 373 
 
 REDGRAVE. ........ 346 
 
 ccxxxil. Barbara ....... 348 
 
 ccxxxi II. Corpse discovered in a Wood .... 348 
 
 ccxxxiv. Silver Thames ...... 348 
 
 REMBRANDT ........ 73 
 
 ccxxxv. Abraham's Sacrifice . . . .83 
 
 ccxxxvi. Ansloo, Cornelius, portrait of . . .92 
 
 CCXXXVII. Asselyn, portrait of . ... 93 
 
 ccxxxvni. Bathers ....... 
 
 ccxxxix. Bouquet de Bois ...... 95
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 457 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CCXL. Christ Healing the Sick ..... 85 
 
 CCXLI. Clement de Jonghe, portrait of . . 93 
 
 CCXLII. Coppenol, the lesser (a portrait) .... 93 
 
 CCXLIII. Cottage with the Great Tree . . . -95 
 
 CCXLIV. Death of the Virgin ..... 87 
 
 CCXLV. Descent from the Cross by Torchlight ... 86 
 
 CCXLVI. Diana at the Bath ...... 90 
 
 CCXLVII. Ephraim Bonus, portrait of .... 93 
 
 CCXLV 1 1 1. Hagar dismissed by Abraham .... 82 
 
 CCXLIX. Hundred Guilder Print ..... 8l 
 
 CCL. Jacob and Laban ...... 83 
 
 CCLi. Janus Lutma, portrait of . . . . -93 
 
 CCLII. Jesus Christ preaching ..... 84 
 
 CCLIII. Lion Hunt ....... 88 
 
 CCLIV. Mendiants, Homme et Femme .... 89 
 
 CCLV. Mother of Rembrandt, portrait of . . . . 91 
 
 CCLVI. Mother of Rembrandt, another portrait of . . . 92 
 
 CCLVII. Naked man seated on the ground .... 90 
 
 CCLVIII. Omval, view of . . . . 95 
 
 CCLIX. Presentation in the Temple .... 83 
 
 CCLX. Repose in Egypt ...... 84 
 
 CCLXI. Return of the Prodigal Son . . . .84 
 
 CCLXII. Six, Bridge of ...... 95 
 
 CCLXIII. Six (the Burgomaster), portrait of . . . 93 
 
 CCLXI v. Sleeping Dog . . . . . 8 1 
 
 CCLXV. Square Tower, Landscape with . . . 95 
 
 CCLXVI. Three Cottages, Landscape with .... 95 
 
 CCLXVII. Three Crosses ...... 86 
 
 CCLXVIII. Three Oriental Figures ..... 83 
 
 CCLXIX. Tower, Landscape with ..... 95 
 
 CCLXX. Youth surprised by Death ..... 88 
 
 CCLXXI. Uytenbogaert, the gold-weigher, portrait of . -93 
 
 RIDLEY ......... 346 
 
 CCLXXII. Draham Harbour ...... 349 
 
 CCLXXIII. Durham ....... 349 
 
 CCLXXIV. North Dock ...... 349 
 
 ROCHEBRUXE, DE ........ 230 
 
 CCLXXV. Cheminee de 1'Atelier de Terre-Neuve, Vendee . . 230 
 
 CCLXXVI. Porte de 1'Atelier de Terre-Neuve .... 230 
 
 RUSKIN ......... 278 
 
 CCLXXVII. Arch from the Facade of the Church of St. Michele at Lucca 285 
 
 CCLXXVIII. Capital from the lower arcade of the Doge's Palace, Venice 283 
 
 CCLXXIX. Crests of La Cote and Taconay .... 287 
 
 CCLXXX. Part of the Cathedral of St. Lo, Normandy . . 284 
 
 CCLXXXI. Pass of Faido. Simple topography . . . 286 
 
 CCLXXXII. Window from the Ca' Foscari, Venice . . . 285 
 
 RUYSDAEL . . . . . . . .112 
 
 CCLXXXIII. Bridge, the Little ...... n5 
 
 CCLXXXIV. Travellers, the . . . . .115 
 
 2 H
 
 45 8 CATALOGUE INDEX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 SALVATOR . . . . . . . .112 
 
 CCLXXXV. CEdipus, the Abandonment of . . . .115 
 
 SARTIRANA, DUKE OF . . . . . .141 
 
 CCLXXXVI. En Italic, La Peche aux Grenouilles . . .141 
 
 SOUMY ........ ISO, 233 
 
 CCLXXXVII. Forges d'Allevar en Dauphin^ .... 233 
 
 TAYLER ......... 350 
 
 CCLXXXVIII. Day's Hunting in the Fens . . . . 351 
 
 CCLXXXIX. Forester's Song . . . , . . 351 
 
 TROOFTWYK ........ 140 
 
 TURNER ......... 261 
 
 ccxc. Calm ....... 271 
 
 CCXCI. Dumbarton ....... 268 
 
 CCXCii. ^Esacus and Hesperia ..... 267 
 
 CCXClli. Inverary Pier. Loch Fyne, Morning ... 269 
 
 ccxciv. Jason ....... 270 
 
 CCXCV. Little Devil's Bridge, over the Russ above Altdorft . 271 
 
 CCXCVI. Weedy foreground, man ploughing . . . 269 
 
 UNGER ........ 138, 387 
 
 CCXCVII. Buste de Femme, after Rembrandt ... 390 
 CCXCVlil. Cephale et Procris, after a picture supposed to be by Guido 
 
 Reni . . . . . . .395 
 
 CCXCix. Chanoine, Portrait d' un after Antonis Mor Van Dashorst 393 
 
 CCC. Dormeur, le, after A. Van Ostade . ... 390 
 
 CCCI. Eau Calme, after Willem Van de Velde the younger . 391 
 CCCII. Franz Hals and Lysbeth Reyniers, his second wife, after 
 
 Franz Hals ....... 394 
 
 CCCIII. Governors of the Asylum for old men in 1664, after Franz 
 
 Hals ........ 394 
 
 CCCIV. Hail, Fidelity ! also designated Sir Ramp and his Mistress, 
 
 after Franz Hals ....... 393 
 
 CCCV. Homme, Portrait de, after Tintoret . . . 392 
 
 CCCVI. Jeune Couple dans leur Salon, after Gonzales Coques . 387 
 
 CCCVil. Paysage Montagneux, after Rembrandt ... 389 
 
 CCCVIII. Vaches, Les Quatre, after Paul Potter . . . 395 
 
 VANDYKE ........ 107 
 
 CCCix. Snellinx, Joannes, portrait of .... 109 
 
 cccx. Suttermans, Justus, portrait of . . . . 109 
 
 CCCXI. Vorstermans, Lucas, portrait of . . .109 
 
 CCCXII. Vrannx, Franciscus, portrait of . . . . 109 
 
 VEYRASSAT ........ 213 
 
 cccxin. Bac, le ....... 213 
 
 CCCXIV. Cornstack, making a . . . . .217 
 
 VlLLEVIEILLE ........ 232 
 
 cccxv. En Picardie ...... 232 
 
 CCCXVI. Nohant-Vicq . . . . . .232
 
 CATALOGUE INDEX. 459 
 
 WALTNER ........ 376 
 
 cccxvil. Angelus, after Millet . . . . . 376 
 
 cccxvui. Dans la Rosee, after Carolus Duran . . 377 
 
 WATERLOO . . . . . . . 113 
 
 cccxix. Study of trees . . . . . .117 
 
 WEIROTTER ........ 113 
 
 cccxx. Civita Vecchia . . . . . .118 
 
 cccxxi. River scene . . . . . .117 
 
 WHISTLER ........ 288 
 
 CCCXXII. Girl leaning against a door-post . . . .291 
 
 CCCXXI II. Black Lion Wharf . . . . . .291 
 
 CCCXXIV. Boats at a Mooring Evening .... 293 
 
 cccxxv. Hungerford Bridge ...... 290 
 
 CCCXXVI. Wapping, Wharf . . . . . .291 
 
 WILKIE ......... 273 
 
 cccxxvu. Boys and Dogs, or the Seat of Hands . . 273, 275 
 
 CCCXXVIII. Gentleman at his Desk ..... 275 
 
 CCCXXix. Pope examining a Censer .... 273, 274 
 
 cccxxx. Reading the Will ..... 273, 276 
 
 WISE ......... 381 
 
 cccxxxi. Triumph of Scipio, after Mantegna .... 381 
 
 WURTHLE ......... 140 
 
 ZEEMAN ......... 119 
 
 cccxxxn. Marine Subject I . . . . . .121 
 
 cccxxxni. Marine Subject 2. . . . . .122 
 
 cccxxxiv. Marine Subject 3 . . . . . .122 
 
 ZlMMERMANN ........ I
 
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 THE SYLVAN YEAR. Leaves from the Note-Book of 
 
 RAOUL DUEOIS. With Twenty Etchings by the Author and other Artists. 8vo. 
 Cloth, gilt edges. Price 5.50. A cheaper edition, square i2mo. Price 32.00. 
 
 " ' The Sylvan Year ' is one of Mr. Hamerton's best books : and Mr. Hamerton, at his 
 best, is one of the most charming modern writers. . . . A record rich in intelligent observation 
 of animals, trees, and all the forest world ; rich, too, in the literary beauty, the artistic touches, 
 and the sentiment that mark Mr. Hamerton's style." From the Boston Daily Advertiser. 
 
 " Its author lived a year in the Val Sainte Veronique, watching the forest through all its 
 changes, and adding to his already large stock of woods lore. He has enough scientific knowl- 
 edge, but, in talking of nature, he adds to that the observation of the artist, and the sentiment 
 of the poet and the man of true feeling. Then he knows the literature of the woods, the 
 flowers, and the seasons. The style is very quiet ; one reads it with a slow sort of delight 
 that nothing else gives, and the enjoyment of it grows with every new book that the author 
 writes. These out-door books of Mr. Hamerton are more attractive than his graver works 
 which treat of the Intellectual Life and of Art, although those are admirable in their way. 
 But ' The Unknown River,' ' Chapters on Animals,' and ' The Sylvan Year,' have a sim- 
 plicity, a delicacy, a depth of feeling, and a wealth of literary beauty that are very rarely found 
 united." Boston Correspondent of the Worcester Spy.
 
 MR. HAMERTON'S WORKS. 
 
 THOUGHTS ABOUT ART. New Edition, Revised, with 
 
 Notes and an Introduction. " Fortunate is he who at an early age knows what 
 art is." GOETHE. Square lamo. Price $2.00. 
 
 "The whole volume is adapted to give a wholesome stimulus to the taste for art, and tc 
 place it in an intelligent and wise direction. With a knowledge of the principles, which it sets 
 forth in a style df peculiar fascination, the reader is prepared to enjoy the wonders of ancient 
 and modern art, with a fresh sense of their beauty, and a critical recognition of tue sources of 
 their power." New York Tribune. 
 
 A PAINTER'S CAMP. A New Edition, in i vol. i6mo. 
 
 Price $1.50. Square 1 2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 " If any reader whose eye chances to meet this article has read ' The Painter's Camp,' by 
 Mr. Philip Gilbert Hamerton, he will need but little stimulus to feel assured that the same 
 author's work, entitled 'Thoughts about Art,' is worth his attention. The former, I confess, 
 was so unique that no author should be expected to repeat the sensation produced by it. Like 
 the 'Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,' or the ' Swiss Family Robinson,' it brought to maturer 
 minds, as those do to all, the flavor of breezy out-of-door experiences, an aroma of poetry 
 and adventure combined. It was full of art, and art-discussions too ; and yet it needed no 
 rare technical knowledge to understand and enjoy it." Joel Benton. 
 
 "They ('A Painter's Camp' and ' Thoughts about Art '(are the most useful books that 
 could be placed in the hands of the American art public. If we were asked where the most 
 intelligent, the most trustworthy, the most practical, and the most interesting exposition of 
 modern art and cognate subjects is to be found, we should point to Hamerton's writings." 
 The Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 THE UNKNOWN RIVER: An Etcher's Voyage of Discov- 
 
 ery. With an original Preface for the American Edition, and Thirty-seven Plates 
 etched by the Author. One elegant 8vo volume, bound in cloth, extra, gilt, and 
 gilt edges. Price 6.00. A cheaper edition, square i2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 " Wordsworth might like to come back to earth for a summer, and voyage with Philip Gil- 
 bert Hamerton down some ' Unknown River' ! If this supposition seem extravagant to any 
 man, let him buy and read ' The Unknown River, an Etcher's Voyage of Discovery," by 
 P. G. Hamerton. It is not easy to write soberly about this book while fresh from its presence. 
 The subtle charm of the very title is indescribable ; it lays hold in the outset on the deepest 
 romance in every heart ; it is the very voyage we are all yearning for. When, later on, we are 
 told that this ' Unknown River ' is the Arroux, in the eastern highlands of France, that it 
 empties into the Loire, and has on its shores ancient towns of historic interest, we do not quite 
 believe it. Mr. Hamertou has flung a stronger spell by his first word than he knew." 
 Scribner's Monthly. 
 
 CHAPTERS ON ANIMALS. With Eight Illustrations by 
 
 J. VEYRASSATand KARL BODMER. Square i2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 " This is a choice book. Only such a man as Hamerton could have written it, who, by virtue 
 of his great love of art, has been a quick and keen observer of nature, who has lived with and 
 loved animal nature, and made friends and companions of the dog and horse and bird. And 
 of such, how few there are I Mr. Hamerton has observed to much purpose, for he has a curious 
 y mpathy with the ' painful mystery of brute creation,' as Dr. Arnold called it. He recognizes 
 the beauty and the burden of that life which is bounded by so fine and sensitive a mortality. 
 He finds in the uses of the domestic animal something supplementary to his own manhood, 
 nd which develops both the head and heart of the good master. We have been often reminded 
 ot Montaigne in reading this book, as we always associate him with his cat." Boston Courier.
 
 MR. HAMERTON'S WORKS. 
 
 THE LIFE OF J. M. W. TURNER, R. A. Square i 2 mo. 
 
 Price $2.00. 
 
 " We have found his volume thoioughly fascinating, and think that no open-minded readet 
 of the 'Modern Painters' should neglect to read this 'Life' In it he will find Turner 
 dethroned from the pinnacle of a demi-god on which Ruskin has set him (greatly to the 
 artist's disadvantage), but he will also find him placed on another reasonably high pedestal 
 where one may admire him intelligently and lovingly, in spite of the defects in drawing, the 
 occasional lapses of coloring and the other peculiarities, which are made clear to his observa- 
 tion by Mr. Hamerton's discussion." Boston Courier. 
 
 ETCHING AND ETCHERS. Illustrated with Etchings 
 
 printed in Paris under the supervision of Mr. HAMERTON. A new, revised, and 
 enlarged Edition. 8vo. Cloth, gilt and black. Price $5.00. 
 
 " We are not in the habit of overpraising publishers or authors, but we have no hesitation 
 in saying that Mr. Hamerton's 'Etching and Etchers' will henceforth deserve to have, and 
 certainly obtain, a place in every gentleman's library in the country who can afford to buy the 
 book. The subject is treated so conscientiously, there is such a maturity and repose of thought 
 and exposition, and in every page, whether you agree or disagree, so much to think over with 
 luxurious reflection, besides which the illustrations are so valuable and delicately chosen for 
 the object in view, that the book rather resembles the mediasval labors of life-long devotion, 
 than a nineteenth-century forty-steam-power of ephemeral production." The Spectator. 
 
 THE GRAPHIC ARTS: A Treatise on the Varieties of 
 
 Drawing, Painting, and Engraving in Comparison with each other and with Nature. 
 Square 1 2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 " Few books have issued from the American press of more deserved and general interest 
 and value. The volume displays a vast amount of artistic knowledge and research, and a 
 thorough familiarity with all the literature of the subject, and with general literature as well, 
 besides showing his own conspicuous and graceful literary accomplishment. It is a volume 
 most to be welcomed, however, for its probable effect in widening the respect for graphic art 
 in its various forms through making men and women of some literary culture better acquainted 
 with its reason and method as well as its beauty." Chicago Times. 
 
 ROUND MY HOUSE. Notes of Rural Life in France in 
 
 Peace and War. Square i2mo. Price 2.00. 
 
 " Whatever the subject he chooses, and he is at home with a good many, Mr. Hamerton \% 
 pretty sure to write an entertaining book, and this one, which gives an account of his life in 
 France, is no exception. He takes the reader into his confidence, and tells him just how hard 
 it was to find exactly the sort of house he wanted. . . . After describing this tempting place, 
 the author goes on to give his readers just that full record of what he saw in his daily life, 
 which is most interesting and useful loan outsider. The merit of this part is, that it so exactly 
 resembles the talk of a sensible man whose tact enables him to know just what his hearers 
 would like to hear." Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 WENDERHOLME: a Tale of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
 
 Square 1 2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 "To those who are familiar with other works by Mr. Hamerton, it mayce sufficient, in a 
 general way, to say that ' Wenderholme' is characterized by the same thoroughness, the same 
 simplicity, the same artistic flavor that make ' Round my House ' so delightful ; by the same 
 love of nature, the same appreciation of the beautiful, the same refinement that mark 'The 
 Unknown River* and 'A Painter's Camp; ' and there are not wanting evidences of the wide 
 reading, the proofs of culture and earnestness that are conspicuous in ' Intellectual Life.' " 
 Cincinnati, O., Times.
 
 MR, HAMERTON'S WORKS. 
 
 MODERN FRENCHMEN. Five Biographies : Victor Jacque- 
 
 niont, Traveller and Naturalist ; Henri Perrewe, Ecclesiastic and Orator ; FrangoU 
 Rude, Sculptor; Jean Jacques Ampere, Historian, Archaeologist, and Traveller; 
 Henri Regnault, Painter and Patriot. By PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON. Uni- 
 form with " The Intellectual Life," &c. Square i2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 HUMAN INTERCOURSE. Square 12 mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 " He has the art of presenting to our minds a hundred paths into which every subject opens. 
 ... In writing about ' Human Intercourse,' Mr. Hamerton has the always significant facts of 
 human nature to deal with, those eternally interesting creatures, men and women. . . . 
 Occasionally, too, there are sentences that suggest by their felicity the rhythm of poetry. Better 
 than all, in this, as in every one of Mr. Hamerton's works, we feel that we are dealing with 
 a man who, besides his grace, his wit, or his keen observation, is always on the side of simple 
 truth and purity of living, nnd possesses a high-minded faith in the power of the Best, and a 
 determination to aid in its final victory." 1'hiladelphia. Press. 
 
 LANDSCAPE. Square i2mo. Price $2.00. 
 
 " Mr. Hamerton in sending to his publishers, Messrs. Roberts Brothers, a complete set of 
 proofs for the library edition, says; ' I have done all in my power to make " Landscape " a 
 readable book. It is not mere letter-press to illustrations, or anything of the kind, but a book 
 which, I hope, anybody who takes any interest in landscape would be glad to possess." . . . 
 The subject is treated from all sides which have any contact with art or sentiment, from the 
 side of our illusions ; our love for nature ; the power of nature over us ; nature as subjective ; 
 verbal description, 'word-painting;' nature as reflected by Homer, as the type of Greek 
 nature-impression ; by Virgil or Latin, Ariosto or Mediaeval ; then as studied by Wordsworth 
 and Lamartine, as types of English and French ; from its relation to the various graphic arts, 
 its characteristics in'Great Britain and in France, and from the geography ol beauty and art. 
 Mountains are weighed in the art balances ; lakes, brooks, rivulets, and rivers in their degrees 
 of magnitude. Then man's work on riverc and their use in art are considered ; then trees, 
 under their various aspects ; then the effect of agriculture on landscape, of figures and animals, 
 and of architecture. ' The two immensities,' sea and sky. conclude." The Nation. 
 
 Mr. Hamerton's Works (not including " Etchers and Etching," 
 "Imagination in Landscape Painting," "Paris," and "A Summer 
 Voyage on the Saone ") may be had in uniform binding. 14 vols 
 Square I2mo. Cloth, price $28.00; half calf, price $56.00. A 
 cheaper Edition 14 vols., i6mo, cloth, Oxford style, $17.50; cloth, 
 imitation naif calf, $21.00. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of adver- 
 tised price, by 
 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 Boston. 
 
 8050 

 
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