UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
UNIVERSITY of CMJFOKN1A
AT
ANGELES
LIBRARY
HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
THE ENGRAVER.
Dry-point by Whistler.
The print shows Riault, a wood engraver, at work. The wood block on
which he 'is engraving rests on a pad before him; on the table lie some^
(Courtesy of the New York Public Library Print Dept.)
HOW TO
APPRECIATE PRINTS
BY
FRANK WEITENKAMPF, L.H.D.
CHIEF OF THE PRINT DIVISION
OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Second and Revised Edition
NEW YORK
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
All Rights Reserved
Published, November, 1908
Second Printing, March, 1909
Third Printing, June, 1909
Fourth Printing, January, 19x1
Fifth Printing, April, 1914
Sixth Printing, October, 1916
Art
Library
^E
&6C
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
A WORD BEFOREHAND ix
I. THE TASTE FOR PRINTS i
II. ETCHING . . . . .11
III. LINE ENGRAVING .... 53
IV. MEZZOTINTS ..... 94
%V. AQUATINT AND OTHER TINT
METHODS . . . . -130
VI. STIPPLE AND OTHER DOT METHODS . 145
VII. WOOD ENGRAVING . . . .162
VIII. LITHOGRAPHY . . . 204
IX. PHOTOMECHANICAL PROCESSES . 240
X. COLOR PRINTS .... 246
XI. COLLECTING ..... 256
XII. THE MAKING OF PRINTS . . . 264
XIII. CARE OF PRINTS .... 289
XIV. THE SUBJECT-INTEREST . . . 294
XV. SOME SPECIALTIES . . . 302
A WORD IN CLOSING . . .313
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
THE ENGRAVER Frontispiece
Dry-point by Whistler
LION'S HEAD 20
Soft-ground Etching by Armand Point
REMBRANDT DRAWING 24
Etching by Rembrandt
MOTHER AND BABY 34
Dry-point by Mary Cassatt
L'ABSIDE DE NOTRE DAME DE PARIS 38
Etching by Charles Meryon
SHERE MILL POND 40
Etching by Sir Seymour Haden, P.R.E.
ST. MARTIN'S BRIDGE, SPAIN 42
Etching by Joseph Pennell
WILLIAMSBURG (Brooklyn) 44
Etching by Charles A. Platt
WATER STREET, PHILADELPHIA 46
Etching by Charles Henry White
ELF AND BEAR 48
Etching by Max Klinger
ST. JEROME IN His STUDY 66
Line Engraving by Albrecht DUrer
THE RAT CATCHER 72
Line Engraving by Cornells Visscher
THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS 74
Line Engraving by Marc Antonio Raimondi
PORTRAIT OF POM PONE DE BELLIEVRE 78
Line Engraving by Robert Nanteuil, after Charles
Le Brun
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN 104
Mezzotint by John Raphael Smith, after Sir Thomas
Lawrence
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
NORHAM CASTLE ON THE TWEED 116
Etching by J. M. W. Turner for the Mezzotint
NORHAM CASTLE ON THE TWEED 116
Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. Engraved by
C. Turner (1816). Mezzotint
SIR FRANCIS SEYMOUR HADEN AT 63 128
Mezzotint by Alphonse Legros
A PLATE FROM FRANK SHORT'S " ON THE MAKING OF
ETCHINGS" 132
EXAMPLES OF STIPPLE ENGRAVING 150
THE HONOURABLE Miss BINGHAM 152
Stipple Engraving by F. Bartolozzi (1786)
A WOODCUT FROM HOLBEIN'S " DANCE OF DEATH " . . 170
ITALIAN WOODCUT BY AN UNKNOWN VENETIAN MASTER OF
THE ISTH CENTURY 172
THE ANNUNCIATION 175
By Geoffroy Tory. Woodcut
A WOOD-ENGRAVING 178
By Thomas Bewick
FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU 188
Wood-Engraving by Elbridge Kingsley after Corot
ONE OF THE HUNDRED VIEWS OF FUJIYAMA .... 198
By Hokusai
PORTRAIT OF TOLSTOI 228
Lithograph by Henri Lefort
PORTRAIT OF TENNYSON 234
Lithograph by Alphonse Legros
VIEW ON THE SEINE (A Paris quai) 236
Lithograph by H. W. Ranger
PORTRAIT OF EDMOND DE GONCOURT (First state) . . . 268
Etching by Felix Bracquemond
PORTRAIT OF EDMOND DE GONCOURT (Seventh state) . . 270
AN IMPRESSION FROM THE CANCELED PLATE OF WHISTLER'S
ETCHING " MILLBANK " 282
AS TO THE SECOND EDITION
ON the occasion of each reprinting of this book, va-
rious corrections and additions were made. Particu-
larly in the case of the present the fifth printing,
in which these changes cumulate into a second
edition.
A more obvious glamor of the " up-to-date " might
have been cast about this reprint by adding an addi-
tional chapter. That plan was carefully considered,
and rejected. It would have been quite out of har-
mony with the nature and object of the book, which
aims to be a guide to appreciation, not a history. From
that standpoint of appreciation, the reader has been
better served by the changes and additions made at
their proper places.
The book is sent to press, then, for the fifth time, 1
with a keen appreciation of the increasing interest in
prints which has made this reissue necessary, and
which, again, the book may have done a little to
arouse.
F. W.
January, 1914.
1 In the sixth printing. October. 1916. farther corrections and additions appear.
IX
A WORD BEFOREHAND
To claim or attempt historical completeness for a
book such as the present one would be preposterous.
It would be futile to boil down all the facts in the
many books on the subject into a compressed, full and
dry record of names and dates. Numerous data are
given, as a matter of course, because they illustrate
various general principles on which the appreciation
of prints is based. ^Esthetic criteria are inevitably
influenced by historical and local association and by
technical considerations, and these points must there-
fore be brought out. But the emphasis is on ap-
preciation, and the end in view will be fully realized
if the reader is helped to see, whether he eventually
agrees or not with the opinions expressed. The ob-
ject is not to furnish cut-and-dried invariable rules, but
to aid in the development of a critical spirit paired with
liberal-mindedness.
The various chapters are as independent of each
other as they can be (considering the interdependence
of the arts) and can therefore be read or consulted
separately. The index forms a key to all essential facts,
including certain topics to which a separate chapter
could not be devoted, particularly book illustration,
more or less extended references to which occur in
nearly every chapter.
XI
CHAPTER I
THE TASTE FOR PRINTS
NOT a few persons who are fond of pictures appear
diffident before prints. They seem to fear that the
whole subject is far beyond them, and make little or
no effort to acquire a closer acquaintance with a form
of art that offers most varied pleasures to those who
have come to appreciate it in one phase or another.
Anything worth striving for or learning is above us
until we have succeeded in attaining a closer view and
a better understanding of it. Timidity in the face of
this subject, then, is not warranted. Rather an open-
minded desire to learn.
The list of books dealing with prints is not a small
one, 1 and it includes some excellent guides for the col-
lector; yet some of these, by their very mass of his-
torical and technical data, and their aesthetic attitude,
presuppose considerable information and a high devel-
opment of taste in the reader. This may dishearten
those who do not fully understand what they want,
those who need the friendly hand of guidance before
they are ready for the formal lecture of the expert.
There are things that cannot be taught well in print,
things which, after all, the reader must test for him-
self. But he can be put on the right track. He can be
helped to help himself, to see all he can in the right
1 Two bibliographies of the subject have been issued in recent years: the
portly quarto by Howard C. Levis (1912), with "Supplement and Index"
(1913)1 and G. Bourcard's " Graveurs et Gravures " (1910).
2 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
way and to read the right books at the right time. And
that is what is attempted in the present book.
There are various grades of art and of art lovers.
"The earth has room for all," as Schiller said.
The first step in the development of a love for pic-
tures is the interest in subject; the second, the interest
in realistic treatment. These two points are the ones
which attract most persons when confronted with
pictures. They are a natural and proper expression,
based on the attitude of man toward his fellow-man
and the rest of nature. They animated the men of the
stone age, scratching representations of animals on a
piece of bone, as they do the schoolboy making rude
incursions into art on his slate or the fly-leaf of his
schoolbook. Their popularity is exemplified in the atti-
tude of the crowds that gather before certain paintings
in our large permanent art galleries, such as the Metro-
politan Museum paintings that tell stories, war-scenes,
anecdotal genre. To say that this whole movement
is wrong, or shows false taste, simply because it repre-
sents a form of art not now in vogue among the fore-
most artists, is really a mistake. As I said, there are
various grades of art. There are different points of
view and the supercilious attitude is always out of
order.
But humanity, in its acquisition of knowledge, its
hopes, its aspirations, its ideals, is in a state of steady
development. In art, it is the personal expression of
the artist, his individuality shown not only in mere
tricks of style, but in his state of mind, his attitude
toward the world about him which counts most in
the end. And that is why art in any form is not a
THE TASTE FOR PRINTS 3
matter only of mere copying of facts. The line to be
drawn is not always easy to define, perhaps. But one
may best regard some extreme examples. The demand
for subject and realism found strong expression in the
vogue enjoyed by the chromos years ago. About the
same class of people who made the popularity of these
color prints at that time, to-day buy the original land-
scape etching "at $2.37, framed."
On the whole, this marks a step in advance, if only
for the reason that the original etching, though it
be a poor one, appeals to a more highly developed
taste because it often lacks the strong appeal of a story
told, of a subject arousing human interest; and be-
cause, being simply in black-and-white, it lacks also
the strong aid to the less trained imagination which
color gives. Of course, there are good chromos and
poor etchings.
Obvious and cheap realism is the most easily under-
stood. The "fiddle on the barn door" draws crowds
who complacently note the well-painted rusty hinges
and the astonishingly deceptive fly crawling on the
wood. This delight in counting every wrinkle on a
face, all the buttons on a coat, is born of the spirit
which prompts the schoolboy to draw a face in pro-
file with two eyes on one side. "A man has two eyes,
hasn't he?"
Now, the absolute rendering of every detail is not
necessary, and many of us believe that it is not the
object of the highest form of art. We expect a writer
to leave some ink in the well and give some play to
our imagination. The artist is not a camera. He is
a being with a soul who presents nature to us with an
4 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
infusion of his own personality. "Art is nature seen
through a soul," said Corot, the French landscape
painter. Others have expressed the same thought in
other words. As we advance in our knowledge and
appreciation of prints, we will more and more value
these qualities of personality. And not a small part
of our pleasure will be due to delight in the technical
handling of the work before us. For the artist's ex-
pression and his manner of expressing himself are
inseparable.
In the handling of the medium, that is, the process
of reproduction (engraving, etching, lithography),
all the formative influences in an artist's make-up find
expression: nationality, surroundings, his masters,
his idols, his tastes. That is why technique counts
for so very much in our appreciation of prints. And
that is why the interest in methods of working is apt to
outweigh the dryness of technical descriptions. Tech-
nique is expressed by craftsmanship, and there is
usually a very proper curiosity concerning the means
to this end. For the tool by which a work of art is
produced, and the material in which it is produced,
inevitably impose their stamp on the artistic result,
through their very nature and through the manner in
which they have to be handled. Etching-needle and
copper, crayon and stone, graver and wood, pencil and
paper, are media that have each its field, its proper lim-
its of expression, beyond which it is unwise to force
them. We must not, then, expect of any medium or
process what it cannot give. We must not look in the
etching for the range of color suggestion of the litho-
graph, the detailed formality of the line engraving, the
THE TASTE FOR PRINTS 5
richness of the mezzotint, the tone of the modern wood-
engraving. Each medium has its advantages and its
disadvantages. Each has its peculiar claim on our at-
tention. The individual liberty of the artist is to be re-
spected. The master will not be bound by fashions in
execution, mannerisms in manual dexterity formulated
by the cleverness of handicraftsmen. But he will as-
suredly respect the nature of the medium, and aim only
at effects to the production of which it is adapted.
The best prints do not appeal with full force to the
majority of those whom the painting attracts, because
they represent a specialized sort of taste. This taste
may be inborn in its inception, but it is an acquired
taste in its development. This is only natural. Con-
sider that the cheapest chromo has certain evident ele-
ments of realism, such as color and detail, that appeal
strongly and directly. On the other hand, in the etch-
ing, a highly developed form of art, all unnecessary
detail is usually omitted. Furthermore, the etching
is expressed in black lines, and nature has no lines.
The line is a convention, which is carried to its
extreme potentiality where it is used, as in the slighter
etchings of Whistler, or Pennell, or Platt, to give sum-
mary indications or impressions, and not to express
completeness of tones, or of light and shade. The
function of this form of art is suggestion, stimulation
of fancy, the conveying of impressions from one mind
to another. But, while recognizing the fact that the
appreciation of etchings calls for a training of the per-
ceptive faculties, we need not therefore turn from this
form of art as from something beyond us. The Jap-
anese color-print is, another example of a highly de-
6 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
veloped art-sense. But the fact that it seems all
"Greek" at first need not discourage.
When other things in life attract us on account of
possible amusement (as a difficult game such as chess,
or whist, or Skat) or of possible profit (as some pro-
fession or trade), we strive to master them. Why
not so here? The pupil who enters school cannot
read and understand Shakespeare, but he can learn to
do so. Fields of pure delight will be opened to him
who will only have the will to see.
The term "prints" covers many things, from the
cheap chromo to the ten-thousand-dollar etching by
Rembrandt. It can be applied to the magazine or
book illustration that gives pleasure to large numbers,
and to the choice and rare products of art that delight
the most highly cultured amateur. It describes the
printed picture that we enjoy for purely artistic rea-
sons as well as that in which the antiquarian or historic
interest overshadows all else. The collector of his-
torical prints may pay a good price for an engraving
that is poor as a work of art but rare as a portrait; for
the interest in prints is based not only on various de-
grees of artistic understanding and on different artistic
standpoints, but also on aspects not necessarily artistic.
And these various interests all play their part in the
appreciation of prints.
But primarily we have to do with them as art prod-
ucts purely. And, as such, they offer three elements
of enjoyment, as Wessely once said; namely, the
beauty of the engraving on the plate or block, the
beauty of the impression on paper taken therefrom, and
the beauty of the condition of this impression or print.
THE TASTE FOR PRINTS 7
The collector of etchings by Whistler, Haden,
MeYyon, Legros, Cameron and other masters of the
art will perhaps turn up his nose at reproductive etch-
ings. There is an instinctive feeling that the true
province of the etcher is the summary expression of
original ideas and not the painstaking reproduction of
a painting by another artist. Undoubtedly the ''repro-
ductive etcher" has sinned much. But so has also
the "original etcher." For the slick potboiler was
bound to come into evidence when "etching" first be-
came a name to conjure with and a certain popularity
of the art caused it to be "worked for all it was worth."
"Prove all things, hold fast that which is good" is as
good a rule as ever. There are some beautiful ex-
amples of reproductive etching, by men such as
Waltner, Unger, Flameng and Chauvel, to name but a
few. And again, Jacquemart has drawn on the copper
pictures of glass and silverware which are exquisite and
worth many "original etchings."
Pursuing this question of the relative merits of re-
productive and original work, we find that, on the
other hand, collectors are so eager for fine mezzotints
that some of these prints are bringing excessive prices
in the auction rooms. Yet the mezzotint process has
been employed essentially as a reproductive one. Orig-
inal mezzotints are not numerous, and are not the ones
that bring the highest prices. It is also well to re-
member that that which is most sought after in life is
not inevitably the best. In collecting, too, we may strike
fashions and fads, and the fad is not necessarily in
good taste.
Looking for the individuality of the artist in prints
8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
will, of course, lead eventually to original work. For
it is evident that an artist will give fuller expression
to his own self in an original etching or lithograph
than \, hen he is fettered by the necessity of interpreting
the work of another and honestly tries to remain loyal
to the latter.
s Meanwhile, as you seek for the best, remain true
to yourself. If, after careful study, you feel drawn to
any specialty or any one artist, have the courage of
your convictions. Do not think that you must follow
either the crowd or the select few. Only make it a
point to pick out the best in the specialty that strikes
your fancy. If you find you like reproductive etch-
ings, seek out the best work of the best men. Enjoy
it, buy it if you can and want to. Train your eye to
see the good and bad. For much of the beauty of an
etching, for example, depends on the manner in which
it is printed and on the state of the plate when it is
printed. Impressions from a badly-worn plate are an
eyesore. I placed a fine impression of an etching by
Rajon, after a "Reader," by Meissonier, beside one ap-
parently taken from the plate when badly worn and pub-
lished about thirty years ago in the American edition of
a well-known British art periodical. The difference
was remarkable, and it was pitiful to see that such a
travesty of the original had been foisted on our public
with all the pomp of authority. Which shows that the
name of a good man on your print does not necessarily
mean that you have "a good thing," though the agent
or other seller be ever so glib.
To repeat, then, do not be dismayed by the attitude
of the superior person. Admire frankly what pleases
THE TASTE FOR PRINTS g
you, always assuming that you have made your choice
after due deliberation and for good reason. And if,
in the course of time, you should outgrow your tastes
or change your attitude, you can afford to do -s<j with
entire satisfaction to yourself. You have had pure,
elevating enjoyment, from what you admired hitherto,
which is certainly immeasurably better than if you hud
kept away from the whole business on account of mis-
placed diffidence. Of course, there is no royal road to
any knowledge. And, particularly, do not expect the
present handbook, or any other general one, to answer
questions of a very special nature. When you have
really arrived at that point you need special litera-
ture histories of a particular school or nationality,
monographs on individual artists, or works on the
medium (mezzotint, etching, etc.) which appeals to
your taste and fancy. One cannot build a pons asi-
norum to enable you absolutely to tell the bad from the
good, any more than a receiving teller can learn to
tell counterfeit money except by handling it. But
facts can be set down which will give you proper prep-
aration for that which you will do with all the more
zest and pleasure because of such preparation. And
that is, first to see, and second to see, and third to see
yet more. Look at all the prints you can, with the
intention to learn and understand and enjoy. Op-
portunities are numerous. There are public print
rooms in Washington, Boston, Cambridge, New York
and Philadelphia, and smaller public collections of
prints in Buffalo, Chicago and elsewhere. Exhibi-
tions are arranged in various cities by art institutions,
associations and schools, by museums, public print
io HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
rooms, book-clubs and various print-dealers. Cata-
logues are issued for these shows which are records
of permanent value, and this applies to the hand lists
issued by certain dealers as well as to the elaborate
publications of such clubs as the Grolier of New
York, the Caxton of Chicago, or the Burlington Fine
Arts of London. A look at the list of exhibitions that
have been arranged in recent years by clubs such as
those mentioned, indicates a remarkably wide field of
interest, with an appeal to every variety of cultivated
taste in print matters.
There are few pleasures to be had with such a very
little outlay of time and money as this. And all
this is there for him who will take it.
To give a list of masterpieces, like a list of one hun-
dred best books, duly labeled and described, may be
convenient to him who likes to have his life mapped out
for him on the Cook's tour principle, regulating his
daily meals by the menu published in his favorite daily,
and "doing as the others do" in everything. In the
thoughtful one a superabundance of examples given
may in time rouse the query: Why was not that one
named instead of this one?
If the writer, apart from citing certain unquestioned
cases of absolute merit, exercises the right of personal
choice, he is bound to stimulate the reader to think
for himself, to draw comparisons, to use his own eyes.
And that is the principal thing to be attained.
CHAPTER II
ETCHING
IT is confidently stated that the time is past when
people think that to etch is to make a pen drawing.
Yet I have frequently been asked by persons who
showed a decided appreciation of etchings, " Now,
are these the originals or copies ? " In one case this
question was put by a man who, without previous art
training, enjoyed Whistler's etchings because " they
told so much with such few lines." Not a bad char-
acterization, that. It took only a few words to set
him straight as to the manner in which etchings were
produced, and to show him that they were neither
originals nor copies in the sense in which he used those
terms.
Etching is an art of the line. In that respect it is
like line engraving on copper. Used in the same field
as the latter, to reproduce paintings, it can be handled
so as to produce tones in which the line is lost. But as
a " painter art," as a medium for original expression,
it does not aim at such completeness of effect. It is,
in fact, often comparatively slight in execution, sum-
mary in statement, telling its story in few words. Its
strength lies in indication, not elaboration; flexibility,
not rigidity; the possibility of omission, not the neces-
sity of adding detail ; the power of giving a maximum
of expression, with a minimum of means.
12 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
The engraved line is precise, formal, the etched line
irregular, free. The engraved line is produced by a
tool pushed forward through the copper, by an effort
which limits freedom of movement. The etched line
is produced by acid biting somewhat irregularly along
a channel made by a steel point handled almost as
lightly as a pencil, scratching through a waxy layer,
which it needs no extra force to pierce, moving freely,
with a resultant unhampered response to the lightest
touch of the fingers. Line engraving is a slow process.
Etching is rapid, spontaneous. It calls for much
nicety of judgment and knowledge of process in the
" biting " with acid, which follows the initial step of
actual drawing. But in this initial step, in the actual
placing of the design, it responds easily, freely and
rapidly to the intention and touch of the artist.
Etching practiced directly by the artist as a so-called
" painter " art or autographic art, with no engraver as
an intermediary between him and the public, is an
open, personal manifestation of his design and inten-
tion, with the full impress of his character.
The process of pure etching is this : The polished
side of a copper plate (zinc is occasionally used) is
covered with a thin layer of a composition known as
" etching ground," which may be composed of white
wax, gum mastic and asphaltum, for example. This
ground is smoked over, usually by means of wax
tapers twisted together, which process is amusingly
illustrated in a photograph which shows Felix Buhot
posing in the very act. Upon the plate thus prepared,
the design is drawn with a steel point, the " etching
needle," which, passing through the " ground," does
ETCHING 13
not cut into the copper but simply lays it bare. The
copper at the bottom of the lines thus drawn shines
out in contrast with the smoked ground. The plate
is subjected to the action of acid, usually by being
placed in a " bath "of the acid, the back of the plate
being protected by a coat of varnish. The acid eats
into the copper where it has been laid bare by the
needle, and does not affect it where it is still covered
by the etching ground. The plate is then taken out
of the acid and the remaining " ground " removed.
Ink is applied to the surface of the plate, then rubbed
off, except where it has entered the etched lines.
The printing is done on a copper-plate press, the
etched plate and paper being laid on the bed or plate of
the press and drawn with the same between revolving
cylinders or rollers, on the principle of a mangle. By
this process, the ink is drawn out of the lines
and transferred to the paper. Passing a finger over
the surface of the print thus produced discloses the
ink lying in slight ridges ; so that, when the lines have
been very deeply bitten, these ridges are comparatively
thick, and there may even be corresponding grooves
in the back of the paper, showing that the pressure has
actually forced the paper into the etched lines. This
is well illustrated in certain plates of Turner's " Liber
Studiorum," or in Haden's " Calais Pier " (the large
plate), after Turner.
In the production of the final effect, very much
depends on the biting and inking. It is obvious that,
if the acid is allowed to act uniformly on all parts of
the plate, all the lines will be bitten to the same depth
and will print equally heavy and dark. To offset this,
14 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
the method known as " stopping-out " is employed.
The plate is left in the bath long enough for the acid to
bite properly the lines which are to print most faintly
and delicately. It is then taken out, and a so-called
"stopping-out varnish" (Brunswick black, or asphal-
tum) is applied over the lines which have thus been
subjected long enough to the acid, after which it is
again placed in the bath. The acid now acts only on
those portions not protected by the stopping-out var-
nish. The process is repeated for the portions which
are to print somewhat heavier than the first, most deli-
cate set of lines, and so on, according to desire, until
the lines last left unprotected, which have, of course,
been acted upon through all the successive immersions
of the plate in the acid, will print darkest. This
process of stopping-out, as well as the application of
the burnisher to rub down lines, can result in much
variety of effect.
In Whistler's "Kitchen" (No. 19 in Wedmore's
catalogue of his work), or his " Vieille aux Loques "
(No. 14), or "La Marchande de Moutarde " (16),
the faint, grayish lines of the dishes and the flesh por-
tions contrast with the heavy markings of the adjacent
shadows. A similar difference in strength of lines
appears in Haden's " Shere Mill Pond," or in Pen-
nell's " St. James' Palace " and " Spitalfields Church."
There is another method of arriving at the same
result ; to place the plate, covered with its " etching
ground," in the bath, and to draw upon it with the
needle in this position. Each line, as soon as drawn,
lays bare so much of the copper, which is immediately
attacked by the acid. It is therefore necessary that
ETCHING 15
those lines be drawn first which are to print most
heavily, then those that are to appear a little less dark,
and so on, the most delicate ones being put in last.
This method calls for colossal sureness on the part of
the etcher, an absolute knowledge of the action of the
acid, a complete mental picture of his design, so that
he may know just what lines to put down and in what
sequence. Hence, its use is rare.
If it is desired to add work to a plate already bitten,
that can be done either by laying a fresh ground
(transparent, this time) on the plate and proceeding
as before, or by scratching the lines with the point into
the bare copper, which process, needing no acid, is
known as " dry-point."
If, after a plate has been inked, the ink on the sur-
face were thoroughly wiped off, which is done with
rags and finally with the ball of the hand, the result
would be such as can be seen on a visiting card, where'
the black letters appear on a perfectly white ground.
Even the most " clean-wiped " etching is rarely quite
as clean-wiped as that, however. The space covered
by the etching is nearly always a little darker than the
margin of white paper around it. This is caused by
a thin film of ink covering the etched portion of the
plate. Sometimes this film of ink, this thin grayish
tone, is so slight that the lines of the etching stand
out sharply from the background of paper. But in
many cases more ink is left on the plate, so that the
spaces between the lines are more or less filled up with
a tone that softens the comparative sharpness of the
bitten line. 1
The ink is not usually left in a tint of dead uniform-
J The later states of Rembrandt's "Entombment" were usually printed
with a dark tint of ink.
16 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
ity, but varies in strength. The importance of this
film of ink can even become paramount. In Whistler's
" Nocturne-Salute" (No. 199), and " Nocturne-Ship-
ping" (No. 194), there are but a few lines as a sort
of skeleton support, while ink left on the plate gives
an effect which varies, of course, with each impression.
Mielatz's " Passing Storm " is built up similarly,
though not to the same extent.
" What is the secret of etching as I obtain it ? " said
Lepic. " It is the use of ink and rag. With these
two one can obtain everything from a plate. I am
master before my plate as before my canvas. I can
transform all subjects according to my fancy, modify
their effects."
And he demonstrated this theory, says Beraldi, by
printing a view on the banks of the Escaut in eighty-
five different manners, obtaining from the same plate
Hn turn day and night effects, sunset, moonrise, etc.
Various etchers, such as Martial, Herkomer, La-
lanne, Hamerton and Short, have published manuals
embodying the results of experiments in the composi-
tion of grounds, in biting and in printing.
There are niceties of manipulation to gain farther
varieties of effect. One of these is known as retrous-
sage. This consists in a peculiar handling of rags,
when wiping the surface of the plate, by which some
ink is lifted out of the etched lines on to the plate.
Or again, rags of a certain grain are used, producing
a peculiar scratched effect in the film of ink. Her-
komer has in his book a portrait printed in visiting-
card style, and again retroussaged, " to show how
much printing can do for an etching." Paper, too,
ETCHING 17
is an important factor. The delight is great of the
etcher who has managed to pick up in some second-
hand shop an old, hardly used account-book of old
French or Dutch hand-made paper.
All of this shows that the printing of an etching
implies a full understanding of the artist's intentions,
and often is a decided expression of personality. Not
a few artists are their own printers. Whistler often
worked the press, and there is an interesting photo-
graph, taken not very long before his death, which
shows him standing at the press, studying a proof just
pulled.
All the methods described are within the province
of pure etching. But there are many other ways of
producing effects. Dry-point may be used to advan-
tage in portions of the plate. Tools and processes used
in various branches of engraving are borrowed; lines
are strengthened with the burin (graver), shadows
are intensified with the roulette (a small, toothed
wheel), for example by Boissieu, 1 tones are produced
by means of aquatint, and by other processes noted in
the chapter on aquatint. Herkomer finds that Meryon
" used the burin in finishing his bitten work with a
marvelous skill; no better example can be found of the
harmonious combination of the two."
" Foul biting " (the spotty action of the acid at
places where the ground has not been properly laid),
sometimes a fortuitous and damaging effect, is occa-
sionally applied with forethought, instances being
furnished by Jacque, Yale and Mielatz. There are
many such extraneous effects to be found, produced by
ways and means beyond the limits of absolute etching.
'Whistler's "The Doorway" (Mansfield's catalogue, no. ug 4 ) shows
rouletting in the water.
18 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Felix Buhot was a veritable juggler with processes;
his etchings form a study of clever manipulation.
Guerard also experimented much, and Bracquemond
has tried all manner of processes, among them the
Vial, which " consists in letting acid act on a plate of
steel that has been drawn upon with lithographic ink."
Charles Jacque, who produced many etchings, used
various processes to gain quick results, and occasion-
ally even went to the questionable extreme of employ-
ing the ruling machine. That is a contrivance used
in modern line engraving, which rules parallel lines
the same distance from each other, producing a dead
mechanical effect, and employed especially for skies.
L. M. Yale used a bundle of needles, instead of the
ordinary etching point, on foreground and trees in one
of his plates (No. 44).
" It would be curious to ascertain," says a French
critic, in re Jacquemart's etchings of book-bindings,
" by what new and ingenious processes, by what ruses
and stratagems, one might say, the artist has been able
to obtain certain astonishing results of exactitude and
ocular deception : etching mixed with aquatint, rub-
bing, graining and stippling, reddish and black inks,
the simultaneous employment of old rags, pieces of
cloth, waxing brushes and other similar barbarous in-
struments."
An artist's experiments on copper may at times be
of such a nature as to baffle the expert's attempt to
ascertain how a certain effect was attained. In such
a case it is enough to enjoy the result if it is one
to be enjoyed without worrying about the cause.
Sir Seymour Haden, discrediting the statement that
ETCHING 19
Rembrandt employed mysterious contrivances to pro-
duce much of his success, expressed himself strongly
against the use of such aids. Said he : " All the great
painter-engravers, in common with all great artists,
worked simply and with the simplest tools. It is
only the mechanical engraver and copyist who depends
for what he calls his ' quality ' on a multiplicity of
instrumental aids which, in fact, do the work for
him the object of the whole of them being to make
that work as easy to an assistant as to the engraver
himself, and its inevitable effect to reduce that which
was once an art to the level of a metier"
It must not be overlooked, however, that there is
after all a decided difference between the use of the
ruling machine to make a mechanical sky with little
trouble, and the employment of various methods not
to save time or labor but to arrive at certain effects.
Experiments are not illegitimate, even if unsuccessful.
Dry-point (pointe seche, Kaltnadel), referred to be-
fore, means the use of a needle 1 directly on the bare
copper, unprotected by any " ground." The lines in
this case are scratched directly into the copper, so that
no acid bath is used. As the needle digs furrows in
the plate, it throws up a ridge of metal on the side,
technically known as " burr." This ridge, or " burr,"
in printing, yields the rich, velvety blacks characteris-
tic of dry-point work, and found in the work of the
old masters as well as in that of modern artists.
There is a possibility of abusing this effect. Too
much inky blackness of shadow, with no translucency,
may become wearisome through an inartistic heavy
spottiness. Unfortunately, this ridge is soon crushed
1 " Sharpened in a peculiar manner." P. G. HAMERTON.
"Sharpened at a more obtuse angle than for etching." Note, South Ken-
sington Museum exhibition.
20 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
down in the press, so that it no longer holds ink
properly. Consequently the plate yields only a small
number of good impressions.
There is a sort of affinity between dry-point and
mezzotint. It is interesting to note that Sir Seymour
Haden, in his lecture on " Rembrandt True and
LION'S HEAD.
Soft-ground etching by Armand Point.
The original is printed in red ink, which further carries out the
suggestion of a red chalk drawing.
False," states that in the first part of Rembrandt's
career his etchings were bitten in, in the second they
were afterward touched up by dry-point, and in the
last he depended on dry-point alone.
Soft-ground etching is a more recently developed
phase of the art. For this, the " ground " is mixed
with tallow in order to make it soft. On top of this
ground a piece of paper is laid, and on this paper
the drawing is made with a pencil. Wherever the
ETCHING 21
pencil touches, the ground will adhere to the paper
and come off with it when it is lifted up. The re-
sultant lines, subjected in the usual way to the action
of acid, print as broken lines, with the effect of a
pencil drawing on coarse-grained paper. In the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries this method
was used for portraits, which had some similarity to
the pale lithographs of that time. The plates in
"Liber Studiorum " (1838), by John Sell Cotman,
are done in soft ground etching, which was em-
ployed also by Samuel Prout. " Interior of a
Church," No. 70 in J. M. W. Turner's " Liber Stu-
diorum," was mezzotinted on a soft-ground etching,
and in later years Frank Short has worked in this
medium, producing " Maxwell Bank," among other
plates. It was occasionally used by Jacque, and con-
siderably by Louis Marvy. Rops and other artists
are represented by some plates in A. Delatre's pam-
phlet on "Soft Ground" (Vernis mou). Max Lie-
bermann has employed the medium, and it has further-
more been used in the United States by J. D. Smillie,
C A. Vanderhoof, C. F. W. Mielatz, whose " Road
to the Beach " ( 1890) is executed in soft ground, rou-
lette, and aquatint, Henry Farrer, Kruseman van
Elten and A. T. Millar.
Thus, the technical difficulties and possibilities in
etching are manifold.
Comparison of the works of the many whose names
are known in the annals of etching will show the sup-
pleness and expressiveness of the art, despite its
apparent limitations. Artists of the most varied styles
and temperaments, of widely different national and
22 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
individual characteristics, have sought and found ex-
pression with the etching-needle; some with greater
success, some with less, but each presenting his view,
giving utterance to his personality. In some cases
we have simply a painter making notes in another
medium, using it as a vehicle for sketching without
going too deeply into its mysteries or intricacies of
technical possibilities. Or we see an artist honestly
and cleverly working within prescribed lines imposed
by the style of some more noted etcher who has par-
ticularly influenced him. In fact, while there are many
who attract us by choice of subject, or some charm
of treatment or grace of line or errant mood or tech-
nical facility, the really great masters of the art, whose
personality is indelibly and unmistakably impressed
upon their productions, are comparatively few.
Furthermore, the artist who considers such a seri-
ous business as etching or illustrating or even carica-
turing merely as a bit of by-play, as an occasional
artistic drudgery necessary for boiling the pot, is not
the one that arrives at complete and self-satisfying
attainment. A predisposition of artistic character
is one of the prime essentials to success in such a
specialty. Artists such as Rembrandt, Whistler,
Haden, Meryon, Zorn, differing in degree, perhaps,
and certainly in kind, in viewpoint and mental
make-up, have this in common, that they give ex-
pression to their individuality with consummate skill
and with a proper adjustment of the means they
employ to the end they have in view.
Etching is etching. It is nothing else.
If a clever illustrator blithely attacks the copper in the
ETCHING 23
same manner in which he executes a pen drawing, he
will miss his point. If the painter uses the etching
needle simply to make a sketch as he would with pencil,
he will fail to draw from it the best it can give. The
peculiar quality of the etching, its particular charm
of suggestion, is somewhat intangible, perhaps, evad-
ing elementary analysis. But it will be brought out
in the study of the works of the most noted exponents
of the possibilities of this art.
Rembrandt is generally considered the master of
the art, the representative etcher. It is not necessary
to go into the comparative claim set up for Whistler.
They were different natures, and it is just as well
to give each his due without any dispute as to pre-
eminence. Rembrandt in his etchings, as in his paint-
ings, often strove for strong effects of light and shade,
chiaroscuro as it is called, and he shows big qualities
in his work on the copper as in that with brush and
color. But we must not feel appalled at this gigantic
figure looming up through the centuries. Let us rather
approach him with open eyes, ready to meet him
half-way. It will be to find that he, too, had his
faults, and to like him all the better for it. We have
men to-day who can draw some details more precisely
than Rembrandt. Many a young artist might scorn
to draw an architectural interior as poorly as did Rem-
brandt in some of his etchings.
And yet, if the work of such a capable and clever
draughtsman is placed beside that of Rembrandt, what
a difference! To see it, you must, of course, free
your attitude from any admiration of mere cleanness
of line and neatness of statement. It is well to re-
24 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
member, also, that a statement in speech may be
erroneous, yet delivered in so decided and positive a
tone as to carry conviction to those not conversant
with the subject. So, too, in art. Compare the lines
of a petty realist with those of Rembrandt, put down
roughly ,, vigorously, delicately, apparently slightingly,
as seemed most fit in each case, with a craftsmanship
shown only by him who is so entirely sure of himself
that he knows just what to say and how to say it,
and can leave out all but the most essential facts.
Rembrandt practiced well the arts of suggestion and
omission, leaving the imagination of the spectator to
do much of the work.
Rembrandt's range is wide and his power of ex-
pression varied. The same hand that dashed off the
not very important little sketch "Six's Bridge" (an
impromptu done, according to the familiar anecdote,
while Burgomaster Six's servant had run out to get
some mustard, dinner being already on the table) , pro-
duced also the finely worked-out portrait of Burgo-
master Six, standing reading with his back to a win-
dow. This last is a beautiful print, with its transparent
shadows of an almost mezzotint-like effect, but the
work on the plate is so delicate, especially on the face,
that not many good impressions are met with. Rem-
brandt's variety of treatment is always a joy. The
summary, crisp manner in which he sets down a land-
scape such as the one " with a Ruined Tower " or the
" Goldweigher's Field," or "Landscape with an Obe-
lisk," or " Village with a Square Tower " in a few
well-chosen lines is in interesting contrast to the use
of many lines to produce solid masses of shadow. We
REMBRANDT DRAWING.
Etching by Rembrandt.
(Middleton 160, Bartsch 22, Blanc 235.)
ETCHING 25
see the latter, for example, in his portrait of himself
(he was his own most faithful and most used model),
drawing at a window. A delightful presentation of
personality this is, a sympathetic study of character
that appeals to us because it meets our human
sympathies.
His portraits and landscapes form, on the whole,
perhaps the best and most interesting portion of his
work, and that least touched by successive cataloguers
in their task of eliminating from the list of his etch-
ings those of less than doubtful authenticity. I should
think that they would certainly appeal most strongly
to those who are first becoming acquainted, so to
speak, with Rembrandt. Especially the portraits,
among which, beside those already mentioned, are
those of Clement de Jonghe, the printseller; Jacob
Hareng; Dr. Ephraim Bonus (which it is interesting
to compare, as a character-study, with the same sub-
ject portrayed by J. Lievens) ; John Lutma, the gold-
smith; Cornelius Anslo, the celebrated preacher; Jan
Sylvius; the picture of his mother, seated, looking to
the right (beautiful in its summary indication of the
texture of flesh, dress, etc., by varying the handling
of the point) ; and the picture of himself " leaning on
a Stone Sill," a splendid example of etching.
" The difference between these portraits and too
many modern ones," says Hamerton (" The Etchings
of Rembrandt," London, 1894), "is that these have
dignity without pretension, whereas the others have
pretension without dignity."
Quite recently some critic asserted that, if Whistler
had etched landscapes instead of street scenes, he
26 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
would perforce have done them in the style of Rem-
brandt, who had practically said the last word in that
specialty. In his landscape etchings, says Atherton
Curtis, " he is as modern as the men of the nineteenth
century themselves."
It would be well to take up the study of these
portraits and landscapes before going too deeply into
the other subjects.
A plate like the " Christ Healing the Sick " (known
as the " Hundred Guilder Print " because Rembrandt
sold a copy of it for that amount) is not so easily
understood at first. In fact, it is not advisable that
one who has not studied Rembrandt before should go
through all of his works at once. That would be apt
to produce a case of artistic indigestion. There are
things in some of his plates that might offend the
untrained eye, uncouth models at sight of whom the
inexperienced might ask, " Why was this drawn ? "
Then, too, some of his etchings are simple memoranda,
a matter not infrequently encountered in the etched
work of painters. Furthermore, he experimented and
his art developed very noticeably, so that his etchings
are not at all of uniform excellence either as regards
command of the medium or power in drawing. They
display great diversity of manner. Much has been
written about Rembrandt, but a series of articles by
C. J. Holmes on " The Development of Rembrandt
as an Etcher," in the Burlington Magazine, 1906,
particularly emphasizes this matter of artistic growth.
To begin with, one might study the plates I have
mentioned, and others, such as " Faust," " An Old
Woman Sleeping," some of the fine heads of old men,
ETCHING 27
" The Mountebank," " Death of the Virgin " (which
Hamerton pronounces the greatest of Rembrandt's
works for " nobility and grandeur of conception, and
beauty of style in execution"), "The Three Trees"
(a well-known and popular landscape subject of dra-
matic effect), and, later on, some of the scriptural sub-
jects which, as Lippmann said, " appear like weird
visions wrapped in mysterious light : witness his pow-
erful crucifixion known as ' The Three Crosses.' '
Or, if the originals are not to be seen, access may
be had to good reproductions, such as those issued by
Amand Durand, or the ones accompanying the books
on Rembrandt by Dutuit or Blanc in the larger public
libraries. If they, are studied with a desire to under-
stand, the strong personality, the big heart and soul
that speak to you from out of these works will speedily
be felt and appreciated. It has been pointed out by
one authority that " in such matters as the use of dif-
ferent qualities of shade, thickness of line and depths
of biting, the cleverest professional etcher " of the
seventies and eighties was the superior of Rembrandt ;
the latter's supremacy is mental. It was a supreme
power that could endue a not at all faultless plate such
as " David on His Knees " with a " pathetic intensity
of sentiment."
Rembrandt is a colossal figure in art, one might say,
similar to Beethoven in music. His influence has been
far-reaching and continues. He had numerous fol-
lowers, imitators and copiers Ferdinard Bol, Jan
Lievens, J. G. Van Vliet, and others in his own cen-
tury. Later, J. P. Norblin, that Frenchman in Po-
land ; G. F. Schmidt, Marie Lecomte, Castiglione, Wil-
28 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Ham Baillie, Thomas Worlidge and Andrew Geddes
imitated him with more or less success.
It will not do to become impressed with the idea,
after all that has been said here and by others, that,
because Rembrandt was a giant, others have no right
to be heard, especially moderns. The pre-eminence of
a Shakespeare or a Goethe does not prevent us from
enjoying the writings of lesser lights. We have many
artists of ability even in our own day, and more
than one of powerful mastery, who have had the ages
back of them to learn from and build on. In pure
technique the best of them show a decided advance
over former times. Some of them may even supply
us with beauties or specialties that were beyond a
greater man. Rembrandt, for instance, to judge by
his landscape etchings, had a knowledge of water that
was limited as compared with that attained by modern
artists such as Haden, Storm van 's Gravesande, or C.
A. Platt.
The number of Rembrandt's etchings is compara-
tively limited, but there is plenty of modern work
worthy of our attention, and within the means of not
a few of us who may desire not only to enjoy but
to possess.
Of course, evidence of influence of master minds
cannot be avoided. But neither can it be avoided in
the work of the contemporaries of Rembrandt and
the other few who hold pre-eminence. In fact, there
is apt to be more downright copying or imitation on
the part of pupils or followers of a man like Rem-
brandt than there is in the work of those who come
over two centuries after, with whom it is rather a
ETCHING 29
matter of assimilation of certain principles of action,
certain methods of expression stamped upon the prac-
tice of etching; as, one might say, an inventor or
scientific discoverer building on, or incorporating,
some known principles in attaining his results; or a
modern philosopher dilating on and following to their
ultimate consequences some theories propounded by
his predecessors.
Certain names in Rembrandt's century stand out
prominently above the rest, because of more or less
powerfully expressed individuality.
The landscapes of Claude, the scenes from peasant
life by Ostade, the animal pieces by Berghem, the less
elegant but clear-sighted Paul Potter and Karel Du
Jardin, the portraits of Van Dyck these prints re-
main among the most delightful that have come down
to us from that period. And there are other names:
the Van de Veldes, Everdingen, Ruysdael, Waterloo,
Zeeman a long list that offers many pleasant by-
paths to the student of the art. Even the minor men
have their interest, their own particular note, mon
verre est petit, mats je bois dans mon verre. And
where a man's art is imitative or adaptative, he at least
helps to accentuate the influence of some greater one
or to indicate tendencies of special schools or nation-
alities.
Claude Lorraine, whose etchings show a noteworthy
degree of finish, produced his masterpiece in the
Bouvier ("Cowherd"), rich in atmospheric effect.
" Its transparency and gradation have never been
surpassed," said Hamerton. Good characterization
and a fine sense of composition are dominant features'
30 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
in the work of Ostade, in whose " The Family," and
" Peasant Paying his Reckoning," he accomplishes his
result by the simplest means, and has no variety of
treatment such as Rembrandt brought to play. He,
too, had his pupils and followers, Bega and others.
Van Dyck's etchings show his own work only in the
early stages, having usually been finished by others.
These portraits, " in view of their power of expression
and fineness of conception, stand at the summit," says
Lippmann, and that despite the fact that Van Dyck
never entirely mastered the technique of the art.
These men, as is not unfrequently the case with
painters who etch casually, have only a limited num-
ber of plates to their credit. Hollar, on the other
hand, devoted himself to etching, and was very pro-
ductive. He was much ground down by the print-
sellers, working often at pitiful rates, and many of his
views and portraits are unimaginative and somewhat
perfunctory. Yet his little views are a delight to the
eye even through their execution, for he was withal
an ingenious and versatile craftsman, and one recalls
with pleasure his remarkable studies of muffs and
shells. Rembrandt, it will be remembered, did one
or two plates of similar subjects. Haden, who him-
self formed a most noteworthy collection of Hollar's
work, says that his " Nave of St. George's Chapel "
" is the most amazing piece of ' biting ' ' that he
knows, " as to gradation and finesse."
Another prolific etcher was Jacques Callot, whose
series " Miseries of War " is perhaps the best known
of his works. He pictured the beggars and the
soldiers of his time with much realism despite his
ETCHING 31
mannerisms, and with a remarkable skill in arranging
large and complicated groups of figures. Delia Bella,
somewhat akin to Callot, had a free style.
In the eighteenth century the art of painter-etching
declined, and line engraving had its day, in France
especially. One finds much etching in the plates en-
graved for book illustrations, delicate, graceful work
by or after Moreau le jeune, Gravelot, Aug. de St.
Aubin, etc. In Prussia, Chodowiecki was a painstak-
ing, trustworthy and not too emotional chronicler of
the life of his native land. He lacked the finesse and
grace of the French, but had an honest bourgeois way
of rendering bourgeois surroundings.
Original etching- was not entirely dormant, but it
was not a period for masters of the art. Boissieu,
Dietrich (clever, but imitative), Weirotter and Kobell
were among the skillful painter-etchers of the time in
France and Germany.
However, the minor etchers also strike their special
note of interest. I knew one collector who derived
much satisfaction from the possession and contem-
plation of a portfolio of etchings by Boissieu. In the
first place, he appreciated the undoubted ability of that
artist; and, in the second place, a more or less com-
plete collection of his etchings was within the possi-
bilities of his pocketbook, which a set of Rembrandt's
would not have been. Both good reasons !
During the same period, Italy, where Castiglione,
Ribera and Rosa had in the preceding (seventeenth)
century won distinction, had Tiepolo (whose painting
is exactly reflected in the swing and dash of his work
on the copper), Canaletto (Venice views) and G. B.
32 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Piranesi. The last named presented the architectural
beauties of Rome in large plates full of grand effects
and strong contrasts of light and shade, which should
be seen in fine impressions.
Still in the eighteenth century, but reaching into the
nineteenth, was the Spaniard Goya, a man of fiery
temperament, audacious and revolutionary. His " Ca-
prices " and " Proverbs," with their scathing, brutal
satire, and the relentless, horrible presentation of the
" Miseries of War," are outpourings of a fantastic
imagination or comments of a wildly energetic per-
sonality. And it is this powerful, uncanny expression
of his nature that makes these plates fascinating,
rather than any evidence of remarkable technique that
may show through the nervous, daring execution, with
its flat tints in aquatint.
Toward the middle of the nineteenth century there
came a revival of etching in France. This revival
affected both original and reproductive etching, and
was furthered by the enterprise of publishers such as
Cadart, and of the art-periodicals L' Artiste, Gazette
des Beaux-Arts, and L'Art, which, like the Portfolio
in England, published many plates, thus popularizing
the art and encouraging those who practiced it. As
a result, the etching needle was not only wielded by
painters who turned to it casually, but by a class of
artists who devoted themselves to it almost exclu-
sively. A large proportion of their work was
reproductive.
Daubigny, Corot, Jacque, Meissonier, Huet, Vey-
rassat, and other painters found in etching a congenial
method of expression, and some of them handled it
ETCHING 33
in the true spirit of the etcher. Millet, in twenty
plates or so, made simple, bold, sympathetic use of
the medium, producing work that is delightfully char-
acteristic in intent, execution and feeling.
Bracquemond, notwithstanding his other activities,
found time to etch nearly eight hundred plates. Many
of these are designs for ceramics, occasional pieces,
portraits, illustrations and other things that lack the
mastery of his best work. Among the latter must be
reckoned some of his studies of birds, remarkable in
their texture of feathers and their understanding of
bird-life: for example, " Le haut d'un Battant de
Porte" (four dead birds nailed to a barn door);
" Margot la Critique," some pictures of ducks, and
" Le vieux Coq," that magnificent old chanticleer, the
prototype of his kind, a masterpiece of fowl charac-
terization. A variant of this last subject came from
the needle of Bracquemond, on the occasion of the
visit of the Russian fleet to Toulon in 1893, in the
shape of the Gallic cock, robustly self-assertive, in
the full feathers of aggressive maturity, raucously and
triumphantly crowing his " Vive le Tsar ! "
In plates such as his " Erasmus," after Holbein, he
showed a masterly grasp of the necessities of repro-
ductive etching. And one feels a touch of Holbein in
the portrait which Bracquemond, at twenty, painted
of himself, his left hand holding the bottle of acid,
the other etching paraphernalia on the table at his side.
An experimenter, using combinations of processes, his
most prominent characteristics are robustness, ver-
satility and a resourceful mastery of technique.
Jacquemart has a place apart, as a master of still-
34 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
life. He completely controlled the process of etching,
and apparently exhausted its resources in giving rich-
ness and life to inanimate objects. Choice examples
of ceramics, Chinese and Japanese bronzes and
enamels, exquisite work in glass, rock-crystal, jade,
sardonyx and agate, jewelry, elaborate products of
the goldsmith's art set with precious stones, he repro-
duced on copper. He showed a marvelous skill in
rendering textures and bringing out the very character
of the material. He delighted in placing articles of
different material, jade and rock-crystal, for instance,
in juxtaposition, to obtain the charm and beauty of
reflected lights held by the projections and curves and
fairly bathing the objects in luminosity, so that they
almost seem endowed with life. As Roger Marx said,
speaking of Henri Guerard, he " modified his method
according to the object, evoking the very quality of
the material, the accidental effects of the surface under
the caress of enveloping light."
Many other artists were more or less prominently
identified with this revival, and there is a wide variety
of styles and subjects to choose from. There is the
graceful and facile Lalanne, with a workmanlike sure
touch ; Appian, ChifBart ; Jongkind, whose memoranda
of impressions illustrate the extreme of simple line-
work (and whose style is further accentuated in some
blotchy water-color sketches accompanying the collec-
tion of his etchings in the New York Public Library) ;
Desboutin, who did many portraits of French literary
and artistic celebrites in dry-point; Rochebrune and
Brunet-Debaines, who have held for us various archi-
tectural beauties of France; Felix Buhot, dashing, re-
"" - - \ Jf-
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MOTHER AND BABY.
Dry-point by Mary Cassatt.
ETCHING 35
sourceful, seeking the aid of aquatint, roulette and
other methods to attain stunning effects. And there
are still more recent artists : Helleu, for example,
whose dry-points are delightful presentations of fem-
inine elegance and piquancy by a nature keenly alive
to the quickly changing grace of pose or charm of
expression; the Americans Aid, Webster, and Mac-
Laughlan; and our countrywoman, Mary Cassatt,
whose dry-points show a remarkable insight into
woman and child nature. To those surfeited with the
sweet prettiness that pervades so many " mother and
child " pictures, the uncompromising vigor of these
etchings by Miss Cassatt may appear strange at first,
but the absolute truthfulness of these plain women and
ordinary little ones, and the beautiful expression of
relationship under this homely exterior, is bound to
make its appeal successfully to their sympathies.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton's " Etching and Etchers "
is an excellent guide for those who wish a sane survey
of the whole field, even if they do not ultimately agree
with him in all of his conclusions. Criticism, read in the
proper spirit, should whet the insight of the reader. 1
Another interesting and useful work is S. R. Koehler's
" Etching: an Outline of Its Technical Processes and
Its History" (1885). There are very many mono-
graphs on individual artists, both old and modern,
invaluable for reference. In recent years, the practice
has arisen of issuing such catalogues of an etcher's
plates with photographic reproductions of each print,
sometimes even of different states. Rovinski's large
work on Rembrandt's etchings is an example of this,
as are also Moreau-Nelaton's book on Manet, the
1 See also Frederick Wedmore's " Etchings " (1912).
36 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
series on Meryon and others which Loys Delteil is
bringing out, and E. G. Kennedy's Whistler catalogue
issued by the Grolier Club of New York. 1
In reproductive work work, that is, which repro-
duces in black-and-white the painting or sculpture or
other art-production of another artist the personality
evidenced is of course mainly that of the artist whose
work is reproduced. The etcher here shows his mas-
tery in his command of the medium and in his sym-
pathetic understanding of the original which he copies,
making of his etching not merely a word-for-word
translation, so to speak, but an interpretation which
may be replete with appreciative suggestion. In
method, the reproductive etching, with the consid-
erable degree of finish which it demands, exemplifies
still farther the pliability of the art. We are not
infrequently told that this lies beyond the pale of etch-
ing proper, and the point is made that photography is
a better method of reproduction.
" Etching when used for reproduction," says C. J.
Holmes, " almost always has to effect its purpose by
tones and not by lines, and in sacrificing quality of line
it sacrifices (as we see even in the cleverest modern
work) its peculiar force and vivacity."
It may be conceded that the original etching offers
a purer and higher form of artistic enjoyment. But
when all has been said, one may derive much pleasure
from contemplation of the best, most serious work
in this field of reproductive art. W. Unger, Charles
Waltner, Koepping, Theophile Chauvel, Leopold Fla-
meng, Bracquemond, Le Rat; Paul Rajon, from
whose hand we have portraits of Tennyson, Mrs.
1 H. N. Harrington's " The Engraved Work of Sir Francis Seymour
Haden " (1910) is another one of this class of illustrated catalogues,
increasing in number.
ETCHING 37
Grover Cleveland and the beautiful one of Susanna
Rose, are among those who have proven themselves
sympathetic translators of paintings into black and
white.
A particularly fine collection of nineteenth-century
French etchings may be seen in the Print Room of
the New York Public Library, a remarkable collec-
tion indeed, for the donor whose name it bears, the
late Samuel P. Avery, possessed the collector's instinct
in a highly developed form ; so much so that, in various
individual cases, a much more complete showing of the
artist's works may be studied here than in Paris. He
also knew where to avoid unnecessary completeness,
for there are many artists of whose work even a large
collection need not necessarily have more than a few
examples to illustrate their style.
Pleasure may be derived from lesser work also,
but in our present survey we can best illustrate the
principles that form the basis of appreciation by ref-
erence to the most significant expression of the same.
And that we find, naturally, in the work of the greater
men, those who by their originality, impressive per-
sonality and mastery of technique have left their in-
delible mark on the record of achievement in etching.
Such was Meryon, that strange, erratic genius, who
in a series of beautiful plates gave voice to the poetry
of the Paris that has been since demolished. His work
is a weird, powerful embodiment of the spirit of old
Paris. " M. Meryon," said Burty, " preserves the
characteristic detail of the architecture. . . . Without
modifying the aspect of the monument, he causes it
to express its hidden meaning, and gives it a broader
o
38 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
significance by associating it with his own thought.
Hence the twofold power of his work." A life of
discouragement and disappointment ended in a luna-
tic's grave. Poor Meryon has " arrived," posthu-
mously; his fame is assured, now that he is no longer
with us. In a moment of despair he destroyed some
of his finest plates; to-day, high prices are paid for
impressions of the " Abside de Notre Dame," for
which he was glad to get a f ranc-and-a-half !
It was in Paris that Whistler etched some of his
earliest work, and some of his best. Later, in " Pas-
sages from Modern English Poets" (1862), one of
the volumes issued by the Junior Etching Club in
London, there appeared an etching by him, " The
Angler." It was not very characteristic, not calcu-
lated to set the Thames on fire. But even if it had
been, it may be questioned whether the fact would
have been realized then. For the world was hardly
ready for Whistler when he first burst upon its vision.
Recognition came in time and came fully, and it was
won by sheer originality.
Whistler was practically himself from the first.
There was development, of course. But his emancipa-
tion was quickly complete, and his point of view al-
ways intensely personal and alert. As Wedmore
aptly stated in 1896: "Now, Whistler's newest work
his work of this morning, be it etching or litho-
graph possesses the interest of freshness, of vivacity,
of a new and beautiful impression of the world, con-
veyed in individual ways, just as much as did his
early work of nearly forty years ago." There was
no waning of power; Whistler did not outlive his
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ETCHING 39
reputation, did not fall into the not uncommon self-
sufficiency which advancing years may bring, with its
repetitions of points made in former years. But
concurrence in this view does not prevent more than
one from showing decided preference for the earlier
work of Whistler, the Thames and French sets, and
the " Twelve " and " Twenty-six " Etchings of Venice,
or from eliminating some of the later plates as all too
slight in achievement, too sketchily indicative to merit
the high praise accorded to his best work.
However, these considerations do not' affect his
standing as an etcher, and are, after all, a matter of
taste. His work is the very embodiment of modern
etching.
In his attitude" and his expression of intent and
opinion, Whistler was original from the beginning,
from the time when, instead of completing a chart
intended for the United States Coast Survey, he en-
graved on it sundry heads and other sketches for his
own delectation. When the plate was confiscated, and
he was told that an unwarrantable thing had been
done, he agreed, said it was certainly unwarranted
to remove a plate from the author's hands " before he
had completed his pleasure upon it."
He was a law unto himself. The sureness of vision,
dexterity of hand and sense of adjustment with which
he used the proper means to produce his effects are
his chief characteristics. His art is pre-eminently one
of selection. What he leaves out is almost as im-
portant as what he puts in. He shows as much art
in avoiding certain details as in including others. His
art is therefore one of suggestion.
40 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
" In art," he wrote, " it is criminal to go beyond the
means used in its exercise." To exquisite' execution he
added remarkable arrangement of line. He had an
unfailing judgment, an unerring eye for the proper
placing of the lines of a design. Even his famous
" butterfly " monograph was not put into one of the
lower corners, as signatures usually are, but was set
down in a different place each time, wherever in his
opinion it was needed to make its emphasis as part
of the whole design. One feels that here, as elsewhere
perhaps, his artistic instinct and his personal pose
coincided.
His many views of Venice well illustrate his atti-
tude, the predominance of the artistic interest ex-
pressed with an intensely personal note. He saw
Venice for himself and so recorded it, neither his-
torically nor architecturally, not from the standpoint
of the guide-book nor of the historian of art, but as
a personal impression. To him the shadowed arch-
way, the picturesque bit of canal, the ornamental detail
of architectural effect were as interesting as the
Basilica di San Marco or the Doge's Palace. He
needed no processions of state, no magnificent para-
phernalia of civil or ecclesiastical pomp to lend dis-
tinction to his etchings. The story-telling interest is
entirely absent.
A respectable number of books and a very large
number of magazine articles devoted to this most
able artist and clever and eccentric man have been
published. Mortimer Menpes has written personal
reminiscences of Whistler. So have the Pennells
and Otto H. Bacher. Reflective analysis of his
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ETCHING 41
etchings may be pursued under the guidance of
Theodore Duret, or Elisabeth Luther Gary, who
have both written well-illustrated volumes on his
art. 1
If we claim Whistler, though expatriated, by virtue
of his American birth, England, where he lived for
many years, has her own native-born Haden, whose
name is one of the most noted in the annals of etch-
ing. An amateur, if you wish for his profession is
surgery Sir Seymour Haden, the honored president
of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, produced
a considerable number of plates which combine breadth
and vigor with an " artistic sympathy with pure and
ordinary nature," as one critic puts it. Plates such as
the " Windmill Hill," " Nine Barrow Down," " Ware-
ham Bridge," "Little Boathouse," " Egham Lock"
(with its fine rendering of still water), " Mytton
Hall," " River in Ireland," " Lancashire River " and
the famous " Shere Mill Pond " have placed him in the
first rank of landscape etchers of all times. The last-
named etching, in the opinion of one critic, is, " with
the single exception of one plate by Claude, the finest
etching of a landscape subject that has ever been
executed in the world."
Entirely different in style and subject is the work
of Alphonse Legros, a Frenchman who has lived in
London for many years. In portraits such as those
of G. F. Watts and Manning, and plates of a power-
ful seriousness and human sympathy such as the
" Death of the Old Vagabond " or the series " Bon-
homme Misere," or in silvery brookside effects of early
spring morning, he has shown seriousness and dig-
1 Excellent catalogues of Whistler's etched work have been prepared by
Howard Mansfield for the Caxton Club, Chicago (1909), and by E. G.
Kennedy for the Grolier Qub.
42 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
nity, refinement and strength, and yet an absolute
originality.
There are points of affinity between Legros and
his pupils William Strang and Charles Holroyd, also
men of strongly pronounced and stern style. Again
I am tempted to cite names, but I shall limit myself
to a few: Menpes, C. J. Watson, Slocombe, Colonel
Goff, Herkomer and Joseph Pennell, originally of
Philadelphia, that remarkably prolific and masterly
delineator of city scenes. His is an art of resourceful
variety, of simplicity of treatment, of directness of
manner and of what has been well called a " wise reti-
cence in line." There is Frank Brangwyn, too, with
his large, decorative plates. And D. Y. Cameron, " a
passionate connoisseur of the picturesque," whose
" richness of tone in the treatment of architecture,"
says Hind, " is the achievement of great power and
individuality." The strong yet unobtrusive individual
note of Muirhead Bone is expressed largely in dry-
point. James McBey should also be noted.
There is much young blood here, modern in view-
point and style. A contrast to the earlier days, when
Samuel Palmer expressed the quiet moods of English
landscape in sympathetic and well-finished plates, but
not so very different, in spirit, from the twenty or
thirty etchings produced by that excellent draughts-
man Charles Keene, of Punch.
This suggestion of comic art, by the way, recalls
the fact that etching was at one time used for book
illustration, particularly in England, and again par-
ticularly by Leech, George Cruikshank and other
comic artists. Of Cruikshank, Hamerton wrote:
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ETCHING 43
" Only those who know the difficulties of etching
can appreciate the power that lies behind his unpre-
tending skill; there is never, in his most admirable
plates, the trace of a vain effort."
Pennell, like Whistler, connects with our own land.
Among American etchers the influence of Whistler is
strongly evident, even in the case of those who later
on emancipated themselves almost entirely. Frank
Duveneck and Otto H. Bacher, who were with Whist-
ler in Venice, come readily to mind here. They are
two noteworthy figures among the older men. The
list of American painter-etchers of decided ability is
a long one. Praise may safely be applied in the com-
parative spirit, and not on patriotic grounds only, for
the best of them may confidently measure their steel
with those of other lands. Stephen Parrish, Charles
A. Platt, with sure method of expression, delicate sug-
gestiveness and judicious economy of line ; Mrs. Mary
Nimmo Moran, emphatic and bold; Thomas Moran,
Peter Moran, C. A. Vanderhoof, W. L. Lathrop,
Kruseman van Elten, Samuel Colman, J. C. Nicoll,
J. H. Hill, J. A. S. Monks, C. H. Miller, whose
method is sketchy, and many others responded with a
distinguished understanding of principles, and con-
trol in practice, to the impulse for painter-etching
which for a comparatively short time was strongly felt
in this country, and which found expression in
the organization of the New York Etching Club in
1877. On the latter occasion, three men united to
produce a little plate (the original copper of which
still exists) for the instruction of their fellow-artists
J. D. Smillie, a veteran profoundly versed in the tech-
44 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
nique of the art; Dr. Leroy M. Yale, a physician, the
best of whose serious work had the qualities demanded
of painter-etching, including a proper sense of both
the possibilities and limitations of the etching needle;
and R. Swain Gifford, the landscape painter.
Various painters, like the last named, sought ex-
pression, with more or less success, in etching, some
with very decided originality. Robert Blum produced
some twenty plates of characteristic force and snap,
and J. Alden Weir evidenced his experimental and
investigating trend in a series of interesting im-
pressions of landscape.
The story of this movement is well told in Ripley
Hitchcock's little book on " Etching in America," and
in the larger volume by the late S. R. Koehler, who in
his short-lived but well-edited American Art Review
(1880-82) worked so faithfully and well for the fur-
therance of this fascinating art in the United States.
For some time one heard little here of original
etching, crowded out, as it appeared, by the repro-
ductive branch of the art. Recently, however, there
has begun a revival of interest. A " Chicago Society
of Etchers " and a " New York Society of Etchers "
have been formed, young men are taking up the
art with enthusiasm, and J. D. Smillie, C. F. W. Mie-
latz, George Senseney and Charles Henry White have
in recent years been teaching the technical process at
the League and the Academy in New York City.
If I mention E. L. Warner, C. Washburn, A. T.
Millar, J. Sloan, O. J. Schneider, White, H. H. Osgood,
L. G. Hornby and A. Worcester, among the younger
men, it is with no desire to make selection or institute
ETCHING 45
comparisons, 1 but solely to indicate that these and
other Americans are proving the possibilities of etch-
ing. One need not always roam in foreign fields to
find art worth appreciating.
This movement in favor of original etching is felt
in all civilized countries, it appears. In Germany,
Neureuther, Gauermann, Morgenstern and others in
the earlier years of the nineteenth century had etched
plates, at times with something of a literary flavor,
and with an infusion, perhaps, of the longing for
national expression. Somewhat later, Menzel, who
used every medium that he tried with quick compre-
hension of its technical resources, showed in his etch-
ings the same insight into the nature of the medium,
the same practical skill in its manipulation. But they
illustrate mainly an adaptation of known expedients
to his style.
It is young Germany which is giving potent ex-
pression to its aspirations in etching as in other forms
of art. A considerable number of German artists are
to-day giving utterance to modern ideals through the
agency of the etching needle, some occasionally, others
habitually. Men such as Orlik or Emil Nolde seize
upon various processes, lithography, etching, wood
engraving, in turn, to find an outlet for their extremely
personal view of things. In these days of revolts,
" secessions " and splitting up into special small
groups, this productiveness will naturally not be free
from aberrations and vagaries. The anxious desire
to avoid the commonplace and conventional will al-
ways cause some to shoot far beyond the mark. But
the residue makes for advance. There come to mind
1 H. A. Webster, G. C. Aid, J. A. Smith, E. D. Roth, and others might
be added. A summary record of American etching will be found in the
present writer's " American Graphic Art " (1912).
46 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
the weird fancies of Jettmar, the delightful conceits
of Heinrich Vogeler, the archaic effects of Hans
Thoma, the delicate lines of the thoughtful Max
Klinger, the highly finished large plates by Geyger,
who, like Klinger, has turned to sculpture. F. Schmut-
zer, Oskar Graf, Walter Leistikow, Cornelia Paczka
are others who have attacked the copper with orig-
inality and individuality.
It is a noteworthy fact that the work of the best
quality among Germany's younger men is sane. De-
spite the extreme diversity of style and purpose which
a collection of these etchings discloses, the means used
are generally " legitimate," the forced note is seldom
struck. Occasionally, it is true, we find experiments
of questionable result, such as the blotchy skies af-
fected by Overbeck. But, as a rule, nothing more
startling occurs than Klinger's use of aquatint, or the
plates executed entirely with the roulette by H. Wolff,
who thus instances a new possibility for an instrument
generally used as an adjunct, and with more or less
mechanical effect. 1 A feature of peculiar interest is
the increase of women etchers to be taken seriously,
intensely seriously in the case of Frau Kollwitz, who
presents gloomily dramatic scenes from the life of the
poor and the downtrodden, and sounds an echo to the
note of the dramatist Gerhardt Hauptmann in her
" Weavers."
A number .of the artists are grouped about certain
centers, such as Worpswede and Karlsruhe, and there
are several regular societies of etchers, some of which
issue portfolios of their members' work.
In Holland, C. Storm van 's Gravesande, with a
1 More recently. Wolff attempts almost too much, as when he copies the effect
of a rapid color sketch.
ETCHING 47
noteworthy power of suggesting water by a few well-
chosen strokes; M. Bauer, the prolific Ph. Zilcken,
Carel L. Dake and Witsen, an etcher of many re-
sources and peculiar methods, are among those who
are perpetuating traditional honors in modern ways.
Among Scandinavian artists we have Zorn, for ex-
ample, an etcher of great ability and strong tempera-
ment and absolutely unrivaled in his rendering of the
nude. A. H. Haig is noted for his skill in reproduc-
ing the interior of cathedrals with their mysterious
shadows and mellow, subdued lights.
Evert van Muyden, of Swiss origin, is best known
by his etchings of animals. And there is a large por-
trait of Franz Liszt, by the Hungarian Rippl-Ronai,
who has lately turned to lithography.
The field is large, very large, and to-day there is,
particularly in France and Germany, a striving for
original expression in color. There were experi-
menters who prepared the way. Eugene Delatre, a
master of color printing, familiar with all details of
its resources, Henri Guerard, Bracquemond, Raffaelli
and Lepere were among the earlier ones to take up
color etching. In recent years, at the annual Salons of
" original engravings in colors " in Paris, as also
elsewhere, there has been shown work by Thaulow,
Charles Houdard, Grimelund, Balestieri, Allan Oster-
lind, who, like G. de Latenay and various others,
uses aquatint; Robbe, Chabanian, Pichon, Delpy,
Edgar Chahine, Jacques Villon, H. Jourdain, Baert-
soen, Cottet, Bejot, Laffitte, Ranft, whose " light
colors " and " pulsating tints " are extolled by Mourey,
Truchet, Steinlen, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, who
48 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
uses low, flat tones, and Charles Maurin, whose studies
of the nude are " delicately tinted with soft grays and
pale pinks." The simpler effects, on the whole, seem
most pleasing; some of these men lay on the colors
in careful modeling until, as Henri Frantz says, " the
engraving almost disappears under the accumulation
of colors."
The whole trend of the graphic arts in Germany
would naturally lead artists there also to the applica-
tion of color. Unger and others have employed it
with more or less completeness of effect. Some have
used but a few broad tints, so L. Michalik in his
nicely modulated snow scene by moonlight. Others,
again, employ one color only, as witness the bluish
tint in Oskar Graf's " Dachau by Moonlight " (with
aquatint) or a tinted paper, like the blue paper on
which Suppantschitsch's " Sacred Grove " is printed.
The color in Klinger's " Penelope " rather accentuates
the sternness, the want of superficial grace in his work,
and somehow or other does not " sit " well, is not
convincing.
Of Americans in Paris, Mary Cassatt has done a
number of studies of women with flat tints of color,
Japanese in feeling and arrangement. In the United
States, George Senseney utilizes a combination of soft
ground etching and aquatint to give color effects of
more completeness in gradations.
Etching in colors 1 is a somewhat comprehensive
term. There are various ways of arriving at results.
An aquatint or other light grain may be provided to
hold the color-ink (as in the work of Cassatt, Micha-
lik, Graf), or paint may be applied directly to the
1 For technique, see Hugh Paton's "Color Etching" (1909).
ELF AND BEAR.
Etching by Max Klinger.
One of his series " Intermezzi."
The flat tints are laid in with aquatint, and there is rouletting
on the flowers.
ETCHING 49
copper. In either case it is not the etched line only
which holds the color. The printing may be done
from several plates, one for each color (as by Gue-
rard, some of whose progressive proofs may be studied
in New York; Jeanniot or Houdard), or from one
plate (as by Ranft and Cassatt), the inking in the
latter case being done a la poupee, which poupee or
" doll " is a bunch of rags. The color may appear in
a few touches, as when Raffaelli used simple " notes "
of color, or in large flat surfaces, or even with some
gradation and completeness of effect.
As to the propriety of color work, opinions will
differ. Many will undoubtedly prefer the simple dig-
nity of black and white. None of the great masters
of the art, indeed, have called in the aid of color.
But much of the color-work of these modern followers
of Ploos van Amstel, and others of older days, is
exceedingly clever, although the desire for novelty in
these days produces queer outgrowths. The fascina-
tion of an art such as this may beget injudicious and
inartistic use of it. Experiments in color-printing
have always proved interesting, at least.
At all events, it would seem that here, too, the rule
would hold good that applies to etching per se, namely,
that of summary of impression rather than full rendi-
tion. The color etching should not vie with the
chromo, nor with the three-color reproduction of a
painting, nor with the colored picture postal. This is
felt in many of these modern color-plates, which are
characterized, on the whole, by an avoidance of fin-
ished gradations, echoing the summary of the etched
line. So in the work of T. F. Simon, for instance.
50 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
More details concerning contemporary etching are
given in Charles Holme's " Modern Etching and En-
graving " (1902), a well-illustrated, concise review. 1
The large volume on etching in the series of four
volumes on contemporary graphic arts, issued by the
Gesellschaft fur vervielfdltigende Kunst of Vienna,
covers the nineteenth century, and, though in German,
is richly illustrated and therefore illuminative even
pictorially. The periodical Graphische Kunste, pub-
lished by the same society, is an indispensable and
valuable record of international scope, as is also the
International Studio. French and German etchings
by artists of the day are published regularly in the
Revue de I' Art and the Zeitschrift fur bildende
Kunst.
These are all indications. For to attempt to do
more than point out general principles,- as exemplified
in a few prominent cases, is folly. You cannot com-
press a voluminous literature into one volume, other-
wise bibliographies and indexes to periodicals would
not be necessary. But enough has been said to show
how very wide the field of etching is, how many
varieties and specialities of taste it can satisfy. With
the strongest men, the most noted names, the ex-
pression of individuality is so pronounced, so dis-
tinctive, that the suppleness of the medium is illus-
trated in the most forceful manner. And the sum-
mariness of method, the succinctness of statement so
characteristic of many of the best etchings, serves
to emphasize all the more strongly this suppleness, this
wide possibility of variety inherent in the etching
needle and the copper plate. It is the old story of
1 See also C. Holme's " Modern Etchings. Mezzotints, and Dry-points "
(1913).
ETCHING $ I
style. Not mannerism, but style, the natural, inevita-
ble expression of personality.
It is the privilege of all of us to become acquainted
with any or all of this work, old and new. This will
be accomplished by seeing as much of it as possi-
ble, but not too much at a time, for the wearied eye
and brain will not respond. The student also should
follow up the art news in the daily papers, reading
the criticisms in those which give serious attention
to art, as well as in the art magazines. He should
visit all exhibitions possible; they will be found mostly
in art dealers' galleries and in private studios. If the
student lives in a large city, where a print-room is
established similar to those in London, Paris, Berlin,
Dresden, Amsterdam or other European cities, all
the better. Of American cities, Washington, Boston,
New York and Philadelphia have such public collec-
tions, with changing exhibitions to attract, and with
print-rooms in which the portfolios can be looked
through at pleasure. In a city like New York there
is no elevating pleasure to be had as cheaply as the
enjoyment of good art. With few exceptions, art
exhibitions are absolutely free.
The effort to see as much as possible, understand-
ingly, may in time lead to fuller reading on the sub-
ject as a whole, or on some particular part of it.
For, while keeping mind and eye open and receptive
for beauty in any form, one will naturally, in time,
come to a selection of preferences, of a nationality,
or school, or individuality which particularly appeals
to one's nature. And if the print-lover drifts into
by-paths, if he leaves the beaten track in developing
52
the scent of the collector, and finds out for himself
some delightful and little known old etcher, or
lights on beauties in work not yet fully appreciated,
perhaps some German or American work of to-day,
the keen joy of discovery, the pleasure of the " find,'
is his.
CHAPTER III
LINE ENGRAVING
To a great many persons, line engraving is synony-
mous with steel engraving. Or rather, they know line
engravings only as steel engravings. Hence the let-
ters that reach those in charge of print-rooms, ask-
ing the value of " a fine, old steel engraving nearly
one hundred and fifty years old." If such a thing
existed it would" be unique and valuable indeed, for
steel plates were first used in engraving about 1820,
while previous to that time the engravings were exe-
cuted on copper. And later, too, sometimes the work
was done on a copper plate which was then steel- faced
for printing. Even when the engraver works directly
on the steel it may be softened so that the tools attack
it more easily. It then can be hardened for printing.
The reason for the misapplication of the term
" steel engraving " is no doubt to be sought in the
vogue which this form of art enjoyed during a period
extending, roughly, from 1830 to 1870. For many
years the steel engraving seems to have held pre-
eminence in public estimation as a sort of supreme
expression of art for the home. It was disseminated
in various ways, even as premiums for art and other
magazines. In very many homes to-day you will
still find some large steel engraving (say, of Land-
53
54 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
seer's " Shepherd's Chief Mourner " or " Dignity and
Impudence," West's " Battle of La Hogue," Wilkie's
" Guess My Name " or " The Pedlar ") as the chief
ornament on the parlor wall. These engravings are
usually executed with a considerable degree of tech-
nical ability, and show a cleanness of line, a precision
of statement and an attention to detail which, com-
bined, appeal strongly to the average beholder. Hence,
no doubt, their popularity.
Line engraving is, as its very name implies, essen-
tially an art of the line. Whatever it depicts, shadow,
tone and texture, must be rendered in line. And the
line is always a call on our imagination to accept a
symbol. A symbol to which, indeed, we have become
so accustomed that the schoolboy unhesitatingly ac-
cepts and understands the outline drawing on the
blackboard, although there are no outlines in nature.
The line is a generally accepted compromise, a short
cut, so to speak, which in the slightest sketch may
speak volumes. In the line engraving it must render
tones and yet retain its own individuality.
The principal tool in line engraving is the burin or
graver, a four-sided piece of steel, square or rhom-
boidal in section, and cut off obliquely at one end,
producing a sharp point. The other end of this little
bar of steel is fastened in a wooden handle. While
engraving, this handle rests against the palm of the
hand, with the fingers on the steel bar, and the graver
is pushed forward over and into the metal. As the
steel plows along, cutting a furrow in the plate, it
throws up a ridge of metal on the side; this is re-
moved with the scraper, a steel instrument resembling a
LINE ENGRAVING 55
dagger in shape. The places scraped are then smoothed
by going over them with the burnisher, similar in
shape to the scraper, but blunt and highly polished,
looking something like a narrow, pointed metal paper-
knife.
The very nature of this process produces an inevita-
ble formality in line engraving. It cannot have the
freedom of etching or dry-point, although those two
processes have not infrequently been called in to
add their qualities to those peculiar to line engraving.
It is this precision of statement, this beauty of line,
which forms the distinctive quality of line engraving,
and makes it what it is, and nothing else. It is
restricted by the manner of its execution, and its char-
acteristics are so obvious that there is no very great
temptation to twist it into manners of expression for
which it is unsuited. And yet its practice has offered
such widely varying possibilities of style as are shown
in the classic severity of Mantegna, the simple dig-
nity of Marc Antonio, the conscientious finish of
Diirer, the brilliant effects of the French portraitists
of the seventeenth century, the cold carefulness of
Wille of the eighteenth, the tones which Gaillard in
the nineteenth produced with short, microscopically
fine lines placed close together.
In the earlier days of the art, it was often a means
of original expression. Mantegna, Diirer, the Behams,
engraved their conceptions directly on the copper.
Later, also, we find Nanteuil engraving after his own
designs. But, on the whole, engraving on copper soon
found its field in reproduction, for which it is on the
whole best suited.
56 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
In modern days it has seldom been used as an
autographic art, although the burin has been em-
ployed by some French etchers to strengthen certain
lines on their plates, just as the line engravers have
made a frequent practice of etching the principal lines
and a basis of tones of their engraving before deepen-
ing them with the burin, as well as of adding a cer-
tain freedom of effect by purely etched lines. Orig-
inal line engraving is a rarity now, seen in isolated
cases, such as that of the experimentally interesting
" Arcturus " cut by J. Alden Weir, or in book-plates
engraved by the designers themselves, C. W. Sher-
born, E. D. French and others. Karl Stauffer-Bern
used the graver in original work, cutting shallow lines,
with little pressure, so that he could guide the tool
with some of the freedom of the etching needle, vary-
ing the direction of his lines instead of arranging
them on the set principles of line engraving. Her-
komer pronounces his own portrait of Wagner a tour
de force with the burin.
In contradistinction to wood engraving, which is a
relief process, line engraving is an intaglio process.
That is, a process of " cutting in," the lines all being
cut into the copper and thus lying below the surface
of the same, instead of forming ridges on the top
after the surrounding material has been cut away, as
in wood engraving. The process of printing, there-
fore, differs also. When the wood block is rolled
up with ink, the latter is caught by the projecting
lines which, in the press, leave their impress on the
paper. But here, the ink is spread over the engraved
copper-plate, and then wiped off again, so that only
LINE ENGRAVING 57
the ink remains which has lodged in the incised
lines.
To print from an intaglio plate, therefore, means
to subject it to such pressure that the paper will be
so forced onto even into the lines that it absorbs
the ink.
The manner of holding the graver inevitably
produces formal lines. And these lines in time came
to be applied in a complicated system. Lines crossing
each other at varying angles, lines in varying curves,
broken curves, lines broken or dotted, short lines not
parallel, heavy lines and fine ones. It was a natural
tendency to drop into the use of lines of a certain
thickness, or angle, or curve, or length, to represent
certain textures. The use, for example, of transverse,
very short lines to represent flesh, or of broken, wavy
lines to represent foreground sod, or of lines cut by
the ruling machine to indicate sky. Rough garments
and smooth ones, the bare skin, the fur of animals,
the feathers of birds, water, foliage, flowers, grass,
the many objects widely differing in texture with
which the engraver has to deal, are represented by
means such as those indicated. It is the indi-
vidual power of the engraver which uses the latter
either with the conventional application of certain
formulae, or with the utmost freedom of expres-
sion of which the not easily yielding medium is
capable.
In the works of the greatest masters of the art
technical details are lost sight of, more or less, in the
virtuosity with which the graver is handled to produce
the desired effect. Technique with them has not be-
58 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
come the all in all, nor is it used in absolute devotion
to a fashion set by some predecessor.
The dissimilarity in the productions of different
men in different countries at different epochs is not
only one of the expression of nationality or of the
prevalent artistic feeling of a period (which is shown
notably in the artist's attitude toward his subject, and
his choice and treatment of the same), but it is also
one of style, of that style which is the result of the
peculiar employment of the medium in each case.
In the works of the earlier men there are certain
characteristics in handling quite different from the
decided but not infrequently mannered dexterity
which marks the engraving of later times. Compari-
son of an engraving by Mantegna (1431-1506), with
its straight, parallel lines, without the niceties of mod-
ern workmanship, with the elaborate finish of the
vignette on a piece of paper money, will show what is
meant. In the one case, an artist of classic feeling, of
large ideas, with something to say, saying it in vigor-
ous terms, impatient almost, one might think, of the
material offering difficulties to his hands, but saying
it in unmistakably fine language, nevertheless; on the
other hand, the work of a man who knows his craft,
who lays his lines and draws his curves with precision
and skill, producing a picture that fills its part, and
as an engraving is neither an offense to the eye nor
a stimulus to the imagination.
While this difference between the oldest engraving
and the newest is thus sometimes wholly or partly
a matter of individual treatment, it may also often
indicate simply the early struggles to conquer a not
LINE ENGRAVING 59
yet familiar medium. This evidence of testing, of
feeling one's way, is felt in some of the Italian en-
gravings of the late fifteenth century or the plates
of some of the old German masters, perhaps even in
the Englishmen of a later date Rogers, for example.
And yet, with increasing technical ability, there came
diminution of the big quality and of spontaneity, an
insistence on the display of manual skill. Line en-
graving is a noteworthy illustration of the fact that
in the development of a graphic art the subjugation
of the medium, as it progresses, opens the way for
lesser talents, in whose hands technique eventually
becomes more or less an end instead of a means. Man-
nerism and conventionality result, which are the effect
of craftsmanship exercised mechanically, without ref-
erence to thought or feeling. The favorite form in
which this mannerism finds expression is inevitably
meaningless neatness and finish.
After the craftsmanship of the art was developed
and had attained its most brilliant results at the hands
of the Italian, German and French masters of the
sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, it became gradually
more formal and conventional until it was in many
cases simply an exercise of skill, often of a high order,
but not infrequently cold and hard as the metal on
which it was carried out, or weak and flabby in its
attempts at softness and delicacy, without the fire
of original incentive, of genius.
Line engraving underwent a technical development
from the simplest treatment to the most varied and
involved of which the graver is capable.
It is an interesting experience to go through a col-
60 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
lection of representative engravings of the various
schools, illustrating the changing phases of the art
in its development. They can be seen with slight
trouble in some of the large cities. Good public col-
lections are to be found in the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts, the Library of Congress, Harvard Uni-
versity, the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia
and the New York Public Library. Exhibitions are
arranged by these print-rooms and by dealers, which
offer either a comprehensive summary review of the
art, or a completer view of one of its phases: say,
early German work, or portraits by French artists, or
titles and frontispieces by Englishmen, or the work
of some individual artist, Diirer perhaps. Where the
originals are not to be seen, one may be fortunate
enough to find the publications of the International
Chalcographical Society, or the folio volumes " En-
gravings and Wood Cuts by Old Masters " (sec. XV.-
XIX.), edited by Friedrich Lippmann, in which the
engravings have been so finely reproduced that " fac-
simile reproduction " has been stamped on the back
of each sheet so that improper use may not be made
of it. There are also the less excellent reproductions
good as memoranda, however of the " Kupfer-
stichkabinet," published by Fischer & Franke in 1897
and after, or Ottley's " Facsimiles of Scarce and Curi-
ous Prints," as well as various reproductions of works
of individual artists, such as those by Amand Durand
after Lucas van Ley den, etc.
Exceedingly cheap material is sometimes to be had.
I recently saw advertised a volume of German origin,
with English text, containing reproductions of all
LINE ENGRAVING 61
of Diirer's works over four hundred illustrations
in all at the price of three dollars. However,
such cheap reproductions are generally to be used for
reference only. For they are usually produced by
the half-tone process, which is based on the use of a
" screen," the network of lines in which cuts up the
lines in the engravings reproduced and destroys much
of the effect. This disadvantage does not appear in
the Lippmann, Amand Durand and similar reproduc-
tions, which are in absolute facsimile.
A study of this material leads to the history of the
art. And if we now take a rapid survey of the field,
noting the main tendencies and most noteworthy ex-
amples of individual expression, we must not forget
that there is a voluminous literature on this subject.
That may be turned to for information on some
specialty, some particular period, or nationality, or
artist. Duplessis or Lippmann on the Italian en-
gravers before Marc Antonio will be looked up, or
S. R. Koehler on Diirer, F. R. Halsey on Morghen
and so on. For a compressed history of the whole
field, Lippmann's " Engraving and Etching " is per-
haps the best. 1 W. O. Chapin's " Masters and Mas-
terpieces of Engraving," a larger book, is written with
evident interest and devotion to the subject. The
works of reference include also some exceedingly
useful ones, not of a kind to be read through, but to
be consulted as occasion demands. These are the
dictionaries and catalogues of engravers and their
works. There are Adam Bartsch's monumental " Pein-
tre-graveur," and the compilations of Nagler, Dutuit
and Leblanc, dealing with the general subject. And
1 Since the above was written, A. M. Hind's excellent " Short History of
Engraving and Etching " has appeared.
62 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
there are those covering special nationalities or periods
Robert Dumesnil for France, Andresen for Ger-
many, Portalis and Beraldi for the eighteenth century
and Beraldi for the nineteenth, all of them books the
collection of which is usually left to the art depart-
ments or print-rooms of public libraries.
The question of the origin of engraving on metal
may be put aside as leading to discussions which would
stand in our way.
It will suffice, then, to say that the use of engraved
plates for reproduction of designs by taking im-
pressions has been traced by various historians to the
practice of goldsmiths who rubbed color into the
lines of engraved ornaments, and pressed paper upon
them in order to preserve a pattern of the design.
The lines in these metal ornaments were often in-
tended to receive a black enamel in order to make them
stand out more clearly. Impressions taken from these
metal plates before the black substance had been run
in have survived to our days. They are known as
nielli. Maso da Finiguerra 1 was a noted niellist.
And now, after this little tribute to the spirit of
historical inquiry, we can turn to the business in hand,
and that is to look at things.
And the first look may cause astonishment, perhaps
some dismay. This very earliest German work, of
the middle of the fifteenth century, at first sight ap-
pears puerile in the pitiful helplessness of its makers,
fettered alike by limited draughtsmanship and the
want of acquaintance with this new medium, copper.
But despite the elementary technique, and the wooden-
looking figures, there is rough strength, and an ear-
1 See A. M. Hind's "Short History of Engraving and Etching" (1910),
PP- 36, 39, 40.
LINE ENGRAVING 63
nestness sometimes grotesque, in the work of these
early men, nameless, known to us only by designations
borrowed from some mark or initial or date on their
engravings, the " Master of 1464," " Master of the
Playing Cards," " Master of the Gardens of Love,"
" Master E. S. of 1466."
Now when encomiums are lavished on such work
in all too flowery terms in some handbooks, the author
is no doubt regarding it from the viewpoint of the
enthusiastic historian. The praise is simply to be
taken in a relative sense. The work is good, for its
time.
It has sometimes seemed to me that the very enthu-
siasm of some critics may frighten off people who
perhaps think their case is hopeless because they can-
not see what they are asked to in the work of these
old engravers. Such a writer, considering some in-
dividual artist, may temporarily wear blinkers that
shut out the view of everything else, so that the artist
looms up in proportions which would be considerably
reduced on comparison with others. And the writer,
seeing him thus, indulges in superlative phrases that
leave us little to say when we get to the really great
men. We are then in the position of the effusive
young lady who, en route to Niagara, expended her
expectant enthusiasm over every tree and hummock
and brook, which she pronounced " grand," " mag-
nificent," " gorgeous," to find, when the grandeur of
Niagara finally burst upon her vision, her vocabulary
exhausted; she could only gasp " how cute! "
Seriously, this little anecdote illustrates another
point. Beside the magnificence of Niagara there is
64 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
the more intimate beauty of sunny meadows, of shady
nooks, of mysterious forest recesses, all with a charm
quite their own. So, too, beside the great masters we
have those of lesser talent, who also have their claim
on our interest, and in whose works we can delight
if we only take them as they are and do not expect
them to show qualities which they cannot have.
But I must collect the scattered sheep of thought
and return to our early German engravings. In
them, by the very struggle with the medium, the
individuality is brought out. The hand still gropes,
the copper is not yet tractable, the burin does not yet
move with the certainty which it is later to attain.
But there is the vigor of the pioneer. There is an out-
look on life so simple and sincere that it is bound to
lay hold of us, and we smile in sympathy with the
effort rather than in supercilious toleration of the
weakness in design and execution.
In the " Master E. S. of 1466 " there is already
more definite expression of the striving for com-
pleteness of effect, for cleanness of line, although the
often short, scratchy lines are little like those of the
style eventually to be developed. Israel van Meckenen,
I. A. of Zwolle, Mathaeus Zasinger, Albert Glocken-
ton about the same time or a little later were attack-
ing this problem in Germany and the Low Countries.
More strongly shown, in improved technique, does this
Teutonic spirit of exactness, of conscientious care and
of thought and sentiment withal, appear in the plates
of Martin Schongauer, which mark a considerable
amount of technical process. He shaded with curved
lines.
LINE ENGRAVING 65
The general progress of development in line and
wood engraving is :
First, Outline.
Second, Shading with Straight Parallel Lines.
Third, Curved Parallel Lines.
Fourth, Cross-hatching.
In Hamerton's " Drawing and Engraving " an
ornamental design by Lucas van Leyden is reproduced
as embodying these four elements.
So these old fellows found themselves, found even
a certain freedom and lightness of line, as in the case
of the " Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet," whose
engravings are treated much like etchings.
But it is in Diirer (1471-1528) that the characteris-
tics indicated were most fully developed, and found
supreme artistic expression. He passed beyond the
efforts of all his predecessors, in his application and
mastery of new technical effects. It is noticeable that
while he employed cross-hatching, he did largely with-
out it, using long lines following the form of the
object he depicted, as in the cushions in the " St.
Jerome in His Cell," or the fruit in the hand of the
" Virgin with the Pear." He accomplished tender
gradations of light and shade not attempted before.
He reproduced textures with remarkable effectiveness
and a degree of realism which stands out strongly in
the gleaming helmet in his " Coat-of-Arms with the
Skull." He portrayed his friends with strong char-
acterization, and with attention to detail to the extent
of showing in the eyes of Frederick III., the Wise,
Elector of Saxony, the reflection of the window- frame.
This little pleasantry is repeated for no particular
66 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
reason in the eyes of the large head of Christ, en-
graved on wood, attributed to him. Durer experi-
mented with both etching and dry-point, giving a
strong impulse to those processes. His " Holy Fam-
ily," and " St. Jerome in Penance," executed entirely
in the latter medium, show with what freedom and
delicacy he could work. The want of aerial per-
spective, of the impression of distance, in his engrav-
ings may perhaps partly be explained by the fact that
some of them, the " Virgin with the Pear," for in-
stance, are cut with deep lines, thus making it possi-
ble to print a greater number of impressions than if
the execution were more delicate. But such treat-
ment is apt to produce a metallic, hard appearance in
the print. And that is exactly what this improvement
in technique was in time to lead to, although it took
several centuries to come to its culmination of cold
regularity. Durer was one of the giants in this art,
not only in technique, but in the matter of national and
individual expression. His carefulness in execution,
expended lavishly on every detail, his abundance of
clean, clear line work, in the hands of a less gifted
man might have degenerated into an exercise of skill
for the mere love of it.
But the individuality, the genius, of this man per-
vades his work absolutely. This is felt when looking
at the work of Egidius Sadeler (1575-1629), for
instance, who engraved the " Virgin with Animals,"
after Durer. He has more aerial perspective than
Durer, yet he lacks the latter's power. Diirer's " Adam
and Eve " and three of his most famous plates the
mysterious " Melancholia," which has given rise to
ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY.
By Albrecht Diirer.
There is a remarkable charm in the treatment of this sunlit interior, with
its suggestive details.
LINE ENGRAVING 67
much discussion, without disclosing its meaning to
general satisfaction, " The Knight, Death and the
Devil," which has been interpreted as the Christian
Knight " passing resolutely through the terrors of this
mortal life," and the delightful " St. Jerome in His
Cell," with its masterly depiction of the sunlight fil-
tering through the small panes of the windows, and
its lovingly detailed description of the interior are
among the masterpieces of engraving of all time.
His influence, not only in Germany, but in the
Netherlands and Italy, was considerable, and his work
was much copied.
After Diirer, in this sixteenth century, the group
known as the Little Masters, notably Albrecht Alt-
dorfer, H. S. and B. Beham, Georg Pencz, Heinrich
Aldegrever, stands out prominently. The small en-
gravings of Altdorfer and the Behams, with delicately
executed detail, depicting scenes in sacred and pro-
fane history and in every-day life, and showing the
influence of classical and Italian art in the ornamental
motives, give " intimate expression to the tendency of
the time, with its preference for the minute and deli-
cate." It is worthy of note that Altdorfer's etchings
of pure landscape, which really show more aerial per-
spective than Diirer's, are said to be the first ones
made, and these, says W. B. Scott, in his " The Little
Masters," justify his " claim to be considered ' The
Father of Landscape Painting.' '
National characteristics are strong in all this work,
and show both in the treatment of subjects as well
as in the style and design of execution. Barthel
Beham's " Virgin at the Window " is a simply de-
68 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
light ful, unaffected I had almost said artless pic-
ture of a scene in domestic life. However, just as the
formative causes of national or individual character
or action are complex, so in art you cannot usually
put your ringer on the work of some school or artist
and designate it as absolutely sui generis, without
admixture of foreign elements. So here, the Southern
spirit came in to modify the Northern.
Sidney Colvin says of Hans Sebald Beham : " In
religious pieces, in classical subjects, in fable and
fancy, in ornamental pattern, in scenes of peasant la-
bor or peasant merriment and debauchery, he exhibits
always the same characteristic cross or alliance of the
old German plainness, toughness, grit, with the new
Italian style and correctness of design." Moreover,
the influence was to an extent mutual. We see that
in the relations between Durer and Marc Antonio.
And even earlier, the influence of Germans, such as
the Master E. S. of 1466, may be traced in Florentine
engravings.
The tendencies shown with such skill by the Little
Masters were reflected in the work of lesser lights,
Brosamer and a swarm of anonymous men. In these
days, too, Lautensack began to practice the combina-
tion of line-engraving and etching, gaining desired
effects more quickly. Facilitated production brought
forth a class of mechanical purveyors of the art
market. Yet much of their work had decided merit,
and in all these views, ornaments, pattern-books for
designers, book-illustrations, allegories, emblems and
portraits, there is much that is of artistic and tech-
nical as well as of historical interest. The names of
LINE ENGRAVING 69
Jost Amman and Virgil Solis stand out somewhat
prominently.
In the Netherlands, in the early part of the sixteenth
century, Lucas van Leyden played an important part
in art. His engravings show him to have been influ-
enced successively by Diirer and Raimondi. The large
" Ecce Homo " is a good example of his careful work,
lively characterization and skill in grouping and dis-
tributing figures, as is also " The Dance of the Mag-
dalen," considered his masterpiece. In some of his
plates the landscape background and the sky are quite
subordinated, put in with a lighter touch, showing
attention to the matter of aerial perspective, an unu-
sual proceeding in his day. As we have seen, the lack
of this latter element is noticeable in much of the early
work, even Diirer's, foreground, middle distance and
background being all put on the same plane.
The strong influence which Italy at this time exer-
cised upon Leyden and many other artists of his land
does not appear to have always had the best results.
The grafting of Italian ideals on the native Dutch
stock of national feeling was hardly an entirely suc-
cessful operation. But while this influx of Southern
ideals was forming its phase of the development of
Dutch art, some engravers were still upholding
northern traditions, and the influence of Diirer is felt.
Of the three brothers Wierix, Jan, the eldest, executed
a copy of Diirer's " Knight, Death and the Devil "
at fourteen, thus rivaling Lucas van Leyden in preco-
ciousness. There is quite delicate engraving in the
faces of the large portraits by Hieronymus Wierix.
The development of Dutch and Flemish painting
70 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
toward the end of this century and the beginning of
the seventeenth undoubtedly helped to foster this na-
tional impulse in engraving, exemplified especially in
the work of Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1616). It is
the remarkable technique that fascinates in this artist's
plates, his wonderful command of the graver, rang-
ing from the close-lined detail-work of Diirer and
Leyden and their followers, to the broad, sweeping
style which, as we shall see, Agostino Carracci in-
augurated. His suggestion of texture and impression
of color should be specially noted. Where he fol-
lowed foreign influence, as in some of his figure com-
positions, his mannerisms indicate the spirit that
eventually tried to show vigor by reveling in an ex-
aggeration of action into theatrical pose, of physical
strength into hypertrophied muscular development.
What I say here and elsewhere in pointing out weak-
nesses must not be interpreted as an attempt to smash
reputations, or to dim the lustre of names which have
radiance to the eyes of many. We are not to think
less of the work of men thus singled out, but we may
think more about it. We like our friends despite their
weaknesses, and we can enjoy the good qualities in the
works of certain engravers without overlooking their
faults. We can appreciate the lines which were put
down with the definite purpose of expressing some-
thing, without losing sight of the fact that others were
graven with no such definite purpose. We are not
indulging in indiscriminate hero-worship but are be-
coming acquainted with artists of human virtues and
faults.
Furthermore, we must not forget that the process
LINE ENGRAVING 71
is a form of artistic expression, with inevitable forms
which in the hands of a master remain a means to an
end.
"Aha," I may be told, "then all this talk about
formality of line was uncalled for, since that quality
is a necessity."
Not quite. The engraver cannot get away from the
limits of his tools. Neither can the painter. But
what a scale of differences between the finest paintings
and a poor daub. How many grades of artists be-
tween these two extremes, in whose work we find
much that is worthy of our attention. We have the
same state of affairs in engraving. This can be illus-
trated without going to poor work. Take plates by
three men of note, who will be considered more fully
later.
Nanteuil's " Bellievre," G. F. Schmidt's " Mig-
nard," J. G. Wille's "Boy blowing soap bubbles."
They rank in the order named. See how in Schmidt's
plate there is just a little more use of the line for its
own sake, and how Wille employs it thus quite
frankly, producing a table, for instance, that might be
made of any hard material you please, for the regu-
larly cross-hatched lines tell little. Yet no one would
accuse Wille of weakness, despite his mannerism.
The very nature of the work tends to place so strong
an emphasis on neatness and precision. It lies with
us to discern the spirit in which the engraver has set
down his lines. And this may be done, with a little
practice, a little developing of insight.
Goltzius, whose work has led us into this little
digression, was an artist of remarkable adaptability to
72 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
the style of others, and of a decided personality at
the same time. His manner is shadowed by his pupils,
Jan Saenredam, Jacob Gheyn and others, some of
whom, with all their ability, could not repress the
tendency to indulge in lines whose vigor and dash
were expended in saying nothing.
An interesting phase of the development of engrav-
ing in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century is
the influence of Rubens, who directed a number of
engravers, infusing his ideas and style into their work.
They reproduced his paintings in a brilliant and char-
acteristic manner, with a vigorous, free execution,
with bold sweep of line. This remarkable school of
engravers whom he thus gathered around 'him in close
relationship included especially Pieter Soutman, Lucas
Vorsterman, Paul Pontius, Schelte a Bolswert, Pieter
de Jode and Jan Witdoeck. Adolf Rosenberg devoted
an illustrated folio volume to their important activity.
While this rich influence was at work in Antwerp,
a few Dutch line engravers were perpetuating some
of the paintings of this flourishing period of Dutch
art. Cornelis Visscher was one of the most distin-
guished, and that not only in his own land. Beside
his spirited portraits and his plates after the genre
paintings of Ostade and others, he produced some orig-
inal figure pieces inspired by these artists, particularly
the " Ratcatcher," executed with breadth and vigor,
which has been frequently chosen as an illustration in
books on Dutch art or engraving.
There was Jan Suyderhoef, too, in whose portraits
after Hals and Rubens the clothes are covered with the
then already common practice of mechanical and often
THE RAT CATCHER.
Line engraving by Cornells Visscher.
(i7th century.)
LINE ENGRAVING 73
meaningless cross-hatching; but the faces and hands
are done with an absolutely free touch, giving the
effect of an etching, and most happily reproducing the
style of that placer of strong brush-marks, Frans Hals.
Then, too, there was Abraham Blooteling, using
cross-hatching even in the shadows on the faces, but
in fine lines and with restraint. His portrait of
Admiral Egbert Meesz Kortenaer, a bluff, fine, pomp-
ous old sea-dog, is well known and well executed. In
the next century, the eighteenth, one of the few Dutch
engravers who deserve notice is Jacob Houbraken,
who in his many portraits attains a sort of dead
level of excellence.
Meanwhile, the Italians had been developing the
art in their own way. The very early Florentine work
of the fifteenth century was mainly in outline, with
suggestions of the goldsmith's touch ; soon after came
the use of straight parallel lines for shading.
A number of these early engravings, including the
so-called tarot cards, have been ascribed to one Baccio
Baldini. Modern research has cast doubts on this
authorship, but the name may do to bind together
work which shows affinity and similarity of style.
Among the Baldini engravings are those in an edi-
tion of Dante of 1481, which, on the one hand, have
been characterized as indifferent, and, on the other,
praised in superlative terms. These Dante illustra-
tions are from drawings by Botticelli, who appears to
have had a decided influence on Florentine engraving
in his day. Botticelli's original drawings for the
" Divine Comedy " were reproduced in a large folio
issued by the Royal Museums in Berlin, and students
74 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
of Dante in this country have in recent years paid
increasing attention to them.
It is not in Florence, however, but in Mantua that
the greatest master of engraving in Italy in the fif-
teenth century is to be sought. That is Andrea Man-
tegna (1431-1506), who made most noticeable use
of parallel, oblique, uncrossed lines. These lines,
which do not follow the curves and contours of the
object depicted, as they do with Diirer and other Ger-
mans, help to give an aspect of severe seriousness, a
stern grandeur of style, a sculpturesque effect, which
is in accord with the classic tendencies of Mantegna.
The " Entombment " is a plate in which these char-
acteristics are particularly apparent.
As Mantegna had his sphere of influence, so also
did the schools of Milan, Venice and Verona set their
stamp on Italian engraving of this period. In Venice
there were Jacopo de'Barbari (the " Master of the
Caduceus "), who adopted German technical methods,
and forms an important link in art between the two
countries; Giulio Campagnola, who gained softness of
effect by scattering dots between his lines; and Giro-
lamo Mocetto, who engraved his lines in a free, un-
even way, a little crude, but vigorous. Thus, various
tendencies are felt in Italian engraving during this
century, tendencies inspired by local schools and by
individual artists, for it has been pointed out that the
connection between engraving and painting was a pre-
dominant feature here from the first. Beside these
already mentioned, Domenico Campagnola, Nicoletto
da Modena, Benedetto Montagna are names which
stand out with some prominence.
LINE ENGRAVING 75
With the sixteenth century there came Marc Anto-
nio Raimondi. Hitherto line engraving had been
practiced mainly as an art of original production,
as painter-engraving. Marc Antonio practically estab-
lished line engraving as a reproductive art. For such
work he was especially well fitted by his rare power
of adaptability. Decidedly influenced by the German
engravers, he developed an individual style, with much
technical skill. His means are still simple as com-
pared with the elaboration of later Italian work,
though he does use cross-hatching sparingly. Marc
Antonio's best work was that in which he preserved
many of Raphael's drawings and sketches, such as
the " Adam and Eve," and the " Massacre of the
Innocents," interpreting them in the spirit of the
originals, with beauty of line and sometimes sugges-
tion of tone, with a rare reserve and a resultant
economy of line.
Raphael's direct interest in the production of these
prints illustrates a condition more strongly emphasized
later by Rubens, or still later by J. M. W. Turner.
Marc Antonio's influence was great and far-reach-
ing, and is felt even when it became modified by other
factors. The list of those who based their technique
upon his is a long one, arid its ponderous procession
in the dictionaries of engravers (Bartsch, and Nagler,
and Le Blanc) may well be left undisturbed on the
whole, until information is needed about one or the
other in the course of one's wanderings among prints.
A reference, as usual, to a few particularly note-
worthy ones will suffice. There were Jacopo Francia
and Agostino de'Musi, Marco de Ravenna, the Master
76 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
with the Die, and Giorgio Ghisi (1520-82), who in
his attempt to combine the characteristics of Marc
Antonio with the treatment of the Germans, attained
more delicacy, perhaps, than the Italian master, more
definiteness of texture, yet lacks the spirit, the dignity,
the consummate art of the latter.
The business of publishing engravings now was ex-
tensively developed, and the engraver became com-
pletely dependent on the publisher, who himself was
often an engraver, and usually one of no great skill.
A similar domination of the commercial spirit is felt
likewise in other countries, and this spirit hovered
over the decline of the art at the end of the nineteenth
century.
There was no lack of activity in Italy during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but there are
only a few masters of special importance. Agostino
Carracci (1557-1602) introduced a style of engrav-
ing in which cross-hatched lines laid in large strokes,
well apart, followed the outlines of the object repre-
sented, growing thicker in the shadows. It was a
grand style, with big gestures and exaggerated muscu-
lar development, but with no attempt at niceties of
execution, rendering of textures or impressions of
color or tone, a masterly rendition on copper of his
style in painting. Much of the activity of the Italian
engravers of the eighteenth century was directed to-
ward the reproduction of the works of the old masters.
In this field an important part was played by Giovanni
Volpato (1738-1803), and much more by his brilliant
pupil Raphael Morghen (1758-1833). The latter's
most famous engraving is the " Last Supper," after
LINE ENGRAVING 77
Leonardo da Vinci. In tone and textures this plate
is certainly fine. The hardness of line is subdued, and
there are delightful details, such as the luminous deli-
cacy of the tablecloth or the pleasing, low-toned bit
of landscape seen in the background. Morghen's
work is usually low in tone, reserved as it were, and
has dignity; some of it is notably good in the flesh
portions, a specialty in which Porporati gained great
proficiency. It is well to regard the general effect
of Morghen's engravings, and not to look at them
closely enough to be irritated by the sometimes cold
regularity of the reticulations formed by his lines.
Longhi, Toschi, Gandolfi and others who came after,
carried on the traditions of their predecessors in Italy,
and were yet a little more soft, more insipid, more
languid. They had grace with little sparkle; a cold,
gray, somewhat spiritless sureness in execution; a
well-tempered suavity and serenity that lacked the
snap of reserve strength. They maintained the dig-
nity of the art in a creditable way. The important
service which they rendered in disseminating the
knowledge of the masterpieces of painting must not be
overlooked.
The efforts of Jean Duvet, Etienne Delaune, Woei-
riot, Ducerceau, Frenchmen of the late sixteenth and
early seventeenth centuries, are not without interest.
A definite tendency does not appear to make itself felt
until a growing popularity of engraved portraits fur-
thered the development of that specialty in which
French engraving was to celebrate some of its finest
triumphs. Claude Mellan (1598-1688) had some
influence on this phase of French art. His extraordi-
78 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
nary technical skill in the use of vigorous lines, wid-
ened at the shadow, and not crossed by others, enabled
him to execute, in his famous " Veronica's Handker-
chief," a head of Christ in a single spiral line begin-
ning at the tip of the nose. The tendency has usually
been to regard this rather as a curiosity that really was
not needed to lend emphasis to the undoubted value of
his engravings. His contemporary, Jean Morin, in por-
traits such as that of Vitre, employed etching on face
and hands, producing a peculiar freedom and richness
of effect. In the work of Gerard Edelinck, Robert
Nanteuil, Antoine Masson and the Drevets, the bril-
liancy of this period of French portraiture on copper
is made manifest. Charles Sumner sang a hymn of
praise to their productions in his pamphlet on " The
Best Portraits in Engraving." x Their portraits, exe-
cuted sometimes after paintings by others and some-
times after the engravers' own drawings (especially
in the case of Nanteuil), are characterized by bril-
liancy and delicacy in execution, a remarkable tech-
nique and a wonderful skill in rendering textures
well restrained in order to preserve harmony. The
draperies, the laces and silks, the carved wood and
other textures, are rendered with realism, but subordi-
nated to the faces, which are engraved with great
delicacy. In these plates the great ones of France
of that day pass before us in undying and imposing
distinction, though some of the subjects are long for-
gotten and dead to any fame save the reflected glory
they can get from these fine products of the line
engraver's art.
They displayed the character of their sitters, too,
1 In 1910 there was published an exhaustive study of "French Portrait
Engraving of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," by T. H. Thomas.
PORTRAIT OF POMPONE DE BELLIEVRE.
Line engraving by Robert Nanteuil, after Charles LeBrun.
LINE ENGRAVING 79
these old French engravers. Look at Nanteuil's
" Richelieu," for one, and see how the nature of the
Cardinal is fairly laid bare in this unobtrusive but
quietly powerful print. A similarly delightful char-
acterization is seen in his little head of Cardinal
Mazarin, the one drawn by him from the life in 1659,
and showing the cardinal's monogram in the lower
right corner. Nanteuil's " Pompone de Bellievre,"
Edelinck's " Philippe de Champaigne," Masson's
" Brisacier " and P. I. Brevet's " Bossuet " were
once considered the four finest portraits ever
engraved. As a matter of technical interest it is
worth noting that the white lines in the hair of the
" Brisacier " are, of course, produced by carefully cut-
ting around each one of them, so that they stand out
in relief. That is, the white hairs are the surface of
the plate, the intervening black lines having been cut
away.
In this best of French work we see illustrated again
the fact upon which I have been harping, that you
can hardly get any line engraving without some con-
ventionality of line, that this formality, though pres-
ent only in subdued form, is a necessary characteristic
of the art, and that we must adjust our appreciation
of an art to it as it is, and not as it might be if it
were something else.
Of these great portrait engravers the Drevets take
us well into the eighteenth century.
That period is reflected in all its elegance, brilliancy,
luxury, light-hearted gayety and tolerant moral con-
sciousness in the works of the painters of the period.
Their canvases in turn were disseminated in repro-
8o HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
ductions on copper by a group of engravers who ad-
mirably illustrate French characteristics in the grace
and skill with which they set before us the France
of their day as seen by its painters. The romantic
art of Watteau, idealizing the daily life of the nobles,
transporting them to enchanted isles, to pleasant
regions where the sky is ever blue; the sentimental
moralizing of Greuze, with its apparently unconscious
voluptuousness, which becomes quite conscious with
the decorative Boucher ; the more elegant and graceful
lightheartedness of Fragonard; the totally different
art of Chardin, who pictured the life of the middle
class in its homely virtues with a refinement and dig-
nity and truth, and a reserve which, it appears, for
a while helped to obscure his great talent beside the
more brilliant qualities of his contemporaries (al-
though quite recently there has arisen a renewed inter-
est in his work) all these things employed the burins
of skillful engravers. Tardieu, Cars, Aveline, Le Bas,
Robert Gaillard, Surugue, Brion; De Launay, master
of the estampe galante; Nicolas de Larmessin,
Flipart, Lepicie, Jean Massard, Voyez and Simonet
rendered these paintings with sympathy and intelli-
gence. Landscape art, in Claude Joseph Vernet's large
canvases, was successfully reproduced by the burins of
a number of engravers, as were also paintings by the
old masters.
It was for France a glorious century of line engrav-
ing, as it was for England a brilliant period of mezzo-
tint. Engraving even became fashionable, and people
of rank wielded burin or needle, among whom the
Comte de Caylus exercised a decided influence on art.
LINE ENGRAVING 81
A delightful by-product of this French skill is found
in the numerous book-illustrations, vignettes as well
as head and tail pieces, engraved and etched by Joseph
de Longueil, C. E. Gaucher, J. B. Simonet, Nicolas
Ponce and others from designs by Moreau le jeune,
P. P. Choffard, H. F. Gravelot, C. P. Marillier,
Charles Eisen, Augustin de St. Aubin, Lavreince and
the younger Cochin. Most of these productions were
small in size, finished, neat, graceful and delicately
etched, for the needle played an important part in their
production. On the whole, they were marked by
grace rather than by any remarkable power of char-
acterization or expression in the individual faces.
These illustrations, together with the larger plates
in which Moreau and others produced a veritable
" comedy of manners," form the subject of a large
and copiously illustrated volume by Lady Dilke,
" French Engravers and Draughtsmen of the Eight-
eenth Century" (London, 1902). A useful record
of the artists of this period, in alphabetical arrange-
ment, is Portalis and Beraldi's " Graveurs du Dix-
huitieme Siecle " ; and J. Lewine's " Bibliography of
Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books "
(1898) is a guide, with prices, to collectors of Eng-
lish work as well as French. 1 Another of the many
works dealing with this period is Wm. Loring
Andrews's " A Trio of Eighteenth Century French
Engravers of Portraits in Miniature : Ficquet, Savart,
Grateloup " (1898), a work now very rare.
A noteworthy example of proficiency in the tech-
nical side of pure burin engraving was J. G. Wille,
who had many followers. The precision and mathe-
1 See also L. Delteil's "Manuel de 1'amateur d'estampes du i8 siecle"
(1910).
82 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
matical regularity with which he engraved his lines,
freely cross-hatched, with " imperturbable delibera-
tion and cold skill," was an expression of the spirit
that led to the decline of the art. His " Good Woman
of Normandy " is a characteristic example of his style
at its best, and his " Paternal Advice," after Terburg,
is famous for the skill with which the dress of the
lady in the foreground is rendered. The metallic
effect of his execution and his feeling for textures
coincided in the reproduction of a remarkably " life-
like " metal pitcher in the window of " La Menagerie
Hollandoise " after G. Dow.
In the eighteenth century the mezzotint reigned in
England. But there were three line engravers of
merit Robert Strange, William Sharp and WiHiam
Woollett. The earliest English-born engravers of
note, William Rogers and Thomas Cockson, had been
soon followed by others in the seventeenth century
William Marshall, William Hole, Francis Delaram
and particularly William Faithorne. Their work is
well described in Sidney Colvin's " Early Engraving
and Engravers in England (1545-1695)." Then, to-
ward the eighteenth century, came the invention of
mezzotint, and line engraving was crowded into the
background.
Of the three exceptions of note whom I mentioned,
Robert Strange, notwithstanding the formal regu-
larity of his style, avoided the metallic quality of the
later Frenchmen. His softness in execution is noticea-
ble particularly in his flesh tints, which have been
praised with good cause. Firm modeling of flesh
appears in his plates after Titian and other old Italian
LINE ENGRAVING 83
masters. The fine portrait of Queen Henrietta after
Van Dyck is a good example of his treatment of dra-
peries and textures. William Sharp also maintained
traditions of the past, and, like Strange, he numbers
among his best works a portrait of Charles I., his
showing three heads on one plate, right and left pro-
files and front view. His portrait of John Hunter is
equally noted. He employed much cross-hatching,
and is somewhat harder in his touch than Strange.
Woollett devoted himself especially to landscape,
making a skillful use of the combination of needle and
burin, particularly advantageous in landscape work.
His " Death of General Wolfe " and " Battle of La
Hogue " are his two most famous prints ; and his
engravings of Wilson's " Phaeton " and of Claude
Lorraine's " Roman Edifices in Ruins " illustrate both
the vigor and delicacy of his art in pictorial, dramatic
effect and fine gradations of tone. He did not have
the exceeding fineness of line of some of the later
men, who did the " French Coast " series after Tur-
ner, but there was a bigness about his work that
achieved both strength and delicacy. His plates, too,
are large, and therefore demand a breadth of treat-
ment that would be out of place in one of the small
vignettes in Rogers' " Italy."
It is an important point, this adaptation of method
to purpose. The sculptor would not put into a large
figure to be seen on the top of a building the same
finish that would be bestowed on a statuette to be
examined close by. Nor would an easel picture of a
Dutch interior be treated in the same way as a dec-
orative painting for a high ceiling. Woollett's large
84 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
plates should not be scanned closely to take in all
the details of workmanship. When held off a bit,
the fine effect of cloud and sky, for instance, is ob-
tained without having to see the means used to pro-
duce the effect, the broadly laid lines, quite far apart.
These lines will disappear, as do the blots of color in
the painting of the impressionist, when the beholder
gets to a proper distance, instead of putting his nose
to the canvas and then wondering why the artist has
put such meaningless spots of color there.
William Hogarth may also be mentioned here, al-
though his plates really mean little in the history of
engraving. They are vigorous, and a little crude.
His importance lies in his power as a satirist and in-
culcator of moral lessons. His paintings were gener-
ally copied by other engravers.
I have occasionally referred to the older print pub-
lishers. Among them Boydell was a notable figure.
Himself an engraver and a person of importance in
London, which city he served as alderman, he carried
on an important publishing business. He commis-
sioned artists to paint pictures for the express purpose
of having them engraved, and issued the famous
" Shakespeare Gallery."
In Germany, as elsewhere, the demand for por-
traiture resulted in an avalanche of prints in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of these
were produced in what we may well call engravers'
shops. Others rise above the level of the average,
among them, in the seventeenth century, the works of
Kilian, Falk, Kiisel, Egidius Sadeler and the Merians,
known by their numerous views of places ; it was from
LINE ENGRAVING 85
Matthaus Merian that Wenzel Hollar, the etcher,
learned to do landscapes.
There is a wealth of material here, though the
work of no great master. Especially are there inter-
esting portraits of notabilities and views of cities,
things to interest especially the collector of prints
for their subject-matter, but, nevertheless, full of
pleasant little surprises also for the student of en-
gravings as objects of art.
The influence of French engraving in the eight-
eenth century extended also to Germany, and a note-
worthy product of this amalgamation of French style
and German spirit was Georg Friedrich Schmidt
(1712-1775). He was an engraver of great ability
who produced -such realistic masterpieces as the por-
trait of the painter Mignard, 1744. In his work, too,
we find the careful and unfailing choice of the proper
lines to express texture, the almost mechanical ease of
execution, which we have seen in the works of his
French contemporaries. Subsequently he laid down
the burin to take up the etching-needle. In this new
field he was strongly influenced by the work of Rem-
brandt. And, though one still sees the effect of his
practice of tracing regular lines on the copper, he
produced some etchings of remarkable brilliance.
Other exponents of the French style were two pupils
of Wille J. F. Bause, whose work will be particu-
larly prized by collectors of portraits, and J. G.
Miiller. The latter's son, Friedrich Wilhelm, is best
known by his " Sistine Madonna," after Raphael. It
is said that the publisher who had commissioned it
refused it when finished because the too delicately
86 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
cut lines would not yield him a sufficient number of
impressions. The lines had to be deepened, and when
the arduous task was finished the engraver became
insane and died on the day the first proof was printed.
The engraving, though harmonious and effective,
shows us not so much the spirit of Raphael as that
of Miiller, influenced by his time. It is again the story
of conventional line-work, of classical traditions built
up into a system.
In this whole matter of considering the functions of
line engraving as illustrated in its development, it is
not so easy to be consistent or coherent. One is
naturally influenced by what is before one at a given
time. If you are carefully studying the earliest Italian
work you may get to regard it so lovingly that you
share Ruskin's enthusiasm. On the other hand but
still keeping in mind only the best work of any kind
if you are familiarizing yourself with the delicate
work of such plates as those in Rogers' " Italy " or the
little " Verona " by W. Miller, after Turner, you will
admire and appreciate the artistic and reserved em-
ployment of the richest resources, the utmost finish of
which the burin is capable. Each in its time. Art
is, after all, an expression of the period. It lies with
us to accept that expression in its noblest form.
With the introduction of steel plates, about 1820,
and steel facing, the art increased in popularity.
For several decades it was extensively used for illus-
trating, often in a combination of line and stipple.
There were "Byron Beauties" (1836), " Waverley
Gallery" (1840) and similar collections prepared
under the superintendence of Heath, or Finden, or
LINE ENGRAVING 87
some other noted engraver of the day (for co-
operative effort naturally arose to supply increased
demand, just as it flourished centuries before in the
studios of painters whose pupils aided them in their
work, or in large wood-engraving establishments).
There were " annuals " galore, with frontispieces rep-
resenting the pretty, insipid, long-curled beauties so
admired in those days. There were gift-books, " an
elegant accession to the drawing-room table," as one
advertisement puts it. Even Greenwood and Auburn
cemeteries were each pictured in a sumptuous volume !
The general run of this work, smooth, nice,
" highly finished," says the title of " Gems of Beauty,"
elementary in its expression of obvious sentiment, was
an embodiment of mere and undiluted craftsmanship.
Commercialism and the desire for cheaper and more
rapid methods naturally favored this attitude, and
we find an immense amount of dull work as the legacy
of the first half of the nineteenth century.
But it was not a period of entirely unillumined
sterility. The large " framing-prints " after story-
telling pictures by Landseer, Wilkie and others were
often very well done, and in such cases had the same
justification as the originals which they reproduced.
Moreover, they tended to spread a taste for good
pictures. They must have done that by the very
force of comparison, for there was in those times so
much execrable telling of stories by third-rate de-
signers and fourth-rate engravers that one turns with
relief to these adequate representations of stories well
told by painters who had the ability to do it. On the
principle of getting the best of whatever you like,
88 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
it was certainly a good thing to have these able en-
gravers aid in accustoming the public to see and appre-
ciate the story-telling picture, the genre-piece at its
best.
Let me say, parenthetically, that one need not quar-
rel with tastes. It is not so much a question whether
certain modern artists and critics are right in deny-
ing the highest place to pictures which have the lit-
erary interest. As a matter of fact, one is apt to choose
the golden mean, for the heart will yearn for that
touch of human sympathy which the sort of picture
which we are now considering offers in an obvious and
easily grasped form.
The question, however, which each one should put
to himself is rather: what is my attitude toward this
art? Is it that of the amused spectator who laughs
at the joke in the picture and passes on ? Or who sheds
the metaphorical tear over the sad sentiment or thrills
with the dramatic action of the tale unfolded by the
artist? Is the point of the story all I look at and
does the art mean nothing to me? Do I pay any atten-
tion to the manner in which the story is told, beyond
noting, in passing, that the painter has properly
crossed his t's and dotted his i's, making a clean job
so that I will not have to strain my imagination?
Does the engraver's art mean so little to me that I
will not take offense at a mechanically executed and
muddily printed engraving, so long as the point of the
joke, or the romance, or the homily be preserved?
The inference is obvious. Enjoyment of a delight-
ful bit of humor in Moliere, or Cervantes, or Shake-
speare is different in degree from that which pro-
LINE ENGRAVING 89
duces the unthinking guffaw at sight of the antics of
a horse-play comedian or a green-whiskered stage
libel on the Irishman. In other words, prints should
be enjoyed understandingly. That will not lessen your
enjoyment; it will simply make it more keen. Enjoy-
ing art in such a spirit is to make emotions and thought
go hand in hand. And in that process, inferior art
will recede from estimation, which will quite inevita-
bly hold on to that which is good.
There is plenty more good line engraving worthy
of attention in the period of the last century which we
have been considering. Much of it is described in
Vol. II. (1891) of the four-volume folio work on
" Contemporary Graphic Art," published by the
Gesellschaft fur vervielfaltigende Kunst of Vienna,
unfortunately, for English readers, in German, but
well illustrated. In fact, I know of no other book that
covers the same ground as this. It gives a remarkably
interesting review even if you look at the illustra-
tions only of the best that European line engraving
has produced in the nineteenth century. Even in that
limited period, there were not only a number of artists
who rose decidedly above the plane of mere crafts-
manship to which, as we have seen, there was a
natural tendency, but there was great variety in the
use of technical means, a variety due to the manner of
the individual engravers, as well as to adaptation
of means to the particular work that was being
reproduced.
Remarkable softness of effect was achieved by some
of these modern engravers, tones that almost subdue
the coldness of material and method. There should
90 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
be mentioned Ch. Bellay, A. Boucher-Desrioyers, en-
graver of the noted picture of " Napoleon in His
Coronation Robes " and " Belisarius," both after
Gerard, A. Didier, Calamatta, A. Blanchard, Henri-
quel-Dupont, identified with the Societe Franfaise de
Gravure, which issued one hundred plates in pursuance
of its mission to revive the fine art of line engraving,
F. Gaillard, Jules Jacques, Ed. Biichel, G. Eilers, O.
Seidel and Ed. Mandel, who once asserted that when
he died there would be no more engravers. And in
England, G. T. Doo, or the engravers who did the
plates after Turner in the latter's " Southern Coast,"
George Cooke, Horsburgh and William Miller, who
showed such masterly delicacy in the sky of " Ports-
mouth " and " Clovelly Bay." Such work, with its
refinement of line and insistence on tone, verifies the
statement that " tone line engraving of landscape is
an achievement of the nineteenth century."
In the United States, beside much inferior por-
traiture finding its lowest level of smug neatness in
certain local histories or similar subscription books,
products of the vanity and the pocketbooks of those
depicted, there is also much to be contemplated with a
pleasing degree of satisfaction. Bank-note engraving
became highly developed, and in its service were en-
listed some of the most able men, particularly Asher B.
Durand, successively engraver, portrait painter and
a noteworthy figure among our earlier landscape
artists; also James Smillie, among whose plates are
the large ones of Cole's " Voyage of Life " series.
They did many fine plates, portraits and landscapes.
R. Hinshelwood, Alfred Jones, Charles Burt and
LINE ENGRAVING 91
others hold honorable rank. Some of them had to do
pot-boilers in numbers. They, too, produced large
framing prints similar to the English " story-telling "
pictures, such as " Lady Washington's Reception
Day," by Huntington, or " On the March to the Sea,"
by Darley, both engraved by A. H. Ritchie ; " Bargain-
ing for a Horse," by Burt after Mount; or those pub-
lished by the Art Union, such as R. C. Woodville's
" News from Mexico," by Alfred Jones. 1
All the preceding historical notes deal mainly with
general tendencies and cite only some salient indi-
vidual examples. But the facts given make clear the
point intended, that the historical development of line
engraving is as varied in its phases as is the pleasure
which can be derived from the study of it, a pleasure
rich in possibilities of viewpoint and specialties. There
is the delight that is offered by the review of the
progress in technical excellence, as well as of the
change in artistic tendencies, in dominating movements
that mark various art epochs.
Despite the limitations which the handling of the
burin imposes, the variety in the manner in which it is
used is remarkably great. Consider even the mat-
ter of cross-hatching and no cross-hatching. What
a difference there is, for example, between the straight,
uncrossed lines of Mantegna and the similar lines of
Claude Mellan, who lived a century and a half later,
a difference in temperament, in national feeling, in
point of view, in artistic language. There is the
intense human interest that lies in the depth of na-
tional expression which marks plates such as those
done by Durer, or the " little masters " in Germany,
1 For details, see "American Graphic Art" (1912), by the present writer.
92 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
or Cornelius Visscher and other Dutchmen, or those
after Moreau le jeune in France, or Hogarth's moral-
izing series in England. And there is the satisfaction
of contemplating the works of great masters in paint-
ing as interpreted by masters of the burin, perhaps
even rescued from oblivion in cases where the original
painting has either been destroyed or has faded away
into a ghost of its former self, as has Leonardo da
Vinci's " Last Supper."
And from these general aspects, one can branch out
into specialties galore. For him who is attracted by
the charm of the portrait, the field is large, extend-
ing from Durer's " Melanchthon " to fairly recent
work, such as Gaillard's " Man with the Pink," after
Van Eyck, and showing, in national and personal
characteristics of both subject and artist, the serious-
ness of the sixteenth-century German, the brilliance
of the Frenchman of the time of Louis XIV., the sun
king, the solid qualities of the Englishman or the
young energy of the American of the early nineteenth
century.
Or perhaps the collector is attracted by the pioneer
efforts of our earliest American engravers. Paul
Revere, he of the famous ride, silversmith, and en-
graver of a view of the Boston Massacre ; Amos Doo-
little, known especially by his four roughly executed
views of the Battle of Lexington, or, later, the
Mavericks and others, all set down in D. McN.
Stauffer's two valuable volumes on American en-
gravers, published in 1907 by the Grolier Club.
Similarly, historical pieces, famous paintings and
other special topics offer themselves. And if one
LINE EN GR AV 'ING 93
studies or collects in the spirit of the student of
engraving per se, irrespective of subject, one may be
eclectic and choose the best by different artists, of
diverse styles, in various lands. Or one may find
special delight in definite schools, the German, Dutch
or French, not necessarily admiring all, but making
free and wise choice of the best and representative
pieces.
In passing through this garden of delightful pleas-
ures, the flowers of dazzling beauty should not be per-
mitted to blind the eyes altogether to their modest
sisters, putting forth their little blossoms in timid
seclusion, with but a modicum of beauty to contribute
to the general glory, and disclosing that only to the
very observant. To stray from the highways into the
little alleys and by-ways may mean to discover unex-
pected delights, manifestations of unobtrusive artistic
personality, not strong, perhaps, but attractive at least.
The work of the small talent is justified and has its
attraction, so long as it is done with thought and
honest feeling and with individuality. It is the per-
sonal note that counts, not the acquired manner. Just
as in life.
All that is required of the student is the will-
ingness to stand in the attitude of others, to learn of
and sympathize with the life and thought and views of
people of other times or of foreign lands, and to
strive to understand the personal standpoint and ex-
pression of the individual artist. For this last ele-
ment is after all the main factor in our enjoyment
of the best art of any kind.
CHAPTER IV
MEZZOTINTS
MEZZOTINT is as different as possible from the
media which we have been considering. In pure
mezzotint, there are no lines. Instead, soft outlines
unbounded by lines, masses of light and shade. The
difference is one not only of effect, but of means. In
both wood engraving and line engraving on copper,
the engraver works from light to dark, puts in lines
to produce various degrees of shadow, various sug-
gestions of local color or of texture, and leaves the
plate untouched where he wants the high lights to
appear.
The mezzotinter, on the other hand, works from
dark to light. He scrapes out all the gradations from
the highest light to the deepest shadow from a surface
that would print black.
To prepare a copper-plate for mezzotinting, it is
^irst worked over with an instrument known as a
'* rocker," or " cradle," something like a chisel or
small spade with a rounded toothed edge. This instru-
ment is rocked completely over the plate in all direc-
tions, about eighty times in all. By that time the lines
of dots crossing and re-crossing each other have pro-
duced innumerable minute hollows separated by thin
walls of metal, like the burr raised by the dry-point
94
MEZZOTINTS 95
process described in the chapter on etching. If the
plate, thus evenly roughened, were inked and printed
from, the paper would show a uniform tint of deep,
velvety black, similar to the effect produced by heavy
dry-point work in which none of the burr has been
removed by the scraper. Hence the French name of
the art of mezzotinting, la maniere noire (the black
manner). Upon the plate thus " rocked " the design
is now traced, and the engraver then goes over it with
the scraper, removing both hollows and burrs alto-
gether for the very highest lights, and less and less
for the successive stages between the highest lights
and the darkest blacks, for which latter the plate is
left untouched. /The German name for the art,
Schabkunst, " scraping art," is therefore character-
istically descriptive. The inking of a mezzotint plate
is a difficult operation, for it takes judgment and expe-
rience to know how much ink to leave when " wiping
out." Inks of various shades of dark brown have
often been used, giving a warmer and more effective
tone than pure black.
When completed and inked, the plate is printed on a
copper-plate press. In an impression from such a
plate, the highest lights, where the plate has been com-
pletely scraped and perhaps burnished, so as to hold
little or no ink, are represented by almost white paper.
Then the gradations of shadow from the most delicate
to the very darkest appear in a gradually darkening
grain which in its lighter stages more or less plainly
shows the marks of the rocking-tool, and shows also
that this tool was used with some individuality by
various engravers to suit their style as well as the
96 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
particular subject in hand. So that the style is in
evidence, both in the rocking and the scraping, despite
the apparent sameness of mezzotints.
The want of line in pure mezzotint causes a soft-
ness, an indefiniteness, a lack of precision and decision,
that led to the occasional employment of some etched
lines to supply energy. This was done at a fairly
early date, but with such restraint as to be often no-
ticeable only after very close inspection. It can be seen
best in late impressions. I have before me as I write
pale prints of C. Spooner's " John Manners, Marquis
of Granby" (1760) and R. Houston's "William
Kingsley " (1760), after Reynolds. The worn plates
have yielded only a pale, grayish tone, from which
the etched lines in the pupils of the eyes and around
the nose and mouth stand out quite clearly.
George White has been called the first to study care-
fully the possibilities of a combination of etching and
mezzotint, he etching the subject until nearly com-
plete, and then adding tones with rocker or roulette.
The roulette is a small wheel, with fine teeth, like a
spur rowel, set on the end of a handle. When this
is run over the copper, it produces lines of minute
hollows, which, of course, print as dots. The roulette
is used to strengthen shadows, and has been combined
for that purpose with etching as well as with mezzo-
tint. The mezzotint portrait of Lawrence, from a
painting by himself, done by Samuel Cousins in 1838,
shows very heavy rouletting on the coat.
In the nineteenth century there was developed the
" mixed " style, in which etching, roulette, stipple and
burin work were all added, sometimes in considera-
MEZZOTINTS 97
ble proportions, to give strength. But the charm of
mezzotint was lost in the operation, and such a com-
bination was generally sparingly used by the best men
and in the best work.
The art underwent a great change in the course of
its development. There is a great difference between
the earliest known mezzotint Ludwig von Siegen's
portrait of the Landgravine Amelia of Hesse and
the plates produced in the golden age of the art in
England, in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Siegen, who was the inventor of the art, seems to
have roughened only parts of the plate, putting in his
shadows in this way from the start, so that he had less
scraping than if he had rocked the entire plate. In
fact, it has been said that his plates were done almost
entirely with the roulette, with a background of cross-
hatched burin lines, as in the portrait of William,
Prince of Orange.
About a dozen years after its discovery, the art be-
came known to Prince Rupert (who did a vigorous
" Executioner " after Spagnoletto) and to Theodor
Caspar von Fiirstenberg. Prince Rupert introduced it
into the Low Countries, where Wallerant Vaillant,
Abraham Blooteling, Cornelius Dusart and others sub-
sequently practiced it. This early work is rather dark,
and lacks gradation; but Blooteling produced a cer-
tain heavy richness in his best work, such as the strik-
ing and vigorous portraits of the Duke of Monmouth
and Catharine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II.,
after Lely (1680).
The records of this art in Germany embrace the
names of a few noteworthy men, such as J. E. Haid
98 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
(who scraped a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, among
others), Georg Philipp Rugendas and particularly
J. Pichler. The latter did a " Magdalen " and a " St.
John," both after Battoni, but one of his best-known
plates is that of the " Sons of Rubens," after that
painter, not so delicate as the work of the English
masters, a little heavier in treatment, but a good piece
of work withal, luminous and effective if seen in a
good impression.
While all this work, though generally not of the
highest importance, is of interest, and may eventually
lead to excursions down fascinating or amusing by-
paths, it may be put aside with this short reference to
it, so that we may get to the country which is so
intimately identified with the rise and most brilliant
exposition of the art, England. Introduced there by
Prince Rupert, it was first developed by foreign artists
who had emigrated from Holland and Flanders,
Blooteling, P. van Somer and others. Then, towards
the end of the seventeenth century, native-born artists
adopted it, notably William Sherwin, Isaac Beckett,
Robert Williams, Wm. Faithorne, 1 John Simon, the
Fabers and John Smith. Many of the engravings by
these men, though decidedly creditable, are prized
more particularly as likenesses of noted personages,
sometimes as the only known portraits of the persons
delineated.
To John Smith much of the great advance in the
art was due. The rocking became more careful, and
there was a tendency to richer tones, more delicate
detail, more skillful rendering of textures. But it was
not yet a full development; a promise rather than a
1 The Younger.
MEZZOTINTS 99
fulfillment. There is sometimes a certain clumsiness
in the vigor shown, a want of subtlety and suavity in
the gradations. It is as though the arts of portraiture
in oil and of mezzotint went forward hand in hand to
a certain extent. The stiffness of Kneller and Lely
seems reflected in the very handling of the early mez-
zotinters. But they soon learned to render a white
satin gown with good effect, for mezzotint is well
adapted to the imitation of certain textures, particu-
larly hair and textile stuffs.
With the rise of the brilliant group of portraitists
that included Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gains-
borough, George Romney, John Hoppner, Sir Thomas
Lawrence and our own Gilbert Stuart, there came into
the art of the mezzotinter an increase of refinement, of
engaging grace, of flexibility, of freedom, of breadth,
in short a more perfect control of the resources of
the art.
It is highly interesting, in studying these mezzo-
tints, to find an art which has been characterized as
lacking in precision, and consequently greatly limited,
affording such scope for the display of individual style,
of personal expression, and this despite the fact that
mezzotinting has been so essentially a reproductive
art. I have heard the question put more than once by
those who had studied mezzotints well : " Now, do
these absolutely render the original paintings ? " And
the questioners themselves replied with gentle doubt.
More than that, it has been asserted that in some cases
the mezzotint was better than the original painting.
Perhaps the engraver did at times show a personality
that was not the painter's. But one feels that the
ioo HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
spirit of the painter is there. And in the plates of
so adaptative an engraver as J. R. Smith the styles
of the various painters appear to be well accentuated.
It is significant, too, that in some cases the painters
corrected the proofs. Lawrence did it with thorough-
ness, having been known to return a dozen successive
corrected proofs of one plate to Samuel Cousins. And
Reynolds formed a collection of proofs after his paint-
ings. It is said that on a proof by himself after
Hoppner, in the British Museum, J. Ward has noted
that a suggested alteration in the print was not only
not carried out, but the picture was actually repainted
so as to " accord to the engraver's rendering." How
much of this story is to be set down as an expression
of Ward's well-known high opinion of his merits,
it is perhaps not easy to tell, but Hoppner apparently
did set a high value on his mezzotinting.
So in some instances, at least, we have proof of the
painter's satisfaction with the engraver's work, a sat-
isfaction voiced by Sir Joshua Reynolds when he as-
serted that the mezzotints of McArdell and others
would immortalize him. And if we find them to
be very often free translations, we may be thank-
ful that in this brilliant period of the art there
was much individuality shown, and not merely dull
craftsmanship.
There is great diversity of method and expression.
And it is this method on which stress is laid here,
rather than on biographical details, which you may
get in Alfred Whitman's " The Masters of Mezzo-
tint," in Cyril Davenport's "Mezzotints" (1903),
both well illustrated, or in J. Chaloner Smith's monu-
MEZZOTINTS 101
mental "British Mezzotint Portraits" (1883), to-
gether with the books devoted to individual engravers,
such as those on McArdell or Green, or the two sump-
tuously illustrated volumes by Julia Frankau on John
Raphael Smith and the Wards.
As I pass in mental review the many fine mezzo-
tints that have in recent years been exhibited, the
characteristics of each one of those whose names are
linked with the history of the art in this period of its
most brilliant manifestation stand out from the soft-
ness and suavity of the mezzotint ground.
There is that group of talented Irishmen who take
high rank among those who brought the art to so
advanced a degree of perfection, McArdell, Houston,
Fisher and Dixon.
McArdell was both brilliantly vigorous and finely
delicate. There is distinction of style, rich color and
vivacity of facial expression in his plates after Reyn-
olds, Van Dyck and others. His skill in rendering
textures is exemplified in Van Dyck's " Lords John
and Bernard Stuart," Hudson's " Mary, Duchess of
Ancaster " (note the fine satin gown) or " Griselda,
Countess Stanhope " after Ramsay ; yet it is not made
conspicuous on its own account, but takes its proper
place in the general effect. " Catherine Chambers,"
showing reflected light on the face under the broad-
brimmed hat ; " Edward Boscawen," and " Lady Ann
Dawson," rich in color, are among the nearly forty
plates which he engraved from paintings by Reynolds,
who had so high an opinion of his work.
Richard Houston, " the first mezzotinter who real-
ized that a scraper could be used to give the effect of
102 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
a brush," became intemperate, was long in Fleet
Prison and fell into the hands of the printers, Sayer
and others. His plates vary in quality. Purcell,
who signed much of his work " Corbutt," had a like
fate.
Edward Fisher was once criticised by Reynolds
as " injudiciously exact," but he could work with high
finish, as in the costume of Lady Elizabeth Keppel, or
with vigorous breadth, as in " Garrick between Trag-
edy and Comedy." He engraved the familiar Cham-
berlin portrait of Franklin with his electrical instru-
ments. John Dixon, too, could be " delicate and re-
fined, or bold and strong, as the subject required."
His " Misses Emma and Elizabeth Crewe," after
Reynolds, has been much admired.
One finds plenty of instances to illustrate variety
of style and expression by the emphasis of contrasts.
John Jones is well represented in the two portraits
of Miss Frances Kemble in a white and a black dress,
respectively, after Reynolds. His work at times is
lacking in textures, and sometimes has an unfinished
effect which resolves itself into dash in his portrait of
Caleb Whitefoord, one of his many portraits of men.
Robert Dnnkarton, on the other hand, has more finish,
but does not give the same feeling of strength.
William Dickinson, again, is indeed vigorous, yet,
while not finicky, gives the impression of having said
enough. " His use of the scraper is particularly bril-
liant," says one authority, " showing well the brush-
marks of the original." His " Lady Charles Spencer,"
after Reynolds, is rich and fine in textures. Thomas
Watson shows strength in portraits, such as that of
MEZZOTINTS 103
Warren Hastings, and no saccharine sweetness in his
portraits of women ; among- these one should see "Mrs.
Crowe as St. Genevieve," both strong and delicate,
and the famous " Lady Bamfylde " after Reynolds.
James Watson is softer, more delicate, but not so
strong, perhaps. Chaloner Smith tells us that, when
not satisfied with a plate, he would do an entirely new
one instead of retouching and altering it, " as would
be done by a less scrupulous artist."
John Dean's work is so exquisitely delicate " that
to a casual observer his prints appear weak and color-
less " ; but he shows richness to the observant eye in
Reynolds's " Mercury," for instance and fine trans-
lucent shadows, as on the dress in " Lady Elizabeth
Herbert and Son." "Lady Kent," after Reynolds,
is a good example of his style. William Doughty laid
a somewhat coarse ground, so that his flesh-tints have
a granular effect. Doughty's vigor is shown in the
famous portrait of Dr. Johnson. Dean was a pupil
of Valentine Green, whose work was refined rather
than brilliant, and whose delicacy of treatment and
luminous effect are well exemplified in his portraits,
after Reynolds, of " Lady Elizabeth Compton," of
" Lady Henrietta Herbert," of " Mary Isabella,
Duchess of Rutland," tall and stately, with stature
increased by high head-dress, and of "The Three
Ladies Waldegrave." He, too, could render textures
without undue finish, as in the cap in his " Lady Caro-
line Howard " ; and, in his " Family of Joseph
Wright," the flesh modeling is a pleasing feature.
John Raphael Smith was one of the most brilliant,
versatile and able of them all, unexcelled in variety
104 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
of treatment. His " Mrs. Carnac," after Reynolds, is
indeed " a wonderful example of refined mezzotint-
ing " ; " Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu " has detail without
undue finish; " J. P. Curran," after Lawrence, is bold
and broad ; " Louisa, Lady Stormont " shows some-
thing of the refined manner of Green, and " Miss Cum-
berland " some of the dash of Jones. It has been
pointed out that Smith achieved success and distinction
whenever he limited himself to reproducing the work
of another, but was weak where he played both de-
signer and engraver.
Each one, then, has his own virtues and faults, with
his own personal touch, which we take as it stands,
and which forms a subtle charm that has its share
in the hold which the art has on us. And if, after all
this praise, modified though it is, you find lapses from
the highest criteria here and there, do not forget that
an artist, too, has his weak moments, and his weak
side. But the fault is not always wholly the en-
graver's. Sometimes a detail in certain of these fine
plates may strike you as really too bad, perhaps the
wooden birds which are placed in the hands of ladies
in several instances. We must not necessarily jump
to the conclusion that in such cases the free interpre-
tation of the engraver has betrayed him into taking
unwarranted liberties with the painter's work. If the
amiable infant in Reynolds's " Mrs. Mackenzie and
Child," engraved by Grozer, looks a little like a French
doll, that appearance is repeated in Jacquemart's etch-
ing after the same painting. So that either the painter
was a little conventional, or the little lady really looked
like a fine, plump specimen of the China toy.
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN.
Mezzotint by John Raphael Smith.
After Sir Thomas Lawrence.
MEZZOTINTS 105
The art of mezzotint, with both its beauties and its
faults, is of the style of the time, a reflection of the
attitude of its day. Its development was coincident
with, and furthered by, the growth of a national school
of portraiture. The latter, profiting by particularly
favorable social conditions, reflected the life of the
time in individual personal instances with dignity
and distinction as well as grace. And this charm was
preserved with an original energy, a creative impulse,
in richness of tone and charm of style, by contem-
porary mezzotinters. Increased possibilities of circu-
lation make the print a messenger of art where the
painting cannot go. Many of us have enjoyed these
mezzotint reproductions of paintings which we have
never seen.
These British mezzotints are an absolute outcome of
the -art and life of the time, and it is impossible to
consider them without reference to that life and that
art. They cannot be dissociated from the source of
their being. That they mirror so well the period of
British history of which they form part is one reason
why they are prized so largely for the sake of the
subject. They preserve not only the works of the
great portrait painters of the day, and the genre sub-
jects of George Morland and others, but also the can-
vases of lesser lights as well, some of them, such as
Wright of Derby, mainly because their subjects and
treatment offered special possibilities for a display of
virtuosity in the rendering of strong effects of light
and shade. Earlom's "The Forge" (1773), W.
Pether's " Orrery " and Green's " Philosopher Show-
ing an Experiment with the Air Pump," all three after
106 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Joseph Wright, illustrate this specialty of craftsman-
ship in chiaroscuro.
But they also bring before us a brilliant array
of British individuals and types, records of child-
life, interesting sidelights on manners and cus-
toms, fads and fashions in dress and sentiment and
opinion.
What a gallery of great people is displayed to our
view! The pomp and dignity of royalty, the dis-
tinction of nobility, the vigor and strong pose of mili-
tary and naval achievement, the personal expression
of literary and artistic influence, the charm of beauty
and grace, all are exemplified in these portraits of the
men and women who represent the social and political
life of Britain in that day. Statesmen and artists,
warriors and poets, fine ladies and actors, stand before
us in counterfeit presentiment, all helping to make
more vivid to us those days of ruffles and vigor,
and daintiness and beef, of affectation and sturdy
sentiment.
There is Samuel Johnson, his great mind embodied
in gross heaviness, Laurence Sterne, bright-eyed and
smiling cunningly, and Goldsmith all three por-
trayed by Reynolds and perpetuated in mezzotints by
Doughty, Fisher and Marchi respectively. Warren
Hastings, alert and serious, presented by Reynolds
and T. Watson; George Canning, in the portrait by
Hoppner engraved by John Young; Fox, in massive
strength, in the forcible character study by Reynolds
again, translated by Jones, or depicted by S. W.
Reynolds after Opie, and Edmund Burke, by Romney,
in Jones's simple and broad engraving.
MEZZOTINTS 107
The appearance of General Robert Monckton, who
was with Wolfe at Quebec, is shown in the painting
by the American Quaker, Benjamin West, mezzotinted
by James Watson ; also that of Lieutenant-Colonel
Tarleton, distinguished on the British side in the
American Revolutionary War, in the brilliant, dash-
ing portrait by Reynolds, reproduced in one of J. R.
Smith's most noted mezzotints.
Not only are we shown persons in their every-day
aspect, but the sitter frequently must assume a special
character and garb for the occasion; or a group of
personages is pictured in the guise of a genre piece.
So we get family groups in unconventional por-
traiture, children in action, for instance, or buying
fruit from a street vendor, as in H. Walton's " The
Fruit Barrow" (Walton Family), engraved by J. R.
Smith; Hoppner's "Children bathing" (Hoppner
children) and "Juvenile Retirement" (Douglas chil-
dren), both by James Ward, the first one marking
the height of his achievement ; " Children at Play "
(Oddie children), by Thomas Park after Beechey;
" Boy and Lamb " (said- to be Master Wynne as
St. John) by Reynolds, engraved by Dean; and
the portrait of Lady Catherine Pelham Clinton
as a child, feeding chickens, by J. R. Smith, after
Reynolds.
More striking is the tendency to show individual
sitters in characters other than their own. They pose,
these beauties and children of those days, as goddesses
and nymphs, as allegorical abstractions and literary
figures, as "Cynthia," "Miranda" or "Hebe"; a
custom, by the way, found also in France, where
io8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Pomonas and Ceres and Floras and Ariadnes are
found in the portraiture of this eighteenth century.
Sir Joshua Reynolds has many of these fancy por-
traits to his credit. He painted Elizabeth, Duchess of
Manchester, with her son George, Viscount Mande-
ville, as " Diana and Cupid " (engraved by J. Watson),
and a good bourgeois, placid Diana she made ; " Mas-
ter Crewe, as Henry VIII." (by John Raphael Smith),
a sturdy, red-cheeked little fellow, product of the
" roast beef of old England "; " Francis, Fifth Duke
of Bedford" (by Fisher), posing as St. George, to
the admiration of the onlookers, and daintily tickling
the dragon behind the ears, as St. George does the
" Reluctant Dragon " in Kenneth Grahame's " Dream
Days " ; Miss Searle as " The Careful Shepherdess "
(a little girl with a lamb in her arms, by Elizabeth
Judkins) ; " Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the
Graces " ; and " Hope Nursing Love," said to be
Theophila Palmer, both by Fisher.
The fascinating Lady Hamilton was pictured as
" Bacchante " (a well-conducted one, who will not
offend the proprieties), by Reynolds and Smith, and
as " Nature," by Henry Meyer after Romney, whom
she inspired, and who painted a number of portraits
of her. Romney painted also that picture, familiar
through J. R. Smith's plate, of Miss Sneyd, Major
Andre's fiancee, as " Serena."
It is interesting and at times amusing to see these
grandes dames posing as mythological characters. The
masquerade is so very obvious, the ladies are so evi-
dently anxious not to look the parts enough to appear
forward or to suggest any impropriety. All is well-
MEZZOTINTS 109
ordered and without breach of " proper form." Feel-
ings are well restrained by stays.
The artists themselves seem affected by this point
of view, and even where, in " fancy subjects," por-
traits being absent, there is a certain freedom of ex-
pression, it is in the voice of longing languor, not in
that of passionate vigor. Reynolds's " The Snake
in the Grass," engraved by W. Ward, may serve to
illustrate a point on which it is not necessary to insist
further. But there is so much skill, and dignity, and
graceful charm in all this that we are held captive,
as we should have been, no doubt, by the originals
of these portraits.
The portrayal of actors in roles of course results in
a more natural accommodation to the character por-
trayed, although one cannot get entirely away from
the mixture of contemporary manners and the pro-
fessional pose. David Garrick as " Abel D rugger,"
by Dixon after Zoffany; Mrs. Elizabeth Hartley as
" Elfrida," by Dickinson after J. Nixon; Mrs. Jordan
as " Hypolita," by Jones after Hoppner ; Miss Kitty
Fisher as " Cleopatra," by Fisher after Reynolds, are
a few in a long gallery of portraits in roles. But the
actresses, too, were made to enter the realm of alle-
gory. There is a graceful vision of Mrs. Billington
as " St, Cecilia," engraved by James Ward (1803)
from the painting, now in the New York Public Li-
brary, by Reynolds. This painter, it will be remem-
bered, pictured the apotheosis of Mrs. Siddons as
" The Tragic Muse," reproduced in stipple. There is,
too, that fine plate by Fisher, with its delightful pic-
ture of David Garrick, smirking in indecision and mild
i io HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
self-satisfaction as he is drawn hither and thither
by the geniuses of Tragedy and Comedy contending
for his possession.
If such amusing features are pointed out here, they
do not, of course, affect the art of the print any more
than costume or customs affect the world's final judg-
ment of an individual. We recognize the strong per-
sonality of an Elizabeth, while we smile at the cum-
brous farthingale which she wore; we admire the
brilliant qualities of Marlborough while marveling at
the devotion to fashion that could perspire under a
huge wig. The painting, reproduced in the mezzo-
tint, gives us the people of the day, with both their
fine qualities and their foibles. Our same Garrick,
dapper and alert, leaning complacently against a base
bearing a bust of Shakespeare ("Us two," or "Me
and him," the modern variety comedian would put it),
may cause a smile, but the art of the painting in which
he is thus depicted by Gainsborough, and the merit of
the mezzotint by Green, do not.
And if we have looked at actors in the limelight's
glare, in the pose and strut of role, we may see them
also at home. So is Mrs. Elizabeth Billington pic-
tured by Robert Dunkarton after John Downman; or
Mrs. Abingdon with delightful feminine charm, by
Elizabeth Judkins after Reynolds ; or charming " Peg
Woffington," in McArdell's fine plate after Pond.
Elizabeth Judkins leads one to the parenthetical re-
flection that it is curious that not more women took
up this art, since so many, professionals as well as
amateurs, busied themselves at the same time with
the more arduous task of line engraving.
MEZZOTINTS ill
The art of mezzotinting was to a very large extent
identified with portraiture. Not altogether, however
Figure subjects were reproduced; for instance, his-
torical paintings by Benjamin West. Some attention
also was given to the old masters. McArdell repro-
duced " Rubens with His Wife and Child " ; James
Watson signed " The Dutch Cook Maid " after Metsu,
and other Dutch genre pieces; and Rembrandt in-
spired Houston, Earlom and John Dixon, who did a
plate after the " Gilder," a painting which in recent
years has been exhibited in New York.
And here I must interpolate mention of two noted
prints by Richard Earlom, fruit and flower pieces after
Van Huysum, smooth and elaborate. Hamerton, in
his " Graphic Arts," points out that the delicacy and
finish of these flower and fruit pieces " the ne plus
ultra of mezzotint as far as minute finish is con-
cerned " is such that even the dewdrops on the leaves
have their gradations, reflections and shadows.
But especially did British genre painting come into
vogue in the later years of the century. It is the art
of George Morland and of those who painted in his
vein that completely met the demands of rustic and
domestic sentiment. These pictures portray honest
John Bull, the farmer, on the field and in the cottage;
they appeal to the British love of sport and horses,
they sing the praises of domestic virtues and the
British matron, they depict fine ladies and gentlemen
in town as well as in rural retirement. They call forth
mental pictures dear to the heart of Englishmen.
Sometimes the feeling becomes too mawkishly senti-
mental. Sometimes the work is a little too frankly
112 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
a pot-boiler, and a little too careless in details. But
the spirit is there that made this work popular because
it touched the British heart.
Morland's paintings were reproduced by various en-
gravers, but particularly by the brothers William and
James Ward, his brothers-in-law, whose style seemed
particularly adapted to that of Morland. William
Ward was an artist of facility, who, we are told, " en-
graved very quickly and got as much effect as possible
with the least work." The subjects which Morland
treated are indicated by the titles of some of the mez-
zotints, such as " The Happy Cottagers," by Joseph
Grozer; " Selling Fish" and " Return from Market,"
by J. R. Smith; " The Travellers " (1802) and " Vil-
lagers " (1803), by John Young; "A Party Ang-
ling," by George Keating; and " The Angler's Re-
past," " The Sportsman's Return " and " The Farm-
er's Stable," by William Ward.
Others, too, painted subjects of this kind, among
them some of the engravers themselves. Instances in
point are James Ward's " The Gleaners Returned "
(1801) and " Reaping " (1801), and J. R. Smith's bit
of family sentiment, " A Visit to Grandfather," en-
graved by William Ward. Zoffany, in " Colonel Mor-
daunt's Cock-Match," engraved by Earlom, and Sar-
torius, in his " Shooting" (1802), mezzotinted by S.
W. Reynolds, " Pointers," by W. Ward, etc., give a
foretaste of the swarm of sporting prints that the
first half of the new century was to bring.
If such scenes illustrate the life of the period with
a more obvious directness, though not necessarily with
more truth, than portraits, there is still another field,
MEZZOTINTS 113
in which the information is given to us of a later day
by the force of satire. Caricature is a branch of
figure work for which mezzotint was also employed
in the last three decades of the eighteenth century. R.
Sayer and other print publishers of the day issued
series of comic prints, not always in very good taste,
but throwing interesting lights on the social history
of the time, as is shown in George Paston's " Social
Caricature in the Eighteenth Century" (1905). The
craze for such humorous mezzotints seems to have
kept engravers busy, even the best men being occa-
sionally laid under contribution by the print-sellers.
But, as a rule, these prints were not marked by high
artistic qualities. Their function was that of the cor-
rective, ridiculing- follies and foibles. They are inter-
esting rather as curiosities and have the value of his-
torical documents. A number of these caricatures
were political, and some had to do with affairs in the
American colonies. The latter, which are naturally
of great interest to collectors of Americana and stu-
dents of American history, are pictured and described
in R. T. H. Halsey's " The Boston Port Bill as Pic-
tured by a Contemporary London Cartoonist," issued
by the Grolier Club in 1904.
So we can see that portraiture, genre scenes and
humorous subjects, particularly the first, but always
figure work, mainly occupied the mezzotinters. And
the work chosen for reproduction was overwhelmingly
British. There is much landscape background in the
genre pieces, and in some portraits. An example of
the latter is the fine sweep of park-like background in
the charming group " Lady Delme and Her Children,"
ii4 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
by Green after Reynolds. But landscape for its own
sake we hardly find, except in the reproduction of
Claude Lorraine's drawings, the " Liber Veritatis," by
the versatile Earlom (who also signed a plate after R.
Wilson's " Meleager and Atalanta," 1771, luminously
rich), or an occasional plate such as Jones's " Peter-
sham and Twickenham Meadows, from Richmond
Hill " (1800), after Reynolds.
The feeling for landscape, fostered by artists like
old Crome and Constable, came to fuller appreciation
in the next century. And that feeling is expressed for
mezzotint primarily in J. M. W. Turner's " Liber
Studiorum." The " Liber Sttidiorum " is of the nine-
teenth century, and fills a place apart. In a time
the early Victorian period peculiarly barren of
genius, it projects itself by the force of its beauty
and harmony. It consists of a series of plates from
sketches in sepia by J. M. W. Turner. These plates
were first deeply etched by the painter himself, then
mezzotinted. The etchings were always done with
reference to the final effect, and must therefore be con-
sidered as frameworks to sustain the mezzotinting
rather than as examples of pure etching. In other
words, they were not an end in themselves. These
etched lines are so deeply bitten that in certain cases
they show in heavy ridges on the paper when printed,
with corresponding deep hollows in the back of the
sheet. The " Jason " is a striking example of this.
Mezzotint was to Turner a convenient process for
reproducing the subtle and delicate gradations of light
and shade of his sepia studies, adopted after he had
tried aquatint, in which manner F. C. Lewis engraved
MEZZOTINTS 115
one of the plates ("Bridge and Goats"). Some of
the plates were mezzotinted by Turner himself, with
vigorous individuality, notably " Junction of Severn
and Wye " and " ^Esacus and Hesperie," the rest by
professional engravers, C. Turner, Say, Dunkarton,
Lupton, Clint, H. Dawe, Annis, Easling, Hodgetts
and Reynolds. Some of these had had little prepara-
tion in landscape work, but engraved under Turner's
direct supervision. How much that supervision meant
may be seen by comparing the " Liber " with a volume
of "Beauties of Claude Lorraine" (1825) done by
some of these same engravers. In mastery of com-
position, in range of light effect, from the most tender
glow of the sunbeams in the brightness of a sum-
mer day, to the darkness of the storm closing down
on the last vanishing ray, in wide variety of subject,
these plates are wonderful.
Take the skies alone. Light skies and dark ones;
skies suffused with tender light as in "Basle" (No.
5) ; skies in the bright glare of the midday sun
("Twickenham Pope's Villa") and in the mellow
glow of approaching twilight, in " The Bridge in
Middle Distance " or " Norham Castle," reminding
one of the opening line of Marmion : " Day set on
Norham's castled Steep"; cloud-flecked skies ("The
Castle above the Meadows") and skies in the dark
garb of the wind-whipped storm-clouds scudding over
a choppy sea which reflects their darkness and the
fading light, as in " Ships in a Breeze"; or heavy in
lightning-streaked blackness, as in " The Fifth Plague
of Egypt."
The variety in this special feature is as great as the
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MEZZOTINTS 117
range of subjects of these prints, which run the gamut
of sentiments inspired by landscape. It is like a hymn
to the sun, the great source of light, rising in promise
of radiance, reigning supreme in life-giving brilliance,
breaking through the clouds (" Leader Sea Piece " or
''Flint Castle"), touching up a waterfall in a dark
gorge so that it shimmers in sparkling light or fall-
ing aslant between the trees of the mysterious forests,
as in " ^Esacus and Hesperie " ; shooting across deep
valleys and along darkly-shadowed cliffs in magnifi-
cent play of light and shade, as in the superb " Ben
Arthur"; setting in a glory of dying rays that turn
the trembling motes into flickering dust of mellow
gold, as in " Windmill and Lock."
The grandeur of mountain scenery, so finely handled
in the rocky slopes of " Mt. St. Gotthard," is con-
trasted with rolling meadows or flatlands in " Hedg-
ing and Ditching " and " Solway Moss."
The imaginative setting of mythological subjects,
such as the " Procris and Cephalus," the composition
of which is subjected to detailed analysis by Ruskin
in his "Modern Painters" (vol. 2), and the serenity
of classical landscape in " Woman and Tambourine,"
make strong contrast with the every-day aspect of a
" Farm Yard " or a wayside brook.
And how the sea is depicted! We see it in storm,
with waves running before a slight breeze, dashing
against the spray-worn cliffs of the " Coast of York-
shire " ; or in the peace of " Calm," a plate beauti-
fully luminous in the golden toned ink of its third
state. In this the becalmed sailing vessels again
contrast in their quiet, straight lines with the life
n8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
and movement of ship, sea and clouds in " Entrance
to Calais Harbor." Lupton, by the way, is said to
have emphasized the difference between the artist-
engraver and professionals by asserting that none of
the engravers engaged on the " Liber " could have
reproduced the action of wind on the waves as Turner
did himself. Comparison of some of these etched
and mezzotinted plates with certain of the unpublished
ones (Nos. 81, 82, 85, 88) which were engraved in
pure mezzotint by Turner himself, will show better
than many words what the advantages are of pre-
liminary etching and what the gain is, again, in doing
without it. If it is impossible to see the original mez-
zotints, there are the very good autotype reproduc-
tions published 1899 in two volumes, with critical
notices by Stopford Brooke. The " Liber " was issued
irregularly, in parts, early and late, good and bad
impressions mingled. To get a set of fine impressions,
it is therefore necessary to pick them out from various
published sets. This has been done to produce those
in the British Museum and the New York Public
Library. It is only in such selected sets that the full
beauty of this work is adequately shown. Comparisons
between Turner's " Liber Studiorum " and Claude
Lorraine's " Liber Veritatis " naturally suggest them-
selves, but Claude's " Liber " is a pictorial index of
his paintings, in sepia sketches engraved after his
time, while Turner's consists of engravings executed
under his direct supervision, with effects premeditated
in drawings made for the purpose, and attained under
his eye. The " Liber " is a monument to Turner as a
delineator of landscape.
MEZZOTINTS 119
The one other specially remarkable example of land-
scape in mezzotint is found in the plates by Lucas
after Constable, although they are quite different in
intent and effect, being reproductions of finished paint-
ings. Lucas, too, heavily etched his plates. But this
etching is not so apparent in the small plates, " Eng-
lish Landscape," which Constable published in 1830
and 1831. Some of these are almost in pure mezzo-
tint, with a peculiar grain (something like that of a
coarse crayon) and with a modicum of rouletting.
These small plates, too, have the dark, somewhat
gloomy, massive aspect, an inkiness, which has been
attributed to the use of black ink. " The Lock " and
" The Cornfield " are two of his finest plates after
Constable, and the same artist's " Salisbury Cathe-
dral " ("The Rainbow") inspired him to the pro-
duction of what has been pronounced his masterpiece.
At all events, it won the praise of the painter himself,
who, it should be noted, supervised Lucas' work.
Lucas worked on steel, as did also Lupton, whose
best work in landscape is seen in the plates in Turner's
" Harbors of England." Lupton also did at least one
vigorous landscape, if not more, after the painter John
Martin, over whose " gorgeous imagination " James
Huneker grows eloquently enthusiastic, and who him-
self mezzotinted some of his vivid conceptions of Old
Testament scenes, wide sweeps of mountains and sky,
teeming with armies, with angelic hosts and the hordes
of Satan.
So we have come well into the nineteenth century,
in which the overwhelming predominance of the por-
trait continued. The earlier years of the century wit-
120 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
nessed a continuance of the activity of some who
either were identified with the period of the great mas-
ters of the art, or were perpetuating its best tradi-
tions. Among these were W. W. Barney, John
Young, S. W. Reynolds, whose " Georgiana Eliza-
beth, Duchess of Bedford," after Hoppner, delicate
and refined, was " not surpassed in what one may
call spiritual grace," and Charles Turner.
Turner, who has been referred to as the last great
portrait mezzotinter, shows much of the old spirit,
and usually employs etched lines with great discre-
tion. Vigor, brilliancy, rich textures, sound technique
and nobility of style mark his best plates, among which
are Reynolds's " George, Third Duke of Marlborough
and His Family," and Lawrence's " Lord Castle-
reagh " and " Lady Wigram."
Say scraped the first mezzotint on steel, a portrait
of Queen Caroline, in 1820. Lupton's experiments in
his search for a more lasting material than copper led
him finally to the use of soft steel. Steel has been
objected to as not exhibiting the rich qualities of
mezzotints on copper, the " luminous delicacy of the
old work," as being flat and colorless. The dark black
ink in which these steel plates have usually been printed
does not contrast favorably with the ink used for the
finest of the old mezzotints on copper, ink of a warm,
brownish tone decidedly brown in the case of Tur-
ner's ""Liber."
Of course there is the compromise of engraving on
a copper plate and then coating the latter by the elec-
trotype process with a film of steel. This latter can be
stripped off when there are signs of wear, and the
MEZZOTINTS 121
plate re-steeled. To some extent, the age of steel
seems to stand here, as it did with line engraving, for
smooth finish and much detail.
The most noteworthy figure among later nineteenth-
century engravers is Samuel Cousins, an artist of un-
doubtedly great ability, with absolute command of his
process, largely aided by etching and engraving. One
of his finest plates, "Boyhood's Reverie" (Master
Lambton), after Lawrence, well illustrates his control
of his materials. He attains both richness and deli-
cacy, is brilliant and excels some of his predecessors
in the absolute rendering of texture; but, on the other
hand, he lacks the rugged vigor of a John Raphael
Smith. " The Bud of Promise," after Lawrence, is
similarly a beautiful piece of work. But when he
reproduces an insipid picture like " Sunshine of Love,"
by Raoux, we see how all this skill can approach to the
lackadaisical mushiness of the frontispiece to a
" young ladies' annual " or a " floral gift " of the thir-
ties. And, unfortunately, the weakness of an influ-
ential artist is reflected in the works of his followers,
as well as his strength. The impress of Cousins seems
stamped on this period. His smooth, finished, self-
sure style is reflected, though with less brilliancy, in
the plates of Thomas Lupton, C. E. Wagstaff, G. H.
Phillips and others. This is seen in the volume of
engravings from the works of Sir Thomas Lawrence
published in 1836, in which the " mixed method " is
very much in evidence.
This mixed method had been more and more devel-
oped since C. Turner did his " Apotheosis of Princess
Charlotte." By its aid effects are easily produced
122 HOW. TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
which would be very difficult with mezzotint alone.
But it is a dangerous expedient in the hands of
inferior artists.
The art remained identified with England as it had
in the foregoing century, when it had even been called
the " English Manner." In the United States it was
fostered especially by two men of English birth. The
first mezzotint done in this country was a portrait of
Cotton Mather, engraved in 1727 by Peter Pelham,
who came over from London. A century later, John
Sartain, coming from the same city, in 1830, began a
long career in Philadelphia as a mezzotint engraver.
In the intervening years Charles Willson Peale
scraped portraits of Washington, Lafayette and
Franklin; and D. Martin's well-known portrait of
the last named was reproduced in a noteworthy mezzo-
tint by Edward Savage.
The work of John Sartain stands out. Much of it
was produced under pressure (his portrait of Espar-
tero was scraped in one night), for he did an enor-
mous amount of book-illustrations, which even his
facility and skill could not always raise above the
commonplace. Many of his plates were printed from
so much that the impressions were mere ghosts, and
the copper then touched up with burin or roulette in a
futile effort to restore lost richness; the effect was
somewhat that of a patch upon a pair of trousers. But
Sartain was an able artist, whose work shows suavity,
sureness and artistic feeling. His best portraits include
those of Robert Gilmore after Lawrence, Henry Clay
after John Neagle (1843), Van Buren after Inman
and Bishop William White after Sully, a piece of pure
MEZZOTINTS 123
mezzotint. I have myself encountered several amateurs
who had accumulated large collections of his engrav-
ings another illustration of the fact that there are
plenty of by-paths for the collector. His brother
Samuel was also a mezzotinter, and his son, William
Sartain, well known as a painter, has maintained the
family traditions of skill and taste in several large
plates, including a portrait of Irving after C. R. Leslie
and one of Byron.
In the production of large " framing prints," such
as " King Solomon and the Iron Worker " and " Men
of Progress: American Inventors," after Schussele,
" The County Election in Missouri " after Bingham,
" Christ Rejected " after Benjamin West, Sartain
himself, as well as A. H. Ritchie and others, supplied
a demand similar to that answered by line engravers
of the same period in their large plates after Landseer,
Wilkie, Burton, in England, or Mount, Woodville or
Edmonds, in the United States. And in the literary
annuals, " Gem of the Season" (1846), " Forget Me
Not" (1849), " Magnolia" (1855) and others be-
side, they found a further field for activity, producing
much weak and flabby prettiness.
Mezzotint has been spoken of for years as a " lost
art," but that is not entirely true. It has, indeed, been
practiced under unworthy conditions, and often by
unworthy artists. But to include in a general con-
demnation the nineteenth-century work which really
shows sincerity and capability is to be unjust. The art
very likely suffered from the rapid and enormous de-
velopment of that branch of the photomechanical
processes known as photogravure. I hear that pub-
124 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
lishers of photogravures have advertised them as
" mezzotints engraved on steel," and that mezzotinters
in England have found employment in touching up
photogravure plates, just as a number of American
wood engravers, finding their occupation gone, have
deserted to the enemy and touch up the half-tone plate
which put them out of their original business.
On the other hand, it is interesting to find that many
of the plates accompanying Julia Frankau's books on
J. R. Smith and the Wards are mezzotint copies of the
old plates by modern engravers. One of these is
signed by A. J. Skrimshire, whose " The Old Mill,"
an original mezzotint, was published in the Artist-
Engraver for October, 1904.
But the art of mezzotinting is neither lost nor dead.
It is being practiced, though by comparatively few.
Particularly in England, where the names of Gerald
Robinson and R. S. Clouston, D. A. and Emil Wehr-
schmidt, A. J. Skrimshire, George Every, T. G. Ap-
pleton, R. Josey and John D. Miller, who rendered
the paintings of Lord Leighton, are among those in a
group numerous enough to sustain a Society of Mez-
zotint Engravers.
The best work needs no apology. At most, it may
be noted that some of the present-day mezzotinters
attack the plate in a somewhat different manner from
that of the eighteenth-century men. It would be sad
if they did not, if they merely tried to reproduce
slavishly the art of another day, instead of being of
their own time in their own way. Even those who,
like Thomas G. Appleton, devote themselves to the
reproduction of portraits by the very painters identi-
MEZZOTINTS 125
fied with the art of mezzotinting at the time of its
greatest popularity, and who therefore would be most
likely to approach most closely to the methods of the
old mezzotinters, only do so partially. Gerald Robin-
son's " Mrs. Robinson as Perdita " succeeds in pre-
f
senting Gainsborough, as R. S. Clouston's " The For-
tune Teller," after Reynolds, is quite evidently faithful
to the original, and quite noteworthy in its rendering
of the touch of the brush, the paintiness of the skirt of
the little girl.
Flatness and want of translucency in the shadows
are the principal faults laid at the door of these new
men, but in plates such as these two we certainly find a
return to practically pure mezzotint, and apparently
the honest intention to translate understandingly with-
out indulging in any brilliancy not in the original, and
without undue reference to former practices.
It is not enough that the artist knows and respects
the limits of his art, he must learn its resources within
those limits, its adaptability to the task before him.
The question is whether mezzotint is absolutely and
only adapted to the period to which it has become so
wedded in our mind. If the modern mezzotinter
finds new qualities, finds that copper and rocker and
scraper can be made to tell new things and the things
he tells are worth listening to, we need not be re-
strained by preconceived notions of how a mezzotint
should look. We should rather try to adapt ourselves
to new conditions.
Interesting examples of the modern application of
the art to the rendering of modern paintings are seen
in two plates by Richard Josey after Whistler " Rosa
126 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Corder" (1880) and " Carlyle " (1878). On the
latter the painter has apparently set the seal of his
approval, for he has signed impressions with his name
and the butterfly, in pencil.
One outcome of the continued use of mezzotinting
in modern times is the employment of the medium to
reproduce paintings in color, from one plate, which
is carefully inked with all the colors for each im-
pression. S. Arlent Edwards, Charles Bird, F. G.
Stevenson, J. S. King and Fred Millar are practicing
this specialty to-day.
In other days, color was particularly used for the
figure pieces after Morland and others. Some of the
plates thus printed in colors have a soft and pleasing
effect, though not a few are weak in conception and
execution. Sometimes, too, color was employed to
mask the waning beauty of a worn plate.
It was in the spirit of the later nineteenth century
to essay the production of original work in mezzo-
tint, to try it as an autographic art. This was an
attitude toward the art rarely found in the eighteenth
century. Frye is almost an isolated instance. If Mc-
Ardell or Smith or Dunkarton mezzotinted portraits
or figure pieces from their own designs, it is almost
the same as if they copied paintings by others. In
fact, the results are often not as good. At all events,
they copied, even though it was their own work.
The first noteworthy painter-mezzotinter was J. M.
W. Turner, in those plates of the " Liber " which he
scraped himself. Much later, near the end of the cen-
tury, Joseph Knight was engraving landscapes with
quiet effectiveness. One I remember, a simple bit of
MEZZOTINTS 127
flat land, with clouds rolling upward above, and taking
up most of the picture. I do not mention this so much
for its merit, although it is a good, honest piece of
mezzotint, but because it illustrates modern apprecia-
tion of landscape for its own sake, the feeling voiced
by Amiel in the words, " a landscape is a condition
of the soul." More perfectly is this expressed in
plates by Haden and Short, of whom more mention
later on.
In these later days the spirit of experimenting in
expression has led various interesting artistic person-
alities to essay mezzotinting, and that, too, with a
return to purity of method. One of them is Hubert
Herkomer, whose " Etching and Mezzotint Engrav-
ing " (1892) is an interesting volume on the modern
technique of the art.
Sir Seymour Haden's work includes several mezzo-
tints, some heavily etched, " Egham Lock," " Win-
chester Canal," " Harlech " and "Breaking Up of
the Agamemnon," a moonlight scene, the last two
with fine effect of sky in gradations from tender
lights to strong darks. And his well-known, large
and vigorously executed etching after Turner's " Ca-
lais Pier " was also used as the basis of a mezzotint.
Some of the unpublished drawings for Turner's
" Liber," such as No. 92, " View of a River from a
Terrace," were mezzotinted by Frank Short, and done
with skill and sympathetic appreciation of the painter's
aims. In his " Mouth of the Thames," after Turner,
with a somewhat coarse grain, he is particularly happy
in giving the translucent effect of the waves, and his
" Swiss Pass," after the same painter, is apostrophized
128 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
by Wedmore as " a silvery mezzotint of utmost deli-
cacy, ... a feat, indeed, a late Turner realized;
a dream arrested; the evanescent made lasting."
He has also translated some landscapes by Con-
stable and De Wint with the same rare perfection of
technique, though much of his reproductive work was
after the imaginative G. F. Watts, whose head of Ten-
nyson he rendered with tact and sympathy. Delicacy
in manipulation, variety and flexibility are among the
qualities attributed to the work of this artist, who in
original mezzotints, such as " Weary Morn " and
" Lifting Cloud," has established his prominent posi-
tion among those who have striven to make mezzotint
a vehicle for a direct expression of artistic individ-
uality, an immediate record of impressions. An inter-
esting portrait of Haden is the work of Aphonse
Legros.
In Germany, Max Pietschmann has scraped at least
one head, if not more, with a free touch and in a
modern spirit, and the same terms may be used to
characterize an interesting bit of wooded landscape,
"Licht und Schatten," by Fritz Voellmy of Basle,
published in the Zeitschrift fiir Bildende Kunst in
1904. Otto Protzen has produced some very interest-
ing marines, full of life and movement.
The veteran American engraver, James D. Smillie,
an artist well grounded in the technical details of the
various methods of engraving on copper, did a mezzo-
tint, " Hollyhocks," of quiet charm.
In view of the fact that mezzotint is a fairly rapid
process, as compared with the arduous toil of line
engraving, it is not entirely beyond the range of possi-
SIR FRANCIS SEYMOUR HADEN AT 63.
Mezzotint by Alphonse Legros.
An example of modern original work.
MEZZOTINTS 129
bility that more may in time adopt it, as some have
turned to etching and a very few to lithography. It
will, however, be limited to certain subjects, certain
artistic moods. For giving masses of light and shade,
it affords a finished appearance while wanting the
detail and precision of line. It lacks the suppleness,
the immense possibilities of variety, of the etching
or the lithograph. But in its turn it has qualities of
beauty and loveliness which neither of these arts can
attain: a quite peculiar depth of velvety softness
which the darkest, richest tints of the drawing on
stone do not yield; a sufficiency of effect in render-
ing the finish of certain textures in portraits, and a
peculiar richness and luminosity in certain aspects of
landscape. So we come back again to the fundamental
truth that each art has its field, that it fills the same
and should not be expected or forced to do the work
of another art, that its beauty and charm lie in the
honest and truthful expression of its own nature, and
that we must take it as it is, advantages, drawbacks
and all.
CHAPTER V
AQUATINT AND OTHER TINT METHODS
THE desire to present tones and not lines only has
led to various devices for printing tints.
I have shown in the chapter on etching that the
simple leaving of a film of ink has been employed to
cast a tint over the etched line, and that intentionally
produced foul biting is occasionally indulged in for
the sake of the peculiar effect of its grain.
The monotype is produced by painting in ink or
colors on a metal plate and passing the latter through
the press before the color is dry. 1
Many means have been used to roughen the surface
of the copper in order to form projections and conse-
quent hollows to hold ink and thus produce tints.
Plate three in Frank Short's little book " On the Mak-
ing of Etchings " shows specimens of work in some of
these processes sand grain, aquatint, sulphur-tint,
rouletting, mezzotint and dry-point. Some engravers
have roughened the plate with a file. Another plan
is to corrode its surface with powdered sulphur, pro-
ducing the " sulphur-tint." Mrs. M. N. Moran em-
ployed " Scotch stone " (a substance used to reduce
plates) in Twilight, Easthampton. And there arc
other means at hand. Vinegar acts as a weak mor-
1 There is a fine collection of monotypes, for example, in the Bibliotheque
d'Art et d'Archeologie. Paris, those by Degas being remarkably rich in sug-
gestion.
130
TINT METHODS 131
dant, and rain-water etches zinc. The bare copper can
be brushed with acid, which, biting lightly, produces
slight irregularities. The aim of this procedure is
more regularly and controllably attained by the use
of aquatint (see pp. 131 et seq.). This latter served
from the first to imitate wash drawings, and hence
was known in France as gravure an lavis.
The sandpaper method is a simple substitute for
mezzotint; the grounded plate is passed through the
press with sandpaper laid face downward upon it. By
this operation the grains of sand are forced through
the etching ground onto the plate. The latter is then
subjected to the action of acid, which attacks the
copper wherever it has thus been laid bare by the
grains of sand. As an auxiliary it is occasionally em-
ployed, but not often as a pure medium of expression.
Pennell and Strang have given examples of pure
" sandpaper mezzotint." Grains of fine sand may also
be dusted on the plate, a method carried out also with
marine salt. The plate is covered with an etching
ground on which the salt settles and sinks down upon
the copper. The salt is then dissolved, leaving little
openings in the etching ground, at the bottom of which
the plate lies bare. Here again, successive acid bitings
produce the desired result.
All these, being very limited and special in their
effect, are auxiliary processes. That is, they are rarely
employed alone, but usually, and to a slight extent,
in conjunction with other methods, especially etching.
The best-known of the various minor methods of
producing a grained tint is that known a
And that, though often and perforce used in combina-
132 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS y
tion with the etched line, enters so largely into
the work that 'prints thus produced are known as
aquatints.
Aquatint is really an etching process. Minute par-
ticles of a resinous substance are deposited on a copper
plate. The latter is then placed in a bath of acid,
which eats into the copper wherever it is not protected
by the resinous particles. These latter can be applied
in two ways. A fine powder is allowed to settle on
the plate inside of a box in which it has been stirred
up and thrown into the air by a special contrivance.
The quantity of powder may be regulated by taking
the plate out, covering with paper the portions which
have been sufficiently powdered, and then replacing it
in the box. Or the particles are held in suspension
in alcohol which is poured over the plate. As this
coating dries, it crackles, leaving little fissures. The
treatment with acid is the same in either case.
The resin is then removed, and the plate is ready
for the press. The acid having entered into the fine
fissures between the particles, the result in printing is
a flat tint with minute white spots, giving a sort of
crackled effect on close inspection. Stopping out is
resorted to, as in etching. That is, portions that are
to appear lighter are covered with stopping-out varnish
after the plate has been subjected to the action of the
acid for a certain time; then the plate is placed in the
acid bath again. This of course can be repeated, the
darkest portions being thus exposed longest to the
acid.
The process, as I have described it, is the one used
in later times. By the method as originally invented
MttflF
A PLATE FROM FRANK SHORT'S " ON THE MAKING OF ETCH-
INGS " (LONDON, 1888).
Fig. i. Etched lines bitten in different depths. 2. Etched lines bur-
nished at lower corner. 3. Soft-ground etching. 4. Sand grains. $
Foul biting. 6. Aquatint. 7. Sulphur-tint. 8. Lines cut with a burin.
9. Roulette work. 10. Mezzotint, n. Dry-point.
TINT METHODS 133
or perfected by Jean Baptiste Le Prince (1733-81),
the plate was first covered with an etching ground
and the latter then removed by dissolution except
at the places which were to appear white in the im-
pression. The unprotected portions of the plate were
then dusted over with finely powdered asphaltum or
resin, after which the plate was bitten and stopped
out as already described.
Aquatint can render flat tints varying in strength,
from the most delicate to quite dark, but not the
velvety richness of mezzotint nor its gradations. An
absolutely gradual, delicate merging of a dark tone
into a light one is hardly within the power and prov-
ince of pure aquatint, and is not met with in the
older plates. The line of demarcation between two
tints of different strength is of necessity always
visible.
Aquatint is an art limited in its resources and its
expression, but it is a pleasing art within its limits,
with a liquid, translucent effect. Its more or less
sharply outlined flat tints (which may occasionally re-
call faintly, in miniature, the effect of wings or set
pieces in stage, scenery) made it especially suited to
the delineation of buildings and street views. For this
purpose it was much used, especially in England; the
colored' plates in the " Microcosm of London," on
which Rowlandson and Pugin co-operated, the former
drawing the figures, the latter the buildings, being a
noteworthy example of this class of work. In the
second volume of this book, in " Foundling Hospital :
the Chapel," the wall at the left under the gallery
illustrates in a simple way the nearest approach to
134 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
gradation by stopping-out; a flat tint of color applied
by hand does the rest. The hand coloring is also
responsible for much of the light effect in the " Watch-
House " (Vol. II.), while " Fire in London," with its
possibilities of lurid contrast of flames and the black-
ness of night, is flat and shows the weakness of aqua-
tint as then applied.
In the plates published in England during about
1790-1830, most of them as illustrations in books, the
use of color was largely depended upon to give effect.
Washes of water-color added tenderness to the picture,
toned down the aquatint grain and bridged over the
sometimes harsh transition from dark to light. In
a word, they brought harmony into the whole. J. M.
W. Turner and Thomas Girtin both spent some time
as boy apprentices in laying even washes on aquatints
for publishers such as Melton and Dayes. 1
Aquatint itself has a certain resemblance to water-
color or sepia washes. This was probably felt by its
supposed inventor, Le Prince, who employed it to
reproduce in facsimile some wash drawings made by
him during a journey in Russia. For several decades
it served in England as the special medium for the
illustration of books of travel, in which field it eventu-
ally gave way to lithography.
The culture of the picturesque is pursued in William
Gilpin's " Three Essays : on Picturesque Beauty, on
Picturesque Travel and on Sketching Landscapes," as
also in his " Observations on the River Wye " and
other similar works by him on the picturesque in other
parts of Great Britain. In these, and in other books,
such as J. Hassell's " Tour of the Isle of Wight," the
1 For a record of English book-illustration by this medium, see " Aquatint
Engraving" (1910), by S. T. Prideaux.
TINT METHODS 135
aquatints are printed in black, with a tint of yellow
or brown washed over the whole by hand. " Tours,"
said Combe, " are a fashionable article in the litera-
ture of the present day." Richard Ayton's " Voyage
Round Great Britain" (8 vols., 1814-25), illustrated
with several hundred plates by William Daniell, is
typical of the very best that was produced in aqua-
tints for such books of travel. The plates are all
colored by hand in washes of quiet tints, mingling
with the aquatint into one effect, so that in the more
delicate portions of the plate only close scrutiny will
disclose the part played by each. Particularly is this
true of the skies, which are handled with remarkable
cleverness. The tender fleeciness of cloud in " The
Reculvers " or " Dover, from Shakespeare's Cliff "
(both in Vol. VII.) ; the frequent stretches of placid
reflecting water, the rushing swells and whirling spray
of " Kinnaird Head, Aberdeenshire " (Vol. VI.); the
clean, neat, toy-house view of " Edinburgh from the
Calton Hill" (Vol. VI.); and the plate following
it, with sun-streaked cloud, " Edinburgh, with Part
of the North Bridge and Castle," are object-lessons,
picked at random, almost, in the art of getting the
most out of a combination of a mechanical ground,
variegated by stopping-out, and washes of water-color.
They seem to mark the limit of attainment.
To these works on picturesque natural beauties and
architectural antiquities, there are to be added also
many dealing more directly with the life, manners
and dress of various peoples. Such are the quarto
volumes on costumes in Early Britain, Austria, Russia,
China, Turkey and other lands, which will not be
136 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
wanting to-day in any good collection of books on cos-
tume. And there were publications on field sports, a
subject dear to the British heart. Some of these were
illustrated by Henry Alken, whose work is much
sought after by lovers of sporting prints. But the
use of etching alone in combination with hand-
coloring often takes the place of the aquatint plate.
Cheapness and expedition may have had something to
do with this. Separate sporting prints were numerous ;
coaching scenes after James Pollard, by various en-
gravers, among them C. Rosenberg, who also en-
graved the "Burial of Tom Moody" (1831) after
John Clark. A mere mention must suffice here.
Some publishers, such as Ackermann, kept a large
staff of engravers and colorists busy. Martin Har-
die, in his interesting volume on " English Colored
Books," describes the making of a print from a draw-
ing by Rowlandson. That facile artist would etch
his outlines on copper. On an impression taken from
this he added modeling and shadows in India ink
washes. These tints were then transferred to the plate
by means of aquatint by the engravers. And on a
proof of this etched and aquatinted plate the artist
completed the drawing in light washes of color, thus
making a copy for the trained colorists.
One of the best-known series of George Cruik-
shank's earlier illustrations, that executed by his
brother and himself for Pierce Egan's " Life in Lon-
don," was also in aquatint, colored by hand. Thack-
eray has recorded the delight which these facile, dash-
ing drawings gave him when a boy, how he reveled
in the doings and amusements of those two men about
TINT METHODS 137
town " sports," in the language of to-day Tom and
Jerry. J. Malton, W. and T. Daniell, T). Havelt, J.
C. Stadler, J. Bluck, T. Sutherland and J. Hill are
among the engravers of the aquatint plates in the
numerous volumes here merely hinted at. Martin Har-
die has with great industry gathered long lists of
these books, with interesting comments.
One of the British artists of this school of the hand-
colored aquatint, John Hill, came to the United States,
where, among other plates, he did the " Hudson River
Portfolio " and similar large landscapes after paint-
ings by W. G. Wall and Joshua Shaw. This is honest
work, not of the highest type, but as good as much
of the English work of the time and better than a
very great deal of it. It will, however, and with rea-
son, be always valued more particularly for its subject
interest. A number of views have come down to us
in which the appearance of certain places, especially
in the Middle, Eastern and Southern States, is pre-
served. W. J. Bennett signed, among others, a picture
of " South Street, from Maiden Lane," New York
City, about 1834, in which he has held the aspect of
the water front when sailing-vessels in long rows
thrust their bowsprits far over the street. A similar
documentary importance attaches to his two large
views of the great fire in New York City in 1835,
engraved after paintings by N. Calyo, a scenic artist.
Earlier in the century, the famous series of over
seven hundred portraits drawn from life by Fevret de
St. Memin was engraved by him in etching, aquatint
and roulette.
He to whom complete color effect appeals will find i
138 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
most satisfaction in the remarkable color-printing
shown in French productions. In these a plate was
used for each color, the result being harmonious and
pleasing in its softness and delicacy. The aquatint
ground fairly disappears under the colors; harshness
of tint outlines is covered ; all is graceful and suave.
Coqueret, Levachez, Descourtis, Sergent, Guyot,
Janinet and Debucourt, in the last two decades of
the eighteenth century, were enveloping with the
charm of color the coquettish and seductive figures of
their day, exhibiting the vein of Greuze and his
" Broken Jug," the sentimentality of rural idyls of
the " Annette and Lubin " sort, the stagy bucolics of
such plates as " L'Amour surpris," by Descourtis, after
Schall, or the direct theatricals of Janinet's clever por-
trait of Madame Dugazon as " Nina " in " La Folle
par Amour." P. M. Alix, an able and diligent crafts-
man, is known to collectors of Americana by his por-
trait of Franklin with thick-rimmed eye-glasses, after
" Van Loo."
Janinet (1752-1813) first successfully applied Le
Prince's discovery to color-printing, which he im-
proved by his inventiveness, and in which he displayed
versatility and resourcefulness, rendering quite differ-
ent styles and subjects, after Boucher and others, with
sympathy and skill. His portrait of Marie Antoinette,
in a border printed in gold and color, is cited as a
brilliant specimen of his work.
One of the best-known names in the annals of
color-printing is that of P. L. Debucourt, a master
of technique. He brought the processes employed
by his predecessors to a high degree of perfection. In
TINT METHODS 139
his spirited drawings, of which the " Promenade in
the Gallery of the Palais Royal " and the " Menuet de
la Mariee " are especially often cited, the life of the
beau-inonde and of the bourgeoisie is reflected with
some indiscretions as to toilette, and in a chaffing vein.
Bouchot and Fenaille each devoted a quarto volume to
this artist, " the historiographic designer of Paris."
The Goncourts praise his work in most enthusiastic
terms, and lay special stress upon his suppression of
the flat and cold mechanical grain, concealing the
process, the manner, the labor which has produced the
effect, and which, by the way, comprised various other
aids beside aquatint. There was roulette, for instance,
as may be seen in the flesh portions of " Les Amateurs
de Plafonds aii Salon " after Carle Vernet. " The
scenes which he throws onto the copper," say they,
" have the lightness of the brush." " Barriere des
Champs-Elysees " is quite remarkable in its feeling of
snowy weather, and delicate and restrained in color.
But his best period unfortunately ended before 1800,
and was followed by utterly poor work, often colored
by hand. 1
Vidal and J. B. Morret are others among those who
did color plates of this kind, the estampe galante being
much in evidence. Much of the coloring appears to-
day in bluish tints, with a tapestry-like effect.
It was a period of various newly discovered proc-
esses; combinations of etching, aquatint, roulette and
other methods were employed. Hence there has arisen
some confusion of terms. " Lavis," for instance, is
applied also to work in which there is much rouletting,
more often, perhaps, than to " wash etching."
1 Reproductions of French color prints may be seen in " French Colour-
prints of the XVIII Century ; An Introductory Essay by M. C. Salaman "
(1913)-
140 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Jazet marks a decline in this art of color-printing,
as may be seen in his " L'Accordee de Village," after
Greuze, or his smooth " La Vie d'un Gentilhomme en
toutes Saisons," after Montpezat, about 1830, partly
printed in color, partly colored by hand. His black-
and-white plates after Wilkie's " Le Lapin sur le
Mur "(with rouletting) and John Burnet's " La Lec,on
de Guimbarde," " Le petit Oiseau " and " Les Joueurs
de Dames " are examples of the not very frequent use
of the medium to reproduce paintings. They recall
the use of aquatint for the distant mountains and the
sky in a stipple engraving of Lorraine's " Midday "
by I. H. Wright ("British Gallery of Pictures"),
producing a softness of aerial effect which the stipple
method alone could not give.
J. T. Prestel, a German, worked up a method of
his own, by which he produced a number of plates,
as did also his wife, Marie Catherine. Among the
latter's reproductions of drawings, similar to the
" chiaroscuro " prints described in the chapter on wood
engraving, there is a rather striking plate representing
a woman in conflict with a man crouching over a
dragon. The outlines are heavily etched, and an
aquatint grain indicates shadows and holds a brown
tint spread over the whole, while hatchings printed
in gold indicate the high lights.
One of the most noted of English engravers of
landscape in aquatint was F. C. Lewis. His " Bridge
and Goats " is the one plate of J. M. W. Turner's
" Liber Studiorum " executed entirely in this manner,
the framework only being etched, and therefore offers
a particularly good opportunity for comparing aqua-
TINT METHODS 141
tint and mezzotint as used on similar subjects. This
print shows some of the finest effects possible in
aquatint, delicacy especially. It shows also that flat-
ness which has always made aquatint better for tones
than for textures, more effective in unchanging sur-
faces than in gradations, more useful in combination
with other methods than alone.
It is worthy of note that aquatint was used to gain
tenderness for the sky in several of the plates of the
" Liber," the rest of the plate being, of course, in
mezzotint. Such are " Dunstanborough Castle," with
the morning light breaking on the right; " The Bridge
in Middle Distance," " Hindoo Worshipper " and
" Junction of Severn and Wye," in which latter an
intensity of light is obtained in the lower part of the
sky by practically white paper.
Some of Turner's drawings were reproduced in
aquatint at a much later date by Brunet-Debaines,
partly as illustrations for Hamerton's " Life of
Turner"; and with quite the Turner touch, par-
ticularly in " Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of
Germanicus."
Lewis reproduced the " Liber Studiorum " of
Claude Lorraine in aquatint (1840), and in this vol-
ume is well shown the forte of aquatint in rendering
the splashes, strokes and dabs of wash drawings. This
work is of a kind different from that exemplified in
the numerous books published by Ackermann, Boy-
dell and others, to which I have referred. It is the
more or less pure application of aquatint, without the
pleasing and considerable aid of hand-coloring, which
served well to cover up weaknesses and to smooth over
142 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
abrupt transitions. Lewis's work brings us closer to
the conception of " painter-aquatints."
The term " painter-aquatints " has a rather unusual
sound, but the process has served as a means of pro-
ducing original work, as an autographic art; often,
too, as an auxiliary. It was used by Jacque and Buhot,
artists who were entirely dissimilar in style, but both
ever ready to use various expedients for re-enforcing
the etched line. Bracquemond, too, master of proc-
esses, used it on his etching, " Chemin des Coutures, a
Sevres." Fortuny also, " with diabolical cleverness."
Goya used aquatint in a somewhat rough-and-ready
manner to gain broad and strong effects in his famous
" Caprichos." And similar flat tints are applied by
Manet in his " Fleur exotique " and " Lola de Va-
lence." Delacroix executed a " Smith " with a vigor-
ous and striking contrast of black shadows with the
white-hot iron on the anvil.
In work such as this and the Brunet-Debaines plates
already mentioned, there is struck a note of vigorous
novelty, which has become further developed in later
years.
The Germans of to-day, ready to try all sorts of
processes in their eagerness for means to express orig-
inality, have applied aquatint with effectiveness. Alois
Kolb did a portrait of Beethoven in that medium, and
it was used also for Fritz Hegenbart's " Art and
Mammon," that weird picture of a woman floating
erect and barely holding her head above water, while
below a hideous octopus, tentacles twined around her
body, is seeking to drag her down. Oskar Graf makes
an energetic, free use of the process in his " Prayer
TINT METHODS 143
before the Battle " ; and in his virile " In the Bavarian
Moorlands." Suppantschitsch ("Holy Grove"),
Max Klinger, Otto Fischer, E. Einschlag and Her-
mine Laukota (" Regenschauer " ) have also employed
the process in combination with etching. The Eng-
lishman, Frank Short, has produced original aquatints,
" Span of Old Battersea Bridge " and " Curfew " be-
ing especially noteworthy.
Individual forms of expression are salient likewise
in France, in plates such as the one by V. Prouve,
published in L'Estampe Originale for 1893, or in
Auguste Sezanne's " Springtime." Aquatint also
serves much as a vehicle for color in French etchings,
as may be seen in the more recent work of F. T.
Luigini, Henri Jourdain, G. de Latenay, Ch. Houdard
and Manuel Robbe.
Some very creditable performances by American
artists are also to be noted. Miss Mary Cassatt laid
a grain to print flat tints of color on a series of
etchings of women and children, Japanese in effect
and remarkable in observation of subtly expressed
characteristics.
C. F. W. Mielatz chose aquatint, with occasionally
a touch of roulette, for effectively reproducing a set
of views of New York City on blue china for the
Society of Iconophiles; the series is appropriately
printed in blue ink. Of his original work in this
medium, one of the most noteworthy plates is a recent
one, a sea-shore view, printed in two tints in one
inking (a la poupee again), bluish green above and
yellowish below, the two meeting in the center. There
is some scraping in this plate, and, indeed, much of
144 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
the modern work shows various manipulations to add
the effectiveness of delicate gradations.
By James D. Smillie, I have seen a charming little
" Morning," quite free in treatment, cleverly man-
aged in a semblance of gradation. And John Henry
Hill, grandson of the John referred to, shows in his
etching of Niagara how delicately the aquatint ground
may be applied. A. T. Millar has also applied aqua-
tint in some of his etchings. Helen Hyde laid the
ground for at least one of her Japanese subjects, and
Vaughan Trowbridge has used it interestingly in color
plates. This little group of Americans illustrates
range and possibilities. If it does not do so exhaust-
ively, it is because we are bound to find still more
varieties of expression through differences in national
feeling and local environment.
It is in some of the modern work that the process
is used with a freedom and vigor as seldom before,
with a virtuosity in handling that is taking us beyond
the flat tints of other days. The inquiring, experi-
mentative spirit of modernity is forcing new effects
from this simple ground of resin. In the exercise of
even this art of limited resources and little flexibility,
individual talent and originality have found a variety
in expression that can be appreciated in its totality
only by taking in the work of various men and lands.
Forced by its very nature into a secondary role, an
adjunct to the etched line, or a mechanical means for
printing color, aquatint has been raised by a few
modern men to the dignity of a distinct artistic
language.
CHAPTER VI
STIPPLE AND OTHER " DOT " METHODS
ALL the methods of reproduction which have been
considered thus far were based on the use of the line,
or of granulated surfaces, to produce tints. But there
are some which get their effects by the use of dots.
This principle was applied in the early days of en-
graving, perhaps in order to gain a certain translu-
cency of shadow, in the so-called " dotted prints "
(Schrotblatter, maniere criblee) in which white dots
show against a black background. Not a little has
been written about these queer and interesting products
of art in the fifteenth century. The late S. R. Koehler,
of Boston, concluded that they were executed with the
graver and sometimes with punches, in relief not
intaglio; on metal plates not wood blocks.
From those days to the present, the application of
dotting is found, in various forms of reproductive art,
down to its survival in commercial lithographs and
zinc process etching. Punching, opus mallei, or work
of the hammer, was done by driving steel punches of
various kinds into the plate by striking them with a
small hammer or mallet.
Dotting or stippling was intermingled in the work
of the earliest line engravers, and, as their art devel-
oped, this dot effect is seen in short strokes of the
145
146 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
graver within the " lozenges " formed by intersecting
lines, or in the succession of short dashes in which a
line is made to die out, used in flesh tints. But stip-
pling as an art in itself, forming the principal portion
of an engraving, began with the so-called " crayon "
or " chalk " manner, which developed into stipple en-
graving proper.
The last years of the eighteenth century were a
period of newly discovered processes. Reproductions
of drawings by old and modern masters came into
vogue. This interest in drawings was in itself a sign
of healthy taste. For an artist's drawings and sketches
not only disclose much of his method and theory, but,
being usually executed without reference to the public,
they are apt to offer a more intimate view of his
artistic personality than the more finished products of
his art. And to-day, when phototypy (Lichtdruck,
collotype) renders such drawings in absolute facsimile,
the treasures widely scattered in European museums
are brought together in close facsimiles, preserving all
the essentials of the originals. Reproductions of
drawings by old masters in the Albertina, the Amster-
dam Staats Museum, the British Museum, the Berlin
Print Room, the Venice and other collections have been
issued, while other works are devoted to drawings by
individual artists; those by Rembrandt, for example,
being represented by 450 plates. The material thus
collected offers invaluable opportunities to the students
of art and of art history.
But in those eighteenth-century days the reproduc-
tions of drawings had to be engraved by hand, and
inventiveness was stimulated. Wash drawings in
DOT METHODS 147
Indian ink or sepia were reproduced in aquatint. Brush
drawings on tinted paper, with the high lights in white,
were rendered in " chiaroscuro," which will be described
in the chapter on wood engraving. A similar effect
was produced on metal for some of the reproductions
of drawings by old masters in " A Collection of Prints
in Imitation of Drawings" (1778, 2 volumes), in
which etched, stippled and mezzotinted plates appear.
Line was used in some of Bartolozzi's engravings after
Guercino. Wide pen-strokes were simulated by the
aid of the echoppe, a sort of thick etching needle, not
pointed, but cut off obliquely at the end.
In red chalk or crayon drawings on grained paper
the line is not continuous, but is interrupted by the
grain of the paper, an effect that can be easily verified
by looking at any art student's charcoal studies. The
desire to imitate this broken line evidently led to the
invention of what is known as the chalk or crayon
manner, which was so well adapted for this, as well
as its outgrowth, stipple.
Stipple engraving served this purpose notably in
Bartolozzi's " Imitations from Original Drawings by
Hans Holbein." If these portraits of persons of the
court of Henry VIII. are placed beside the autotype
copies of the same drawings, published by the Arundel
Society in 1877, it becomes evident that, with their
impertinent intrusion of unwarranted detail, they are
quite impossible.
In the crayon manner, the plate, after being pro-
vided with an etching ground, is worked with roulettes
of various forms, which pierce the ground, so that the
plate may be etched. The mattoir is another imple-
H8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
ment for this purpose, a sort of punch with a rough-
ened under surface like a rasp or file. Drawing with
these on an etching ground produces lines that are
made up of irregular dots, and the result in printing
is surprisingly like crayon lines, the effect being a trifle
coarser than in soft-ground etching. To this latter
process, the crayon method, in its purpose and its
effects, is akin and both have some resemblance to
lithographs.
" It was the celebrated amateur Comte de Caylus,"
says Julia Frankau, " who first suggested printing
these engravings in the colors of the original drawings
from one plate."
Both J. C. Francois and Gilles Demarteau are prom-
inently identified with the art. Various combinations
of etching, aquatint, crayon and stipple were made,
processes and tools and appliances were mingled, even
wood-blocks being occasionally used for broad tints
and to give tone, so that it is not always easy to unravel
the complication and exactly define the process by
which a particular print was produced. That is ap-
parent when looking at the color prints of Ploos van
Amstel or Debucourt. Frangois, who produced ad-
mirable copies of chalk drawings, executed a portrait
in every possible method. Demarteau, who used a rou-
lette of his own contrivance, is said to have rendered
Boucher's drawing in sanguine (red chalk) to decep-
tion. From this process the English developed stipple
engraving, in which the dots are much finer and closer.
This is really a refinement and perfection of the
crayon manner, fitting it to reproduce other work
beside drawings.
DOT METHODS 149
In stippling the plate is covered in the usual manner
with an etching ground, to which the outline of the
proposed design can be transferred from a pencil draw-
ing on paper by laying the drawing, face downward,
on the ground, and passing plate and paper through a
press. The design is then executed on the ground, as
in etching, with a point, the dots being coarser and
farther apart, or finer and closer together, according
to the strength and darkness, or the delicacy and light,
which the artist wishes to produce. The plate is then
bitten, stopped-out with Brunswick black where de-
sired, and re-bitten, as in etching, and can then be
finished on the bare copper, scraper and burnisher also
being used for .removing burr or reducing work.
That is the process in its simplest form, but in this
case, too, methods are often so mingled, various tools
so used in combination, that it seems best in most cases
to enjoy a fine stipple-effect without making inquiry
into the manner of its production. A. W. Tuer, in his
work on Bartolozzi, speaks of the ingenious devices re-
sulting from the necessity of keeping up with increased
demand. " Complicated toothed wheels or roulettes
were invented," says he, " containing two, three, four
or even half a dozen roulettes on one axis, and these
were made with teeth of various sizes and at various
distances apart. It is stated that no less than forty
of these complicated tools were at one time known and
more or less used." A plate in .Tuer's book illustrates
some of the grains produced in stipple, that of the
time of Bartolozzi and that of the nineteenth century,
as well as the effect of hand-rouletting and the cra-
quele or egg-shell appearance of machine rouletting.
150 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Almost every engraver adopted a manner of his own
in stippling. Then, too, there were certain recognized
Gram,.
Cluster.
Cluster en
Machine roul
EXAMPLES OF STIPPLE ENGRAVING.
From " Bartolozzi and His Works," by A. W. Tuer, Vol. I.
styles. It is rather amusing to go over the records
of these little formalities and find that there were
groupings of dots known as the " cocked hat," others
called the " butterfly's wing," and still others referred
DOT METHODS 151
to as " Agar's grain " or the " lemon grain." The
last brings us closer in point of time to what one writer
calls the painful " small-poxy " style of modern stipple
engravings. The older engravers applied the dots
with a free touch, a looseness which has much to do
with the charm of stipple, and at the same time lies at
the bottom of its weakness. In the modern work, that
of the Holls, for example, the dots are set down by the
graver in formal clusters, with neatness, firmness and
regularity, and with a coldness and severity that was
apparently believed suitable for the imitation of stat-
uary. Certainly it was used for that purpose very fre-
quently in the old days of the London Art Journal.
But surely the appearance of marble was given better
in that print after Chantrey's statue of Washington,
by James Thomson, perhaps the last engraver to work
in the older, grained style.
Stipple could be executed with great celerity and
could be easily learned. Sir Robert Strange, the noted
line engraver, is said to have expressed his regret at
the extreme facility with which it was executed, so
that it " got into the hands of every boy." He might
have said " girl " as well, for Angelica Kauffmann's
" Nymphs Awakening Cupid " was " ingraved by
Rose Le Noir, aged 14 years, 1782." This ease of
execution undoubtedly is responsible for much of the
weak work in the medium.
Stipple lacks the cohesion and firmness of line. The
step from pure stipple to the addition of line, etched or
graven, was therefore soon made, and in time the
process became itself mainly a component part of
methods known as mixed, being used particularly to
152 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
give softness to faces in portraits done with the burin.
But such strongly mixed methods have generally been
the concomitants of deterioration. Weakness and
commercialism, seeking for quickly and easily gained
effects, have mingled methods with easy facility, pro-
ducing plates of superficially pleasing aspect. This
was especially so during the first four or five decades
of the nineteenth century.
Stipple, seen at its best, represents a quite special
expression of the art of a special period, and answers
to a quite special taste. A suitably selected and framed
print by Bartolozzi will make a harmonious and quietly
effective decoration for the wall of a room furnished
and decorated in a light and graceful style, based on
or similar to that of the period to which the print be-
longs. Stipple engraving, like mezzotint, is the out-
come of the period in which it particularly flourished,
and in its finest expression it practically ended with
that period. Like mezzotint, also, it has become iden-
tified with England, so that it has sometimes been re-
ferred to on the Continent as la maniere anglaise. In-
troduced by W. W. Ryland from France into England,
the art attained an extraordinary popularity there in
the second half of the eighteenth century.
The name of Francesco Bartolozzi has become
almost synonymous with stipple engraving in England.
Practicing the art at the time of its greatest vogue, he
made it peculiarly his own. In the paintings of An-
gelica Kauffmann and Cipriani he found subjects
which, in their sentimental sweetness, insipid effem-
inacy and sometimes weak modeling, lent themselves
remarkably well to reproduction in this manner of
THE HONOURABLE MISS BINGHAM.
Stipple engraving by F. Bartolossi (1786).
After a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
DOT METHODS 153
engraving. This was because they did not strain the
quite limited resources of the medium. One of the
best of Bartolozzi's engravings after Kauffmann
best also in the original design is the " Toilet of
Venus"; another is his noteworthy full-length of
Miss Farren, after Lawrence. Another Kauffmann
stipple, printed in color, by I. M. Delattre (1783),
representing three affable young women in undulating
drapery pretending to be allegorical conceptions,
throws light on the tastes of the time by its very title :
" Beauty Directed by Prudence Rejects with Scorn
the Solicitations of Folly."
Looking over some Bartolozzis again, not very long
since, I found four after Reynolds especially charac-
teristic of the method and its possibilities. In " The
Girl and the Kitten," the soft reflected light on the
face is noteworthy; in " The Countess Spencer " there
is an attempt at texture, and stippled lines shade the
band of the hat and indicate the stripes of the dress;
there is much of such line work in the dark portions
of coats and trees, and on the stones, in " The Affec-
tionate Brothers "; and " The Honourable Miss Bing-
ham," effectively printed in warm brown ink, shows
that a portrait with no accessories is perhaps best
suited to stipple. This last, with a little help from lines
on hat and background, is quite strong, and as good
a stipple portrait as can be found. There is strength,
too, in the same engraver's " A St. Giles's Beauty,"
after J. H. Benwell, a companion piece to " A St.
James's Beauty." His portraits of Elizabeth Farren,
the actress, after Lawrence, good in textures, the
Earl of Mansfield, Lord Loughborough, and Lord
154 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Thurlow, may also be noted. But choice might go on,
for he has a number of meritorious plates to his credit.
And he did a tremendous amount of work, over 2,000
pieces. Among his ablest pupils were L. Schiavonetti
(whose unfinished engraving of Thomas Stothard's
" Canterbury Pilgrims " is well known), P. W. Tom-
kins, William Nutter, Henry Meyer, Delattre, J. K.
Sherwin and Caroline Watson.
Where stipple invites comparison with mezzotint or
line engraving in the efforts to attain a completeness of
effect beyond the light tones with which it is so apt to
be associated in our minds, it finds one of its most
prominent exponents in Caroline Watson; unexcelled,
I feel tempted to say, for one cannot conceive the me-
dium capable of greater distinction of style or variety
of treatment than in Reynolds's portrait of Sir James
Harris as she has rendered it. Stipple cannot go fur-
ther in smooth delicacy of modeling than in the face
of this portrait, and while the richness of mezzotint is
ever denied it, it can hardly approach closer to that
art of succulent shadows than it does in such a case as
this.
Similar qualities appear also in her portrait of
" Sarah, Countess of Kinoull," after Sam. Shelley,
which also has the grand air of the mezzotint. While
noted for the microscopic delicacy of her rendering of
the miniature portraits of Cosway and others as may
be seen in " Lieut. Gen. Sir Robert Boyd," after J.
Smart (1785) she also can simulate broad brush-
work in her little " Bacchant " after Rubens.
J. K. Sherwin manages to approach the effect of
mezzotint in the face of his " Roxalana " after Reyn-
DOT METHODS 155
olds. The famous and popular " Angels' Heads "
(portraits of Frances Isabella Ker Gordon) by Reyn-
olds, has been held in a tender and lovely engraving
by Peter Simon. The same Simon's two large scenes
from Shakespeare's " Much Ado About Nothing "
(Act III, Scene I) and " Merry Wives of Windsor"
(Act III, Scene III), from the Boydell Gallery, are
quite remarkable efforts. The lace apron of one of the
women in the " Merry Wives " scene is a marvel to be
found in stipple. I have seen impressions of these
two plates in colors, done in one printing, as effective
as anything may be in this manner. And there
are two famous plates, companion pieces, by F. D.
Soiron after Morland, " St. James's Park " and " A
Tea Garden/' which, in unexceptional impressions,
printed in colors, are expressions of stipple at its best,
and an everlasting delight to the lovers of the art.
Soiron's " Promenade in St. James' Park " after
Edward Dayes, and " An Evening in Hyde Park,"
heavily etched in the trees, are interesting attempts to
render in stipple the things which are not stipple's, but
a bit wooden in the figures and faces, although they do
show vigor and variety, with the aid of heavy etching
in the trees and other expedients and manipulations of
dotted effects.
Several of the mezzotinters of the day followed the
popular taste and adapted themselves to this art, so
different in feeling from their own, and with some
noteworthy results. Earlom was one of them. An-
other was John Jones, who used etched lines in the
dark shadows of hat and chair, and stippled lines in
the shawl and background of his portrait of Lady
1 56 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Hamilton (" Emma") after Romney; and whose
" Muscipula," after Reynolds, shows qualities of style
similar to those found in his mezzotints, particularly
a touch of rigidity, a slight suggestion of woodenness,
resulting from a sweep that sometimes omits pliant
deviation to note the slighter variations in form.
John Raphael Smith also was very active, especially
in the production of fancy subjects, usually in color.
These large-hatted, be-sashed beauties file before our
gaze in a long array, simpering, smirking, alluring,
mock-serious, and often expressionless to the verge of
inanity, but usually with a certain light and airy grace.
Sentimental rusticity is also apparent, as in the mezzo-
tints of the time. The very titles of these prints indi-
cate the sentiment that inspired them : " A Snake in the
Grass " after Reynolds, " An Evening Walk," the
suggestive "What You Will," " The Mirror-
Serena," " Flirtilla " and " Contemplating the Pic-
ture," after his own designs; and " The Tavern Door,"
" Rustic Employment," " Dressing for the Masque-
rade," " Delia in Town " and " Delia in the Country "
after Morland. All of them were printed in colors,
as were also Morland's graceful " Variety," and in-
ane " Constancy," reproduced by William Ward, who
likewise engraved " Thoughts on Matrimony " after
J. R. Smith, and " Hesitation," from his own design.
These engravers not infrequently invented and drew
the conceptions which they engraved, and were thus
assured of the complete sympathy of their translator.
Their designs are a reflection, both in subject and
treatment, of the popular art of the painters whose
work they habitually reproduced.
DOT METHODS 157
The re-enforcing of stipple by lines is always done
with discretion by these masters of the art. It is by no
means a " mixed method " yet, but simply an accen-
tuation of certain portions of the plate. Beside, even
the line work is sometimes stippled; that is, the line
is formed of dots placed very close together, giving
an effect of freedom, of loose handling, in harmony
with the special character of stipple engraving.
A very large number of portraits saw the light in
the years just preceding and following the turn of the
century, plates signed by H. R. Cook, Ridley, Chap-
man and others. Occasionally one rose above the
common run, but usually in subject interest only. Now
and then an example of fancy printing, brown ink or
red, or even two. or three colors. For such small por-
traits stipple is indeed well suited; they do not make
too great demands.
In portraits and fancy subjects stipple found its
most appropriate application, its peculiar soft qualities
appearing to best advantage in lighter tones. But it
has also been employed to reproduce paintings by old
masters, where its weakness in expressing variety of
color and texture is more apparent. The plates in
Tresham and Ottley's " British Gallery of Pictures "
(1808) after paintings by old masters, executed under
the management of P. W. Tomkins, are a good exam-
ple of this. The strong darks are a little heavy, a little
colorless; one gets the impression that the art has been
strained a little beyond its bounds. But one feels
also that the engravers have done their best in extract-
ing from the medium variety of expression for variety
of theme.
158 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
The effect is apt to be weak and fuzzy unless the line
is called to aid. In his plate after Rubens's " Woman
Taken in Adultery " A. Cardon gets color and variety
by much line work and by much variation in the appli-
cation of the stipple. In Giorgione's " Gaston de
Foix," engraved by A. Cardon, the sheen of armor is
produced by heavy lines contrasting with the white
paper, while the stippled texture of the cloth on the
attendant's sleeve is rather weak. There is a certain
energy in the head of the old man in " Lot and His
Daughters," by Schiavonetti, after Guido Reni. One
of the best bits of flesh modeling in the book is seen
in the delicate, luminous flesh tints of R. Wood-
man's " Children at Play " after Rubens. Garofalo's
" Vision of St. Augustine," engraved by Tomkins, is
an ambitious attempt at landscape work, where pure
stipple is out of place. I. H. Wright, on the other
hand, in his print of Claude Lorraine's " Mid-Day,"
gets aerial perspective by using heavy lines in the fore-
ground and aquatint for the distant mountains and
the sky.
I have cited the plates in this book, because they
illustrate certain points and because they are perhaps
more easily available in large cities than separate
prints of greater importance might be.
Although the art originated in France, the French
as a nation evidently did not take kindly to stipple.
What they produced in that medium was, as a rule, not
remarkable; more often it was commonplace, and the
coloring, usually by hand, was in many cases harsh.
Schall's domestic scenes, reproduced in stipple and
often printed in color, seem to have inspired the en-
DOT METHODS 159
gravers to somewhat better work. Some of Legrand's
best plates in black-and-white were after Schall. But
in the smaller plates, issued in some number in Paris,
there is not much art. They are pervaded by the
same sort of sentiments as those felt in the English
prints of the time, domesticity and rural felicity, bor-
rowed for the nonce, and somewhat out of place, not
even expressed with French spirit. By this I do not
wish to say, however, that the French stipple engravers
kept entirely out of the field of witty frivolity. Color
prints and hand-colored stipples of Bonnet (" Soins
Maternels " after J. B. Huet, hard in color), of
Darcis after Lavreince, of J. A. Payen or Legrand
(things of the insipid kind later on executed also in
lithography), of- P. Augrand (" Bonjour, Maman "
after Malet), of F me - Demonchy ("Le Depart
d' Adonis pour la Chasse " after Monsian), have
usually little merit but that of a certain rarity, at least
in America. Their interest is principally that of all
pictorial records to the student of what we may call
comparative art.
But there are some exceptions to the rule, notably
certain large prints, which are not only done in per-
haps as pure stipple as you can expect, but which are
also examples of noteworthy success in the expression
of textures, usually a weak point in stipple. A satin
gown is not often so well done in a stipple engraving
as in " Le Bouquet Inattendu " by H. Gerard after
Mile. Gerard, eleve de Fragonard, or " Le Baiser a
la Derobee," by N. F. Regnault, who engraved also
Fragonard's " La Fontaine d'Amour."
The matter of mixed methods is well exemplified in
160 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
engravings such as " Le Triomphe de Minette," after
Mile. Gerard, by Vidal, who seems to have used stipple,
line, roulette, aquatint and what not on the same plate.
J. de Longueil's color prints show traces of stipple, rou-
lette and aquatint. These are instances of a mixture
of methods such as the Frenchmen used also in their
colored aquatints.
One is not likely to see much of the French color
work in America. Nor are German color prints easy
to find. One may come across a few in some private
collection, perhaps some of those by Heinrich Sintze-
nich, who studied with Bartolozzi, issued in 1782 or
'84. They will probably prove to be about on a level
with the ordinary average of the smaller French color
prints, but more restrained in color, and rather better
in its application.
In the early days of the American Republic, Edward
Savage and David Edwin did some stipple por-
traits. Later, toward the middle of the nineteenth
century, came machine-like regularity of dotting
and the mixed method, but a little earlier than
that there was issued purer stipple work of a
rather heavy kind, as in the " National Portrait
Gallery " of 1834, and in larger plates, from which
J. B. Longacre's " W. H. Harrison " stands out with
refreshing virility.
If I cannot show a violent and full enthusiasm in
summarizing this chapter on stipple, it is simply be-
cause the field of this art is limited. It is a significant
fact that it has not served as a " painter art," as a
direct form of expression for artists. The portraits
by Bartolozzi and Caroline Watson, which have been
DOT METHODS 161
noted, show that the mellow grace, the gentle charm
of indefiniteness, the delicately grained tones of this
art can be utilized well without descending to the sim-
pering prettiness or amateurish puerility which has
unfortunately too often characterized its practice, and
has accented a certain anaemia. They show a realiza-
tion of what was best in this medium.
CHAPTER VII
WOOD ENGRAVING
THE art of the wood engraver has always been more
or less close to the people, so much so that even to-day
the average man will refer to a newspaper illustration
(reproduced by photographic methods) as a woodcut.
Cheapness no doubt had much to do with the use of the
wood block as a means of expression of " art for the
people."
" Its influence," says George E. Woodberry (in his
"History of Wood Engraving"), "was one, and by
no means the most insignificant, of the great forces
which were to transform mediaeval into modern life,
to make the civilization of the heart and brain no longer
the exclusive blessing of a few among the fortunately
born, but a common blessing."
As a record of the manners and ideas of those early
days it is invaluable. Certainly it remained such a
means, from the time of the early block-book " Biblia
pauperum," or " Bible of the Poor," abridgments of
Bible history issued for the instruction of common
people, until photomechanical methods late in the nine-
teenth century offered still greater advantages in speed,
cheapness and adaptability. Even when wood engrav-
ing was almost forgotten in the eighteenth century,
when line engraving in France was keeping record of
162
WOOD ENGRAVING 163
elegant gayety, and mezzotint and stipple in England
were mirroring the dignity and grace of high life and
the languid affectation of taste, wood engraving served
for the common people, barely keeping alive in often
incredibly rude form in chap-books and similar pop-
ular literature well into the nineteenth century. And
when, in that century, its time came again, it was for
years the main medium for the dissemination of art
through the illustrated press and in books as well, not
to forget its long use for school-book illustration in the
United States. In fact, a history of wood engraving
is practically a history of book-illustration. Its devel-
opment eventually led to a craftsmanship so remarkable
as to give rise to- the objection that the art had been
forced beyond its province. After that, it was almost
entirely supplanted by the processes of the camera.
One cause of the cheapness of wood engraving as
compared with engraving on copper was that it could
be printed simultaneously with the letter-press. This
is because it is, like typography, a relief process. _Just
as the body of the type rises above its base or shank,
so does the engraved design on a wood block stand
out in relief above the surrounding surface. The
block has therefore simply to be made type-high, so
that the top of the lines in relief is on the same level
as the top of the types, in order that both may be
locked in the same type-form and printed from at the
same time. This would be impossible with metal
plates in which the lines are cut in intaglio, appearing
as channels instead of ridges.
The essential difference between the relief and the
intaglio processes is this : In the first, everything is cut
164 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
away except what is to hold ink for printing; in the
second, nothing is cut away except grooves to hold ink.
By the relief method, the engraver cuts around his
lines, leaving them in relief, and digging channels
where white spaces are to appear in the engraving.
By the intaglio method, the engraver traces his lines
by digging out channels into which ink will be rubbed
to show in the printing, leaving the rest of the plate
untouched.
Wood engraving is an art of the line. From the
beginning, and for centuries after, it was a facsimile
art; it reproduced exactly a line drawing executed on
the block. If the drawing was made in washes with
the brush, the engraver still translated it into lines.
But eventually, in the nineteenth century, the art de-
veloped into one of tones, in which the line did not
have the same prominence as in the days of Diirer or
Holbein. It was the " white line " which made this
possible. As we have seen, in wood engraving the
surface prints, not the groove cut by knife or graver.
If a block untouched by the graver were inked, an
impression taken from it would show a solid black.
Cut a groove into this same block before inking and
printing, and the result on paper will be a solid black
interrupted by a white line where there was no surface
to hold the ink. It is the adoption and adaptation of
this principle of the white line which forms the foun-
dation of the modern method of producing tones by
the wood block, a method developed with especial vir-
tuosity in the United States.
The principle of relief printing was applied long
before the Europeans, early in the fifteenth century,
WOOD ENGRAVING 165
began to take impressions from engraved wood blocks.
The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used stamps to
impress letter or marks on pottery. The Hindus are
said to have known the art of printing colored designs
on textiles, an art known in Europe in the Middle
Ages, and which is taught in some of the public schools
to-day as " block printing." And the Chinese have
been credited with being the first to print pictures from
wood blocks. However, the art of engraving pictures
on wood for the purpose of taking impressions there-
from dates back in Europe to the beginning of the
fifteenth century. A remarkably interesting review
of wood engraving as a facsimile art, and at the same
time, of the art of designing for this purpose, is given
in the 200 plate's which make up the volume entitled
" Meister Holzschnitte aus vier Jahrhunderten," ed-
ited by Georg Hirth and Richard Muther (1893).
Here can be followed, in convenient form, the devel-
opment of the art from about 1410 to about 1850;
from its first rude stammerings through the period
of its fine achievement in the sixteenth century, its
decline in the seventeenth, decay in the eighteenth, and
finally a suggestion of the end, when this art of the
pure line gave way to the art of tones and color values.
The famous old woodcut of St. Christopher bearing
the Christ-child across the water, and dated 1423, is
usually accepted as the first dated one.
The earliest woodcuts were separately issued, but
the use of the art in book-illustration soon began.
Both in the block books, in which pictures and text
were cut out in relief on the same block, and in books
printed with movable type. This very early work
1 66 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
was rough and uncouth, but with all its poor drawing,
ludicrous perspective and quaint stiffness it often evi-
denced a certain shrewd observation, a homely force
in noting characteristics. In Sebastian Brandt's
" Ship of Fools " these qualities are mixed with a vein
of humor. In the solemnity of the prints illustrating
the " Ars Moriendi " the humorous effect is not in-
tended and is simply the result of poor drawing and
naive expression. These are human documents, and
as art products they also have solely a historical in-
terest. At first, the woodcuts were executed in outline,
in the earliest work simply a guide to the illuminator
who colored them by hand. Next came indications of
shadow by means of parallel lines, finally cross-hatch-
ing (lines crossing each other to mark shadow or local
color) was adopted.
Cross-hatching, when executed on copper plates,
where the lines are incised, offers no special difficulty.
In wood engraving, on the other hand, where the lines
are cut in relief, the effect can be given only by labo-
riously gouging out the diamond-shaped spaces be-
tween the intersections.
Cross-hatching appears first in Breydenbach's
"Voyage to the Holy Land" (1486), with its clever
illustrations by Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht. It was
more extensively employed to obtain shadow and color
values (that is, the difference of tone to indicate dif-
ference of local color and texture) in the Nuremburg
" Chronicle." The illustrations in this were drawn by
Michael Wolgemuth, the master of Albrecht Diirer,
and by Pleydenwurff, and printed in black and white,
without being afterward colored by hand, a method
WOOD ENGRAVING 167
which hitherto had evidently been considered an indis-
pensable aid to the imagination in Germany, though not
in Italy. This period of the " incunabula," or books
published before 1500, is rich in illustrated works.
The cuts were executed with much realism and with
the customary application of local conditions to the
most various events, so that the stories of the Old
and New Testament, for instance, are enacted by per-
sonages who, in dress and other characteristics, are
quite evidently Germans of the fifteenth century. The
present interest of all this is mainly antiquarian, but
its importance at the time as a factor in civilization
was very considerable. These prints were distinctly
aimed at the people who could not read, and whose
understanding would thus have to be aided by pictures.
Diirer is the first great master of wood engraving,
and one of the greatest names in the records of the
art at any time. With him the art came of age, so to
speak. " He lifted it, a mechanic's trade, into the serv-
ice of high imagination and vigorous intellect, and
placed it among the fine arts." One notes in his en-
gravings on copper a tendency to over-elaboration
which is not so apparent here. There is, indeed, def-
initeness of statement, but it is limited in accordance
with the nature of the medium. Diirer fully under-
stood the essential difference between the limits set for
the artist by copper and wood, respectively. Compar-
ison of his engravings on metal and his woodcuts
shows that clearly. With all attention to detail there
is in the latter a bigness, freedom and vigor that is in
accord with the character of the material used. When
his work is judged in the light of his time and with
i68 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
an open eye to the emotion, the feeling, the men-
tal power that lie behind it all, he looms up indeed
" as an embodiment of the German Renaissance."
The artistic virtues in his work are positive and
unmistakable. Breadth and boldness of line, ap-
propriateness in adjustment to both the limits
and possibilities of the art of facsimile wood engrav-
ing, a vigor which is comparatively seldom re-enforced
by cross-hatching. It is these elements of craftsman-
ship, of adaptation of end to means, of artistic hon-
esty, of supreme expression of contemporary spirit and
local feeling, which long remained an inspiration to
German art. His woodcuts are very numerous, and in-
clude the " Apocalypse of St. John," " Life of the Vir-
gin," the " Small " and the " Large " " Passion," and
the gorgeous " Triumphal March of the Emperor Max-
imilian," an exuberant display of the feudal spirit, de-
signed partly by him but mostly by Burgkmaier ( 1475-
1529). The latter artist executed drawings for the
" Weiss Kunig," a sort of poetical autobiography of
Maximilian, and another poem by that romantic and
picturesque emperor, " Theurdanck," was illustrated
mainly by Hans Schauffelein (1490-1539), this group
of artists glorifying the dying spirit of chivalry. In
these works we find the true beginning of artistic book-
illustration in Germany. These men understood the
material on which they worked, and used cross-hatch-
ing with restraint. Contemporary with these artists
were Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), Nicolas Manuel
(1484-1530), Urs Graf, a spirited draughtsman, who
sometimes introduced the refined technical nuance of
putting his figures in white lines on a black ground;
WOOD ENGRAVING 169
Hans Baldung Grien (1475-1552), and Jost Amman
(1539-1591). These men primarily drew on the wood
for others to engrave their designs.
As Durer and Burgkmaier and others, by their in-
telligent development of the art, helped to raise it
from craftsmanship, or rather tradesmanship, the
woodcutters themselves were naturally advanced in
the process and began to become known, so that in
time not only the designer, but the engraver as well,
signed the block.
At the same time, the field of the art broadened be-
yond the limits of religious expression which had at
first bounded it, and was devoted also to the delinea-
tion of scenes in the life of the common people. The
activity of the so-called " little masters " (Altdorfer,
the Behams, etc.) in this domain is spoken of more
fully in the chapter on line engraving. In work such
as this the spirit of the age is revealed with remark-
able variety.
A great name in the annals of wood engraving, in
the records of all art, is that of Hans Holbein, an
artist of whom it is has been said that he was " neither
German nor Italian, neither classical nor mediaeval."
He stands out from and above his contemporaries of
the sixteenth century, "the first modern artist." He
eventually became painter at the court of England, and
left beside his paintings a remarkable series of charac-
teristic portrait drawings of English men and women.
As a designer for wood engravers, he produced two of
the finest achievements of the art, the " Dance of Death "
(1538) engraved by Hans Liitzelburger, and " Figures
of the Bible." His realism is paired with taste, so
i ;o
HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
that he avoids the grotesqueness of those German
artists who indiscriminatingly set down both the lovely
and the ugly. He did not crowd his pictures with a
plethora of suggestive accessories, but preserved a
unity of purpose and attained directness of result
through simplici-
ty, through econo-
my of labor. The
''Dance of
Death," a subject
that has had its
fascination for
many a n artist,
down to the nine-
teenth -century
German, Alfred
Rethel, was treat-
ed by him with
human sympathy
and humor and
with occasional
satire. He repre-
sented Death all-
leveling, attend-
ing the preacher in the pulpit, driving the plowman's
horses, snuffing the nun's candle, pouring out the wine
for the king, lurking behind the worldly-minded pope.
And all in good taste. What a difference between this
and the visions that some earlier artists had of similar
scenes. All drawn, too, with the same sureness and
control of the resources of the block; little cross-hatch-
ing, no wasted lines, every stroke telling with a vigor
A CUT FROM HOLBEIN'S " DANCE OF
DEATH."
WOOD ENGRAVING 171
and directness which, as Ruskin and others have
pointed out, makes it quite unimportant whether skel-
eton Death has the correct number of ribs or
not.
In the Lowlands, Lucas van Leyderi, Hendrik Golt-
zius, Christoph van Sichem, and particularly Cristoph
Jeghers (1620-1660), who reproduced the bold energy
of some large drawings by Rubens with a free and
effective touch, are among those who followed the
pioneers of the art. " Hercules in Conflict with Envy
and Discord " is an excellent example of the vigor of
Jeghers's works after Rubens, who, himself, has
practically set the stamp of his approval on them by
the legend " P. P. Rubens delineavit et excudit." The
earlier, fifteenth-century workers are dealt with in de-
tail in William Martin Conway's " Woodcutters of the
Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century " (1884).
What strikes one when turning to Italian work of
this period is that there is less attempt at characteri-
zation than in the German cuts, less uncouth vigor,
but more grace, more attention to beauty of line, more
ornamental quality. Expressed in a somewhat ele-
mentary manner, but expressed nevertheless. " In
Germany," says Lippmann, in his " Art of Wood
Engraving in Italy in the Fifteenth Century," "the
proper function of book-illustration was instruction;
in Italy, ornament."
In Italy, as in Germany, outline was first used, but
the employment of parallel lines for shading, and espe-
cially of cross-hatching, came more slowly. The out-
line, little aided by hatching, was developed into a
style of some distinction, used alone by the Venetians,
172 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
and with spaces of solid black (a device which occurs
again in our time in the drawings of Daniel Vierge
and others) by the Florentines. Comparatively few
examples of Italian wood engraving are known of the
years before the art began to be used for book-illus-
ITALIAN WOODCUT BY AN UNKNOWN VENETIAN MASTER OF THE
I5TH CENTURY.
An Illustration from Colonna's " Hypnerotomachia Poliphilii."
tration, and it is in this field that its development can
best be traced. A famous product of the time was
Colonna's " Hypnerotomachia Poliphilii " (Venice,
1499), with its delicately designed and delightful pic-
tures, in which the shifting scenes of this dream of love
are brought to view. The illustrations in F. Frezzi's
" Quadririgio " (1508), in grace and slenderness of
WOOD ENGRAVING 173
figures, recall the style of Botticelli. Another impor-
tant book is Nicola de Malermi's " Italian Bible "
(Venice, 1490) illustrated with numerous very small
woodcuts, vignettes, intended, it is said, to aid the
uninstructed reader, as a sort of pictorial index, but
incidentally of decided vigor and grace. There are
very many titles in this record of achievement, to which
Rivoli, Lippmann and others have devoted volumes of
history and comment. The illustrated books printed
in Florence alone are listed in Paul Kristeller's " Early
Florentine Woodcuts" (1879), which is copiously
illustrated with characteristic examples. And the
Prince d'Essling's voluminous work on " Les livres a
figures Venitiens " is in course of publication. The
field of early book-illustration in Italy forms a fasci-
nating study in itself.
With the sixteenth century there came also more
separate prints, not executed for book-illustration,
larger in size and bolder and broader in treatment.
Those of the " Master I. B. with the Bird " (so called
from his signature) with much straight uncrossed
hatching, or Niccolo Boldrini, who engraved after
Titian and others with a swinging, free, though some-
what loose, stroke.
This seeking after large pictorial treatment and
striking effect was served also by the adoption of the
" Chiaroscuro " or " camaieu " method, which was an
outcome of the desire to reproduce color.
Chiaroscuro ("clear-obscure," balanced light and
shade) was used to represent drawings executed
in a few tones on tinted paper with white body
color for the lights. To do this, a block was
174 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
made for each tone and one for the outline,
although sometimes this last one was omitted, as
in " The Miraculous Draught of Fishes," " David
Slaying Goliath " and other works by Ugo da Carpi.
These tones of green, sepia or bistre, occasion-
ally brownish red, were printed from the flat surface
of the block, as in the Japanese woodcuts, the white
lights having usually been produced by cutting away
the wood, so that it would not take color. The effect
was an imitation of flat-tinted drawings, the high light
standing out so by contrast with the surrounding color
that it seems whiter than the white paper margin
of the print. In Cranach's " St. George on Horse-
back " gold takes the place of the white. As in all
printing from two or more blocks or plates, exact regis-
ter was a necessity. That is, the sheet of paper, as it
passed from one block to the other to receive an im-
pression, had to be placed always in the same position
so that the tint would be imprinted in the right place.
Papillon in his " Traite de la Gravure " (1766) shows
impressions from the various blocks needed for one
chiaroscuro print.
Many of the sixteenth-century artists applied this
method. So Ugo da Carpi, both the Cranachs, Hans
Baldung Grien (whose striking " Witches " is often
reproduced), Burgkmaier (who, among other things,
did a " St. George " and an " Emperor Maxmilian,"
both on horseback, in dark red), Tobias Stimmer,
Johann Wechtlin, Hendrik Goltzius, C. Jeghers, Jan
Lievens, Andrea Andreini. If originals are lacking,
excellent reproductions will be found among Lipp-
mann's facsimiles, in W. J. Linton's " Masters of
WOOD ENGRAVING
175
Wood Engraving " and in other works dealing with
the history of wood engraving.
This chiaroscuro method persisted in woodcuts of
the middle of the nineteenth century in flat tints of
blue or pink or light brown. Not a few American
title pages (e. g., "Ladies' Wreath and Parlor An-
THE ANNUNCIATION.
By Geoffrey Tory, From a Prayer Book, Paris, 1527.
nual," about 1850) were thus produced. And those
who remember the old-style theatrical posters may re-
call this same effect in a cruder form, figures in black
lines on a background of one tint, with heavy white
parallel lines for high lights. They illustrated the
method in the simplest possible way. 1
The activity in the publishing of illustrated books
1 The chiaroscuro method has been practiced also by artists who have
taken up wood engraving as a means of original expression: Leper- in
France, for instance, or the young Americans, R. Ruzicka and A. Allen
Lewis.
176 HOW. TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
was likewise great in France. But it is only to-
ward the end of the fifteenth century that work
of note began to appear. These illustrations of
the last fifteen years of that century, as we see
them, for instance, in Verard's " Mer des His-
toires," have more ease, more facility in execu-
tion than the average German work of that period, are
characterized by more elegance of line, more feeling
for artistic effect. The "Danse Macabre" (1485) and
the books of hours of A. Verard, Pigouchet, Simon
Vostre, Kerver, issued during the years 1480-1540,
are among the best examples of this French work. In
the effort to imitate the art of the miniaturist, outlines
were engraved to be filled in with color, and the first
books of hours were printed on vellum in order to
facilitate this task. Geoffrey Tory (1485-1554), who
has something of the facility of the practiced illus-
trator of later days, and Jean Cousin (1501-89) are
two of the principal artists whose names are brought
into connection with the development of the art in
France during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Its characteristics are brought out in the French edi-
tion of the "Dream of Poliphilo " (1554), the illus-
trations in which, ascribed to Cousin, show more ele-
gance, realism, ornament and dramatic action, and less
directness, simple beauty and strength than the Italian
original.
Jean Papillon, who wrote a " Historical and Prac-
tical Treatise on Wood Engraving" (1766), is one
of the last and somewhat lost disciples of the art in an
age in which it had come to be neglected. For the
tendency to multiplication of detail and to delicacy and
WOOD ENGRAVING 177
refinement beyond the means of the art at that time
caused it to be gradually abandoned everywhere, and
to be practically supplanted, in the eighteenth century,
by line engraving, particularly in the field of book-
illustration, in which it had so long reigned supreme.
A new impulse came from England, where the art
had not thriven particularly, although, in the early
eighteenth century, Edward Kirkall and John Baptist
Jackson had kept alive some interest in it.
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) was the founder of
the new school of wood engraving, the school of the
" white line," to which I have already referred. In
all the work that we have been considering the en-
graver was limited to a line for line rendering of a
line drawing. Bewick introduced a method of obtain-
ing color values by placing white lines on a black
ground, placed there not to reproduce lines, but to
indicate tone or color. Or, as it has been cleverly
described, formerly the block was treated as a white
surface, like paper, on which the designer obtained
grays and blacks by increasing the number of hatch-
ings and cross-hatchings; now, the block was treated
as a black surface, and the color was lessened in pro-
portion as more white lines were cut. This threw
more responsibility on the engraver than formerly.
The designer was no longer limited to drawing on the
wood such lines as he wished the engraver to repro-
duce. He could execute his drawings in washes and
abandon the line if he chose; it was the engraver's
business to give the effect of such a drawing by an
arrangement of lines conceived by himself. In other
words, the engraver was called upon to exercise orig-
1 78 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
inal artistic ability and taste. This new method was
likewise a labor-saving one. Black lines, being in
relief, could be produced only by cutting a channel on
each side; and if they crossed each other, which hap-
pened with greater frequency as the true nature of
the art was more misunderstood, the diamond-shaped
interstices between them had to be dug out laboriously.
White lines, on the other hand, were simply engraved
A WOOD ENGRAVING BY THOMAS BEWICK.
This illustrates the process and effect of white line.
in intaglio, that is, they were grooves cut into the wood
as in copper engraving, and that was all there was
about it. If the engraver desired to cross them, he
did so, just as you would cross-hatch with a pen on
paper; the interstices simply remained in relief and
showed black in the printing. In J. Tinkey's " Mount
Lafayette," which appears on page 183 of G. E. Wood-
berry's " History of Wood Engraving," lines cross
each other, of course the lines of the trees, for in-
stance, and those of the mountains beyond but there
WOOD ENGRAVING 179
is no cross-hatching as such. None of black lines, I
mean; but plenty of white ones. On the snow, the
white-capped mountain, the sky. A look at such a
print will show clearly of how much manual labor
the engraver, forced to grind out black cross-hatching,
was relieved by the use of the white line. An engrav-
ing entirely different in execution, Pannemaker's
" Rebecca," published in P. G. Hamerton's " Graphic
Arts " (1882), is a fine example of effects gained by
modulated lines parallel lines varying in thickness
according as they run through shadow or light with-
out cross-hatching. An early use of the white line
appears in the " Banner Bearer " by Urs Graf. But
there it is used like the black line, being simply a white
line drawing on a black ground.
Bewick rendered a further service to the art by sub-
stituting boxwood cut across the grain for the planks
of pear or other soft wood running with the grain.
Thereby gaining a material of more strength and firm-
ness, yet without the resistance of the fiber. In the
older days knives were used, so that the makers of the
engravings were literally " wood-cutters," while in
these later days the graver or burin was employed.
This again had its influence on the character of the
work, for the knife was drawn toward the engraver,
while the burin is pushed away from him, plowing
forward through the wood. In every graphic art, the
medium (that is, the tools and the substance on which
they are applied) both through its nature and the man-
ner in which it is manipulated, imposes itself upon the
result to be attained, in the form of certain methods
of technique, from which the engraver can no more
i8o HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
get away than he can depart from the rules of gram-
mar in writing. And to engrave on wood with the
methods of copper engraving is much like attempting
to speak English by the rules of French.
Chatto's "Treatise on Wood Engraving" (1839)
gives an interesting illustration of technical processes ;
for instance, the lowering of certain portions of the
block (by cutting away), in order to diminish strength
of impression. This is usually accomplished by the
printer, in the process of " making ready," which con-
sists in placing pieces of paper under the wood block
and others in the press above ("underlaying" and
" overlaying " respectively), so as to exercise unequal
pressure, and thus make some portions print more
heavily than others, lending emphasis or equalizing
pressure according to need. Printing is an art in it-
self, and must be understood in order to obtain the
most satisfactory results. Although wood gives more
impressions than the soft copper, it, too, wears off in
time, so that in our days an electrotype (metal cliche}
of the block is made, which can be printed from and
renewed as often as desired.
Bewick's lasting claim to fame is his right to be
called the father of the new art of wood engraving.
As a designer he was not great, but he was an honest
and close observer of nature. As an engraver, he had
the advantage of working after his own designs, giv-
ing him the opportunity of rendering, with the initial
force of original expression, his spirited bits of animal
life, and his delineation of landscape as he saw it under
the influence of his emotions. His " British Quad-
rupeds " (1790) and "British Birds" (1797), the
WOOD EN GRAF ING 181
latter referred to charmingly by Charlotte Bronte in
" Jane Eyre," contain the most striking examples of
his simple effectiveness, his ability to make every line
tell and to waste none.
So came about this revival, really a new birth.
And yet, while Nesbit and Clennell, both pupils of
Bewick, and others who came after, practiced the art
and developed it artistically, there were not wanting
those who committed the old mistake of trying to make
the block do the work of the copper-plate, who forgot
that the nature of a medium imposes inevitable laws
for its use which must be respected. Robert Bran-
ston, who had been an engraver on copper, applied the
traditions of that medium to wood engraving, produc-
ing hard, metallic effects and missing the opportunities
of the white line. But he was an able engraver and
cut clean and neat lines, and that seems ever to have
been attractive to the many. There were followers in
his footsteps William Harvey, for instance, for whom
John Thurston and others designed in the same spirit.
The famous large engraving by Harvey, " The Assas-
sination of Dentatus," with its copperplate effect in
excessive cross-hatching, is an example of misplaced
dexterity. In the United States, a noteworthy exam-
ple of this tendency is to be found in the Family Bible
issued by the Harpers in 1846, illustrated with designs
by John Gadsby Chapman, engraved by J. A. Adams.
Not a few of these are so finely executed in their line-
work as to have an almost deceptive appearance of
copperplates. But the most remarkable instance of a
downright attempt to translate the methods of copper
engraving is seen in the work of Blasius Hofel, an
1 82 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Austrian. In his portrait of Czernin both line and
stipple are imitated to deception.
In Paris, Didot and other publishers furthered the
cause of wood engraving by the publication of many
books illustrated by artists of ability. One of these
latter, Dore, followed precedents of past centuries by
himself directing the efforts of the engravers into de-
sired methods of expression. His training of Pisan
and Pannemaker and others of that school resulted in
a manner that has smoothness, brilliancy and elegance,
joined with a rather cold, metallic quality. With all
their finish, these engravers knew the value of time.
In the " Deluge," in Dore's " Bible," the continuous
lines running across the waves mark gradations or
shadows by being made thicker or thinner. No cross-
hatching there, no time for that; Dore kept his en-
gravers busy by working at an astonishing rate of
speed. They assuredly gave a highly effective render-
ing of his illustrations to the Bible, Dante and other
books, strong and dramatic, not only in composition
and gesture, but in the suggestion of color and tone
as well, in the bursts of radiant light in which Milton's
hosts of Heaven appear or the pits of darkness that
yawn for the lost souls of the " Inferno." Only, the
fine effect, the declamatory gesture, the trick of man-
ner, become a little monotonous if too many of these
pictures are looked at in succession.
In Germany, the entirely different style of " His
Little Excellency," the ambidextrous Adolf von Men-
zel, who adhered to the facsimile method, was faith-
fully reproduced through his influence over the en-
gravers. A style which took no special account of
WOOD ENGRAVING 183
the nature of the block, for Menzel simply drew spir-
ited pen-drawings, cross-hatched where he found it
necessary, and for the rest exacted obedient imitation
from the engravers, among whom F. W. Unzelmann
is specially well known. For the manner in which it
was done, the evidently loyal copying of his delicate
and vigorous lines, I hope the little giant was duly
thankful. In the woodcuts after his compatriots
Alfred Rethel, Ludwig Richter (a joy to the sym-
pathetic eye, despite his apparent artlessness), Schnorr
von Carolsfeld (whose Bible pictures have in recent
years been revived for schoolroom and popular use)
and Moritz von Schwind there are indications of a
national feeling, and a return to simple lines and fac-
simile engraving.
There is much of this facsimile work, too, in the
English illustration of the sixties, in the service of
which some very interesting artistic individualities ex-
pressed themselves Keene, Millais, C. Green, Boyd
Houghton, Walker, Sandys, Tenniel and others. The
fact that many of these engravings were published in
magazines does not lessen their art value. On the
other hand, not all is good, for the engravers got into
bad habits of carelessness, of " near enough " fac-
simile, as Linton called it. The Dalziels, because of
their very prominence and of the good work they did,
as in Birket Foster's " Pictures of English Land-
scape," have been especially berated for their short-
comings in this respect, and we have stories of Leech,
Rossetti and other artists who bewailed the havoc their
drawings underwent at the hands of the engravers.
But were the artists entirely without blame ? Did they
1 84 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
not sometimes put down unintelligible networks of
senseless and needless cross-hatched lines, with all that
such lines implied in the way of increased work on the
block? Ruskin once figured out that in a certain
drawing by Tenniel, in Punch, 1863, two square inches
of shadow under a window are cross-hatched with
three sets of lines, " in the most wanton and gratui-
tous way," making it necessary for the engraver to
cut out about 1,050 interstices. And if, in addition,
the block was then cut up into little square sections
which were handed to different engravers, what could
be expected?
Charles Keene, the greatest artist who ever drew for
Punch, and one of the most able of English draughts-
men, showed that cross-hatching was not an absolute
necessity. But his delicate lines also suffered from
these defects in reproduction, as was shown by the fac-
similes of his original drawings in Pennell's " Work
of Charles Keene."
Meanwhile, wood engraving more than ever filled
the function of a powerful means of instruction. It
helped to disseminate knowledge by representations
of objects of industry and art, by pictorial records
of those happenings that make up what is contempo-
rary history, by the portraiture of the men who
played an important part in those events. It fur-
nished in caricature a vehicle of education by the force
of satire, or a source of amusement by the display of
humor. And in the exercise of this function it had
the benefit of wide circulation offered by the periodical
press. For the art was promoted by the establish-
ment of illustrated papers such as the Magazin Pit-
WOOD ENGRAVING 185
toresque, L' Illustration, Illustrated London News,
Graphic, Illustrirte Zeitung, Harper's Weekly and sim-
ilar ventures. Or publications devoted entirely to art,
such as Kunst unserer Zeit. Such illustrated litera-
ture formed the only artistic pabulum for people far
from the great centers with their object lessons in
the form of art museums, public statuary and fine ar-
chitecture. And that fact inevitably influenced the
publishers in the choice of works of art to be repro-
duced. Modern work usually, figure work often,
preferably genre pieces with the point of sentiment and
anecdote to prick the laggard brain, and attract the
careless eye, fine finish always, as a matter of course.
Especially in Germany and Austria, where Hecht and
others accomplished much good work, and where finely
illustrated books gave opportunity for the display of
finished skill. Elsewhere, too, as in that famous sub-
scription book, " Picturesque America," issued in the
seventies in New York. So the tendency toward fac-
simile line work, as exemplified in the engraving of
designs drawn in line on the wood, and the desire to
express tones, as shown in elaborate reproductions of
paintings, had both continued to be felt, when the lat-
ter received a strong impetus from a source that was
eventually to prove the undoing of the art. That was
the photographic camera, which now became a factor
in the production of wood engravings.
From the moment that the artist's design, instead
of being drawn on the whitened block by himself, was
separately drawn and then photographed onto the
block, his possibilities were much increased. He could
now work with any medium on any material on any
1 86 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
scale; the camera reduced it all to the proper size for
the block. He might use pen-and-ink, or wash, or
body color, or oils, or crayon, or anything he pleased.
The engraver was an interpreter, who chose his own
lines to render the artist's various gradations of tone,
and who had a duplicate photograph before him to
guide his eye as his hand cut away the one on the
block. And in no country were the possibilities opened
up by this difference in method exploited to a greater
extent than in the United States, where the record of
noteworthy achievement had previously been a short
one, preceded and accompanied by much downright
mediocrity.
Alexander Anderson, a disciple of Bewick, was ap-
plying white line in the beginning of the nineteenth
century. But wood engraving did not have its oppor-
tunity until-the first impulse came from the publication
of the Family Bible by the Harpers, followed up by
the issue of.. other illustrated books by the same firm,
the Putnams and the American Tract Society. Good
workmanship and taste was displayed by Whitney,
Herrick, Henry Marsh, who executed some remark-
ably faithful and delicate transcripts from nature in
his pictures of butterflies; A. V. S. Anthony, who
had a decided influence on book-illustration; W. J.
Linton, a master of the art, and others. Linton's
" History of Wood Engraving in America " is the in-
dispensable record of this period. 1
Toward the end of the seventies, new methods were
heralded in some engravings by Smithwick, and more
extensively applied by F. Juengling in the reproduction
of drawings by J. E. Kelly in Scribner's Monthly. It
J A later consideration of the "new school" is offered in my "American
Graphic Art" (1912).
WOOD ENGRAVING 187
was a matter of tones and tints and gradations carried
to the utmost, of an effort to give a facsimile of the
artist's touch, no matter in what medium he had
worked, as absolute as had been the facsimile repro-
duction of line in the days of old. The engraver not
only strove to duplicate the effect in all its details as
the artist had produced it, but he tried also to show
how he had produced it. In other words, the grain
of the crayon drawing, the mark of the brush or the
very shadow cast by the heavily loaded streak or blot
of color, were reproduced with fidelity. There was
prompt war. The partisans of the new idea were
elated by this new-found power. The opponents de-
nounced these efforts as vain tricks. W. J. Linton, a
firm believer in the engraver's right to interpret and
not copy, with clever arraignment of indisputable
faults, contended that, even granting the legitimacy
of the aims, they failed through encompassing too
much. As a proof, among others, he points out
Whistler's portrait of himself, by Frederick Juengling.
In the painting there was color to indicate the right
eye, though definite form was wanting. In the en-
graving, says he, the color is translated into a black
surface and the right eye has become a sightless socket.
Yet in copying Whistler's dry-point of " Riault, the
lingraver," J. F. Juengling had an opportunity of
applying the imitative faculty to line work, and there-
fore produced a facsimile engraving, an excellent
example of absolutely exact rendering.
But we need not fight the old battles anew. The
noise of the fray has ceased long since, and the smoke
has cleared away. The " new school " went on its
1 88
way, did its work and subsided, practically driven out
by the same agency that first established it on the high-
way to success, the camera. We may to-day safely
admit that these men committed errors of judgment,
that in the first flush of delight at a new-found strength
they gave vent to artistic solecisms. They often over-
shot the mark in the attempt to render with their one
instrument all that which the painter had effected with
differences in strokes of the brush, and variations in
application of color, and with the color itself. There
is sometimes a feeling of unrest in these short, choppy
lines cut in all directions in the effort to reproduce the
swirl of brush, the burst of color. But the almost in-
credible refinement of technique in this work is astound-
ing. With remarkable virtuosity the resources at com-
mand were forced to the utmost possibility of expres-
sion. Time always eventually weeds out the bad and
consigns it to oblivion, while it holds that which is
good. And in the great total of this work there is so
much that is good that it will always be a delight to
look back on this brilliant period in the annals of wood
engraving in this country. The Society of American
Wood Engravers' portfolio of twenty-five prints is a
sort of monument to this achievement. The Scribners
also issued a volume of proofs, and some fine and
characteristic examples appear in Linton's " History,"
already mentioned, and in S. R. Koehler's monograph,
published in Vienna.
Many finely illustrated books were issued in this
short span of fifteen, or at most twenty, years. But
there were also many separate prints, and the oppor-
tunity to get these has still not entirely gone. There
WOOD ENGRAVING 189
are the strong portraits by Gustav Kruell, the vaporous,
sympathetic rendering of George Fuller's very indi-
vidual art by W. B. Closson and Elbridge Kingsley's
reproductions of paintings by Corot. There are orig-
inal wood engravings, too, done directly from nature,
by Kingsley (who has sometimes printed in color),
Closson and Wolf. Some of these men are dead,
Kruell, Johnson, Smithwick and Bernstrom. But the
others named are with us, as are French, King, Aik-
man, Davis, Heinemann and many more. With the
exception of Timothy Cole, who is executing series of
old masters for the Century; Henry Wolf, who has in
recent years devoted his talent especially to the sympa-
thetic reproduction of American paintings, and Kings-
ley, they have nearly all turned from their old profes-
sion to other fields of activity. Some are painting, not
a few have entered the service of the photomechanical
processes which were their undoing, and are engraving
on halftone plates. But their work is still here, to be
seen and to be had. One need not go far to seek it, or
to discover the names of the many engravers not here
mentioned. American wood engravers are particularly
well represented in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
and at the New York Public Library, and there are
smaller collections elsewhere.
As to the state of the art in the nineteenth century
in European countries, illustrated books reflect that,
and certain art magazines, as I have indicated. But
there exists a very adequate pictorial review of this
period in the form of the illustrations in a large quarto
dealing with wood engraving in the nineteenth cen-
tury. It is published by the Gesellschaft fur Verviel-
190 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
f'dltigcnde Kunst of Vienna, and is one of four vol-
umes constituting a work on reproductive art in the
nineteenth century. The text is in German, but the
numerous illustrations speak their own language, clear
to those who try to understand. It is a record of
nineteenth-century art which is not duplicated else-
where, and that is why I have referred to it repeatedly.
It may be seen in the New York and other libraries,
and ought to be in more.
Among the European works which have been suf-
ficiently regarded to be preserved, are some of the por-
traits and reproductions of paintings by the old mas-
ters by Charles Baude. The fact that so many fine
wood engravings have been widely disseminated in
illustrated periodicals may have mitigated against the
acceptance of the art by connoisseurs, who have pre-
ferred the air of exclusiveness which envelops the
etching of small edition. That implies the rejection
of a fine work of art because by modern inventions in
printing it is possible to put it before the people in a
weekly or a magazine costing ten or twenty-five cents !
The general modern tendency to tone is no doubt
partly the result of the desire to make known and to
know the works of painters, for which purpose wood
engraving was the best and most practical means at
hand. Certainly the art of wood engraving, through
the domination of this tone movement, became abso-
lutely a reproductive art, doing that which is now done
by the photogravure and other processes. Formerly,
when the artist's line drawing was cut in facsimile,
there was at least the semblance of originality with
the force of appeal which that implies.
WOOD ENGRAVING 191
Various reasons have been given for the decay of
the art of wood engraving, and there is probably justi-
fication for all of them. It is probably a complexity
of causes that we must seek and not one single one.
Processes based on the use of the camera, especially
the cheap and quickly executed " halftone," were bound
to take the place of the simpler forms of wood engrav-
ing. Perhaps, too, familiarity has bred contempt, and
the " shop " system, if I may so call it, did its part.
That existed even at an early date, so in the Venetian
ateliers of the sixteenth century, and in the nineteenth
century it became so developed that a firm-name under
an engraving stood for a division of labor in which
one apprentice did the hair, another the clothes, and
still others were put at further specialties. The result
may be imagined. A sort of repetition of the old story
of the killing of the goose that laid the golden eggs.
If we deplore the fact that the art is so little practiced
to-day, we may at least be thankful that existing con-
ditions must of necessity promote originality of expres-
sion on the part of the few who still receive enough
support to persevere, men like the Americans whom I
have mentioned, or that clever Frenchman, Alfred
Prunaire, who can work with dash and bigness and
vigor, as when he renders drawings by Daumier, some-
times with a touch of color, and whose hand is capable
of the utmost delicacy if the subject demands it.
The newest development of the art of wood engrav-
ing is in the direction of original production. The
movement has spread to various countries and has en-
listed the most different individualities. Artists are
to-day engraving their own conceptions directly on the
192 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
block, just as they produce original etchings. They
have raised the block to the dignity of a painter's me-
dium, a means of direct expression. Painter-engravers
they are, or painter-wood-engravers, if you prefer to
coin a quite correct though cumbersome term. Pro-
fessional engravers, as we have seen, have at times
engraved " directly from nature " and produced beau-
tiful work. They approached the task with the en-
graver's training and willingness to fill spaces with
lines, whether to indicate detail or shade or local color.
So they have made pictures of a comparative complete-
ness of effect. But the painters have attacked the
matter in a somewhat different manner. They seek
the indication of effect rather than the fulfillment of
it, decorative line or space rather than richness of
detail. They use the block for the production of sim-
ple and few lines, flat tones of gray or black or color.
They have in general jecognized the essential character
of the wood, and have respected it in their manipula-
tion of the block. The best and most characteristic
of their productions are unmistakably wood engrav-
ings and have no imitative leaning to any other process.
No attempt to render the peculiar snap of the fine line
of etchings, for instance. All honest, straightforward
wood engraving. Two elements are particularly no-
ticeable here: the tendency to use the simple line of
the facsimile engraving of old, and the influence of
the Japanese woodcuts. It is a not large but certainly
interesting gallery of artistic types that passes before
my mind's eye as I recall some of these very modern
aspects of an old art.
The Frenchman, A. Lepere, uses the vigorous, heavy
WOOD ENGRAVING 193
line of the earlier engravers, but with a perfect com-
mand and an absolutely modern and intensely per-
sonal swing, as in his etchings. His picture of Notre
Dame de Paris and the river, bathed in brilliant sunset
glow, is made up of a combination of heavy lines and
rich tones.
His fellow-countryman, Felix Vallotton, absolutely
different again in style and intent, makes a clever use
of contrast of black and white surfaces, a device used
by the old Florentines, as we have seen. Vallotton
applies the spots of black without halftones or grada-
tions, submerging all the darker tints into black and
all the lighter ones into white. So he gives us a por-
trait of Dostoievski or Zola, or a street full of people
bunched in rushing crowds.
Henri Riviere, Paul Colin, Lucien Pissarro (son
of Camille) and other Frenchmen use the wood block
for polychromatic printing; often with the most dar-
ing use of color.
Similarly the experimentative Emil Orlik throws
broad spots of flat color into impressions and sketches
of peasant life or " gossiping women." Karl Moll
renders a snow effect in its broad aspect without at-
tempting to force the block to give the delicate shim-
mering shadows which Biese found it possible to throw
into his color-lithograph. There are numerous others
in Germany and Austria who are devoting more or
less attention to chromo-xylography or color-printing
from wood blocks: Otto Eckmann, Adolf Zdrasila,
Wilh. Laage, Kurzweil, Walter Klemm, Hans Neu-
mann, Hofbauer.
William Strang, among English artists, is one to
194 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
whom line work on the wood must particularly appeal.
Bernard Sleigh, C. Ricketts and others have sounded
various notes of interest on the block, some devoted to
black-and-white, others to color. William Nichol-
son's " London Types " are depicted in a few tints,
with blacks as we see them in Vallotton's works, but
with a quite different temperament, both national and
individual.
And at the two lateral extremes of the new hemi-
sphere, California and New York, Miss Helen Hyde
and B. J. O. Nordfeldt, both working in colors, the
one almost directly in the Japanese spirit, the other
with admixture of other influences. The principles of
color printing from wood blocks are finely expounded
in the little "Ipswich Prints" by Arthur W. Dow,
" simple color themes," as the artist calls them. *
Japanese influence is apparent in much of this, and
modernity in all of it. Nationality and individuality
combine to demonstrate the suppleness of block and
graver in prints so varied in style.
The influence of the Japanese is no unimportant
factor in the development of modern art. I have not
in mind the direct and sometimes cheap imitation, but
the more subtle and finer influence felt in many ways
since Europe first began to awaken, in the sixties, to
this new force in the art of the world. It is found
in the paintings of Whistler, the etchings of Mary
Cassatt, in the work of certain poster designers, and
in contemporary wood engravings printed in color.
The Japanese color print, forming one phase of the
art of " Ukioye " (the floating or passing world) rep-
resents a school which, we are told, is held somewhat
1 Ruzicka. McCormick. G. W. Plank, and other Americans are also to be
noted among " painter-wood-engravers."
WOOD ENGRAVING 195
in contempt by the artists of the Tosa and Kano
Schools, which are based upon Chinese classical tra-
ditions. I remember hearing John La Farge say that
he found it expedient to repress mention of Hokusai
when speaking to these courtly upholders of tradition.
But to us Caucasians the nishikiye, or color-print, is
one of the best known forms of all Japanese art, and
this same Hokusai stands to many as its most familiar
representative.
Chromo-xylography, or color printing from wood
blocks, had its period of finest development in Japan
during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
It has a wide and varied range of style and treatment,
from its early beginnings to the decay which we are
told was foreshadowed even in the exaggerated elon-
gation of face and figure in the work of Utamaro. To
the inexperienced there is an apparent sameness in
all these prints, but a little study will show that the
style is discernible through the conventions of schools,
and that the work of the masters of the art stands out
with individual emphasis. Fenollosa brings this out
clearly in his characteristically illustrated " Outline of
the History of Ukiyo-Ye." Many other authors have
well described this fascinating art : Strange, Seidlitz,
Goncourt, Revon, Perzyriski, Kurth, Holme, La Farge.
Good color reproductions of the prints are not want-
ing, and fine public collections of the prints themselves
may be studied in various print rooms.
Originally drawing this art from the Chinese, the
Japanese developed it into an intense, immediate ex-
pression of national artistic spirit and of national life.
The latter point is worth noting. For while the subtle
196 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
artistic feeling may be obscured at first sight to the
unaccustomed eye by the exotic style, a frank consid-
eration of these prints as records of social life will
bring them closer through the touch of human interest.
One becomes more reconciled to the strangeness of the
style, the mask-like faces, the queerly-shaped limbs,
and the other signs of conventionality, on discovering
again that humanity is the same the world over. In
these products of the golden age of Ukioye, the life of
Japan stands before us. Laborers are shown at their
occupations, coolies dragging burdens, fishermen busy
with nets and cormorants. Toyokuni, Utamaro and
Suzuki Harunobu depict women under all sorts of cir-
cumstances, at the toilet, " opening letters with a hair-
pin," bleaching cloth, dressing the hair, applying rouge
to the lips, cutting out a dress, or putting up New Year
decorations. Koriusai and Kitao Shigemasa show us
children playing at " battledore and shuttlecock," blow-
ing soap-bubbles or making snow images. Portraits
of actors are signed by Torii Kiyonobu, Torii Kiyo-
masu and others. An interesting note occurring re-
peatedly is the love of nature, amounting to a sort of
aesthetic cult. The practice of going out in parties to
see the cherry blossoms is illustrated, and such titles
as " Gathering Lotus," " Peach Viewing," " Snow
Viewing," " The Voice of the Cicada," " Listening to
the Song of the Insects," are frequent. Finally,
" Smoking Out Mosquitoes " indicates that even here
the placidly aesthetic contemplation of nature has its
limits. The " peerless mountain," regarded by the
Japanese with loving reverence, receives its apotheosis
in Hokusai's two famous series, the " Hundred Views
WOOD ENGRAVING 197
of Fujiyama " and the " Thirty-six Views." We see
the people in street and in workshop, at home and trav-
eling, in an ever-shifting endless series of characteris-
tic scenes. Conventionality and the development of
technique have not killed the vein of human sympathy.
The art is indeed bound in certain conventions in its
expression, but its expression is so summary that we
are spared the wearisome repetition of conventional
detail. And who would say that the decorative effect,
the bold sweep of line, the construction of the whole,
the unerring juxtaposition of colors, are impaired by
these conventions?
The power of synthesizing, of suppressing unnec-
essary details, is possessed by some of these Orientals
to a very remarkable degree. This results in vigorous,
artistic snap-shots, such as some of the familiar dash-
ingly-brushed pictures of crows or other birds, or im-
pressions such as the masterly one of a pouring rain-
storm, with figures struggling up a hillside road to-
ward the left, by Hiroshige, or some snow-scenes by
the same artist.
This absence of excessive finish forms one of the
charms of Japanese color-prints. The line in these
woodcuts is economized, becomes in truth a symbol,
and has calligraphic affinity. Outlines to indicate form,
no shadows, no detail except the necessary; sometimes
even an omission of the lines circumscribing spaces to
be filled with color, such as the pattern on a dress or
the flower in Kiyonaga's picture of two women gath-
ering iris, printed in a flat tint, without outline. This
outline of form set down as a basis for color, but
form and color offered in decorative harmony, in per-
198 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
feet adjustment of means to* end. With quiet disre-
gard of all niceties of execution which are not abso-
lutely necessary to such end linear and aerial perspec-
tive, details, expression of features, and differentiation
of faces. Not necessarily are all disregarded at one
time, but each at one time or another.
In technique these prints are the direct outcome of
the materials employed. Moreover, the means used
are the simplest possible. The Japanese engraver cuts
his design with a knife on a plank of cherry-wood run-
ning with the grain, not across it. The design is not
drawn on the wood, but on a transparent paper, which
is pasted face downward onto the block, to guide the
cutter in his work. It will thus appear reversed in the
wood, and will come out right in the printing. The
engraver cuts around the lines of the design, and re-
moves the spaces between them by means of chisels,
so that the lines stand out in relief. The block so cut
is the " key-block," bearing the whole design, and to be
printed in black. From this an impression on thin
paper is taken for each color intended to be used, and
each impression is pasted face downward on a block,
after being marked so as to show what portion is to be
printed in the color in question. The portion so
marked in each case is cut around so as to stand out
in flat relief. Frequently two or three colors are com-
bined on one block. In printing, the sheet passes from
one block to the other, until all the colors have been im-
pressed upon it. Sometimes a special effect is ob-
tained by an impression from an uncolored block,
which produces an embossed design in white. This
process is used to good effect for delicate patterns in
ONE OF THE HUNDRED VIEWS OF FUJIYAMA.
By Hokusai.
(C. S. Smith collection, New York Public Library.)
WOOD ENGRAVING 199
garments, clouds, white shells or water. All of that
does not sound very complicated. But in the first place
the method of taking an impression by means of a hard,
little shield, known as a " baren," which is rubbed over
the back of the paper laid down on the wood-block
(they did much the same in Europe in the fifteenth
century), calls for skill and experience. And inci-
dentally, it may be noted, too, that as the printer lays
down his paper on successive blocks, he has nothing to
guide him but two little registering marks, a rectan-
gular notch on the right side of the plank, and a
straight one on the left. One may occasionally see
evidences on the prints of wrong register, where colors
overlap, or white streaks show. But what is of more
importance is the freedom allowed the printer and the
demands made upon his artistic capabilities. For the
whole matter of expressing the original design in its
colors and gradations is left to him. With us, the en-
graver produces gradations by his lines, and the inking
roller deposits a uniform film of ink. With the Jap-
anese, the cutter furnishes lines to bring out form, and
otherwise provides only flat masses in relief for colors.
The water-color, mixed with rice-paste, is laid on the
block with the brush, and the printer applies it in
stronger or more delicate tints, as desired, producing
all needed gradations. The last are, therefore, created
independently of the wood-cutter; they are painted on
the block. The process may be compared to that used
in printing etchings, when a film of ink is left on un-
etched parts of the plate, over and above that held by
the etched lines. The two methods are akin in this
respect, that they both leave to the printer the realiza-
200 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
tion of certain effects intended by the original designer.
A detailed and most interesting account of the whole
process, written by T. Tokuno, and edited by the late
S. R. Koehler, was published in the report of the U. S.
National Museum for 1892.
Early in the eighteenth century black-and-white
prints were colored by hand. Then came printing in
color, rose and green only being used at first, but used
with remarkable resourcefulness in distributing colors
with relation to each other. Kiyonobu rings a gamut
of possible changes of harmonious arrangement in these
two colors. As the art developed, with Suzuki Haru-
nobu the field became enlarged from the actor-print
(the popular demand for portraits of actors had
formed a not unimportant incentive to the production
of prints) to a wider range of subjects, and from the
few tints first used to a wealth of color applied in end-
less variety, with fine sense of balance. In the exquisite
effects attained the grain of the wood and the texture
of the paper play their part. If it is seen that the ear-
lier work is characterized by subdued color, while the
later shows a preference for brilliant tints, it must also
be noted that some of this effect in the older prints is
due to the fading of the colors, just as time may have
added a mellow richness to old paintings. Whether
the cause be simple or complex, it results in delicate,
low-toned tints of exquisite effectiveness.
With Kiyonaga, although he gives outdoor feeling
without cast shadows, landscape assumed greater im-
portance; it was eventually to develop into an element
of prime interest. By Hiroshige, landscape is rendered
for its own sake, not as a mere background accessory.
WOOD ENGRAVING 201
And what impressions of his native land he gives us
in the simplest, broadest elements of form and color!
Notwithstanding the democratic spirit of wood en-
graving, it has thus produced a most sensitively devel-
oped form of art. The simplest materials have suf-
ficed for an expression of consummate art. Or, per-
haps, I might better say that the very limits of the
means used have intensified subtlety. As E. F. Fen-
ollosa said, speaking of A. W. Dow's experiments in
printing pictures in a few flat tints : " It strengthens the
artist's constructive sense in that it forces him to deal
with simple factors." But with foreign appreciation of
the art of color-printing there came its decay in its
native land. Occidental influence has been felt, and the
Japanese has leanings toward cosmopolitanism. And
what does the future hold ? It is pleasant to contemplate
the efforts made as in the periodical Kokka not only
to record pictorially various phases of the art of Japan,
but to hold especially, in a measure, this old art of
color printing. But it does not seem that a renaissance
of an art so purely national, " the spontaneous out-
come of a joyous nation," is very likely to take place
under present conditions. Whatever the future may
have in store for the art of Japan, her heritage in the
color-print of old is one whose influence, the influence
of a highly developed sensitive artistic spirit, has over-
spread the civilized world.
The possibilities of the wood block have been ex-
ploited to a remarkable degree. It has rendered line
and tone, given the precision of the pen-and-ink sketch
or the etching, and the free, granular irregularity of
the charcoal smudge, translated paintings with the set
202 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
regularity of the line engraving on copper or, abandon
ing the line per se, with an attention to tone and color
and texture, which gave even the illusion of painty
brush marks. It has been used for the rudest handbills
and for the most elaborate reproduction of famous
works of art; it has served as an original art, as a di-
rect means of expression, and, crossing the bounds of
the black-and-white, it has imitated wash-drawings in
two or three tints, and has entered the domain of color-
printing in elaborate reproductions, as well as in the
highly sensitive form of art exemplified in the Japanese
chromo-xylograph. It has been employed to illustrate
in the rudest form the songs and ballads hawked about
the streets, and in perfection of craftsmanship works
such as the Dore Bible. It has been put to the practical
use of producing wall-paper, and it has brought forth
works treasured by the collector, though so different in
style as the engravings after Diirer or Holbein, and
those which are the work of some of the modern dis-
ciples of the art in the United States. The sum of its
accomplishment is so wide and varied that there are
many possibilities of enjoyment, even for those who
believe that in the abandonment of the line in the re-
productive work of modern times the art has been
forced into a sphere not its own, or that its proper
field is black-and-white, and not color. Although these,
too, will ascertain and appreciate the noblest expres-
sions of this modern striving after ideals sometimes
unobtainable.
Above all, it is clear that the attractive element in
wood engraving is undoubtedly the impress of the na-
ture of the material used, the wood block, with both its
WOOD ENGRAVING 203
resources and its limits, its strength and its weakness.
And it is in proportion as he has realized this nature
and expressed it, that the engraver will give force to
his appeal to our admiration and sympathy.
The use of linoleum, in recent years, as a material
on which to engrave in relief, farther illustrates the
influence and interest of the medium. The springiness
and surface texture of the linoleum add a special char-
acter to the color prints thus produced.
CHAPTER VIII
LITHOGRAPHY
THERE are varied pleasures in store for those who
become interested in the peculiar charm of lithog-
raphy.
A supple medium this is, ranging in its possibilities
of expression from delicate silvery grays to deep vel-
vety blacks, from masses of tone to the slightest pen-
cil-like sketches; a process of many effects, produced by
tools of the most varying description : crayon, pen,
brush, scraper; a method of lines coarse or fine, of
tones, of washes, in black-and-white or in color; an au-
tographic art, reproducing the artist's touch absolutely;
displaying his individuality without the intervention
of any human translator; an open, personal manifesta-
tion of his design and intention, with the full impress
of his character ; an art which does, of course, call for
adaptation on the part of the artist to its nature and
limits, but for comparatively little technical prepara-
tion; eminently a medium for the painter, permitting
" each temperament to assert itself."
Yet, despite all its resources and possibilities, its
ease of acquirement, lithography did not retain its
first strong hold as a painter-art. Taken up enthu-
siastically by many artists soon after its invention, it
204
LITHOGRAPHY 205
went through a period of brilliant achievement, par-
ticularly in France. Then its use as an art for artists
lapsed, and commerce claimed it for its own, develop-
ing its resources to a high degree in the more mechani-
cal and practical aspects. And this very extensive com-
mercial use of lithography may have served to keep
the glamour of high art from this reproductive method.
That may account in part for the want of attention
given by public and artists alike to lithography as a
medium for original expression in art.
In recent years, painters have again turned to it.
But they cultivate it in a somewhat different spirit
from that of the older men.
Lithography is susceptible of the most varied treat-
ment, flexible to a remarkable degree. The manifold
opportunities which it offers have been seized and uti-
lized by various artists, in accordance with their indi-
vidual style or tendency or subject. The centenary
exhibitions of artistic lithography, held in 1895 an< ^
1896, in Paris, London, New York City (Grolier
Club) and elsewhere, graphically illustrated this, as
do also the representative gatherings of examples in
the various print-rooms. Failing those, there is the
well-illustrated small folio on contemporary lithog-
raphy, issued by the Gesellschaft fur Vervielf'dlti-
gende Kunst, of Vienna, or J. and E. R. Pennell's
" Lithography and Lithographers " and " Some Mas-
ters of Lithography," by Atherton Curtis. It must al-
ways be remembered that even such fine reproductions
as the Vienna book offers cannot ever quite take the
place of the originals, for the grain of stone or trans-
fer-paper, the finer details of the intimate personal
2o6 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
touch of the artist must suffer somewhat from the in-
trusion of the network of lines, be it ever so fine, in the
half-tone, or the fine grain of the photogravure. Nev-
ertheless, these books form invaluable pictorial records
of the art, and of the application of its resources to
individual needs.
Lithography can imitate other graphic arts in an
astonishing manner. But in the end it cannot give the
absolute quality of the art which it copies. It will re-
main a lithograph, even under the cloak of borrowed
characteristics. It may prove profitable and legitimate
in commercial work to substitute the lithographic proc-
ess for others when it gives practically the same re-
sult with greater ease and cheapness of production.
But in original work painter-lithography, as it is
called attempts to make the stone speak an artistic
language that is foreign to it must be deprecated.
The medium may be molded to the individual style.
You have but to place lithographs by artists as dif-
ferent in temperament and manner as Horace Ver-
net, Gavarni, Menzel, Whistler and Greiner side by
side to see that.
It is an interesting and noteworthy fact that Aloys
Senefelder, the inventor of lithography, foresaw prac-
tically all of its possibilities of development in their
general outlines. Senefelder, a poor author, made his
invention while searching for an inexpensive mode of
printing his literary productions. Called upon one day
to write out a laundry bill at short notice, he jotted it
down on a slab of limestone from Solenhofen, on which
he had been practicing- reversed writing with an ink
containing wax, soap and lamp-black. It occurred to
LITHOGRAPHY 207
him to submit the stone to the action of acid, which
etched away the stone, except where the lines resisted
it, and this left his writing sufficiently in relief to be
printed from. This was in 1796, and his subsequent
experiments produced a surface to be printed from
which was practically neither in relief nor in intaglio,
so that lithography has been named a planographic
process.
The perfected method of this surface-printing in-
volves a chemical process, being based on the lack of
affinity between fat and water. The drawing is exe-
cuted on the stone with a greasy crayon or ink. A very
weak solution of acid is then applied to the stone. The
chemical effect of this is to increase the affinity of the
drawn lines for fatty substances and to increase the
resistance to the same in the portions of the stone not
drawn upon, the resistance being aided by the addition
of a solution of gum arabic. The acid, therefore, is
not applied, as in Senefelder's first experiment, in order
to eat away the untouched portions of the stone, so as
to throw the drawing into relief, but simply to effect
certain chemical changes. Water is then applied,
which will be held only in the white spaces. If a stone
thus prepared is rolled up with ink, it will accept it '
wherever it has been drawn upon, and will repel it else-
where. In the lithographic press, the stone and the
paper on it pass under a bar of wood which scrapes off I
the print.
For crayon drawing, the commonly-employed
method, the stone is given a grain, so that the crayon
may " take hold." A crayon sauce may be applied with
rags. Pen or brush may be used, with lithographic
2o8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
ink, or the stone can be covered with a layer of ink,
from which the lights are scraped out, as in mezzotint
engraving. Spatter-work has been produced, espe-
cially for posters, by drawing an edge across a brush
charged with ink. Engraving or etching on stone
consists in preparing the stone with gum, so that its
whole surface would refuse to take ink. Into this
surface the design is then scratched with a point, graver
or diamond, and wherever the stone is thus bared it
will take ink. Barley's well-known illustrations for
Judd's " Margaret " were done by Konrad Huber in
this manner.
The heaviness of the stone led eventually to the use
of the so-called transfer paper. On this specially pre-
pared paper the artist executes his drawing in litho-
graphic crayon or ink, and this drawing is then trans-
ferred from the stone to the paper by being placed face
downward on the stone and run through a press. This
has another advantage for the artist: it obviates the
necessity for reversing the drawing, which always ex-
ists when he draws on the stone or the wood, or en-
graves or etches on copper. His drawing is reversed
in the mechanical process of transferring, and comes
out right again in the printing. This transfer process,
by the way, can be used also where large editions are
to be quickly produced, for all that is necessary is to
keep on taking impressions and transferring them, so
that a given design may be transferred to as many
stones as desired, and printing from the same can go
on simultaneously on as many presses. But delicacy
may be lost in re-transferring.
The latest outcome of the desire to find a substitute
LITHOGRAPHY 209
for the stone is the use of aluminium plates. They have
been employed for the artist-lithographs of Cornelia
Paczka and others in Germany, where this form of the
art is known as Algraphie.
Lithography is the youngest of the reproductive arts
used as a medium of original expression, an auto-
graphic art in which the artist works directly in the
production of the print.
Some years after Senefelder's invention, various
German artists tried their hand at this new art, for
which so much was claimed. There is a weak wool-
liness and indecision in much of the early crayon-draw-
ing on stone, which does not emphasize either the in-
tense blacks or the delicate grays of which the medium
is capable.
But the new art was soon more extensively em-
ployed, and with more virtuosity, by the French, who
seemed to enter more into its spirit and its possibilities.
A " Lancer," done by Horace Vernet, in 1816, has
been regarded as the starting-point of serious painter-
lithography in France. It has the silvery gray tone
characteristic of the early French work, both profes-
sional and amateur. For the art, so easily acquired, at-
tracted men and women of good society, so that we
have portraits by Antoine Philippe d'Orleans, Due de
Montpensier, and a view of the Chateau de Rosny, by
Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berri, among others.
In that very facility lay danger, for it caused many
to take up the art who were either not fitted to give
utterance to its finer forms, or who applied themselves
to it temporarily as a source of income and a conven-
ient method of reproducing drawings for illustrations.
210 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
This last-named motive is one frequently encountered
even in the work of the best men.
It is with lithography as with etching. A good
painter is not necessarily a good etcher or lithographer.
The painter-lithographer, like the painter-etcher, must
arrive at a full understanding of the peculiarities and
characteristics of his medium. He must choose it for
its own sake as a means of artistic expression. If he
be not impelled by preference to the use of the litho-
graphic crayon, surely his performances will be as halt-
ing and stammering as utterance in an unfamiliar lan-
guage. It will be found that the most satisfactory work
is often that which was done con amore, without
thought of the public.
J. B. Isabey was among the earliest painters to prac-
tice lithography; his vaporous and silvery crayoning
shows particularly well in the delicately-treated fig-
ures of cavalier and lady in his " Stairway of the Great
Tower of the Chateau d'Harcourt " (1821). Here
the lines are lost in an even, grained tint. A similar,
if perhaps less delicate, handling appears in " Le Pa-
resseux," by Pierre Guerin. The grain is more pro-
nounced, the crayon lines clearly separated, but the
gray still adhered to, though with a somewhat duller
effect, in the drawings of the Baron Gros, Girodet-
Trioson, Guerin, Hersent, Grenier.
Aubry-Lecomte seems to have been at home in both
manners. He reproduced Girodet-Trioson's " Ossian "
designs (1821) in coarse-grained, broad parallel
gray lines, and copied Bonnefond's " Italian Pilgrim "
(1838) with suppression of line and absolute smooth-
ness, in " one of the most finished and finest
LITHOGRAPHY 211
pieces among French lithographs." His style predis-
posed him particularly to the reproduction of paintings
by Prud'hon, which latter artist also worked on the
stone.
Gradually the sometimes colorless gray gave way to
a full octave of tones, the lightest relieved by deep
notes of the darkest black, resulting in fine contrasts
highly suggestive of color.
This was a period of brilliant achievement in France.
Gericault, who died in 1824, is one of the earliest who
found new ways of saying things. His realism and
reaction against academic rules are echoed in his litho-
graphs, among which are a number of studies of
horses. " At a time," said Bouchot, in his interesting
book on lithography, " when softness of outline and
timidity of accentuation made lithography to be little
but a light and imponderable sketch, he was able to
communicate brilliancy and warmth, vigor of aspect
and opposition." Delacroix, the famous painter,
showed " what vigor and color the lithographic cray-
on can acquire in the hand of a master." As drawings
and as illustrations his " Hamlet " and " Faust " series
are not remarkable, notwithstandng Goethe's enthu-
siastic praise of those for his own poem. They have a
certain dramatic power despite their somewhat self-
conscious and " truculent romanticism." But consid-
ered purely as lithographs, in some of his pieces the
audacity and impetuosity of his method are highly
interesting. In " Macbeth and the Witches " (1825),
executed almost entirely by scraping thin white lines
out of a dark ground, " Lion de 1' Atlas " (1829), or
" Tigre Royal" (1829), he seems to have well-nigh
212 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
exhausted the resources of the stone in the vigorous
rendering of shadow and color suggestion. In the
presence of such ardent expression one overlooks faults
of form.
Barye, the noted sculptor of animal subjects, did
not strike such an intense, dramatic note on the stone,
and possibly used the medium rather as a ready means
of sketching. It is interesting, too, to compare this
savage fauna presented by Delacroix with ferocity,
almost, in the manner of attacking the stone, with the
domestic cattle depicted later by Rosa Bonheur, who,
like Delacroix, carries her personality as a painter into
her lithographs. One might say, perhaps, that both
animals and art appear tamer in her lithographs, if that
would not seem to cast reflection on one whose work
was as satisfactory in texture and handling as hers,
The strength of her lithographs stands out in contrast
to the reproductions, good though they are, of her
paintings by skillful lithographers such as Soulange-
Teissier and Sirouy. And while we are tarrying with
such later animal-painters, a word must be given to
Brascassat, whose " Etudes d'Animaux," though per-
haps not equal to Rosa Bonheur's studies, are yet vir-
ile and noteworthy productions.
Returning to the earlier men, I find one more animal
draughtsman to mention, but mainly by way of a con-
trast, as a foil to throw work such as that of Dela-
croix into startling relief. That is Victor Adam, fa-
cile, prolific, smooth, sure of himself in his little field,
whose always well-groomed and fiery horses are as
smooth as his style, who hardly ever went far enough
to commit an outright faux-pas. His was the art of
LITHOGRAPHY 213
a kind promoted by publications such as the litho-
graphic annuals and albums issued during the twen-
ties and thirties by the Gihaut brothers, in which lithog-
raphy was used primarily as a means of illustration.
Still in such books, as in the files of Charivari, La Ca-
ricature and similar comic papers, are preserved many
interesting and characteristic examples.
Most of the artists of 1830 lithographed more or
less; so did those of the Barbizon school. Millet did a
little; the stone of his " Sower," done in 1851 for
U Artiste (which periodical actively promoted the
cause of artistic lithography), was unfortunately mis-
laid after one proof had been taken, and found to be
much damaged when impressions were taken from it
in 1879. He introduced the figures in four large litho-
graphs of adventures among the Indians, executed by
his friend and neighbor at Barbizon, Karl Bodmer,
who traveled in North America in 1832-34 with Alex-
ander Maximilian, Prince of Neuwied, and pictured
the forest and its inhabitants, both in lithography and
in etching. Diaz made drawings on stone, some of
them in a playful vein, Corot, one regrets to find, neg-
lected a medium which was apparently so well adapted
to his style. Dupre, on the other hand, signed several
interesting lithographs, rich in blacks if not very subtle.
And you may come across one of the few by Frere,
such as " Les Images," or by Appian, who has here a
personal touch as in his etchings. With Decamps we
come again to a painter who draws exceptional effects
from the rich gamut of tones that lies between the
white of the paper and the deep black that the crayon
can give. The painter-quality is strongly in evidence
214 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
even in his little sketch of a " Fox-hunter " (in which
the scraper is used with discreet freedom), and his
power in suggesting color is shown particularly well in
the picture of " Children Frightened by a Watch-dog "
(1830).
It is significant that the scraper was freely used by
painter-lithographers as a means of lightening shad-
ows and indicating form, while it was more sparingly
employed, or not at all, by the professional lithog-
raphers. The latter, in their well-finished portraits,
used either an even-grained tint in which lines were
lost, or the elaborate cross-hatching of crayon lines,
which was finally developed into a mechanical formula
that finds its height of well-regulated inanity in the
almost innumerable drawing copies by Julien, from
which so many of us gained our first idea of drawing
when we were children.
A free use of the scraper is found also in the works
of Aime de Lemud, with qualities pleasing to both ar-
tists and public, among them the famous " Master
Wolfframb" (1838) and "The Return to France"
(the coffin of Napoleon I., borne by soldiers and sur-
rounded by spectres of the Grande Armee). This ef-
fective instrument can be utilized in two ways : white
lines can be drawn on a black ground, as did Charlet,
or the instrument can be wielded as in mezzotint, pro-
ducing semitones.
This mezzotint method was employed with remark-
able effectiveness by Eugene Isabey, the marine
painter, the exuberant bravura coloring of whose can-
vases is echoed in the rich tones of his lithographs.
" He knew instinctively where his accents should come
LITHOGRAPHY 215
to produce a harmonious whole," says Atherton Curtis.
His influence is evident in the work of his pupil, A.
Hervier, who branched out into a technique of his own,
however, using crayon, scraper and brush, and cleverly
imitating spotty wash drawings. Hervier's painting,
" Petite Rue du Port, Environs de Morlaix," was
translated into lithography by Bargue; the sky is
grained, but foreground, houses, figures and boat are
all brought out by scraping vigorously, wildly if you
will, but with a characteristic effect. It should be
looked at closely to study the technique, but not so near
by when it is desired to see the result. Paul Huet, like
others of this group, produced work that fairly palpi-
tated with strong feeling for color, in which the pale
gray crayonage of earlier days is quite lost to view.
This work, or at least much of it, is pure painter-
lithography, produced, whether for publication or not,
as a more intimate expression of the artist's person-
ality. But lithography was utilized also to illustrate
phases of life which directly interested and amused the
public. And the glorification of the army was particu-
larly popular.
The soldier of France was shown at home and in the
field, in camp and in the roar of battle, by Raffet, Bel-
lange and Charlet. Through these pictorial represen-
tations of the Grande Armee there moves the figure of
him who gave it its reputation, the " Little Corporal,"
idol of the people. Raffet was the most highly en-
dowed of these artists who helped to perpetuate on
stone the Napoleonic legend and to feed the popular
appetite for military glory. His lithographs form
valuable military documents. The tattered and poorly
216 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
fed soldier of the Republic, the fiercely mustached
grenadier (vieux grognard) of the Empire, the soldier
of Constantine and Sebastopol, were delineated by him
with keen observation, as individuals and in masses,
large bodies of men being handled with a remarkable
combination of detail and breadth. For his large
battle-scenes, spontaneous though they appear, are
carefully studied in detail, though balance is preserved
by insistence on essentials. He has even followed the
German poet J. C. von Zedlitz into the unseen world
in his depiction of the " Nocturnal Review " of the
phantom of the Grand Army by its Emperor, around
whom the long lines of cavalry are sweeping with
noiseless gallop, emerging from the misty distance into
the pale light which overhangs the scene with ghostly
suggestiveness. This dramatic scene is hardly more
impressive, however, than the irresistible forward
movement of the long lines behind the mounted Em-
peror in " Us grognaient mais le mivaient toujours "
("They grumbled but followed him always").
Raffet, as far as I know, is the only lithographer
beside Senefelder to whom a monument has been
erected.
Charlet's art was more consistently joyous. His
theme was the intimate life of the soldier. His prints
illustrate the eagerness of the schoolboy to carry the
grenadier's musket, the braggadocio of the drummer-
boy, the persuasiveness of the recruiting sergeant, the
reminiscential garrulity of the veteran. To-day we
realize that in his productiveness, Charlet at times fell
into the weakness born of the mannerism which fe-
cundity and facility are so apt to engender. And a
LITHOGRAPHY 217
manner adopted as a means of quickly arriving at a
desired end means frequent repetition of things done
before, instead of always renewed study of nature.
However, the sum total of Charlet's productions
shows so much good work, so much spontaneous and
immediate observation of life, and such sympathy with
the spirit that animated his countrymen, that it stands
in its entirety as an achievement of note in the records
of lithography. He, too, though usually sketching in
broad crayon-strokes, turned at times to the scraper,
as in a figure of a Turk (1823) done almost entirely
in white scratches on a black ground.
The vein of humor in Charlet is more pronounced
in the lithographs of those who are directly identified
with the comic art. Lithography, serving as a means
of picturing contemporary manners and ideas, became
a vehicle for caricature, both political and social, and
as such enlisted a number of able artists in its service.
Among these were both the illustrator Dore and the
animal painter Jacque, as well as L. L. Boilly,
whose many groups of heads (" The Antiquaries,"
" Reading of the Will," " Childhood," etc.) represent
a somewhat heavy species of humor, but are cleverly
drawn. More directly identified with caricature were
Philipon, Travies, Grandville, Henri Monnier, De-
camps the painter, and others whose records are
told in the annals of the comic art. But the two
most conspicuous examples of a union of artistic tal-
ent of a high order and an appreciation of the nature
of the lithographic process, placed at the service of
caricature, are Honore Daumier and Gavarni. A num-
ber of their works are reproduced in the monographs
218 HO W TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
by Frantz and Uzanne and by Elizabeth Luther
Gary.
Daumier is an artist of undoubted power, whom his
most enthusiastic admirers have placed among the
greatest painters of all time. As a lithographer, he
paid little attention to the niceties of technique,
but worked with a big stroke, that is most telling,
if perhaps a little brutal in its attack. He used
the scraper, but in a summary manner; so in the
picture of a man with a woman by his side, fishing in
a pouring rain, which is indicated by long, oblique,
white lines. His " Ventre-Legislatif " (the Chamber
of Deputies of 1834), and his " En f once Lafayette.
. . . attrape, mon Vieux " (the funeral of Lafayette,
with Louis Philippe dissimulating his joy), are excel-
lent examples both of his method in lithography and of
his force as a pictorial satirist.
Gavarni had less elemental force, less of the painter's
spirit, and more elegance and brilliancy. To him the
stone was a ready means of reproducing his pictorial
satire. His earlier drawings, in which he placed fine
lines and delicate tones with discriminating care, are
quite different from his later and best known work,
in which he handled the crayon and stump with sketchy
verve, and a spirit which had a decided manner in its
expression, but at the same time shows a keen observa-
tion of the weakness of humanity as evidenced in atti-
tude and gesture. His " Enfants Terribles," " Four-
beries des Femmes " and " Les Propos de Thomas Vire-
locque," unroll a gallery of types and characters in
which very adequate illustration of witty dialogue or
a ludicrous situation is quite apt to captivate the mind
LITHOGRAPHY 219
and allow it less freedom for criticism on purely artis-
tic grounds.
Lithography became the vehicle for caricature also
in Germany and Austria, though not with the same
artistic force as in France, and from Vienna it was
transplanted for this purpose to the United States by
the late Joseph Keppler, founder of Puck. In Eng-
land, on the other hand, I can recall only one instance
worth recording of a departure from the use of the
wood block in this field, and that is John Leech's
" Children of the Mobility."
If caricature thus availed itself of the lithographic
process to depict contemporary life in its humorous
aspects, the direct portraiture of the individual enlisted
its service to an even greater extent and with more dis-
play of care and finish. These elements one would
naturally expect here, for they appeal to the general
public.
Achille Deveria produced much commercial work
not worthy of his powers. But he signed also draw-
ings which place him at the head of portrait-lithog-
raphers in France. Such a one is the portrait of Vic-
tor Hugo, dated 1829, drawn with a free touch of the
crayon, the face in delicate tones, the coat with broad
lines; or the full-length picture of the elder Dumas in
his younger days, extended on a sofa in a noncha-
lant attitude. A reflective, psychological vein char-
acterizes his best portraits, attention being directed
mainly to the head. It has been pointed out, too, that
he knew the value of accentuation by blacks, as in the
hair of Dumas. His virtuosity was applied also to the
delineation of the ladies of his time, with spirited ele-
220 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
gance and fine appreciation of the charm and grace of
body and movement under the ridiculous toilettes of
the thirties, as the late Henri Bouchot pointed out in
his interesting little volume " La Lithographic."
Also happy in the portraiture of the " Eternal Femi-
nine," though more suave, more smooth, less personal,
was Grevedon, the soft, insinuating grayish tone of
whose work lend a charm of a certain appropriateness
to these subjects. Leon Noel, Baugniet, Llanta and
Belliard are among those who helped to increase the
large number of lithographed portraits which are well
enough executed to have undoubted value as records
of noted personalities, and which have their place in
the portfolios of public print-rooms. They bring us
nearer to that professional " lithographer's touch,"
with its delight in clean workmanship, in tints laid on
with careful avoidance of an individual note, or in
lines crossing and crossing yet again.
It would make a long list were I to refer to all the
Frenchmen who have drawn on the stone with more or
kss success in these seven decades of the nineteenth
century, either habitually or tentatively. The list
would include Ingres, Vernier and Lami, artists differ-
ent in aim and manner. But mention must be made of
Mouilleron and of Celestin Nanteuil, both skillful
craftsmen, and characterized by Bouchot as " transla-
tors of the first rank," and as among " the great color-
ists of lithography." The tendency as to subject and
the capabilities in delicate expression of Nanteuil are
well-exemplified in the suggestive " Cupids Guarding
the Door." Both of these artists did very much in re-
productive work, and so lead us naturally to a field to
LITHOGRAPHY 221
which I have several times had occasion to refer while
considering original lithographs in the main. The old
question will be raised again: Should reproductive
work be considered ? Why not, if it is good? Lithog-
raphy has done its share in fulfilling an important func-
tion of all reproductive art, the preservation of the rec-
ords of painting in black-and-white copies of its mas-
terpieces, as well as of less important works. 1
The gray tones of the earlier lithographs were
adapted to the reproduction of but few paintings. Be-
ing applied nevertheless, we have as a result much col-
orless work. But later on Gilbert, Sirouy, Pirodon,
Bouvier, Jules Laurens, Chaplin, Leroux and others
rendered paintings by various artists, particularly
Frenchmen, with more range of tone and with intelli-
gent skill (shown, for example, in the change of style
to suit each case in Laurens' " Galerie Bruyas ").
It remained for Theophile Chauvel, in the seventies,
to illustrate the possibilities of the art in translations
of paintings by Troyon, Millet, Isabey, Decamps and
Bonington. They are simply extraordinary in the adap-
tation to the style of these men, in the individualized
rendering of their manner to the very brush marks.
He applies delicate crayon work to produce a sky by
Troyon, or fine scraping to relieve the darkness of the
black body of a " Beagle " by Decamps, and to give
form and texture. Simple methods, no juggling with
the materials. Chauvel seems to have drawn the full
measure of possibility from lithography in a field in
which the soft crayon had once failed to show sufficient
vigor and suppleness. These last-named faults', re-
sulting in the want of variety, of color-suggestion,
1 The late John La Farge bore witness to this.
222 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
already referred to, were apparent also in much of the
earlier reproductive work in Germany, where the
medium was assiduously employed, especially in the
production of folio volumes of the class of J. N.
Strixner's copies after the old German masters, the
Munich " Pinakothek " pictures by Ferdinand Piloty
and others, or Franz Hanfstangl's edition of the
" Dresden Gallery." Much of this work was careful
and creditable, with artistic feeling, though perhaps
lacking in a certain delicacy of sympathy, and some-
what monotonous in tone. Here, too, there gradually
came more ability to enter into the coloristic peculiari-
ties of the original. Feckert's portrait of Ravene,
after Knaus, is an interesting example of this.
Hanfstangl himself did portraits with a certain
smooth originality, and with care and skill. Allow-
ing for the difference in national temperament, his
portraits may be classed with French work such as
that of Grevedon, although he strikes richer tones
than that artist. It is interesting to compare his por-
trait of Senefelder (1834) with N. H. Jacob's picture
of the same subject printed in Paris fifteen years
earlier. Both are almost pure crayon work. Hanf-
stangl's undoubtedly much superior in technical facil-
ity, but hardly, if at all, better in characterization or
feeling for color values.
The story of painter-lithography in Germany and
Austria is not so long a one as the French record.
The Achenbachs both drew on the stone; Andreas's
" Coast of Capri " (1855) is of special interest as an
example of lithographic pen-drawing. One might cite
other cases of sporadic use of lithography, but there
LITHOGRAPHY 223
are four names which stand out above the rest:
Kriehuber and Pettenkofen in Austria and Kruger
and Menzel in Prussia. The first two were the mas-
ters of original lithography in Austria. One work by
Kriehuber, who drew with a free touch, has been
reproduced more than once in American publications,
I believe. That is the " Morning with Liszt " ( 1846),
a group comprising Liszt, Berlioz, Czerny, Ernst and
Kriehuber himself.
Franz Kruger, known as Pferde-Kruger on account
of his skill in depicting horses, not only did military
and sporting scenes, but also a number of portraits
which bring him close to some of the best Frenchmen
in this field, not only in the artistic control of his
medium, but also in his insight into character.
The most prominent figure among German painter-
lithographers was that remarkable draughtsman, Adolf
von Menzel. His earliest published work of impor-
tance, " Kiinstler's Erdenwallen " ("Life Journey of
an Artist," 1834), executed with the pen, moves in
somewhat conventional technical lines, but shows orig-
inality in conception. His improvement in pen work
was rapid, and it was in the same medium that he
eventually published, in an extremely limited edition,
his studies (over four hundred) of the uniforms of the
army of Frederick the Great. In these " fashion plates,"
the figures are not stiff, but full of life and action.
His " Memorable Events in the History of Branden-
burg and Prussia" (1836), in crayon, with an occa-
sional touch of the scraper, already indicates strongly
his faculty for historical research, as well as his ready
grasp of technical methods whenever he approached a
224 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
new medium. But the work which fixes his promi-
nence among German artist-lithographers is the series
of six plates entitled, " Essays on Stone with Brush
and Scraper" (1851). In these, as also in the larger
" The Boy Christ and the Doctors in the Temple " (a
characteristic study of modern Jewish types), he
scraped the lights out of an ink wash on the stone,
hence the introductory vignette on the title-page,
showing brush and scraper dancing a wild roundelay.
With what virtuosity this method is here used, an
examination of this set will show.
In the " Transport of Prisoners through the
Woods," movement and atmosphere are rendered in
remarkable manner. The fearful straining of the
horses to pull the heavy wagon up the hilly, muddy
road, the dejected attitude of the soaked prisoners,
the rider galloping toward the castle dimly seen
through the mist and driving rain all this is pic-
tured with absolute sureness and perfect command
of materials. The gloomy effect is increased by the
use of a tint-stone, that is, a second stone from which
a flat, grayish tint is printed on the sheet. In
another print of the series, " The Bear Pit in the
Zoological Garden/' the scraper indicates in white
the drops of water thrown off from the pelt of one
of the exceedingly life-like bears. One recalls here
the different method of Barye, who in his " Bear of
the Mississippi " apparently worked up the black hide
from light to dark, adding crayon-strokes to get the
required depth, doing less in the places which were
to appear more light.
The earliest English work has historical rather than
LITHOGRAPHY 225
artistic interest, C. Hullmandel being somewhat prom-
inent as a printer and experimenter who brought vari-
ous improvements into the art. During the three decades
after 1820, half-a-dozen names stand out with some
prominence. Richard P. Bonington, a " distinguished
and precious nature," easily takes the place of honor.
He died at the early age of twenty-eight, but left some
sixty lithographs, mostly views of architectural monu-
ments, of an exquisite delicacy. These, says Beraldi,
in his useful dictionary of nineteenth-century engrav-
ers ("Graveurs du XIX e Siecle"), are marked by
" such picturesque qualities and so personal a color
that they acquire the importance and interest of veri-
table original compositions." His most important
work appeared in Baron Taylor's voluminous " Voy-
ages pittoresques en France " and includes the " Rue
du Gros Horloge, Rouen" (1824), generally con-
sidered his chef d'ceuvre, and the " Tour du Gros
Horloge." The atmospheric effect of the first and the
composition and clouds of the second, have been sin-
gled out for special commendation. James Duffield
Harding was an artist of some mannerisms, but of
amazing facility and dexterity. His " Sketches at
Home and Abroad" (1836) are printed from two
stones in tints, with whites scraped so vigorously out
of the stone that they stand in little ridges above the
paper, which has been forced into the scraped hol-
lows in printing. " The Park and the Forest "
(1841) was drawn on the stone with crayon and light
brush washes, a process known as lithotint. These
two sets of prints, therefore, illustrate two distinct
lithographic methods in the hands of a skillful crafts-
226 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
man with a smooth and finished style. His work
shows affinity to that of the noted Swiss painter,
Calame. Smoothness and finish also characterize the
very numerous portraits by R. J. Lane, who had a cer-
tain distinction of manner which raised his work
above the commonplace of average portraiture. T.
S. Cooper's " Groups of Cattle, Drawn from Na-
ture " (1839) are also printed with a yellowish tint
and scraped whites.
To jump from England to Spain for a glance at the
bull-ring scenes by Goya, is to emphasize a strong, al-
most crass, contrast, for that fiercely eccentric genius
treated the stone with the same rough energy as he
did the copper.
With the fifties there began the ascendency of com-
mercial lithography. Business interests finally claimed
the art as their own and it passed from the hands of
the artists, and as a means of original artistic ex-
pression was thrust practically into the background.
However, commercial exigencies brought about great
improvement in color-printing, resulting in such mas-
terpieces as Louis Prang's reproductions of the ob-
jects of art in the Walters Collection. They have
also promoted poster-designing, which Cheret, Gras-
set, Willette and others have raised to the dignity of
an art.
In more recent years there has become manifest a
revival of interest in this fascinating art of painter-
lithography. And the most interesting feature of this
renaissance is that the art is used with perhaps a
greater variety in handling than ever before, certainly
with a noteworthy attempt to emphasize its flexibility
LITHOGRAPHY 227
in the revelation of individual aim and temperament.
In looking over these new manifestations of the art,
instinct with modernity in purpose and statement,, it
is not the generalizing characterizations of " silvery
grays " or " velvety blacks " that come to mind and
lip, but the outcome of individuality. There is practi-
cal independence of traditional methods. There are
the usual solecisms which naturally and inevitably
accompany efforts to find new forms of expression
in a language, be that language literary, artistic or
musical. But the work will all find its level.
The most intense and interesting expression of this
new movement is found in France and Germany, al-
though there are some noteworthy instances in Eng-
land as well. The fresh note of modern impulse was
sounded in the album ( 1892) of the French " Society of
Painter-Lithographers," with contributions by H. P.
Dillon (who, in his graceful conceits, effectively places
pale grays and strong blacks in juxtaposition), Carriere
(who, as in his paintings, serves his heads of Gon-
court and others in a vaporous sauce), Bracquemond,
Cheret (in whose cover for Felicien Champsaur's
" Entree de Clowns " the effect of spatter-work in the
shadows may be studied), Aman-Jean, Desboutin the
etcher, Willette, Rops and others. Even more ad-
vanced are the prints in " L'Estampe Originate" by
Besnard, Puvis de Chavannes, Signac, Toulouse-Lau-
trec, among others. Most of these are color-prints,
violent, audacious chromatic trumpet blasts of artistic
revolt.
Lunois juggles with the medium, using the brush
to produce an astonishing resemblance to wash draw-
228 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
ings, but suppressing his identity in reproducing work
by Daumier, Ulysse Butin and others. In repro-
ductive lithography, Paul Maurou has shown a vigor-
ous and masterly touch in drawings after J. P.
Laurens, such as " Mounet Sully as Hamlet " (1889).
Painters, such as Dagnan-Bouveret, Chartran,
Ribot, Detaille, J. Lewis Brown (whose very sum-
mary sketches are touched with printed color notes),
have occasionally taken up the lithographic crayon,
with interesting results, but usually not with sufficient
application to leave a lasting impress on the art.
One of the most noteworthy, because of his energetic
devotion to the enchanting process of lithography, is
Fantin-Latour. Originally by scraping and scoop-
ing out the stone with an old razor, and subsequently
by working on rough-grained transfer-paper, he ob-
tained the inequalities of surface which are so unlike
the polished effect of the professional lithograph.
Embossed white lines in his lithographs show where
the paper has been forced into the un-inked hollows
thus cut out. The dreamy imaginings of this " meloma-
niac painter " are attempts at emotional interpretation
of the compositions of Wagner and others, the out-
pourings of a sensitive and responsive nature. There
is a charm in the expression of his manner, the grainy
vapor which envelops his figures, dimming outlines
and details into indefiniteness and showing an ap-
parent weakness to whoever can see artistic virility
only in the hardness of clean-cut drawing. If, in his
well-developed manner, there are certain notes and
chords which he strikes by preference, they are com-
bined into sonorous harmonies responding to everlast-
PORTRAIT OF TOLSTOI.
Lithograph by Henri Lefort.
This lithograph is vigorously scraped and the background manipulated
with stump or rag. Lefort is best known as an etcher.
LITHOGRAPHY 229
ing ideals of beauty which are independent of schools
and prejudices.
It is an interesting period, this time of new ideals
and headstrong reforms, of diverse " movements "
and tendencies, a period which produced at the same
time the joyous frivolity and at times quite unneces-
sary outrageousness of a Willette and the obscure and
fantastic symbolism of an Odilon Redon. For both
the lithograph served well; "the stone was made for
the mystic," say the Pennells. This period has pro-
duced works so entirely different as Henri Lefort's
portrait of Tolstoi, done with much scraping, and
the recent efforts of Maurice Neumont to gain effects,
as in a little " study " of the nude, by running long,
parallel, straight crayon lines within his outlines.
This ferment of new ideas, this freedom from rou-
tine is found likewise in Germany, where the spirit
of " secession " finds expression in the general tend-
encies of local groups, such as exist in Berlin, Dresden,
Munich, Karlsruhe, as well as in individual originality
and sometimes vagary. For the German will push
a new movement to its utmost logical conclusion with
methodical seriousness. Even the occasionally strong
frankness of the ultra-modern caricatures lacks the
light frivolity of French work, showing rather a
crushing sarcasm, as mirrored in the periodicals
Jugend and Simplicissimus.
In lithography, as in etching and wood engraving,
individual expression is strongly developed in these
modern Germans. Hence there is much diversity of
method.
Otto Greiner, with a fancy for satyrs, centaurs,
230 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
bacchantes and similar fabulous beings of by-gone
times, is master of the technical means that lithog-
raphy has to offer. The excess of modeling in his
work, which marks him as akin to the etchers Klinger
and Geyger, is in striking contrast to the suggestive-
ness which forms the chief characteristic and beauty
of most modern work on copper and stone. O.
Rasch's " Interrupted Devotion " (an old woman
looking up from her book) and Franz Hoch's " Eifel-
dorf," are examples of what may be accomplished by
scraping and wiping on a tint. The archaism, the
vigorous and expressive simplicity of Hans Thoma,
the serious embodiments of religious subjects by W.
Steinhausen, have a place by themselves. Cornelia
Paczka's figure studies executed in Algraphie (on
aluminium), and printed in red, the vigorous head of a
woman, done with a blue tint, by Kathe Kollwitz, the
fancies of Jettmar, are further manifestations of pos-
sible variety. These are a few instances selected al-
most at random, representing no hint of completeness,
and noted simply to point the way to a highly
interesting modern development in the revival of
lithography.
As in the more recent etchings and wood engrav-
ings, so in lithography, the frequent use of color is a
noteworthy feature, in German and French work, at
least. It is a far cry from the hand-coloring of the
thirties and forties, or the technically remarkable com-
pleteness of color effect in commercial work, to this
modern application of color as a suggestion, an im-
pression merely. A suggestion so slight in the case
of Whistler's " apparently unlaborious notes of pass-
LITHOGRAPHY 231
ing tones and tints " (so Miss Gary puts it) as
to appear rather like an expression of aesthetic emotion
than an attempt to indicate realization. With Lunois
the application of color is much more realistic, and
in his " Absinthe Drinker " it rises to a vehement
reveling in unctuous blues and reds, palpitating in
slight unevenness of tone. These daring effects be-
come more crass in the violent efforts of some of the
other men.
In much of the German work the color effect is dif-
ferent again. More complete at first sight, perhaps,
but not in reality. Only, here the suggestion often,
particularly in the case of the Karlsruhe Kiinstlerbund
group of artists, takes the form of flat, even tints.
Such work is essentially decorative, and is, in fact,
often directly intended for wall-ornamentation. It
bears the signatures of Volkmann, whose " Waving
Field of Grain " is quite familiar outside of Germany;
Kallmorgen, Otto Fischer, Jenny Fikentscher and
others. Karl Biese's " Winter Mists " is a snow-piece
of a delicacy that recalls John H. Twachtman's ren-
dering of the exquisite pulsation of subdued color
produced by the play of light and shade on the white
surface. Such a finished effect, as well as the en-
tirely different methods of the versatile Emil Orlik,
who, in " Sonntagsmorgen in Brotzen " and similar
work, applies spotty, flat color notes, and of Max Sup-
pantschitsch, who will produce a " Moonlight " in
black, with a blue tint (as he used blue paper in etch-
ing), further emphasize both diversity of individuality
and expression, and the power of the stone to ren-
der it.
232 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
The one principle that underlies all this modern
French and German work, whether the color is ap-
plied with frank impressionism in slight spots or
strokes, or with decorative use of tints to suggest
complete effect (as do the Japanese in their wood-
cuts), is the use of only a few stones to print primary
colors. This is in strong contrast to the system of
building up a chromo-lithograph by superimposing
tints from numerous stones, twenty if necessary.
Incidentally, it is to be noted that this lithographic
work printed in color is the same in principle as the
most elaborate commercial productions. There is a
stone for each color, and on each that portion of the
design which is to appear in the color in question is
filled in with black crayon or ink, the color being of
course applied in the inking. Fuller descriptions of
the methods of color printing will be found in Auds-
ley's "Art of Chromolithography " (1883), in which
progressive stages of printing are illustrated in nu-
merous plates. Useful books are also those by the two
French printers, Lemercier and Duchatel. The lat-
ter's " Traite de Lithographic Artistique " (1893) is
a really practical treatise for the artist, in which all
sorts of methods are described and illustrated.
A group of three Dutchmen accentuates as many
differences in style. The summariness of Storm van
's Gravesande, who shows the same brevity and sim-
plicity of method as in his etchings; the uncom-
promising exactness of Jan Veth, as in his portrait of
Menzel, and the vague indefiniteness of M. Bauer, a
sort of Monticelli on stone and copper.
Two of the most noteworthy exponents of painter-
LITHOGRAPHY 233
lithography in England, Whistler and Pennell, have
been of American birth. Whistler molded the medium
to his manner with the same deftness of touch and
succinctness in his lithographs as in his etchings,
" St. Giles " and " Soho " being noteworthy examples.
In a few instances he strove for tone-effects, as in
" Limehouse " (quite dark, with some scraping),
" The Tall Bridge " or the wonderful lithotint " Early
Morning," which really constitute a remarkable appeal
to artists to cultivate an art which is so responsive
to the touch, and permits of such different methods
as the crayon-line, and the tint worked up by means
of scraper and rag wiping. Usually, however,
Whistler employed the crayon alone, in joyous utili-
zation of the lightness and tenderness of the gray line.
His lithographs, says Pennell, " were executed, not
to fill the order of an editor or publisher, not in re-
sponse to fads or movements, but because lithography
happened to be the method of artistic expression
which, at the time, met his need and mood. This it
is which gives his lithographs their distinction. They
have the freshness, the spontaneity which is the very
life of the art." When he worked on transfer paper
he usually completed the drawing after it had been
transferred to the stone. The grain of the transfer
paper is quite apparent in some of Whistler's figure
studies, among them the " Little Nude Model, Read-
ing," with its exquisitely rendered feeling of flesh.
This paleness of line, this abstention from strong
blacks, is a feature also in the lithographs of C. H.
Shannon, the exquisite modulations of which show
that the gray line need not be dull and lifeless as it
234 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
once was, often enough, and in those of Will Rothen-
stein, whose " English Portraits," however, constitute
more directly characterized portraiture than the simply
suggestive " Pennell " by Whistler.
The value of the gray is accented also by Alphonse
Legros, who in his bust portrait of Tennyson wearing
a hat, approaches the shimmering delicacy of a silver-
point drawing, while preserving the full strength of
sympathetic characterization. He has indeed, as Pen-
nell says, the " fine repose and serenity " of an old
master.
The influence of Whistler may be traced in " The
Shop " and similar prints by Joseph Pennell, form-
ing part of the " Spanish Series," well characterized
by Whistler himself as crisp and light. The sketchy
outlines of these lithographs give place to fuller tones
in his " Holland " series, while in the views of Rouen
Cathedral he strikes deep notes of vigorous black
which throw his delicate treatment of architectural
detail into strong relief. Pennell's work is as
interesting as it is varied in style. But there
are other evidences of diversity of method in Eng-
land. Legros himself portrayed Champfleury in
a frank, freely drawn crayon sketch. Hubert
Herkomer handles the scraper with rich force in
" Abendlied," one of the illustrations in " Six Easy
Pieces for the Violin," composed by himself. Frank
Short, a master of various processes, showed painter-
like qualities in a landscape sketch in crayon, with a
man in a boat in the foreground. The impression
which I saw was in a rich brown ink. Thomas R.
Way, son of the Thomas Way who did much to in-
PORTRAIT OF TENNYSON.
Lithograph by Alphonse Legros.
This print approaches a silver-point drawing in delicacy. Comparison
of this with Lefort's portrait of Tolstoi will show some of the variety in
effect to be drawn from the lithographic stone.
LITHOGRAPHY 235
duce Whistler and others to take up lithography, has
drawn architectural beauties of London, and is known
as the translator into black-and-white of Whistler's
portrait of his mother.
Alma Tadema, G. F. Watts, Marcus Stone and
Alfred Parsons also practiced the art in a desultory
manner, and J. McLure Hamilton's experiments in-
cluded some portraits of Gladstone in color.
And where do American artists stand in this new
movement? They have not yet entered on the eve
of a revival, apparently. Yet ability is not wanting,
nor some record of past achievement. Not a long
record, it is true. It begins with Rembrandt Peale's
large portrait of Washington (the one in the stone
frame, be it understood!), which shows such a grasp
of the possibilities of the new art that the insignifi-
cance of his smaller portraits is not easy to account
for. It passes, this record, over the long list of com-
mercial work, of mediocre portraits which saw the
light in the thirties, forties and fifties, to note the
personality or the individual work standing out clearly
above the rest. Such a one is the portrait of W. P.
Dewees, after Neagle, by M. E. D. Brown, who
here rises above himself in a stunning bit of effect,
with vague outlines and strong shadows, with appar-
ent influence of the old-style stipple engraving on
copper in the treatment of the coat. Or occasional
performances by F. D' Avignon, or Albert Newsam.
Newsam did much work of deadly dullness, but also
some of such merit that I know of two or three ama-
teurs at least who have made collections of his por-
traits. The graceful and facile touch and smooth
236 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
manner of Napoleon Sarony were exercised mainly in
commercial work.
Perhaps the first example of pure painter-lithogra-
phy is Thomas Moran's "Solitude" (1869), a view
on Lake Superior, a picturesque and finished per-
formance. Entirely different in style, simple in sub-
ject and treatment, with a quiet charm of their own,
are J. Foxcroft Cole's "Pastorals" (1870), eight in
all. To the work of these two men are to be added
the half-a-dozen Civil War " Campaign Sketches " of
Winslow Homer, and Wm. M. Hunt's two prints of
a little hurdy-gurdy player and a flower-girl, the lat-
ter especially delightful in its painter-like qualities.
If such achievements appeared to hold promise of
future effort, the promise was not fulfilled, beyond
a few attempts by Edwin White and others, and much
later by C. A. Vanderhoof. In the nineties an attempt
was made to found an American Society of Painter-
Lithographers. It came to nothing, although a num-
ber of artists tested the capabilities of lithography as
an autographic art. Tested it, too, in some cases, with
a noteworthy understanding of its potentialities. The
effective use of the scraper in two figure pieces by the
experimental J. Alden Weir shows that. So do the
two Paris views by H. W. Ranger, especially " On
the Seine," in which the artist has admirably caught
the atmosphere of a wet day with its tremulous gray
sky and its glint of rainy pavement.
A crayon-and-scraper sketch of a lady in an opera
box (1891) constitutes an "early and only attempt"
by Miss Cassatt, and John S. Sargent has drawn some
studies of models in big, black strokes. And what
LITHOGRAPHY 237
are we doing to-day? After these sporadic but prom-
ising efforts of the past, what have we to show to-day
if we leave out Whistler and Pennell? Albert Sterner
has done masterly figure studies. A. B. Davies shows
sensitive adaptation of the medium to various subjects.
Robert J. Wickenden produced such characteristic
pieces as " La Mere Panneqaye." C. F. W. Mielatz
used lithography to good effect in a series of twelve
views of the less familiar landmarks of New York
City, executed for the " Society of Iconophiles."
Add W. J. Glackens, John Sloan and Ernest Haskell,
and you have about all. To that and to the few other
prints which I have mentioned the collector of Ameri-
can painter-lithographs is limited, and he may be
thankful if he can get some of those.
It is a pity that an art so supple in expression, so
fascinating in its rich resources, so absolute in its
reproduction of the artist's touch without the inter-
vention of any other agency, should not have called
forth a fuller and readier response to its appeal.
Whatever the cause, or causes, we can but hope that
present conditions are not final; that there will come
the spirit and energy to take up this art, and the public
appreciation necessary to support the effort.
The excellent work accomplished in the first half
of the nineteenth century so identified the art with
certain aspects of method, virtuosity in rendering the
scale of gradations from the white of the paper to
deep richness of black, that to the conservative the
modern methods that have been applied to the stone
must have seemed at first very revolutionary. These
pencil-sketch-like, light, vapory impressions of a
238 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Whistler were so different from the rich, resounding
tones of an Isabey. These colorings of a Lunois
threw such a startlingly novel note into the technique
of the art, a note that rose to some shrillness with
Toulouse-Lautrec or Ibels.
Experiments in seeking new ways of using an art
are not only allowable, but necessary and commenda-
ble. Otherwise, we should not have seen such a
movement, for instance, as impressionism in painting.
Experiments are born of a desire for giving expression
to emotions and ideals in new ways, and are very apt
to lead to extremes, at first, in the struggle for recog-
nition of new aims. Energetic devotion to reform
in any activity in life generally produces some fanatics
who overshoot the mark. To them, the object to be
attained assumes such proportions of importance that
balance is lost and taste departs from view. And that
condition of affairs is aggravated by Philistine in-
difference or opposition.
But that is never a reason for throwing over a
movement in its saner and final aspects. As long as
the expression is within the limits of the medium it
is legitimate. The writer does not borrow from other
tongues in order to produce beautiful passages in
English. The sculptor who models a bas-relief does
not expect to encroach on the specific domain of paint-
ing by applying elaborate gradations of color or aerial
perspective. The same rule applies to the arts which
we are considering in the present book, the rule that
the means must be fitted to the end and the end to
the means, the old truth that a medium cannot over-
step its limits. Now, the limits of lithography are
LITHOGRAPHY 239
quite wide in extent. And the essays of the last
fifteen years or so have shown us that the art held
within itself further possibilities of expression, possi-
bilities which could serve the younger element of
to-day as the art served those brilliant Frenchmen
of the thirties whose work has stood as its very
embodiment.
CHAPTER IX
THE only reason for including this chapter is the
importance of these processes in reproductive art. As
a medium for direct expression, as a painter's art, they
do not come into consideration. For the fact that
Frank Short, or Felix Bracquemond, has worked on
photogravure plates simply indicates the experimenta-
tive nature of clever technicians.
Innumerable processes have been invented to take
the place of the various methods of engraving by
hand, natural agencies being substituted in order to
attain greater cheapness by diminishing the amount of
labor and time used. These " substitute processes,"
as they are called, depend on etching (such as the
Gillot or Comte processes) or on mechanical agencies
(such as the Collas metal ruling machine), on the
making of casts by electro-deposition, etc.
But it is with the entrance of the camera as a factor
in such processes that they came to play an extensive
part in the dissemination of art knowledge, particu-
larly in the illustration of books and magazines. In
the latter field they have practically supplanted wood
engraving. They give the artist the same freedom, as
to size and medium of the original drawing, that was
240
THE PHOTOMECHANICAL PROCESSES 241
already noted, in the chapter on wood engraving, in
connection with photographing on the wood block.
Truth and speedy and cheap production are their
principal claims.
There are numerous processes for the reproduction,
in a printable form, of the photographic image, all
being based on the properties of resinous or glutinous
substances and the changes which they undergo under
the influence of light.
Asphaltum, for example, becomes insoluble when
exposed to light. If a metal plate is coated with
asphaltum and exposed under a photographic negative,
the parts under those portions of the latter which
transmit light will become insoluble, while the others
can be dissolved, laying bare the plate. If the latter
is then subjected to the action of acid, the portions
protected by the hardened asphaltum, representing the
lines of the design, will be left standing in relief. The
result is therefore a relief plate, which can be printed
together with letterpress, on an ordinary press, a mat-
ter of great advantage. This is the system much used
in newspaper work, and is exemplified (with certain
changes as to substances used) by zinc etching and
other processes. Obviously, if the plate is exposed
under a positive, an intaglio plate will result.
Gelatine, again, swells in cold and dissolves in hot
water, but loses these properties if mixed with a
bichromate and exposed to light, gaining the power
of resistance to acid in the operation. If a plate is
covered with a bichromatized- gelatine film, exposed
under a negative and then washed in cold water,
the lines protected by the black portions of the nega-
242 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
tive, representing the whites of the design, swell
("swell-gelatine process") and thus form a mold
from which plates suitable for relief printing are
produced. Or a reversed negative can be used, the
gelatine hardening under the clear spaces of the nega-
tive, representing the black lines of the drawing.
Warm water dissolves the unchanged gelatine,
("wash-out process"), leaving the design in relief.
From this a wax mold is made, and herefrom a relief
electrotype.
These are line processes.
To reproduce masses, tones, tints, gradations, a way
had to be found of disintegrating them, breaking them
up into lines or dots, to produce printable plates. Two
noteworthy results of experiments in this direction are
the half-tone and the photogravure: the first a relief,
the second an intaglio process.
By the half-tone process, a glass plate with a net-
work of black lines (several hundred to the inch in
fine work) is interposed between the drawing or other
object to be photographed and the camera. A sensi-
tized copper plate thus receives an image which is
broken up into minute dots, as the light can only pene-
trate the spaces between the intersections of the lines.
The plate is then etched, the acid attacking only those
portions which were not struck by the light. The
design to be printed is thus left in relief. This is
the method generally used for magazine and book
illustration where the original drawing is not one
of lines absolutely. It necessitates a smooth paper,
brittle, perishable and unpleasant to the eye.
The other method is that of the photogravure.
THE PHOTOMECHANICAL PROCESSES 243
This involves the combination of a gelatine film with
a photographic image and an aquatint ground, and
is likewise an etching process, resulting in an intaglio
plate.
Both the half-tone and the photogravure need re-
touching. Especially the former, which is low in tone,
so that the high lights are scraped out by hand, an
operation quite noticeable in the print, the dots being
absent in the portions thus scraped.
Photogravure, being an intaglio process, cannot be
printed with type, but must be struck off separately on
a plate-press, which naturally makes it more expensive.
It is essentially a vehicle for the reproduction of
paintings.
The collotype (phototype, Lichtdruck) is printed
directly from a gelatine film which has been exposed
under a negative, and through resultant chemical ac-
tion has acquired the property of receiving printing
ink in proportion as light has acted on the negative,
that is, accepting ink on the blacks of the image and
rejecting it on the whites, like the lithographic stone.
Collotyping, which is a planographic or surface-
printing process, has been used with special success in
making facsimiles of old prints and drawings, of great
value for purposes of study, and so well done that it
has been found necessary to stamp them " facsimile."
A very compact summary of the principal ones of
all these many processes appears in the late S. R.
Koehler's catalogue of an exhibition held in the Bos-
ton Museum of Fine Arts in 1892. General principles
remain the same, although many improvements in
matters of detail have been made since then. It is to
244 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
be noted also that there are various names for similar
processes, with some resultant confusion of terms.
The advantages of photography itself as a means
of keeping comparatively truthful record of architec-
tural monuments, have been accented by Russell Stur-
gis, who very properly adds that the artistical char-
acter is not in the photographic picture, but in the
object which it reproduces.
Photography is also the most satisfactory method
of reproducing paintings for the student of style and
manner. Once, difficulties were offered by the ina-
bility of the ordinary camera to render all colors in
their exact value in black and white, the blues appear-
ing too pale, yellows too dark. This defect has been
corrected by the use of orthochromatic (isochromatic)
plates. The importance of such an improvement, in
giving a proper photographic translation of a paint-
ing, need not be insisted upon.
Efforts to photograph direct in natural colors have
culminated, for the present, in the recent invention
of Lumiere. But for ordinary purposes, the really
practical result of many experiments in this field is
an indirect one, the application of the three-color prin-
ciple to half-tone plates. Three negatives are ob-
tained, each of which, by the use of orthochromatic
plates and so-called filters, is adjusted for the rays of
one of the primary colors. The negatives are made,
in the regular way, into half-tone blocks, each one
of which shows only that portion of the picture which
is to be printed in one of the three colors. Such
three- and four-color processes have been used in the
reproduction of works of art (paintings, porcelains,
THE PHOTOMECHANICAL PROCESSES 245
book-bindings), as well as in reproductions of water-
color drawings to illustrate modern books of travel.
This, of course, is not color-photography, though it
has been called so. In fact, it is well to understand
clearly the undoubted advantages of these processes
as means of producing pictorial documents, as well as
their defects and limitations, and not to claim for
them, or expect from them, more than they can
render. For even then they offer enough to make us
thankful, while nursing our optimism in the hope for
improvement.
CHAPTER X
COLOR PRINTS
THE desire to produce and to see pictures in color
is a natural one. It shows itself even in the primitive
attempts of the child who daubs over old woodcuts
with the water-colors which have brightened its birth-
day or Christmas morning. Thackeray, it is said,
described the joy which this gave him in his boyhood,
and Robert Louis Stevenson, in his volume of " Mem-
ories and Portraits," gives charming expression to this
childish delight. The title of his essay, " A Penny
Plain and Twopence Colored," calls attention to the
practice of publishing prints in both uncolored and
colored states. Children had professional hand in this
work, for Tuer, in his " Forgotten Children's Books,"
describes how the coloring on such books was done
for the publishers by young people in their 'teens, one
putting in all the reds, the next all the yellows, and
so on.
Coloring by hand has been applied to woodcuts,
mezzotint, stipple, etching, aquatint, line engraving
and lithography.
But while the practice of hand-coloring has come
down to our own time, experiments in color-printing
were made from the very first. They extended to
( every known method of preparing wood blocks, or
246
COLOR PRINTS
metal plates, or stones for rendering impressions.'
There is not one of the reproductive arts 'dealt with
in the preceding chapters to which attempts at color-
printing have not been applied, more in one case, less
in another. In block-book initials and chiaroscuro
prints, in Japanese chromo-xylographs, Baxter-prints
and wallpapers, in mezzotints, aquatints and stipple-
engravings in color, in experiments of centuries ago
to produce accurate copies of paintings and in the
most modern efforts to throw a mere suggestion of
color into an etched plate, there arises a brilliantly
chromatic array of witnesses to the fascination which
the art of printing in colors has held for several
centuries.
As to the justification of the use of color on aesthetic
principles, and the extent to which it may be used
in good taste, that is a matter which each one must
settle, to some extent, for himself. But, if the color-
print be accepted, there are certain limits which will
come to be felt instinctively, and these limits once
fixed, time will not be wasted on unworthy work, but
the best in this field will be chosen. And that will be
found to project itself with some distinctness in this
peculiar phase of taste in art, which winds like a red
thread through the records of all known processes of
printing pictures.
While even the period of the incunabula (books
printed before 1500) was not without its experiments
in color-printing, the vast majority of the prints in
color were colored by hand at that time. Jost Amman,
in 1568, drew what to-day is a valuable record, a series
of three pictures showing the designer, the engraver
248 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
and the colorer at their several tasks. What color-
printing there was, was from wood blocks, and it is
through the agency of wood engraving, also, that the
more ambitious method known as " camaieu " or
" chiaroscuro " was put into practice. The step from
such simple tints to more complicated color-printing
was again natural. In the middle of the eighteenth
century, John Baptist Jackson, who applied the
chiaroscuro method to the production of wallpaper,
extended it also to the attempt to imitate objects in
their natural colors. This work was continued by W.
Savage, whose interesting " Practical Hints on Dec-
orative Printing, with Illustrations Engraved on Wood
and Printed in Colors at the Type Press" (1822),
contains creditable specimens of his work. In 1835,
George Baxter took out a patent on his method of
color-printing, which consisted essentially in the ap-
plication of color printed from wood blocks, to out-
lines engraved on a copper " key-plate " giving the
form. This use of wood blocks to print color
over an impression from an etched, engraved or
mezzotinted plate was known long before this, but
Baxter applied more colors and consequently more
blocks.
GThe most artistic expression in the art of printing
n colors from wood blocks came from Japan. Where
Baxter's work forms the culmination of the effort
to imitate perfection in all details, these Orientals
use color with decorative effect primarily. Through
them the art of wood engraving, neglected to-day in
favor of photographic processes, has in its simplest
form, but with the assistance of color, held the atten-
COLOR PRINTS 249
tion of various able artists and has had a far-reaching
influence.
During these centuries color-printing from metal
plates was separately developed. And in both
possible directions, with the use of one plate only,
to which all the colors were applied and then im-
pressed on the paper at one printing, and with the
use of a plate for each color, the paper receiving
impressions successively from them all. In color-,
printing from different plates, it is of course neces-
sary that each portion of the engraving is always
relatively in the same position on each plate, and
that the paper, in the press, always lies in exactly
the same place on the plate. This is called register,
and proper register is more or less assured by certain
marks on the plate. Despite all precautions, faulty
register occurs. Its effects are quite apparent in
cheap lithographs or Sunday comic supplements.
Early experiments in the sixteenth century include
those of Hercules Seghers, who is said to have printed
outlines from an etched plate on colors applied by
hand to canvas or paper, and Johannes Teyler, who
produced delicate landscape, animal and other sub-
jects in one printing. With C Le Blon (1667-1741)
we come to more certainty regarding processes. He
worked on the principle of three primary colors
yellow, blue and red making a mezzotint plate for
each. In theory, all necessary color combinations
could be attained with these three; in practice, the
effect was somewhat elusive, for to resolve a paint-
ing into its component colors was not so easy a mat-
ter. Gautier D'Agoty later added a fourth plate, to
2$o HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
print the design in black and thus give body to the
whole. The " three color " principle is applied to-day
in photomechanical processes, but there the camera de-
termines what is to appear on each color plate.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, Ploos van
Amstel was cleverly imitating the drawings of Dutch
and Flemish masters in plates that are somewhat puz-
zling, but in which signs of aquatint, roulette and
other methods can be traced. A number of his plates
appear in the volume " Collection d'Imitations de
Dessins d'apres les principaux Maitres Hollandais et
Flamands." Louis Bonnet, who worked in the crayon
manner, imitated pastel drawings, " with complete
illusion " we are told, using a plate for each color.
William Blake, that strange genius, stands by him-
self. Not only because of his originality as a poet
and an artist, which has occupied the attention of
various biographers and commentators. But also for
a technical reason; the other methods of printing from
metal plates are intaglio processes, while his is a relief
process. The printing is done from lines standing out
in relief, not from lines cut into the plate. Blake
himself called this method " To Wood-cut on Cop-
per." He wrote the text and drew the designs of his
" Songs of Innocence " and other poems on a copper
plate, presumably with the stopping-out varnish used
by etchers, or some similarly protecting substance.
When the plate was then subjected to the action of
acid, it remained intact wherever he had written or
drawn upon it, while the remainder was bitten away.
Thus, text and drawings were etched in relief, and
could be printed from. One color was usually applied
COLOR PRINTS 251
for the text and another for the pictures and orna-
ments, and after printing the whole was tinted by
hand. Blake's books are extremely rare to-day, but
some will be found in public libraries, and certain ones
have been reproduced in facsimile, among them the
" Songs of Innocence."
So experiments in color-printing went on, and they
have gone on to the present day.
The alliance between color and the photomechanical
processes was a natural outcome of the desire to
heighten the exactness of reproduction of the camera
by adding the final element of color. Some remarka-
ble color reproductions of paintings have already been
effected. The usefulness of this cooperation between
the camera and color-printing is further demonstrated
in various books on porcelain, Oriental rugs and other
art objects, which are increasing the possibilities of
art instruction through the printed page. And the
present-day outpour of English books descriptive of
special countries or cities, illustrated in color, from
sketches in aquarelle, also indicate both achievements
and possibilities in this line.
Color prints had their special day in the eight- J
eenth century. Mezzotints and stipple-engravings fre-
quently appeared in color. Sometimes they are simply
printed in one tint, as are occasionally the small bust
stipple portraits by Chapman and others, or the anony-
mous mezzotint portrait of Paul Jones, telescope in
hand, which collectors know in a reddish-brown ink.
Or they appear in black, with a touch of red, as on
cheek and sleeves in J. R. Smith's " Mrs. Robinson "
after Romney. This application of color in spots,
252 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
which seems of questionable taste, just as it does in
half-tone plates to-day, may also be done entirely by
hand, as in an impression of J. R. Smith's " Mrs.
Sneyd as ' Serena,' " shown in New York in 1904,
in which sash, cap and face were touched up with
color.
The term " printed in colors " is always used with
a mental reservation, for a color stipple or mezzotint
absolutely untouched by hand is rather rare. The
art of color-printing is so complicated, the tricks of
inking so many, the blending of colors so delicate an
operation and the knowledge of the manner in which
a certain color will print under certain conditions so
difficult to acquire, that the " personal element " is a
strong factor in this operation.
A simple rule to tell color-printing from hand-
coloring is this : If the dots or lines show in pure blue
or red, or whatever the color may be, the color is
printed; if they appear black or brown under the
color, then the latter has been supplied by hand. Or,
to put it in another way : If the dots and lines are in
color, and the spaces between them are white, it is
a case of printing; if the spaces are covered over with
the same color as the dots or lines, it is hand-work.
Where the stippling is very fine, close examination
is necessary to determine this. There is a portrait
of R. J. Schimmelpenninck, by L. Portman, a Dutch
publication, not a work of high art, but a good, deli-
cate bit of stippling. It is only under a magnifying
glass that the tender flesh-tint resolves itself into
hand- work, only the bluish background and the
brownish frame being printed in color.
COLOR PRINTS 253
Color may raise the question of inferiority of im-
pression, for it was not unusual to cloak the short-
comings of a worn plate by printing it in colors. In
fact, the mezzotint plate gave better results in color-
printing after a certain number of impressions in
black-and-white had first been struck off. The mar-
ket is flooded with restrikes and even more with mod-
ern reproductions of these eighteenth-century color-
prints, known and sold as such, but possible traps
for the unwary when in irresponsible hands. Mrs.
Julia Frankau's " Eighteenth Century Color Prints "
(1900) is profusely illustrated with very good repro-
ductions of color-prints from metal plates, and there
are also some, of both English and French work, in
Vol. V. of Lippmann's " Engravings and Woodcuts by
Old Masters." x
Lithography accentuates the fact that the grained
surface lends itself more readily to detailed applica-
tion of color, and fairly invites its application. The
Germans are bringing the old art of chromo-lithog-
raphy to its own, and the modern Frenchmen come
out with bold realism of color.
" L'Estampe moderne," issued in 1897, with plates
by Robbe, Leandre, Fantin-Latour, Mucha, many of
them done in lithography, is an outcome of this
modern effort. Even more so "L'Estampe origi-
nale," brought out four years earlier, with contribu-
tions by Toulouse-Lautrec, Ibels, Whistler, Henri
Riviere, Lepere, Willette, Lunois, Rodin, in etch-
ing, lithography and wood engraving. More or less
tinged with opposition to conventions is this and sim-
ilar work. A stumbling-block to the Philistine, oc-
1 A work on the subject in general, " Colour Printing and Colour
Printers," by R. M. Burch, was published in 1910.
254 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
casionally a bit outrageous in its screamed defiance or
its exultant whoop, but nearly always with some point
of interest, some freshness of view, some novelty of
statement.
Whether we are attracted by color in etching or not,
we may be quite sure that the thing is to be well tested.
The artists whose names are cited in the chapters on
etching and lithography have been and are applying
that test.
The liking for work in color, as I said at the begin-
ning of this summary review, is a natural one. It has
no doubt been expressed at times in a rage for work
unworthy of serious attention, silly and weak in con-
ception and execution, touched up into a fictitious
semblance of naturalness by a little coloring covering
its artificiality. But in more ambitious and conscien-
tious efforts one may find delight, both technical and
artistic, in delicate tints applied in good taste. One
may even come to the conclusion that it is not so much
a matter either of simply indicating slight impressions
of color or of giving completeness of effect, but that
in either event the thing be well done. In that case
justification will be found for both the smooth finish
and completeness of a Debucourt or the spots of color-
suggestion in an etching by Raffaelli or a lithograph
by Whistler. And that because, though personal
choice will draw you more definitely to the one or the
other, you take pleasure in the workmanship of it all,
if it be exercised not only for its own glorification.
Adjustment of means to end is an eternal necessity.
The medium must be allowed to dictate its limits.
The etching cannot be expected to carry the same
COLOR PRINTS 255
amount of completeness in color as the complicated
aquatint method of the eighteenth-century French-
men, for instance. Keep this in mind. If color-prints
attract you, you will indeed still meet the criticism
of him who maintains that black-and-white is the
proper sphere of the print and its most chaste form
of expression, a standpoint from which the present
writer has not yet been able to emancipate himself
altogether. But you will be exercising your prefer-
ence on the safe and sane line of appropriateness, an
essential test of good taste. 1
: In 1910 there appeared R. M. Burch's "Colour Printing and
Colour Printers."
CHAPTER XI
COLLECTING
THE handbooks on prints often lay stress on col-
lecting in their very titles. I have emphasized appre-
ciation. The development of that faculty seemed
more important. The collecting habit is sure to assert
itself if there is the slightest predisposition.
According to his pocketbook and taste, the amateur
may collect the finest specimens of etching (limiting
himself, perhaps, to one or two great names, say Rem-
brandt, or Whistler) or of mezzotint, paying several
thousand dollars apiece for some of the rarest. Or he
may take up lesser lights, less expensive. He may even
follow Hayden's sensible advice and collect old Eng-
.lish magazines, such as Once a Week or the Cornhill,
for the sake of the wood engravings after Millais,
Walker, Sandys, Whistler, Pinwell and others. This
hint to the collector of very modest means might well
be extended to cover periodicals with wood engrav-
ings of the New American School. And if one suc-
ceeds in picking up stray back numbers of P. G.
Hamerton's Portfolio, or the Revue de I' Art, L'Art,
U Artiste, Zeitschrift fur Bildende Kunst, many a
pleasing etching or lithograph will be procured. The
expense is likely to be very moderate, and the enjoy-
ment great.
256
COLLECTING 257
Of enjoyment the discriminating collector is always
assured. It is said that Hippesly fairly breakfasted
on the beauties of Turner's " Liber Studiorum," hav-
ing a print from this series placed on the chair oppo-
site to him at his meal. Print-collecting in a proper
spirit not only trains artistic discrimination, but also
enlarges the view of life, and opens up " a world of
learning and of pleasure." And it has also been em-
phasized, as an argument pro, that little space is taken
up by the ordinary collection, as it can be very com-
pactly placed.
There are, occasionally, eclectic collectors, who ac-
quire fine examples of any of the processes, the line
engraving by Morghen, the lithograph by Whistler,
the etching by Haden. But the preference is usually
for specialization. Attention is devoted to the par-
ticular process, or school, or individual artist, or sub-
ject that appeals most to the collector's artistic tastes
and other interests. But specialization with a view
to relative completeness should not be applied to
Diirer or Rembrandt or Whistler, unless there is
ability to stand the financial strain involved in the
procuring of their rarest and finest prints.
The necessity of a definite plan has been urged by
some, in order to avoid being overwhelmed by the
mass of a miscellaneous collection acquired haphazard.
It is well to go slowly, and to keep one's head in print
shop and auction room.
A change of mind should be indulged in frankly,
with the courage of conviction, when it occurs.
I heard once of a young clerk who began to develop
a taste for etchings, and for a while bought certain
258 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
large and showy reproductions. In time his eyes were
opened, and one day he went to a salesman of the
dealer from whom he had been purchasing, and said :
" Now, see here. You know I've been on the wrong
tack. I don't want these things any more." The
upshot was that he returned his purchases to the
dealer, who allowed him a fair amount for them on
his future acquisitions. His taste had decidedly de-
veloped, and he used his not very large surplus to
good effect.
The value of prints as investments is frequently
dwelt upon. It is undoubted in various cases. But
that should not influence us to the extent of making
us buy things that we do not care for, because we
anticipate that they will hold their values or rise.
Buy with judgment always, but let the judgment
be artistic first and commercial afterward. If the two
coincide, all the better. I knew a collector who, I
feel confident, purchased his prints only because they
were fine examples of art. When he died, his col-
lection was practically the only asset. But his heirs
had no cause for complaint, for the prices which
his prints brought in the auction room justified his
selection.
Many collectors have been in the habit of writing
their names or initials, or stamping the same, or
monograms, or devices, on the prints in their pos-
session. Facsimiles of such collectors' marks are
given in the books of Fagan, Maberly and Wessely.
Some of them are a direct recommendation of a print
offered for sale. 1
The would-be collector needs practice. Dependence
1 " Collectors' Marks," by Louis Fagan (1883), reproduces 668 of such
marks.
COLLECTING 259
on a reputable dealer, certainly at first, is to be recom-
mended. And "if in doubt, wait," is a good piece
of advice. He will have occasion to refer to various
books, many perhaps, in the course of his activity.
Manuals specially intended for him have been written
by Wiltshire, Maberly, Whitman, Wessely, Wedmore
and others. There are many reference books, which
have been noted in the various chapters of the pres-
ent volume, and the annotated catalogues of exhibi-
tions issued by some dealers are frequently worth
preserving.
Some idea of prices is useful. Printed records of
sales must be used with some caution, when the items
are bare of any information as to the condition of the
print. Variations in price between impressions of the
same engraving may be recorded without comment,
leaving one to guess that they were probably due to
difference in condition or state. Lists such as those in
J. Herbert Slater's " Engravings and Their Value "
(London, 1912), or the Year's Art (London), the
American Art Annual (New York), the Connoisseur
(which also answers queries as to the value of
prints in its "Answers to Correspondents") and the
Kunstmarkt (Leipzig), supply to a considerable
extent the demand for a record of prices. 1 A
bird's-eye view of present-day prices in the whole
field of prints is offered in Gustave Bourcard's " A
travers cinq Siecles de Gravures, 1350-1903," which
volume also gives much other useful information, such
as lists of print-rooms, print dealers, printers and
sales, technical terms in English, French and German,
the whereabouts of specially noteworthy collections
1 To these should be added G. Bourcard's " La Cote des Estampes " (1912)
and " Annuaire des Ventes," by Leo Delteil, ist year: Oct. ign-June 1912.
260 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
of prints by certain individual artists, etc. Prices
brought by the work of individuals are recorded in
monographs on those artists (such as Tuer's on Barto-
lozzi, Bouchot's on Debucourt), or in books by au-
thors who happened to be interested in the artist in
question. Prices paid for Turner's " Liber," for ex-
ample, are set down in Wedmore's " Fine Prints,"
and Hardie's " English Colored Books " similarly
deals with William Blake. The last-named, like poor
Meryon, forms one of the cases which give writers
an opportunity to moralize on the irony of fate which
permits the works of a man who has lived in poverty
to bring high prices after his death.
Good impressions should be sought, but not neces-
sarily rare or early states. Various cases cited in the
next chapter show why an early state of a plate,
though bringing high prices because rare, may repre-
sent an unfinished conception and be aesthetically and
technically inferior to the final state of the plate. Or,
as it has been punningly expressed, a print may be
" rare because not well done."
An example of the opposite case was once cited by
a well-known print dealer, who said that he had
bought one of the portraits in Van Dyck's " Iconog-
raphy " in both states, namely, the etching as Van
Dyck had left it, and the same with the engraver's
burin-work superadded, paying just fourteen hundred
times as much for the " unfinished " as for the " fin-
ished " print.
Rarity may be due to various causes. The vicissi-
tudes of time may have reduced the number of im-
pressions in existence; an accident to the plate, or
COLLECTING 261
its confiscation by the authorities, may have occurred
when only a few proofs had been pulled ; the plate may
have been privately printed in a limited edition, or
its merit may be such that all known impressions are
in noted public and private collections, so that one
rarely comes into the market.
Collecting may become curiosity-hunting. Rem-
brandt etched a sleeping dog in a corner of a plate
measuring about 4*4 inches by 2 l / 2 . He subsequently
got rid of the superfluous white space by cutting down
the plate to 3)4 x J/4- But an impression of the first
state ("before the plate was cut") had been taken,
and that was purchased in 1841 by the British Mu-
seum, which gave 120 for it, the excess in price over
an impression of the later state being paid for white
paper within the plate-mark, as Hamerton says, which
Rembrandt considered useless. Whistler's " The
Desk " has brought $450 ; the fact that only a few
impressions were taken is the chief reason why it is
prized. In the case of the etched portrait of his
mother, of which only one print is known (which has
sold for $1,750), rarity and merit coincide. If finan-
cial means permit the acquisition of the rarity, it will
at the very least have its distinct value as a contribu-
tion to the history of the artist's development. But
for the ordinary mortal, the safe and sane method
is usually to look for the good thing irrespective of
rarity or state, the impression from the plate as it
was finally adjudged satisfactory by the engraver or
etcher himself, usually the first finished state.
Some prints have increased remarkably in price.
The collector of mezzotints may well regard with
262 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
envy the low prices paid by Walpole. Thomas Wat-
son's mezzotint, "Lady Bampfylde " (1779), after
Reynolds, which sold for 37 at the Sir John Stuart
Hippesly sale at Sotheby's in 1868, has in recent years
brought 1,200. It was originally sold at about fif-
teen shillings for a proof, and, say, five to seven
shillings for a print. Another famous mezzotint, J.
R. Smith's " Mrs. Carnac," went for 30 at Sotheby's
in 1872; in 1901 it brought 1,218. A late proof of
the same plate sold for 1,160 in the following year,
and I am told that the most recent price for a proof
of this engraving is $6,090. The Sun of New York
on August 25, 1907, recorded the sale of a colored
impression of Bartolozzi's " Miss Farren, after Law-
rence," for $2,900, and added the statement that
Lawrence had received $500 for the original painting.
Rembrandt's " Hundred Guilder Print " has gone up
to 1,750, his " Rembrandt with a Drawn Sabre "
has brought 2,000, and the " Burgomaster Six " over
$12,000.
These are high prices, indeed, but they are prices
forced up by a strong demand for a limited number
of prints by a limited number of men. The field is
large and there is much interesting work to be had
at much less expense.
We are told that even to-day a collection can be
formed on a comparatively small outlay. That is,
if you do not insist on limiting yourself to the biggest
game, or attaching yourself to a prevalent fad. There
is good work to be had, less sought after and there-
fore less expensive, by the older men as well as the
modern. It would be queer indeed if the would-be
COLLECTING 263
collector did not find something to attract him in the
wide diversity of individual temperament and national
expression unrolling itself as one surveys the long
record of production, which is being extended to-day.
A print-collector need not be an antiquarian; etch-
ing and engraving and lithography are living arts.
There are not a few men to-day working earnestly
and cleverly in these fascinating black-and-white
methods. They are doing it in your own country,
and you have but to look about you to see produc-
tions worthy of your notice. Have faith in your
appreciation of younger, contemporary artists. That
will not prevent you from enjoying the great ones,
even though they be beyond the possibilities of your
pocketbook.
Whether you collect prints or enjoy them without
collecting them, you are sure to become inquisitive as
to their make-up. You will wish to have some idea
of the way in which they are produced, what
" proofs " and " states " are, what " remarque "
means, or " counterproof," or " restrike." Such ap-
parently dry details lose their dryness when their con-
sideration has become a second nature, when the eye
looks for them. They will be dealt with in the fol-
lowing chapter.
CHAPTER XII
THE MAKING OF PRINTS
To judge a print intelligently, one should have a
general idea of the manner in which it was produced.
For only on the basis of such knowledge can one see
why an etching or engraving or lithograph is what
it is, and why it is objectionable to overstep the limits
which are fixed by the tools used, and the material
on which they are used. Technique has, therefore, been
dealt with in each of the preceding chapters devoted to
etching, mezzotint, wood engraving and the other
processes. There these processes are considered in
their artistic expression. But, in handling old prints,
a knowledge of certain earmarks is necessary, in order
to decide on authenticity and condition. And these
outward signs are also the result of the manner in
which the print was produced. But it is, so to speak,
a matter of the mechanics, rather than of the aes-
thetics, of production that holds us here. It is a
question of how the actual print was produced, of the
processes involved, subsequent to the preparation of
the block or plate by etching or engraving. This in-
formation the present chapter is to give, facts as
to the development of the " impression," as the indi-
vidual print is called, through printing, from the work
of the engraver or etcher or lithographer on the mate-
264
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 265
rial (wood, copper, stone) with the proper tools
(graver, etching-needle, lithographic crayon).
All processes of producing prints are based on three
methods : the relief, the intaglio and the planographic.
In the first the line to be printed from is cut around
so as to stand in relief above the surrounding sur-
face. Of this the wood engraving is an example.
In the second, the line to hold ink for printing is
cut in intaglio, cut into the plate. Such channels to
hold ink are the lines in engraving or etching upon
copper. The third method is that of the lithographic
process, where the lines are practically on the surface
of the stone. So there is either a ridge, a furrow or
a fatty streak to hold ink.
From these facts one may draw a fairly precise
definition of the word print : namely, " an impression
in ink or other colored fluid on paper, vellum or other
suitable material, from a design incised, or cut in
relief, or drawn with fatty substance, upon a hard
material (metal, wood or stone)." Singer and
Strang's " Etching and Engraving and the Other
Methods of Printing Pictures " and Hamerton's
" Drawing and Engraving " and " Graphic Arts,"
are useful guides to details, with pictorial illustra-
tions of the various processes.
There are certain characteristics to guide one in
ascertaining by which of the three methods a print
has been produced. In an impression from an intaglio
plate (engraving, etching) the ink lines stand out in
relief upon the paper, and the picture is bounded by
an indentation made in the paper by the four sides of
the plate, and known as the " plate-mark," which one
266 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
does not see on a visiting card because the card is
smaller than the plate. In a print from a relief-block
(wood engraving) the ink lines lie flat upon the paper,
and may even have been pressed slightly into it. In
a lithograph (planographic process) there is a certain
smoothness of the paper, because it has been scraped
evenly against the stone, and the ink has a more gray-
ish tone than in the wood engraving, beside which
the quality of the crayon line is a distinct one and
almost unmistakable. Line engraving on copper pro-
duces clean-cut tapering lines, etched lines are of
more uniform thickness and executed with more
freedom, the dry-point line is delicate and usually
has a velvety black border resulting from the " burr "
or ridge of metal thrown up by the point as it cuts
into the copper, the modern wood engraving shows
white lines on a black ground. Mezzotint and aqua-
tint depend on tones, not on lines, the former being
capable of gradual transitions from rich, deep darks
to lighter shades (in which latter you can trace the
work of the scraper in cross-like markings), while
the aquatint has no gradation, but flat tints (of a
speckled or crackled effect) of various degrees of
strength, often definitely circumscribed and not pass-
ing gradually into the next.
I must say frankly that I consider such directions
for the identification of printing methods somewhat
questionable, on the whole. How can one absolutely
tell a novice how to distinguish definitely between a
lithograph and a soft-ground etching? Practice does
more good than long talking. Even the few hints I
have given cannot invariably be applied, for the print
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 267
may show no plate-mark because the margins have
been cut down, the plate may have been worn so that
we cannot feel the lines in relief on the print, the burr
may have disappeared or the artist may have used
mixed methods. Or a woodcut may be printed in
grayish ink, and the " white line " may be imitated
on copper, as by C. W. Sherborn in his copy of a
woodcut by Thomas Bewick, a remarkable piece of
imitation. Practice for the eye is the main guide in
the end, and thus one will learn to distinguish be-
tween the lines or surfaces produced by the various
tools and processes.
Increasing familiarity with prints will enable one
also to get an idea of the condition of the printing
surface, and of the approximate time in its history,
when a given impression was struck off, the " state "
of the plate, as it is called.
The words " state " and " proof " often occur, and
call for explanation. Their use is not always well-
defined. In a general way it may be said that
" proof " is usually applied to an impression taken
from the plate in the earlier, clearly unfinished stages,
while " state " is used to indicate stages of relative
completeness. Meryon's " L'Abside de Notre Dame "
may serve to illustrate this. Wedmore records the
following :
" There are some curious trial proofs, one of which
shows nearly half the plate blank.
" First state, before any letters. Sky completed.
" Second state. Underneath, on the left : C. Me-
ryon. del. sculp, mdccdiv; on the right: Imp. Rue
neuve St. Etienne-du-Mont 26.
268 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
" Third state. Date removed.
" Fourth state. Remainder of inscription removed,
and replaced by : L'Abside de Notre Dame de Paris,
1853, and A. Delatre, Imp. R. St. Jacques, 265."
As the engraver or etcher works on his plate, he
takes an impression occasionally, to get the effect of
what he has done. Such impressions are known as
" trial proofs " or " working proofs." When such
proofs of old engravings have been preserved, they
may be exceedingly instructive. An impression of
Mantegna's " Virgin in Grotto," unfinished, gives an
interesting insight into the engraver's method, as do
proofs of Diirer's " Adam and Eve," which show
that he filled in each portion of his outline to com-
plete finish before going on to the next. And the
completest collection extant of wood engravings
by F. Juengling includes separate proofs, on scraps
of paper, of heads in his " John Brown Going to
Execution," after Thomas Hovenden. 1
The number of trial proofs varies greatly. If five
or less are taken of an original etching, the large
elaborate reproductive etchings have frequently neces-
sitated considerably more. The progressive stages
of such etchings as those by Bracquemond after
Meissonier's " Quarrel " or Millet's " Man with
the Hoe," can be followed up in a dozen successive
proofs.
Sometimes one comes across " counter-proofs," pro-
duced by placing an impression just taken, with the
ink still fresh, on a sheet of paper and running
them through the press. The result is a weaker im-
pression, reversed. Such exist of plates by Jacque
1 There is an interesting proof, in Dresden, of a Burgkmaier block, with sky
portions not yet cut away.
PORTRAIT OF EDMOND DE GONCOURT.
Etching by Felix Bracquemond.
First state.
This plate and the following one illustrate the matter of states, dealt with
on page 268.
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 269
and Millet, for instance, and mezzotints are also said
to have been proved in this way. 1
Proofs exist which have been touched up by hand
to indicate portions which are to be made lighter or
darker. A farther element of interest is added when
such corrections are made by the painter whose pic-
ture is reproduced in the engraving in question, thus
showing that the work was done more or less under
his supervision. Rubens corrected plates by Vorster-
man and others with pencil and white body-color.
Reynolds corrected the proofs of the mezzotints exe-
cuted after his paintings, as did also Lawrence and
others. J. M. W. Turner's supervision of the mezzo-
tinters who did his " Liber Studiorum " was constant
and thorough. Trial proofs, to be seen in New York,
of his " Norham Castle " and " Clyde " in that series
have penciled written directions beside the drawn cor-
rections. I have seen similar written notes by D. G.
Rossetti on a " touched " proof of a wood engraving
by Linton after an illustration by him in the Moxon
edition (1858) of Tennyson's " Poems."
Many interesting instances might be cited of
changes resulting from corrections, and of the man-
ner in which they are brought about. Buhot's work
is full of such examples. Francis Bullard's catalogue
of the exhibition of Turner's " Liber Studiorum," at
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1904, offers many :
e.g., No. 35, " Inverary Pier," " Foul biting in the sky
has been partially burnished out, and the marks of
the burnisher converted into clouds," or No. 44,
" Calm," " Birds are introduced to hide the defective
biting of the aquatint in the sky and on the water,"
1 A counterproof of Diirer (Bartsch 42) in the Berlin print room is remark-
ably clear. Counterproofs of plates by Rembrandt exist in the Dresden print
room and elsewhere.
2/o HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
or, again, No. 66, " ^Esacus and Hesperie," " Turner
decided to darken the face of Hesperie by covering it
with hair, thus making it appear as if the head were
turned away from ^Esacus." The changes effected
during the progress of an engraving have sometimes
been considerable. Thus, in this same " Liber " by
Turner, No. 70 ("Interior of a Church") passed
from daylight to night in its effect, while No. 23
("The Hindoo Worshipper") went from sunset to
dawn. Rembrandt's " Three Crosses " has been fre-
quently cited as an example of complete change, the
last state being quite different in composition and ef-
fect from the first. In Charles Jacque's " Le Repos "
(No. 181) the metamorphosis of the cattle from a
flock of sheep, and the wanderings of the shepherd
over the scene in the progressive states of the plate,
illustrate the possibilities of changing an etching by
laying fresh ground and redrawing.
There are many ways of making changes. Work
on copper-plates may be obliterated by scraper and
burnisher, or the plate may be beaten up from the
back on an anvil by a hammer. A portion of a wood-
block may be cut out and a plug of wood inserted
in its place to be re-engraved. A piece may even be
added to an engraved block or plate, and the engrav-
ing then enlarged.
Occasionally an etcher will try his point on the
margin of the plate, or even execute some slight
sketch. Chodowiecki did this; Buhot did it to a very
elaborate extent. Such marginal sketches are called
" remarques." And from this habit originated the
systematic production of " remarque proofs," against
PORTRAIT OF EDMOND DE GONCOURT.
Etching by Felix Bracquemond.
Seventh state.
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 271
which Whistler directed his fine scorn. But he also
declaimed vigorously against the presence of any
margin at all. A margin on the plate is not a neces-
sity, but a proper amount of margin on the paper
is undoubtedly a protection for a print.
After the various proofs and states there comes,
finally, the " finished " or " publication state," pre-
ceded by the last proof, passed as ready for printing,
bon d tirer or modele pour le tirage as Jacque used to
write on his etchings. 1
In modern times, the whole matter of proofs and
states was brought into a regular system, impressive
to the buyer and profitable to the producer. There
may be, for example, successively, trial proofs, fin-
ished proof, proof with remarque, artist's proof be-
fore all letters (or inscription), state with names of
artists only, with inscription in open letters, with let-
ters filled in solid, with the publisher's address. And
the states, again, may be on India or Japan paper and
on plain paper. 2
The elaborate formal lettering on copper engrav-
ings, by the way, was generally done by professional
writing-engravers.
Printing calls for skill and training, and is an
especially delicate operation in the case of etching.
There have been some noted printers of etchings in
the nineteenth century: Ardail, Salmon, A. Delatre
and F. Goulding. Delatre printed Whistler's " French
Set," Goulding and Mortimer Menpes, himself an
etcher, printed other etchings for Whistler, and
" Whistler, imp.," the mark of his own printing, ap-
pears on many impressions. Motte, Hullmandel,
l "Je declare le tirage" appears on some of Himely's prints in the Biblio-
theque Nationale. The Stuttgart print room has a proof of a wood-engraving
by Max Weber, after Menzel. on which the latter has penciled: " Zufneden"
("I'm satisfied").
'"See C. R. Grundy's "How to Distinguish Proof Impressions" (Con-
noisseur. October. 1910).
272 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Duchatel and Lemercier were known as printers of
lithographs.
It is not an uncommon thing for an etcher thus
to act as his own printer and get exactly the result
he wants. " Drawn, etched, engraved and printed by
Francis Seymour Haden, May n, 1880," appears
under that artist's mezzotint, " Harlech Castle." Pen-
nell, Cameron, L. M. Yale, C. F. W. Mielatz, C. H.
White, Vanderhoof and many others have worked the
press themselves. The professional printer's name
in former days often appeared in etched, engraved or
lithographed letters on the print. To-day, artists pull-
ing their own proofs generally sign in pencil.
The importance of a good impression is paramount.
And the good impression is the result of the printer's
skill and the state of the plate.
Early states are generally sought, because the earlier
impressions from a plate are naturally better than
the later ones, which show signs of wear in the
plate. For this reason, also, early states are sought
by collectors, but even more, perhaps, because they
are rare. For rarity plays a very important part in
the collector's list of reasons. In reality, mere pri-
ority of state does not mean much in itself. The
very fact that the artist thought it necessary to create
a later state by making corrections or additions is
significant. Such an afterthought may raise a plate
from comparative insignificance to telling force, or
it may spoil it altogether. Turner's "Calm" (No.
44 of the "Liber") is usually considered much finer
in the third state than in the first. The Techener re-
issue of Jacquemart's " Gemmes et Joyaux " is better
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 273
than the first state, says Wedmore. In the second
state of Whistler's " Kitchen " a large amount of
added dry-point work appears, especially on the walls
leading to the window, increasing the richness and
harmony to a remarkable extent. On the other hand,
the luminous quality and reflected light in the first
state of Turner's " Crypt of Kirkstall Abbey " have
become flat and dull in the second. Some of Meryon's
plates have distracting additions in the later states,
strange birds and beasts and human beings, emana-
tions of a troubled mind. Nor could any amount of
working change the fumbling effect of the body in
Whistler's " Becquet " (the 'cello player), in which the
interest is absolutely concentrated on the well-wrought
head.
There may be various reasons for preferring an
early state. Experience, developed taste and acquired
knowledge of the individual case will determine your
choice.
Ink and paper play their part in the final effect.
Ink of a warm, brownish tone was often used for
eighteenth-century mezzotints, for which it was par-
ticularly suitable. The small stipple bust portraits of
the late eighteenth century were often printed in red
or brown. Experiments with inks are not infre-
quently met with, especially in the works of French
etchers. Lalauze's half-length of a woman from a
drawing by Rembrandt has been printed both in black
and in a warmish brown. Early states of his " Curi-
osite," after Huet, were printed in reddish brown
with the ornamental border in black. The step from
such experiments to color-printing is a natural one.
274 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Artistic individuality is shown even in the use of
paper, the quality of which contributes considerably
to the artistic result. Meryon sometimes employed a
dull green kind with the best results, and an added
weirdness of effect. Buhot, who once spoke of the
" intimate affinity of the paper in grain, tone and char-
acter with the character of the plate to be printed,"
tried all sorts of papers, thick and thin, light and
dark, grained and smooth, white and toned, even Jap-
anese packing paper. He also occasionally employed
sheets treated with some oily substance which is caus-
ing them now to crack and break off to the alarm of
the owners of etchings printed upon them. Still an-
other stains his paper with walnut juice. Etchings
are frequently printed on Japanese paper, occasionally
on vellum, or parchment, to gain richness of effect.
Satin has occasionally been used, but on the whole it
lacks the simple nobility of paper. Such aesthetic
aberrations as impressions on celluloid are fortunately
rare. 1
Fenollosa has paid an eloquent tribute to the part
played, in the general effect of Japanese prints, by
the paper with its " mesh of little pulsing vegetable
tentacles."
The paper may also help to fix the approximate
date of an undated print, or serve to determine
earliness or lateness of impression. This by means
of the water-mark, the design which you see in linen
paper when you hold it up to the light. These marks
designate a factory, and often simply particular qual-
ity, for certain ones, such as the foolscap, or the
Gothic P, were used at the same period by different
1 Late impressions of Diirer plates on satin exist. To quote the late Jaro
Springer: ' Satin was quite usual in the i?th century."
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 275
mills. In a recent catalogue of a dealer's exhibition of
old German line engravings there appeared again and
again, after the titles of the prints, " On paper bear-
ing the water-mark of a snake," or " of a high
crown," or " of a coat of arms with a starfish," or
" of a Gothic P," emphasizing the importance of
this feature. Vol. III. of Sotheby's " Principia
Typographica " (1858) gives a list of water-marks,
and a number are reproduced also in B. Hausmann's
German monograph on Durer's engravings and draw-
ings (1861). The latest book on this subject is C. M.
Briquet's " Les filigranes " (Paris, 1908).
Finally, it may be noted here that the difference
in the shrinkage of paper after it has been printed
on sometimes causes noteworthy differences in size
between various impressions of the same engraving.
The natural desire to save time and money led to
economy of means and systematization of labor. One
form which effort in this direction took at an early
date was that of the migration of wood blocks from
one printer's shop to the other, notably in Italy in
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The
same design thus appears in books published in cities
far distant from each other, so that it is not always
safe to draw conclusions as to the origin of such an
engraving from the date and place of publication of
the book in which it happens to be found.
The necessity of quickly supplying an increasing
demand brought about the establishment of wood en-
gravers' studios or workshops early in the sixteenth
century. There was a uniformity of style in the
work coming from such an establishment, which was
276 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
bound to make itself felt even above the widely dif-
ferent characteristics of the original designs. Similar
conditions existed into the second half of the nine-
teenth century. Noted German engravers ran xylo-
graphic establishments in which one man, frequently
an apprentice, engraved all the flesh-tints, another all
the trees, a third all the skies and so on. The fin-
ishing touches were given by the chief of the estab-
lishment. It was a sort of factory system of division
of labor by specialization. For certain periodical
publications, such as Punch, production was hastened
by cutting up a wood block into squares, each of
which was intrusted to a different engraver.
A similar condition of affairs controlled engraving
on metal. German engravers of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries produced incredible numbers of
portraits by an organized trade-system, the master
executing heads and hands, while clothes and acces-
sories were added by assistants and apprentices. So
it was also with the supply of religious pictures from
Amsterdam in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
ries, and the production of plates was often a family
affair. The Victorian engravers in England, and
some of the best-known American steel engravers,
produced plates by co-operative effort, apparently in
order to profit from proficiency of each man in some
specialty. J. A. Rolph and R. Hinshelwood executed
the preliminary etchings for many of James Smillie's
engravings, and the figures in the latter were some-
times engraved by others. In the case of the large
plate, " The Capture of Major Andre," after Durand,
this is explicitly stated in the legend : " Figures eng d
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 277
by Alfred Jones. Landscape eng d by Smillie and
Hinshelwood." In London, in the thirties and forties,
not a few " galleries of beauties," " gems of engrav-
ing " and similar collections of line engravings were
" executed under the superintendence of " Charles
Heath or Finden.
The step from organized and specialized co-
operative production to the business of publishing
was a logical one. Particularly in the records of
eighteenth-century engraving in France and England
do we encounter the names of many engraver-pub-
lishers. There were Odieuvre, who employed J. G.
Wille and others in their younger days, and, as Wille
said, "paid very little"; Le Bas, Basan (who wrote
a dictionary of engravers), Mariette (who amassed
a considerable collection of prints) and Boydell, en-
graver and alderman in London, projector of the
famous " Shakespeare Gallery." Even into the sec-
ond half of the nineteenth century certain prolific
American makers of portraits on steel were their own
publishers.
On old prints this publishing activity is often
indicated by the word excudit or direxit placed
after the name of a well-known engraver. In such
cases, the name of the actual engraver is often given
as well, but in less important plates it is frequently
omitted.
Sometimes a plate has been executed for a private
individual, not for publication nor for sale. Such a
one is designated a " private plate." Collectors of
Americana are familiar with many such, executed
especially during 1860-1880.
2-8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Mention of the word excudit recalls certain terms,
and abbreviations of the same, which are met with
again and again on old prints. I give a list of these
herewith, with their definitions :
Ad vivum indicates that a portrait was done " from
life," and not after a painting. (Example: Aug. de
l St. Aubin al vivum delin. et sculp.)
Aq. } aquaf., aquafortis denote the etcher.
D., del., delin., delineavit refer to the draughtsman.
Des., desig. refer to the designer.
Direx., Direxit. show direction or superintendence
of pupil by master.
Ex., exc., excu., excud., excudit, excudebat indicate
the publisher.
F., fe., f, -fee., fee*, fecit, fa., fac., fac* } faciebat
indicate by whom the engraving was " made " or
executed.
For mis, like excudit, describes the act of publication.
Imp. indicates the printer.
Inc., inci., incid., incidit, incidebat refer to him who
" incised " or engraved the plate.
Inv., invenit, inventor mark the " inventor " or de-
signer of the picture. (Examples: C. N. Cochin
fils inv., J. f. Pasquier inv. et sc., Bouchardon inv.
del)
Lith. de does not mean " lithographed by," but
" printed by." Lith. de C. Motte, Lith. de Lasteyrie,
/. lith. de Delpech refer to lithographic printing
establishments.
P., pictor, pingebat, pinx, pinx*, pinxit show who
painted the picture from which the engraving was
made.
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 279
'S., sc., scul., sculp., sculpsit, sculpebat, sculptor ap-
pear after the engraver's name and indicate his work.
One recalls the lines of the poet Flatman, with ref-
erence to the engraved portraits by William Faithorne :
" A Faithorne sculpsit is a charm can save
From dull oblivion and a gaping grave."
A chapter might be written on signatures. Many
of the earlier men are known to us simply by their
initials or a pictorial signature: e.g., " Master E. S.,"
" Master of the Die." Abbreviated signatures are not
infrequent: Raph. Sad. for Raphael Sadeler, R. d.
Baud for Robert de Baudoux. Initials and mono-
grams are frequent in older work : e.g., " A. D."
(Diirer), " H. S. B." (Beham), " H. G." (Goltzius).
Punning signatures there are, too : H. S. and a little
shovel stand for Hans Schauffelein (German for little
shovel) ; Leech signed his lithographs with an apothe-
cary's bottle containing a leech. And there were
pseudonyms: Corbutt (Purcell), Paul Pry, Short-
shanks and others. Whistler's butterfly is the most
familiar instance of a pictorial signature.
The frequent use of initials or monograms has
called forth an illuminative literature of its own, the
dictionaries of monograms by Brulliot, Duplessis and
Bouchot, and Nagler being best known.
An important element in the publication of a plate
is the number of good impressions which it is possi-
ble to take from it. A copper plate only yields a
comparatively limited number of prints before it be-
gins to show signs of wear through the friction of
wiping and printing. This possible number may be
280 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
yet more reduced by extreme fineness in the engraved
line. It is said that Lucas van Leyden's graver stroke
was so delicate that fine impressions of his plates are
comparatively rare. Formerly, the only remedy for
a worn plate was to " retouch " or re-work it, putting
new strength into the weakened forms. Israel Van
Meckenen was wont to go over his plates as soon as
he found signs of wear, but he also re-worked plates
by others, and signed them, we are told. H. S. Beham
likewise retouched his work carefully, covering up the
old lines with fresh work; sometimes he copied the
engraving on a new plate. Unfortunately, retouch-
ing of old plates was frequently the work, not of the
original artist, but of another, with practically al-
ways inferior results. Slater points out that the pub-
lisher's name is sometimes an index to lateness of
impressions, some publishers, whom he names, having
been in the habit of buying old plates, having them
touched up and then issuing them with their own
names added. Mezzotints were especially susceptible
to wear, and were sometimes re-worked again and
again, color being sometimes applied to the resultant
impressions to mask their deficiencies. The demand
for the " Liber Veritatis " prints after Claude was
considerable, and Boydell, the publisher, had the en-
graver Earlom retouch them several times. Turner's
" Liber Studiorum " plates quickly wore out, and were
retouched, mostly by Turner himself, it is believed.
" And the consummate skill which he here displayed,'*
says his cataloguer Rawlinson, " was equaled by the
consummate ingenuity with which he concealed the
fact of the retouches from his purchasers."
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 281
With the introduction of steel in the nineteenth cen-
tury came possibilities of larger editions. And the pro-
cess known as steel- facing, which consists in putting
an infinitesimally thin coating of steel on an engraved
or etched copper plate, by means of electro-deposition,
makes the plate practically indestructible. Where
formerly it yielded only a very small number of good
impressions before it became worn, ten thousand im-
pressions, it is said, have been taken from a steel- faced
mezzotint plate. For if the steel shows signs of wear,
a new layer can be deposited. Whistler's " Thames
Set " etchings were originally brought out by Ellis
and Green; they were then steel- faced and passed into
the hands of the Fine Arts Society. Subsequently
they were acquired by a well-known dealer of New
York City, who had the steel- facing removed and had
some impressions struck off, after which the plates
were canceled.
This canceling of the plate usually consists in draw-
ing several heavy lines with the etching needle or
graver across the face of it. The object is, of course,
to prevent improper use by taking impressions from
the worn plate. Impressions from numerous canceled
plates by Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Jacque and others
exist. Sometimes, as a sort of guarantee of good
faith, a set of prints by an artist has been issued
with a statement such as that accompanying the
Iconophile Society's publications : " One hundred and
three impressions taken and plate destroyed " or " and
stone canceled." And to furnish proof positive, im-
pressions taken from the canceled plates may even
go with a published series.
282
HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Destruction of a plate has been known to be in-
voluntary in the case of Bervic, whom the revolution-
ary power in France forced to crack the plate of his
portrait of Louis XVI. across the middle. The plate
was repaired, however, and printed from again.
AN IMPRESSION FROM THE CANCELED PLATE OF WHISTLER'S
ETCHING " MILLBANK."
It has happened in some cases that plates or blocks
were lost to sight and only came to light much later.
Burgkmaier's large woodcut, " The Triumph of
Maximilian," turned up in 1796, and was then first
published as a complete set. Goya's " Miseries of
War " were first issued in complete form in 1863.
Late impressions, we have seen, are not desirable.
When they are taken very much later for instance,
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 283
if a portrait plate engraved in the eighteenth cen-
tury has been printed from fifty or a hundred years
later they are technically referred to as " restrikes."
In such late prints from old plates the charm and
strength of the work in its original state is pretty sure
to be all gone. Various plates by Rembrandt were
preserved and printed from in comparatively recent
times, sometimes re-worked, new " states " being
thereby manufactured. His famous " Christ Healing
the Sick " passed into the hands of William Baillie,
who touched it up to make it more printable and
finally cut it into four pieces, from which impressions
were taken. Piranesi's large and fine plates of archi-
tectural monuments still exist and are printed from
" with sad results," as Russell Sturgis says. Certain
unfinished plates in Turner's " Liber Studiorum "
(Nos. 73, 74, 75, 81, 82) were sold and impressions
taken. Worn-out impressions of " Fulham," says
Drake in his catalogue of Haden's etchings, were sold
in Paris without the artist's sanction.
The use of old plates has led to fraudulent practices.
The activity of the forger is wide and varied, in fact,
and is applied to plates as well as to defective or weak
prints, for either can be " doctored." " Restrikes "
are printed on old paper, or the paper is dipped into
a solution of tobacco juice or other liquid to give it
the appearance of age. Old handwriting and ink are
simulated in lying dates written on the margin. Weak
impressions are worked up with pen and ink, and miss-
ing portions similarly supplied. Changes may be made
by manipulation in printing. Rare impressions exist
of Rembrandt's portrait of himself and his wife (No.
284 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
19 in Bartsch's catalogue), in which the latter is re-
placed by the artist's portrait of his mother (Bartsch
349), a quite different plate. The place had been
covered with paper, so as not to print, and an im-
pression of plate No. 349 was then taken on the vacant
place. False proofs are made in various ways. The
inscription on the plate may be filled with a composi-
tion so as not to print. Or a lettered impression is
turned into a proof by trimming off the margin, split-
ting the paper and adding false margin and plate-
mark. Or a slip of paper is laid over the inscription
on the plate, when printing. 1 This latter method,
it appears, does not mean that the intention was
fraudulent and the impression poor in every such case.
Whitman points out, for example, that in the case
of Charles Turner, the mezzotinter, such " masked
proofs " are nearly all fine impressions. Fraudulent
proofs are furnished with remarques, as in the
case of Chodowiecki; in fact, Wessely asserted that
there was at one time in Berlin a regular factory for
forged states of the plates of that artist and of
Rembrandt.
Collectors' marks, written or stamped, and water-
marks in the paper, have likewise been objects of the
forger's zeal.
Color-prints have long proved a profitable field for
the " manipulator." " Wholesale forgery of English
color-prints in Holland " is said to have existed in
1819, and to-day " color fakes " seem to be plentiful.
" Ways that are dark and tricks that are vain " have
not been entirely unknown to the maker of prints !
Various authors, among whom Tuer in his work
1 Early Van Dyck proofs, for example, were thus produced, as A. M. Hind
tells us.
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 285
on Bartolozzi and J. H. Slater, in " Engravings and
Their Value," give interesting information in regard
to this matter of tampering with old plates and prints.
Tuer even has a chapter on " Modern Reprints of
Worn-out Plates and How to Distinguish," this re-
ferring to stipple engravings.
The not entirely unrelated subject of fictitious por-
traits and similar apocryphal productions is touched
on in Chapter XIV.
Copies will rarely deceive the expert, but they may
prove traps for the novice, who should therefore see
to it that he is properly advisd. Generally, the copies
made of engravings or etchings by artists of former
days are known and are described in the printed cata-
logues of their works. It must not be supposed that
such copies were all made with intent to deceive.
Flameng's marvelously spirited and truthful copies of
Rembrandt's etchings were executed as illustrations
for a book on that artist. Rembrandt's genius caused
a number of etchers to either copy his work outright
or imitate his style. I have seen a " hitherto un-
known Rembrandt " which proved to be simply by
Norblin, who had in truth signed Rembrandt's name
to the etching, but whose work was neither a copy nor
slavish enough in imitation to convey doubt. The
owner was simply over-optimistic, as was the honest
old soul who possessed an exceptionally fine Diirer
print which had been in his scrap-book for thirty
years, so he said, and he believed it, too. But his
memory played him false, for the picture was a repro-
duction (photomechanical, if I remember right) of
a more recent date than that.
286 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
But all cases are not so easily cleared up. A num-
ber of years ago a Western collector paid $1,500 for
an impression of Rembrandt's famous etching " The
Three Trees," sold to him in perfect good faith by
a bookseller. It turned out to be a copy by James
Bretherton, marvelously near to being identical with
the original, line for line. It is betrayed only by the
slightest of signs, a certain timidity of handling in
the upper right-hand corner, where the long boundary
line under the clouds is interrupted near the margin,
and where the four lines coming to two points do
not come as close to the margin as in the original.
At the sale of the Westerner's collection this same
print brought $4, and it is in private hands in New,
York to-day. Middleton's catalogue of Rembrandt's
etchings has illustrations showing points of difference
in detail between certain etchings and copies of the
same.
Copying of the work of successful artists began
at an early date and continues. Marc Antonio
Raimondi copied a considerable number of Durer's
plates, particularly the woodcuts of the "Little
Passion," which he reproduced on copper. Durer
complained bitterly of the thefts of his compositions.
Gosselin, of Paris, has shown versatility in clever
copies of etchings by Meryon, some of them signed
E. G., and of the portrait of Franklin, in color, by
Alix after Van Loo.
An interesting study is that of altered plates. The
substituting of one head for another in a plate may
have taken place for various reasons. There may
have been a demand for a portrait of a momentary
THE MAKING OF PRINTS 287
celebrity which was supplied by taking the plate of
an existing portrait of someone else, erasing the
head and substituting the desired one. Or some
change in the appearance of a public man (growth
of a beard, marks of age) may have necessitated
an erasure and re-engraving of the head on an
older portrait of the same man. An equestrian
portrait engraved by Pierre Lombart, a made-up com-
position after Vandyck, reflects the changes of politi-
cal opinion in England in the days of the Revolution
and the Commonwealth. In the third state of this
plate the personage depicted has the head of Crom-
well, in the fourth the head of Charles I. has been
substituted, in the fifth, another, older head of Crom-
well has taken the place of that of Charles I. The
various states of this portrait have been reproduced
in Alfred Whitman's " Print Collector's Handbook "
and elsewhere. A. H. Ritchie's full-length portrait
of Lincoln was originally one of Calhoun, the head
having been changed, and the title " Jefferson's
Works," on some volumes on a table, erased. Such
cases might easily be multiplied.
The case of the palimpsest, that is the manuscript
written on parchment from which former writing has
been erased, has its counterpart in engraving. The
" Heilige Maria von Einsiedeln," by the " Master E.
S. of 1466," was cleaned off the plate and a young
warrior engraved over it by another. 1 Reproductions
of both are given in the publications of the Interna-
tional Chalcographical Society for 1887. Occasion-
ally an etching will be seen which shows faint traces
of former work on the plate, as in Jacque's " Effet de
1 There is an impression of this in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. G. S.
Layard has two chapters on " Palimpsest plates in his book on " Suppressed
plates " ( London. 1907) .
288 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
Lumiere" (No. 324 in Guiffrey's catalogue of his
etchings).
I know well that this chapter consists of somewhat
fragmentary information. But a few instances serve
the purpose as well as a whole bookful. That pur-
pose is the fixing of certain general facts as to the
manner in which prints are made, legitimately and
illegitimately. To try to describe all possible con-
tingencies would be like expecting a student to go
through a text-book at the first lesson with like result.
The guidepost is a comfort, and as such this chapter
may perhaps serve to strengthen the reader's judicious
self-confidence and urge him to continue personal
research in whatever specialty particularly appeals to
him. God helps him who helps himself.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CARE AND ARRANGEMENT OF PRINTS
, THE print is a more or less delicate object. The
law written or unwritten of a public print-room
includes paragraphs restricting handling, which are
equally applicable in private collections. The surface^
of a print should not be touched, for the action may I
cause damage which it is impossible or difficult toy
make good even partially. It is a common offense,
when looking over a lot of prints, to drag one across
the face of the one below it, scraping the hard corner
of a cardboard mount over the delicate bloom of a
mezzotint, for instance. An equally bad practice is the
quite general one of holding a print with one hand,
between forefinger and thumb, the latter usually
leaving its indenting mark. " As a collector," said
Beraldi, speaking of Meissonier's painting " L' Ama-
teur d'Estampes " (The Print Lover), "I have al-
ways felt deep pain in seeing the manner in which
Meissonier's ' Amateur ' keeps his prints. What dis-
order! What little care! ... I see indelible breaks
and folds, thumb-marks. Oh, the poor proofs ! "
Beraldi might have found even more striking pictorial
illustrations of " how not to do it." For instance,
Reynolds's " Portrait of Two Gentlemen," grasping a
print at opposite ends and pulling it taut, or Kneller's
289
290 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
portrait of John Smith, the mezzotinter, holding a
print rolled up.
As to the repairing and cleaning of prints, unless
one has made thorough and numerous experiments, it
is best to leave all but the simplest jobs to those that
make a business of it. Bonnardot, in his " Essai sur
1'Art de restaurer les Estampes et les Livres " (2d
edition, 1858) gives many recipes, but he and other
authors recommend great caution in the use of strong
chemicals, and lay most stress on simple remedies,
such as are given by Slater in Chapter VI. of his
" Engravings and Their Value." For slight clean-
ing, or for straightening out a creased or crumpled
print, however, a cold-water bath can be applied with-
out danger in most cases. The print is laid face
downward in water in a flat dish large enough to
permit the print to float without touching the edges
of the dish. It is allowed to soak thoroughly, for
from fifteen minutes to an hour or two, according to
the needs of the case and the texture of the paper.
Then it is lifted by grasping it carefully at the two
corners of one end and the water is allowed to run
off. After this the print is dropped on a clean sheet
of white blotting paper and another similar sheet is
placed over it. Moderate pressure is exerted, and
the operation is repeated with other blotters, if
necessary, until superfluous moisture is absorbed.
Then the print is placed between two clean blotters
and left under pressure (some heavy books of the
right size will do well) over night.
Note that fresh air is necessary to keep a print in
healthy condition.
CARE OF PRINTS 291
It is well to protect prints by mounting them on
sheets of cardboard. There have been various ways
of doing this : the print may be " laid down " that
is, pasted entirely on the mount or it may be pasted
all along the edges of the four sides, or tipped at
the four corners. But the best way is to use a hinge
of light but tough Japan paper, one side of the hinge
being pasted to the back of the upper or left-hand
edge of the print and the other to the mount. In
this manner the print is attached to the mount by one
side only, and can be raised (like an upward open-
ing trap-door) for the purpose of examining the
back for water-marks, marks of former owners, notes,
or for any other purpose. The hinge may extend along
the entire side of the print, or two hinges may be
used, some distance apart, and each about an inch
long. The late Friedrich Lippmann of Berlin had the
prints in his care hinged on two adjoining sides, so
that they could not be raised. Over the print thus
mounted there is placed a second sheet of cardboard
of the same size as the mount. (Familiar sizes are
14 x 18, 22x28, 28x40.) Into this upper board or
mat an opening is cut somewhat larger than the
printed portion of the print. As the latter thus lies
at the bottom of this opening, it is obviously protected
in a measure. Furthermore, the uncut portion of the
mat rests upon the margin of the print, and thus holds
down the latter in place. Sometimes mat and mount
are fastened together on all four sides, forming what
is known as a " sunk mount." Usually, however,
they are simply joined along one side by a strip of
adhesive tape, tracing linen or the like, which forms
292 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
a hinge on which they can be opened like the leaves
of a book.
For examination by artificial light, an adjustable
lamp sliding on a perpendicular movable rod with a
base, and provided with a reflector, is used.
Prints are usually kept in portfolios or solander
cases, the latter being boxes with the top hinged to
swing up like the cover of a book, and the fore-edge
hinged to swing down, so that the prints can be drawn
out at the side or lifted out at the top. In various
public collections, portfolios standing upright are used
on account of economy of space and greater accessi-
bility. I know of one collector who devotes a whole
room to his prints, which he keeps unmounted, stand-
ing on end in large wooden cases, such as are seen in
print-dealers' shops, with the front so adjusted that
it can be made to drop outward. Large prints may
be placed in cases of drawers, which latter, when
pulled out a certain distance, tilt downward at an
angle convenient both for looking at the prints
(which are turned over almost like the leaves of a
book) and for removing any that it may be desired to
take out.
Instructions as to arrangement (that is, classifica-
tion) are very apt to be aimed at the big collector, not
at the small one, whose opportunities and finances ena-
ble him to acquire but a few plates by one man. If
you have a small collection, do not trouble your head
much about arrangement. If you have been able to
get a fairly complete representation of some individual
artist, you will probably arrange the prints chrono-
logically (a very common method, as it best illustrates
CARE OF PRINTS 293
the artist's development) or by subjects, as has been
done by some cataloguers of Rembrandt's etchings.
By that time your study of the artist and of the lit-
erature dealing with him will have put you in a posi-
tion to arrive at your own conclusion as to the best
course in that particular case. Public collections may
have an arrangement according to the process or
medium (i.e., line engraving, etching, lithography,
wood engraving), or by schools of engraving (or na-
tionality), or by individual artists, or by a combina-
tion of two or all three of these methods.
Useful information regarding the care of prints
is given in W. H. Wiltshire's " Introduction to the
Study and Collection of Ancient Prints" (1874), J.
Maberly's " Print Collector, Edited by Robert Hoe "
(1880), Tuer's " Bartolozzi," Davenport's volume on
mezzotints, J. E. Wessely's " Anleitung zur Kenntniss
und zum Sammeln der Werke des Kunstdrucks "
(1876) and Alfred Whitman's "Print Collector's
Handbook " (1901).
But the general hints given in the present chapter
will probably be found to cover questions which will
ordinarily occur.
CHAPTER XIV
THE SUBJECT-INTEREST
WRITERS on prints usually view them from the
aesthetic standpoint, and overlook the utilitarian. Or,
if this last word seems harsh, let us say perhaps more
correctly, too that the subject-interest in the print
is not always accentuated as it might be. The artistic
interest is paramount. The finest examples of engrav-
ing, of etching, of lithography are collected as such
by private individuals and in public print-rooms. But
the print has also a strong subject interest. And
.there is this further advantage that the print, not
being a unique production like the painting or statue,
\ can have a greater circulation and reach a larger pub-
lic. It emphasizes the fact that all art works form
material for social history. They serve to illustrate
the history of mankind in its different phases and
various surroundings. Thus, Muther says (in his
"History of Painting"), speaking of the Florentine
painters : " In these works . . . the whole epoch with
its people, costumes, arms and utensils, dwelling
rooms and buildings, lives on as in a great picture-
book of the history of civilization."
This subject-interest is found more or less in all
prints. It exists, even though in the slightest form
and incidentally, in the finest products of art, which
294
THE SUBJECT-INTEREST 295
may at first sight appear to have none but an artistic
appeal. And it is of the first importance in many
prints of which the artistic value is less. The mani-
fold activity of mankind, which makes up what we
call social history, is mirrored in the print. The indi-
vidual is illustrated in portraits, national characteris-
tics in pictures of costume and customs, events in na-
tional and international life are dealt with in historical
pictures, the interest in locality is served in views.
As has been said, even prints treasured and admired
primarily for their art interest still have this secondary
value to a greater or lesser degree. Meryon's weird
etchings have perpetuated a Paris that has gone,
swept away by the leveling hand of Baron
Haussmann; Whistler held London's water-front
in " Black Lion Wharf " and others of the
" Thames Series " ; Joseph Pennell presents the
architectural aspect of Spain, Holland and New
York; Marcelin Desboutin has set down the fea-
tures of noted literary and artistic contemporaries
among his compatriots; Rochebrune and Brunet-
Debaines have pictured the architectural beauties
of France; Jacquemart's etching needle was em-
ployed in exquisite delineations of book-bindings,
glassware and jewelry. Charlet and Raffet give us
pictorial commentaries on the Napoleonic legend in
their spirited lithographs; Moreau le jeune, while
illustrating Rousseau, left invaluable records of
French costume of the eighteenth century; Menzel has
noted the uniforms of the soldiers of Frederick the
Great to the minutest details of buttons and trim-
mings; the intensely summary and decorative Jap-
296 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
anese chromo-xylograph brings before us, with many
delightful touches, the life in the land of the holy
mountain, Fujiyama. When artists such as Diirer,
Schongauer, Goltzius or Lucas van Leyden applied
their technical power and conscientious study of their
surroundings to the delineation of Biblical scenes, they
produced a most interesting view of types, costumes
and customs of their age. One may emphasize this
point by instancing individual prints such as Diirer's
" Prodigal Son " (with its picture of a barnyard of
the artist's time) or his delightful " Jerome in His
Study" (full of the detail of an old German in-
terior), or van Meckenen's " St. Matthew " (an amus-
ingly quaint personage) ; but they are simply a few
among many. Or we find the artist frankly repro-
ducing the life about him without placing his types
before a historical or legendary or Biblical back-
ground. The Dutch country scenes of Van Ostade,
De Bry's "Village Festival," Dusart's "Country
Fair," Callot's " Miseries and Misfortunes of War "
fairly pulsate with that interest which enlists our sym-
pathies because it is human and is presented with
sympathetic understanding. It is this interest which
accounts for the popularity of genre scenes by such
modern painters as Knaus, Vautier, Defregger, the
archseologizing canvases of Alma Tadema and
Gerome, the detailed studies of Meissonier whose
work has been much reproduced by talented etchers,
the military records of De Neuville and of Detaille,
who never characterized German troopers more truth-
fully than in some of his lithographs. Intimate char-
acter studies are brought before us in the form of
THE SUBJECT-INTEREST 297
portraits by masters such as Nanteuil, Masson,
Edelinck, Drevet or Aldegrever. The very artistic
excellence of such work strengthens its interest and
value from the present point of view.
Famous paintings are brought before a larger pub-
lic through sympathetic translations into black-and-
white by Chauvel, Unger, Waltner, Feckert, Flameng.
Raj on and others. The Wagner enthusiast can find
artistic interpretations of . the master's music by
Fantin-Latour and Egusquiza. Nor should the cari-
caturists be forgotten. Gillray, Cruikshank, Daumier,
Gavarni, Nast and so many others have commented
upon the foibles of their fellow-beings and flayed
wrongdoers. In caricatures the life of a people is
mirrored with an insistence on its salient points which
brings out its weakness and its strength. Changes
and vagaries in costume and customs, colloquialisms,
fads, amusements, the characteristics of classes, types
or professions, all that makes up the life of the pass-
ing day, are illustrated and emphasized by the point
of the joke or the grotesque distortion of the picture.
The possibilities of usefulness as material for history,
inherent in the caricature, are those of the chronicle
of current events and extend far beyond its original
purpose. Thomas Wright, John Ashton, Jullien, John
Grand-Carteret have shown this in their richly illus-
trated books.
So, as we review the many names of artists who
have worked in etching, engraving or the other
processes by which prints are produced, or whose
works have been reproduced by those processes, we
find that each in his day and special field has added
298 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
his share to the material for the study of that ever-
interesting subject humanity.
This material must be used with critical discrimina-
tion. Uncritical dependence on the print to illustrate
a historical figure or occurrence is as wrong as an
implicit trust in a statement, because it happens to be
printed. Yet illustrations are published in books with
no expression of doubt as to the authenticity of the
originals on which they are based, apparently for the
simple reason that the original was an " old print,"
which term is so loosely applied that it is made to
cover equally an engraving two hundred years old and
one that has not seen half a century.
Henry Hudson looks out gravely on the world,
from his big ruff, on many a printed page, but where
is the portrait painted during his life on which all
these pictures are based? As Artemus Ward said,
" Echo answers." The contemporary witness appeals
to us with the force of a court of last resort. Yet
some years ago a mural painter pointed out to me
glaring errors in the four famous copper-plate en-
gravings of the engagements at Concord and Lexing-
ton, executed by Amos Doolittle, who lived at the
time, and visited the places to study them before exe-
cuting his plates. In the collection of the late Paul
Leicester Ford and his brother Worthington C, there
was a little group of five woodcut portraits, of the
eighteenth century, all in profile, all with cocked hats.
Those of Samuel Adams, Bradley and Henry Lee
were impressions from the same block, with different
names printed underneath. Those of Columbus ( !)
and Richard Howel were other engravings, apparently
THE SUBJECT-INTEREST 299
from the same original. In a spirit of grave pleas-
antry they had been gathered in one frame, and they
made one think of Rip Van Winkle's return after
his long sleep, when he found the same figure on the
tavern sign, but the name " George III." replaced by
" George Washington." Among the plates engraved by
Paul Revere (of the famous ride) there is a portrait
of Benjamin Church, which was simply changed from
one of the poet Churchill, I am told. And an en-
graving of the Wilson portrait of Franklin repeatedly
did service for Roger Williams, despite the anachro-
nism of costume and wig.
The older a print is, the more reverential awe is it
apt to inspire. Yet the " fake " existed even in the
early days of wood engraving. In the famous
Nuremberg Chronicle, published in 1493, the same cut
does duty on various pages for a view of quite dif-
ferent cities, and among the numerous portraits cer-
tain ones bob up repeatedly, each time with a different
name tagged on. As Woodberry and Lippmann very
euphemistically express it, these views were " typical "
rather than individual, they resembled " conventional
symbols." Nor is the " fake " unknown in half-tone
reproduction of the photograph, for the camera will
truthfully reproduce what is set before it. The evi-
dence must be sifted.
The print made useful is of distinct value to those
carrying on research in special lines. And the fact
that prints can serve such distinctly useful ends apart
from purely aesthetic considerations, while it benefits
a larger public, does not detract in the slightest from
their value to the connoisseur.
300 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
This varied usefulness and interest of the print also
broadens the field of the collector. Hence we find
that artistic qualities in a print are not the only things
that make it sought after. Beside the enthusiastic
collector of Whistlers, Rembrandts, Hadens, there
are those who acquire prints for their subject inter-
est, with just as keen an enjoyment in running down
the rarity or the unique impression. Specialties are
developed. One aims at as complete as possible a lot
of portraits of Washington, or Franklin, or Napoleon;
another acquires theatrical portraits and scenes ; meth-
ods of transportation on land and water are of ab-
sorbing interest to still another; one has collected and
delved to the extent of making himself an expert on
uniforms of the American revolution; Lipperheide
amassed a remarkable lot of pictures of costume;
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks brought together a
collection of seventy thousand English and American
book-plates, bequeathed to the British Museum.
This particular trend of collectorship has produced
also the " Grangerizer," or " extra-illustrator," about
whom D. M. Treadwell wrote his " Monograph on
Privately Illustrated Books" (1892). The method
of illustrating a book by inserting appropriate prints
from all possible sources was stimulated by the Rev.
James Granger's " Biographical History of England "
(1769), issued for the express purpose of being illus-
trated by portraits. By this practice a book may be
" extended " to several volumes. Dr. T. Addis Em-
met, W. L. Andrews, E. A. Duyckinck, S. J. Tilden,
Augustin Daly are among Americans identified with
this form of collecting.
THE SUBJECT-INTEREST 301
I know very well that the phase of collecting
activity dealt with in this chapter is not usually re-
garded by writers on prints. Yet it has its justifica-
tion as well as that which is based on aesthetic princi-
ples. Furthermore, it results in the assured preserva-
tion of very much valuable material that would be
quite overlooked if we all placed ourselves on the
purely artistic basis and from this standpoint shut
out of our view all but a few of the greatest artists.
There are many men and many minds. There
should be a free unfolding and development of the
individual temperament and taste. If we only remem-
ber that development implies self-training. The re-
strictions of complacent ignorance are as depressing to
the sight as the narrowness of prejudiced preciosity.
CHAPTER XV
SOME SPECIALTIES
THE practical side of the specialty has been touched
upon in the preceding chapter. But it is to be viewed
also from the artistic standpoint.
For example, while the interest of personality can-
not be entirely eliminated from our consideration of
portraits, a selection of the same may be made on
grounds primarily aesthetic, to the extent of choosing
only those which are really noteworthy specimens of
the arts of reproduction. The varied interest of
portraiture is heightened by the artist's point of view.
Rembrandt, Durer, the eighteenth-century masters of
line engraving in France, Deveria, Legros, Desboutin,
Veth, artists of different lands and times, have given
us portraits in which force and originality in tech-
nique and artistic effect are joined to sympathetic
insight into, and disclosure of, personality. The por-
traits of Edmond de Goncourt by Bracquemond, Dar-
win by Raj on and Wagner by Egusquiza may serve
as three among many typical examples of modern
work answering the requirements indicated. The
elements involved in portraiture are complex. The
mood of the sitter, his interest in or sympathy with
the artist, the artist's response to the mental attitude
of the sitter and his ability to give an intimate analysis
302
SOME SPECIALTIES 303
of his individuality, these are factors which essentially
influence the final result. When various artists of
ability portray the same person, we have the added
interest of a study of personality as it impressed dif-
ferent minds. An obvious illustration is found in the
portraits of Whistler, both in oils and in black and
white, by Fantin-Latour, Menpes, Way, Chase,
Nicholson, Pellegrini, Boldini and Whistler himself.
We are concerned not only with correctness of detail
in the presentation of features. They may be put
down with no soul behind them. The superficial re-
cording of a few evident signs of character does not
constitute proof of the gift of introspection. Mechan-
ical exactitude may mislead, and the camera even may
reproduce the person in attitude or expression false
to himself. The personality of the artist counts in
portraiture as in every form of art.
The spirit of specialization has been directed into
numerous paths beside those indicated at various
places in the present book, particularly in the chapters
on " Collecting " and " Subject- Interest."
Among the various classes of prints which have
formed special objects of study and of the collecting
instinct, two have assumed proportions of noteworthy
importance, the book-plate and the poster, the smallest
and largest forms of prints.
The cult of the book-plate has become widespread.
Once simply a mark of ownership to be inserted in
a book, it has become also an object sought for itself,
desired by collectors and exchanged by the owner for
other ex-libris.
A large and growing literature exists which deals
304 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
with this particular form of the collector's activity,
and which includes general manuals such as those by
W. J. Hardy, Z. A. Dixson, C. D. Allen, as well as
books on ex-libris in particular countries, or of a
particular kind for instance, book-plates by women.
Periodicals in various countries are devoted to it, as
are the ex-libris societies which have been formed.
Very large private collections exist, some comprising
twenty, thirty or forty thousand pieces, and there are
even larger public ones, notably that in the British
Museum. Exhibitions of book-plates have been held,
as a matter of course.
In the earlier days of its history, which covers
over four centuries, the importance of heraldry was
strongly reflected in the book-plate, which appeared
in the brave pomp and dignity of armorial bearings,
a feature which held its own through the eighteenth
century. At the same time, certain types were devel-
oped, some of which left the impress of their pre-
dominance on whole periods. Such are, for example,
the Jacobean, the Ribbon and Wreath, the Allegorical
and finally the Pictorial. The last has again its sub-
divisions: there is the book-pile plate, the library in-
terior, the portrait, the biographical, the landscape and
so on.
These pictorial plates, widely used to-day, afford
much play to idiosyncracy. The personality of the
owner is apparent in pictorial reflection of his tastes,
his studies, his hobbies, his surroundings. The most
obvious expression of the ego is of course the por-
trait, which sometimes takes the form of a full-length
among the books of the library. More frequently,
SOME SPECIALTIES 305
however, the personal inclination, or the mental bent,
is indicated in frank illustration or by allegorical
allusion. Books are depicted with the names of pre-
ferred authors prominently displayed on the back, or
the paraphernalia of the favorite sport or other hobby
to which the person in question is particularly
addicted.
Most pleasing, most successful artistically, are those
plates in which the individuality of the owner is
expressed symbolically in an unobtrusive way.
Possibilities for the display of poor taste are plenti-
ful. An apparent anxiety to remove all suspicion of
a light bushel-covered contrary to Scripture leads
some to have their ex-libris overloaded with allusions
to personal character and achievement, with parade of
cheap learning. The book-plate should not say too
much. It is sometimes pitiful to see how the designer
has been hampered and handicapped by complacent
vanity straddling his freedom of expression as the Old
Man of the Sea did Sindbad the Sailor.
It is also conceivable that unfortunate results may
be caused by artistic vagaries, the desire to make the
poor book-plate fill the function of, a mural painting,
if you please, or any other inappropriate form of art,
or the attempt to give expression to some ultra-revolu-
tionary aesthetic theories, without regard to the prime
object that should be kept in view.
It is not necessary to spoil the appetite by looking
at poor things, when so many appropriate and in-
offensive outlooks on personality are offered. Occa-
sionally a particularly striking or amusingly pat design
or motto comes to view. The book-plate of a noted
306 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
American comedian, representing a court jester, un-
mindful of fleeting time, lost in bookish delights amid
old volumes. The simple outline design adapted from
an Italian woodcut, adopted by an American editor
of Vasari's " Lives." Or the Je I'ai (" I have it "),
entwining a book on Bracquemond's plate for A.
Poulet-Malassis, the exultant exclamation of the
bibliophile gloating over a " find." And the Lon-
don " 'Arriet," glancing side-long out of the design
made by W. Nicholson for Phil May, who held her
vulgar rakisjiness so well in the pages of Punch.
The list of artists who have designed book-plates
which are appropriate and give satisfaction to the eye
is a long one. Mention of a few will suffice to indi-
cate the great variety in artistic style and mood and
originality which has been enlisted in this very special
branch of the designer's activity. Diirer, Amman,
Faithorne, Bartolozzi, Strange, Morghen, Eisen,
Chodowiecki, Bewick, Revere, Bouvenne, Bracque-
mond, Rassen fosse, Thoma, Doepler, Greiner, Sattler,
Orlik, Walter Crane, D. Y. Cameron, D. McN.
Stauffer, G. W. Edwards, E. H. Garrett and such as
are known mainly or altogether by their productions
in this field : C. W. Sherborn, the late E. D. French,
J. W. Spenceley, W. F. Hopson, Jay Chambers, W.
M. Stone. A list of this kind evokes a remarkable
array of varied art influences, national and personal;
of methods and reproductive processes; of artistic
individuality directed occasionally, with freshness of
view, to this form of art; of the specialized talent
devoted entirely to it, with intelligent adaptation of
means to purpose. There is much activity to-day in the
SOME SPECIALTIES 307
designing of book-plates, with a range of styles from
the classic serenity of a Sherborn or French to the
grace and wit of some of the Frenchmen or the vig-
orous modernity of certain Germans.
Such principles of taste as apply in the consideration
of all prints hold good here as well. The question
of appropriateness, in conception and design, to the
end in view, must be met here as elsewhere. Con-
ducted in such a spirit, the study of the book-plate will
both stimulate the imagination by mental association
with men of thought and action, and whet the taste
by the contemplation of artistic talent applied to a very
definite object.
The poster was first raised to the dignity of a form
of art in France. The posting of written or printed
announcements on walls and other places is an old
practice. After the advent of wood engraving the
aid of the picture was called in to lend force to the
text. The wood-block remained the medium for this
purpose until late in the nineteenth century, when
lithography took its place.
Jules Cheret's name is prominently identified with
the change in method which made it possible for the
lithographic stone to give more in this field than the
uninteresting average of commercial expression. By
simplifying the color scheme he both reduced the num-
ber of printings and produced striking effects. These
latter he enhanced by simplicity of design, born of
a command of line, and a peculiarly lively swing
("galloping composition," someone has called it), a
characteristic French flavor pervading it all. This
artistic virtuosity was exercised in the fulfillment of
3o8 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
the poster's purpose. His designs are intended to be
seen at a distance, and to tell their story forcibly,
clearly and immediately. They constitute perhaps the
most effective artistic response to this demand. Gras-
set and other Frenchmen have worked with more or
less success in a branch of art to which books such
as " L'Affiche Illustree," " Les Maitres de 1'Affiche,"
" The Book of the Poster," and the periodical " The
Poster " are devoted.
This movement made itself felt also in England,
where the poster for Wilkie's " Woman in White,"
by Fred Walker, is a sort of classic, and where Dudley
Hardy, Tom Browne and others have shown snap and
a proper regard for the end in view, the power to
arrest attention.
Not quite so simple and direct, although eminently
decorative, is the work of Mucha and Louis Rhead.
The want of the " poster quality " is one that may
nullify the force of the most artistic design. Some
beautiful work has been accomplished in Germany
and other European countries, for instance, but not
all of it has been free from the fault of non-adap-
tation of means to end. If design or color is too
involved, if the artist tries to say too much within
the space accorded him, or if the lettering is all too
ornate, or too small, or hidden among pictorial intri-
cacies, the object of the poster is missed. A poster is
an advertisement, and bound by certain practical rules.
It should attract primarily, and should do so even
though, being executed artistically, it attract attrac-
tively. The point is, to strike the eye, and plainness,
distinctness is therefore a desideratum.
SOME SPECIALTIES 309
In the United States such a poster as the one by
Arthur W. Dow for Modern Art, a landscape in
simple flat tints, with plain lettering, carries out its
purpose with artistic discretion. Some of the monthly
magazines have occasionally been similarly appropri-
ately advertised. By business houses this form of
advertisement has not been utilized as in Paris and
elsewhere. And in the most frequently seen example,
the theatrical poster, we have generally the choice be-
tween a melodramatic picture of a scene in the play, or
of an exhibit of lettering only. In the exceptional
case, when an artist such as Haskell or Ivanowski
draws on stone a head of an actress, say Mrs. Fiske,
the unusually free quality of the work strikes the be-
holder, and therefore attracts attention, but there is
no further attempt to express the poster idea.
In adaptation of manner and composition to the ob-
ject in view, some of the artists of the Kiinstlerbund
of Karlsruhe, working in the modern German spirit
of the universal applicability of art ideals, have shown
a happy hand in their designs for labels on tin cans,
advertising cards and the like. They use few colors,
simple effects and appropriateness of conception and
arrangement with an artistic effectiveness which
causes lively regret when one recalls the commonplace
affairs usually seen. Walter von zur Westen's fully
illustrated " Reklamekunst " (" art of the ad ") is an
interesting guide to this form of art.
The art of the small is exemplified also in cards of
invitation, business cards, programmes, menus, wine
cards, etc., etc., of which many are pictured in Leon
Maillard's " Les Menus et Programmes illustres " and
3io HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
E. Maindron's " Les Programmes illustres." Nu-
merous interesting pieces there are, graceful conceits
by Moreau le jeune and his contemporaries, original
conceptions by Bracquemond and other modern
Frenchmen, elaborate productions such as Klinger's
card of invitation to an art dealer's exhibit.
Many prints are illustrative in character, portraits,
views, historical scenes as was set forth in the pre-
ceding chapter.
The direct application of the various processes
of engraving to book-illustration proper has been
indicated throughout the present volume. Particularly
in the case of wood-engraving, that democratic art,
the history of which, from the earliest block-book to
the latest products of the American school, is practi-
cally a record of book-illustration in its most impor-
tant aspect before the advent of the photomechanical
processes. The influence of the latter was decided
almost from the beginning, and has increased. Not
only have they cheapened production and therefore
extended it, but they have facilitated the activity of the
illustrator. As an editorial in the Evening Post of
New York pointed out not long ago, before the days
of the camera the wood block called for some definite-
ness of statement on the part of the artist. Now he
can work in any style, and slur details, for the new
processes will reproduce the " half realized daub " as
well as the careful drawing.
American book and magazine illustration holds high
rank, the highest, it is claimed. But there may be
found individual cases of special prominence whose
expression is not exactly appropriate. A clever or
SOME SPECIALTIES 311
dashing or elegant drawing is not per se a good illu-
tration. Nor is the swagger element always a sign of
strength, or slighting of details necessarily a proof
that the artist has summarily recorded an impression
or has had any to record.
Illustration, to be adequate, must either elucidate
the text or adorn it. The former implies introspec-
tion and sympathy on the part of the artist ; the latter,
a feeling for decorative effect and harmony. A har-
mony that may comprise all the parts of the book
(" end papers " and all), the " ideal " book of William
Morris, who held that the outside of a book is deter-
mined by its contents. The establishment of this inti-
mate connection between text, illustration and orna-
mentation is striven for by certain modern German
artists whose aim is the "uniform impression" of the
book. One may even find a Joseph Sattler designing
not only illustrations and ornaments for a book, but
the type as well. Illustration, as we ordinarily see it,
is not intimately connected with the printed page and
does not form book ornamentation conjointly with the
text. It usually consists of pictures separate from the
letter-press, deals with more or less realistic situations,
and demands of the artist primarily an intelligent
understanding of the text and the ability to state
pictorially the psychical and physical relations between
the different characters to be represented. This pre-
supposes a sympathetic understanding of the mind in
its various manifestations, a sympathy that responds
readily to the varying notes struck by different aspects
of humanity. This ability is possessed by Howard
Pyle, W. T. Smedley, A. I. Keller and other Ameri-
312 HOW TO APPRECIATE PRINTS
cans. The application of sound principles in book
illustration may be traced in more detailed records of
the art such as Pennell's " Pen Drawing and Pen
Draughtsmen," GrautofFs " Entwicklung der mo-
dernen Buchkunst in Deutschland," Gleeson White's
volume on the English illustrators of the sixties, and
many others.
Questions of fitness, of psychological analysis, of
conscientious study of each special case, enter into an
adequate illustration together with good drawing and
composition.
Thought is necessary as well as manual dexterity.
The intelligence must join with the hands to produce
work that shall be of lasting worth. And this requi-
site is inclusive enough to determine judgment in the
consideration of any work of art.
A WORD IN CLOSING
I have tried in this book to accentuate liberality.
Have your specialty, retain your most enthusiastic ad-
miration for the form of art that pleases you best.
But keep an unbiased eye and mind also for what is
not so close to your heart. Be critical, but be liberal
also. He who thinks and knows can much better
afford to look indulgently at work that has faults be-
cause he also sees what is good in it than he who ad-
mires ignorantly.
313
INDEX
The aim has been to make this Index useful, and not to encum-
ber it with a mass of irrelevant entries. Names of painters, for
example, have not been indexed whenever they happened to be
mentioned, but only when they directly helped to illustrate the
subject-matter of this book.
A la poupee. See Poupee.
Achenbach, Andreas and Os-
wald, 222.
Acid. See Biting.
Ackermann (publisher), 136,
141.
Ad vivum, 278.
Adam, Victor, 212.
Adams, J. A., 181.
Advertisements, 309.
Aerial perspective. See Per-
spective.
Agoty, Gautier d'. See Gautier.
Aid, G. C, 45.
Aikman, W. M., 189.
Aldegrever, Heinrich, 67, 296.
Algraphie, 209, 230.
Alix, P. M., 138, 286.
Alken, Henry, 136.
Alma-Tadema, L., 235.
Altdorfer, Albrecht, 67.
Altered plates, 270, 286-287.
Aluminium plates in lithog-
raphy, 209, 230.
Aman-Jean, E., 227.
American Water Color So-
ciety, 44.
Amman, Jost, 69, 169, 247, 306.
Amsterdam Cabinet, Master of
the, 65.
Anderson, Alexander, 186.
Andreini, Andrea, 174.
Androuet du Cerceau, Jacques,
77-
Animals. For artists particu-
larly identified with animal
subjects, see Barye, Berg-
hem, Bonheur, Brascassat,
Delacroix, Dujardin, Muy-
den and Potter.
Annis, W. T., 115.
Annuals, Literary, 87, 121, 123.
Anthony, A. V. S., 186.
Appian, Adolphe, 34, 213.
Appleton, Thomas G., 124.
Aquafortis, 278.
Aquatint, 114, 130-144 (Chap-
ter V) , 148, 250, 266 ; in com-
bination with etching, 17, 18,
21, 35, 46, 47, 4.8, 49, 142,
143, 144; with stipple,
140, 148, 158, 160; with
mezzotint, 141 ; used in pho-
togravure, 243.
Arcis, d'. See Darcis.
Ardail (printer), 271.
" Ars moriendi," 166.
Artist Engraver, 124.
Artist's proof. See Proofs.
Aubry-Lecomte, 2IO-2II.
Augrand, P., 159.
Autotype, 147.
Aveline, Pierre, 80.
Avignon, F. d'. See D'Avi-
gnon.
Bacher, Otto H., 41, 43.
Baertsoen, Albert, 47.
Baillie, William, 28.
Baldini, Baccio, 73.
Balestieri, 47.
Bank-note engraving, 58, 90.
315
INDEX
Barbari, Jacopo de', 74.
Baren, 199.
Bargue, Charles, 215.
Barney, W. W., 120.
Bartolozzi, F., 147, 149, 152-
154, 1 60, 161, 260, 262, 306.
Barye, A. L., 212, 224.
Basan, P. F., 277.
Bath, Etching. See Biting.
Baude, Charles, 190.
Baudoux, Robert de, 279.
Bauer, M., 47, 232.
Baugniet, 220.
Bause, J. F., 85.
Baxter, George, 247, 248.
Beckett, Isaac, 98.
Bega, C, 30.
Beham, B. and H. S., 55, 67,
68, 279, 280.
Bejot, 48.
Bella, Stefano della, 31.
Bellange, Hippolyte, 215.
Bellay, Ch., 90.
Belliard, Zephyrin, 220.
Bennett, W. J., 137.
Berghem, Claes (Nicolas), 29.
Bernstrom, Victor, 189.
Berri, Marie Caroline, Du-
chesse de, 209.
Bervic, J. G., 282.
Besnard, A., 227.
Bewick, Thomas, 177-178, 179,
180-181, 267, 306.
Bible illustrations, 162, 167,
169, 173, 181, 182, 183, 186,
202, 296.
Biblia pauperum, 162.
Biese, Karl, 193, 231.
Bird, Charles, 126.
Biting, Acid, in etching and
aquatint, 12, 13, 14, 19, 30,
114, 131, 132; stipple,
149.
Biting, Foul, 17, 130.
Blake, William, 250-251, 260.
Blanchard, A., 90.
Block-books, 162, 165, 247.
Block-printing in schools, 165.
Blooteling, Abraham,73, 97, 98.
Bluck, J., 137.
Blum, Robert F., 44.
Bodmer, Karl, 213.
Boilly, L. L., 217.
Boissieu, J. J., 17, 31.
Bol, Ferdinand, 27.
Boldrini, Niccolo, 173.
Bolswert, Schelte a, 72.
Bone, M., 42.
Bonheur, Rosa, 212.
Bonington, R. P., 225.
Bonnet, L. M., 159, 250.
Book illustration. See Illus-
tration.
Book-plates, 56, 300, 303-307.
Botticelli, 73-74, 173.
Boucher-Desnoyers, A., 90.
Boutet de Monvel. See Monvel.
Bouvenne, A., 306.
Bouvier, 221.
Boxwood in wood engraving,
179.
Boydell, J., 84, 141, 277, 280.
Bracquemond, Felix, 33, 36,
47, 142, 227, 240, 268, 302,
306, 310.
Brangwyn, Frank, 42.
Branston, Robert, 181.
Brascassat, J. R., 212.
Bretherton, James, 286.
Brion, E., 80.
Brown, J. Lewis, 228.
Brown, M. E. D., 235.
Browne, Tom, 308.
Brunet-Debaines, A., 34, 141,
142, 295.
Brunswick black. See Stop-
ping-out varnish.
Bry, T. de, 296.
Biichel, Ed, 90.
Buhot, Felix, 12, 18, 34-35.
142, 270, 274.
Burgkmaier, Hans, 168, 169,
174, 282.
Burin. See Graver.
Burnisher and burnishing, 14,
55, 95, 149, 269, 270.
Burr in dry-point, 19, 94, 266.
Burt, Charles, 90, 91.
Cadart (publisher), 32.
Caduceus, Master of the. See
Barbari.
INDEX
317
Calamatta, Luigi, 90.
Calame, A., 226.
Callot, Jacques, 30-31, 296.
Camaieu. See Chiaroscuro.
Cameron, D. Y., 42, 272, 306.
Campagnola, Domenico, 74-
Campagnola, Giulio, 74.
Canaletto, 31.
Canceled plates, 281-282.
Card designing, 309.
Cardon, A., 158.
Caricature, La, 213
Caricature, 297; in mezzotint,
113; in lithography, 213, 217-
219, 229; in wood engrav-
ing, 184.
Carpi, TJgoda, 174.
Carracci, Agostino, 70, 76.
Cars, Laurent, 80.
Cassatt, Mary, 35, 48, 49, 143,
194, 236, 281.
Castiglione, G. B., 27, 31.
Caylus, Comte de, 80, 148.
Chabanian, 47.
Chahine, Edgar, 47.
Chalk manner. See Crayon
manner.
Chambers, Jay, 306.
Changed plates. See Altered
plates.
Chap-books, 163.
Chaplin, Charles, 221.
Chapman, 157, 251.
Chapman, J. G., 181.
Chardin, J. B. S., 80.
Charivari, 213.
Charlet, N. T., 214, 215, 216-
217, 295.
Chartran, T., 228.
Chauvel, Theophile, 36, 221,
297.
Chavannes. See Puvis de
Chavannes.
Cheret, Jules, 226, 227, 307-308.
Chevallier, G. S. See Gavarni.
" Chiaroscuro " Method, 140,
147, 173-174, 175, 248.
Chifflart, N. R, 34.
Children's books, 246.
Chodowiecki, Daniel, 31, 270,
284, 306.
Choffard, P. P., 8l.
Christopher, St. : wood-cut of
1423, 165.
Chromo - Lithography. See
Color printing : L i t h o -
graphs.
Chromo-xylography, 195. See
Color printing: Wood en-
gravings.
Chromos, 3.
Clark, John, 136.
Classification of prints, 292-
293-
Claude Lorraine. See Gelee.
Cleaning prints, 290.
Clennell, Lucas, 181.
Cliche. See Electrotype.
Clint, G., 115.
Closson, W. B., 189.
Clouston, R. S., 124, 125.
Cochin, C. N. (the younger),
81.
Cockson, Thomas, 82.
Cole, J. Foxcroft, 236.
Cole, Timothy, 189.
Colin, Paul, 193.
Collas ruling machine, 240.
Collecting, 256-263 (Chapter
XI), 300-301.
Collectors' marks, 258, 284.
Collotype, 146, 243.
Colman, Samuel, 43.
Colonna's " Hypnerotomachia
Poliphilii," 172, 176.
Color photography, 244, 245.
Color printing, 246-255 (Chap-
ter X), 274; etchings, 47-5O,
246, 254; line engravings,
246 ; mezzotints, 126, 246, 249,
251, 253, 280; aquatints, 137-
140, 143, 144, 246; stipple,
148, 158 - 160, 246, 250, 251,
252; wood engravings, 173,
174, 189, 192, 193, 202, 246,
247, 248. (See also Japa-
nese prints) ; lithographs,
226, 227, 228, 230-232, 246,
253 ; photomechanical proc-
esses, 244-246, 251.
Color prints, Forged, 284.
Coloring by hand, 246, 252;
INDEX
aquatints, 134, 135, 136, 140,
141; stipple, 158, 159; wood
engravings, 166, 176, 247;
lithographs, 230; William
Blake's prints, 251.
Comte process, 240.
Cook, H. R., 157.
Cooke, George, 90.
Cooper, T. S., 226.
Copies, 28, 285-286. See also
Forgeries.
Coqueret, P. C, 138.
Corbutt. See Purcell, Rich-
ard.
Corot, J. B. Camille, 32.
Cottet, 48.
Counter-proofs. See Proofs.
Cousin, Jean, 176.
Cousins, Samuel, 96, 100, 121.
Cradle. See Rocker.
Cranach, Lucas, 168, 174.
Crane, Walter, 306.
Crayon or chalk manner, 146,
147, 148, 250.
Crome, John, 21.
Cross-hatching in line engrav-
ing, 65, 73, 76, 82, 91, 97;
in wood engraving, 166,
167, 168, 170, 171, 177-179,
181, 182, 183, 184; in
lithography, 214, 220.
Cruikshank, George, 43, 136,
297.
Dagnan-Bouveret, P. A. J.,
228.
Dake, Carel L., 47.
Dalziel Brothers, 183.
Dance of Death. See Death.
Daniell, T., 137.
Daniell, William, 135, 137.
Darcis, Louis, 159.
Darley, F. O. C., 91, 208.
Daubigny, C. F., 32.
Daumier, Honore, 191, 217-
218, 297.
Davies, A. B., 237.
D' Avignon, F., 235.
Davis, J. P., 189.
Dawe, H., 115.
Dayes (publisher), 134.
Dean, John, 103, 107.
Death, Dance of, 169-171, 176.
Debuconrt, P. L., 138-139, 148,
254, 260.
Decamps, A. G., 213-214, 217.
Del., 278.
Delacroix, Eugene, 142, 211-
212.
Delaram, Francis, 82.
Delatre, A., 21, 271.
Delatre, E., 47.
Delattre, I. M., 153, 154.
Delaune, Etienne, 77.
Delineavit, 278.
Delpech (printer), 278.
Delpy, 47.
Demarteau, Gilles, 148.
Demonchy, F me , 159.
Desboutin, Marcelin, 34, 227,
295, 302.
Descourtis, C. M., 138.
Desnoyers, A. Boucher-. See
Boucher-Desnoyers.
Detaille, E., 228, 296.
Deveria. Achille, 219, 302.
Diaz de la Pefia, Narciso V.,
213-
Dickinson, William, 102, 109.
Didier, A., 90.
Die, Master with the. See
Master, etc.
Dietrich, C. W. E., 31.
Dillon, H. P., 227.
Direxit, 277, 278.
Dixon, John, 101-102, 109, ill.
Dpepler, Emil d. J., 306.
Doo, G. T., 90.
Doolittle, Amos, 92, 298.
Dore, Gu stave, 182, 202, 217.
Dotted prints, 145.
Doughty. William, 103, 106.
Dow, Arthur W., 194, 201, 309.
Drawings reproduced, 146,
147, 250 ; by aquatint, 134, 140,
141, 147; by the crayon man-
ner, stipple and mezzotint,
147, 148, 250; by wood en-
graving, 173, 174, 202; by
lithography, 215; by photo-
mechanical processes, 146,
243-
INDEX
319
Brevet, Pierre and Pierre Im-
bert, 78, 79, 297.
Dry-point, 15, 17, 19-20, 266;
used with line engraving, 55.
Ducerceau. See Androuet.
Duchatel (printer), 271.
Diirer, Albrecht, 55, 60, 61,
70, 91, 166, 275, 306; line en-
gravings, 65-67, 68, 69, 74,
268, 269, 274 ; wood engrav-
ings, 167-168, 169 ; portraits,
92, 302 ; his signature, 279 ;
Bible scenes, 296; fac-similes
and copies, 285-286.
Du Jardin, Karel, 29.
Dunkarton, Robert, 102, lio^
115, 126.
Dupre, Jules, 213.
Durand, A. B., 90.
Dusart, Cornelius, 97, 296.
Duveneck, Frank, 43.
Duvet, Jean, 77.
Dyck, A. van, 29, 30, 260, 284.
E. S. See Master E. S.
Earlom, Richard, 105, ill, 112,
114, 155, 280.
Easling, J. C, 115.
Echoppe, 147.
Eckmann, Otto, 193.
Edelinck, Gerard, 78, 79, 296.
Edwards, Geo. Wharton, 306.
Edwards, S. Arlent, 126.
Edwin, David, 160.
Egusquiza, R. de, 297, 302.
Eilers, G., 90.
Einschlag, E., 143.
Eisen, Charles, 81, 306.
Electrotypes, 180, 240.
Elten, Kruseman van. See
Kruseman van Elten.
Embossed effect in Japanese
prints, 198; in lithographs,
225, 228.
" English manner," 122. See
Mezzotint.
Engraving. See Line engrav-
ing and Wood engraving.
Estampe (L') moderne, 253.
Estampe (L') originate, 143,
227, 253.
Etching 11-52 (Chapter II),
199, 266 ; used in line engrav-
ing, 31, 55, 56, 68, 81, 83;
with mezzotint, 96, 114,
119; in aquatint, 132,
137, 140, 144; in crayon
manner, 147; in stipple
151, 155; for half-tone
plates, 242; for photo-
gravure, 243 ; reproductive
etching, 32, 36-37, 258.
Etching, Soft-ground. See
Soft-ground etching.
Etching on stone, 208.
Etching-ground, 12, 14, 15, 19,
133, 147, 148, 149, 270.
Etching-needle 12, 18. See
also Echoppe.
Everdingen, A. van, 29.
Every, George, 124.
Ex-libris. See Book-plates.
Excudit, 277, 278.
Extra-illustrating, 300.
Faber, John, senior and junior,
98.
Faithorne, William, 82, 279,
306; the younger, 98.
Falk, Jeremias, 84.
Fantin-Latour, H., 228-229, 253,
297, 303-
Farrar, Henry, 21.
Fecit, 278.
Feckert, G., 222, 297.
Fevret de St. Memin. See St.
Memin.
Ficquet, Etienne, 81.
Fikentscher, Jenny, 231.
Finden, E., 86, 277.
Finiguerra, Maso da, 62.
Fischer, Otto, 143, 231.
Fisher, Edward, 101, 102, 106,
108, 109.
Flameng, Leopold, 36, 285, 297.
Flipart, J. J., 80.
Forgeries, 283-286.
Formis, 278.
Fortuny, M., 142.
Foster, Birket, 183.
Foul biting, 17, 130.
320
INDEX
Fragonard, J. H., 80.
" Framing prints," 87, 91, 123.
Francia, Jacopo, 75.
Francois, J. C., 148.
French, E. D., 56, 306, 307.
French, Frank, 189.
Frere, Ed., 213.
Frye, Thomas, 126.
Gaillard, F., 55, 90, 92.
Gaillard, Robert, 80.
Gandolfi, Mauro, 77.
Gardens of Love, Master of
the, 63.
Garrett, E. H., 306.
Gaucher, C. E., 81.
Gauermann, Friedrich, 45.
Gautier d'Agoty, J. F., 249.
Gavarni (G. S. Chevallier),
206, 217, 218-219, 297.
Geddes, Andrew, 28.
Gelatine in photomechanical
processes, 241-242.
Gelee, Claude (Claude Lor-
raine), 29, 1 1 8, 280.
Genre art, 2, 72, 87-88, 91, 105,
107, UI-II2, 185, 296.
Gerard, H., 159.
Gerard, I. A. See Grandville,
Gericault, Theodore, 211.
Geyger, E. M., 46, 230.
Gheyn, Jacob, 72.
Ghisi, Georgio, 76.
Gifford, R. Swain, 44.
Gihaut Brothers, 213.
Gilbert, Achilla, 221.
Gillot process, 240.
Gillray, James, 297.
Girodet-Trioson, 210.
Glackens (W. J.), 237.
Glockenton, Albert, 64.
Goff, Col. R., 42.
Gold printing, 140, 174.
Goltzius, Hendrik, 70-72, 171,
174, 279, 296.
Goldsmith's work, Early Ital-
ian, 62, 73.
Gosselin, E., 286.
Goulding, F. (printer), 271.
Goya, F., 32, 142, 226, 282.
Graf, Oskar, 46, 48, 49, 142-
143-
Graf, Urs, 168, 179.
Grandville, J. J. (I. A. Ge-
rard), 217.
Grangerizing, 300.
Grasset, E., 226, 308.
Grateloup, J. B. de, 81.-
Gravelot, H. F., 31, 81.
Graver, 12, 17, 54, 56, 57, 145,
164, 179.
Gravesande, Storm van 's. See
Storm van 's Gravesande.
Gravure au lavis, 130, 139.
Green, C., 183.
Green, Valentine, 101, 103, 105,
no, 113.
Greiner, Otto, 206, 229-230,
306-
Grenier, Francois, 210.
Greuze, J. B., 80, 138.
Grevedon, Henri, 220, 222.
Grien, Hans Baldung, 169, 174.
Grimelund, J., 47.
Gros, Baron, 210.
Ground. See Etching-ground.
Grozer, Joseph, 104, 112.
Guerard, Henri, 18, 34, 47, 49.
Guerin, Pierre N., 210.
Guyot, Laurent, 138.
Haden, Sir Seymour, 13, 14,
18-19, 22, 28, 41, 127, 272,
283.
Haid, J. E., 97-98.
Haig, A. H., 47.
Half-tone process, 242, 243,
244, 245.
Hamerton, P. G., 16.
Hamilton, J. McLure, 235.
Hanfstangl, Franz, 222.
Harding, J. D., 225-226.
Hardy, Dudley, 308.
Harunobu, Suzuki, 196, 200.
Harvey, William, 181.
Haskell, Ernest, 237, 309.
Hatching. See Cross - hatch-
ing.
Havell, D., 137.
Heath, Charles, 86, 277.
Hecht, Wilhelm, 185.
INDEX
321
Hegenbart, Fritz, 142.
Heinemann, Ernst, 189.
Helleu, Paul, 35.
Henriquel-Dupont, L. P., 90.
Herkomer, Hubert von, 16,
42, 56, 127, 234.
Herrick, H. W., 186.
Hervier, A., 215.
Hill, John, 137.
Hill, John Henry, 43, 144.
Hinshelwood, R., 90, 276, 277.
Hiroshige, 197.
Hoch, Franz, 230.
Hodgetts, T., 115.
Hofel, Blasius, 181-182.
Hogarth, William, 84, 92.
Hokusai, 195, 196.
Holbein, Hans, 169-171.
Hole, William, 82.
Holl, William, 151.
Hollar, Wenzel, 30, 85.
Holroyd, Sir Charles, 42.
Homer, Winslow, 236.
Hopson, W. F., 306.
Hornby, L. G., 44.
Horsburgh, go.
Houbraken, Jacob, 73.
Houdard, Charles, 47, 49, 143.
Houghton, Boyd, 183.
Houston, Richard, 96, 101, ill.
Huber, Konrad, 208.
Huet, Paul, 32, 215.
Hullmandel, C, 225, 271.
Hunt, Wm. Morris, 236.
Hyde, Helen, 144, 194.
I. A. of Zwolle, 64.
I. B. See Master I. B. with
the Bird.
Ibels, H. G., 238, 253-
Illustration, 310-312; by etch-
ing, 31, 33, 42; line en-
graving, 68, 81, 86, 87, 177;
mezzotint, 122;
aquatint, 133-137, 141;
wood engraving, 163-173,
175-177, 181-184, 186, 188,
240, 269, 310; lithog-
raphy, 208, 209 ; photo-
mechanical processes, 240,
242, 245, 251; illustrations
from non-authentic sources,
298.
Imp., 278.
Impression (the individual
print), 264; importance of
good impressions, 8, 118,
260, 279, 280, 283.
Incidit, 278.
Incunabula, 167, 247.
Ink and inking, 56. Importance
of, 273; in etching, 13, 15, 16,
199, 273; in mezzotint, 95,
119, 120, 273; in aquatint,
143; in stipple, 157; in wood-
engraving, 199; in lithog-
raphy, 230; inking & la pou-
pee, 49, 143. See also Color
printing.
Inscription ("Letters"), 267,
268, 271.
Intaglio processes, 56, 163,
164. 243, 265. See Chapters
II-VI, and IX.
Inv., Invenit, 278.
Isabey, Eugene, 214-215, 238.
Isabey, J. B., 210.
Isochromatic plates, 244.
Ivanowski, S. de, 300.
Jackson, John Baptist, 177, 248.
Jacob, N. H., 222.
Jacque, Charles, 17, 18, 21, 32,
142, 217, 270, 271, 281, 288.
Jacquemart, Jules, 18, 33-34,
104, 273, 295.
Jacques, Jules, 90.
Janinet, Francois, 138.
Japanese prints, 5, 174, 192,
194-201, 232, 247, 248, 274,
295-296.
Jardin, Karel du. See Du Jar-
din.
Jazet, J. P. M., 140.
Jeanniot, 49.
Jeghers, Cristoph, 171, 174.
Jettmar, R., 46, 230.
Jode, Pieter de, 72.
Johnson, Thomas, 189.
Jones, Alfred, 90, 91, 277.
Jones, John, 102, 104, 106, 109,
114, 155-156.
322
INDEX
Jongkind, J. B., 34.
Josey, Richard, 124, 125-126.
Jourdain, H., 47, 143.
Judkins, Elizabeth, 108, no.
Juengling, Frederick, 186, 187,
268.
Juengling, J. R, 187.
Julien, 214.
Junior Etching Club (Lon-
don), 38.
Kallmorgen, Friedrich, 231.
Kaltnadel. See Dry-point.
Karlsruhe Kunstlerbund, 46,
229, 231, 309.
Keating, George, 112.
Keene, Charles, 42, 183, 184.
Keller, Arthur I., 311.
Kelly, J. E., 186.
Keppler, Joseph, 219.
Kerver (publisher), 176.
Key-block in color prints,
198.
Key-plate in color prints, 248.
Kilian, Lucas, Philip and
Wolfgang, 84.
King, F. S., 189.
King, J. S., 126.
Kingsley, Elbridge, 189.
Kirkall, Edward, 177.
Kiyomasu, Torii, 196.
Kiyonaga, 197, 200.
Kiyonobu, Torii, 196, 200.
Klinger, Max, 46, 48, 143, 230,
310.
Knight, Joseph, 126, 127.
Kobell, Ferdinand, 31.
Koepping, Karl, 36.
Kolb, Alois, 142.
Kollwitz, Kathe, 46, 230.
Koriusai, 196.
Kriehuber, Josef, 223.
Kruger, Franz, 223.
Kruell, Gustav, 189.
Kruseman van Elten, H. D.,
21, 43-
Kiisel, Matthaus and Melchior,
84.
Kurzweil, 193.
Laage, Wilhelm, 193.
Label designing, 309.
Laffitte, Alphonse, 48.
Lalanne, Maxime, 16, 34.
Lalauze, Ad., 273.
Lami, Eugene, 220.
Landscape in etching, See
Chapter II ; in line engrav-
ing, 67, 80, 83-86, 90; in
mezzotint, 113, 114-119, 126,
127, 128; in stipple, 158; in
aquatint, 133-135, 137, 140,
141, 142, 143; in wood en-
graving, 172, 1 80, 189; in
Japanese prints, 200.
Lane, R. J., 226.
Larmessin, Nicolas de, 80.
Latenay, G. de, 47, 143.
Lathrop, W. L., 43.
Laukota, Hermine, 143.
Launay, Nicolas de, 80.
Laurens, J.ules, 221.
Lautensack, H. S., 68.
Lautrec. See Toulouse-Lau-
trec.
Lavis, 130, 139.
Lavreince, Nicolas, 81.
Leandre, C, 253.
Le Bas, J. P., 80, 277.
Le Blon, C., 249.
Lecomte, Marie, 27.
Leech, John, 43, 183, 219, 279.
Lefort, Henri, 229.
Legrand, Augustin, 159.
Legros, Alphonse, 41-42, 128,
234, 302.
Leistikqw, Walter, 46.
Lemercier (printer), 271.
Lemud, Aime de, 214.
Le Noir, Rose, 151.
Lepere, A., 47, 175, 192-193, 253.
Lepic, Le Comte, 16.
Lepicie, Bernard, 80.
Le Prince, J. B., 133, 134.
Le Rat, Paul, 36.
Leroux, Eugene, 221.
Lettering on copper plates,
271.
" Letters." See Inscription.
Levachez, 138.
Lewis, A. A., 175.
Lewis, F. C., 114, 140, 141, 142.
INDEX
323
Leyden, Lucas van, 60, 65, 69,
70, 171, 280, 296.
Lichtdruck, 146, 243.
Liebermann, Max, 21.
Lievens, Jan, 25, 27, 174.
Line engraving, 53-93 (Chap-
ter III), 94, 145, 162, 266;
used with mezzotint, 122;
with stipple, 151, 158, 160.
See also Graver.
Linoleum prints, 203.
Linton, W. J., 183, 186, 187,
1 88, 269.
Lith. de, 278.
Lithography, 204-239 (Chapter
VIII) ; for posters, 307.
Lithotint, 225, 233.
Little Masters, 67, 68, 91, 169.
Llanta, J. F. G., 220.
Lombart, Pierre, 287.
Longacre, J. B., 160.
Longhi, Giuseppe, 77.
Longueil, Joseph de, 81.
" Lozenges " in line engrav-
ing, 146.
Lucas, David, 119.
Lucas van Leyden. See Leyden.
Liitzelburger, Hans, 169.
Luigini, F. T., 143.
Lumiere color photography,
244.
Lunois, A., 227-8, 231, 238, 253.
Lupton, Thomas, 115, 118, 119,
120, 121.
McArdell, James, 100, 101, in,
126.
McBey, J., 42.
McCormick, H., 194.
MacLaughlan, D. S., 35.
Make-ready, 180.
Malton, J., 137.
Mandel, Ed., 90.
Manet, E., 35, 142.
Maniere anglaise (stipple),
152. See Stipple. See also
Mezzotint.
Maniere criblee, 145.
Maniere noire (mezzotint), 95.
See Mezzotint.
Mantegna, Andrea, 55, 58, 74,
91, 268.
Manuel, Nicolas, 168.
Marc Antonio. See R a i -
mondi.
Marchi, J. P. L., 106.
Margins, 271 ; false, 284.
Mariette, P. J., 277.
Marillier, P. C, 81.
Marsh, Henry, 186.
Marshall, William, 82.
Martial, A. P. (A. M. Pote-
mont), 1 6.
Martin, John, 119.
Marvy, Louis, 21.
Massard, Jean, 80.
Masson, Antoine, 78, 79, 296.
Master of the Amsterdam Cab-
inet, 65.
Master of the Caduceus. See
Barbari.
Master with the Die, 75, 279.
Master E. S. of 1466, 63, 64,
68, 279, 287.
Master of 1464, 63.
Master of the Gardens of
Love, 63.
Master I. B. with the Bird,
173-
Master of the Playing Cards,
63-
Master of the Weaver's Shut-
tle. See I. A. of Zwolle.
Mats, 291.
Mattoir, 147.
Maurin, Charles, 48.
Maurou, Paul, 228.
Maverick, P. and P. R., 92.
May, Phil, 306.
Meckenen, Israel van, 64, 280,
296.
Meissonier, J. L. E., 32.
Mellan, Claude, 77-78, 91.
Melton (publisher), 134.
Menpes, Mortimer, 41, 42, 271,
303-
Menus, 309.
Menzel, Adolph von, 45, 182-
183, 206, 223-224, 271, 295.
Merian, Matthaus, 85.
Merians, The, 84.
Meryon, C., 17, 22, 36, 37-
38, 260, 267-268, 273, 274,
324
INDEX
295 ; copied by Gosselin,
286.
Meyer, Henry, 108, 154.
Mezzotint, 20, 82, 94-129
(Chapter IV), 133, 147, 163,
251, 266, 280.
" Mezzotint method " in lithog-
raphy. See Scraper in
lithography.
Michalik, L., 48, 49.
Mielatz, C. F. W., 16, 17, 21,
44, 143, 237, 272.
Millais, J. E., 183, 256.
Millar, A. T., 21, 44, 144.
Millar, Fred, 126.
Miller, Charles H., 43.
Miller, John D., 124.
Miller, W., 86, 90.
Millet, J. F., 33, 213, 269.
"Mixed" methods, 148, 149;
in mezzotint, 96-97, 121 -
122; in stipple, 149, 151, 152,
157, 160. See also references
under Aquatint, Etching,
Line engraving, Mezzotint
and Stipple, to use of the
medium i n combination
with others.
Mocetto, Girolamo, 74.
Modena, Nicoletto da, 74.
Moll, Karl, 193.
Monks, J. A. S., 43.
Monnier, Henri, 217.
Monograms, 279.
Monotype, 130.
Montagna, Benedetto, 74.
Montpensier, Antoine Philippe
d'Orleans, Due de, 209.
Monvel, Bernard Boutet de,
48.
Moran, Mrs. Mary Nimmo,
43, 130.
Moran, Peter, 43
Moran, Thomas, 43, 236.
Moreau, J. M., le jeune, 31, 81,
92, 295, 310.
Morgenstern, Johann Frie-
drich, 45.
Morghen, Raphael, 61, 76-77,
306.
Morin, Jean, 78.
Morland, George, 105, 111,112.
Morret, J. B., 139.
Morris, William, on book dec-
oration, 311.
Motte, C. (printer), 271, 278.
Mouilleron, Adolphe, 220.
Mounting prints, 291.
Mucha, Alphonse, 253. 308.
Miiller, F. W., 85.
Muller, J. G., 85-86.
Musi, Agostino de', 75.
Muyden, Evert van, 47.
Nanteuil, Celestin, 220.
Nanteuil, Robert, 55, 71, 78,
79, 206.
Nast, Thomas, 297.
Nesbit, Charlton, 181.
Neumont, Maurice, 229.
Neureuther, E., 45.
New York Etching Club, 43-
44-
Newsam, Albert, 235.
Nicholson, William, 194, 303,
306.
Nicoll, J. C, 43.
Nielli, 62.
Noel, Leon, 220.
Nolde, Emil, 45.
Norblin, J. P., 27, 285.
Nordfeldt, B. J. O., 194.
Nuremburg Chronicle, I 6 6 ,
299-
Nutter, William, 154.
Odieuvre, 277.
Open letter inscription, 271.
Opus mallei, 145.
Orlik, Emil, 45, 193, 231, 306.
Orthochromatic plates, 244.
Osgood, H. H., 45.
Ostade, A. van, 29, 30.
Osterlind, Allan, 47.
Overbeck, F., 46.
Overlaying, 180.
Paczka, Cornelia, 46, 209, 230.
Paintings, Reproductions of.
All of the arts dealt with in
this book have served more
or less to reproduce paint-
ings, as noted on pp. 296-
INDEX
325
297. Reproductive etching,
32, 36-37, 258; line engrav-
ing, Chapter III ; mezzotint,
Chapter IV; aquatint, 138-
140 ; stipple, Chapter VI ;
wood engraving, 185, 187-
190; lithography, 211, 220-
222; photography, 244; pho-
tomechanical processes, 245.
Palmer, Samuel, 42.
Pannemaker, A. R, 179, 182.
Paper, Important part played
by, in etchings and other
prints, 16, 17,273-275; tinted,
in etchings, 48, 231; treated,
in forgeries, 283. See also
Water-marks.
Park, Thomas,. 107.
Parrish, Stephen, 43.
Parsons, Alfred, 235.
Payen, J. A., 159.
Peale, Charles Willson, 122.
Peale, Rembrandt, 235.
Pelham, Peter, 122.
Pencz, Georg, 67.
Pennell, Joseph, 5, 14, 42, 43,
131, 233, 234, 237, 272, 295.
Perspective, Aerial, 66, 67, 69.
Pether, William, 105.
Pettenkofen, August, 223.
Philipon, Ch., 217.
Phillips, G. H., 121.
Photographs, Use of, 244.
Photography in color, 244,
245-
Photogravure, 123, 124, 240,
242-243.
Photomechanical p r o c e s s es,
162, 240-245 (Chap. IX), 251.
Phototype. See Collotype.
Pichler, J., 98.
Pichon, 47.
Pietschmann, Max, 128.
Pigouchet, 176.
Pinwell, G. J., 256.
Pinx., 278.
Piranesi, G. B., 32, 283.
Pirodon, E. L., 221.
Pisan, H., 182.
Pissarro, Lucien, 193.
Planographic processes, 265,
266. See Collotype and
Lithography.
Plank, G. W.
Plate-mark, 265-266 ; false, 284.
Platt, C. A., 5, 28, 43.
Playing Cards, Master of the,
63-
Pleydenwurff, 166.
Ploos van Amstel, Cornelis,
148, 250.
Point, Armand, 20.
Pointe seche. See Dry-point.
Pollard, James, 136.
Ponce, Nicolas, 81.
Pontius, Paul, 72.
Porporati, C. A., 77.
Portfolios, 292.
Portman, L., 252.
Portraits. Art of portraiture,
302-303. Numerous refer-
ences to portraits will be
found in the chapters on
etching, line engraving, mez-
zotint, stipple and lithog-
raphy.
Posters, 175, 194, 208, 226, 303,
307-309.
Potemont, A. M. See Mar-
tial.
Potter, Paul, 29.
Poupee, Inking a la, 49, 143,
Prang, Louis, 226.
Prestel, J. T. and Marie Cath-
erine, 140.
Prices of prints, 38, 81, 153,
258-262.
Printing, 271-272 ; etchings,
15-17; lithographs, 207,
266. See also Ink and Reg-
ister.
Prints, Care of, 289-293 (Chap-
ter XIII).
Printsellers. See Publishers.
Private plates, 277.
Programmes, 309.
Proofs, 267-268, 271; trial
proofs (working proofs),
267, 268, 271 ; counter
proofs, 268; false proofs,
284; masked proofs, 284;
remarque proofs, 271 ; ar-
326
INDEX
tist's proofs, 271 ; corrected
by painter of the picture re-
produced, zoo, 269.
Protzen, Otto, 128.
Prout, Samuel, 21.
Prouve, V., 143.
Prud'hon, Pierre, 21 1.
Prunaire, Alfred, 191.
Pry, Paul, 279.
Publishers of prints, 30, 32, 76,
84, 102, 113, 134, 136, 141,
227, 271, 277, 280.
Pugin, A. C., 133-
Punching, 145.
Purcell, Richard, 102, 279.
Puvis de Chavannes, P., 227.
Pyle, Howard, 311.
Raffaelli, J. J., 47, 49, 254.
Raffet, A., 215-216, 295.
Raimondi, Marc Antonio, 55,
68, 69, 75, 286.
Rain-water as a mordant, 130.
Raj on, Paul, 8, 37, 297, 302.
Ranft, 48, 49.
Ranger, H. W., 236.
Raphael, 75.
Rasch, O., 230.
Rassenfosse, 306.
Ravenna, Marco de, 75.
Redpn, Odilon, 229.
Register, 174, 199, 249.
Regnault, N. R, 160.
Relief processes, 56, 163, 164,
241, 242, 265, 266; dotted
prints, 145; W. Blake's proc-
ess, 250. See also Wood
engraving and Photome-
chanical processes.
Remarque proofs. See Proofs.
Remarques, 271 ; false, 284.
Rembrandt, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23-
29, 30, 35, 261, 270, 293, 302;
followers, influence, 8 6 ;
prices, 262; late impressions,
283; forgeries, 284; copies,
285-286.
Repairing prints, 290.
Reproductive art. See Paint-
ings.
Restrikes, 253, 283.
Rethel, Alfred, 170, 183.
Retouching worn plates, 103,
122, 280-281.
Retroussage, 16.
Reuwich, Erhard, 166.
Revere, Paul, 92, 299, 306.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua. Repeat-
ed mention of his paintings
will be found in Chapter IV.
His interest in the repro-
duction of his work is indi-
cated on pp. 100 and 269.
Reynolds, S. W., 106, 112, 115,
120.
Rhead, Louis, 308.
Ribera, Joseph, 31.
Ribot, Theodule, 228.
Richter, Ludwig, 183.
Ricketts, C., 194.
Ridley, 157.
Rippl-Ronai, 47.
Ritchie, A. H., 91, 123, 287.
Riviere, Henri, 193, 253.
Robbe, Manuel, 47, 143, 253.
Robinson, Gerald, 124, 125.
Rochebrune, Octave, Comte de,
34, 295.
Rocker or rocking-tool, 94-98.
Rodin, A., 253.
Rogers, William, 59, 82.
Rolph, J. A., 276.
Rops, Felicien, 21, 227.
Rosa, Salvator, 31.
Rosenberg, C., 136.
Roth, E. D., 45.
Rossetti, D. G., 183.
Rothenstein, Will, 234.
Roulette, 96, 130, 250; in etch-
ing, 17, 21, 35, 46; in mez-
zotint, 96, 97, 119, 122; in
aquatint, 137, 139, 143 ; in the
crayon manner, 147 ; in stip-
ple, 148-150, 160; machine
rouletting, 149.
Rowlandson, Thomas, 133, 136.
Rubens, P. P., 72, 75, 171, 269.
Rugendas, Georg Philipp, 98.
Ruling machine, 18, 19, 240.
See also Collas.
Rupert, Prince, 97, 98.
Ruysdael, J., 29.
INDEX
327
Ruzicka, R., 175, 194.
Ryland, W. W., 152.
Sadeler, Egidius, 66, 84.
Sadeler, Ralph, 279.
Saenredam, Jan, 72.
St. Aubin, Aug. de, 31, 81.
St. Memin, C. B. J. Fevret de,
137-
Salmon (printer), 271.
Salt for producing an etched
tint, 131.
Sand grain, sandpaper method,
sandpaper mezzotint, 130, 131.
Sandys, F., 183, 256.
Sargent, J. S., 236.
Sartain, John, 122, 123.
Sartain, Samuel, 123.
Sartain, William, 123.
Satin, Prints on, 274.
Sattler, Joseph, 306, 311.
Savage, Edward, 122, 160.
Savage, W., 248.
Savart, Pierre, 81.
Say, William, 115, 120.
Sayer, R. (publisher), 102, 113.
Schabkunst (mezzotint), 95.
See Mezzotint.
Schauffelein, Hans, 168, 279.
Schiavonetti, L., 154, 158.
Schmidt, G. F., 27, 71, 85.
Schmutzer, F., 46.
Schneider, O. J., 45-
Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Julius,
Ritter, 183.
Schongauer, Martin, 64, 296.
School-book illustration, 163.
Schrotblatter, 145.
Schwind, Moritz, Ritter von,
183.
Scraper and scraping, 54, 270;
in line-engraving, 54, 55;
mezzotint, 94, 95, 96, 97>
101, 102, 266; aquatint,
143; stipple, 149;
lithography, 204, 208, 211, 214,
215, 217, 218, 221, 223, 224,
225, 233, 234, 236; pho-
tomechanical processes, 243.
Sculp., sculpsit, 229.
Seghers, Hercules, 249.
Seidel, O., 90.
Senefelder, Aloys, 206-207, 216.
Senseney, George, 44, 48.
Sergent, A. F., 138.
Sezanne, Auguste, 143.
Shannon, C. H., 233.
Sharp, William, 82, 83.
Sherborn, C. W., 56, 267, 306,
307.
Sherwin, J. K., 154.
Sherwin, William, 98.
Shigemasa, Kitao, 196.
Short, Frank, 16, 21, 127-128,
143, 234, 240.
Shortshanks, 279.
Sichem, Christoph van, 171.
Siegen, Ludwig von, 97.
Signac, 227.
Signatures, 279.
Simon, T. F., 49.
Simon, John, 98.
Simon, Peter, 155.
Simonet, J. B., 80, 81.
Sintzenich, Heinrich, 160.
Sirouy, A., 212, 221.
Skrimshire, A. J., 124.
Sleigh, Bernard, 194.
Sloan, John, 45.
Slocombe, C. P. and F., 42.
Smedley, W. T., 311.
Smillie, James, 90, 276.
Smillie, Jas. D., 21, 44, 128, 144.
Smith, J. A., 45.
Smith, John, 98.
Smith, John Raphael, 100, 101,
103-104, 107, 108, 112, 121,
124, 126, 156, 251, 252, 262.
Smithwick, J. H., 186, 189.
Societe Franchise de Gravure,
90.
Societe de Peintres - Litho-
graphes, 227.
Society of American Wood
Engravers, 188.
Society of Mezzotint Engrav-
ers, 124.
Soft-ground etching, 20, 21, 48,
148, 266.
Soiron, F. D., 155.
Solander cases, 292.
Solis, Virgil, 69.
328
INDEX
Somer, P. van, 98.
Soulange-Teissier, 212.
Soutman, Pieter, 72.
Spatter work in lithography,
208, 227.
Spenceley, J. W., 306.
Spooner, C, 96.
Sporting prints, in, 112, 136.
Stadler, J. C, 137.
States, 267-268, 271, 272, 273.
Stauffer, D. McN., 306.
Stauffer-Bern, Karl, 56.
Steel engraving, 53-54, 86, 119-
120, 276, 281.
Steel facing, 53, 86, 121, 281.
Steinhausen, W., 230.
Steinlen, Alexandre, 48.
Stevenson, F. G., 126.
Still life subjects were etched
particularly by Jacquemart
and Guerard.
Stimmer, Tobias, 174.
Stipple engraving, 145 - 161
(Chapter VI), 163, 273, 285;
used with line-engraving,
86.
Stone, Marcus, 235.
Stone, W. M., 306.
Stopping-out, 14, 131 - 135, 149.
Stopping-out varnish, 14, 132,
134, 149, 250.
Storm van 's Gravesande, C,
28, 47, 232.
Strang, W., 42, 131, 193.
Strange, Sir Robert, 82, 83,
151, 306.
Strixner, J. N., 222.
Sulphur-tint, 130.
Suppantschitsch, Max, 4 8 ,
143, 231.
Surugue, Louis and Pierre
Louis, 80.
Sutherland, T., 137.
Suyderhoef, Jan, 72.
Swell-gelatine process, 242.
Tardieu, N. H. and P. A.,
80.
Tarot cards, 73.
Taylor, Baron, 225.
Technique, 264. The im-
portance of technique is
more or less emphasized
throughout the book.
Tenniel, Sir John, 183, 184.
Textures, Rendering of, in
etching, 25 ; line-engrav-
ing, 65, 70, 78, 82, 83, 85;
mezzotint, 102, 103 ;
stipple, 153, 155, 157, 159;
lithography, 212.
Teyler, Johannes, 249.
Thaulow, F., 47.
Thoma, Hans, 46, 230, 306.
Thomson, James, 151.
Three - color processes, 244,
249, 250.
Thurston, John, 181.
Tiepolo, G. B., 31.
Tinkey, J., 178.
Tint printing, Lithographic,
224, 225, 231.
Tomkins, P. W., 154, 157,
158.
Tory, Geoff roy, 175, 176.
Toschi, Paul, 77.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de,
227, 238, 253.
Toyokuni, 196.
Transfer paper, Lithographic,
208, 228, 233.
Travies, C. J., 217.
Trial proofs. See Proofs.
Trowbridge, Vaughan, 144.
Truchet, Abel, 48.
Turner, Charles, 115, 120, 121,
284.
Tuj-ner, J. M. W., "Liber
Studiorum," 13, 21, 75, 114-
118, 120, 126, 127, 140, 141,
269-270, 272, 273 ; prices, 260 ;
retouching, 280-281; late im-'
pressions, 283; his works re-
produced by line-engraving,
83, 86, 90, 119.
Ukioye. See Japanese prints.
Underlaying, 180.
Unger, W., 36, 297.
Unzelmann, F. W., 183.
INDEX
329
Utamaro, 195, 196.
Vaillant, Wallerant, 97.
Vallotton, Felix, 193, 253.
Vanderhoof, C. A., 21, 43, 236,
272.
Van Dyck. 5V? Dyck.
Velde, Adriaen, Jan and
Esaias van de, 29.
Verard, A. (publisher), 176.
Vernet, H., 206, 209.
Vernier, Emile, 220.
Vernis mou. See Soft-
ground etching.
Veth, Jan, 232, 302.
Veyrassat, J. J., 32.
Vial process, 18.
Vidal, Geraud, 139, 160.
Vierge, Daniel, 172.
Villon, Jacques, 47.
Vinegar as a mordant, 130.
Visscher, Cornells, 72, 92.
Vliet, J. G. van, 27.
Voellmy, Fritz, 128.
Vogeler, H., 46.
Volkmann, Hans von, 231.
Volpato, Giovanni, 76.
Vorsterman, Lucas, 72, 269.
Vostre, Simon (publisher),
176.
Voyez, Nicolas Joseph and
Francois, 80.
Wagstaff, C. E., 121.
Walker, Fred, 183, 256, 308.
Wall-paper, 202, 247, 248.
Waltner, Charles, 36, 297.
Ward, James, 100, 101, 107,
109, 112, 124.
Ward, William, 101, 109, 112,
124, 156.
Warner, E. L., 44.
" Wash-out " process, 242.
Washbum, C., 44.
Water-marks, 274-275.
Waterloo, A., 29.
Watson, C. J., 42.
Watson, Caroline, 154, 161.
Watson, James, 103, 107, 108,
in.
Watson, Thomas, 102-103, 106,
262.
Watteau, A., 80.
Watts, George F., 235.
Way, Thomas and Thomas
R., 234-235, 303.
Webster, H. A., 45.
Wechtlin, Johann, 174.
Wehrschmidt, D. A. and E., 124.
Weir, J. Alden, 44, 56, 236.
Weirotter, F. E., 31.
Whistler, J. A. M. Summary
method, 5, n ; compared with
Rembrandt, 23, 25; etchings,
5, 14, 16, 22, 25, 36, 38-41, 271,
273, 281, 282, 295 ; lithographs,
206, 230-231, 233-235, 237, 238,
253, 254; signature, 126, 279;
on margins, 271 ; work re-
produced in wood engraving,
187, 256; prices, 261; por-
traits of Whistler, 303.
White, C. H., 44, 45, 272.
White, Edwin, 236.
White, George, 96.
White line in wood engraving,
164, 177, 178, 179; imitated
on copper, 267.
Whitney, E. J., 186.
Wickenden, R. J., 237.
Wierix, Anton, Hieronymus
and Jan, 69.
Wille, J. G., 55, 7i, 81-82, 85,
277.
Willette, A., 226, 227, 229,
253-
Williams, Robert, 98.
Witdoeck, Jan, 72.
Witsen, W., 47.
Woeiriot, P., 77.
Wolf, Henry, 189.
Wolff, H., 46.
Wolgemuth, Michael, 166.
Women engravers and etchers.
See Cassatt, M., Lecomte,
M., Fikentscher, J., Hyde,
H., Judkins, E., Kollwitz, K.,
Moran, M. N., Watson, C.,
Laukota, H., Paczka, C.
Wood-engraving, 56, 94, 162-
330
INDEX
203 (Chapter VII), 256, 266,
270, 275 - 276; used with
copper-plates to print tints,
148, 247, 248 ; relation to the
photomechanical processes,
191, 240, 241, 248, 310; for
posters, 307.
Woodman, R., 158.
Woollett, William, 82, 83,
84.
Worcester, Albert, 45.
Working proofs. See Proofs.
Worlidge, Thomas, 28.
Worpswede group, 46.
Wright, I. H., 140, 158.
Xylography. See Wood en-
graving.
Yale, Leroy M., 17, 18, 44,
272.
Young, John, 106, 112, 120.
Zasinger, Mathaeus, 64.
Zdrasila, Adolf, 193.
Zeeman, Renier, 29.
Zilcken, Ph., 47.
Zinc etching, 241.
Zorn, Anders, 22, 47.
Zwolle, I. A. of (Master of the
Weaver's Shuttle), 64
j.nis IJUUK. u JL/UXJ on me Ukad Ucti/c
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JUN 4 1953
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OCT 1 1 1956
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