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- 
 
 *s 
 
 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
 
 8*4 
 
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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
 
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