Ex Libris
C. R. OGDEN
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
The
Collector Series
.!. .1.
MR. GEORGE REDWAY begs to
announce the publication of this series
of books, each volume of which will
discuss some one of the subjects which are of
interest to Collectors.
Coins and Medals, Engravings, Pictures and
Drawings, Postage Stamps, Book Plates, Auto-
graphs, Armour and Weapons, Plate, Porcelain
and Pottery, Old Violins, Japanese Curios, and
Bric-a-brac of all sorts, will be dealt with, each
in a separate volume, and by a writer specially
conversant with his subject. The instinct for
collecting has been made the butt for much
cheap ridicule by those who confound it with
the mere aimless bringing together of objects
which have no other merit than their rarity.
But it has repeatedly been proved that skill and
patience are more helpful to success in col-
lecting than length of purse, and it is especially
for those who desire to pursue their amusement
with intelligent economy that this series has been
planned.
The great prizes in the older forms of col-
lecting have long since been won, and though
it may be needful in these handbooks to refer
occasionally to a book, a coin, a postage stamp, or
a particular " state " of an etching or engraving,
of which only a single example exists, the object
of the series will mainly be to describe those
specimens which are still attainable by the
amateurs who will take the pains to hunt them
down.
For this reason, though the series will be
written by experts, it will be written by experts
who have in view, not the visitors to the great
Museums of Europe, but the amateur and col-
lector of moderate means, who is anxious to
specialise in some one or two departments of
his favourite studies, and to whom it is still
open by care and judgment to bring together,
at a moderate expense, small yet perfect collec-
tions which any museum would be glad to
possess.
Arrangements have been made with many
well-known writers and specialists for their
assistance as authors or editors of volumes of
the series.
Each volume will contain from 250 to 300
octavo pages, from twelve to twenty plates, and
a title-page designed by Mr. Laurence Housman.
The series will be printed, from new type, on
specially-prepared paper, by Messrs. Ballantyne,
Hanson & Co.
The price of each volume of the series will
be /J. (id. net.
The Publisher reserves the right to issue a
limited number of copies of any volume of the
series either on Japanese vellum, or Whatman or
India paper, or with the illustrations in "proof"
state, according as the subject of the book may
suggest. The number of these will be announced
in each case, and they will be strictly reserved
for Subscribers before publication.
The Series will be published in America by
Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., Fifth Avenue,
New York.
3
Uniform with this Volume
The Coin Collector
By W. Carew Hazlitt
With 1 2 Collotype Plates depicting
129 rare Pieces
CONTENTS :
Introductory — Collectors and Collections — Value of
Coins — Unique or Remarkable Coins — Greek Coins —
Rome — Continent of Europe — United Kingdom — The
Coin Market — Terminology — Bibliography — Description
of Plates — Index.
" Mr. Hazlitt is an expert in regard to coins ; his book from
the practical standpoint is trustworthy." — Notes and Queries.
"We may say at once that we have a very interesting and
instructive volume before us. The subject is, of course, only
lightly touched upon, and no attempt at dealing with any
section of it in detail is made. This is as it should be in a book
on coins in general." — Antiquary.
"Perhaps as excellent an introduction to the study of a
delightful pursuit as could have been written." — Daily Tele-
graph.
"Abreast of the latest discoveries and theories, and is sure
of a welcome from the general reader as well as from the col-
lector." — Scotsman.
" This admirable volume gives a bird's-eye view of the whole.
It is clear that Mr. Hazlitt is not only an enthusiast in the
subject of his book, but also a student whose knowledge is at
once singularly wide and remarkably accurate." — Publishers'
Circular.
4
c
Collector Series
FINE PRINTS
Altographs and
Manuscripts
Stamps
Coins
I
Violins
Porcelain
English Water-
COLOURS
Tapestry Lace and
Embroidery
Miniatures
FINE
PRINTS
BV
FREDERICK
WEDMORE
LONDON
GEORGE REDWAY
«Bfl7
English
Book Plates
Pictures
Old Bibles
An'cient Glass
r!! L ' . !! WU n u i'i| >ii —*i" « "i ^ i! i Wi|l|<
isf < 1^
^' t^
P^WIW ' H i'l'i' . lj
»"T— T-TT-TTTrrTTT
"WllN',ll.MUi|lT
CONTENTS
NO. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 9
I. THE TASK OF THE COLLECTOR ... 23
IL CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR , . 37
in. REMBRANDT 48
IV. FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING ... 66
V. WHISTLER AND HADEN 100
VI. LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS 122
Vn. DiJRER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS" . . .139
VIII. ITALIAN LINE ENGRAVERS . . . .158
IX. FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PRINTS . 169
X. TURNER PRINTS 188
XI. MEZZOTINTS 209
Xn. LITHOGRAPHS 221
APPENDIX : CERTAIN WOODCUTS . . .241
BIBLIOGRAPHY 245
INDEX 250
1127505
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Landscape vnth a Tower .... To face page bi:
From Rembrandt's Etching.
CUment de Jonghe „ », 62
From Rembrandt's Etching.
Le Stryge. From Meryon's Etching . . . „ ,,80
The Little Morse. From the Engraving by Durer „ „ 140
Coat of Arms itnth the Cock „ „ 146
From the Engraving by DCrer.
Panel of Ornaments „ „ 156
From the Engraving by LucAS VAN Leyden.
Dance of Damsels , „ 164
From ZoAN Andrea's Print after Man-
tegna's design.
Saint Cecilia „ ,,167
From Marc Antonio's Engraving after
Raphael.
Le Jem de VOye ....-..„ „ 178
From SURUOUE's Engraving after Chardin.
Severn and Wye „ „ 198
From the Print by TURNER.
Esther Jacobs ,, ,, 212
From SriLSBURY's Mezzotint after REYNOLDS,
Interior of Country Ale-house. . . . „ „ 216
From William Ward's Mezzotint after
MOULAND.
vU
FINE PRINTS
INTRODUCTION
In the collecting of prints — of prints which must be
fine and may most probably be rare — there is an ample
recompense for the labour of the diligent, and room for
the exercise of the most various tastes. Certain of the
objects on which the modern collector sets his hands
have, it may be, hardly any other virtue than the doubt-
ful one of scarcity ; but fine prints, whatever School they
may belong to, and whatever may be the money value
that happens to be affixed to them by the fashion of
the time, have always the fascination of beauty and
the interest of historical association. Then, considered
as collections of works of art, there is the jn-actical
convenience of their compactness. The print-collector
carries a nmseum in a portfolio, or packs away a picture
gallery, neatly, within the compass of one solander-box.
Again, the print-collector, if he will but occupy him-
self with intelligent industry, may, even to-day, have a
collection of fine things without j)aying overniuch, or
even very much, for them. All will depend upon the
School or master that he ])articularly affects. Has he
9
FINE PRINTS
at his disposal only a few bank-notes, or only a few
sovereigns even, every year ? — he may yet surround
himself with excellent possessions, of which he will not
speedily exhaust the charm. Has he the fortune of an
Astor or a Vanderbilt ? — he may instruct the gi'eatest
dealers in the trade to struggle in the auction-room, on
his behalf, with the representatives of the Berlin Museum.
And it may be his triumph, then, to have paid the
princely ransom of the very rarest " state "" of the rarest
Rembrandt. And, all the time, whether he be rich
man or poor — but especially, I think, if he be poor — he
will have been educating himself to the finer percep-
tion of a masculine yet lovely art, and, over and above
indulging the " fad " of the collector, he will find that
his possessions rouse within him an especial interest
in some period of Art History, teach him a real and
delicate discrimination of an artist's qualities, and so,
indeed, enlarge his vista that his enjoyment of life itself,
and his appreciation of it, is quickened and sustained.
For gi-eat Ai't of any kind, whether it be the painter's,
the engraver's, the sculptor's, or the writer's, is not — it
cannot be too often insisted — a mere craft or sleight-of-
hand, to be practised from the wrist downwards. It is
the expression of the man himself. It is, therefore, with
great and new personalities that the study of an art,
the contemplation of it — not the mere bungling amateur
performance of it — brings you into contact. And there
is no way of studying an art that is so complete and
satisfactory as the collecting of examples of it.
And then again, to go back to the material part of
10
INTRODUCTION
the business, how economical it is to be a collector, if
only you are wise and prudent ! Of pleasant vices this
is surely the least costly. Nay, more; the bank-note
cast upon the waters may come back after many days.
The study of engravings, ancient and modern — of
woodcuts, line engravings, etchings, mezzotints — has
become by this time extremely elaborate and immensely
complicated. Most people know nothing of it, and do
not even realise that behind all their ignorance there is
a world of learning and of pleasure, some part of which
at least might be theirs if they would but enter on the
land and seek to possess it. Few men, even of those
who address themselves to the task, acquire swiftly any
substantial knowledge of more than one or two depart-
ments of the study ; though the ideal collector, and I
would even say the reasonable one, whatever he may
actually own, is able, sooner or later, to take a survey
of the larger gi'ound — his eye may range intelligently
over fields he has no thought of annexing.
From this it will be concluded — and concluded
rightly — that the print-collector must be a specialist,
more or less. More or less, at least at the beginning,
must he address himself with particular care to one
bnuich of the study. And which is it to be? The
number of fine Schools of Ktching and Engraving is
really so considerable that the choice may well be his
own. 'I'liis or that luitster, this or that j)eriod, this or
that njethod, he may select with freedom, and will
scarcely go wrong, lint the mention of it brings one,
naturally, to the divisions of the subject, and the
11
FINE PRINTS
collector, we shall find, is face to face, first of all, with
this question : " Are the prints I am to bring together
to be the work of an artist who originates, or of an
artist who mainly ti-anslates ? "
Well, of course, in a discussion of the matter, the
great original Schools must have the first place, what-
ever it may be eventually decided shall be the subject
of your collection. You may buy, by all means, the
noble mezzotints which the eng-ravers of the Eighteenth
Century wrought after Reynolds, Romney, and George
Morland ; but suffer us to say a little first about the
great creative artists, and then, when the possible
collector has read about them — and has made himself
familiar, at the British Museum Print-room say, with
some portion of their work — it may be that though he
finds that they are nearly all, however different in
themselves, less decorative on a wall than the great
masters of rich mezzotint, he will find a charm and
spell he cannot wish to banish in the evidence of their
originality, in the fact that they are the creations of an
individual impulse, whether they are slight or whether
they are elaborate.
The Schools of early line-engravers, Italian, Flemish,
German, are almost entirely Schools of original pro-
duction, I say "almost,'"' for as early as the days of
Raphael, the interpreter, the translator, the copyist, if
you will, came into the matter, and the designs of the
Urbinate were multiplied by the burin of Marc Antonio
and his followers. And charming prints they are, these
Marc Antonios, so little bought to-day. Economical of
12
INTRODUCTION
line they are, and ex([uisite of contour, and likely, one
would suppose, to be valued in the Future more than
they are valued just now, when the rhyme of Mr.
Browning, about the collector of his early period, is
true no longer —
" The debt of wonder my crony owes
Is paid to my Marc Autouios."
That in the main the earlier work is original, is not
a thing to be sm-prised at, any more than it is a thing
to lament. The naiTow world of buyers in that primi-
tive day was not likely to afford scope for the business
of the translator ; the time had not yet come when there
was any need for the creations of an artist to be largely
multiplied. That time came first, perhaps, in the
Seventeenth Century, when the immediately accepted
genius of Rubens gave ground for the employment of
the interpreting talent of Bolswert, Pontius, and Vos-
terman. Again, there was Edelinck, Nanteuil, and
the Drevets.
It need scarcely be said that extreme rarity is a
characteristic of the early Schools. The prints of two
of the most masculine of the Italians, for instance,
Andrea Mantegna and Jacopo de"" liarbarj, are not to
be got by ordering them. They have, of course, to be
watched for, and waited for, and the opj)ortunity taken
at the moment at which it arises. In some measure
there will be ex[)erienced the same engaging and ])re-
ventive difficulty in possessing yourself of the prints of
the gi'eat Germans and of the one gi'eat Flemish master.
FINE PRINTS
Lucas of Leyden. And if these, in certain states at
least, in certain conditions, are not quite as hard to
come upon as the works of those masters who have been
mentioned just before them, and of their compatriots of
the same period, that is but an extra inducement for
the search, since there is, of course, a degi-ee of difficulty
that is actually discouraging — a sensible man does not
long aim at the practically impossible. Now in regard
to the early Flemish master with whom Diirer himself
not unwillingly — nay, very graciously — exchanged pro-
ductions, there are yet no insuperable obstacles to
the collector gathering together a representative array
of his work ; it is possible upon occasion even to add
one or two of his scarce and beautiful and spirited
ornaments to the group, such as it may be, of subjects
based on scriptural or on classic themes. To be a
specialist in Lucas van Leyden would be to be unusual,
but not perhaps to be unwise; yet a greater sagacity
would, no doubt, be manifested by concentration upon
that which is upon the whole the finer work of Albert
Diirer. Of late years, Martin Schongauer too, with the
delicacy of his burin, his tenderness of sentiment, and his
scarcely less pronounced quaintness, has been a favourite,
greatly sought for ; but, amongst the Germans, the work
that best upon the whole repays the trouble undertaken
in amassing it, is that of the great Albert himself, and
that of the best of the Little Masters.
And who then were the Little Masters ? a beginner
wants to know. They were seven artists, some of them
Diirer's direct pupils, all of them his direct successors ;
14
INTRODUCTIOxN
getting the name that is common to them not from any
insignificance in their themes, but from the scale on
which it pleased them to execute their always deliberate,
always highly -wTought work. There is not one who has
not about his labour some measure of individual interest,
but the three greatest of the seven are the two brothers
Beham — Barthel and Sebakl — and that Prince of little
omamentists, Heinrich AldegTever. Nowhere was the
German Renaissance greater than in its ornament, and
the Behams, along with subjects of Allegory, History,
and Genre, addressed themselves not seldom to sub-
jects of pure and self-contained design. Rich and fine
in their fancy, their characteristic yet not too obvious
symmetry has an attraction that lasts. Barthel was
the less prolific of the twain, but perhaps the more
vigorous in invention. Sebald, certainly not at a loss
himself for motives for design, yet chose to fall back on
occasion — as in the exquisite little print of the Adam
and Eve — upon the inventions of his brother. There
is not now, there never has been, veiy much collecting
here in England of the German Little Masters. Three
j)ounds or four suffices, now and again, to buy at
Sotheby's, or at a dealer's, a good Beham, a good
Aldegrever. In their own land they are rated a little
more highly — are at least more eagerly sought for —
but with research and pains (and remembering resolutely
in this, as in every other case, to reject a bad impres-
sion), it is possii)le, for a most mcxierate simi, to have
(juitc a substantial bevy of tliese treasures; and though
large indeed in their (l(si<rti, their real ail (|ualitv, they
1
ft
FINE rillNTS
are, in a material sense, as small almost as gems. Mr.
Loftie, who made , specialty of Sebald Behams, was
able, I believe, to carry a collection of them safely
housed in his waistcoat-pocket.
If we pass on from the Sixteenth to the Seventeenth
Century, we have the opportunity, if we so choose, of
leaving Line Engi-aving, and of studying and acquiring
here and there examples of the noblest Etching that
has been done in the world. For the Seventeenth
Century is the period of Rembrandt — the period, too, of
that meaner but yet most skilful craftsman, Adrian van
Ostade, and the period of the serene artist of classic
Landscape and Architecture, who wrought some twenty
plates in acjuafortis — I mean Claude. In an introduc-
tory chapter to a volume like the present, there is time
and space to consider only Rembrandt. And it cannot
be asserted too decisively that in the study and collec-
tion of Rembrandt, lies, as a rule — and must, one thinks,
for ever lie — the print-collector's highest and most legi-
timate pleasure. And even a poor man may have a few
good Rembrandts, though only quite a rich man can
have them in gi-eat numbers and of the rarest. Rem-
brandt is a superb tonic for people who have courted too
much the infection of a weakly and a morbid art. Not
occupied indeed in his representations of humanity with
visions of formal beauty, his variety is unsurpassed, his
vigour unequalled ; he has the gi-eat traditions of Style,
yet is as modern and as unconventional as Mr. Whistler.
Of the different classes of Rembrandt's compositions,
the sacred subjects perhaps — at least some minor
16
INTRODUCTION
examples of them — are the least uncommon; and in
their intimate and homely stud^ of humanity, and
often too in their technique^ the sacred subjects prove
themselves desirable. Never, however, should they be
collected to the exclusion of the rarer Portraiture or of
tjje rarest Landscape. A Lutma, a De Jong-he, in a fine
state and fine condition, a Cottage xvith a Dutch Hay-
barn^ a Landscape xcHh a Tozcer, attain the sunnnit of
the etcher's art, and, both in noble conception and
magical execution, are absolutely perfect. Why, such
impressions of the Rembrandt landscapes as were dis-
persed but two or three years since, when the cabinet
of Mr, Holford passed under the hammer, appeal to the
trained eye with a potency not a whit less great than
can any masterpiece of Painting ; and, to speak in very
soberest English, no sum of money that it could ever
enter into the heart of the enthusiast to pay for them
would be, in truth, a too extravagant, a too unreason-
able ransom.
In the Eighteenth Century original Etching falls into
the background, and the skill of the engraver, in those
lands where, in the Eighteenth Century, it was chiefly
exercised — in France, that is, and England — is devoted
in the main to no sponbmcous creation, but to the
translation of the work of painters. In I wo mediums,
thorougldy opposed or thoroughly contrasted, yet each
with its own value, the engraver's labour is executed ;
there flourished, side by side, the delicate School of Line
Engi'aving and the noble School of Me/zotint. Repro-
ductive or interpretive Lini; I'^igi-aving had done great
17 B
FINE PRINTS
thinffs a generation or so earlier, and even Mezzotint
was not the invention of the Eighteenth Century, though
it was then that the art discovered by Von Siegen, and
practised with a singular directness by Prince Rupert, was
brought to its perfection. But the Eighteenth Century
— even the latter half of it — was certainly the period
at which both arts were busiest ; and not so much the
professed collector as the intelligent bourgeois of the
time gathered these things together — in England chiefly
^Mezzotints, in France chiefly Line Engi-avings — and a
very few shillings paid for the M'Ardell or the Watson
after Reynolds, and later for the Raphael Smith or
the William Ward after George Morland. Often the
engraver was a publisher of his own and other people"'s
prints. That was the case in Paris as much as in
London ; and in Paris, in the third quarter of the
Eighteenth Century, the line engi-avers issued for a
couple of francs or so — and the Merciire de France was
apt, like newspapers in our own day, to notice the
jniblication — those admirable, and still in England, too
little known prints which recoi'd the dignified observa-
tion, the sober, just suggested comedy of Chardin.
There were exceptions, of course, to the common rule
that in the period of our first Georges, and of Louis the
Fifteenth, engi-aver's work was translation. Hogarth,
in the first half of the century — about the time when
the French line engravers were occupied with their
quite exquisite translations of the gi'ace of Watteau,
Lancret, and Pater — wrought out on copper with
rough vigour his original conceptions of the Rake's
18
INTRODUCTION
and of the Harlot's Progress, and not a few of his
minor themes ; but when it came to the rendering into
black and white of those masterly canvases of Marriage
a la Mode, professional engravers, such as Ravenet and
Scotin, were employed to admirable purpose, and a
Jittle later the very colours of the canvas seemed to
live, the painter's very touch seemed to be reproduced,
in the noble mezzotints of Earlom. And the immense
successes of this reproductive engraving, with the art of
Hogarth, brings us back to the truth of our earlier pro-
position ; the period was a period of intei-pretation, not
of original work, with the engraver. The whole French
Eighteenth Century School, from Watteau down to
Lavreince, is to be studied, and collected, too, in Line
Engraving. The School is not invariably discreet in
subject : Lavreince has his suggestiveness, though rarely
does he go beyond legitimate comedy, and Baudouin,
Fran^-ois Boucher's son-in-law, has his audacities ; but
against these is to be set the dignified idyl of the gi-eat
master of Valenciennes ; the work of Watteau 's pupils,
too ; the works of Boucher ; Massard's consunnnate
rendering, in finest or most finished line, of this or
that seductive vision of Greuze ; the stately comedy
of Moreau le Jeune ; and, as I have said alrejuly, the
excellent interpretations of the homely, natural, so
desirable art of Chardin.
Mezzotint really did for all the English j)ainters of
impoi-tance of the Eighteenth Century, and in a measure
for certain earlier Dutchmen, all that Line Engi-aving
accomplished for the French. " By these men I shall
19
FINE PRINTS
be inunortiilised," Sir Joshua said, when the work of
M'Ardell and his fellows came under his view. Gains-
borough, it is true, was not interpreted quite so much
or quite so successfully. But Romney has as much
justice done to him in later English Mezzotint as the
luxurious art of Lely and Kneller obtained from one
of the earlier practitioners of the craft — John Smith.
Morland*'s continued and justified popularity in our
own time is due to nothing half as much as to the
mezzotints by Raphael Smith, and Ward, and Young,
and others of that troop of brethren. And it was
mezzotint, in combination with the bitten line for lead-
ing features of the composition, that Turner, early in
our own century — in 1807 — decided to employ in the
production of those seventy plates of Liber Studiortim
upon which, already even, so much of his fame rests.
Lihei' Studiorum occupies an interesting and a pecu-
liar position between work upon the copper wholly
original and work wholly reproductive. Turner etched
the leading lines himself. In several cases he com-
pleted, with his own hand, in mezzotint, the whole
of the engraved picture ; but generally he gave the
" scraping " to a professional engraver, whose efforts he
minutely supervised and most elaborately corrected.
In recent years, almost as much, though not quite as
much sought for as the Liber plates of Turner, are
certain rather smaller mezzotints which record the art
of Constable ; but Constable himself did nothing on
these plates, though he supervised their production by
David Lucas. Turner's connection with professional
20
INTRODUCTION
engravei"s was not confined to the priceless and admir-
able prints of the Liber. He trained a school of line
engi'avers, welcoming at first the assistance of John
Pye and of George and William Cooke. These two
brothei-s were the engi'avers mainly of his Southern
XJoast, and nothing has been more manly than that ;
but the work of William ]VIiller, in the Chvelly of that
Southern Coast, and in a subsequent series, interpreted
with quite peculiar exquisiteness those refinements of
light which in Turner"'s middle and later time so much
engaored his effort.
W^ith Turner's death, or with the death of the
artists who translated him, fine Line Engraving almost
vanished. It had all but disappeared when, nearly
fifty yeare ago, there began in France and England
that Revival of Etching with which the amateur of
to-day is so rightly concerned. A few etchings by
Bracquemond — of still - life chiefly — a larger number
by Jules Jaccjuemart, of fine objects in ])orcelain,
jewellery, bronze, and noble stones, are amongst the
more precious products of the earlier part of the Revival
of Etching, and they are so treated that they are inven-
tions indeed, and of an originality that is exquisite.
But the greatest event of the earlier years of the Revival
was the appearance, as long ago as 1850, of the genius
of Meryon, who, during but a few years, wrought a
series of vhef'n-crccuvre — inspired visions of Paris — unci
died, neglected and ignored, in the gi'eat city to wliich
it is he who has raised, iti those few j)rints of his, the
noblest of all monuments.
21
FINE PRINTS
Two other men of veiy different genius and of
unsurpassed energy we associate with this revival of
Etching. Both are yet with us in the fulness of their
years ; and both will occupy the collector who is wise
in his generation, and will be, one may make bold to
say, the delight of the far Future as well as of the Pre-
sent. I mean Sir Seymour Haden and Mr. James
Whistler. The prints of Seymour Haden shame no
cabinet; the best of Whistler's scarcely suffer at all
when placed beside the master-work of Rembrandt.
But it is dangerous treating much of contemporaries
when one''s task is chiefly with the dead ; and though
I might mention many other not unworthy men, of
whom some subsequent historian must take count —
nay, who may even be refeiTed to at a later stage of
this volume — I will confine myself here, in this intro-
ductory chapter, to just the intimation that Legros and
Helleu are, next after the etchers I have already named,
those probably who should engage attention.
OC)
CHAPTER I
"^ The use and object of this book, and necessary limita-
tions of its service — Monographs for the specialist — The
point of view of the individual — I'he vastness of the
Print-collector s field — Fashions and silly fads — Barto-
lozzi best in his "Tickets" — The exaltation of the
coloured print — Its general triviality — The task of the
Collector — The file impression — Brilliance — Condition
— The conservation of prints.
A LirrLE Guide to Print Collecting such as the present
one, even if written on very personal lines, not in the
least concealing the writer's own prepossessions, and
giving therefore, quite possibly, what may seem dispro-
portionate notice of certain masters, cannot, of course,
hope to entii'ely suffice for the special student of any
particular man. The special student will not, if he is
reasona])le, find that the little book falls short of its aim,
and fails to do its proper woi'k, because it does not and
cannot possibly sup])ly within its limited volume all the
information of which the accomplished student is him-
self possessed, and which he feels to be more or less
indispensable even to the beginner who desires to be
thorough. He will know — und will scarcely need that
I should here remind him — that not one book, nor even
a hundred books, can make an expert, can turn the tyro
into a j)ractical comioisseur. What the tyro wants is
23
FINE PRINTS
experience, all that is learnt by loss and gain, and by
bnishiner shoulder to shoulder with dealers and brother-
collectors and the auctioneer in the auction-room. He
wants that, to become a practical collector at all, and
to become a specialist he wants that and something
more. He wants access to and acqiiaintance with a
large and considerable branch of what is now unques-
tionably an immense literature. There are larger books
than this of mine on the general theme of Print Collect-
ing, and they have been written at different times, with
different prepossessions, with diff'erent prejudices, from
different points of view. But over and above these
larger books there is a library of monographs on
particular masters, works which are nearly always
Catalogues raisonnh, and often treatises to boot ; and
while no one of these monographs can be altogether
neglected by the would-be student of the artist with
whom it is concerned, some of them must be among
the most cherished of his companions, among the voice-
less but instructive friends whose society is education.
No little book then, like the present one, can take the
place of experience and of the study of many books ;
and least of all perhaps can a book which does not
affect to be the abstract and brief chronicle of what
has been done before, but Avhich j^refers rather to
approach its large subject from the point of view of
an individual collector, who yet, it must be said, while
cultivating specialties, has not been inaccessible to the
charm of much that lies beyond the limits of any fields
of his own.
24
THE TASK OF THE COLLECTOR
So much by way of explanation — by way, too, of
disarming the kind of criticism which would judge a
general endeavour only by the success with which it
seemed to meet the needs of a particular case. A
Bibliography of the subject, which will be found on
l9,ter pages, and which must itself be a selection, com-
paratively brief, from the mass of material that bears
upon the theme, will suffice to set the student of the
special school or master upon the desii'able track ; and
meanwhile one thing may be done, nor, as I hope, that
one thing only : the would-be tiller of the particular
plot may be reminded of the vastness of the land.
Even of print collecting it is true, sometimes, that the
trees prevent you from seeing the forest.
I have said just now, in the print-collector\s world,
how vast is the land ! Time, of course, tends to extend
it — would extend it inevitably, by reason of new pro-
duction, did not Fashion sometimes intervene, and,
while oj)ening to the explorer some new tract, taboo a
district over which he had aforetime been accustomed
to wander. The fashions of the wise are not wholly
without reason, but the fashions of the foolish have
also to be reckoned with. As an instance, the very
generation that has seen the most just a])])raisement of
original Etching has witnessed too the exaltation of
IJHrt()lo//i and of liis nerveless School, a decline of
interest in Marc Antonio, even to some extent in Albert
Diirer, and a silly rage for the coloured print which
fifty years since was the appropi-iate ornajuent of scrap-
book and nursery.
25
FINE PRINTS
I have spoken harshly of two classes of things which
within the last few years have found eager jjurchasers,
and it is incumbent upon me that I justify my harsh-
ness and warn the beginner all the more effectually
thereby. The Bartolozzis, then, which have been puffed
so absurdly — what is their real place ? To begin
with, they are — and in this one respect they resemble
Marc Antonios indeed, and the justly extolled mezzo-
tints which translate Sir Joshua — they are the work
of an engraver who interpreted the theme of another,
and not of an engraver who invented his own. But
this it is evident that they may be, and yet by no
means be criminal. Wherein, it may be asked fairly,
lies their gi*eater offence.? It lies in this. That the
Humanity they depict is generally without character
— that in no austere and in no captivating, over-
whelming beauty, but in its feeble grace, lies its chief
virtue. Bartolozzi was a good draughtsman. He was
no doubt correct habitually, and he was habitually
elegant. Academic he was, though competent. But
again, how terribly monotonous was the order of his
beauty, and how weakly sentimental the design of
those — Cipriani and Angelica Kaufmann principal
amongst them — to whose conceptions he lent at least
a measure of support ! Of Bartolozzi's works, the best
for the collector are the "Tickets." They are on a
small scale — dainty little engi-aved invitations or
announcements to the public of their day, giving the
opportunity to hear Giardini or Madame Banti, or some
other singer of songs or maker of excellent music,
26
THE TASK OF THE COLLECTOR
Delightful little compositions they undoubtedly are,
with the nude drawn charmingly. Half-a-dozen of
them I would possess with satisfaction. But all the
rest ! — all those Bartolozzis which, as they increase in
size, get (just as photogi-aphs do) increasingly meaning-
lees ! The reasonable collector, if his instinct be fine
or his taste educated, will not desire these, even at
prices that may be comparatively insignificant, whilst
Rembrandts, Diirers, Hogarths, Watteaus, Meryons,
Whistlers, exist to delight the world.
The coloured jn-int — for it is time to make some
brief allusion to it — is often very " taking." To the
novice who does not think, it may even appear to be
entirely desirable. But, like the average Bartolozzi, it
is trivial at best. A pretty enough decoration for the
wall of a room in which artistic taste is neither accom-
plished nor severe, it has at least to be recognised that
its art is hybrid. The weight and value of the light
and shade of the engraving are apt to be minimised or
discounted by the application of colour; and the colour,
though put on with ingenuity, has little of the gradation
and the sul)tle blending, and nothing whatever of the
" touch," in which the art of the painter in some measure
consists, 'lliat is why a set of Wheatlcy's "Cries of Lon-
don,"" printed in bistre, is far better than a set which
has the superficial gaiety of many hues. A coloured
Morland is a Moriand nnn-dered. More tolerant may we
be of the coloured prints of France ; the lighter art of a
Taunay or of a Debucourt furording not so ill with the
aj)plication of a j)roces.s which boasts no other charm
27
FINE PRLNTS
than the charm of the a peu pres. ]Jut even where the
coloured print is least offensive or least inadequate, no
one can affect to discover in it the more serious qualities
of Art. Often, experts inform us, the colour was only
applied when the original work upon the plate was
lialf worn out — when the plate could yield no longer an
impression that was satisfactory. Then it was, at least
in some cases, that the aid of colour — or some approxi-
mation to the colour that a painter might have sought
to realise — was called in, and so the opportunity pre-
pared for the foolish rich of our period to pay great
prices for an engaging jns-alle?'.
Uninstructed acquaintances, ill-judging dealers, and
the habit of an indolent world to regard old prints as
humble examples of decorative furniture — all these com-
bine to make it possible for the beginner, and even for
the man of many winters who is outside Art, to spend
his time in accumulating objects no one of which is of
the first order. Even certain print-sellers, who ought
to do much better, but who possess, we must suppose,
more of technical knowledge than of sure and well-
established taste, lend themselves to the diffusion of
the love of the second-rate. There are several high-
class dealers now in London, people of probity and of
accomplishment, some of them young men, too — a cir-
cumstance which bodes well for the future. But those
were safer days when the world of the collector lay
within narrower limits, and when the close contact that
there was wont to be between a few learned salesmen
and a few scarcely less learned purchasei-s, who bought,
28
THE TASK OF THE COLLECTOR
of course, gradually, who never bought things en bloc —
who studied and enjoyed, in fine, instead of merely
possessed — made it an unlikely matter that any quarter
would be shown to the unworthy productions of a
vague and indifferent art. But the beginner of to-day
niust take things as he finds them. If the root of the
matter be in him, his mistakes need not be serious.
The opportunities for sagacious choice in collecting yet
remain frequent. If he collects fine things, he will not,
of course, succeed in acquiring so extensive a cabinet as
that which rejoiced the heart of his forerunner when
prices were much lower — when a Rembrandt, now worth
a hundred guineas, was sold for a ten-pound note. He
must recognise, too, that a very large number of the
finest impressions — and it is upon fine impressions only
that his mind should be set — have come to be cloistered
in National, in University, even in some cases in Muni-
cipal institutions. But yet the field that is open to
him is a wide one, and, as was said in the Introduction,
it is possil)le for diligence and intelligence to accom})lish
much, even if unaccompanied by a purse that is big
and deep.
It has been customary in books on Collecting to say
something about the (pialities that are desirable in a
[)riiit — the (|UHlities, I mean, that, in their combination
constitute, not a fine subject — that is a different matter
altogether — but a fine impression, an impression such
as the collector sJKMild wish lo |)Ossess. And though,
no doubt, for certain remiers, the treatise of IMaberly,
and the later and ainj)ler ti'catise of Dr. Willshire,
20
FINE PRINTS
may be without difficulty accessible, the expert will
hold ine blameless for not forgetting here the interests
of the beginner, and for therefore going, though it shall
be rapidly, over ground that, to the connoisseur, must
needs be familiar.
The first and most indispensable requisite, then, for
a fine impression of a print, ancient or modern, is that
the plate betray no signs of wear, so that the scheme of
the artist in line and light and shade shall be presented
still with virgin intactness. It may be a high ideal to
aim at, but it is not unattainable ; and practically it is
as necessary in a Dlirer three hundred years old as in a
Whistler which may have been wi'ought only twelve years
ago. Very different qualities of surface are, of coui'se,
sought for in prints of different kinds, devoted to dif-
ferent effects. The perfection of one plate may be
attained when it is " brilliant ; "^ the perfection of an-
other when it is " rich." But in all, the signs of wear,
and, in nearly all, the signs of re-touching, are to be
avoided. Wear is indicated perhaps most easily by the
absence of clearness in lines designed to be distinct, and
by an acquired evenness and monotony in passages
which obviously were never meant to be monotonous
and even. Re-touching is a more subtle matter. It is
generally resorted to to repair the wear ; and sometimes
the re-touching is the w^ork of the original artist, and
sometimes it is the work of a later craftsman, concerned
in the interests of publisher or dealer, or it may be in
his own, if it is he who has become the possessor of the
plate.
30
THE TASK OF THE COLLECTOR
But an impression originally rich or brilliant, or
brilliant and rich at once, may, by ill-usage, or even by
the absence of a delicate care, have lost the qualities
that commended it to its lirst possessor. The beginner
in pi-int collecting must assure himself not only that the
work is still sood, but that the surface is clean and
fair. Then he must look at the back of the print,
must assure himself, by careful examination there, that
it has not been " backed," or patched, or mended : at
all events, that all the mending it has required has
been slight and neatly executed. Damp is a deadly
enemy of prints. They pine for dry warm air as nuich
as a soldier sent from out of Provence into the chilli-
ness of French Flanders. " // paralt que <^a grclottait
la-bas^ said a Provencal once to me at Cannes. Many
a print is as sensitive to dampish cold as an American
consumptive. The collector then must diagnose well —
must satisfy himself as far as possible that the seeds of
disease are not in the print already — and if he buys the
print, he must see to its health carefully.
Let me here hiisten, though, to assure him nothing
more than reasonable care is recjuired, and I will tell
him at once in wlmt it consists. If he frames his
print, he hsul better order that the thickness of some
moderate mount — an eighth or twelfth of ;ui inch is
fully enough for the |)urj)ose — intervenes between the
surface of the j)rint and the glass. The glass may
"sweat" from fiiiic to time, and ol)vioiisIv its moisture
must not be deposited iij)om the very object it exists to
guard. If a })nnt has great money value, or if from
81
FINE PRINTS
any cause the collector sets much store by it, it should
not remain in any frame for more than a few years
without at least a careful re-examination. Fresh air
will do it good ; and, moreover, it is good for the
collector's own eye (whose delicacy ought to be culti-
vated by all possible means) that account be taken of
a print's ap})earance not only when it is under glass.
If the collector, instead of framing his print, puts it in
a portfolio, he must see at least that it is so handled
and managed that its surface is not rubbed by the
backs of other prints, or the backs of their mounts.
Where one print follows another in a portfolio or
solander-box, the mounts of all should be smooth. The
portfolio must keep dust out as well as it can. Tlie
solander-box will keep dust out nmch better. And
whether the ])rint is in folio or box, or laid naked in
the drawer or shelf of a cabinet, it should be from time
to time looked at, given, so to put it, a " bath of air "
on a sunny and dry day. A country-house, unless the
walls are very thick and the rooms kept very carefully,
is not the best place for a collection of prints, which
(in England at least) flourish most in the atmosphere
of cities. It is in cities that they require the least solici-
tude. I know very well, when I say this, that it will be
news to some people that prints require any solicitude
at all. I have pointed out that they do, but also that
their possession does not involve any overwhelming
responsibility.
There is one other point as to the condition of a
print — as to that which it is desirable to find in it
32
THE TASK OF THE COLLECTOR
before we purchase it — that should be touched upon
before this chapter ends. That is the question of
margin. It may be that some worthy people are almost
as sharply divided upon the question of margin as are
New York gourmets upon the question of how many
niinutes it takes to roast to perfection a canvas-back
duck. But the majority of collectors are advocates of
margins : they " take curious pleasure " in them, Mr.
Whistler remarks. A margin undoubtedly has much
to recommend it. While a print is mounted, and even
after it is mounted — on those occasions, I mean, when,
under examination, it passes from hand to hand — the
margin helps to protect it. Yet it is evident that a
margin has no artistic merit, and that therefore to
establish a very great difference in money value be-
tween the print with a margin and the print with
none, is to be rather absurd. Of course a print three
hundred years old, which has conserved its mai'gin to
some extent, is a yet greater rarity than a print which
has not ; and as rarity — rarity of condition even — is
paid for as well as beauty, there is some just market-
value in margin, no doubt.
lUit, unlike that fine condition of surface on which T
have so nmch insisted, the possession of margin is by no
means strictly necessary. It is sometimes an added grace,
but never, at least in the case of a print that is ancient,
and that lias been subjected ])robabIv to many vicissi-
tudes — never in such a case is it an indis})ensable virtue,
llarely does the ample margin go back beyond the
Eightecntii Century. In your etching by Meryon oi-
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Haden — clone fifty or thirty years ago — you may expect
some margin, fairly. In your noble line-engraving
after Chardin or Watteau, you may be glad of some,
and may be grateful and surprised if you find much.
In your Rembrandt, a little enhances the value. In
your Diirer, an eighth of an inch, how precious and
how rare !
In regard to the loss of a mai-gin, while in the case
of a very old print it is due probably to gradual ravages
and various little accidents, in the case of engravings
less old, and especially in the case of engravings which
(mezzotints, for example) have always been held most
decorative on a wall, it is due simply to the process
of framing. When the mezzotint — or whatever it is —
was prepared for the frame, the knife removed the
margin at a stroke, and with it there perished, for the
future collector, some chance of exultation and not
inhuman boasting.
S4
CHAPTER II
The old-ivorld Etchers, and their due place in the
Collector's estimation — Claude — Dumesnil's list of his
etched work — Principal pieces — The money value of
Claude's etchings — Vandyke's etched portraits —
Ostade — Richard Fisher's Ostades — Their prices —
Wenceslaus Hollar — The immense volume of his work
— Its character — Its appreciation by Heywood and
Seymour Iladai — Prices of Hollars in the print-
market.
As I think that, speaking generally, the wisest collector
is the collector who devotes himself to original work,
we will begin the study of some various departments of
the collector's pursuit by a gi-oup of chapters on work
that is wholly original. And among work that is
wholly original, what is there that — since chronological
order cannot require to be strictly observed — deserves
to take precedence of the art of Etching ? Not only is
the art up to a certain point popular to-day — that is
a consideration which need not affect the wise collector
very much — but it is, of all the arts of IJIack and White,
the one which lends itself most reatlily to the expres-
sion of a mootl — therefore to the expression of a
personality. In Line-Engraving, of which the finest
examples cainiot, on many grounds, be esteemed too
highly, the chtJ-cTcvuvrc is slow of accomplishment.
S5
FINE PRINTS
In Etching, the honr may produce the masterpiece,
though indeed many a masterpiece has involved some-
thing more than the labour of a day.
Of old-world etchers whose plates should occupy the
collector seriously — of old-world etchers between whom
he may take his choice, or, if he prefer it, divide his
attention — there are, after all, but a few. To have
named Claude, Vandyke, Rembrandt, Ostade, and
Hollar, is to have named the chief. Other Dutch
genre painters than Ostade of course etched cleverly,
but none with his perfection — his perfection, I mean,
when he was at his best. And behind Rembrandt
was a group of men, some of whom simply imi-
tated, others of whom followed in ways more nearly
their own. Other Dutchmen, again, like Backhuysen
and Adrian Van de Velde and Zeeman — whom, nearly
two centuries afterwards, Meryon worshipped — did
work that need not be put aside. Latterly it has
not been put aside ; for in a recent Portfolio Mr.
Binyon made it the subject of special study. But
still the greater men are the few who were named
first.
Of these great men, it was Claude, Vandyke, and
Ostade who wrought the fewest plates. As for Van-
dyke, not only was his work not vast in quantity — his
labour upon each particular plate stopped at an early
stage. To the copper's detriment, as many think,
others continued it, and Vandyke's etchings are only
entirely his own in that first State which is the stage
of the sketch. Yet are they far indeed from being
36
CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR
worthless afterwards, A background is added. The
record of character remains pretty much the same.
It was not quite thus with Claude. He, like other
gi'eat masters, and like some small ones, suffers by the
mischief of " re-touching ; "" but nothing done upon
h^ plates, or upon any imitations of them, carries the
work much further than Claude himself had carried it.
With all the free and easy handling of the point, there
is an obvious completeness — a completeness not only for
the initiated — in some of the very best of his work. In
tone, in delicacy of chiaroscuro, the plate of the Bouvier
— the masterpiece for atmospheric effect — is carried
as far as it could have been carried by line-engrav-
ing. It has indeed quite as much atmosphere, though
not quite as much delicacy of contour, as the marvellous
plates done on about the same scale by the translators
of Turner, whom Turner in a measure trained — I mean
especially the men who wrought upon the Southern
Cncuit series : George Cooke with Margate, Horsburgh
with Wh'itstahle, the incomparable AVilliam Miller with
Portsmouth and Chvelly. Claude's Carnpo Vaccino,
again, is ecjually finished to the comers; and so, of
coui*se, in its perhaps subtler fashion, is the famous
Sunset (Dumesnil, No. 15). Cattle Go'ni^ Home in
Stormy Weather has the appearance of more sununary
labour, a freedom more convincing, and more appro-
priate to that effect of atmosphere, which, together with
the movement of beasts and lierdsmen, the plate is de-
voted to recording. Again, complete tonality is not
sought for — at all events is not ol)tained — in Shepherd
FINE PRINTS
and Shcphcrdc.s.s Conversing^ which yet, in the rare
First State of it, which alone is entirely worthy, is full
from end to end of Claude's happiest and freest, and —
dare one say ? — most playful work in the draughtsman-
ship of foliage. In the Second State one tall tree is
deprived of its height and grace. The picture is spoilt ;
or, if not spoilt, marred.
It is now four-and-twenty years since, at the Burling-
ton Fine Arts Club, there was held a well-chosen and
perhaps the first and last important exhibition of the
etchings of Claude. Dumesnil's list of all Claude's work
in aquafortis includes forty-two prints — some of them
unimportant ; and of the forty-two, the Burlington
Club, with access to the best collections everywhere
(whatever modest things may have been said on this
occasion to the contrary), managed to show twenty-six.
Besides the plates mentioned in the preceding para-
graph, the Dance by the Waterside^ the Dance under
the Trees, and the Wooden Bridge are amongst the
things one would covet. In the Wooden Bridge there
is the whole s})irit of the broad Italian land. A fine
Second State, from the cabinet of some good collector —
my own is from John Barnard's — represents the plate
perfectly. Of the Bouvicr you are lucky if you can get
a Second State. Sir Seymour Haden, who would never
tolerate a bad impression, long contented himself with
a Third, though some years before he parted with his
things he managed to acquire a First. That delightful
collector, Richard Fisher, had a First State of the
Cattle Going Home in Stormy Weather, and a noble
38
CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR
little print it was. Mr. Julian Marshall, who bought
rare things in his youth, and keenly appreciates them
(though, while in his youth still, he sold many), had,
and doubtless retains, a First State of the Rape of'
Europa, which, in an impression like his own — " early,
undescribed, before the plate was cleaned," says the
Burlington Club Catalogue — is indeed most desirable.
As to the money value of Claude's etchings, in the
"States" and the conditions in which they are alone
desirable, the prices that were reached at the Seymour
Haden sale in 1891 are as jjood an indication as one
can well obtain. Sir Seymour's beautiful and silvery
Fii-st State of Le Bouvier was knocked down at <£*42 ;
his Dance under the Trees — a First State too — at
X^IO ; his Sunrise (but it was a Fourth State) at
i?5, 12s. 6d. ; his SfupJierd and Slieplierdess Con-
versing, in the P'irst State, at £1 (and this was cheap) ;
his Campo Vaccino, in the First State, at £Q, 6s. He
had no Wooden Bridge. At Richard Fisher's sale,
in 1892, the Bouvier, in a Second or Third State,
fetched £\5, and a good impression of the Dance
under the Trees, £\'^. It will be seen that, rare
though Claude's etchings are, in good condition, they
do not, ill liiigland at least, when they aj)pear in the
auction-room, command j)rices that can be called
excessive.
The etchings of Vandyke, at all events the best of them,
have fetched more. It iiiiisl be that their rarity, in
the most desired condition, is even greater. Sir Sey-
mour Iladen had a few stiju-rb ones. Vandyke's own
FINE PRINTS
portrait (Dutuit, No. 3) sold in the Haden sale for ^60;
the pui-e etching of the Snydcrs for cf 44 ; the Snttcr-
mwhs for <f 30 ; the Lucas Vosterrnan, £50 ; the masterly
Dc Wad — which, even in an early, well-chosen im-
pression of a later State, one finds an enviable posses-
sion — ^^17, 10s. The touch of Vandyke has nothing
that is comparable with Rembrandt''s subtlety, yet is
it decisive and immediate, and so far excellent. And
Vandyke, however inclined he may have been to undue
elegance — an elegance tj-op voidue — in certain painted
portraits, seized firmly and nobly in his etched por-
traits of men (and practically his etchings are only
])ortraits of men) the masculine character and the
marked individuality of his models.
Of the etchings of Adrian van Ostade, Mr. Fisher
had what was practically a complete collection — he had
fifty plates ; and as he was a great admirer of this
unquestioned master of technique, this penetrating even
if pessimistic observer of Life, he had taken care to
have impressions of good character : in some cases, as
good as it is ever possible to get. Inequality of course
there was ; and whilst here and there an indifferent
impression fell for a few shillings, sums as important as
have been paid for Ostades were realised for the rarest
and the best chosen things. We will consider the prices
of the most desirable. For a First State of the Man
and Woman Conversing, £\Q was the ransom. ^£'14
was paid for even the Fourth State of that rarity, The
Empty Pitcher. Herr IVIeder gave ^^63 for the Second
State of a piece which some call spirited and some call
40
CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR
savage, The Quarrel with Dra-iVn Knives, and X^26, 10s.
for the First State of A Woman Sitting on a Doorstep.
i?80 was paid by the same buyer for the First State of
the Woman Singing, and Mr. Gutekunst gave £211 for
a Fourth State of The Painter. Could I become the
oxner of two masterpieces of Ostade, the pieces which
I should think worthy to be dignified with that name,
and which I should consequently proceed to possess,
would be The Family and the Pea-sant Paying his
Reckoning. The fii*st — not less excellent than any
other in technique — is full of homely piety and truth
to common things. It is one of Ostade's larger pieces ;
and at the Fisher sale, the First State, which had been
in the Hawkins collection, passed into the hands of Mr.
Deprez for oC23. The Peasant Paying his Reckoning
is one of the smaller plates. As the title goes far to
imply, it represents a tavern visitor making ready to
leave the cosy interior ; the landlady looking out with
keenness for the sum that is due. The piece teems
with delicate observation, not only of chai-acter, but of
pictures(jue detail, and with light and airy touch. It
was a woiiderful Fourth State that was in the Fisher
collection ; and i'42 was the price that Ilerr Meder,
the most entei'])risiiig buyer of Ostatles that day, hiui
to pay to call it his. An excellent connoisseur tells us
that the earliest impressions of Ostiules are generally
light in tone — that gofxl impressions are also often
[)nntc(l in a 1)r<)wnish ink, and that they are with-
out the thick line which invariably surrountis the
later ones.
41
FINE PRINTS
Wenceslaus Hollar, born at Prague in 1607, and
working a long while in London, under the patronage
of Charles the First's Lord Arundel, and dying here
amongst us, in Gardiner Street, Westminster, in 1677,
was a far more prolific etcher than either Claude, Van-
dyke, or Adrian Van Ostade. In fact, that is not the
way to put it at all ; for whilst the plates of each of
these are to be counted at the most by scores, the plates
of Hollar mount to the number of two thousand seven
hundred. He was a craftsman of gi'eat variety and
ingenuity of method. But it has, of course, to be
remembered of him that in certain figure-pieces and
mythological subjects at least, he was inteipreter and
populariser of the inventions of another, and that in
most of his interesting little views he was a dainty but
unmoved chronicler of pure fact. An individual note
— a wholly individual note — scarcely belongs to his
rendering of landscape or to his vision of the town.
Yet he is a most sterling artist — not a mere monument
of industry — and his quaintness, only a part of which
he derives from his theme, is undoubtedly attractive.
The collector who collects his work has what is a faith-
ful record of some of the individuals and of many of
the types of Hollar^s time, and a fair vision of the
ordinary aspect of the outward world of Hollar's day.
The man's industry was, as we have seen, colossal, and
even at the best he was but ill -rewarded. Fourpence
per hour was, says Mr. Heywood, the price paid to him
by the booksellers.
At present it may be that there is keener relish for
42
CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR
his work in Germany than here with us in England;
but one gi-eat connoisseur, as well as fine practitioner
of Etching, of a generation not yet wholly vanished,
has extolled and collected him, praising him lately,
it is true, in terms more measured than those he
had at first employed ; and another connoisseur, not
bom in earlier years than Sir Seymour Haden, but
earlier cut off, not living indeed to be old — I mean
the Rev. J. J. Hey wood, who has been named already
— was a devoted student of Hollai-'s endless labours.
He prepared in great degree the Burlington Club's
Exhibition of a large fine representative collection of
Hollar's works, in 1875, and wrote the sympathetic pre-
face to the Catalogue. On Hollar, Parthey has long
been the chief German authority ; and with Parthey
Mr. Heywood was familiar. But his own loving obser-
vation of the unremitting work of the gi'eat Bohemian
engraver of the Seventeenth Century — a wanderer in
Antwerj) and in Strasburg, as well as a long resident in
London — furnished him with some material of his own,
and the liurlingtoii Club Catalogue of such portion as
was exhibited of Hollar's gi-eat volume of production,
should be, wherever it is possible, in the hands of the
Hollar collector. It will accjuaint him with very manv
of the most desirable pieces, and will tell him, in a
form more comjMict and serviceable than Purthey's,
much about the recent I'cstiiig - places of the rarer
Hollar prints. There are a few of Uiese, of course,
which cannot j)ass into the hands of any private per-
son, or the large plate of Kdhihiir^-h, for examj)le, a
4-:3
FINE PRINTS
thing Parthey had never seen, and which was wrought
in Hollar's later time (in 1670), there exist in all the
world hut two impressions. One is at Windsor, the
other at the British Museum.
When, however, the collector has got more than two
thousand plates to choose from, and to watch and wait
for, he need not, save in sheer " cussedness," and he-
cause Humanity is built that way, trouble very much
about what is for ever inaccessible. I do not think that
even a colonial millionaire will set himself the task of
collecting Hollar en masse. Life is not long enough. The
task would fall more properly to a German student, since
patience would be wanted, yet more than money ; but,
after half a century of work, the student would pass
from us with his self-set task still uncompleted. No :
the sensible collector wants of Hollar a compact selec-
tion. Such a group as Sir Seymour Haden exhibited at
the Fine Art Society's — along with many other plates,
representing the masters of original etching — would
form a nucleus, at all events. Divided into classes in
the following way — Topography, Portraiture, Cos-
tume, Natural History, and History, that small ex-
hibited gi-oup included the Anhverp Cathedral, the
Royal Exchange, the Nave of St. George''s Chapel,
Charles the First, Charles the Second, one of the plates
of the Muff's — I trust it was the wonderful study of five
muffs alone, with the wearer's wrists and arms just
lightly indicated — and two of the rare set of Sliells,
which are as wonderful as the muffs for texture, but
somehow a little drier. Of the ])late of the Nave of St.
44
CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR
George's Chapel, Sir Seymour says that it is the most
amazing piece of " biting " that he knows, as to gradation
Andjinessc. xVlong with these plates — if he is fortunate
enough to get them — or even in place of some of them,
as his taste prompts him, let the collector appropriate
the sets of the Seasons and the Buttc7-JIies, the little
Islington set, known sometimes as Six Views in tlie
North of London, and the exquisite single plate (these
topographical plates that I am reconunending are all
small ones) known as London Jy-om the Top of Arundel
House. Of the "simple probity" of Hollar's work,
and of its rightful charm, there will then be ample
evidence.
The prices of good Hollars have not of late years
risen nmch : certainly not much in comparison with
those of other prints holding positions of about the
like honour. Much of his work, therefore, is quite
within the reach of modest and intelligent buyers.
ITie latest really remarkable collection sold was that
of Seymour Hadcii, wiio had long possessed many
njore of Hollar's prints than he found room to exhibit,
with other men's work, in IJond Street. His greatest
rarities — perhaps even his best impressions — fetched
go(xl prices, l)iil, tliev were never sensational : indeed,
in several instances tbey did not substantially exceed
those realised twenty-three years earlier (in l.S(j8), at
.Inlijin Marshall's sale. Tluis, at tlie Julian Mar-
Hhall sale, the Long View of Greenwich j)assed under
the hammer at i'l, 15s., and at the Haden sale it sold
for X'2, .5s. Ij)ndon from the Top of Arundel House, s,\\
45
FINE PRINTS
impression of singular excellence, fetched £6 in the
Marshall sale ; it fetched at the Seymour Haden £9,
12s. ; but in this case there is reason to suppose that
Sir Seymour's impression, though certainly good, was
not equal to ]\lr. Marshall's. Sir TJiomas Challoner
(after Holbein) fetched 1^31, 10s. at the IVIarshall sale,
and I am not sure that it was not the very same im-
pression that afterwards, at Sir Seymour's, fetched only
^20. Each is described as a " First State," and each
had belonged in the last century to one of the greatest
collectors of his time, John Barnard, whose initials,
written in a slow round hand, "J. B.," delight the
collector, often, at the back of a fine print. The two
impressions of Sir ThomcL^ Challoner were surely really
one. The portrait of Hollar, holding his portrait of
St. Catherine, reached £6 at the Marshall sale; only
^5 at the Haden. On the other hand, the Chalice,
which is said, generally, to be from a design by Man-
tegna, was sold for £3, 10s. with Mr. Marshall's things ;
for £5, 5s. with Sir Seymour's. We need not make
further comparisons; but it will be well to end these
comments upon Hollar's money value by some little
additional quotation from the priced catalogues of the
later and larger sale of his prints. TJie Rake's Lament
fetched in 1891 i?22; the Antwerp Cathedral, in the
First State, £8 ; that neat little set of six Views about
Islington, £2, 10s. (which, if the impressions were all
good, was unquestionably cheap) ; the Royal Exchange,
in the First State, £\Q ; The Winter Habit of an English
Gentleman, £8, 10s. ; the set of Sea Sheik, or, rather
46
CLAUDE, VANDYKE, OSTADE, HOLLAR
thirty-four out of the thirty-eight numbers that the
set contains, £61. Hollar, with such a mass of work
to choose from, and with the interest and excellence
of much of it, appeals to the collector who can dis-
pense, at times, with vehemence and passion, and who
finds in quaintness and exactness, in steady technical
achievement, some compensation for the absence of a
vision of exalted beauty.
47
CHAPTER III
Remhrandt Catalogues — The extent of Rembrandt's
etched work — The careful buyer : how may he repre-
sent Rembrandt not unworthily ? — Amongst landscape
etchings, the indisputable pre-eminence of Rembrandt's
landscapes — Their influence on the most modem Art —
The landscapes' rarity — The most desirable and attain-
able — Prices — The landscapes in the Hoi ford Sale —
Rembrandt's portraits — Portraits of himself — The
best portraits of others — Recent prices of the portraits
— Those fine ones that are cheap essentially — Sacred
subjects fust touched on — The Nude — The methods of
Rembrandt — Etching and dry-point — Simplicity of the
means Rembrandt employed.
That great old connoisseur of Rouen, Eugene Dutuit,
in his two portly tomes, the Giluvre Complet de Rem-
brandt (produced in 1883), catalogues for the conveni-
ence of the collector three hundred and sixty -three
pieces, though, from his long and careful Introduction,
it is evident that he is not altogether uninfluenced
by modern views, and is willing to discard some few
out of that great array of prints. Wilson, the first
important English cataloguer, working in 1836, had
catalogued three hundred and sixty-nine. Charles
Blanc, about a score of years later, had reduced the
number to three hundred and fifty - three. Again,
48
REMBRANDT
in 1879, the Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake had brought
the number down to three hundred and twenty-nine.
It is hardly likely that before the present chapter is
completed — a chapter that must be devoted mainly
to the more fascinating works of the gi-eatest mind that
ever expressed itself in Etching — I shall have said any-
thing of value on what is, for the student, an important
(juestion — the question of how much of Rembrandt's
long-accepted work the master really executed. For not
in a part only of a single chapter of a volume on Fine
Prints could it be possible to deal satisfactorily with the
arguments for and against certain etchings, the authenti-
city of which modern Criticism disputes or doubts about.
The matter would require not paragraphs, but a volume.
Furthermore, for anything approaching a final settle-
ment, it would need such opportunities for comparison
as absolutely no one has yet been able to possess. Sir
Seymour Ilmlon, whose views upon the subject are more
de(ine<l than most people's — if likewise it haj)pens that
they are more revolutionary — lias been pleading for a
large Exhibition ami a committee of ex})erts to settle
the matter, and, at this time of writing, the Exhibition
lia-s not lx;en held nor the committee formetl. In regard
to it* decision, I anticipate lus likely to be deliveixnl
.somewhat earlier, and jwrhaps with more of unanimity,
the utterance of Rome ui)on thul (jiicsljoii of "Angli-
cjin Oniers," which now either vexes or sympulluticnily
engagt-s her.
Hut if the moujcnt of connois.Hcurs' agreement upon
the question of the prcci.sc nrmiber of Rembrandt's true
49 i>
I-INE PRINTS
etchings seems yet remote, the beginner in the study of the
prints of Uembnuult may note with benefit two things :
first, that there does exist tlie reasonable and long-sus-
tained doubt in regard principally to the "Beggar"
antl a few of the Sacred Subjects (for certain landscapes
were discarded long ago), and that thus a question has
arisen into which the student may inquire cautiously,
and, after much preliminary study, exercise his own
mind upon ; and, second (and here comes in immediate
comfort for the collector), that the doubts thrown on
two or three score of prints still leave untouched
the plates in which intelligent Criticism has recognised
masterpieces. Again, and for his further joy, if the
collector be but a beginner, or with a purse not deep,
he may note that the masterpieces of Rembrandt are of
the most various degrees of rarity ; that accordingly
they differ inexpressibly as to the money value that
attaches to them ; and that therefore, even now-a-days,
thou'di the complete or comprehensive collector of
Rembrandt will have to be a rich man, a poor man
may yet buy, two or three times in every year, some
Rembrandt etching, noble in conception, exquisite in
workmanship.
A volume like the present is not concerned pi'imarily
with the acquisitions of the millionaire, though it has,
of coui-se, to take account of them. Let us therefore,
just at this stage, ask ourselves what the careful,
modestly-e(iuipped buyer does well to do, so that in
his portfolios so great a master as Rembrandt shall not
be altogether unrepresented, and shall not be repre-
50
REMBRANDT
sented unworthily ? Ought the beginner to confine
himself at first to making a selection from one or two
groups only, out of the number of groups into which,
unless chronological order is to over-ride everything,
the prints of Rembrandt not unnaturally divide them-
selves ? Or ought he to be guided in his choice by
some ascertained facts of Rembrandt's history, and by
the help of dated plates — or by accepting as fixed and
'final the conjectures as to date which have proceeded
from the newer connoisseurship — seek some representa-
tion of the art of Rembrandt at different times of his
career ? Or ought he, instead of either confining him-
self to one or two groups or classes of subject, or seek-
ing to trace at all, by the few prints of which he may
possess himself, the course of Rembrandt's progress, the
changes in his method, see rather that in his port-
folios all classes of subject shall have something to
represent them, so that at least in this manner the
range of the master — which is one of the most marked
of his characteristics — shall be suggested ?
The chronological plan, though it has reason on its
side and great advantages, and naturally commends
itself to the advanced student who is far already on the
road to be himself an expert, is scarcely good for the
beginner; and this not only because the proper basis
of knowledge — the date that is not a shrewd guess, but
a quite certain fact — is often wanting ; but also because
the master's methods in etching, as in painting, were so
many, and in a measure at least (even the most varied
of them) were contemporaneously exercised, that the
51
FINE PRINTS
attempt to represent ])eri()(Is and manners in a collec-
tion numerically in.si<;iiilic!int becomes Quixotic or
Aaulemic. Perhajis, then, the wisest thing is to take
one or two great tyj)ical groups. For my own part, I
should take Portraiture and Landscape ; not of coui'se
cramping oneself with such ridiculous limitations as
" Portraits of Men," " Portraits of Women "—as if the
two, save for convenience of reference, should not
invariably be considered together.
I have said, for one of my two groups, I^andscape.
I justify it by the indisputable pre-eminence which
Rembrandt's etched landscapes enjoy. Even in the
dignified and tasteful work of Claude there are only
two or three pieces which hold their own in fascination
when the memory is charged with the achievements of
the Dutchman — a magical effect won out of material
intractable, or at the best simple ; for that, at most,
was Rembrandt's scenery. The landscape etchings
of Rembrandt's compatriots, when they come to be
measured by his own, assert only topographical accu-
racy, or faithful persevering study, or, it may be, a
little manual dexterity, or their possession of a sense of
prettiness which they share even with the work of the
amateur. Most of the finest landscape etching of later
days not only beai-s some signs of Rembrandt's in-
fluence, but would have been essentially other than it
now is if Rembrandt's had not existed. The Dutch-
man's mark is laid, strong and indelible, even upon
individualities so potent and distinguished as Seymour
Haden and Andrew Geddes. Whistler, exquisite and
52
REMBRANDT
peculiar as his genius is, with the figure, and with
Thames-side London subjects and subjects of Venice,
would, had he treated landscape proper, have either
reminded us of Rembrandt, or have etched in some
wrong way. He would not have etched in some wrong
way — we may take that for granted ; he would have
reminded us of Rembrandt, with a little of himself
besides.
" I have shown, I think, how clearly, from the artistic
point of view, the new collector is led to love and seek
for Rembrandt landscapes. But there is one objection,
though it is perhaps not a fatal one, to concentrating
his attention upon them. Little of Rembrandt's work,
except a few oddities of crazy value, like the First
State of the Hundred Guilder, is rarer or more costly
than his landscapes. Or, to be more explicit, more
absolutely and literally correct, it is rather in this way:
that, while for a good example of Rembrandt in any
other depai'tment of his labours, it is possible of course
to be obliged to give much, but likewise (Heaven be
praised !) quite possible not to be obliged to give much,
you will never without an outlay of a certain impor-
tance be possessed of any one of his landscapes in
desirable condition. An outlay of i?30 may con-
ceivably endow you with a good impression of one of
the two most desirable, and, as it happens, least rare,
of the minor landscapes. That sum may get you,
and without your having to wait a quite indefinite
time for the uc(juisition, a V'wio of Amsterdam or a
Cottage zc'iih ]Vhite Paliugs. Tl may even get you a
63
FINE PRIMES
rarer but much slighter landscape piece — that sum-
mary, thougli of course in its own way very learned,
little performance known as S'hvs Bridge; the plate
which tradition says (probably not untruly) was etched
by llembrandt while the servant of his friend, Jan Six,
who had forgotten the mustard, went (somewhere
beyond the pantry, however ; I should even think that
it was outside the house), in rapid search of that con-
diment.
But there, as far as landscape is concerned, if JOiiO
or thereabouts is to be the limit of your disburse-
ment upon a single piece, there your collecting
stops. If you want a Cottage xvith Dutch Hay-Barn
— very fine indeed, but not of extreme rarity — sixty,
eighty, or a hundred pounds, or more, must be the
ransom of it. You want a Landscape with a Ruined
Tower — the print which, for well-considered breadth
and maintained unity of effect (not so much for dainty
finish) is the " last word " of landscape art, the perfect
splendid phrase which nothing can appropriately follow,
after which there is of necessity declension, if not col-
lapse — it will be a mere accident if fifty guineas gets it
for you. It may cost you a couple of hundred. And
when '^ Why, only when a fine collection comes into
the market : such a collection as Mr. Holford's, three or
four years ago, or one at least not at all points inferior
to it. And that haj)pens not many times in the life of
any one of us. Again, there is the GoUhceiglier''s Fieldy
a bird's-eye view of a plain near the Zuyder Zee ; a
summary, learned memorandum of the estate and
64
REMBRANDT
countrj-house, with all its appurtenances, of Uyten-
bogaert, the Receiver-General, of whom there is a
representation amongst the Rembrandt portraits. If
you can afford it, and if fortune smiles upon you by
bestowing opportunity of acquisition, you will want
not only the less costly portrait of the Goldzveiffher,
but the landscape of the Goldweighers Field. There
are rarer things than that in Rembrandt's work — not
^much that is more desirable. i?44< was paid for an
impression, probably not quite of the first order, at the
Firmin-Didot sale, £5'^ at the Liphart, £19. at the
Ilolford. The landscapes yet more difficult to find,
command, of course, even higher prices, and this some-
what independently of their artistic interest, which
only in a very few cases — and then with very excep-
tional impressions — equals that of the prints I have
already named.
Of these yet rarer landscapes, as well as the other
ones, Mr. Holford's collection was certainly the finest
dispersed in recent times. His sale took place at
Christie's in July 1893 ; and at it, for the Viexc of
Omval — an exceptionally sjilendid impression of a some-
what favourite yet not extraordinarily rare subject —
£^9.0 was paid by M. Bouillon. The subject, though
in impressions of very different cjuality, had been sold
in the Sir Abraham Hume sale for ci?47, and in the
Duke of Buccleuch's for 0^44. £\10 was paid for the
Three Trees, the one llembrandt landscajic which hsis
a touch of the sensational, which adds to its real
merit the obvious and immediate attractiveness of the
55
FINE rillNTS
dramatic ofFect. Ilcrr Mcdcr, the dealer of Berlin,
boiifrht the Fii-st State of The Three Cottages for .£275.
The sum of i;'210 was the ransom of the First State
of the sli<;htly arched print A Village with the Square
To'iCcr. The impression, which was from the Aylesford
collection, was of unparalleled brilhance, and the
State is of extraordinary rarity, though M. Dutuit
notes its presence at Amsterdam and at the British
Museum. To M. Bouillon was knocked down for i?260
a faultless impression of TJie Canal, a print which at
the Galichon sale had passed under the hammer for
ii'SO, and even at the Buccleuch for ,£'120. Messi-s.
Colnaghi bought for i?145 a most sparkling impression
of tlie rare First State of the broadly treated Landseape
uith a Ruined Turcrr, more properly called by the
French cataloguei-s Paysage a la Tour, for in this First
State there is no sign of "ruin." Doubtless when the
title by which it is known in England was first applied
to it, the amateur was unfamiliar with this rarest State,
in which the dome of the tower is intact. In the
Second State it has disappeared, and in the Third there
are other minor changes. Tlie reader will remember
that already, two or three j)ages back, I have referred
to this print as a masterpiece, than which none is more
desirable or more representative. A perfect impression
of the Lamhcapc xcith a Flock of Sheep (from the John
Bariiiird collection) sold for £^245; the First State of
the Landscape with an Obelisk for cf'lSo; an Orchard
with a Barn (the early State, before the plate was cut
at cither end) for ^170; and the First State of the
56
REMBRANDT
Landscape uith a Boat — an impression extraordinarily
full of " bur "—for o£^200. Altogether, the Rembrandts
in the Holford sale — and I shall have to refer to some of
them again before I finish the chapter — sold for .£'16,000.
Richard Fisher's Rembrandts had fetched about
^1500; Sir Abraham Hume's, <f4000; Sir Seymour
Haden''s, .£'4700 ; the Duke of Buccleuch's, something
over ,£'10,000. The last is a figure which was never
-expected to be surpassed — hardly, perhaps, to be
equalled. Yet it was surpassed very much.
But now it is high time I said a little about the
desirableness of Rembrandt })ortraits and about their
money value. No engraved portraiture in all the
world, not even the mezzotints after Sir Joshua, pre-
sent with so much power so gi'eat a range of varied
character. For an artistic treatment of Humanity
equally sterling and austere, you must go back to
Holbein's drawings. For a variety as engaging, a
vividness and flexibility as sure of their effect, only
the pastels by La Tour in the Museum of St. Quentin
rival these Rembrandt records of Jew and Gentile, old
and young, and rich and poor in Amsterdam.
As in painting, so in etching, Rembrandt was him-
self one of his best models. In no less than thirty-
four of his prints — according to the Catalogue of
Wilson — do we find he has portrayed, at different
ages, his homely, striking, penetrating face. Some-
times he is a youth ; sometimes the burden of exj)erience
is visibly laid on him ; sometimes he is engrossed with
work, c'ls in the superb Hnnhrcmdt Drau'iv>r ; some-
57
FINE PRINTS
times, as in the Rembrandt icith a Sabn; masquerading ;
sometimes he is depicted with great fuhiess of record ;
sometimes, as in the admirable Httle rarity, Wilson
set (not catalogued amongst the Ren)brandt portraits,
because the plate has other heads as well), a few lines,
chosen with the alacrity and certainty of genius, bring
him before us, sturdy, sagacious, and with mind bent
upon a problem he is sure to solve. The Rembrandt
with a Sabre, at the Holford sale — a thing almost
unique — fell to the bid of M. Deprez of i?2000, and
has joined now the other extraordinary possessions of
Baron Edmond De Rothschild. At the Holford sale,
the Rembrandt rcith a Turned-up Hat and Embroidered
Mantle — an almost unique First State, drawn on by
Rembrandt, but none the better on that account —
fetchal i?420. Of the Rembrandt Draxcing there were
two impressions. One of thein, which Mr. Middleton-
Wake assures us is the First, and which Wilson justly
describes as at all events " the finest," sold for dP280 to
Hen- Meder. The impression was of unmatched brilliancy
and vigour, the whole thing as spontaneous and im-
pulsive as anything in RembrandTs work. The second
impression sold — an impression to which the honours
of a true Second State are now assigned — fetched ,£'82,
and was borne away by Mr. Gutekunst of Stuttgart.
That famous Holford sale, in which, as I have said
already, the Rembrandt xoith tlie Sabre sold for a couple
of thousand, and in which the "Hundred Guilder"
{Christ Healing the Sick) beat at least its own record,
and was sold for i?1750, contained among the portraits
58
REMBRANDT
an impression of the elaborate Epliraim BonuSy "with
the black ring," the only one with this singular and
somewhat petty distinction which could ever come
into the market ; the remaining impressions being tied
up permanently at the British IMuseum and the Bib-
liotheque Nationale. M. Danlos took it across the
Channel, having paid £\^50 for the opportunity of
doing so. The Burgomaster Sicr, an almost mezzotint-
like portrait in general effect — highly wrought, and
with an obvious delicacy — always fetches a high price.
At the Holford sale an impression called "Second
State " fell to Colnaghi's bid of i'SSO. At the Sey-
mour Haden, one called a "Third" — a very exquisite
impression — reached i?390. It came from the collection
of Sir Abraham Hume, and Sir Seymour, in the Preface
to his sale catalogue, properly pointed out that with
the jSV-r, as with the Ephrabn Bonus, what are practi-
cally trial-proofs have been erected into " States." The
lliird State of the Old Haaring; a portrait of a
venerable, kindly, perhaps ceremonious gentleman, who
practised the profession of an auctioneer, is scarcely
less rare than the rest. When found among the Hol-
ford treasures, it sold for X'190.
For nearly the same price the benign })ortrait of
John Lutma, the goldsmith — an impression in the
Fii-st State, however, " before the window and the
bottle " — passed into the hands of the same buyer.
That plate — one of the most admirable in the work of
Rembrandt — uHbrds, in its First State, an instance of the
artificial advantage of iiicie i-arity. Because certain
59
FINE PRINTS
collectors arc jicciistoiiKcI to sec it more or less worn,
with the window and the bottle behind the seated
fi<^ure, they will never give for it, even when it is not
worn — if the window and the bottle happen to be
there — one-third the sum that they pay willin«;ly when
those objects are absent, whicli Rembrandt knew were
wanted to complete the composition. Now, in the
case of the Great Jcxcish Bride — a portrait really of
Rembrandt's wife, Saskia, with flowing hair — the
backgi'ound is a loss, clearly, the earlier State being
invariably the finer and the more spontaneous. With
the Ltitma it is not so. There is no doubt that the
additions add charm, add luminousness, to the general
effect ; but the fine eye is wanted, the eye of the real
ex})ert, to see to it that the impression which contains
these is yet an impression in which deterioration is
not visible — that it is, in fact, one of the very earliest
impressions after the additions had been made.
To make an end of the record of gi-eat prices fetched
by the portraits in the Holford sale, let it be said
that the Cornelius Syhmi.s — the im])ression Wilson pro-
nounced to be the finest — sold fori?4<50 ; that a Second
State of the rare, and on that account, as I suppose, the
favourite portrait of the Advocate Van Tolling, fetched
X*o30 ; whilst an exceedingly effective impression of
the big portrait of Coppenol, the writing-master,
realised no less than -£^1350.
But without touching any one of these great rarities,
modest collectors, whose mo<lesty yet does not go the
length of making them satisfied with second-rate Art,
REMBRANDT
may still have noble portraits. Six or seven guineas —
I mean, of course, when opportunity arises — secures
you the quite exquisite and delicately modelled croquis
(but is it not, after all, something more than acroqim?)
called Portrait of a Woman, ligJitly etched. Rem-
brandt was very young when he did that, yet his art
was mature, his point unspeakably vivacious. It is a
})orti'ait of his mother. So again, the Mae de Rem-
brandt au voile noir — the lady sitting, somewhat austere
this time, with set mouth, and the old full-veined
hands folded in rest — never, I think, in its happiest
impression costs more than d£'20— may very likely cost
you a good deal less. Ten guineas will very likely be
the ransom of that charming portrait of a boy-child in
profile, which was once thought to record the features
of Titus, Rembrandt's son, and then those of the little
Prince of Orange. It is a delightful vision of youth,
demure and chubby, and in its dainty drawing of light
and silky hair, does even Whistler's Fanny Leyland rival
it .'' Are^ you disposed to venture c£'30, i?40, £50 .?
Then may you, in due time, add to your group a
First State of the most subtle portrait of that medita-
tive print-seller, Clement deJonffJic. It is treated with
singular breadth and luminousness, and of character
it is a profound revelation. By the time the Third
State is reached — and a good Third State may
!)e worth fifteen or twenty pounds — the thing has
changed. Indeed, it has changed already a little in
the Second, liut in the Tbirtl, further work has
endowed the [Hirsonage with the air of a more visible
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i-onmnce; and in the two sucfecding States this is
preserved, tliough the wear of course becomes per-
ceptible. It is well, by way of contrast, to possess
yourself of this more sentimental record — the Third,
if possible, in preference to the Fourth or Fifth state —
besides, of course, that subtler and far finer vision
of the personage which is ensured by the First State
alone. The time may soon be upon us when a First
State of Clement dc Jonghc will be worth, not thirty
or forty, but sixty or eighty guineas. It has always
l)een appreciated, but it has not yet been appreciated
at its true worth. Nothing in all the gi-eat etched
work of Rembrandt is in craftsmanship more unob-
trusively magnificent, and in its suggestion of complex
character nothing is more subtle.
It was well, perhaps, to insist particularly on the
desirableness, for study and possession, of these two
great branches of the etched work of Rembrandt, the
Landscapes and the Portraits. It would be ridiculous
to attack the authenticity of any piece that I have
mentioned. No one, so far as I am aware, has ever
thought of doing so ; so tliat with these, at all events,
as well as with many others, the collector is safe.
But my insistence on the things I have selected will
not deter explorers from adventures that interest them.
The unction, the vividne.ss, and the essential dignity
even of those Sacred Subjects from which he is at first
repelled by the presence there so abundantly of the
ungainly and the common, will in the end attract the
collector. He will recognise that there was pathos in
62
REMBRANDT
the life Rembrandt imagined, as well as in the life
that he obsened. And in the Academical studies, the
representations of the Nude, he will recognise that
there is Style constantly, and beauty now and then.
One or two of these, at least, he will like to have, if
he can. Two of them seem to me better and more
desirable than the rest. One is that study of a re-
cumbent woman — Naked Woynan seen from behind —
<vhich the French sometimes call Negresse couchee ;
but she is not " Negress "" at all, but only a stripped
woman beheld in deepish shadow. This is one of the
least rare. Five or six pounds will often buy it. The
other is the ]Voman with the Arrow. A slimmer,
lighter, younger woman than is usual with Rembrandt,
sits, with figure turned prettily, on the edge of a bed.
The drawing is not academically perfect, but the
picture is at least living flesh, graceful of pose, and
seen in an admirable arrangement of shadow and of
light. This Woman with the Arrow fetched, in the
Kalle sale, £9.Q ; in the Knowles sale, £2>%
The so-called "Free Subjects" are few, and the
iTjdest of them, Ledikant, which has yet a touch of
comedy in it (for Rembrandt was an observer always),
is fortunately of extreme rarity. With not a single one
of these ought the collector to be concerned. Some
French artists have known how to make their choice
of such subjects pardonal)le by treating them with
grace ; but the eroticism of Rembrandt — happily most
occasional — is, in the very grossncss of its obvious
comedy, reeking with offence.
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In rcnjard to the avraiifijcnient of the prints by the
master wlio is the head and front of the Dutch school,
and the consummate practitioner of Etching — I mean,
the arrangement in the student's mind, and not only
the arrangement in the solander box — the question of
the artist's method of execution plays a not unimportant
part. Are you to classify your possessions in order of
date, or in accordance with subject, or with reference
to style and manner of work ? That third method,
however, would be found in its result not very different
from the arrangement by date. Broadly speaking, it
would have affinity with that. For, as Sir Seymour
Haden tells us in an interesting Lecture called
"llembrandt True and False," which the Macmillans
issued in 1895, the Burlington Club Exhibition was
itself sufficient "to disclose the interesting fact that,
dividing the thirty years of Rembrandt's etching career
into three parts or decades, his plates during the first
of these decades were for the most part etched —
"bitten in," that is, by a mordant — in the second,
that after having been so bitten in, their effect was
enhanced by the addition of " dry-point ; "" and in the
third, that, discarding altogether the colder chemical
process, the artist had generally depended on the more
painter-like employment of "dry-point alone." And
in regard to methods of work. Sir Seymour in this
I^ecture discredited the statement that Rembrandt was
full of mysterious contrivances, and that his success as
an etcher owed much to these. " All the great painter-
engravers, in connnon with all great artists, worked
64
REMBRANDT
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.''''
65
CHAPTER IV
Geddes, a link hetween Rembrandt and. the French
Revival — The Etchings of Millet — Charles Meryon's
work — 7'he best, accomplished in but few years — His
^'Paris'' — The Mtfryons the Collector 7vants — The
prices of some masterpieces — Papers — Mcryon Collec-
tors — Bracquemond's few noble things — Jides Jacque-
marCs Etchings — His still-life pieces practically original
— Jacqucmarl irderpreter, not copyist, of his snibjcct —
The " Porcelaine" — The " Gemmes et Joyaux" — The
dry-points of Paul Helleu.
Betwkkn the period of the work of Rembrandt and the
middle of the Eighteenth Century very little fine work
was done in Etching. The practitioners of the art,
such as they were, seemed to lose sight of its gi'eater
principles. What they lacked in learning and in
mastery, they made up for — so they probably thought
— by elaboration and prettiness. Only here and there
did such a man as our English Geddes — our Scottish
Geddes, if the word is liked better — and he not later
than the second and third decades of our own century
— produce either portrait or landscape in the true
method, with seeming spontaneity, with means econo-
mised. It was in landscape chiefly — most particularly
in Oft Pcrkham Rye and Halliford-oji- Thames — that
Geddes most successfully asserted himself, as, in his
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
smaller way, Reinbranclfs true follower, though in his
few portraits (his mother^s, perhaps, most notably) the
right decisiveness, simplicity, and energy of manner
may not be overlooked. In some measure, it may
be supposed, Geddes influenced David Wilkie, who
was his friend, and Wilkie, amongst several etchings
which were inferior at least to the dry-points of
his fellow- work man (for his small portfolio is not,
on the whole, worth nmch), produced one or two
memorable things : a perfect little genre piece, called
Tlie Receipt — an old-world gentleman searching in a
bureau, while a messenger waits respectfully at his
side — being by far the best, and obviously a desirable
possession.
But the middle of our century had to be i-eached
before the true revival of the art of Etching, anywhere.
Before it, Ingres, in a single plate, practised the art in
the spirit of the line-engraver. Just as it approached,
Delacroix and Paul Huet and Theodore Rousseau
showed, in a few ])Iates, some ap})reciation of the fact
that etching is often serviceable chiefly as the medium
for a sketch. But the middle of the century had
actually to an-ive before the world was in ])ossession of
the best performances of Millet, Meryon, Brac(|uemond,
and Jules Jac(juemart.
Jean Fran(;ois Millet executed but one-and- twenty
etchings, according to the Catalogue of Monsieur
Lebrun, the frienti and relative of Sensier, Millet's
biographer. Of M. Eebrun's Catalogue — originally
issued as an Appendix to the Paris edition of Sensier's
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FINE PRINTS
Life of the artist — Mr. Frederick Keppel, of New York,
has published a translation, with some additional facts
which are of interest to the precise student. The
etchings of Millet are, at the very least, masterly notes
of motives for his painted jiictures. But they are
often much more than that. Often they are entirely
satisfactory and final and elucidatory dealings with the
themes they choose to tackle. They are then, cjuite as
nmch as the pictures themselves, records of peasant
life, as the artist observed it intimately, and at the
same time vivid and expressive suggestions of atmos-
phere and light and shade. In effect they are large
and simple. In Etching, Millet was scarcely concerned
to display a skill that was very obvious, a sleight-of-
hand, an acrobatic triumph over technical difficulties.
Etching was to him a vehicle for the expression of
exactl}' the same things as those to which he addressed
himself in mediums more habitual. And so we have
his Glaneuscs and his Becheurs, his Depart pour le
Travail — worth perhaps, each one of them, in good
state, a very few pounds each. In America Millet has
of late years been particularly appreciated. I should
dare to say even that he has been oveiTated, owing to
a skilfully-worked craze about his painted pictures, end-
ing with the immense, ridiculous sensation of the sale
of the Angelm. But in France — which, in the appre-
ciation of all work of art, is certainly not less en-
lightened, but is cooler and more questioning — Millet
is also appreciated ; nor, in England, in 1891, was there
substantial difliculty in boiTowing for the Burlington
68
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
Club Exhibition of the French Revival of Etching,
the eleven prints, lent by Mr. Justice Day, Sir Hickman
Bacon, Mr. H. S. Theobald, and ]Mr. Alfred Higgins,
which were deemed a sufficient representation of Millet's
work with the needle.
In that Exhibition the representation of the great
work of Mt^ryon was confined to twenty-five prints.
It practically included all his masterpieces ; but it
would have been made more extensive had not the
Burlington Club, soon after I published the first edi-
tion of my little book upon this master — and when
Burty's Memoir was yet fresh — organised a splendid
gathering of the prints we owe to Meryon's high ima-
gination, keen sensitiveness, and unstinted labour.
I am not concerned to deal here at any length with
the story of Meryon's life, or with the analysis of
his poetic temperament. The question asked about
him by the reader of this present book is a compara-
tively simple one, but I shall have to answer it with
fulness — which to possess of the " sombre epics,"" and
lovely lyrics, wrought during the time in which his
spirit was most brilliant and his hand firmest .''
Meryon's fame rests on the achievements of a very
few years. The period comprised between 1850 and
1854 saw the production, not indeed of everything he
did which may deserve to live, but of all that is suffi-
cient to ensure life for the rest. Many of his pretty
and carefully planned drawings were made earlier than
1850, and several of the more engaging of his etchings
were made after 1854 ; but the four years between
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these dates were tlie years in which he conceived and
executed his " Paris,'' which was something more than
a collection of etched views — it was a poem and a
satirical commentary on the life he recorded. More-
over, Mcrvon is ([uite pre-eminently the etcher of one
great theme. Among richly endowed artists who have
looked at I-.ife broadly, it is rare and difficult to discover
one whose work has evidenced such faithful concentra-
tion. It is rare enough to find that concentration even
in the labour of such artists as are comparatively un-
imaginative, of such as are content to confine them-
selves to the patient record of the thing that actually
is — of such an engraver, say, as Hollar. It is doubly
rare to find an imaginative artist of wide outlook and
of deep experience so much the recorder of one set
of facts, one series of visions. He will generally have
been anxious to give form to very different impressions
that came to him at various times and under changing
circumstances. Now it may have been Landscape that
interested him, and now Portraiture, and now again
ideal composition or traditional romance. And in each
he mav have fairly succeeded. But Meryon, though
stress of circumstance obliged him to do work beyond
the limits of his choice, did such work, generally speak-
ing, with only too little of promptings from within, to
lighten the dulness of the task. There are, of course,
exceptions — one or two in his Landscape, if there are
none in his Portraiture. But the beginning and the
end of his art, as far as the world can be asked to be
seriously concerned with it, lay in the imaginative
70
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
i-ecord, now faithfully simple, now transfigured and
nobly visionary, of the city which requited him but ill
for his devotion to its most poetic and its most prosaic
features. It is the etchings of Paris, then, that the
collector will naturally first seek.
Nearly all the etchings of Paris are included in what
is sometimes known as " the published set." Not that
the twelve major and the eleven minor pieces comprised
in that were ever really published by fashionable print-
sellers to an in(j[uiring and eager public. But they
were at least so arranged and put together that this
might have hap})ened had Mcryon's star been a lucky
one. In Mervon\s mind they constituted a " work," to
which the few other Parisian subjects afterwards came
as a not unsuitable addition. Like the plates of
"Liber Studioruni," they were to be looked at "to-
gether." Together, the plates of " I^iber " represented,
as we shall see better in another chapter, the range of
Turner's art. Together, the etchings " sur Paris " —
"on" and not "of" Paris, let it be noted — represented
Meryon's vision of the town, and of its deeper life.
In beginning a collection of Meryon's, I imagine it
to be important not only to begin with one of the
" Paris," but with a very significant example of it — a
typical, important etching. The twelve views — the
twelve " pictures," I should prefer to call them —
Meryon himself numbered, when, rather late in life, he
issued the last impressions of them. These numbercnl
impressions, being, us 1 say, the very last States, are
not the imjjressions to cherish ; but these are the
71
FINE PRINTS
subjects of them (and the subjects, in finer impressions,
will all be wanted) — the Strygc, the Petit Pont^ the
Archc du Pont Notrc-Damc, tlie Galerie de Notre-
Dame, the Ihur de VHorhgc, the Toiirellc^ Rtie de la
Tixcrmidcric^ the St. Etienne-du- Mont, the Pompe
Notrc-Dame, the Pont Neuf, the Pont-au-Change, the
Morgue, and, lastly, the Abs'ide de Notre-Dame. Before
these, between them, and again at the end of them, are
certain minor designs, not to be confused with that
" Minor Work," chiefly copies and dull Portraiture,
described but briefly in my little book on Meryon,
which is devoted more particularly to the work of
genius with which it is worth while to be concerned.
Those minor designs which are associated with the
"Paris" are an essential part of it, doing humble,
but, as I am certain Meryon thought, most neces-
sary service. In a sense they may be called head-
pieces and tail-pieces to the greater subjects of which
the list lies above. Sometimes they are ornament, but
always significant, symbolic ornament ; sometimes they
are direct, written commentary. Either way, they bear
upon the whole, but yet are less important than those
twelve pieces already named. So it was, at all events,
in Meryon's mind ; but of one or two of them it is true
also that they have a beauty and perfection within
their limited scheme, lacking to one or two of the more
important, to which they serve humbly as page or out-
rider. The one lyric note of the Rue des Mmivavi
GarfOTus, for instance, is in its own way as complete a
thing as is the magnificent epic of Abside or Morgue —
72
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
it is gi'eater far than the Pompe Notre-Dame^ or, it may
be, than the Petit Pont. The late Mr. P. G. Hamer-
ton — an admirable specialist in Etching, but a writer
making no claim to the nan-ower speciality of minute
acquaintance with Meryon — has praised the Pompe
Notre-Dame. He has praised it for merits which
exist, and it is only relatively that the praise is, as it
seems to me, undeserved. The plate is really a wonder-
" ful victory over technical difficulties ; but, in the ugly
lines of it, its realism is realism of too bold an order.
The Petit Pont is a fine piece of architectural draughts-
manship, and an impressive conception to boot; but,
like Rembrandt's wonderfully wrought Mill, it is one-
sided — it wants symmetry of composition.
The Ahside is accounted the masterpiece of Meryon,
in right of its solemn and austere beauty. A rich and
delicate impression of this print is, then, the crown of
any Meryon collection. It must be obtained in a State
before the dainty detail of the apse of the cathedral,
and the yet daintier and more magically delicate
workmanship of its roof, in soft and radiant light,
have suffered deterioration through wear. It must be
richly printed. The First State is practically not to
be found. I suppose that there are scarcely in exist-
ence seven or eight impressions of it. It is at the
British Museum, and in the collections of Mr. B. B.
Macgcorge, Mr. Avery, Mr. Mansfield, Mr. R. C.
Fisher, and Mr. I'yke Tlu)inj)son. For the last that
changed hands, fully 125 guineas was ])aid. Meryon
had received for it — and gratefully, in his depression
7;j
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and poverty — one sliilling and threepence. I have
seen his receij)t. But money now will not ac(|uire it.
A Second State is therefore the one to aim at ; and,
just because there were so very few impressions taken
of the First, that I ought, in my Catalogue, to have
described them as proofs — more especially as there was
no change whatever in the work, but only in the
lettering — it stands to reason that the earliest and
best impressions of the Second (I mean these only)
are, in their exquisite qualitv, all that good judges
can desire. These are on thin and wiry paper — old
Dutch or French — often a little cockled. The gi'een,
or greenisli, paper Meryon was fond of, he never used
for the Ab.s'idc. The poorer impressions of the Second
State are on thick modern paper. After the Second
State, which, when carefully chosen, is apt to be so
beautiful — and is worth, then,. forty or fift}' guineas —
there comes a Third, a Fourth, a Fifth : none, for-
tunately, common ; and deteriorations, all of them ;
downward steps in the passage from noble Art to
the miserable issue of a thing which can rejoice the
soul no longer, nor evidence the triumph of the
hand.
Not much more need be said in detail here as to the
larger prints of the great " Paris," but there is still a
little. In the shape and si/e of the plate, and by its
breadth of distant view, the Pont-au-Chaiiffe is the
companion to the Ah.s'ide. There are some impres-
sions on the greenish paj)er, and some on the thin
Dutch that yields the best of the Absidci. The im-
74
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
pression of the First State in the De Salicis Sale sold
for c£'33. The Pont-au-Change is one of those prints
which have submitted to the most serious alterations.
A wild flight of giant birds against the rolling sky is
the first innovation — it occurs in the Second State —
and though it removes from the picture all its early
calm and half its sanity, it has, as many think, a charm
of its own, a weird suggestiveness. A good impression,
"in this State, is worth, it may be, =C6 or =£^7. The next
change — when the flight of birds gives place to a flight
of small balloons (unlike the large balloon which, in the
First State, sails nobly through the sky, before ever the
dark birds get there) — the next change, I say, is a
more pronounced mistake. The Tour de VHorlugc —
of which a First State fetched in the Wasset Sale £\0,
and in the De Salicis oC22 — has also submitted to
change, but scarcely in a State in which it need
occupy the careful collector. In certain late impres-
sions, Mcryon, convinced, in the restlessness of mental
ill-health, that one side of the tall Palais de Justice was
left in his picture monotonous and dull, shot great
shafts of light across it, and these became the things
that caught the eye. He had forgotten, then, the
earlier wisdom ;ui(l more consummate art by which,
when first he wrought the plate, he had placed the
quiet space of sliadovvcd buikling us a foil lo the
many-j)aned window by the side of it. The change
is an instructive ;uul pathetic conunentary on the
ease with which artistic conceptions slij) away, they
themselves forgotten, and the excellence that they
75
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had beautifully achieved ignored even by the mind
that gave them birth.
The St. Etknne-du-Mont is one of those etchings
which possess the abiding charm of perfect things. In
it a subject entirely beautiful and dignified is treated
with force and with refinement of spirit, and with
faultless exactitude of hand. It shows — nothing can
better show — the characteristic of Meryon, the union
of the courage of realism and the sentiment of poetry ;
in other words, its realism, like the realism of the
finest Fiction, has to be poetic. You have the builder^s
scaffolding, the workmen's figures, for modern life and
labour ; the Gothic stones of the College de Montaigu,
the shadow of the narrow street, the closely-draped
women huri'ying on their way, for old-world senti-
ment and the mystery of the town. But I suppose a
chapter might be written upon its excellent beauty.
I mention it here, partly because it too submits to
change, though change less important than that in
the Pont-au-Change, and less destructive than that in
the Tour de VHorloge. Not to speak of sundry in-
scriptions, sundry " posters," which Meryon, in mere
restlessness, was minded to altei\ he could never quite
satisfy himself about the attitude of one of the work-
men on the scaffolding. Three States represent as
many changes in this figure, and all these — as a matter,
at all events, of minor interest — it is pleasant to collect.
Here, in the St. Etienne, as so often in the etchings
of Meryon, the First State (<f 16 in the De Salicis Sale)
is the one of which the impressions are the most
76
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
numerous, though even in this piece of writing, which
does not take the place of a catalogue, I have had
occasion to note one instance out of some in which it
is not so. But generally it is so. And so the Meryon
collector has to be even more careful than the collector
of " Liber " about the impression which he buys. He
must have an early State, but it is not enough to have
an early State. He must most diligently teach himself
'to perceive what is really a fine example of it. He
must not fall into the commonest vice of the unin-
telligent purchaser — be captivated by the mere word,
forego his own judgment, and buy First States with
dull determination.
Presently the collector of the " Paris " will leffi-
timately want the smaller pieces, some of which I have
called " tail-pieces "*"* : all are commentaries and con-
necting-links. Some are beautiful, complete, and signi-
ficant, as has already been said, but generally the
significance is more remarkable than the beauty. They
bind together, almost as an appropriate text itself
might bind together, what might otherwise be detached
pictures. They complete the thought of Meryon in
regard to his " Paris," and make its ex})ression clear.
Thus, the etched cover for the Paris Set bears the title,
" Eaux Fortes sur Paris,*" on a representation of a slab
of fossiliferoiis limestone, suggesting the material which
matle it possible to buikl the city on the spot where
it stands. Then, there is a set of etched verses wholly
without other ornament than may be found in their
j)rettily-fanta.stic form, verses that bewail the life of
77
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Pnris. Again, lines to acconipixny tlie Pont- an- Change
and its great balloon. These things recall William
Blake — the method by which the " Songs of Innocence "
first fonnd their limited pnblic. Again, the Tomheau
ile Molihr — Meryon thinks there must be place in his
Paris for the one representative French writer of
imaginative Literature, the cynic, analyst, comedian.
And to name one other little print, but not to exhaust
the list, there is a graceful embodiment of wayward
fancy to accompany the Pompe Nutre - Dame. It is
called the Petite Pompe — represents the Pompe in small ;
gives us verses regi'etting half playfully, half affec-
tionately, the removal of so familiar a landmark, and
surrounds all with a flowing border of rare elegance
and simple invention.
But a few other brilliant and poetical records of
Paris lie, it has been said already, outside the published
Set, claim a place almost with the greater illustrations
I have spoken of earlier, and must surely be sought.
The TourellCy dite " de Marat " is one of these, and it is
Meryon''s record of the place where Charlotte Corday
did the deed by which we remember her. Except for
the interest of observing a change, due, I may suppose,
to the dulled imagination of a fairly shrewd tradesman
— a change by which all symbolism and significance
passed out of this wonderful little print — it is useless
to have this little etching in any State after the First
published one. For, after the First j)ublished one, the
picture and the poem became merely a view : there is
nothing to connect the place with Marat's tragedy,
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
and Meryon has been permitted to represent, not
the Tourelle, dite "de Marat," but "No. 22, Street
of the School of Medicine."' And the First State is
already rare. There were very few impressions of it.
It was too imaginative for the public. But here is
an instance in which Trial Proofs, generally to be
avoided, may fairly be sought for, along with the First
State. Distributed among different collectors is a
little succession of Trial Proofs with different dates of
May and June written by Meryon in pencil on the
margin. The first and second belong to Mr. Mac-
george ; the third was Seymour Haden's ; the fourth
belongs to iVIr. James Knowles ; the eighth — which is the
last — belongs to me (I got it, if I recollect, for £8, 10s.
and a commission, at the W^asset Sale). Even at the
beginning of this little seijuence of proofs the work
is not ineffective ; and at the end it is complete.
Also outside the published Set of " Paris "" are two
little etchings which are particularly noteworthy, and
which, by reason of the extreme, even astounding, deli-
cacy of some of their work, it is, I think, well to secure
in the early state of Trial IVoof — when one can get the
chance. These are the Pont-mi-Chnuge vers 1784 —
which no one can possibly confuse with the larger PoiU-
uu-Chnriffc — and Ia' Pont Ni'uf ct hi Samaritahic. Un-
like most of Mcryoirs ]*arisian work, both are, not
indeed transcripts from, hut idealisations of, drawings
by another. 'I'he first dry draughtsman, in the present
case, was one Nicolle. As far as the practical presenbi-
tion of all the subject is concerned, the Trial Proofs of
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these prints, which have been sold under the hammer
for about .^10 each, are all that can be wanted, and
they possess, moreover, an exquisite refinement of
li^ht, of which the jiublished, and especially the later
published, examples give no hint. All impressions of
these two little plates arc worthy of respect, for these
plates were never worketl down to the wrecks and
skeletons of some of the others ; but, nevertheless, it is
only in the earliest impressions that we can fully see
the lovely lines and light and shade of the background
in the P out- au- Change vers 1784 — it must be had
" before the great dark rope " — and the sunlit house-
fronts (Van der Heyden-like, almost) of the Pont Netif
et la Saniar'italne.
Of the Bourges etchings, which are good, though
none are of the first importance — and they are but few
in all — the best is the Hue des Toiles. It is a varied
picture, admirably finished. The rest are engaging
sketches.
Amongst the remaining etchings by which Meryon
commends himself to those who study and reflect upon
his work, it is enough, perhaps, here, to speak of three.
Oceanic: Peche aux Palmes is almost the only quite
satisfactory record of that acquaintance that he made
with the antipodes. The Second State — with the title —
is not scarce at all, and can never be costly. You may
pay, perhaps, one or two pounds for it, and for the first,
say, four or five. The Entree dii Convent des Capucins
Fran^ais a Athbies — a print devoted in reality to the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates — is the single and the
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
very noble plate which a visit to Athens, when he was
a sailor, inspired Meryon to produce. This rare plate
was done for a book that is itself now rare — Count Leon
de Labordes "Athenes au XV°^^ XVI™^ et XVII™^
Siecles." Even in the Second State the Entree du Con-
vent has fetched about =£^12, in more sales than one.
RochaiLTS Address Card, albeit not particularly rare,
is curious and worth study. It was executed for the
only dealer who substantially encouraged Meryon ; and
Meryon contrived to press into his little plate much
of what he had already found and shown to be sugges-
tive in the features of Paris. Symbolical figures of the
Seine and Marne recline at the top of the design.
Then there are introduced bits from the Arms of Paris,
from the Baiii Frold Chewier (the statue of Henri
Quatre), from Le Pont Neiif, and from La Petite Pompe.
No one, of course, can ask us to consider Rochouxs
Address Card very beautiful or grandly imaginative;
but it is ingenious, and, like La Petite Pompe, though
in more limited measure, it is good as a piece of deco-
rative design.
The impressions of Meryon's etchings are printed
on papers of very different sorts. A gi'eenish paper
Meryon himself liked, and it is one of the favourites
of collectoi-s. Its unearthly hue adds to the wcird-
ness of several of the pictures, often most suitiibly ;
but it is not always good. Meryon knew this, and
many of his plates — amongst them, as I have said
already, that unsurpassable masterpiece, the Ahside —
were never printed on it. I have a Hue dcs Mauvals
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Gar^07hi — the thint!^ was liaudelaire's favourite — upon
very blueish ^ray. A thiu old Dutch paper, wiry and
strong, white originally and softened by age, gives
some of the finest impressions. Other good examples
are on Japanese, anil there are fine ones on thinnest
India ])aper that is of excellent quality. Modern
Whatman and modem French paper have been used
for many plates ; and a few impressions, which, I think,
were rarely, if ever, printed by any one but Meryon
himself, are found on a paper of dull walnut colour.
If I seem to dwell on this too much, let it be remem-
bered that very different effects are produced by the
different papers and the different inks. The luxurious
collector, possessing more than one impression, likes
to look first at his " Black Morg^ie^'' and then at his
" Brown." The two make different pictures.
About the Meryon collections, it may be said that
M. Niel, an early friend, possessed the first important
gi'oup that was sold under the hammer. Then followed
M. Burty's, M. Hirsch's, and afterwards M. Sensier''s.
These fetched but modest prices — prices insignificant
sometimes — for Meryon's vogue was not yet. Later,
the possessions of M. Wasset — an aged bachelor, eager
and trembling, whom I shall always i-emember as the
"Cousin Pons" of certain 6Hc-a-6rac-crowded upper
chambers in the Rue Jacob — were sold for more sub-
stantial sums. Since then, the collection of that most
sympathetic amateur, the Rev. J. J. Heywood — one of
the first men in London to buy the master"'s prints —
has passed into the hands of Mr. B. B. Macgeorge of
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
Glasgow, M'hose cabinet, enriched from other sources,
is now certainly the greatest. The Meryons that
belonged to Sir Seymour Haden went, some years
since, to America, where whoever possesses them must
recognise collectors that are his equals, in Mr. Samuel
Avery and Mr. Howard Mansfield. If too many care-
fully gathered gi-oups of Meryon's etchings have left
our shores, others remain — though very few. The
British Museum Print-Room is rich in the works of
the master : many of the best impressions of his prints,
there, having belonged long ago to Philippe Burty,
who early recognised something at least of their merit,
and made, in the Gazette des Beaux Arts of that day,
the first rough catalogue of them.
It is time we turned for a few minutes to Felix
Bracquemond — a dozen years Mcryon^s junior, for he
was born in 1833. Among the sub-headings to this
present chapter there occurs the phrase, " Bracque-
mond's few noble things." Why " few " ? — it may be
asked — when, in the Catalogue of the Burlington Club
P^xhibition of the French Revival of Etching, it is
mentioned that the number of his plates extends to
about seven hundred, and that the list would have
been longer liad not Bracquemond, in his later years,
accepted an official post which left him little time for
this department of work ? Well, there arc two or
three reasons why, with all respect to an indefatigable
artist, I still say "few.'" To begin with, no incon-
siderable proportion of Felix Bracquemond's etched
plates are works of reproduction — translations (like
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Raj oil's, \\''altiier.s, Unger''s, some indeed of Jacque-
marfs) of the coiiccjitioiis of another. These may be
admirable in their own way — the Erasmus, after the
Holbein, in the I^onvre, is more than admirable : it
is masterly — a monument of austere, firmly-directed
labour, recording worthily Holbein's own searching
tlraughtsmanship and profound and final vision of
human character. But we have agreed, throughout
the gi'eater part of this book, and more especially in
those sections of it which are devoted to the art whose
gi'eatest charm is often in its spontaneity, to consider
original work and work inspired or dictated by others as
on a different level. Then again, in such of Bracque-
mond's prints as are original, there is perhaps even less
than is usual, in a fine artist's work, of uniformity
of excellence. No very gieat number of all the plates
M. Beraldi industriously chronicles need the collector
busy himself with trying to accjuire. The largish
etchings of gi-eat birds, alive or dead, are amongst the
most characteristic. With singular freedom and rich-
ness — an enjoyment of their plumage and their life,
and a gi'eat pictorial sense to boot — has Bracquemond
rendered them. If I could possess but a single Bracque-
mond — I have none, as a matter of fact — I would have
such an impression of Le Haut (Tun Battant de Porte,
with the birds hanging there, as Mr. Alfred Morrison
lent to the Burlington Club. The plate was wrought
in 1865. But Mar got la Critique and Vanneaux et
Sarcellcs — prints of, I think, about the same period
— likewise represent the artist well ; and there is a
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
plate done only about nine years ago, at the instance
of the Messrs. Dowdeswell, which is certainly a triumph
at once of technique and of character. This is I^e
Vieujc Cog.
Daubigny, ]Maxime Lalanne, Meissonier, Corot, are
all amongst French artists who have etched, and have
etched more or less ably. The two last-mentioned —
doubtless the most important artists in their own cus-
tomary mediums — wrought the fewest plates. Corot's
are highly characteristic sketches. Daubigny worked
more systematically at etching, and you feel in all his
works a sympathetic, picturesque vision of Nature ; but
his prints never reach exquisiteness. Lalanne, who
was extremely prolific with the needle, had an unfailing
elegance as well as facility. And, as a little practical
treatise that he wrote upon the subject shows, he was
devoted to the craft. He was best in his smaller
plates : never, I think, having beaten his dainty plate
of the Swiss Fribourg, which was given in " Etching
and PHchers." Seen in large numbers, his prints reveal,
if not exactly mannerism, at least the (juickly reached
limits of his personality. In the portfolios of the
collector, a few prints — which will never cost many
shillings — are enough to represent him. But I have
no wish whatever to underrate Lalanne, in saying this.
I^alanne was not a great artist ; but he was an agi'ee-
able, well-bred obsei'\'er, and a gi-aceful draughtsman.
A genius, wholly individual of course, or he would
not be a genius at all — and yet in a sense the founder of
a school or centre of a gi'oup of workmen — now occupies
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us. We })Jiss to Jules Jacqueniart, who, born in 1837,
died prenijituiely in 1880; a child of his century, worn
out by catj;er restlessness of spirit, by the temperament,
by the nervous system, that made possible to him the
excjuisiteness of his work. The son of a collector, a
great authority on porcelain, Albert Jacquemart, Jules
Jacquemart's natural sensitiveness to beauty, which he
had inherited, was, from the first, highly cultivated.
From the first, he breathed the air of Art. Short as
his life was, he was happy in the fact that adequate
fortune gave him the liberty, in health, of choosing
his work, and, in sickness, of taking his rest. With
extremely rare exceptions, he did the things that he
was fitted to do, and did them perfectly ; and, being
ill when he had done them, he betook himself to the
exquisite South, where colour is, and light — the things
we long for most, when we are most tired in cities — and
so there came to him, towards the end, a new surprise
of pleasure in so beautiful a world. He was happy in
being surrounded, all his life long, by passionate affec-
tion in the circle of his home. Nor was he perhaps
unhappy altogether, dying in middle age. For what
might the Future have held for him ? — a genius who
was ripe so soon. The years of deterioration and of
decay, in which first an artist does but dully repro-
duce the spontaneous work of his youth, and then is
sterile altogether — the years in which he is no longer
the fashion at all, but only the landmark or the finger-
post of a fashion that is past — the years when a name
once familiar and honoured is uttered at rare intervals
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and in tones of apology, as the name of one whose
performance has never quite equalled the promise he
had aforetime given — these years never came to Jules
Jacquemart. He was spared these years.
But few people care, or are likely to care very much,
for the things which chiefly interested him, and which
he reproduced in his art; and even the care for these
things, where it does exist, unfortunately by no means
implies the power to appreciate the art by which they
are retained and diffused. " Still-life " — the portrayal
of objects natural or artificial, for the objects"' sake, and
not as backgi'ound or accessory — has never been rated
very highly or very widely loved. The })ul)lic generally
has been indifferent to these things, and often the
public has been right in its indifference, for often these
things are done in a poor spirit, a spirit of servile
imitation or servile flattery, with which Ai-t has little
to do. But there are exceptions, and there is a better
way of looking at these things. Chardin was one of
these exceptions — in Painting, he was the greatest
of these. Jacquemart, in his art of Etching, was
an exception not less brilliant and peculiar. He and
Chardin have done something to endow the beholders
of their work with a new sense — with the capacity for
new experiences of enjoyment — they have portrayed,
not so much matter, as the very soul of matter; they
have put it in its finest light, and it has got new
dignity. Chardin did this with his peaches and his
pears, his big coai'se bottles, his coj^per sauce-pans,
and his silk-lined caskets. Jaccjuemart did it with the
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finer work of artistic men in household matter and
ornament : with his blue and white porcelain, with his
polished steel of chased armour and sword-blade, with
his Renaissance mirrors, and his precious vessels of
crystal, jasper, and jade. But when he was most fully
himself, his work most characteristic and individual,
he shut himself off' from popularity. Even untrained
observers could accept this agile engi'aver as the in-
terpreter of other men's pictures — of Meissonier"'s inven-
tions, or Van der Meer's, Greuze's, or Fragonard's — but
they could not accept him as the interpreter, at first
hand, of treasui-es peculiarly his own. They were not
alive to the wonders that have been done in the world
by the hands of artistic men. How could they be
alive to the wonders of this their reproduction — their
translation, rather, and a very free and personal one —
into the subtle lines, the graduated darks, the soft or
sparkling lights of the artist in Etching .?
A short period of practice in draughtsmanship, and
only a small experience of the particular business of
etching, made Jaccjuemart a master. As time pro-
ceeded, he of course developed ; found new methods,
ways not previously knowTi to him. But little of what
is obviously tentative and innnature is to be noticed
even in his earliest work. He springs into his art an
artist fully armed — like Rembrandt with the wonder-
ful portrait of his mother " lightly etched." In 1860,
when he is but twenty-three, he is at work upon the
illustrations to his father's " Histoire de la Porcelaine,"
and though, in that jjublication, the absolute realisation
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
of wonderful matter — or, more particularly, the breadth
in treating it — is not so noteworthy as in the later
" Gemmes et Joyaux de la Couronne,'' there is most
evident already the hand of the delicate artist and the
eye that can appreciate and render almost unconsidered
beauties.
The " Histoire de la Porcelaine "" contains twenty-
six plates, of which a large proportion are devoted to
"the Oriental china possessed in mass by the elder
Jaccjuemart, when as yet there was no rage for it.
Many of Albert Jacquemart's pieces figure in the book :
they were pieces the son had lived with and knew
familiarly. Their charm, their delicacy, he perfectly
represented — nay, exalted — })assing without sense of
difficulty from the bizarre ornamentation of the East
to the ordered forms and satisfying symmetry which
the high taste of the Renaissance gave to its products.
Thus, in the " Histoire de la Porcelaine " — amongst
the quaintly naturalistic decorations from China and
amongst the ornaments of S&vres, with their boudoir
graces and airs of pretty luxury fit for the Manjuise of
Louis Quinze and the sleek young Abbe, her pet and
her counsellor, we find, rendered with an appreciation
as just, a Brocra lUdiennc, the Rrocca of the Medicis
of the Sixteenth Century, slight and tall, where the
lightest of Renaissance forms the thin and reed-like
arabcsquf — no mass or splash of coloui" — is patterned
over the smoothish surface with measurcn;! exactitude and
rhythmic comj)leteness. How much is here suggested,
and how little done ! The actual touches are almost as
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few as those which J;ic({ueuiart employed afterwards in
reiideriiijt; some fairy effects of rock-crystal — the material
which he has interpreted, it may be, best of all. On
such work may be bestowed, amongst much other
praise, that particular praise which seems the highest
to fashionable French Criticism — delighted especially
with feats of adroitness : occupied with the evidence of
the artists dexterity — " // ny a rien, et il y a touty
The " Histoire de la Porcelaine " — of which the
separate plates were begun, as I have said before, in
1860, and which was published by Techener in 1862 —
was followed in 1864 by the "Gemmes et Joyaux de
Couronne." The Chalcographie of the Louvre — which
concerns itself with the issue of State-commissioned
prints — undertook the first publication of the " Gemmes
et Joyaux." In this series there are sixty subjects, or,
at least, sixty plates, for sometimes Jacquemart, seated
by his Louvre window (which is reflected over and over
again at every angle, in the lustre of the objects he was
drawing), would etch in one plate the portraits of two
treasures, glad to give " value " to the virtues of the
one by juxtaposition with the virtues of the other;
opposing, say, the transparent brilliance of the globe
of rock-crvstal to the texture and hues, sombre and
velvety, of the vase of ancient sardonyx, as one puts
a cluster of diamonds round a fine cat\s-eye, or a black
j)earl, glowing soberly.
Of all these plates M. Louise Gonse has given an
accurate account, in enough detail for the purposes of
most people, in the "Gazette des Beaux Arts'" for
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
1876. The Catalogue of Jacquemart"'s etchings — which
are about four hundred in all — thei'e contained, was a
work of industry and of very genuine interest on M.
Gonse's part, but its necessary extent, due to the artist's
own prodigious diligence in work, cannot for ever
sufficiently excuse an occasional incompleteness of de-
scription making absolute identification sometimes a
difficult matter. The critical appreciation was warm
'and intelligent, and the student of Jules Jacquemart
must always be indebted to Gonse. But for the quite
adequate description of work like Jacquemart's — the
very subject of it, quite as much as the treatment —
there was needed not only the French tongue (the
tongue, par c\vcelh"nce, of Criticism), but a Gautier to
use it.
Ever)i:hing that Jacquemart could do in the render-
ing of beautiful matter, and of its artistic and appro-
priate ornament, is represented in one or other of the
varied subjects of the " Gemmes et Joyaux," save only
his work with delicate china. And the large plates of
this series evince his strength, and hardly ever betray his
weakness. He was not, perhaps, a thoroughly trained
Academical draughtsman ; a large and detailed treat-
ment of the nude figure — any further treatment of it
than that recjuired for the beautiful suggestion of it as
it occurs on Renaissance mirror-frames or in Renaissance
porcelains — miglit have found him deficient. He had
an admirable feeling for the unbroken flow of its line,
for its suj)plcness, for the figure's harmonious move-
ment. He was not the master of its most intricate
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anatomy ; hni, on the scale on which he had to treat
it, liis su<;gestion was faultless. By the brief shorthand
of his art in this matter, we are brought back to the
old formula of praise. Here, indeed, if anywhere, " II
711/ a riaiy et il y a touty
As nothing in Jacquemarfs etchings is more adroit
than his treatment of the figure, so nothing is more
delightful and, as it were, unexpected. He feels the
intricate unity of its curve and flow — how it gives value
by its happy undulations of line to the fixed, invariable
oniament of Renaissance decoration — an ornament as
orderly as well-observed verse, with its settled form,
its repetition, its refrain, I will name one or two
notable instances. One occurs in the etching of a
Renaissance mirror (the print a most desirable little
possession) — Miroir Fran^-als clu Seizieme Sicclc, elabo-
rately carved, but its chief grace after all is in its fine
proportions — not so nuich the perfection of the ornament
as the perfect disposition of it. The absolutely satis-
factory filling of a given space with the enrichments of
design, the occupation of the space without the crowding
of it — for that is what is meant by the perfect disposi-
tion of ornament — has always been the problem for the
decorative artist. Recent fashion has insisted, suffi-
ciently, that it has been best solved by the Japanese ;
and indeed the Japanese have solved it, often with
great economy of means, suggesting, rather than achiev-
ing, the occupation of the space they have worked
upon. But the best Renaissance Design has solved the
problem as well, in fashions less arbitrary, with rhythm
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
more pronounced and yet more subtle, with a precision
more exquisite, with a complete comprehension of the
value of quietude, of the importance of rest. If it
requires — as Francis Turner Palgrave said, admirably
— "an Athenian tribunar' to understand Ingres and
Flaxman, it needs at all events high education in the
beauty of line to understand the art of Renaissance
Ornament. Such art Jacquemart understood absolutely,
and, against its purposed rigidity, its free play of the
nude figure is indicated with touches dainty, faultless,
and few. Thus it is, I say, in the Miroir Frnn^ais du
Seizieme Sieck. And to the attraction of the figure
has been added almost the attraction of landscape
and of landscape atmosphere in the plate No. 27 of
the " Gemmes et Joyaux" which represents scenes from
Ovid as a craftsman of the Renaissance has portrayed
them on the delicate liquid surface of cristal tie rocJw.
And not confining our examination wholly to " Gemmes
et Joyaux," of which, obviously, the mirror just spoken
of cannot form a part — we observ^e there, or elsewhere
in Jacquemarfs prints, how his treatment of the figure
takes constant note of the material in which the first
artist, his original, worked. Is it raised porcelain, for
instance, or soft ivory, or smooth, cool bronze with its
less close and subtle following of the figure's curves, its
certain measure of angularity in limb and trunk, its
many facets, with a somewhat marked transition from
one to the other (instcjid of the unbroken harmony of
the real figure), its occiisional flatnesses ? If it is this,
this is what Jaccjuemart gives us in his etchings — not
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tlie figure only, but the figure as it conies to us through
the medium of bronze. See, for example, the Venus
Marine^ outstretched, with slender legs — a bronze, long
the possession of M. Thiers, I believe. One really
caimot insist too much on Jacquemarfs mastery over
his material — chlsonnc, with its rich, low tones, its
patterning outlined by its metal ribs; the coarseness
of rough wood, as in the Saliere de Troyes ; the sharp,
steel weapons and the infinite delicacy of their lines,
as in Epees^ Langues de Boevf', Poignards ; the signefs
flatness and delicate smoothness — "c''est le sinet du
Hoy Sant Louis " — and the red porphyry, flaked, as it
were, and speckled, of an ancient vase ; and the clear,
soft, unctuous green of jade.
And as the material is marvellously varied, so are its
combinations curious and wayward. I saw, one autumn,
at Lyons, their sombre little church of Ainay, a Chris-
tian edifice built of no Gothic stones, but placed,
already ages ago, on the site of a Roman Temple — the
Temple used, its dark columns cut across, its black
stones re-arranged, and so the Church completed —
Antiquity pressed into the service of the Middle Age.
Jacquemart, dealing with the precious objects that he
had to portray, came often on such strange meetings :
an antique vase of sardonyx, say, infinitely precious,
mounted and altered in the Twelfth Centiu-y, for the
service of the Mass, and so, beset with gold and jewels,
offered by its possessor to the Abbey of Saint Denis.
It was not a literal translation, it must be said again,
that Jacquemart made of these things. These things
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FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
sat to him for their portraits ; he posed them ; he
composed them aright. Placed by him in their best
lights, they revealed their finest qualities. Some people
bore hardlv on him for the colour, warmth, and life he
introduced into his etchings. They wanted a colder, a
more impersonal, a more precise recoi'd, Jacquemart
never sacrificed precision when precision was of the
essence of the business, but he did not — scarcely even
In his earlier plates of the " Porcelaine "" — care for it
for its own sake. And the thing that his first critics
blamed him for doing — the composition of a subject,
the rejection of this, the choice of that, the bestowal
of fire and life upon matter dead to the common eye —
is a thing which artists in all arts have always done,
and for this most simple reason, that the doing of it
is Art.
As an interpreter of other men's pictures, it fell to the
lot of Jacquemart to engrave the most various masters.
But with so very personal an artist as he, the interpre-
tation of so many men, and in so many years, from
1860 or thereabouts, onwards, could not possibly be of
equal value. As far as Dutch Painting is concerned, he
is strongest when he interprets, as in one now cele-
brated etching. Van der Meer of Delft. Dcr Soldat
und d(LS hufu'iide Mddchcn was, when Jactjuemart
etched it, one of the most noteworthy pieces in the
cabinet of M. Leopold l)ou])]e. It was brought after-
wards to London by the charming friend of many
artists and collectors — the late Samuel .Joseph — in the
hands of whose family it of coui*se rests. The big and
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blustering ti()oj)er coiuinon in Dutch art, sits here,
engaging the attention of that thin-faced and eveillee
maiden pecuHar to Van der Meer. Behind the two,
who are contentedly occupied in gazing and talk, is
the bare, sunlit wall, spread only with its map or chart,
and, by the side of the couple, throwing its brilliant
but modulated light upon the woman's face and on the
background, is the intricately patterned window, the
airy lattice. Hai'ely was a master's subject, or his
method, better interj)reted than in this print. The
print possesses, along with all its subtlety, a quality
of boldness demanded specially by Van der Meer, and
lacking to prints which in their imperturbable delibera-
tion and cold skill render well enough some others of
the Dutch masters — I mean the Eighteenth Century
line ensrravinors of J. G. Wille after Metsu and the rest.
Frans Hals, once or twice, is as chai-acteristically
rendered. But with these exceptions it is Jacquemart's
own fellow-countrymen whom he translates the best.
The suppleness of his talent — the happy speed of it,
not its patient elaboration — is shown by his renderings
of Greuze : the Ilcve cT Amour, a single head, and
VOragc, a memorandum of a young and frightened
mother, kneeling by her child, exposed to the storm.
Greuze, with his cajoling art — which, if one likes, one
must like without respecting it — is entirely there. So,
too, Fragonard — the ardent and voluptuous soul of
him — in Le Prem'ur Baiscr.
Jacquemart, it may be interesting to add, etched
some compositions of flowers. Gonse has praised
96
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
them. To me, elegant as they are, fragile of sub-
stance, dainty of an-angement, they seem enormously
inferior to that last century flower-piece of Jan Van
Huysum's — or rather to that reproduction of it
which we are fortunate enough to know through the
mezzotint of Earlom. And Jacquemart painted in
water-colour — made very clever sketches : his strange
dexterity of handling, at the service of fact ; not at
'the service of imagination. In leaving him, it is well
to recollect that he recorded Nature, and did not
exalt or intei*pret it. He interpreted Art. He was
alive, more than any one has been alive before, to all
the wonders that have been wrought in the \sorld by
the hands of artistic men.
I have not said a word about the prices of the
Jacquemart etchings. It is still customary to buy a
complete series — one particular work. The " Porce-
laine" set costs a very few pounds: the " Gemnies et
Joyaux," something more — and Techener's re-issue, it
is worth observing, is better printed than the first
edition. Separate impressions of the plates, in proof
or rare states, sell at sums varying from five shillings
or half-a-sovereign — when st^rcely anybody happens
to be at Sotheby's who understands them — up, I
suppose, to two or three })oun{is, I do not think
the acquisition of these admirable })ieces is ever likely
to be held responsible for a c()llector''s ruin.
In the IntrodiK'loi'V cliuplur, a woid of leference
to two other Frenchmen — Legros and Paul Ilelleu
— points to the imj)ortance which, in contemj)orary
97 c
FINE PRINTS
original Etching, I assign to these artists. As Legi'os
has Hvcd nearly all his working life in England, he
is treated, in subsecjuent l)ages, with English fellow-
workers. Even Paul Helleu I treated with I'iUglish-
nien, in my book called " Etching in l^ngland,"'
because he also has done some part — though a small
part — of his work here, and has been one of the
mainstays of our Society of Painter - Etchers. But
in the present volume — for the purposes of the Col-
lector — Helleu must be placed with his compatriots.
The character of his genius too — his alertness and
sensitiveness to the charm of grace rather than of
formal beauty, the charm of quick and pretty move-
ment x-ather than of abiding line — is French, essen-
tially. He is of the succession of Watteau. His
dry-points, of many of the best of which there are
but a handful of impressions (purchasable, when occa-
sion offers, at three or four guineas apiece), are
artist's snaj)- shots, which arrest the figure suddenly
in some delightful turn, the face in some delightful
expression. Am I to mention but two examples of
Paul Hel leu's work — that I may guide the novice a
little to what to see and seek for in these elegant,
veracious records — I will name then Femme a la
Ta.^si\ with its happy and audacious ingenuity in
point of view, and that incomparable Ehide de Jeune
Fille, the girl with the hair massed high above her
forehead, thick above her ears, a very cascade at
her shoulders, her lips a little parted, and her lifted
anms close against her chin.
98
FRENCH REVIVAL OF ETCHING
A Belgian draughtsman — established in Paris, and
now approaching old age — has seen of late his repu-
tation extending, not only amongst collectors of the
cleverly odious ; and he has shown imagination,
draughtsmanship, a nimble hand, a certain mastery
of process. But in a volume from which I must ex-
clude so much of even wholly creditable Art — a volume
in which the subject of Woodcuts, which of old was
wont to interest, is deliberately ignored — I adopt no
attitude of apology for refusing serious analysis to the
too often morbid talent of Felicien Rops. A portfolio
containing the delightful inventions of Helleu, and the
gi-eat things of Meryon, could have no place for the
record of Rops"" disordered dream. Were I to be occu-
pied with any living Belgian, it would be with one
whose work M. Hymans, the Keeper of the Prints at
Brussels, showed me at the Bibliotheque Royale, this
autumn — ^f. de Witte.
91)
CHAPTER V
The Revival in England — WkisUer and Haden, Clas-
sics — Haden' s Jirst works — The "Agamemnon" —
Drij - points — Etchings on Zinc — Prices — Whistler s
French Set — His Thames Series — The Leijlaiul
period — The Venetian work — His rarest Dry-
points — Whistlers Prices at the Heywood Sale,
the Hutchinson Sale, and now.
In England, the Revival of Etching, so far as one can
fix its origin at all, seems due, in chief, to the great
practical work of two etchers of individual vision and
exceptional power — Whistler and Seymour Haden.
Much writing on the subject — and some of it, I hope,
not bad — has also scarcely been without its effect. It
has at least roused and sustained some interest in
Etching, amongst the public that reads. It cannot,
fairly, ever have been expected to produce gi-eat artists.
Whistler and Haden are, it is now allowed, amongst
the Classics already. Each has a place that will not be
disturbed. Each is an honoured veteran. The work of
Seymour Haden has been closed long ago. It is years
since he gave his etching-needle to Mr. Keppel of New
York ; saying, with significant gesture, " I shall etch
no more." From the other delightful veteran no such
100
WHISTLER AND HADEN
formal declaration has — so far as I understand — as yet
proceeded. Mr. Whistler may even now surprise us by
a return fi-om Lithography. His lithogi-aphs, which
will be considered more or less in the final chapter of
this book, are indeed admirable and engaging. But
it is by his etchings that iVIr. Whistler's fame will
live. And though he began to etch two score of years
ago, one would be sorry even now to feel it was quite
certain that the last of his etchings had been done.
We will speak of Seymour Haden first. He is the
older of the two, and his practical work is admittedly
over. His etching, though conceived always on fine
lines, has somehow always been much more intelligible
to the large public than Whistler''s. For yeai*s, in
England and America, he has enjoyed something as
near to popular success as sterling work can ever get ;
and in days when I was able to pick up for six shillings,
in Sotheby's auction-rooms, the dry-point of Whistler's
Fanny Leyland — which would now be considered ridicu-
lously cheap at just as many guineas — Seymour Haden's
River in Ireland was selling (when it appeared and
could ])e bought at all) at (juite substantial prices.
His published series of Etchings, with the text by Mon-
sieur ]Jurty, and then the eulogies of Mr. Humerton,
hatl (lone something, and justifiably, towards what is
called "success" — the success of recognition, I mean,
as distinguished from the success of achievement, which
was certainly his besides. And then — in the nick of time
— there had come the Agamemnon^ almost the largest
fine etching one can call to niind ; for, in Ktching,
101
FLNK riUNTS
" important size " often means vulgarity. The Agamem-
non had an immense sale. It was seen about so much,
in the rooms of people who aspired to Taste, that it
became what foolish men call "vulgarised." As if
the multiplication of excellent work — its presence in
many places, instead of only a few — was positively a
nuisance and a disadvantage ! Anyhow, Seymour
Haden hat! already entered into fame.
In 1880, the late Sir William Drake — an intimate
friend who had collected Hatlen and admired him —
issued, through the Macmillans, a descriptive Catalogue
of Haden's etched work. The Catalogue takes note
of a hundred and eighty-five pieces. Scarcely any-
thing, I think, is omitted. Of the substantial work
none bears an earlier date than 1858 ; but fifteen years
before that — when he was a very young man, journey-
ing — Haden h<ul scratched on half-a-dozen little coppei-s
sparse notes of places of interest he had seen in Italy ;
and very long ago now (when Sir Seymour was living
in Hertford Street) he showed me, I remember, the
almost uni(|ue impressions from these practically un-
known little plates. They were impressions upon which
a touch or so with the brush had — if I remember
rightly — a little fortified the dreamy and delicate
sketch which the copper had received. There is neither
nee<l nor disposition to insist too much on the existence
of these plates, or rather upon the fact that once they
were wrought. They scarcely claim to have merit.
IJut the fact that they were wrought shows one thing
a coilectoi- may like to know — it shows that Seymour
102
WHISTLER AND HADEN
Haden"'s interest in Etching- began before the days of
that French Revival in m hich was executed luidoiibtedly
the bulk of his work.
These little prints, then, as far as they went, were in
quite the right spirit. They were jottings, impressions
— had nothing of labour in them. But in the interval
that divides them from the im})ortant and substantive
work of 1858, 1859, 1860, and later years, the artist
must have studied closely, though he was in full prac-
tice, most of that time, as a surgeon. In the interval,
he had lived, so to put it, with Rembrandt ; he had
become familiar with Claude. And though they
influenced, they did not overpower him. By 1864,
there wei-e fifty or sixty prints for M. Burty to chronicle
and eulogise, in the Gazette des Beaux Arts. The
greatly praised She7X' Mill Pond had been done in
1860. Mijttoii Hall — which, unlike Mr. Hamerton, I
prefer to the Sliere — had been wrought one year earlier.
It shows a shady avenue of yew-trees leading to an
old manor-house which receives the full light of the
sun ; and in that print, early as it may seem, there
was already the breadth of treatment which as years
proceeded l)ecame more and more a characteristic of
Seymour Iladen's work. In 1863 came, amongst many
other good things, Battersca Reach, which in the First
State bore on it this inscription of interest: "Old
Chelsea, Seymour ILulen, 186-J, out of Whistler''s
window." To the same year belongs the charming
plate. Whistler .i Jlou.se, Old C/wl.sea. 'Vha tide is out,
the mud is exposed ; on the left is Lindsay Row ; and
103
FINK PRINTS
hcyoiul, unci to the ri^'lit, Chelsea Old Church and
liattersea Bridge : the picturesc^iie wooden pile-bridge
of that privileged day. It was not till 1870 that
there came the Agamemnon — the Brcdking-up of the
Agamemnon, to give it its full title — a view, in reality,
of the Thames at Greenwich, seen under sunset light,
the hull of the old ship partially swung round by the
tide. This very favourite print exists in a couple
of States. The Second, though less rare, is scarcely
perceptibly less fine than the First. In it a smoking
chinniey, a brig under sail, and two small sailing-boats
— all of them objects in extreme distance — have been
replaced by indications of the sheds of a dockyard. In
the Hey wood Sale, a rich impression of the Agamemnon
— the State not specified, but in all probability a First
—sold for £1, 10s. In the Sir William Drake Sale,
twelve years afterwards — in 1892 — a First State fetched
^7, 7s. ; a Second, M, 15s.
For convenience' sake, I will name a few more
excellent and characteristic works — prints which
have Seymour Haden's most distinguishing qualities
of frankness, directness, and an obvious vigour. His
etchings are deliberately arrested at the stage of the
sketch ; and it is a sketch conceived nobly and executed
with impulse. The tendency of the work, as Time
went on, was, as has been said, towards greater breadth ;
but unless we are to compare only such a print as
Out of Study- Window, say (done in 1859), with only
the most atlmirable Rembrandt-like, Geddes-like dry-
print. Windmill Hill (done in 1877), there is no greatly
104
A\'HISTLER AND HADEN
marked contrast ; there is no surprise ; there is but a
steady and not unnatural development. I put this
down, in part at least, to the fact that when Seymour
Haden first took up Etching seriously (in 1858, re-
member) he was already middle-aged. He had lived
for years in the most frequent intercourse with dignified
Art ; his view of Nature, and of the way of rendering
her — or of letting her inspire you — was large, and
likely to be large. Yet as Time went on there came
no doubt an increasing love of the sense of spacious-
ness and of potent effect. The work was apt to be
more dramatic and more moving. The hand asked
the opportunity for the fuller exercise of its freedom.
Saicky Abbey, etched in 1873, is an instance of this,
and not alone for its merits is it interesting to men-
tion it, but because, like a certain number of its fellows
amongst that later work, it is etched upon zinc — a
risky substance, which succeeds admirably, when it
succeeds, and when it fails, fails very much. Windmill
Hill — two subjects of that name — Nine Barroio Down,
Wareham Bridge, and the Little Bonthou^e, and again
that Grim Spain which illustrates my " Four Masters
of Etching " are the prints which I should most
choose to possess amongst those of Haden's later
period ; whilst — going back to the jieriod of 1864 and
1865 — Sun,set on the Thami'.s is at the same time a
favourite and strong, and Fenton Hook remarkable for
its draughtsmanship of tree-trunk and stumj). Yet
earlier — for they belong to 1860 and 1859 — there
are the Mytton Hall, wiiicli I have spoken of ah*eadv,
105
FINE PRINTS
and the Combe Bottom. Covihc Bottom is unsurpassed
for sweetness and spontaneity. And Mytton Hall has
its full share of that priceless element of Style which
is never altogether absent from Sevmour Haden's work.
Again — and most acceptable of all to some of us —
The Water Meadow (which has been circulated very
largely) is, in a perfect impression, to be studied and
enjoyed as a vivacious, happy, synipatlietic transcript
of a sudden rain-storm in the Hampshire lowlands,
where po})lars flourish and grass grows rank. The
collector who can put these things into his folios —
and a little diligence in finding them out, and three
or four guineas for each print, will often enable him
to do so — will have given himself the opportunity of
confirmation in the belief that among modern etchers
of Landscape, amongst modern exponents in the art of
lilack and ^Vhite of an artistic sympathy with pure
and ordinary Nature, Seymour Haden stands easily
first. And to say that, is not to say that he succeeds
equally, or has equally tried to succeed, with por-
traiture or figure-studies. It is not to compare him
— to his advantage or disadvantage — with any other
artist in the matter of the etcher^s peculiar skill and
technical mastery.
The best collection of Seymour Haden''s work that
has ever l)een sold in detail was the collection of Sir
William Drake. In it the First State of A River in
Ireland — of which only twelve impressions had been
taken — fetched ^^49 (Dunthorne) ; and the First State
of Shere Mill Pond, X^35 ; a unique impression of
106
WHISTLER AND HADEN
Battersea RaUzcay Bridge fetched =£'18, 10s, (Deprez) ;
Erith Marshes, First State, £^, 4s. ; Combe Bot-
tom, First State, i?3; Sunset on tlu' Thames, First
State, i?2, 12s. ; and SaxcJey Ahhey, First State,
m, 4s.
^^'^ith the master-etchers of the world — Meryon"'s
equal in some respects, and, in some respects, Rem-
)3randt*s — there stands James ^XTiistler. Connoisseurs
in France and England, in America, Holland, Bavaria,
concede this, now. It was fiercely contested of old
time, and there is not much cause for wonder in
that, for the work of Mr. Whistler is, and has been
from the first almost, so desperately original that the
world could hardly be expecte4 to be reatly to receive it.
And Mr. ^^'histler never by anything approaching to
cheap issue facilitated familiarity with his work. In
1868 Mr. Hamerton wrote of him : " I have been told
that, if appHcation is made to ]\Ir. Whistler for a set of
his etchings'' — the set, it may be said in parenthesis,
was a very small one then — "he may perhaps, if he
chooses to answer the letter, do the a})plicant the
favour to let him have a coj)y for about the price of
a good horse ; but beyond such exce})tional instances
as this, Mr. Whistler's etchings are not in the market."
They have been in the market since, however — every-
body knows — and if in 18G8 a "set" (the Thames Set
or the French Set was meant, presumably) was valued
by Mr. Whistler at the price of a horse, of late years
a single print, such as the Zaandum for instance, has
been valued by Mr. Wniistlcr at the price of a Ilumber
107
FINE PRINTS
cycle. Even in the days — some sixteen years ago, or
so — when the work of the deho-htful master was least
appreciated, there was an enormous difference in the
j)rice of a print obtained through what are known
as the "regular channels" and its price if obtained
in open competition, imder the hannner at Sotheby's.
Those gi-eat days ! — or days of great opportunities
— when, as I have said before, I became possessed
for six shillings of Fanny LeTjland, and, for hardly
more than six shillings, of the yet rarer dry-point,
Battersea Dawn.
About a dozen years ago, I, with the enthusiasm
of a convert, began a Catalogue of AVhistler's prints,
intending it for my ^wn use. I finished it for
my brother-collectors, and for poor Mr. Thibaudeau,
who refreshed me with money — and a little for Mr.
AVhistler, too, if he was minded to receive my offering.
T'Tie only previously existing Catalogue — that of Mr.
Ralph Thomas — had been published twelve years earlier,
and had meantime become of little service. There were
several reasons for that, but, to justify my own attempt
— which, as in the ciise of Meryon, has been justified
indeed by my brother-collectors"' reception of it — it
will suffice if I mention one. Mr. Thomas, working in
1874, catalogued about eighty etchings. I, finishing
my work in 1886, aitalogued two hundred and four-
teen. Of the additional lunnber only a few are prints
which had been already wrought when Mr. Thomas
wrote, and which had escaped his notice. By far the
gi'eater portion have been etched in more recent years.
108
WHISTLER AND HADEN
And many of them are unkno\vn to the amateur — by
sense of sight at least — even to this day.
Whistler's etchings are so scattered, and so many of
them are, and must ever be, so very rare, that I could
not have done what I did if several diligent collectors,
well placed for the purpose, had not helped me. Mr.
Thibaudeau himself — the erudite dealer — amassed much
information, and placed it at my service. Mr. Samuel
Avery, when Mr. Keppel took me to see him in East
38th Street, in the autumn of 1885, put at my disposal
everything he knew ; and his collection was even then
the worthy rival of what Mr. Howard Mansfield's is
now — the rival, almost, of Seymour Haden's own col-
lection of A\Tiistler's, which yvent to America a few-
years ago : drawn thither by the instrumentality of
a great cheque from Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Mortimer
Menpes — much associated with Whistler at that time,
and who, I suppose, retains the fine collection of
Whistler's he then possessed — took much trouble with
me in the identification of the rare things he owned,
and I had to express my thanks to Mr. Harrett of
Brighton, to the Reverend Stoj)ford Brooke, Mr. Henrv
S. 'ITieobald, and some of the best-known London
dealers — to Mr. Brown of the Fine Art Society, and
.Mr. Walter Dowdeswell, an enthusiast for Whistler, who
furnished me with delightful notes I never published,
on the precise condition of the impressions in my own
set of the "Twenty-Six Etchings." Again, I saw — what
any one may see — such of the Whistler prints jus are
possessed l)y the Biitish Museum Piint-Rooiii. And,
109
FINE PRINTS
lastly, I had access, more than once, to Mr. Whistler's
own collection ; but that unfortunately was very in-
complete. It consisted chiefly of the later etchings.
It is now about forty years since Wliistler began to
etch ; but his work in Etching has never been continuous
or regular, and though he has done a certain number
of things, some fine, some insignificant, since the ap-
pearance of my Catalogue, of late his work in Etching
appears to have almost ceased. Looking back along
his life, one may say, periods there have been when
he was busy with needle and copper — periods, too,
during which he laid them altogether aside. The first
chronicled, the first completed plate, was done, it
was believed, in 1857 — when he was a young man in
Paris. But he told me there existed, somewhere or
other, in the too safe keeping of public authorities
in America, a plate on which, before he left the public
sei-vice of the States, he neglected to fully engrave that
map or view for the Coast Sui-vey which the author-
ities exjjected of him, but did not neglect to engrave
upon the plate, in truant mood, certain sketches for
his own pleasure. The plate was confiscated. Young
Mr. Whistler was informed that an unwarrantable
thing had been done. He perfectly agreed — he told
the high official — with that observation. In removing
a plate from the hands of its author before he had com-
pleted his pleasure upon it, its author had been treated
unwaiTantably. Just as my Catalogue — a " Study and
a Catalogue," I call it — was going to press, there
anived from New York — sent thence to London by
110
WHISTLER AND HADEN
the courtesy of Mr. Kennedy, its owner — an impression
from the copper I have just spoken of. It is a curi-
osity, and not a work of Ai't — a geographers view of
the coast.
It will be noticed from my little anecdote that, at a
very early period of his life, Mr. Whistler was in the
right, absolutely, and other people in the wi-ong — and
in the right he has remained ever since, and has believed
it, in spite of some intelligent and much unintelligent
criticism. He has been (let the collector be very sure
of this) a law unto himself — has worked in his own way,
at his own hours, on none but his own themes : the re-
sult of it, I dare to think delibei-ately, the preservation
of a freshness which, with artists less true to their art
and their own mission, is apt to suffer and to pass away.
And with it the charm passes. Now Whistler's newest
work — his work of this morning, be it etching or litho-
gi-aph— possesses the interest of freshness, of vivacity,
of a new and beautiful imj^ression of the world, con-
veyetl in individual ways, just as much as did his early
work of nearly forty years ago. When the compara-
tively few people whose artistic sensibilities allow them
to really understand the delicacy of Mr. Whistler's
method, shall but have known it long enough, they will
not Iki found, as some among the not (juite unapprecia-
tive are found to-day, protesting that there is a want
of contiiuiity between the earlier efforts and the later,
and that the vision of pretty and curious detail, and
the firnuiess and daintiness of hand in recording it,
which confessedly distinguished the etchings of France
111
FINE PRINTS
niul of the Thames below Bridge, are missing to the
later plates or the plates of the middle jieriod — to the
drv-points of what I may term the Leyland period (when
he drew all three Miss I^eylands, their father and
their mother too, and Speke Hall, where they lived),
and to the more recent Venetian etchings. Peccavi!
I have myself, in my time, thought that this continuity
was wanting. I have told Mr. Whistler with exceeding
levity of speech, that when, in the Realms of the Blest,
he desired, on meeting Velascjuez and Rembrandt, not
to disappoint them, he must be provided, for his justi-
fication, with his Thames etchings in their finest states.
It would be a })otent introduction. But I am not
sure that the Venetian portfolios — the "Venice" and
the "Twenty-Six Etchings," which are most of them
Venetian in theme — would not serve Mr. Whistler in
good stead. For — spite of some insignificant things
put out not long after the appearance of my Catalogue,
along indeed, or almost along with some fine ones of
Brussels and Touraine — there is a continuity which the
thorough student of Mr. Whistler's work will recognise.
There is often in the Venetian things — as in the Door-
way of the " Venice," and in The Garden and The
Balcony of the " Twenty-Six Etchings " — an advance
in the impression produced, a greater variety and flexi-
bility of method, a more delightful and dexterous
effacing of the means used to bring about the effect.
The Venetian etchings — some people thought at first
they were not satisfactory because they did not record
that Venice which the University-Extension-educated
112
WHISTLER AND HADEN
tourist, with his guide-book and his volumes of Ruskin,
goes out from England to see. But I doubt if Mr.
Whistler troubled himself about the guides or read the
sacred books of jNIr. Ruskin with becoming attention.
INIr. Ruskin had seen Venice nobly, Avith great imagina-
tion; ^Ir. Fergusson and a score of admirable archi-
tects had seen it learnedly ; but Mr. AMiistler would
^ee it for himself — that is to say, he would see in his
own way the Present, and would see it quite as certainly
as the Past. The architecture of Venice had impressed
folk so deeply that it was not easy in a moment to
realise that here was a gi'eat draughtsman — a man
too of poetic vision — whose work it had not been
allowed to dominate. The Past and its record were
not WTiistler's affair in Venice. For him, the lines
of the steam-boat, the lines of the fishing-tackle, the
shatlow under the squalid archway, the wayward vine
of the garden, had been as fascinating, as engaging,
as worthy of chronicle, as the domes of St. Mark's.
Yet we had not properly understood Mr. WTiistler's
work in England, if we supposed it could be otherwise.
From associations of Literature and History this artist
from the first had cut himself adrift. His sul)ject was
what he saw, or what he decided to see, and not any-
thing that he had heard ul)out it. He hiul dispensed
from the l)eginning with those aids to the ])rovocation
of interest which aj)peal most strongly to the world —
to the {)erson of sentiment, to the literary lady, to the
man in the street. ^Ve were to be interested — it" we
were interested at all — in the liappv accidents of line
113 ' H
FINE PRINTS
aiul light he had jjcrceived, in liis dexterous record, in
liis knowing adaptation.
I must be allowed to say, however — and it is useful
to the collector that I should say it plainly — that there
was some justification (much more than Mr. Whistler,
I suppose, would allow) for those of us who did not bow
the knee too readily before the Venetian prints. In
the States in which they were first exhibited, there was,
with all their merits, something ragged and disjointed
about several of them. Mr. Whistler worked more
upon them later, adding never of course merely finicky
detail, but refinement, suavity. Of these particular
plates, the collector should remember, it is not the
earlier impressions that are the ones to be desired.
It is, rather, the later impressions, when the plate was,
first, perfected — then even, if need arose through any
wear in tirage, suitably refreshed.
To return for a moment to Whistlerian character-
istics. Though the value of many of his etchings, as
]Mr. AVhistler might himself tell us, consists in the
exquisiteness of their execution and of their aiTange-
ment of line, it would be unfair not to acknowledge
that amongst the many things it has been given to
!Mr. AVhistler to perceive, it has been given him to per-
ceive beautiful character and exquisite line in Humanity
— that, certainly, just as much as quaintness and charm
in the wharves and warehouses of the Port, in the shabby
elegance of the side canals of Venice, in the engaging
homeliness of little Chelsea shop-fronts. The almost
unknown etching of his mother — one of the most
114
WHISTLER AND HADEN
refined performances of his career, as excjuisite, in its
own way, as the famous painting which is displayed at
the Luxembourg — proves his possession of the quahty
which permitted Rembrandt to draw with the reticence
of a convincing pathos his most impressive portraits of
the aged — the Lutma^ the Clement de Jonghe, the Mere
de Rembrandt, an voile noir.
Again, the Fanny Leyland, and The Muff\ and many
another print that I could name, attest IVIr Whistler^s
solution of a problem which presents itself engagingly,
attractively, to the ingenious, and uselessly to the in-
competent — the problem of seeing beauty in modern
dress, and grace in the modern figure. Whistler, no
more than Degas, Sargent, or J. J. Shannon, sighs for
the artificial dignity of the fashions of other times.
Even at moments when modern P^ashion is not in truth
at its prettiest, he is able to descry a piquancy in the
contemporary hat, and to find a grace in the flutter of
flounce and frill. What else after all should we expect
from an artist the sweep of whose brush would give
distinction to the Chelsea Workhouse, or to the St.
George's Union Infirmary in the Fulham Road, and for
whom, under the veil of night or dusk, the chimney
of the Swan Urcwery would wear an as))ect not less
beautiful than King's College Chaj)el .^ It has been
given to the master of Etching to see everyday things
with a poetic eye.
" Take care of the extremities," said old Couture, to a
painter who addressed himself to the figure : " take care
of the extremities, for all the life is there.'' IJut that,
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FINE PRINTS
it may truly be answered, is what Mr. Whistler has
often neglected to do. It may be rejoined, however,
that where he has neglected to doit, somehow " all the
life " has not gone out of his work. And the hand of
the man sitting in the boat, in one of the most desirable
of the early Thames etchings. Black Lion Wharf, and
(to name no other instance) the hands in the painting
of Sarasate of a do/en years ago, are reminders of how
completely it is within Mr. Whistler's power to indicate
the life, the temperament, by " the extremities,"'"' when
it suits his work that he shall do so. And the avoid-
ance, so often commented upon, of this detail here,
and of that detail there, itself reminds us of something
important — nay, perhaps of the central fact which
determines the direction of so much of this great
etcher's labour. It reminds us that whether Mr.
Whistler''s work is record of Nature or not, it has at
all costs to be conclusive evidence of Art. And for
the one as well as for the other, he has had need
to know, not only what to do — a difficult thing
enough, sometimes — but a more difficult thing yet :
what to avoid doing. In other words, selection plays
in his work a part unusually important, and he has
occupied himself increasingly, not with the question of
how to imitate and transcribe, but with the question
how best to imply and to suggest. In nearly all his
periods he is the master of an advanced art, which
gives a curious and a various and a continual pleasure.
And now a word or two on what is matter of busi-
ness to the collector — the business of the acquisition
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WHISTLER AND HADEN
of Whistler's etchings. Unlike the thousand prints
which, in these later days of "the Revival," are the
inadequate result of the laborious industry of popular
people — and which have served their purpose when,
framed and mounted, they have covered for a while
the wall-paper in every builder's terrace in Bayswater —
works of the individuality, the flexibility, the genius
in fine of Whistler, appeal to the collector of the
highest class and of the finest taste, and, it may be
even, to him alone. They lie already in the portfolio
by the side of Rembrandts and Meryons. It is not
easy to get them ; or, rather, there are some which it
is only difficult, and some which it is impossible, to
possess. Certain of the coppers are known to have
been destroyed ; others, which one cannot always ]iarti-
cularise, are in all })robability destroyed. Then again
there are dry-points, never very robust ; some of them
so delicate, so evanescent, that the plate, should it
exist, would prove to be worth nothing. It has yielded,
perhaps, half-a-dozen impressions, and they have gone
far towards exhausting it. Many ])lates, again, exist,
no doubt, in the late State, or in the undesirable
condition, and some are yet intact, and others, like the
two Venetian series — the " Venice "" and the " Twenty-
Six"" — economically managed from the begiiming, have
yielded a subsUuitiul yet never an extensive array of
such j)ro(jfs as satisfy the eye that is educated.
Publication — if one can (juite cull it so — of Mr.
Whistler's etchings first begun in 1S59, when the
artist had worked seriouslv for only two or three years.
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Thirteen etchings, generally called "the French Set,"
were printed then by Delatre in Paris, in very limited
numbers, on the thin Japan or China or on the good
old slightly-ribbed jiajier that the collector loves.
The "Thames Set'' — sixteen in number, and consisting
of the majority of the River pieces executed u\) to
that time — were the next to be offered. But they
appeared, publicly, only in 1871, when, as Mr. Ellis was
good enough to tell me, " Ellis & Green " bought the
})lates and had a hundred sets printed. Their printing
was rather dry, so that it is chiefly by the rare impres-
sions which either Mr. Whistler himself, or Dehttre
it may be, had printed, years before, that these plates
are to be judged. At all events it is these impressions
which represent them most perfectly, though I would
by no means speak with disrespect of the impressions
printed by Mr. Goulding when the Fine Art Society
bought the plates of Mr. Ellis, nor of the subsequent
ones printed (juite of late years, when Mr. Keppel, in
his turn, bought the coppers of the Fine Art Society.
Of the two other recognised sets — the " Venice " of
the Fine Art Society and the " Twenty-Six Etchings "
of the Dowdeswells — it must be said first that neither
has been subjected to the vicissitudes that attended the
earlier plates. The dozen prints in the " Venice " were
first issued by the Fine Art Society in the year 1880 ;
but, as I have said earlier, very few of the fine and
really finished impressions — of the hundred permitted
from each plate — date from as early as that year.
The "Twenty-Six Etchings," issued by the Messrs.
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WHISTLER AND HADEN
Dowdeswell, were brought out in 1886 ; Mr. ^^'histler
himself printing, with consummate skill, every mortal
copy, and making the most interesting little changes,
repairs, improvements, at the press-side. Of most of
the subjects there were but fifty impressions.
These things are wholly admirable, and mostly —
it is evident — are rare; but the extremest rarity is
-reserv^ed for a few of those many plates which do not
belong to any set at all, and were never formally issued.
Thus Paris, Isle de la Cite — etched from the Galerie
d'Apollon in the Louvi-e — is of unsurpassable rarity ;
and it is singularly interesting as having, though with
a date as early as 1859, very distinct characteristics of
a style of which the wider manifestation came much
later. The First State of the Rag Gatherers is of
gi-eat, though not of quite such extraordinary rarity.
The Kitchen, in the First State, is not exceptionally
rare. It should be had, if possible, in the Second, for,
many years after its first execution, Mr. Whistler took
it up again, and then, and then only, was it that he per-
fected it. In su])tlety of illumination, in that Second
State, it is as fine as any painting of De Hooch's.
WcHtminsier Bridge is very rare and very desirable in
the First State ; in the Second — by which time it has
gone into the regular "Thames Set" or "Sixteen
Etchings" — it has lost all ils delicacy and harmony:
it is hard and dry. 'J'he figure-pieces of the Leyland
period — drv-points, nearly always — are very rare.
l"liey include not oidy a little succession of ])ortraits —
the lovtlv print of Fainii) Lctj/and I have refeiTed
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to already — but likewise a succession of studies of ])aid
or of familiar models, of which the Model Resting is
one of the most beautiful. There is Till'ie : a model,
too : likewise of great rarity and charm. Of the larger
etchings, three of the finest are the Putney Bridge, the
Battersea Bridge, and the Large " FooV Beyond this
scale, Etching can hardly safely go. Even this scale
would be a danger to some, though Mr. Wliistler
has managed it. But then, that art of his — like
Rembrandt's own — can " blow on brass " as well as
" breathe through silver." He " breathes through
silver" in the dainty rarities of a later time, the little
Chelsea shop subjects — Old Clothes Shop, Fruit Shop.
Axe there half-a-dozen impressions of them anywhere
in the world .'' And then, the poetic charm of Price''s
Caiulle Works — the easy majesty oi London Bridge!
As to the prices of Whistlers in the open market .''
Well, they increase, unquestionably. Some of the very
greatest rarities, it may be remembered, have never
appeared in the auction-room. There are half-a-
dozen, I suppose, for any one of which, did it appear,
forty or fifty guineas would cheerfully be paid. The
average price, now, of a satisfactory Whistler — to
speak to the collector very roughly, and always with
the difficulty of striking an average at all — the average
dealers price might now be eight guineas. But we
will look at the Catalogues ; premising, as has been pre-
mised already, that there are some rarer things than
any that are there chronicled. The time when Mr.
Heywood sold his AVhistlers was the fortunate time to
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WHISTLER AND HADEN
buy. A First State of the Rag Gathereis was sold then
for less than two pounds ; a First of the Westminster
Bridge (then called " The Houses of Parliament ''), for
about five pounds ; and many quite desirable things
went for a pound a piece, and some for a few shillings.
In 1892, when there came the sale of Mr. Hutchinson''s
collection, and of Sir William Drake^s, opinion was
miore formed ; yet nothing like the prices that would
be reached to-day were attained then. In j\Ir. Hutchin-
son's collection, the First State of the Marchande de
Moutarde — rare, but not especially rare — went for
£4), 10s. ; the First State of the Kitchen for £8, 15s. ;
the Lime Burners for £6, 10s. ; a trial proof of the
Arthur for i?10, 15s. ; a trial proof of the Whistler for
riP15, 10s. Again, the I Fm?;?/ fetched £12; the First
State of Speke Hall, £'d, 12s. ; the Fanny Leyland,
£\5, 10s. ; From Pickled Herring Stairs, £Q, 6s. ; the
Pidaccs, £8, 15s ; the San Biagio, £7, 10s ; the Gar-
den, £5, 10s. ; the Wool Carders, £8 ; the Little Draw-
bridge, Amsterdam, £9, 15s. ; the Zaandam, £10. At
the Drake Sale — a smaller one, as far as Whistlers were
concenied — ten guineas was given for the Kitclien; £19
for the Foigr. It imist be added that this Forge,
which is in the second published set (the "Thames
series"''' or "Sixteen Etchings,'" call tlu'iii which you
will) is in the cjuality of its difrorcnt impressions more
unecjual than almost any print I know. It varies from
an ineffective ghost to a thing oC huauty. At X^19, let
us hope it was a thing of beauty ; but verv much oftencr
it is an ineffective ghost — desperately over-rated.
121
CHAPTER VI
Etchers since our "real Classics — William Straus: —
His iiidividitalitij, and obligations to Legros — That
excellent Master — Legros's 7iohility and dignity — His
observation and imagination — Holroyd — The daintiness
of Short — C. J. Watson — Goff, Jlexible and compre-
hensive — The qualities of Cameron — Oliver Hall's
Landscape — The question of prices — Contemporary
Prints generally dear.
Though no very definite commercial values may yet have
been established, in the auction-rooms, for their work,
many living English etchers of a generation later than
that of Whistler and of Seymour Haden have been for
some time now apj^ealing to the collector; and their
prints — sold chiefly perhaps at the " Painter-Etcher's,"
at Mr. Dunthorne's, and at Mr. R. Gutekunst's — are
worthy to be carefully considered. The best of them,
at least, will rank some day as only second to the
classics of their art. Indeed, if the term " the Revival
of Etching"" has any meaning, it is to the best men
of the later generation that it must most apply ; for
" revival "" signifies surely some tolerably wide diffusion
of interest, and is a word that could scarcely be used if
all we were concerned with were the efforts of two or
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
three isolated men of genius — in France, jVIeryou,
Bracquemond, Jacquemart ; in England, Haden and
"\Miistler.
No, the collector who addresses himself to the gather-
ing of modern etchings, must go — or may go, fairly —
beyond the limits of the work of the men I have this
instant named. But in going beyond them, very wary
must be his steps. He who is already a serious student
of the older masters — he who by happy instinct, or by
that poor but necessary substitute for it, a steady ap-
plication to the consideration of great models — knows
something of the secrets of Style, and so will not fall a
ready prey to the attractions of the meretricious and
the cheap. But the beginner is in need of my warn-
ing ; and among the work of the younger generation,
the etching that is already popular and celebrated —
more ])articularly the etching that is obviously elabo-
rate and laboured — is as a rule the work he must
eschew. The thing of course to aim at, is to acquire
gradually such "eye"" and knowledge as will enable
him to pounce with safety here and there u})on
unknown work ; but at first it is well perhaps that
in his travels beyond the territory of the admittedly
great, he shall not wander too fur. I will give him
the names of a i'cw artists, whom the connoisseur
begins to appreciate, — men of whose methods it will
be interesting, and need not be extravagant, to possess
a few examples.
Of any such men, here with us in I-'ngland — save
indeed Lcgi'os, whose claims to highest place I bold to
12.'3
FINE PRINTS
be yet more incontestable — William Strang is the one
who has been known the longest, though the number
of his yeai-s may still permit him, ere he pass from us,
to double the already formidable volume of his work.
Strang has etched in the right methods, and no one
knows much better than he does, the technique of the
craft ; and, then, moreover, though he paints from
time to time a little, it is Etching — and all of it
original Etching— that is the occupation of his life.
And within less than twenty years Mr. Strang has
wrought— well, say between two hundred and fifty and
three hundred plates. It is no good giving the precise
number, for before this book has lain for a month upon
the reader's shelf the number will have ceased to be
precise. Almost as many kinds of subjects as were
treated by Rembrandt, have been treated — and no one
of them on one or two occasions only — by Mr. William
Strang. He has dealt with religious story — caring
always, like Rembrandt, and like Von Uhde to-day, for
dramatic intensity in the representation of it, rather
than for local colour — he has dealt too with Landscape,
with Portraiture, with grim and sordid aspects of con-
temyjorary life.
The presence of imagination, the absence, almost
complete, of formal beauty, are the very " notes " of
^Ir. Strang's work — that absence is so remarkable
where it would have been least expected, that we are,
it may be, a little too apt to forget that in certain
of his masculine portraiture it does not make itself
felt at all. He has made etchings of handsome men,
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and they have remained handsome. He has even made
etchings of men not handsome, and handsome they
have become. But he knows not the pretty woman.
And his landscape is endowed but scantily with the
beauty it cannot entirely miss. Another curious thino-
about Mr. Strang's landscape is, that more even than
that of Legi'os, his first great master, it seems derived
from but a little personal observation and an immense
study of the elder art. Indeed, I am not quite sure
whether, save in the accessories of his figures — such as
the potato-basket of one of his woebegone, limping,
elderly wayfarers — Mr. Strang has ever drawn and
observed anything which had not already fallen within
the observation of the gi-eat original engravers of the
remoter Past. In his dramatic pieces he shows a sense
of simple pathos, as well as of the uncanny and the
weird. In Portraiture ]\Ir. Strang can be effectively
austere and suitably restrained. Occasional failures,
or comparative failures, such as the portraits of Mr.
Thomas Hardy and of the late Sir William Drake, do
perhaps but bring into stronger relief the successes of
the Mr. Sichel and of Ian Strang, and many others
besides. I nmst refrain from naming them. When
Mr. Strang has done so much, and nearly all of it on
a high technical level, it is natural to feel that though
out of them all the general collector of etchings might
rea.sonably be satisfied with the possession of a dozen —
or, peratl venture, six — he would like at least to choose
them for himself. Indeed, there is no "Jjest" to guide
him to — no "worst"' to guaid him against.
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Legros has been named as Strang's first master. He
belongs to an older generation, and if I name him here,
between his best-known pupil and some of the younger
men, it is not to minimise his importance, but in part
as a convenient thing, and in part because, with his
long years of English practice, one hesitates to allow
even French birth and a French fii'st education to cause
one to place Legros outside the English School that he
has influenced. Born at Dijon nearly sixty years ago,
Legros has been amongst us since 1863. But it is not
English life — or indeed any life — that has made him
what he is. He might have done his work — most of it
at least but the portraiture — while scarcely wandering
beyond the bounds of a Hammersmith garden. He has
been fed on the Renaissance, and fed on Rembrandt ;
but yet the originality of his mind pierces through the
form it has pleased him to impose on its expression.
He gives to masculine character nobility and dignity ;
or rather, he is impressed immensely by the presence of
these things in his subjects. His etching of Mr. G. F.
Watts is perhaps — taking into account both theme and
treatment — the finest etched portrait that has been
wrought by any one since the very masterpieces of
Rembrandt, nor, honestly speaking, do I know that
it fails to stand comparison even with these.
Like his most prolific and perhaps also his most
original pujiil, who has been spoken of already, Legros
has little sense of womanly beauty ; but the lines of his
landscape — often, as I judge, either an imagined world
or but a faded memory of our own — have refinement
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
and charm. His art is restful — restful even when it is
weird. A large proportion of his earlier work records
the life of the priesthood. In its visible dignity — as I
have said elsewhere — its true but limited camaraderie^
in its monotony and quietude, in its magnificence of
service and symbol, the life of the priest, and of those
who serve in a great church, has impressed Legros pro-
,-foundly ; and he has etched these men — one now read-
ing a lesson, one waiting now with folded hands, one
meditating, one observant, one offering up the Host,
another, a musician, bending over the Velio or the
double-bass with slow movement of the hand that
holds the bow. Dignity and ignorance, pomp and
power, weariness, senility, decay — none of these things
escape the observation of the first great etcher of the
life of the Church. Communion dans VEglise St. Mklard
and Chantres Espag-noh, when seen in fine " states," are
amazing and admirable technical triumphs, as well as
penetrating studies, the one of religious fervour, the
other of im])ending death. In La Mort ct le Bucheroti
— in either vei-sion of the plate, for there are two —
the imagination of I^egi'os is at its tenderest. Is not
Ulnccndic dramatic, in its large and abstract way ?
Is not La Mort da Vagabond — with the storm like
the storm in " Lear" — the one vcrij large etching that
is not, in its scale, a mistake .'' I know I would not
have it othenvise, though it wants almost a jiortfolio
to itself, or, better, a frame upon the wall. One might
go on indefinitely; l)ut again it is j)referable to send
the remler to the study of the master's long and serious
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work — a huiulrecl and sixty-eight pieces there were in
1877, when Thibaudeau & Malassis published their Cata-
logue ; ten years later there were ninety additions to the
list ; and to this day Mr. Legros has not ceased to etch.
Onlv the very first of his prints show any evidence
of technical incompleteness. The very latest — though
no doubt, by this time, his own real message must have
been delivered — the very latest show no symptom of
fatigue or of decay.
Not more than once or twice, I think, in all his long-
career, has Legros published his works in sets, either
naturally connected or artificially brought together.
Charles Holroyd, a distinguished pupil of Legros's, has
twice already published sets — there is his " Icarus "
set, and a little earlier in date, yet in no respect imma-
ture, his " ]\Ionte Oliveto "" set. Holroyd — with indi-
viduality of his own, without a doubt — is yet Legros's
true spiritual child. He has much of his refinement,
of his dignity. Did he love the priesthood from
Leffros"'s etchine-s, before ever he lived with them in
Italy .'* Rome itself, I suppose, gave him the love of
what is visibly Classic — and that is a love which Legros
does not appear to share. His composition is generally
admirable; his sense of beautiful "line"''' most note-
worthy. His trees — stone pine and olive, or the
hund)ler trees of our North — are thus not only indi-
vidual studies, true to Nature sometimes in detail,
always in essentials — but likewise restful and impres-
sive decorations of the space of paper it is his business
to fill. Farm behind Scarborough shows him homely,
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
simple, and direct. Was it a Roman garden, or
Studley, that suggested The Koiuul Temple ? In the
little plate of the Borghese Gardens — my own private
plate, which I bought from him when the first impres-
sion of it hung at the Painter-Etchers' five or six years
ago — Holroyd consciously abandons much that is wont
to attract (atmospheric effect, for example), but he re-
'tains the thing for which the plate existed — dignified
and expressive rhythm of " line." That justifies it, and
permits it to omit much, and to only exquisitely hint
at the thing it would not actually convey.
We will turn for a few minutes to another contem-
porary who has etched in the right spirit — Mr. Frank
Short. Some people think that Mr. Short has not
quite fulfilled the promise which only a few years ago
he gave, as an original etcher. For myself, I consider
that the fulfilment is, at most, only delayed : not
rendered unlikely. Mr. Short has been for several
years extremely busy in the translation, chiefly into
mezzotint, of pictures and drawings by artists as various
as Turner, Nasmyth, Constable, Dewint, and G. F.
Watt.s. If engi'avings that are not original inventions
are ever worth buying — and that, of course, cannot be
doubted — these translations by Mr. Short are worth
buying, eminently. There is not one of them that fails.
His flexibility is extraordinary. His productions are
exquisite. In a parenthesis, let me advise their j)ar-
chase, when things of the sort are recpiired. But Short
is before us just now only in the caj)acity of an original
etcher, and, as an original etcher, with well-nigh per-
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FINE PllINTS
feet command of technique^ he registers the daintiest of
individual impressions of the world. That his field
as an observer at first hand is limited, is certainly
true. Coast subjects please him best. We have no
finer draughtsman of low-lying land, of a scene with a
low horizon, of a great expanse of mud and harbour
deserted by the tide — all their simplicity, even uncome-
liness of theme, made almost poetic. Low Tide and
the Evening Star ; Evening, Bo.sham ; Sleeping till the
Flood, are all, among subjects of this order, prints that
should be secured where it is possible — and where the
accumulation of modern etchings is not an incon-
venience. In Stourbridge Canal and in Wrought NaiU
— both of them finely felt, finely drawn bits of the
ragged, sordid " Black Country "" — we have desirable
instances of Mr. Short's dealings with another class
of theme. If you want him in a more playful mood,
take Quarter Boys — a quite imaginative yet gamesome
vision of urchins looking out to sea from the Belfry of
the church of Ilye.
C. J. Watson has for many years now been etching
persistently, and been etching well. But he has not
got, and could not perhaps quite easily get, beyond
the learned simplicity of Mill Bridge, Bosham, done in
1888. It is a sketch with singular unity of impression
— or rather with that unity of impression which is not
so singular perhaps when the work remains a sketch.
St. Etienne-du-Mont — a theme from which one would
have thought that Mr. Watson would have been warned
off, remembering how, once and for ever, it had been
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
dealt with by the genius of Meryon — is, doubtless, an
accurate enough portrait, but the individuality — where ?
And without individuality, such work is an architec-
tural drawing. This St. Etknne bears date 1890; but
since 1890 Mr. Watson has done finer things — his
strong and capable hand stirred to expression by a
nature not perhaps very sensitive to every effect of
beauty, but feeling the interest of solid workmanship
and something of the charm of the picturesque. Ponte
did Cavallo has daintiness, and some yet more recent
work in Central Italy and Sicily — with architecture
generally as the basis of its interest — may fall reason-
ably enough within the province of collectors who can
afford to accumulate — who can afford to add well to
well and vineyard to vineyard.
Of the remaining English etchers of our time. Colonel
Goff', Mr. D. Y. Cameron, and Mr. Oliver Hall are
those whom it will be best to notice. Mr. Macbeth,
Mr. Herkomer, Mr. Pennell, Mr. W. H. May, Mr.
Mempes, Mr. Raven Hill, Mr. Haig, Miss Bolingbroke,
Mrs. Stanhope Forbes — others besides — have brought
out i)rints of which the possession is pleasant ; but it
is, I suppose, the three men whom I named earlier who
by reason of combined (juality and (juantity of " out-
put"" most deserve the collector"'s serious consideration.
Of these three, Goff — a retired Guardsman, but no
more really an amateur than Seymour Haden — is, I
take it, the best known. Actual popularity he has
been, for an etcher, wonderfully near lo atbiining.
He may even now attain it. Much of the excellence
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of his work is easily intelligible ; his point of view,
though always artistic, is one that can be reached,
often, by the ordinary spectator of his prints. Hence,
his relatively large accejitance — an agi'eeable circum-
stance which I should be glad to consider was owing
exclusively to the skill that is certainly likewise his.
Colonel Goffs sympathies are broad ; his subjects
admirably varied ; and the vivacity of his artistic
temperament allows him to attack each new plate
with new interest. He is almost without mannerism
in treatment, and of that which })resents itself to his
gaze on his journey through the world, there is singu-
larly little which he is not able artistically to tackle.
Not (juite the architectural di-aughtsman that C. J.
Watson is, he yet can indicate tastefully the architec-
ture of church or cottage or city house. His sym-
pathies are with the new as much as with the old,
and that is in part because to him a building is not
only, or chiefly, a monument with historical associa-
tions; it is, above all, an excuse and a justification
for an arrangement on the copper, of harmonious and
intricate line. Very successfully he has dealt with
landscape. Is it the seaboard or the town that he
depicts, he can people the place with figures vivacious
and rightly displayed. I suppose that he has executed
by this time scarcely less than a hundred plates.
Summer Storm in the Itchen Valley remains the most
popular, and would therefore prove, in an auction-room,
the least inexpensive. But, among the pure etchings.
Pine Trees, Christ Church, and Norfolk Bridge, Shore-
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
ham^ and the extremely delicate little print of the Chain
Pier, Brighton^ and Low Tide, Mouth of'tlie Hampshire
Avon — with its own dreary but impressive beauty — are
to my mind distinctly more desirable, and should be
possessed if possible ; whilst among the dry-points (and
a dry-point can never be common) I would place highest,
perhaps, the peaceful little Itchcn Abbas Bridge.
Intricate in arrangement of line, the work of Colonel
Goff is in actual workmanship less elaborate than that
of Mr. D. Y. Cameron, who, though now and again,
as in that which remains almost his masterpiece —
Border Towers — a pure sketcher in Etching, much
oftener devotes himself to work solid, substantial,
deliberate rather in fulness of realisation than in eco-
nomy of means. He is a fine engi'aver on the copper;
addicted to massive airangements of shadow and light
— giving to these, wherever there is any fair excuse for
doing so, a little of the Celtic weirdness Mr. Strang
bestows upon the figure. Glamour, just a touch of
wi/ardy, is in the Pahue, Stirling CaMle ; und not in
that only. A master, already, of the arrangement of
light and shade — a master, already, of technique —
Mr. Cameron (who has studied Rembrandt so much,
and, I should j)resume, Mcryon) is finding his own path.
Indeed, the Border Towers shows that all that he has
learnt from Rembrandt he h;is made his own by this
time. How else could he have acc()mj)lishe(] what is
certainly one of the most comj)lete and significant
suggestions of" Landscaj)e wronghl in owv day! A
Rembrandt Farm is earlier. It is extremely clever,
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FINE PllLNTS
but, as its very name might lead one to conjecture, it
is more distinctly imitative. Mr. Cameron was not a
master at the moment when he wrought the Flower
Market^ because if he did not make in that the iiTeme-
diable mistake of choosing the wrong medium — printer's
ink where one"'s cry, first and last, is naturally for
"colour"" — he made at all events the mistake that
Mr. Whistler is incapable of making (as his etching
of The Garden shows), the mistake of working with a
heavy hand, when what was wanted was a treatment of
" touch and go," as it were — the very lightest coquetry
of line. Occasionally Mr. Cameron has failed ; occa-
sionally his industry has resulted in the commonplace ;
but he is a young man still ; the collector must take
account of him ; his may hereafter be a very dis-
tinguished name ; and meanwhile — now even — the col-
lector of good Modern Etching is bound to put into his
folios a few of Mr. Cameron's always sterling prints.
Mr. Oliver Hall — a young man also, and one who
paints in water-colour as well as etches — can hardly
have done as many plates as Mr. Cameron, yet; and
in none of them, free sketches of landscape — breezy, im-
mediate, well-disposed — has Mr. Hall been so unwise
as to emulate the almost Meryon-Iike elaboration not
inappropriate to at all events the architectural subjects
of Cameron. Oliver Hall's is delightful and mascu-
line work. After a very short period of immaturity,
during Avhich the influence of Seymour Haden was
that which he most disclosed, his Trees on the Hillside
and A Windy Day testified to an extraordinary flexi-
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
bility and force. The lines of " foliage," as people call
it — it is the tree, however, rather than the leaf — the
lines of the tree-form, however intricate, did not elude
his point. Afterwards, Angerton Moss : Windy Day,
and the Edge of the Forest, with its gust-blown trees
and threatening sky, and later still. King's Lynn J'rom
a Distance, came to assure us that here was an artist
getting at the heart of Nature — a master who could
bring before us a broad poetic vision of natural effects.
Mr. Alfred East, Mr. Mempes, Mr. Jacomb Hood,
Mr. Percy Thomas, Mr. J. P. Heseltine, Mr. W. H.
May, Sir Charles Robinson, Elizabeth Armstrong (Mrs.
Stanhope Forbes), and Minna Bolingbroke (Mrs. C. J.
Watson) ought not to go unmentioned even in a book
which has a wider field than " Etching; in Eny-land "" — in
which some of them are named less baldly.
The inexpert purchaser may like to know what is the
sort of price asked generally by its producer, or by
the dealer, or the Painter-Etchers'' Society — to which
the print may be intrusted — for a new etching. I am
here on ticklish ground ; but I nmst make bold to
answer, speaking broatlly, " Far too much." Later on —
before I have (juite done with the subject of the Litho-
graj)h — I shall return to the charge, on this matter of
solid cash. liut each class of work stands, in the matter
of price, on its own j)eculiar footing; and here we talk,
not of litliograplis, but of etchings and dry-points.
'I'lic wholly exceptional genius, approved by Time,
and happily yet with iis to hfuelit by the result
of his fame, may be j)ai-(loncd for asking twelve
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guineas for one of his most recent etchings. If he
gets it, his rewards are delightfully contrasted with
those of Meryon — who w as grateful when an old
gentleman in the French War Office gave him a franc
and a half for an impression of the Ahside de Notre
Dame, which, hecause of its beauty and of its peculiar
and rare " state," is worth to-day about a hundred and
fifty pounds. But we are not all men of exceptional
genius ; and, in the case of etched work, which, without
deterioration, may be issued to the number of fifty or
a hundred or a couple of hundred impressions, is it
wise to seek to anticipate what after all may prove not
to be the verdict of the world? — is it wise to limit the
issue so very artificially by the simple, I will not say
the gi'eedy process of asking two, three, and four
guineas for an impression of a good but ordinary etch-
ing ? A good etching, produced by a contemporary
artist, could, (pite to the benefit of the etcher, be sold
for a guinea. If the etcher has not time to print it
himself, or is not, at heart, artist enough to wish to do
so, let him send it to a good printer, with definite in-
structions how to print it, and, on the average, each
impression may cost him half-a-crown. Then, of course,
if he sells it through a dealer, there will be something
for the dealer — perhaps five shillings. Say about four-
teen shillings will be left for the artist. The fee is
insignificant — but, if you once interest the public, it
may ])e almost indefinitely multiplied. The price that
is prohibitive to the ordinary man of taste — the price
that prevents him, not, of course, from buying an
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LATER ENGLISH ETCHERS
etching here and there, but from forming any con-
siderable collection of etchings — that, if the artist only
knew it, is the gi-eatest possible disadvantage to him-
self. He is concerned for his dignity; his amour-propre^
he sometimes says. But an etching — like a book — is
a printed thing; and the author of a book conceives,
and rightly, that his amour-propre is wounded rather
by absence or nan'ow restriction of sale than by the
moderation — the lo^v^less, if you will — of the price at
which his book is issued.
Now a drj'-point and an ordinary etching stand on
different gi-ound in this respect. Both are printed
things, indeed ; but whilst the etching will, according
to its degree of force or delicacy, yield, without " steel-
ing,"" from fifty to four hundred impressions — and
generally c^uite as near the four hundred as the fifty —
a dry-point will inevitably deteriorate after a dozen
or twenty impressions, and may even deteriorate after
three or four. Each impression, then, of a dry-point
that is desirable at all, has its own peculiar value — its
rarity to begin with (unless you work it to death), and
its unlikeness to its neighbour. I blame no good artist,
when he has made a good dry-point, for asking two or
three or four, or .six or seven, guineas for it. I do not
as work of art — as ])roviding me with joy — esteem it
any more highly than the etching. The etching, which
I ought to ac(juire at a guinea, may give me the gi'atifi-
cation of a ^V^)r(lswol•thian poem. It may bo — happy
chance for every one concemed if it is! — as directly
inspired as the Ancient Mitr'uur : it may be a thing
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FINE PRIiNTS
conceived and wrought in one of those "states of the
atmosphere " which (it is Coleridge himself who says it)
are "addressed to the soul." Do I underrate it? Not
a jot. But I discern that, like the Ancient Mariner,
it can be multiplied in large numbers. The dry-point
cannot.
Even at the risk of beinsr charged with a certain
repetition of my argument, I shall return — as the
reader has been warned already — it will be somewhere
in the chapter on modern Lithography — to this ques-
tion of the too extravagant price, and therefore of
the necessarily too restricted sale, of the contemporary
print.
138
CHAPTER VII
Recent Interest in Martin Schongauer — A graceful
Primitive — Diirer the exponent of the fuller Renais-
sance — Some principal Diirers — Their prices at the
Fisher Sale— Gennan "Little Masters"— The Orna-
ment of Aldegrever — The range of the Behams —
Altdorfer — Other Little Masters — And Lucas Van
Leijden.
Among the least reprehensible, and also among the
least widely diffused, of the recent fads of the collector,
there is to be reckoned a certain increase in the con-
sideration accorded to the work of Martin Schongauer.
If Martin Schongauer s ingenious and engaging plates
— naive in conception, and, in execution, dainty — came
ever to be actually preferred to the innumerable ])ieces
which attest the potency and the variety of Dl'irer, that
preference might possibly be explained, but could never
be justified. As it is, however, no reasonable admirer
of "the great Albert" can begrudge to one who was
after all to some extent bis predecessor, and not in all
things his inferior, the honoin-able place which, after
many generations ol' coinparative neglect, that prede-
cessor has lately taken, and now seems likely to bold.
Schongauer, even more it may be than Albert Durer
himself, was, as it were, a j)atb-breaker. The interest
of the Primitive belongs to him ; anil the interest of
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the simple. Some of his reli<;ious conceptions wei'e
expressed in prettier form — and form on that account
more readily welcomed — than any that was taken on
by the conceptions of the giant mind that even now
draws us upon our pilgrimage to Nuremberg, as Goethe
draws us to Weimar. The Virgin of Schongauer is
more acceptable to the senses than the average Virgin
of Dlirer, whose children, on the other hand (see
especially the delightful little print, The Three Genii^
Bartsch 66), have the larger lines and lustier life of the
full Renaissance, A touch of what appeals to us as a
younger naivete, and a touch of what appeals to us as
elegance, are especially discernible in the earlier artist's
work ; and that work too, or nuich of it, has often the
additional attractiveness of exceptional scarcity. Like-
wise, it is to most of us less familiar. But when all
these elements of attraction have been allowed for,
the genius of Albert Dlirer — so much deeper and so
much broader, at once more philosophical and more
dramatic, and expressed by a craftsmanship so much
more changeful and more masterly — the genius of
Albert Dlirer dominates. If our allegiance has wavered,
if we have been led astray for a period, by Martin Schon-
gauer himself, it may be, or by somebody less worthily
illustrious, we shall return, wearily wise, to the author
of the Melancliolia and the Nativity, of the Knight of
Death and of llie Virgin hy tJic City Wall. To study
long and closely the work of the original engi'avers, is
to come, sooner or later, cjuite certainly to the conclu-
sion that there are two artists standing above all the
140
DURER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
rest, and that it was theirs, })i-e-eminently, to express,
in the greatest manner, the greatest mind. One of
these two artists, of course, is Rembrandt. And the
other is Dlirer.
Adam Bartsch, working at Vienna, in the beginning
of this centmy, upon those monumental books of refer-
ence which, as authorities upon their wide subject, are
even now only partially displaced, catalogued about a
hundred and eight metal plates as Albert Durer''s con-
tribution to the sum of original engraving. The Rev.
C. H. Middleton-Wake, working in 1893 — and profit-
ing by the investigations, all of them more or less
recent, of Passavant and G. W. Reid, of Thausing,
Durers biogi-apher, and Mr. Koehler, the Keeper of
the Prints at Boston, Massachusetts — has catalogued
one hundred and three. The number — not so con-
siderable as Schongauer's, by about a couple of score —
does not, at first thought, seem enormous for one the
greater portion of whose life was given to original
engi-aving ; but then, it must be remembered, Dl'irer's
life, though not exactly a short, was scarcely a long
one. And, again, whatever may have been the pro-
cesses he enn)loyecl, and even if, as Mr. Middleton-
Wake sup])oses, etched work, as well as l)urin-work,
helped him greatly along his way, the elaboration of
his labour was never lessened ; the order of complete-
ness he strove for and attained had nothing in conimon
with the coiii{)Ieteness of the sketch. His German
pertinjicity and dogged joy in work for mere work's
sake, never j)ermitted him to dismiss an endeavour
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until lie had carried it to actual realisation. Each
piece of his is not so much a page as a volume. The
creations of his art have the lastingness and the finality
of a consinmnate I>iterature, and of those three mate-
rial thintrs with which such Literature has been
compared —
" marbre, onyx, email," —
as the })hrase goes, of one who wrought on phrases as
Cellini on the golden vase, and Diirer on the little
sheet of burnished copper.
Of the hundred and three prints which, in the Fitz-
William Museum, Mr. Middleton-Wake placed in what
he believes to be their chronological order — many, of
course, their author himself dated, but many afford room
for the exercise of critical ingenuity and care — sixteen
belong to the series known as "The Passion upon
Copper," which is distinguished by that title from the
series of seven-and-thirty woodcuts known generally as
" The Little Passion." The " Passion upon Copper,"
executed between the year 1507 and the year 1513, are
j)ronounced "unequal in their execution," "not compar-
ing favourably with Durer"'s finer prints," and " engraved
for purj:)oses of sale." Now most of Diirer's work was
" engraved for purposes of sale " — that is, it was meant
to be sold — but what the critic may be supposed to
mean, in this case, is, that the designs were due to no
inspiration ; the execution, to no keen desire. Four
much later pieces — including two St. Christophers —
are spoken of with similar disparagement. I am
142
DURER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
unable to perceive the justice of the reproach when it
is apphed to the Virgin xvith tlie Child in SxcaddUng
Clothes — a print of which it is remarked that it, Hke
certain others, is "without any particular charm or
dignity ; being taken quite casually from burgher-life,
and only remarkable for the soft tone of the engraving."
No doubt the Virgin zc'ith the Child in Sicaddling Clothes
'is inspired by the human life — and that was " burgher-
life " necessarily — which Diirer beheld ; and it is none
the worse for that. It is not one of the very finest of
the Virgins, but it is simple, natural, healthy, and it is
characteristic, as I seem to see, not only in its technique,
but in its conception. What more fascinating than the
little bit of background, lavished there, so small and yet
so telling ? — a little stretch of shore, with a town placed
on it, and gi-eat calm water : a reminiscence, it may be,
of Italy — a decor from Venice — a bit of distance too
recalling the distance in the Melancholia itself. But we
must pass on, to consider briefly two or three points in
Diirer's work : points which we shall the better illus-
trate by reference to the gi'eater masterpieces.
The year 1497 was reachetl before the master of
Nuremberg affixed a date to any one of his plates.
'Hiat is the not (juite satisfiictory com})()sition, curiously
ugly in the particular realism it affects — and yet, in a
measure, interesting — A Group of Four Naiad Women.
'J^ausing doul)ts, or does more than doubt, the origi-
nality of the design. Mr. MiddlctoM-Wake holds that
in execution, at least, it shows distinct mlvance upon
l^iirer's earlier work, and amongst earlier work he in-
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FINE PRINTS
dudes no less than three-and-twenty of the undated
plates : putting the Ravislier first, with 1494 as its
probable year, and putting last before the Group of
Naked Wornen, a piece which he maintains to be the
finest of the earlier prints, the Virg^'m and Child with
the Moiikqj.
Looking along the whole line of Diirer prints, in what
he deems to be their proper sequence, Mr. Middleton-
Wake observes, as all observe indeed, wonderful varia-
tions — differences in execution so marked that at first
one might hesitate to assign to the same master, pieces
wrought so differently. He argues fully how their dis-
similarity is due "either to a marked progression in
their handling " or to an alteration in their actual
method. For quick perception of such partly volun-
tary change, the student is refeiTed to an examination
of the Coat of Ariivi with the Skidl, the Coat of' Arms
with the Cock, the Adam and Eve, the St. Jerome, and
the Melancholia. The year 1503 was probably the date
of the two Coats of Arms ; the great print of the Adam
and Eve can*ies its date of " 1504 '^ ; the St. Jerome is
of 1512 ; the Melanclwlia of 1514. The practical point
established for the collector by such differences as are
here visible, and which a study of these particular ex-
amples by no means exhausts, is that he must most
carefully avoid the not unnatural error of judging an
impression of a Dl'irer print by its attainment or its
non-attainment of the standard established by some
other Dijrer print he knows familiarly already. The
aims technically were so very different, he nmst know
144
DlTRER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
each print to say with any certainty — save in a few
most obvious cases — whether a given impression, that
seems good, is, or is not, desirable. The " silver-grey
tone,"" for example, so charming in one print, may be
unattainable in, or unsuitable to, another.
L'pon the question of the meaning of certain prints
of Dlirer, anv amount of ingenious, interesting conjee-
lure has been expended in the Past. One of Mr.
Stopford Brooke's sermons — I heard it preached, now
many years ago, in York Street — is a delightful
essav on the Melancholia. For suggestions as to
the allegorical meaning of The Knight of' Death, it
may be enough to refer the reader to Thausing (vol. ii.
page 225) and to Mrs. Heaton's Life of Dlirer (page
168). The Jealousy, Dlirer speaks of, in his Nether-
lands Diary, as a *' Hercules." The Knight and the
Lady, Thausing says, is one of those Dance of Death
pictures so common in the Middle Age. Of the Great
Fortune, Thausing holds that its enigmatical design,
with the landscape below, has direct reference to the
Swiss War of 14-99, and this we may agree with ; but,
explaining, it may be, too far, he writes in detail,
"The winged Goddess of Justice and Retribution
stands, smiling, on a globe ; carrying in one hand a
bridle and a curb for the too prcsinnjjtuous fortunate
ones; in the other, a goblel lor uiiappreciatetl worth."
Mr. Middleton-Wake, wisely less ])hil()s()pliical, urges a
8im})Ier meaning. The city of Ninvmberg, he reminds
us, had, in compliance with Maximilian's demand, lin-
nished four hundred foot soldiers and sixty horse, for
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FINE PRINTS
the campaign in Switzerland, and at the head of these
troops was Pirkheimer, to whom on his return his
fellow-citizens offered a golden cup. " We assume,"
says Mr. IMiddleton-Wake, " that it is this cup which
Diirer places in the hand of the Goddess.'' With the
Swiss War are also associated the Coat of Arms with the
Cock and the even rarer (certainly not finer) Coat of'
Arms zaith a SJcidl. The one may symbolise the antici-
pated success, the other the failure, of the campaign
into Switzerland.
A reference to the Richard Fisher Sale Catalogue (at
Sotheby's, May 1892) affords as ready and as correct
a means as we are likely to obtain of estimating the
present value of fine Durer prints. Mr. Fisher's col-
lection was unequal ; but it was celebrated, and it was,
on the whole, admirable. It was, moreover, practically
complete, and in this way alone it represented an
extraordinary achievement in Collecting. Its greatest
feature was Mr. Fisher's possession of the Adam and
Eve in a condition of exce})tional brilliancy, and with a
long pedigree, from the John Barnard, Maberly, and
Hawkins collections. This was the first Albert Durer
that passed under the hammer on the occasion, and so
opened the sale of the Di'irers with a thunderclap, as
it were — Herr Meder paying =£"410 to bear it off in
triumph. Then came the Nativity, the charming
dainty little print, which Diirer himself speaks of as
the " Christmas Day." Mr. Gutekunst gave i?49 for
it. A fine impression of the Virgin with Long Hair
fetched i?51 ; an indifferent one of the more beautiful
146
>
DURER : THE " LITTLE MASTERS "
Virgin seated by a Wall, £\0, 15s. The St. Hubert
sold for i^48 — a finer impression of the same subject
selling, in the Holford Sale, just a year later, for o^l50
— the Melancholia, £2Q ; but, it must be remembered,
the Melancholia, though always one of the most sought
for, is not by any means one of the rarest Diirers. The
Knight of Death passed, for i?100, into the hands of
Mr. Gutekunst. An early impression of the Coat of
Arms -icith the Cock was bought by Mr. Kennedy for
,^20; the Coat of Arms xoith tfie Shill going to Messrs.
Colnaghi for ci?42. In the Holford Sale a yet finer
impression of this last subject was bought by Herr
Meder for £75.
Before I leave, for a while at least, the prosaic ques-
tions of the Sale-Room, and pass on to direct attention
to the artistic virtues of the " Little Masters,"" let the
" beginning collector,"" as the quaint ])hrase runs, be
warned in regard to copies. It has not been left for an
age that imitates everything — that copies our charming
Battersea Enamel, taiit Men que rnal, and the " scale-
blue" of old Worcester, and the lustre of Oriental — it
has not been left for such an age to be the first to copy
Diirer. In fact, no one now-a-days bestows the labour
required in copying Diner. He is copied now-a-days
only in the craft of photogravure. Bnl, of old time,
Wierix, and less celel)rated men, copied In'ni gi-eatly.
Tliis is (I matter of wliicli tlie collector — at first at
leu.st — Yiiis need to beware. II nnist be stamped upon
his mind that Dinx-r's work at a certain ]K'ri()d did
ninch engage tiie copyist. It engaged the copyist only
147
FINE rillNTS
less perhaps than did the work of Rembrandt himself,
throuo-h successive generations.
And now we speak, though briefly, of the seven
German " Little Masters," of whom the best are never
" little " in style, but, rather, great and pregnant,
richly charged with quality and meaning : " little "
only in the mere scale of their labour. The print-
buyer who is in that rudimentary condition that he
only considers the walls of his sitting-rooms, and buys
almost exclusively for their effective decoration, does
not look at the Little Masters. Upon a distant wall,
their works make little spots. But in a corner, near
the fire — on the right-hand side of that arm-chair in
which you seek to establish your most cossetted guest,
the person (of the opposite sex, generally) whom you
are glad to behold — a little frame containing half-a-
dozen Behams, Aldegrevers, to be looked at closely (pieces
of Ornament perhaps ; exercises in exquisite 1 e), adds
charm to an interior Avhich, under circumst nces of
Romance, may need indeed no added charm at all from
the mere possessions of the collector. Still — there are
moods. And if the German Little Masters come in
pleasantly enough, on an odd foot or so of wall, now
and then, how justified is their presence in the port-
folio — in the solander box — when the collector is really
a serious one, and when he no longer bestows upon
living, breathing Humanity all the solicitude that was
meant for his Behams !
To talk more gravely, the German Little Masters
should indeed be collected far more widely than
148
DDRER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
they are, amongst us. Scarcely anything in their
appeal is particular and local. Their qualities — the
qualities of the best of them — are exquisite and ster-
ling, and are for all Time.
The seven Little ]Masters, on whom the late Mr. W.
Bell Scott — one of the first people here in England
to collect them — wrote, in an inadequate series, one
of the few quite satisfactory books, are, Altdorfer,
Barthel Beham, Sebald Beham, Aldegrever, Pencz, Jacob
Binck, and Hans Brosamer. One or two of these may
c|uickly be discerned to be inferior to the others ; one
or two to be superior ; but it would be priggish to
attempt to range them in definite order of merit.
It may suffice to say that to me at least Aldegrever
and the Behams appeal most as men to be collected.
The Behams — Sebald especially — was a very fine Orna-
mentist. Aldegi-ever, it may be, was an Ornamentist
yet more faultless. Some examples of his Ornament,
the collector should certainly possess. And then he
will come back very probably to the Behams, recog-
nising in these two brothers a larger range than Alde-
grever had, and a sjjirit more dramatic — an entrance
more vivid and personal into human life, a keen in-
terest in human story. They were realists, not without
a touch of the ideal. And in design and execution,
they were consummate artists, and not only — which
they were too, of course — infinitely laborious and ex-
quisite craftsmen.
Adnin I{arts<h has catalogued, in his industrious
way, according to the best lights of his period, the
1 ID
FINE PRINTS
works of the Little Masters. His volumes are the
foundation of all subsequent study. To Alttlorfer he
assigns ninety-six })ieces (I speak of course here, and
in every case, of pieces engraved on metal) ; to IJarthel
Beham, sixty-four ; to Sebald Beham — whose life,
though not a long, was yet a longer one than Barthel's
— two hundred and fifty-nine ; to Jacob Binck, ninety-
seven ; to George Pencz, a hundred and twenty-six ;
to Heinrich Aldegrever, no less than two hundred and
eighty-nine ; to Brosamer, four-and-twenty. But of
late years, as was to be expected, certain of these
masters have been the subjects of particular study.
Thus we have, in England, the dainty little catalogue
of Sebald Beham, by the Rev. W. J. Loftie — a book
delightfully printed in a very limited edition. That
book brings up the number of Sebald Beham''' assured
plates to two hundred and seventy-four. Dr. Ro. 'nberg
has also, in much detail, written in German upon the
])lates of this fascinating artist ; and still more lately
M. Edouard Aumiiller has published, at Munich, in
the French tongue, ela])orate, though indeed scarcely
final, studies of the Behams and of Jacob Binck.
Of the German Little Masters, Albrecht Altdorfer is
the earliest. He was only nine yeai's Dlirer's junior;
nearly twenty years separate him from others of the
group. Born it really even at the present moment
seems difficult to say where, Altdorfer, Dr. Rosenberg
considers, was actually a pupil of Dlirer's — an appren-
tice, an inmate of his house, probably, soon after Diirer
as a quite young man, already prosperous and busy,
150
D0RER:THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
took up his abode, with his bride, Agnes Frey, at the
large house by the Thiergarten Gate. But whatever
was the place of Altdorfer's birth and whatever the
place of his pupilage — and neither matter, as it seems,
is settled conclusively — Ratisbon is the city in which
his life was chiefly spent. There he was architect as
well as painter and engraver ; an official post was given
him ; and during the last decade of his career his
architectural work for Ratisbon caused, it is to be
presumed, the complete cessation of his work of an
engi-aver. Merits Altdorfer of course has — variety and
ingenuity amongst them — or his fame would hardly
have survived ; but Mr. W. B. Scott, whose criticism
of him was that of an artist naturally rather in sym-
pathy with the methods of his endeavour, never rises
to enthusiasm in his account of him. His drawing
is not found worthy of any warm commendation, nor
his craftsmanship with the copper. The great lessons
he miglit have learnt from Durer, he does not seem
fully to have appropriated. His design is deemed
more fantastic. But his range was not narrow, and
apart from his ))ractice in what is strictly line-en-
graving, he executed etchings of Landscape — caring
more than Diirer did, perhaj)s, for Landsc-aj)e for its
own sake : studying it indeed less lovingly in detail,
but with a certaiti then umisual reliance on the interest
of its general cH'ect. Some measure of romantic char-
acter belongs to his Landscape: "partly intensified,"
says Mr. Scott, "and |»,ully deslroyed, by the eccentric
taste that appears in nearly everything from his hand."
l"51
FINE PRINTS
The pine had fascination for him. "And he loaded
its boughs with fronds, Hke the feathers of birds, and
added long- lines, vagaries of lines, that have little or
no foundation in Nature."
Of both the Behanis, Mr. Loftie assures us that they
were pupils of Uiirer. Greater even than the artist I
have just been writing about, they show, it seems to
me, at once an influence more direct from Dlirer, and
an individuality more potent, of their own. Barthel,
the younger of the two brothers — one whose designs
Sebald, with all his gifts, was not too proud to now
and then copy — was born at Nuremberg in 1502. " Le
dessin de ses estampes," wi'ites M. Aumliller, "est
savant et gracieux, et son burin est d'une elegance
brillante et moelleuse." The words — though it is im-
possible, in a line or two, to generalise a great persona-
lity — are not badly chosen. Exiled from Nuremberg,
whilst still young, Barthel Beham laboured at Frankfort,
and, later, in Italy — a circumstance which accounts
for something in the character of his work. For, in
Barthel, the Italian influence is unmistakable ; he is,
as Mr. Scott says truly, " emancipated from the wilful
despising of the graces." In Italy, in 1540, Barthel
died.
Sebald Beham, the more prolific brother, whose
years, ere they were ended, numbered half a century
was born in 1500. He remained at home — not indeed
at Nuremberg, but long at Frankfort — yet, remaining
at home, his work was somehow more varied. A
classical subject one day, and peasant life the next, an
152
DURER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
ornament now, and now a design symbolical like his
Melancholia — these interested him in turn ; and, as for
his technical achievement, his Coat of Arms ic'ith the
Cock (for he, like Durer, had that, as well as a Melan-
cholia) would suffice to show, had he nothing else to
show, his unsurpassable fineness of detail. " Cette
superbe gravure," M. Aumiiller says — and most justifi-
ably, for technical excellence cannot go any further,
nor is there wanting majesty of Style. At the Loftie
Sale some happy person acquired for dP4 this lovely
little masterpiece : at the Duraz/o Sale, £5 was the
price of it. Analysis of Sebald Beham"'s prints shows
that of his noble work on metal seventy-five subjects
are suggested by sacred and nineteen by "profane"
history. Mythology claims thirty-eight designs, and
Allegory thirty-four. Genre subjects, treated with the
various qualities of observation, humour, warmth, ab-
sorb some seventy plates, (^f vignettes and ornaments,
there are about two score.
In 1881 — several years after he had finished his
Catalogue — the Rev. W. J. Loftie sold in Germany his
remarkable collection of Sebald Rehanrs works. Next
perhaps, in imjjortance, in recent times, to Mr. Loftie's
collection, was that of Richard Eisher — disj)ersed at
a sale I have already spoken of. I'roin the I'isher
Sale, which was so comprehensive in its character,
we will tiike note of the j)i-ic('.s hci-c in England of at
least a few fine things — premising that whatever be the
prices fetched i)y an exce])tional larity, a very few
pounds (often only three or foin-), spent (•arcfiilK , will
15:i
FINE PRINTS
buy, at a good dealers, a fine Behain. In the Fisher
Sale then, the Madonna and Child zcith the Parrot
fetched £5, 10s. ; the Madonna zcith the Skeping Ckild^
£\1, 10s. (Meder) ; the Venus and Cupid, i?3, 10s.
(Deprez) ; the niao-nificently drawn Lcda, only eleven
shillings — but then it must have been a bad impres-
sion, for a fine one at the Loftie Sale fetched dC4, 10s.,
and at the Kalle Sale, £6 — Death Surprising- a Woman
in her Sleep, £S, 12s. (Meder); the Baboon and tlie
Tivo Coiiples, £5 ; the Tzcv Buffoons, First State,
£7, 12s. (Deprez) ; the Ornament zcith a Cuirass and
the tzco Cupids, £S, 10s. At the same sale, Alde-
grever's Virg'in Sitting had gone for £1, lOs., and
Barthel Behanrs Lucretia for £^, his Fight for the
Standard for ^^4, his Vignette zcith Four Cupids for
£4!, 4s. But it ought perhaps to be remembered that
in several cases the representation of the Little Masters
in Mr. Fisher's Sale was not good enough to bring the
prices which, under favourable circumstances, are wont
to be realised by the finest impressions. In regard to
Barthel Beham, I will add that the highest price
accustomed to be fetched by any print of his, is
fetched by his rare, strong portrait of Charles the Fifth.
Having said what I have of it, I cannot say that it
is undesirable, but it is quite undesirable if it stands
alone — for it is exceptional rather than characteristic.
In mere size, for one thing. A First State of it has
fetched as much as sixty pounds : a Second State
averages about twelve.
To Aldegi-ever — perhaps the very greatest of the
154
DDRER: THE "LITTLE MASTERS"
Omanientists — the most general of recent students of
the School, Dr. Rosenberg, does the least justice. Mr.
Scott, upon the other hand, asserts his position with
strength ; nor will it be unprofitable for amateur or
collector if I cjuote, at some length, what he says.
The Behanis, who were great, and Altdorfer, who was
scarcely great, we have — for our present })urposes —
done with already. But about the others ]\Ir. Scott
may well be heard. " George Pencz,"" he reminds us,
"left the Fatherland and subjected himself to Italian
influence, both in manipulation and in invention, while
Brosamer and Jacob Binck are of comparatively little
consequence."" I hope — may I say in a parenthesis ? —
that Mr. Scott attached great weight to his "com-
paratively,"" for otherwise he did the charming work
of Jacob Binck a rude injustice. But to proceed —
" Aldegi'ever is the most worthy successor to Diirer,
and is the gi-eatest master of invention, with the truest
German traditions of sentiment and romance, as well as
the most prolific ornamentist. He remains all his life
skilfully atlvancing in the command of his graver, to
which he remains true. Like Lucas of Levden, he lives
a secluded \\^(;^ .hikI his niiniature prints continue to
issue from his hands with more and more richness and
imlej)endence of poetic thought, until we lose sight of
him, dying where he had HvchI, in the small town of
Soest, without unv wi-itcr to i-crord the particulars of
his modest life." It may be added that Rosenberg
considers not only that Aldegrever was never under
Di'irer's direct tuition — tlnxigh cairying out tiie Diirer
155
FINE PRINTS
traditions — but also that he was never in Nuremberg at
all. And, by this means isolating Aldegrever from the
coterie that grew up in the Franconian town, Rosenberg
derives him rather from Lucas van Leyden. To which
Mr. Scott answers, that if Aldegrever never left his
native Westphalia, never even visited Nuremberg and
Augsburg, " he apprehended the movement wonderfully
from a distance, and apj^ropriated as much as he chose
— happily for his works — as much as properly amalga-
mated with his Northern nature."
A great name has passed our lips in discussing this
thing briefly. I wish that there were space here —
that it had been a part of my scheme to treat, not so
utterly inadequately, Lucas van Leyden. But in a
book of this sort — which must seize, so to say, upon
finger-posts, where it can — ^^half of the business is
renunciation, and I renounce, unwillingly, the fau'
discussion of the great early Flemish master. Dlirer
himself approved of him : gladly exchanged original
prints with Master Lucas of Leyden, who showed
him courtesy on a journey. Numerically the work of
Lucas is not inferior — rather the other way — to Albert
Durer's. His range of subject was hardly less extensive,
thouo-h his range of mind was less vast. In a dramatic
theme, Lucas of Leyden could hold his own with any
one. He had less of unction and of sentiment — less
depth, in fine, very likely. But the great prints of the
Renaissance in the North are not properly represented "
in a collector's portfolios, if the work of this master of
various and prolific industiy is altogether omitted. His
156
DtJREH : THE " LITTLE MASTERS "
draughtsmanship, though it improved with Time, was
never the searching draughtsmanship of Diirer, indeed,
or of one or two of Dlirers followers. Yet it was ex-
pressive and spirited. And spirit, vivacit}', a certain
grace even, are well discovered in the rare work of
Lucas in a particular field in which the Behams and
Aldegi-ever triumphed habitually and in which Albert
was occasionally great — I mean the field of Ornament.
The rare Panneaii cTOrnements (Bartsch, 164 — dated
1528), in scheme of light and shade, in scheme of action,
in ingenious, never-wearying symmetry of line, in tell-
ing execution, reaches a place near the summit. The
collector, when the chance offers, does well to give the
six or seven, eight or ten guineas perhaps, which, in
some fortunate hour, may be its ransom.
15-
CHAPTER VIII
Earliest Italian Prints — They interest the AfHiqiiaty
more than the Collector — Nielli — Baccio Baldini —
Mantcgna and his restless energy — The calm of Zoan
Andrea — Campagnola — The Master of the Caduceus
— His " Pagan sentiment " — Marc Aiitonio — His
first practice — His art ripest when his prints
interpret Raphael — Important Sales of the Italian
Prints.
As one of the chief reasons for the composition of
the present volume is that the collector, whether a
beginner or more advanced, may have ready access to
a little book which supplements to some extent, but
does not attempt to supersede, any one amongst the
labours of earlier students — and which treats often
with especial prominence themes which it seems lay
scarcely at all within the range of their incjuiries —
it will hardly be expected that much shall be said
here on the various departments of Italian Engraving.
Italian Engraving, from the 7iielli of Florentine gold-
smiths to the larger method and selected line of Marc
Antonio, has for generations occupied the leisure and
been the subject of the investigations of many studious
men. Volumes have been written about it : treatises,
158
ITALIAN LINE ENGRAVERS
articles, catalogues, coiTespondence innumerable. About
Italian EnoTavino; — in any one of its branches — it
would be as easy, or as difficult, to say something
new, and at the same time to the point, as it would
be to Avi'ite with freshness about the decorations of the
Sistine Chapel or such an accepted masterpiece as the
Madonna di San Sisto. The few words I shall write
upon the subject will be of a wholly rudimentary
character. If the reader wishes to go into this subject
elaborately, I refer him at once to experts. No one
is less an expert upon it than I am ; but partly that
all sense of balance shall not be wanting to this book,
and partly that the beginner, even with this book
alone, shall not grope wholly in the dark, the place of
the Italians must be briefly recognised. In recognising
it, I do not claim to do more, of my own proper know-
ledge, than bring to bear upon the question the results
of some more general studies, and perhaps the side-
lights thrown from more particular investigations into
other branches of the engraver''s achievement.
The rik'Hi — those things wrought so minutely by the
early goldsmiths, IVIiiso da Finiguerra and the rest —
which are the very foundations of Engraving, are, to
begin with, introuvahh\ To the practical collector then,
it cannot be pretended that they aj)peal, though they
may engage the attention of the studeiil. Then again,
in fine condition, not sj)()ilt by the retouching — nay,
re-working — of the plate, or the wear of the particular
impression tliroiigli its long life of more than three
hundred vears, the somewhat niaturer work oftheirreat
FINE rillNTS
Primitives, or of those who, like Mantegna himself,
stands, a link upon a borderland, is scarcely within
the region of practical commerce. The finer work of
the line-eno-ravers upon copper, of the earlier Renais-
sance in Italy, does not, save on the rarest occasions,
appear in Sotheby's auction-room. Perhaps its very
scarcity, its gradual absorption during more than
one generation, into such great private collections as
are not likely to be dispersed, and, yet more, into
national, or university, or municipal collections, into
which everything entering takes at once, and with no
period of novitiate, the black veil — perhaps this very
scarcity is accountable for the lack of vivid interest in
such work on the part of the collector of modern mind.
After all, even masterpieces have their day : nmch more
those things of which it must be said, that though en-
dowed with a great vigour of conception and executed
often in trenchant, if not persuasive, form, they do not
in execution reach the standards set up for us — and
passing now almost into the position of " precedents ""
— by the later technique.
If, of the work of the greatest master of the Ger-
man Renaissance — of the greatest, most original, most
comprehensive mind in the whole of German Art —
it is possible to speak as that very fair and penetrating
critic, Mr. P. G. Hamerton s})eaks, in his general
essay on Engraving, which appears in the " Encyclo-
paedia Britannica,"" what is to be said of the earlier
Italians? Why, in the very passage in which Mr.
Hamerton — far too intelligent, of course, to deny the
160
ITALIAN LINE ENGRAVERS
gi-eatness of his qualities — devotes to Diirer, they, by
something more than impHcation, are to take their
share of the dispraise. After telling us that Martin
Schonffauer's art is a stride in advance of that of " The
Master of 1466," Mr. Hamerton adds, "Outline and
shade, in Schongauer, are not nearly so much separated
as in Baccio Baldini, and the shading, generally in curved
lines, is far more masterly than the straight shading
of Mantegna. Diirer continued Schongauer's curved
shading with increasing manual dexterity and skill ;
and as he found himself able to perform feats with the
burin which amused both himself and his buyers, he
overloaded his plates" — "some" of his plates, would
here have been a reasonable qualification — "with de-
tails, each of which he finished with as much care as if
it were the most important thing in the composition."
" The engravers of those days " — it is said further —
" had no conception of any necessity for subordinating
one part of their work to another. In Dih-er, all
objects are on the same plane." Here Mr. Hamerton
generalises too much ; but a strong, exaggerated state-
ment on the matter directs at all events our attention
to it.
A like criticism could be passed on some, though, it
must needs be said, on less, of the Italian work of tiie
earHer time. As a rule, when the ])ure Primitives had
passed, Italian work was less complicated. In Mantegna
himself, an immense energy in the figure — the coniijlete-
ness with which the artist was charged with the need of
expressing action, and, it may l)e, the sentiment besides,
161 L
FINE PRINTS
in which the action had its source — restrained him,
stayed his hand, diverted his attention from inappro-
priate or supei-Huous detail. And there were other
ItaHan artists of the hurin in whom a rising feehng
for large and decorative gi-ace had something of the
same effect. And when we come to Marc Antonio him-
self — trained though he was as a copyist of Northern
Schools — we see him ahle, when addressing himself to
render the compositions of Raphael, to subordinate
everything to the attainment of noble and elegant
contour. The finest Marc Antonios — the Saint Cecilia
and the Lucretia, to name but two of them (respec-
tively £25 and £110 in a great Sale three years ago)
— were ^\TOUght under Raphael's immediate influence ;
were sculpturesque and simple, never elaborately pic-
torial — the result, no doubt, in part, of the circumstance
that Raphael as well as his engraver recognised that if
designs (drawings, not pictures) were the objects of
copy, they could be interpreted without going outside
the proper art of the engraver. Whatever be the
fashions of the moment — and Marc Antonio's prices,
notwithstanding an exceptional sum for an exceptional
print, are, in the main, low — it must be remembered
that, even with his limitations, it was in him and
in his School that real pure line-engraving reached
maturity. " He retained," says Mr. Hamerton, sum-
marisinir well enough the situation in a sentence — " he
retained much of the early Italian manner in his back-
gi'ounds, where its simplicity gives a desirable sobriety ,'
but his figures are boldly modelled in curved lines,
162
ITALIAN LINE ENGRAVERS
crossing each other in the darker shades, but left single
in the passages from dark to light, and breaking away
in fine dots as they approach the light itself, which is
of pm-e Avhite paper." As general description, this is
excellent; but if the new collector, taking to Marc
Antonio, and buying him at a time when, if I may
adopt the phi-aseology of Capel Court, his stock is
quoted below par, wishes the opportunity of guidance
in the study of the development of his art, let him
take up almost the latest book that deals with the
subject with minuteness and suggestiveness, if it may
not be invariably accurate or systematically arranged
— I mean the " Early History of Engraving in North
Italv,"" by the late Richard Fisher, whose name as a
collector and connoisseur I do not mention now for
the first time. \^ery interesting too is all that Mr.
Fisher has to say about " the Master of the Caduceus,"
Diirer's friend and instructor, Jacopo de' Barbarj, who,
known as Jacob Walsh, was supposed to be German,
although practising much at Venice. Passavant, who
atlmits some thirty pieces by him, considers him of
German birth — a tiling allowed neither by Fisher nor
Diiplessis. "Ill single figures'' — writes Mr. Fisher —
"we have the best illustration of his talent — Judith
with the head of Ilolofernes .iiid a young woman look-
ing at hei-self in a mirror." At the Rritish Museum a
bust portrait of a young woman, catalogued by Rartsch
as amongst the anonymous Italians, has been given to
Barbarj. M. (ialichon considers him eminently Pagan
in sentiment. Nor is this incomj)atil)le with Jlichard
U)3
FINE PRINTS
Fisher's statement that in style his Holy Families are
completely Italian.
" La Gra^alre en Italie avant Marc Antoiiie'" — a sub-
stantial work by Delaborde — is a book that will not
pass unnoticed by those whose choice is for the earlier
membei's of the Italian School. Campagnola, it may
be — whose chief piece, the Assumption, fetched more
than 0^50 at the Durazzo Sale, and whose Dance of
Cupids reached .-£^50 at the Marochetti — he will find
adequately treated there ; and there too are made in
compact form certain instructive comparisons between
Mantegna's work and that of Zoan Andrea and Antonio
da Brescia whose labours have their likeness to Man-
tegna's own. In the rare Dance of' Damsels — " Dance of
Four Women," it ought rather to be, for in at least one
of its little-draped figures the gravity and fadedness
of middle age is well contrasted with the firm and fresh
contour and gay alacrity of youth — Zoan Andrea, whose
prints are " generalement preferables " to those of Da
Brescia, shows finely not only Mantegna's design^ but
that something of his own which the gi-eat Mantuan's
design did not give him. Many people have written well
on Mantegna ; he provokes people, he stimulates them ;
and Mr. Sidney Colvin, on the so-called " Mantegna
Playing-Cards," has written learnedly as an investigator,
giving to designs misnamed and misunderstood their
right significance. But it is from Delaljorde that I will
allow myself to quote one brief passage, which is full
at least of personal conviction. What more especially
characterises — so he puts it — Andrea Mantegna's en-
164
ITALIAN LINE ENGRA\TRS
gi'aved work, is that it is " un melange singulier d'ardeur
et de patience, de sentiment spontane et d'intentions
systematiques : c'est enfin dans Texecution matcrielle,
le calme d'une volonte sure d'elle-meme et Tinquietude
d'une main imte par sa lutte avec le moyen." Zoan
Andrea's prints do not present these contrasts. " Tout
y i:psulte d'un travail poursuivi avec une parfaite cgalite
d'humeur ; tout y respire la meme confiance tranquille
dans Tautorite des enseignements re^us, le meme besoin
de s'en tenir aux conquetes deja faites et aux traditions
deja consacrees/' By Mantegna, about twenty -five
accepted plates have reached our time. By Zoan
Andrea, a larger number have at least been catalogued,
and it is argued by some that the least authentic, as
well as the least creditable, are sometimes those which
bear his signature.
Did I desire to manufacture " jmdding,"''' nothing
would be easier than for me to extend to a long
chapter this summary assemblage of brief and almost
incidental notes on the Italian Line-Engraving of the
remote Past. But as the subject itself is one to which I
have never yet been fortunate enough to devote such
a measure of study as iniglit entitle nie to diiiin to
be heard when speaking of it, and as llii- literature
of the su]))ect exists in such abundance for the curious,
I can affbid to he short. It niuv, liowever, be of some
little interest to the collector, if, before j)assiiig on to
the discussion of another branch of I'rint-Collecting in
which I have ventured to take my own line, ;iii(i am
willing on all occasions to back my own o|)inion, we
Ui5
FINE PRINTS
look a little into such records of the Sale - room as
throw light upon the changing money values of the
engi'avings by Italian masters.
Mr. Julian Marshall, now with us in his middle
age, began collecting when he was so young that his
great sale occurred as long ago as 1864. Values have
changed since that day, very much. Of his four prints
by Mantegna, only one — The Flagellation — fetched
more than £1'^. That one reached £9A^ — an early
perfect state of The Entombment going for £\\, 10s.,
and Christ Descending into Hell for £^. Domenico
Campagnola"'s Descent of the Holy Ghost then fetched
c^2, 2s. At the Sykes Sale the same impression had
fetched ^£^3; at the Harford, ^1, 15s. At the Marochetti
Sale in 1868, not a single Mantegna, unless Christ risen
Jrom the Dead, fetched a price of importance, and
this only ten guineas ; but among the Ivx?.rc Antonios
the Adam and Eve in Paradise sold to Mr. Colnaghi
for .£'136, and TJie Massacre of the Innocents to Mr.
Holloway for £'\<0. The Two Fauns carrying a Child
in a Basket — engi-aved by Marc Antonio, in his finest
manner, after an antique — realised £5Q, and the Saint
Cecilia £5\. In the Bale Collection, in 1881, the St.
Cecilia fetched £^0, and Mariette's impression of the
extraordinarily rare Dance of Cupids ef'241. That was
borne off by M. Clement, who was then what M.
Bouillon is now — " marchand d'estampes de la Bib-
liotheque Nationale." In the Holford Sale, twelve
years afterwards, Marc Antonio's Adam and Eve sold
to M. Danlos for i?180 ; the Massacre of the Innocents
166
ITALIAN LINE ENGRAVERS
(from the Lely Collection) to the same dealer for .£^190 ;
and the St. Cecilia and Lucretia both to IVIr. Gutekunst
— the first for £^\ ; the second for £QQ. The great
price fetched by a Marc Antonio at this Sale was,
however, that paid for The Plag'ue — a print which M.
Danlos acquired for i?370. Taking note of such a sum,
one could hardly believe perhaps that Marc Antonios
were not rising; but when a master falls, it is in the
minor, not the more eminent pieces — or, at least, in
average, not exceptional impressions — that we trace
most certainly a decline of value. And, taking the
»S'^. Cecilia alone — one of the most charming of the
subjects, as I have said before, though not one of the
rarest — we find, on the three occasions of its sale that
I have cited, a high price, one less high, and then again
a lower. We find, indeed, comparing the prices that
were fetched by two impressions not presumably very
difierent — for both were in great Sales — that in 1893 a
St. Cecilia brought little more than half of what it
brought in 1868. The (juestion now for the collector*'s
judgment, as far as money is concerned, is, Is it safe
or unsafe for him to buy at just the present stage of
a "falling market"'.'' Have Marc Antonios touched
bottom .'' If he buys them now, will he — in the phrase
of sprightly Imlies "fluttering" in "South Africans'" —
will he be "getting in on the ground floor ""r*
The collector has a right to ask himself these
.seemingly irreverent (juestions. Nor uill 1k' love Ai-t
less, or have an eye less delicate, because he is obliged
to ask them. I do not know that the possessions of a
FINE PRINTS
prudent collector should — taking things all round —
bring him, if he desires to sell, much less than he
gave for them. It may be quite enough that as long
as he keeps and enjoys them, he shall lose the interest
of his money. If, in the interval, the value of his
prints happens to increase, so much the better for him
— obviously. But he enjoys the things themselves, and
can scarcely exact that increase.
168
CHAPTER IX
French Line-Engravers of the Eighteenth Century
-' render well its original Art — The Prints from Watteau,
Lancret, and Pater — Watteau s Characteristics — Char-
din's Interiors and Studies of the Bourgeoisie — Success
of his Domestic Themes — His Portraits and Still-Life
are never rendered — Tlie lasting popularitt/ of Greuze
— Boucher Prints at a discount — Fragonard and
Baudouin — Lavreince and Moreau.
The Eighteenth Century in France witnessed the rise,
the development, and the decay or fall of a great
School of Art of which the English public remains, even
to this day, all but completely ignorant. The easy
seductiveness of the maidens of Greuze, with gleaming
eyes and glistening shoulders, has indeed secured in
Enirland for a certain side of that artist's work a
measure of notice in excess of its real im])ortance;
and a succession of accidents and the good taste of
two or three connoisseurs out of a hundretl — they were
men of another generation — have matle this country the
home and resting-place of some of the best of the
pictures and drawings of \Vatteau. But even Watteau
is not to be found within our National CJallery. 'I'bere
Greu/e and Lancret — Chardin having but lulcly joined
them with but a single pleasant but inade(juate ])icture
— there Greuz-e and Lancret, seen at least in whiiL is
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adequate and characteristic, share the task of representing
French Art of the period when it was most truly French.
They are unequal to the mission. And until some
can join them who will fulfil it better, the painted
work of the French Eighteenth Century will hardly
receive its due.
Fortunately, however, French Eighteenth Century
artists fared well at the hands of the line-engi-avers.
Even of a painter who possessed more than many
others the charm of colour, it could be said by one of
the keenest of his critics that the originality of his
work passed successfully from the picture to the print.
That is what Denis Diderot wrote of Jean Baptiste
Simeon Chardin, and it is true of them all, from
Watteau downwards. Theirs was the century of Line-
Engraving in France, as it was that of Mezzotint in
England. And the practitioners of Line-Engraving
and of Mezzotint were something beyond craftsmen.
Not only were they artists in their own departments —
some of them painted, some of them designed : they
were in sympathy with Art and possessed by its spirit.
Hence the peculiar excellence of their work with burin
or scraper — the high success of labours which their
intelligence and flexibility forbade to be simply
mechanical.
An Exhibition which at my suggestion the Fine
Art Society w^as good enough to venture on, eleven
years ago — but which attracted so little attention from
the great public we wanted to engage, that it must
some day, I suppose, be repeated — aimed to show those
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
engravings in which, with fullest effect, the line-engra-
vers of the Eighteenth Century rendered the thought
and the impression of painters or of draughtsmen who
were, in most cases, their contemporaries. Watteau
was the first of these painters. The prints after his
pictures were chiefly wrought in the years directly
following his far too early death. His friend, M. de
Julienne, planned and saw closely to the execution of
that best monument to Watteau's memory. Cochin
and Aveline, Le Bas and Audran, Surugue and Brion,
Tardieu and I^aurent Cars, worked dexterously or
nobly, as the case might be, in perpetuation of the
master's dignity and grace. Lancret and Pater were
often translated by the same interpreters. Chardin's
work was popularised — as far as France is concerned —
a very few years after, and with substantially the same
effect. Later in the century, some changes which were
not all improvements, began to be discernible in the
newer plates. The manly method of which Laurent
Cars was about the most conspicuous master, yielded
a little to the softer ])ractice of the interjn-eters of
Lavreince or to the airy yet not inexact daintiness
of the method of the translators of Moreau. The
later style of engraving was suited to the later
draughtsmanship and painting. Probably indeed it
was adopted with a certain consciousness of their needs.
Anvhow, not one of the conspicuous figures in the
historv of French Eighteenth (Century Design — excejit
I^tour, who practically has not been reproduced at all
— can be said to have siiHt-nd seriously at the hands of
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his translators. What French pictorial artists thought
and saw and tried to tell, upon their canvases and
drawing papers, is, in the main, to be read in the
prints after their works. In these prints we may note
alike the triumphs and the failures of the real French
School. There is no denying its deficiencies. But it
is as free from conventionality as the gi'eat School of
Holland — as independent of tradition — and it is as true
to the life that it essays to depict.
Along the whole of the Eighteenth Century — not
in France only — Watteau, who lived in it but twenty
years, is the dominating master. To put the matter
roughly and briefly, he is the inventor of familiar
grace in Art. His treatment of the figure had its
perceptible influence even upon the beautiful design
of Gainsborough ; and the way in which he saw his
world of men and women dictated a method to his
successors in France, down to the revival of the more
academic Classicism. Artists — when they have been
so comprehensive as to occupy themselves with other
people's Art — have known generally that Watteau's
name has got to stand among only ten or a dozen
of the greatest, but the English amateurs, or rather
English picture and print buyers, are still but few
who are accjuainted with his range and feel the sources
of his power. He has not been very popular, because,
according to ordinary notions, there is but scanty
subject in his designs. The characters in his drama
are doing little — they are doing nothing, perhaps.
But as the knowledge of what real Art is, extends,
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
and as our sensibility to beauty becomes more refined,
we shall ask. less, in presence of our pictures, what the
people are doing, and shall ask more, what they are.
Are they engaging? — we shall want to know. Are
they pleasant to live with .''
Watteau placed a real humanity in an ideal land-
scape; but it was still a chosen people that entered
into his Promised Land, and the chosen people were
ladies of the Court and Theatre, and winning children,
and presentable men. His pictures — all the large,
elaborate, finely wrought prints after them — are the
record of Avhat was in some measure in these peoj^le's
daily lives, yet it was even more in his o^\ti dream.
"Toute une creation de poeme et de reve est sortie
de sa tete, emplissant son oeuvre de Telegance d'une
vie sumaturelle."" Through all his art he takes his
pleasant com})any to the selected places of the world,
and there is always halcyon weather.
Sometimes it is only the comedians of his day —
whose mobile faces Watteau had seen behind the foot-
lights of the stage — who make modest picnic, as in
the Champs Khjstc.s (the engraving by Tardieu) — find
shade as in the BosqiLct de Biuchm (the engraving by
Cochin), or (-njov at leisin-e the terraced gardens, the
vista, the great trees of the Perspective (the engraving
bv Crepy). And sometimes — inhabitants no more of
a real world — the jiersons of bis (b'unia j)rej)arc, with
free bearing, to .set out upon long journeys. It is now
a pilgrimage to Cythera {L''Kinh(irqiieiii( iit pour ( 'i/thire,
or I lie Iti-siilii /'(/y/^r/^/zr/r/)— suddenly thev have been
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transported indeed to the "enchanted isle" (Le Bas's
drawing of the distant mountains in Vile Enchantec,
is, I may say in an underbreath, a little indefinite and
puzzling). In any case the land that Watteau's art has
made more beautiful than ordinary Nature, is peopled by
a Humanity keenly and finely observed, and portrayed
with an unlimited control of vivacious gesture and of
subtle expression.
The unremitting study that made not only possible
but sure an unvarying success, in themes so manifestly
limited, is evidenced best in such collections of Watteau's
drawings as that acquired gradually by the British
Museum, and that yet finer one inherited by the late
IVIiss James, and now, alas ! dispersed. There the com-
plete command of line and character is best of all
made clear, and the solid groundwork for success in
Watteau's pictures is revealed. Elsewhere — in the
" Masters of Genre Painting " — I have found space to
explain more fully than can be done in these pages,
that however manifestly limited were his habitual
themes, his range was really great enough, since — not
to speak of the " Elysian Fields "" — it covered the land-
scape and the life of the France he knew. He has
drawn beggars as naturally as did Murillo ; negi'oes
as fearlessly as Rubens ; people of the bourgeoisie as
faithfully almost as Chardin. And, far from the cut
chestnut-trees on whose trimmed straightness there
falls in an un])roken mass the level light of his gardens,
AVatteau draws at need the open and common country,
peasants and the soldiery, the baggage-train passing
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
along the endless roads from some citadel that Vauban
planned. What Watteau saw was the sufficient and
the great foundation of all that he imagined, and his
art's abantlonment of the everyday world was to exalt
and to reline, rather than to forget it.
The line-engravings after Watteau — largeish, deco-
rative, vigorous while delicate — remain comparatively in-
expensive. A rare impression " before lettei-s '' attains,
perhaps, now and then a fancy price; but Time has
very little affected the money value of the impressions
with full title, which, if reasonable care is exercised,
can be secured in fine condition, of such a dealer as
Colnaghi, here in England, and in Paris, of Danlos,
say, or of Bouillon — occupied though they all of
them are, habitually, with more costly things. Often
two or three sovereigns buy you an excellent Watteau,
clean and bnght, and not bereft of margin. To have
to give as much as £5 for one, would seem almost
a hardshij). And the work of Lancret and Pater —
ingenious, interesting practitioners in Watteau's School
— may be annexed at an expense even less considerable.
Lancret was but a follower of ^Vattc'au : Pater was
coiifessedlv a pupil. We shall have to come to Char-
din to find in French Art the next inuii thoroughly
original. And (li.udiii was n gix-at master. Rut
I^mcret and I'atcr, though they arc but secondary,
are still interesting figures. Neither of them, inuta-
tive though they were in varying degrees — uiiMicr of
them nuule any pretensions to their forerunner's in-
spired reverie. Lancret, as fur as his invention was
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concerned, was at one time satisiied with a .symbolism
that was obvious, not to say bald. At another, as in
the sedate UHivcr (engraved by Le Bas), and the
charming pictures of the games of children, Le Jeu
de Cache-caclie and Le Jeu des Qiiatre Coins (both
of them engraved by De Larmessin), he was gi*ace-
fuUy real, without effort at a more remote imagina-
tion than the themes of reality in gentle or in middle-
class life exacted. At another time again, he lived
so much in actual things, that he could make the
portraits, not of deep grave men indeed such as the
Bossuets and the Fenelons of the Seventeenth Century,
but of the lighter celebrities of his careless day. That
day was Louis the Fifteenth's — " c'etait le beau temps
ou Camargo trouvait ses jupes trop longues pour danser
la gargouillade." And Lancret painted Mdlle. Camargo
(and Lam-ent Cars engi-aved her), springing to lively
airs. Voltaire had said to her, distinguishing all her
alacrity and fire from the more cautious graces of
Salle, the mistress of poetic pantomime — Voltaire had
said to her —
" Les nymphes sautent comme vous,
Et les Graces daiisent comme elle."
And the truth of the description is attested by Lan-
crefs picture, and by the rosy and vivacious pastel in
Latour's Saint-Quentin Gallery.
Pater, a fellow-townsman of Antoine Watteau's, was
his pupil only in Watteau's later years. At that
time Watteau suffered from an irritability bred of
an exhausting disease and of a yet more exhausting
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
genius. ]\Iaster and pupil fell out. But, in his last
days of all, Watteau summoned to him the painter who
had come from his own to^^^l, and in a month, for which
the younger artist was ever gi-ateful. Pater was taught
more than he hiul ever been taught before. The pupil
had the instinct for prettiness and gi'ace, and in culti-
vating it "W^atteau was useful. But there was one thing
the master could not teach him — originality. And
his record of the engaging trivialities of daily life,
where pleasure was most gi'acious and life most easy,
was undertaken by a mind wholly contented with its
task. The mind aspired no farther. The faces of
Watteau, especially in his studies, are often faces of
thoughtful beauty ; sometimes, of profound and sad-
dening experience. But, like a lesser Mozart — and
the Mozart of a particular mood — Pater proffers us
his engajrinf; allcirro. The aim of all his art — its
light but successful endeavour — is summed up in the
title of one of the prettiest of his prints and pictures.
It is, I^ cUsir de plaire.
Presently we leave that world of graceful fantasy,
which Watteau invented, and his pupils prolonged —
a workl in which dainty refreshments are served to
chosen conjj)anics under serene skies — and, still in the
full middle of the Eighteenth Century, we arc face to
face with the one gi'eut artist of that age whom Watteau
never affected. Cliardin was the ])ainter of the hour-
m'oi.H'ic. \Vith a persistence just as niarkcd as that
of the most honicly Dutchmen, but with a refinement
of feeling to which they were generally strangers and
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which gave distinction to his treatment of his theme,
he devoted himself to the chronicle of prosaic virtues.
In his Art, no trace of the selected garden, of the
elegant gallantries, of the excitement of Love in
the gay or luscious weather. The honest townspeople
know hardly a break in their measured sobriety. They
are mothers of families ; the cares of the menage press
on them ; house-work has to be got through ; children
taught, admonished, corrected. Never before or since
have these scenes of the kitchen, the schoolroom, or
the middle-class parlour, been painted with such dignity,
such truth, such intimacy, and such permissible and
fortunate reserve. AVc see them to perfection in Char-
din's })rints — in the prints, I mean, that were made
after him, for he himself engraved never. There are
two other sides of his Art which the contemporary line-
engravings do not show. One of them is his mastery
of still-life — his great and exceptional nobility in the
treatment of it. There is just a hint of that, it is
true, in the delicate engi-aving of VCEconome^ and the
broader, richer engraving of La Pourvoyeuse ; but for
any real indication of it, and even that is but a partial
one, we must come to Jules de Goncourt's etching of
the Guhelet d' Argent, which suggests the luminousness,
the characteristic reflets, and the touchc grasse of the
master. The other side of Chardin's talent which
the engi-avings do not represent, is his later skill in
professed portraiture, and especially in portraiture
in pastel, to which the fashionable but well-merited
triumphs of Latour directed him in his old age. But
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
the deliberate limitations of the Eighteenth Century
prints do not in any way invalidate the excellence, the
completeness even, of their performance. The collector
should address himself to their study. A little dili-
gence, a little patience, and a hundred pounds, and it
would not be impossible to form a collection in which
nothing should be wanting. I remember that I gave
M. Lacroix or M. Rapilly, in Paris, not more than
seventy-five francs an impression for pieces in extraor-
dinarily fine condition, and with margins almost intact.
Chard in went on working till he was eighty years
old. He enjoyed popularity, and he outlived it.
From 1738 to 1757, there were issued, in close suc-
cession, the engravings, about fifty in number, which,
with all their differences, and with all sorts of interest-
ing notes about them, M. Emanuel Rocher has con-
scientiously and lovingly catalogued. They were
published at a couple of francs or so apiece ; their
appearance was wont to be welcomed in little notices
in the Mercure de France, just as the Standard or the
Times to-day might applaud a new Whistler or a new
Frank Short ; and they hung everywhere on bourffcoi.s
walls. The canvases which they translated were owned,
some by a King of France, and some by a foreign
Sovereign. Little in the work of the whole century
h-ul greater right to popularity than the Jen dr r(h/(\
with its eX(juisitc and honiely grace — Sunigue has
perfectly engraved it — L' Etude da Dcs.sciti, austere and
masterly (I>e Bas has rendereii well the figure's attitude
of ai)sorption), fj- Jivnvdkitf, with the unaffected piety,
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the simple contentment of the naiTow home, and La
Gouvcrnantc; with the youn^ woman's friendly cama-
raderie and yet solicitude for the boy who is her
charge.
At last Fashion shifted. Chardin was in the shade.
Even Diderot got tired of him ; though it was only the
distaste of a contemporary for an excellence too con-
stantly repeated — and the artist betook himself, with
vanished popularity, to changed labours. But the
vogue had lasted long enough for his method to be
imitated. Jeaurat tried to look at common life through
Chardin's glasses. But Jeaurat did not catch the senti-
ment of Chardin as successfully as Lancret and Pater
had caught the sentiment of Watteau. And along
with a little humour, of which the print of the Citrons
de Javotte affords a trace, he had some coarseness of
his own which assorted ill with Chardin's homely
but unalloyed refinement. Chardin was profound ;
Jeaurat, comparatively shallow. You look not with-
out interest at the productions of the one ; you enter
thoroughly into the world of the other. The creation
of Chardin — which his engravers pass on to us — has a
sense of peace, of permanence, a curious reality.
Reality is that which to us of the present day seems
above all things lacking to the laboured and obvious
moralities of Greuze, who was voluptuous when he
posed to be innocent, and was least convincing when
he sought to be moral. Yet Greuze, when he was not
the painter of the too seductive damsel, but of family
piety and family afflictions, must have spoken to his
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
owTi time with seeming sincerity. Even a liberal
philosophy — the philosophy of Diderot — patted him
gently on the back, and invited him to reiterate his
commendable and salutary lessons. But the philosophy
was a little sentimental, or it would scarcely have con-
tinued to Greuze the encouragement it had withdrawn
from Chardin. The Greuze pictures chiefly engraved
in his own time were his obtinisive moralities. They
now find little favour. But Levasseurs print of La
Laitiere and Massard's of La Crudie cassce — elaborate,
highly wTought, and suggesting that ivory flesh texture
which the master obtained when he was most dex-
terously luxurious — these will fascinate the Sybarite,
legitimately, during still many generations.
Befox'c the first successes of the painter of that
Laitiere and that CrucJie cassee, there was flourishing
at Court, under the Pompadour s patronage, the " rose-
water Raphael,''' the " bastard of Rubens.*" This was
Eran(|Ois Boucher. The region of his art lay as far
indeed from reality as did Watteau's "enchanted isle,"
and it had none of the rightful magnetism of that
country of poetic dream. It was not, like Watteau's
land, that of a privileged and fortunate humanity,
but of
" False Gods, and Muses misbej^ot."
Where Boucher tried to be refined, he was insincere ;
and where he was veracious, he was but picturesquely
gross. His notion of Olympus was that of a mounUiiii
on which ample human forms might be undraj)ed with
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impunity. That Olympus of a limited imagination he
frequented with industry. But, as a decorative painter,
there is no need to undervalue his fertility and skill,
his apparently inexhaustible though trivial impulse;
and if few of his larger compositions have deserved
those honours which they have obtained, of translation
into elaborate line-engraving, hosts of the chalk studies
which are so characteristic of his facile talent were
appropriately reproduced in fac-simile by the ingenious
inventions of Demarteau. These fac-similes were very
cheap indeed not many years ago, nor are they to-day
expensive. Of Bouchers more considered work, en-
graved in line, La Naissance de Venus, by Duflos, and
Jupiter et Leda, by Ryland, are important and agree-
able, and, as times go, by no means costly instances.
Fragonard, besides being a nobler colourist than
Boucher — as the silvery pinks and creamy whites of the
Chemise en levee, at the Louvre, would alone be enough
to indicate — was at once a master of more chastened
taste and of less impotent passion. He was of the
succession of the Venetians. Fragonard came to Paris
from the South — from amidst the olives and the flowei"s
of Grasse — and he retained to the end a measure of the
warmth and sunshine of Provence. The artistic eager-
ness, the huiTied excitement, of some of his work, is
much in accord with his often fiery themes; but in
V Heureuse FecondiU; Lcs Bng^iiets, and La Bonne
Mere (all of them engraved by De Launay) the col-
lector can possess himself of compositions in which
Fragonard depicted domestic life in his own lively way.
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
That is only one side of his mind, and, like his love of
dignified and ordered artificial Landscape, it is little
known. Elsewhere he showed himself a skilled and an
appreciative observer of wholly secular character, and
he embodied upon many a canvas his conception of
Love — it was not to him the constant devotion of a
^life, but the unhesitating tribute of an hour. Le Verre
(VEau and Le Pot au Lait are good gay prints, but not
for every one. In Le Chijfre cV Amour, Affection, which
with Fragonard is rarely inelegant, becomes for a moment
sentimental.
Contemporary with Fragonard were a group of
artists who, more than Fragonard, left Allegory aside,
and exercised their imagination only in a reaiTange-
ment of the real. These were the French Little
Masters : amongst them, Lavreince, the Saint- Aubins,
Raudouin, Eisen, Moreau le jeune. They had seen
the life of Paris — Raudouin, the debased side of it ;
but even Raudouin had some feeling for elegance
and comedy. iMsen was above all an illustrator.
Augustin de Saint- Aubin, a man of various talents,
<lisplayf(l ill little things, is studied most agreeably in
those two pretty and well-disposed interiors, Le Concert
and Ix Bid pari: They are his most j)rized pieces ;
and {)rettiness having often more money value than
greatness, they are worth more than any Watteaus —
they are worth full twenty |)()mii(1s the pair. And that
is all I can aflord to say of Augustin de Saint-Aiibin.
Lavreince and Moreau must be spoken of a little more
fully.
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Nicliolas Lavreince was by birth a Swede, but,
educated in Paris and ])ractising his art there, he was
more French than the French. Edniond and Jules de
Goncourt, the best historians of the Painting of the
time, do not much appreciate him : at least in compari-
son with Baudouin. They say that Baudouin's method
was larger and more artistic than Lavreince''s, whose
way was generally the way of somewhat painful finish.
I have seen by Lavreince one agi'eeable water-colour
which has all the impulse of the first intention, and, so
far, belies the De Goncourts' judgment. But the judg-
ment is doubtless true in the main. That does not
make Lavi-eince a jot less desirable for the collectors of
prints. Both he and Baudouin wrought to be engraved,
but Lavreince''s work was done with a much larger
measure of reference to that subsequent interpretation.
The true gouaches of Lavreince are of extraordinary
rarity ; and if their method is in some respects less
excellent than that of the companion-works of Bau-
douin, their themes are more presentable. Lavreince,
in his brilliant portrayal of a luxurious, free-living
Society, sometimes allowed himself a liberty our cen-
tury might resent ; but liaudouin's license — save in such
an exquisite subject as that of La Toilette^ which de-
picts the slimmest and most graceful of his models —
was on a par with that of lletif de la Bretonne. A
proof before all letters of the delightful Toilette —
engraved so delicately by Ponce — is worth, when it
appears, ten or twelve pounds : a more ordinary, a less
rare impression, is worth perhaps three or four.
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Baudouin — in too much of his Avork — was the por-
trayer of coarse intrigue in humble life and high :
La^Teince and Moreau, masters of polite Genre, with
subjects wider and more varied, the chroniclers of con-
versations not inevitably tete-a-tete. For vividness and
intellectual delicacy of expression in the individual
, heads, one must give the palm to Moreau. The De
Goncourts claim for him also pre-eminence in com-
position; but in one piece at least — in the AsscmhUe
au Coneert, engraved by Dequevauviller — Lavreince
runs Moreau hard. And Lavreince, I can''t help
thinking, has an invention scarcely less refined. What
can be gentler, yet what if gentle can be more abun-
dant comedy than his, in the Directeur des Toilettes?
— the scene in which a prosperous Abbe, an arbiter of
Taste in women's dress, dictates the choice to his de-
lightful friend, or busily preserves her from the chances
of error. And very noteworthy is Lavreince's way of
availing himself of all the opportunities for beautiful
design — beautiful line, at all events — which were af-
forded him by the noble interiors in which there passed
the action of his drama. Those interiors are of the
days of Louis Sei/e, and are a little more severe, a
little less intricate, than the interiors of Louis Quin/e.
Musical instruments, often l)eautiful of form — harp,
harpsichord, and violoncello — pl'vy their j)art in these
pictorial compositions. Prints from Lavreince, like
prints from Moreau, are too gay and loo agieeable
not to l)C always valued. iMiglaiid and America will
surely take to them, as France has done long ago.
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It has been claimed for jNIorcau — Moreau " le jeune,"
to distiiiguisli liini from his less eminent brother — that
he is yet more exact than Lavreince is, in his record
of the fashions of his period in furniture and dress.
And sometimes, on this very account, his effect is more
prosaic — ^just as at the contemporary theatre the acces-
sories are apt to dominate or dwarf the persons of the
drama. Yet Moreau's people have generally some in-
terest of individuality and liveliness, and these charac-
teristics are nowhere better seen than in the two series
which he designed to show the life of a great lady from
the moment of motherhood and the daily existence of
a man of fashion. These prints — such as Oest un Fils,
Monsieur ; La Sortie de TOpera ; La Grande Toilette —
should be possessed, let me tell the collector, with the
" A. P. D. Q." still upon them : not in a later state.
Moreau, besides being a charming and observant
draughtsman, was himself a delicate engraver ; but he
left to others (Romanet, Baquoy, and Malbeste amongst
them) the business of reproducing his story of the ruling
classes — of the leaders of Society — and it was suffi-
ciently popularised. Having regard to what it was —
a story, to some people, of in-itating even though of
elegant triviality — perhaps it was as well for those
ruling classes of the ancien regime that it did not go
further — that it was not actually broadcast. Of Beau-
maixhais's pungent comedy the saying has since passed
round, that it was the Revolution "e-w action.''^ So
envy or contempt might surely have been fostered
by the wide- spread perusal of Moreau 's exquisite,
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FRENCH EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
unvarnished record, and the Revolution have been
advanced by a day.
With Moreau's art, the Eighteenth Century closes.
There is an end of its luxury and its amenity — an end
of the lover who insists and the lady who but lightly
forbids. There followed after it the boneless, nerveless,
still eminently graceful pseudo-classicism of Prud'hon,
and the sterner pseudo-classicism of David, which re-
called the ideal of men to a more strenuous life. But
that life was not of the Eighteenth Century. The in-
flexible David, like the dreamy Prud'hon, was an artist
for another age. The graceful, graceless Eighteenth
Century — with its own faults, and no less with its own
virtues — had said its last word. Familiar and luxu-
rious, tolerant and engaging, it had expressed through
Art the last of its so easily supported soitows and its
so easily forgotten loves.
187
CHArrER X
The range of Turner Prints — His earlier Engravers
— His " Liher ISludiurimi " — Its etchings, proofs,
completed mezzotints — Its money value — " Liber "
Collectors — The "Southern Coast" Series — The
"England and Wales" — The " Richmondshire" Prints
— "Ports" and "Rivers of Ejigland" — The Turner
Prints secure the Master s fame.
Turner prints constitute a class apart. The prints
which others made after Turner's drawings and pictures,
the prints he executed to some extent or wholly himself,
the engravings in line and the engravings in mezzotint,
are all of them wont to be collected not so much as
part of the representation of a particular method of
work, but rather as the representation of an individual
genius and of a whole school of the most highly
skilled craftsmen.
The Turner prints range in period from a year at
least as early as 1794 to a year at least as late as 1856 —
for though Turner was then dead, one or two of the finest
engravers whom he had employed were at that date still
labouring in the pojjularisation of his pieces. They
range in size from the dainty vignette a couple of inches
high, to the extensive plate — a wonder of executive
skill, yet often, too, a wonder of misplaced ingenuity —
188
TURNER PRINTS
which mav be three feet long. Between them come
the very masterpieces of the landscape engraving of our
century — line-engravings like the "Southern Coast";
mezzotint supported by etching, like the " Liber Stu-
diorum." They range in value between a couple of
shillings or so — the price, when you can get the print,
of a specimen of the early publications in the " Copper-
plate Magazine " — to, say, well shall we say to d£'50 ?
— the price of an exceptional proof of a fine, rare
subject in "Liber." In point of number, those of
which account may reasonably be taken by the student
of our greatest Landscape artist through the charming
medium of his prints — or if you will by the student of
Engraving who finds in pieces after Turner alone a
sufficient range of method in the illustration of Land-
scape — in point of number those which there need be
no desire to ignore or forget, reach, roundly speaking,
to four or five hundred. It is possible to make the
study and ac(juisition of them the main business of
the life of an intelligent collector.
Mr. W. G. Itawlinson is perhaps amongst existing
connoisseurs the one whose knowledge of the engravings
by Turner, and after him, is the widest and most exact.
Mr. lUiwlinson has greatly extended the sum of his
own knowledge since he penned that catalogue rai-
sonne of the " Liber Studiorum " which remains his
only published contribution to the history of the
prints of 'i'urner. The book is ol' miicli value; but
though, broadly considered, it nnnains an ade(|uate
and serviceai)le guide, there must bv this lime be a
180
FINE PRINTS
good many corrections in the matter of " States " —
rarely is it that the issue of a First Edition of a de-
scriptive catalogue of engraved work does not elicit,
from one source or another, some information, the
existence of which the author had had no reason to
surmise. And, moreover, it may be hoped that Mr.
Rawlinson's more extended studies in the field of his
particular intjuiry will bear fruit some day in the
])roduction of another volume, devoted this time to
the tale of the great series of Line-Engravings and
the less numerous productions in pure Mezzotint.
"Liber," remember — the master-work, which is thus
far the only one to have been elaborately discussed or
chronicled by any ci'itic — is the result of a combination
of Mezzotint with Etching. But we will go back a
little, and will take the prints — or such of them as
there is cause to mention — in due order.
I recollect Mr. Rawlinson saying to me, not many
months ago — in speaking of the little publications of
the " Copper-plate Magazine " and of such-like small
and early work — that Turner was never properly en-
graved till he was engraved by James Basire; and I
think, upon the whole, that this is true. At a later
period. Turner himself protested that he was never
properly, at all events never quite perfectly, engraved,
till he was engraved by John Pye — but then that
was for a quite different order of work from that which
occupied him in the first years of his skilled and accom-
])lished practice. What Mr. Rawlinson meant was,
that whereas the engraver — tasteful and in a measure
190
TURNER PRINTS
delicate, yet slight and wanting wholly in subtlety of
realisation and treatment — who did the little prints
in the " Copper-plate Magazine," such as the Carlisle
and the WaKrJield, failed to translate into his art all
the really translatable qualities of the immature yet
interesting work to which he addressed himself, Basire,
in the brilliant and solid prints which served as
head-pieces to the " Oxford Almanacks,'"' from 1799 to
1811, did the most thorough justice to their mainly
architectural themes. It was in the year in which
Basire finished — and Turner's art, by this time, had,
of course, greatly changed — that there was executed
by John Pye the very work {Pope's Villa) which ex-
torted from Turner what it may be was his first warm
tribute of admiration to anybody who translated him.
But four years before this. Turner, with Charles Turner,
the engraver in mezzotint, had begun the publication
of the immoi-tal series of " Liber Studiorum."
The set of prints which Turner issued as his " Liber
Studiorum " — with an allusion, tolerably evident, to the
"Liber Veritatis" of Claude — is but one series of
several with which the English master of Landscape
occupied himself during the fifty years, or more, of his
working life. But it is the first series that was conceived
by him ; and it is, in the best sense, the most ambi-
tioas ; and it remains the noblest and the most repre-
sentative. In its actual execution Turner had a greater
hand — an inc()nij)arably greater hand — than in that
of any of its successors; and its scheme j)ennitted a
variety, an effective suddenness of transition, denied to
191
FINE PRINTS
the artist when, in later years, he was depicting that
portion of the county of Yorks which is known as
Richniondshire, or the " Southern Coast," or the
"Rivers of France," or the "Ports of England," or
even all the places which it pleased him to choose for
one of the most elaborate of his publications, " The
Picturesque Views in England and Wales." A long-
tether was allowed him, unquestionably, in some of
these sets; but in the "Liber" — as it is called, briefly
and affectionately, by collector and student — there was
no question of tether at all. In it, a subject from
Classical Mythology might stand side by side with a
subject drawn from English barton and hedgerow — I
am, as it were, naming Procris and Ccphalus, ^sacus
and Hcsperie, the ex(juisite though homely Straw Yard,
the entirely prosaic Farm Yard with a CocJc. The
interior of a London church, with its Georgian altar
and its pews cosily curtained for the most respectable
of bourgeois, might be presented in near neighbour-
hood to some study which Turner had recorded of the
eternal hills, or of a great storm that gathered, rolled
over, and passed away from Solway Moss.
I have used the word " study," since it is Tumer''s
own. But each plate in " Liber Studiorum " is much
more than a study. It is a finished composition. Turner
spared neither time nor pains — though in this case, as
in others, he was careful, where that was possible, to
spare money — in making his work all that the wisest
lover of his genius might expect it to be. Whatever
rivalry there was with the " Liber Veritatis " of Claude, —
192
TURNER PRINTS
— the later portions of which were issuing from the
house of Boydell at the very moment that Turner
was planning the "Liber"" — the rivalry was conducted
upon no equal terms. I say nothing in depreciation of
Claude's " Liber Veritatis." In it, one of the greatest
practitioners of mezzotint engraving — Richard Earlom
,;r— reproduced, with learned simplicity, Claude's mas-
terly memoranda — the sometimes slender yet always
stately drawings in the preparation of which Nature
had counted for something, and Ai't had counted for
more, Claude's bistre sketches, by their dignity and
style — even the hurried visitor to Chatsworth may
know that — are akin to the landscapes of Rembrandt,
to the studies of Titian. But the artist of the " Liber
Veritatis "" worked in haste, worked purposely in slight-
ness, and more than one generation separated him from
the engraver who was to execute the plates. Turner
worked with elaboration, and worked at leisure, and
he etched upon the plates, himself, the leading lines
of his composition, and he was in contact with the
engravers, and his directions to these accomplished
craftsmen were rightly fastidious and endlessly minute.
Claude too was an etcher, yet it is not in the " Liber
Veritatis" — it is in the rare and early States of his
Shc'pfurd and Shepherdess Convcrsinff, of his CoxvJicrd
(" Le Boiivier"), of his Cattle in Stormy WeatJicr —
that (as a pievioiis chapter has insisted) we are to find
proof of his skilled familiarity with that means of
expression which Turner cuiployed as the basis of his
work in the " Liber." Claude, when he etched, etched
193 N
UNE PRINTS
for Etching's sake, and used with pleasure and with
case the resources of the etchers art. Turner restricted
Etching within narrower limits. When one remembers
the circumstance that, having etched the outlines on
the plate, he took a dozen or a score, perhaps, of
impressions from it before he caused the work in
mezzotint to be added, it is difficult to assert that he
did not attach a certain value to the etched outlines.
And indeed they are of extraordinary significance and
strength : they show economy of labour, certainty of
vision and of hand. It is very well that they, as well
as the finished plates, should be collected. But, in his
})leasure in possessing himself of these rare, noble
things, the collector must not allow himself to forget
that they were essentially a preparation and a susten-
ance for that which was to follow — for that admirable
mezzotint on which the subtlest lights and shadows of
the picture, its infinite and indescribably delicate grada-
tions, were intended to depend.
Of this Mezzotint it is time to speak. Its employ-
ment, though it proved — as I think I have implied
already — wonderfully conducive to the quality of the
"Liber" plates, was not resolved upon at first. The
process of aquatint, in which much work was done
about that time — in which, only a very few years
before " Liber " began. Turner's friend, Thomas Girtin,
had produced some broadly-treated views of Paris —
had, at fu'st, been thought of. Negotiations were
opened with Lewis, and he executed in aquatint one
of the plates, which Turner did indeed eventually use,
194
TURNER PRINTS
but which he was careful not to use in the earhest
numbers of the pubHcation. The superiority of Mezzo-
tint he recognised quite clearly. He employed the best
mezzotinters. He busied himself to instruct them as
to the effects that he desired. He learnt the art him-
self, and himself mezzotinted, with great exquisiteness,
ten out of the seventy-one plates. He worked, in later
stages, upon all the rest of them ; obtaining generally
the most refined beauty, but working in such a fashion
as to exhaust the plate with extravagant swiftness.
Then he touched and retouched, almost as Mr. Whistler
has touched and retouched the plates of his Venetian
etchings. So delicate, so evanescent, rarity is not an
aim, but a need, with them.
The ])ubIication of the " Liber "''' — the great under-
taking of the early middle period of Turner"'s art —
began in 1807, and its issue was arrested in the year
1819. It was never completed — seventy-one finished
plates were given to the world out of the hundred that
were meant to be. But Turner had by that time pro-
ceeded far with the remainder, of which twenty plates,
more or less finished, testified to a gathering rather
than ii lessening strength. By the non-publication
of these later ])!ates, the collector — if not necessarily
the student — is deprived of several of the noblest ilhis-
trations of Tumer"'s genius. Nothing in I he whole
series shows an elegance more dignifit-d than that which
the Stork and Aqueduct displays ; the mystery of dawn
is magnificent in i\\c Storu:1icvfi;i' ; and never was pas-
toral landscajje — the Englaiid of field and wood and
195
FINE rillNTS
slo})iiig hillside — more engaging or suggestive than in
the Ci'owJuirst.
The mention of these plates — the hint it gives us as
to difference of subject and of aim — brings up the ques-
tion of the various classes of composition into which
Turner thought proper to divide his work. His adver-
tisement of the publication affords a proof of how widely
representative the work was intended to be ; nor, indeed,
did the execution at all fall short of Turner's hope in
this respect. The work was to be — and we know, now,
how fully it became — an illustration of Landscape Com-
position, classed as follows : " Historical, Mountainous,
Pastoral, Marine, and Architectural."" And further,
it is said in the advertisement, " Each number contains
five engravings in mezzotint : one subject of each class."
But Turner, in these matters, was extraordinarily un-
methodical — I should like to say "muddled." Each
number did contain five engravings, and they were " in
mezzotint," with the preparation in etching; but it
was by no means always that there was one subject
of each class, for Turner divided the Pastoral into
simple and what he described as " elegant " or " epic "
Pastoral (Mr. Roget thinks that the "E.P." means
"epic"), and the very first number contained a His-
torical, a Marine, an Architectural subject, but it
contained no Mountainous, for the Pastoral was re-
presented in both of its forms ("P." and "E.P.").
The actual publication was exceedingly irregular.
Sometimes two numbers — or two parts, as we may
better call them — were issued at once. Sometimes
196
TURNER PRINTS
there would be an interval of several years between
the issue of a couple of parts. There is no doubt
that as the work progressed Turner felt increasingly
the neglect under which it suffered. Gradually he
lost interest in its actual issue — but, never for a
moment in its excellence.
Charles Turner, the admirable mezzotint engraver —
who, it should hardly be necessary to say, was no rela-
tion of the gi'eater man — had charge of "Liber" in
its early stages. The prints of the first parts bore an
inscription to the effect that they were " Published by
C. Tui-ner, 50 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square." But
in 1811 — when three years had elapsed since the pub-
lication of the fourth part — the fifth came out as
" Published by Mr. Turner, Queen Anne Street, West"
— and " Mr. Turner " meant, of course, the author of
the work. Charles Turner, who had engraved in mezzo-
tint every plate contained in the four parts with whose
publication he was concerned, engi-avcd, likewise, several
of the succeeding pieces. Thus his share in the produc-
tion of "Liber" was greater than that of any of his
brethren. William Say's came next to his in im-
|)ortancc — importance measured by amount of labour
— and Mr. Itawlinson has pointed out that William
Say ^ai)proached his work with little previous prepara-
tion by the rendering of Landscape. The remark is,
in some degree, applicable to most of Say's associates.
The engraver in me/zotint, at that time, as in earlier
times, flourished chiefly by reproducing Portraiture.
Raj)hael Smith and William Ward — ^great artists who
197
FINE PRINTS
were still living when the "Liber" was executed, but
who had no part in the performance — had been em-
ployed triumphantly, a very little earlier, in popularis-
ing that delightful art of Morland, in which landscape
had so large a place. Dunkarton, Thomas Lupton,
Clint, Easling, Annis, Dawe, S. W. Reynolds, and
Hodges complete the list of the engravers in mezzo-
tint who worked upon the " Liber." Admirable artists
many of them were, but the collector, if he is a student,
cannot forget how much the master, the originator,
dominated over all.
Mr. Ruskin and several subsequent writers have
written, with varying degrees of eloquence, of origin-
ality, and, I may add, of common sense, as to the
moral, emotional, or intellectual message the " Liber "
may be taken to convey. Tliis is scarcely the place in
which to seek to decipher with exliaustive thoroughness
a communication that is on the whole complicated and
on the whole mysterious. The reader may be referred
to the last pages of the final volume of " Modern
Painters" for what is at all events the most im-
pressive statement that a prose-poet can deliver as
to the gloomy significance of Turner's work. Mr.
Stopford Brooke — rich in sensibility and in imaginative
perceptiveness — follows a good deal in Mr. Ruskin''s
track. I doubt if Mr. Hamerton or Mr. Cosmo
Monkhouse — instructive critics of a cooler school —
endorse the verdict of unmitigated gloom, and I have
myself (in a chapter in a now well-nigh forgotten
essay of my youth) ventured to hold forth upon the
198
TURNER PRINTS
intervals of peace and rest which " Liber Studiorum "
shows in its scenes of soHtude and withdrawal : the
morning light, clear and serene, in the meadows below
Oakhampton Castle ; the graver silence of sunset as
one looks wstfully from heights above the Wye, to
where, under the endless skies, the stream deploys to
the river. I am referring, of course, to the Oakhampton
Castle subject, and to the Severn and Wye; but the
argument might have been sustained by allusion to
many another print.
More important to our present purpose than to settle
accurately its moral mission or to agree upon the senti-
ment of this or that particular plate, is it to value
properly the sterling and artistic virtues which " Liber "
makes manifest. Of these, however, there is one thing
only that I care to emphasise here. Let all beauties of
detail be discovered ; but let us even here, and in lines
that are of necessity brief, lay stress upon the all-
imj)ortant part played in the plates of "Liber"" by one
old-fashioned virtue, that will yet be fresh again when
some of those that may seem to supplant it have indeed
waxed old. It is the virtue of Composition. " Liber
Studionun" shows, in passage after j)assage of its
draughtsmanshij), close reference to Nature, deep know-
ledge of her secrets ; but it shows I think yet more the
unavoidable conviction, alike of true worker and true
connoisseur, that Nature is, for the artist, not a Deity
but a material : not a tyrant but a servant. In the
near and faithful stud^ of Nature — and nowhere more
com{)I('tcly than in the prints of "Liber" — 'l\irncr did
101)
FINE rUINTS
much that had been left undone by predecessors. But
he was not opposed to them — he was alhed to them —
in his recognition of the fact that his art must do much
more than merely reproduce. " Nature,"" said Goethe,
" Nature has excellent intentions." And by Composi-
tion, by choice, by economy of means, sometimes by
very luxury of hidden labour, it is the business of the
artist to convey these intentions to the beholders of his
work. How much does he receive.'' How much of
himself, of his creative mind, must we exact that he
shall bestow ?
Let us come down, immediately, to money matters,
and other practical things for the collector's benefit.
It is still possible, here and there, in an auction
room, to buy an original set of " Liber Studiorum '^ — a
set, that is, as Turner issued it — but it is never desir-
able. For Turner, who was not only a great poet with
brush and pencil, and scraper and etching needle, but an
exceedingly keen hard bargainer and man of business,
took horrible care (or just care, if we choose to call it
so) that the original subscribers to his gi'eatest serial
should never get sets consisting altogether of the fine
impressions. He mixed the good with the second-rate :
the second-rate with the bad. It was not till collectors
took to studying the pieces for themselves, and making
up collections by purchase of odd pieces here and there
— rejecting much, accepting something — that any sets
were uniformly good. The first fine set, perhaps, was
that, in various States, which was amassed by Mr.
Stokes, and passed on to his niece, MissMai^ Constance
200
TURNER PRINTS
Clarke. To have the marks of these ownerships at the
back of a print, is — in ninety-nine cases out of a hun-
dred — to have evidence of excellence. Twenty years
ago, one could buy such a print, now and then, at
Halsted's, the ancient dealers, in Rathbone Place;
and have an instructive chat to boot, with an old-
world personage who had had speech with " Mr.
Turner." Even now, in an auction room, one may get
such a print sometimes. Another of the very early
collectoi-s was Sir John Hippesley, who bought origin-
ally on Halsted's recommendation, and who — having
been for years devoted to works of other masters —
ended by breakfasting, so to speak, on " Liber Studi-
crum : " on the chair opposite to him, as he sat at his
meal, a fine print was wont to be placed. Amongst
living connoisseurs, Mr. Henry Vaughan and Mr. J. E.
Taylor, Mr. Stopford Brooke and Mr. W. G. Rawlinson,
have notable collections of very varying size and import-
ance. Mr. Itawlinson believes much more than I do —
if I understand him aright — in the desirability of
possessing engravers'" trial proofs — in a certain late
stage. Most engiavcrs"' proofs are, of course, mere
prej)arations, curious and interesting, but in themselves
far less desirable than the finished plates to whose
effects of deliberate and attained beauty they can but
vaguely a|)proximate. Of course if you are so ex-
ceediuglv lucky a man as to have been able to pounce
upon the particular proof which was the last of the
series, you possess a fine and incontestable thing; but
generally an early ini{)ressiou of the First published
201
FINE PRINTS
State represents the subject more safely and assuredly ;
and, failing that, an early impi-ession of the Second
State; and so on. An indication of priority is no
doubt well — but it is well chiefly for the feebler
brethren. You must train your eye. Having trained
it, you must learn to rely on it. Books and the
knowledge of States are useful, but are not sufficient.
In the few years that elapsed between the establish-
ment of "Liber"''' as avowedly fit material for the diligence
and outlay of the collector, and the great sale of the
" remainders "" in Turner"'s own collection — which only
left Queen Anne Street in 1873, some two -and -twenty
years after his death — prices for fine impressions of the
" Liber " plates, bought separately, were high. Then,
in 1873, during that long sale at Christie's, a flood of
prints, and many of them very fine ones, came upon
the market. " Would they ever be absorbed ? ■" it was
asked. They were absorbed very ((uickly. But just
until they were absorbed, it was, naturally, possible,
not only to choose (at the dealer's, chiefly, who bought
big lots ; at the Colnaghi's and Mrs. Noseda's, particu-
larly) — it was possible to choose sagaciously, out of so
great a number, and to choose cheaply too. Then
"markets hardened.'' The various writings calling
attention to the wisdom of collecting had probably
their effect. Then things slackened again. And now,
though rare proofs and very fine impressions — which
are what should be most cared about — hold their own,
there is a certain lull in the activity of buying. The
undesirable impression goes for very little. Yet the
202
TURNER PRINTS
fluctuations, such as they are, either way, are of no
vast importance. Of any but the very rarest, or very
finest subjects, six to twelve guineas gets a good Firet
State. Three to six guineas may be the price of a
good Second. A Third or Fourth or Fifth State
fetches less, unless — as in an exceptional instance, like
^e Calm — it is preferable. Of all the different sub-
jects, the rarest is Ben Arthur. In a fine impression
— with the cloudland and the shadows not impenetrably
massive — it is exceedingly impressive. But never as a
thing of power should I rate it above Sohvay Moss
or Hind Head Hill; or, as a thing of beauty, above
Severn and Wye.
No great collection of the "Liber Studiorum" has
been sold of late years, but if we go back to the year
1887, we can give a few prices culled from the cata-
logue of the Buccleugh Sale. An engraver's proof of
the Woman zvith a Tambourine fetched =£'15, 15s. there ;
an engraver"'s proof of Basle, oC27 ; a proof of the
Mount St. Gothard, which at least must have had the
virtue of a})proaching finish, fell to Colnaghi's bid of
dC'oS ; the First State of the Holy Islarul Catlicdral,
which sold for i?3, 3s., must either have been poor or
monstrously cheap, though the plate is one in which,
even to the collector with the most trained eye, the
possession of the First State is not strictly necessitated :
the .subject is among those — and they are not so very
few — in wliich the Second State, well chosen, is alto-
gether julequate. The First State of the Hind Head
Hill reached X'14, 14s. ; the First of the London from
203
FINE I'RINTS
Grecnroich, with its noble panorama of tlie long
stretched Town and winding river, reached £15, 15s.
A proof of the Windrmll and Lock reached £^\ ; a
First State of the Severn and Wye, £^\ ; a First State
of the Procris and Cephalus, £11; a First State of the
Watercress Gatherers, £W, lis. The pure etchings,
which I have written of in an earlier paragraph in this
chapter, sell, generally speaking, for three or four
guineas apiece ; the etching of the Isis, which is ex-
tremely rare, fetched at the Buccleugh auction £\^, 13s.
By the Fine Art Society £1^ Avas paid for a First
State of the Ben Arthur. The plates least eagerly
sought, or in inferior condition, went for all sorts of
prices between a pound or two and four or five guineas.
I think, as far as value may be judged without the
presence of the particular impressions which were sold,
the little list I have now given above may fairly indi-
cate it, but no quite thorough indication can be got
without an immense accumulation of detail, and, on
the reader\s part, an immense knowledge in inter-
preting it. It is not unintentionally that we have
lingered long over the "Liber.'" But more than one
other great series must engage at all events a brief
attention.
In 1814 began the amous "Southern Coast" series,
which was brought to an end in 1827. For these
})rints, engraved in admirable and masculine "line,"
chiefly by the brothers George and William Cooke,
Turner had made water colours, whilst as a preparation
for the " Liber," he had made but slight though finely
204
TURNER PRINTS
considered sepia drawings — mere guides and hints to
himself and the engravers he employed upon the plates :
things whose significance was to be enlarged : not
things to be merely copied and scrupulously kept to.
In quite tolerable condition the ordinary impressions
of the " Southern Coast " plates are to be had in large
J)ook-form; but the collector, buying single piece by
single piece, at one or two or three guineas each, seeks
generally impressions before letters or with the scratched
title. Of course the variations in condition are notice-
able, but in the firm " line " of the " Southern Coast,"
they are at least much less noticeable than in the
delicate and evanescent mezzotints of " Liber."
The year in which the publication of the " Southern
Coast" was finished — when prints picturesque and
vivid, and in some cases, as in the Clovelly of William
Miller, perfectly exquisite, had been presented of the
most interesting seaboard places between Minehead and
Whitstable — that year was the period at which the
publication of the third great series, the " England and
Wales," was begun. It was to have extended to thirty
parts or more : each part containing four subjects.
JJut, like "Liber," it received, on its first issue, no full
and satisfying measure of encouragement, and thougli
it reached its twenty-fourth part, it did not go further.
It was ])ublishe(l at about two guineas and a half a
j>art. " I^nglaiKJ und Wales" sets forth with gi'cat
elaboration of line engi-aving the characteristics of the
later middle |)criod of Turner's art, so far as black and
white can set it forth at all. That wa.s the period in
205
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which subject was most complicated and most ample —
even unduly ample — and in which Turner dealt at once
with the most intricate line and with all sorts of prob-
lems of colour, atmosphere, illumination. The work of
all that period, from 1827, say, to ten years onwards
— with many of its merits, its inevitable shortcomings,
and its immense ambition — the " England and Wales "
represents. The work of various engravers trained by
Turner for the interpretation of all that was most com-
plicated, it will ever be interesting and valuable. Such
prints as Stamford, Llantliony Abbey, and the noble
Yarmouth stand ever in the front line. The last, like
the Clovelhj of the " Southern Coast,"" is a work of
William Miller, the old Quaker engraver, whose render-
ing of Turners delicate skies no other line engraver
has approached — not even William Cooke, who did so
well that troop of light little wind clouds in the Mar-
gate of the " Southern Coast."" Admirable then, indeed,
many of these things must be allowed to be; and in
this sense they are almost unique, that scarcely any-
thing else has possessed their qualities. Yet on the
whole one admires " England and Wales " with reserva-
tions. One''s heart goes out more thoroughly to " Liber ""
and to " Southern Coast.""
There are other series which must not be passed over
altogether — the " llichmondshire Set,"" of which the
first print was executed, I think, in 1820, though the
whole volume was not issued till 1823. It too is in
line : the finest print of all, perhaps the Ingleborcnigh.
Then there are six " Ports of England : "" impressive,
206
TURNER PRINTS
varied little mezzotints, unsupported by etching — prints
in one of which Turner has set down, for all time, his
clear, unequalled perception of the beauty of the Scar-
borouirh coast-line. Then there are the "Rivers of
England,"" with the noble Arundel, the restful Totness.
Then there are, in line, the almost over-dainty yet
jniraculous little prints of " Rivers of France."" Then
there are the wonderful vignettes in illustration of
Walter Scott. These, like the illustrations to the
Rogers' " Poems "'"' and the " Italy,"'"' with which they
have the most affinity, are luminous and gem-like.
The Rogers illustrations of course deteriorate in later
editions; the "Italy" of 1830 and the "Poems" of
1834 are the ones that should be possessed ; and were
the present volume of a wider scope and addressed to
the book-collector, I should allow myself to say here
what it seems I do say here, without "allowing my-
self"" — that the collector should get, if possible, a
copy in the original boards, and may give £6 for
that as safely as a couple of sovereigns for a re-bound
copy.
Turner is represented on many a side by the engraver's
art, and in most cases with singular good fortune. For
some, there are the vignettes which have the finish of
Cellini work. I'or some, it may he, the large, more
recent plates, the Modern It(dij and Ancient Itttlij, that
hang, I cannot help considering, rather ineffectively
upon liie wall : too big, woi for their place, but for
their method of execution — and yet, like so many,
wonderful. He is represented best of all perhai)s in
207
FINE PRINTS
works of middle saile — in the virile line of the
" Southern Coast," and the unap])roachahle mezzotint
and etching of the " Liber." If everything that he has
wrought with brush or pencil were extinguished, these
things, living, would make immortal his fame.
208
CHAl^ER XI
The healthij appreciation of Mezzotint — Its faculty of
conveying the painter' s^very touch — Landscape Scenes
in Mezzotint — Comparative Rarity of Landscapes —
The Constables — Vast volume of Rare Pieces and
Portraits — The Ptints after Sir Joshua Reytiolds —
Dr. Hamilton's Catalogue — The smaller number of
Gainsboroug/is — Increased appreciation of Romney
— Mr. Percy Home's book on these me?i — George
Morland — The cost of Mezzotints now, and when first
issued.
Of modem fashions in Print Collecting, the apprecia-
tion of Mezzotints is assuredly one of the healthiest,
and — apart from the question of the very high prices
to which mezzotints have lately been forced — there is
only one drawback to the pleasure of the Collector in
hriiiirin"- them to<rether : the collector of mezzotints has
to resign himself to do without original work. Tlie
scraping of the plate in these broad masses of sluulow
and light — a method innnensely popular as means of in-
teq)retation or translation of the j)ainter\s touch — has
from the days of the invention of the process by Ludwig
von Siegen to the days of its latest practice, never greatly
commended itself to the original artist as a method for
fresh design. 'I'lierc- are a i'ltv/ exquisite exceptions;
and i)erliaps there is no suiricient reason why there
9M) o
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should not be more; but the exceptions best known,
and most likely to be cited, the prints of Turner''s
" Liber Stiuliorum,"' are exceptions only in so far as
regards that small j)roportion of the whole — about ten
amongst the published plates — wi'ought by Turner
himself.
And, further, the collector, if he cares much for
Landscape subjects, will note that landscapes in mezzo-
tint are comparatively few. It was in the Eighteenth
Century that the production of mezzotint was most
voluminous; and the Eighteenth Century took little
interest in Landscape. In the earlier half of our own
lentury — ere yet the art had almost ceased to be prac-
tised — the world was given a few famous sets of land-
scapes in mezzotint ; but they were very few. Turner's
"Liber" (with its backbone of etching) was followed by
the half-dozen pieces of the " Ports of England," and
by " Rivers of England," or " River Scenery," as it
is sometimes called, " after Turner and Girtin ; " and
then, well in the middle of the half-century, we were
endowed with the delightful, now highly prized mezzo-
tints, which were executed by David Lucas after the
works of Constable, homely when they were sombre,
homely too when they were most sparkling and alive.
They too — like the " Liber " prints of Turner — profited
by the supervision of the creative artist. The tendency
of Mr. Lucas was to make them too black, and per-
haps a little too massive. Sparkle and vivacity were
wanted in any adequate renderings of Constable ; and
these, by Constable's own solicitude, and doubtless too
210
MEZZOTINTS
by the adaptability of Lucas's talent, were eventually
obtained. In our own day, several most meritorious
artists — Wehrschniidt and Gerald Robinson and others
— ^have done, in several branches, accomplished and
interesting work in mezzotint, and Frank Short, in
one print especially that I have in my mind after a
^Turner drawing — an Alpine subject — and again in a
bold decisive mezzotint, A Road in Yorkshire, after
Dewint (a road skirting the moors) — is altogether
admirable. And, to name yet a third instance of the
art of this so flexible and extraordinarily sympathetic
translator, there is the quite wonderful little vision of
the silvery grey Downs, after a sketch by Constable in
the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan, whose greater
Constable, the Hay Wain, was generously made over
to the nation, many yeare ago. The work of David
Lucas, done under Constable"'s eye, never — not even
in the radiant Summerland or in the steel-grey keen-
ness of the Spring — for one moment excelled in
delicacy of mani})ulation Frank Short's delightful
rendering of that vision of the Downs. But I am
not to dwell longer upon ])articular instances. We
are brought back to a repetition of the fact that it
is not, generally speaking, in examples of Landscape
Art that the collector of mezzotints nuist (ind himself
richest. The mezzotint collector's gi-oups of landscapes
will be limited. In the collection of religious coi)i])osi-
tions, oi genre pieces, of theatrical subjects, of "fancy"
subjects — in which that which is most "fancied" is the
prettiness of the female sex — in sporting and in racing
211
FINE PRINTS
subjects (amongst the latter there are a few most
admirable prints after George Stubbs), and most of
all, of course, in portraits, from the days of Lely to
the days of Lawrence, there will be opportunities of
filling portfolio after ])ortfolio, drawer after drawer.
It is difficult, I think, for the collector — still more
for the student who has not a collector''s practical in-
terest in the matter — to realise what is actually the
extent of that contribution to the worWs possessions
in the way of Art, which has been made, and all within
about two hundred years, by the engravers in mezzo-
tint. Some eighteen years ago, an Irish amateur, Mr.
Challoner Smith, began the publication of a Catalogue
which when it was concluded, several years later, had
extended to five volumes. It was a colossal labour.
Styled by its compiler, " British Mezzotint Portraits,"
it really includes the chi'onicle of many things which
at least are not professedly portraits — yet it excludes
many too. Whatever it excludes, its bulk is such, that,
amongst the mass of its matter, it comprises full de-
scriptions of between four and five hundred plates by
one artist alone. The man is Faber, junior. Fifty
plates are chronicled by an engraver more modern of
character, more popular to-day — Richard Earlom ;
amongst them, more than one of the genre or in-
cident pictures after Wright of Derby (in which a
difficult effect of chiaroscuro — an effect of artificial
light — is treated boldly, vigorously, not always very
subtly), and the marvellously painter-like plates of
Marriage a la Mode, so much more pictorial than the
212
MEZZOTINTS
brilliant line-eng-ravinors executed much earlier after
those subjects. But not, be it observed, mentioned by
Challoner Smith amongst the Earloms, are two other
prints in which, in the reproduction of still-life, engi'av-
ing in mezzotint reaches high-water mark : I mean the
now most justly sought-for plates after the Fruit and
Flower Pieces of Van Huysum. By James Watson, a
contemporary of Earlom\s, more or less, about a hun-
dred and sixty prints are described. By J. R. Smith —
who engraved so many of the finest of the Sir Joshuas
— there are described two hundred, but by the John
Smith who, a century earlier, recorded almost in-
numerable Knellers, there are all but three hundred.
The difference in the number of plates produced by
the younger men and by the elder — James Watson,
Earlom, and J. R. Smith upon the one hand ; John
Smith and Faber on the other — finds its explanation
in the tendency of mezzotint to become more elaborate,
more refined, more perfect, presumably slower, during
the hundred years or so that separated the beginning,
not from the end indeed (for the end, strictly speak-
ing, is not yet), but from the very crown and crest of
the achievement. IVIuih of the early work is very
vigorous. .Jolm Smith, especially, was within limited
lines a sterling artist ; though mainly, like the portrait
j)ainters that he worke<l after, without obvious attrac-
tiveness and indeed without subtlety. The exceedingly
rare cxa!nj)lcs of Ludwig von Siegen and of Prince
Rupert show that these men — at the very beginning
even — were artists and not bunglers. But when one
213
FINE PRINTS
compai-es that early work, Jolm Smith's even — done,
all of it, when the art was but in its robust childhood
— with the infinitely more refined and flexible per-
formance of the men of the Eighteenth Century, one
wonders only at the great body of achievement, dex-
terous, delicate, faultlessly graceful, vouchsafed to the
practitioners of mezzotint during the last decades of
that later epoch. And between the distinctly later
work and the distinctly earlier, of the less engaging
executants, there came, be it remembered, the mascu-
line art of M'Ardell, a link in the chain ; for M'Ardell
learnt something from the early men, and was the
master of more than one of the more recent. He is
admirable especially in his rendering of the portraits
of men.
A vast proportion of the work of the first practi-
tioners of Mezzotint appeals rather to the collector of
portraits for likeness' sake, than to the collector of
prints for beauty's sake and Art's. Such a collector
is a specialist the nature of whose specialty obliges
him to amass a certain amount of artistic production
without necessarily having any gi'eat regard for the
Art that is in it. We are not concerned, in this
volume, with his specialty, honourable and service-
able as it may be — a book which, by reason of more
pressing claims, leaves out of consideration the manly
and yet highly refined labours of Nanteuil, Edelinck, the
Drevets (masters of reproductive work in pure " line "),
may well be pardoned if it does not pause over mere
portraiture — I mean, the less artistic portraiture — in
214
MEZZOTINTS
mezzotint. The collector who is as yet but a beginner
should be encouraged to direct his eye to the more
statedly and purposely artistic — to the hill-tops where
he will find already, as his comrades in research, those
who have brought to the task of collectino^ a lona:
experience and a chastened taste. In other words, the
generation of Reynolds and of Gainsborough, or else
the generation of Romney and of Morland, has to be
reached before the mezzotint collector can lay hands
on the great prizes of his pursuit. The perfectly trans-
lated art of these paintei'S is amongst the few things
which may be accounted popular and yet may be
accounted noble.
In saying this, I do not preclude myself from saying
also that I think the sums given at present for the most
favourite instances of mezzotint engraving are distinctlv
excessive. We will look at a few of them in detail, on
a later page. Fashion knows little reasonableness — but
little moderation — and hence it is that a translation
of Reynolds, gracious and engaging, commands, if it
happens to be at all rare, the price, and often more
than the price, of an original and important creation
of Dlirer's, or even of Rembrandt's. Rut what shall
we .say when we have to recollect that, at the present
moment, even the mezzotints after Ilopjmer are ridicu-
lously dear !
Of all the masters of the Eighteenth or early Nine-
teenth Century, it is Sir Joshua Reynolds who has
been engraved most amply. It is safe to say that
there are something like four hundred ])rints after
215
FINE PRINTS
his painted work — prints of the great time, I mean,
ending not later than 18^0, and taking, amongst
others, no account of the smaller plates of which S,
W. Reynolds executed so many. The latest and best
Catalogue of these great Reynolds prints is that of
Dr. Hamilton — a labour of diligence and loving care
imdertaken in our own generation. Of the painters
of the British School, Morland probably comes next
to Reynolds, in respect of the number of engravings
executed after his work. Apart from prints in stipple,
there exist after IVIorland something like two hundred
mezzotints. A systematic Catalogue, with states and
all, is still to be desired, as a sm-e practical guide to
the collector of Morland ; but meanwhile useful service
has certainly been rendered by the Exhibitions at the
Messrs. Vokins's, for these' were wonderfully com-
prehensive, and with them careful lists — only just
short of being catalogues raisonnls — have been issued.
AVilliam Ward — Morland"'s brother-in-law — and J. R.
Smith, with whom lie was associated, were his two
principal engravers; but many another accomplished
craftsman had a hand in popularising his labours by
reproducing his themes — amongst them John Young,
the author of the rare and little known, and poetic
plate, Travellers} Mr. Percy Home — himself, like Dr.
Hamilton, a well-known collector — has done for Gains-
borough and Romney what Dr. Hamilton has done
for Sir Joshua. In one volume, chai-mingly illustrated
with a few specimen subjects, Mr. Percy Home has
issued a Catalogue of the engraved portraits and fancy
216
MEZZOTINTS
subjects painted by Gainsborough and by Romney —
the Gainsborough pieces of which he has taken note
having been pubhshed between 1760 and 1820 ; the
Romneys, between 1770 and 1830. By Gainsborough,
there are eighty-eight, of which seventy-seven are por-
traits. The numbers include some in stipple and a few
even in line, but the bulk are, of course, mezzotints.
Bv Romney — somehow more popular with the en-
gravers, and, it would seem, with the public — there
are no less than a hundred and forty-five, of which a
hundred and thirty-six are portraits. But it is diffi-
cult, in this matter, to tlraw the line very sharply,
owing to the habit of the beauties of that day to be
painted not only as themselves, but "as Miranda,'"
" a.s Sensibility,"" and the like. Mr. Home himself re-
minds us, by cross references in his index, that even
of the few Ronmcys which he has chosen to cata-
logue as " fancy subjects," some are in truth portraits.
Among the engi'aved Romney portraits, no less than
twenty are avowed representations of the fascinating
woman who inspired Romney as did no other soul,
and without whose presence he not seldom pined.
She came to him fii-st as Emma Hart, or Enuiui Lyon,
mi.stre.ss of Charles Greville. He knew her afterwards
JLS the wife of Sir Williiim Hamilton. The modilicd
and unforbidding (Classicism of her beauty accorded
well with his ideal — helped j)erhaps to form it — and,
juliniral)lc as is much of I he work of his in which she
had no place, Roiniuv is most completely Romney
when it is I^ulv Hamilton hv. is recording.
217
FINE PRINTS
The value of an average Roniney print is to-day
at least as high as that of an average Reynolds, and
much liighcr than that of an average Gainshorough.
An exceptional print like his Mrs. Carwardine, than
which notliing is finer — a well-built gentlewoman, seen
in profile, in close white cap, her head bent prettily
over a nestling child, and her arms clasped at his
back — sells for about a hundred guineas, and, in a
fine impression, is scarcely likely to fetch less. It was
engraved by J. R. Smith in 1781. Very beautiful
and delicate, though not perhaps so extremely rare,
is the EUzaheth, Countess of Derby, engraved by John
Dean. Two hundred pounds has been fetched by
Raphael Smith's engraving of Romney^s Lady War-
wick. Of Gainsboroughs, perhaps the very finest is
one engraved by Dean; this is the Mrs. Elliot, a
print of 1779 ; a very great rarity ; a thing of delight-
ful and dignified l)eauty, and in its exquisite delicacy,
quite as characteristic of the engraver as of the origi-
nal artist. It is a long time since any impression has
been sold. About £10 was the last chronicled price
for it. It would fetch more, so experts think, did it
reappear to-day.
The highest price ever yet paid for a print after
Sir Joshua is, as I am told, i?350 ; and this was given
for an impression of Thomas Watson's print after the
picture sometimes called " An Offering to Hymen " —
the Hon. Mrs. Beresford, with the Marchioness Towns-
hend mid the Hon. Mrs. Gardiner. For a while, the
Ladies Waldegrave, engraved by Valentine Green, was
218
MEZZOTINTS
considered at the top of the tree. a£'270 has been cheer-
fully paid for it. Mr. Urban Noseda — than whom
no dealer in England is a greater specialist in mezzo-
tint, for he has inherited, it seems, his mother's eye —
the eye which made that lady so desirable a friend to
the collector, a quarter of a century ago — Mr. Urban
.Noseda (if I can get somehow to the end of a sentence
so involved and awkward that I am beginning to feel
it must necessarily be very clever too) tells me, from
Notes to which he has had access, that the original
price of even the most important of these Sir Joshua
prints was never more than a guinea and a half, and
that not a few were issued at five shillings.
The Morland prices still seem moderate when com-
jiared with those of average Sir Joshuas : actually
cheap when compared with those that are finest and
rarest. Lately, the charming pair, A Vint to the Child
at Nurse and A Visit to the Child at School, fetched,
at Sotheby's, twenty-seven guineas ; the Farmer's Stable
fetched, at the Iluth Sale, <i?ll, 10s.; the Carrier's
Stable, not long since at Christie's, fetched twenty-
one guineas ; Fislicrman ffohtff out, by S. W, Rey-
nolds, has realised £11 ; The Story of Letilia, a small
set, has realised X''50, but would to-day fetch more —
in fine condition. Mr. Noseda says — and I suppose
those other great authorities on mezzotint, Messrs.
Colnaghi, would coulirui him — that the original j)rices
of the Morlands ranged from seven and sixpence to
a guinea. Great as the diHerence is between the
.sum fii*st i*.sked and the sum uow obtained, I cannot,
219
FINE PRINTS
in the case of this so genial, graceful, acceptable,
observant master, think it is excessive. A generation
that has gone a little mad over J. F. Millet and other
interesting French rustic painters, may allow itself some
healthy enthusiasm when George Morland is to the
front.
220
CHAPTER XII
Lithography, the convenient invention of Senefelder
— Its recent Revival due to ike French and Whistler —
Fantin — Whistler's Lithographs only inferior to hit
Etchings — C. H. Shanno7is Lithographs the best ex-
pression of his art — Lithography and Etching compared
— J\ ill Rothenstein — The Lithograp/is of Roussel —
Otiier Draughtsmen on Stone or Transfer -Paper —
The Modem Lithograph foolishly costly.
A FINAL chapter I devote to another of the most justi-
fiable and reasonable of the more recent fads in Print
Collecting — to a branch of the collector's pursuit far
less important, indeed, and far less interesting than
Etching, far less historic than Mezzotint, but far more
creditable than the mania of the inartistic for the
pretty ineptitude of the coloured print. I am speak-
ing of Lithography.
Men who are familiar with the later development of
artistic work, know that not exactly alongside of the
very real and admirable Revival of Etching, but closely
following behind it, there has proceeded some renewal
of interest in the art of drawing upon stone, which, in
1790, wjis invented by Senefelder. Often, however,
nowadays, it is not literally "on stone."" Without
defending the change — and yet without the possibility
of violently accusing it, seeing the achievements which
FINE PRINTS
at least it has not forbidden — I may note that, as a
matter of fact, a transfer-paper, and not the prepared
stone, is, very frequently in our day, the substance
actually drawn on.
Well, the renewal of interest in the art of Lithog-
raphy owes something to the Frenchmen of the pre-
sent generation, and something too to Mr, Whistler.
I say "the present generation" in talking of the
French, because (not to speak of the qualities obtained
two generations ago by our English Prout), Gavarni's
"velvety quality" and the "fever and freedom of
Daumier" were noticeable and might have been in-
fluential before the days of our present young men.
The work of Fantin-Latour, one may take it, has been
to them an example, and, yet later, the work of
Whistler. Fantin-Latour — that delightful painter of
flowers and of the poetic nude — has endowed us in
I^ithography as well, with reveries of the nude, or of
the slightly robed. They are all done in freely scraped
crayon. A few of them — such as The Genius of Music,
or the quite recent To Stendhal — the collector of the
lithograph should certainly possess. But I must turn,
in detail, to Mr. Whistler.
Mr. Tom Way, who knows as much about Lithog-
raphy as any one — and more, perhaps, than any
one about the lithographs of Whistler — assured me,
a year since, that something like a hundred drawings
on the stone, or transfer-paper (for Mr. Whistler
sometimes uses the one and sometimes the other), had
been wrought by one whose reputation is secure as
222
LITHOGRAPHS
the master-etcher, of our time. Since then Mr. Way
has accurately and eulogistically catalogued them.
They amount now, or did when Mr. Way finished
his catalogue, to exactly a hundred and thirty. But
Mr. Whistler is always working. Let us recall a few
of them — and most, though indeed by no means all,
,of them have been seen in an exhibition held scarcely
a year ago in the rooms of the Fine Art Society.
Before then, they were wont to be shown privately
by one or two dealers. Earlier still, they were not
shown at all, though a few of the finest of them had
been long ago wrought. There was that most dis-
tinguished drawing that was published for a penny
in the Whirhc'ind — the lady seated, with a hat on,
and one arm pendant. It is called Tlw Whig-ed Hat.
As in Mr. Whistler's rare little etching of the slightly-
draped cross-kneed girl stooping over a baby, one
enjoys, in The Winged Hat, the suggestion of delicate
tone on the whole surface : the working of the face is
particularly noteworthy by reason of the subtle way
in which the draughtsman had suggested, by means
of the handling of his chalk, a different texture. "By
means of the handling of his chalk," did I write.? —
perhaps a little too confidently. One can't quite
.say how \\v did really get it. But he has got it,
.somehow.
Then th(;rc is tjiut admirable portfolio, of only six or
so, the Goupils piiblislied — containing the IJmchoiiMi\
mysterious and weird, and a Nocturne, liuttersea, wholly
cxcjuisite. Again, there is the Butter.sca liridg-e, of
22.'J
FINE PRINTS
1878, which, good though it is, does not stand com-
parison with Mr. Whistler\s etchings of the same and
similar themes. Then there is the rare subject which
people learned in Lithography are wont to account
almost if not quite the Whistlerian masterpiece in the
method — a drawing tenderly washed : a thing of masses
and broad spaces, more than nan'ow lines. It is called
Early Morning, and is a vision of the River at Batter-
sea. It is faint — faint — of gradations the most delicate,
of contrasts the least striking — a gleam of silver and
white.
Later, among many others, there have been that
drawing of a draped model seated which appeared in
M. Marty's " L'Estampe Originale ; " the^/i portrait of
M. Mallarme — a writer so difficult to understand that
by the faithful and by the outsider his profundity is
taken for gi-anted — the interesting and clever print, The
Doctor, which adorns the " Pageant ; " the Belle Dame
paresseuse, with, most especially it may be, the quality
of a chalk drawing; the Belle Jardiniere, which has
something, but by no means all of the infinite freedom
of the etching of The Garden; again. The Balcony
with people peering down from it, as if at a proces-
sion — and procession indeed it was, since the thing was
wrought on the day of Carnot's funeral. Then, in the
Forge and The Smith of the Place du Dragon there is
the tender soft grey quality which people learned in
these things conceive, I think generally, to be impos-
sible to " transfer."
But of the younger artists who have worked in
224
LITHOGRAPHS
Lithogi'aphy it is time to say something. Mr. Frank
Short, with his placid dream of Putney, with the
intricate rhythm of line of his Timhcr-Slups, Yarmouth,
should not be passed by. Nor Mr. Francis Bate, who,
to draw as he has drawn, and see as he has seen, The
Whiting- Mill, could not possibly have been wanting in
originality of expression or of sight. Nor Mr. George
Clausen, again, whose Hay Barn bears witness not only
to his easy command of technique, but to his flexibility.
It is one of those treatments of rustic life in which
IVIr. Clausen has been wont to show the influence of
Millet, if not of Bastien Lepage. It is of a realism
artistically subdued, yet undeniable. Of the work of
C. H. Shannon I must speak a good deal more fully, for
of C. H. Shannon, Lithography is the particular art.
He is no beginner at Lithography : no maker of first
experiments. I do not know that he — like Mr. Short
— is an engi-aver in any way. He is not, like Mr.
Whistler, celebrated on two continents as etcher and
painter to boot. He is above all things draughtsman
— draughtsman poetic and subtle. The air of Litho-
graphy he breathes a.s his native air.
C. H. Shannon's art it is by no means easy for the
healthy normal person to aj)preciatc at once. It is
possii)le even for a student of the matter to lose
sight of Shannon's poetry and sensitiveness, in a fit of
impatience because the anatomy of his figures does
not always seem to be true, or because his sentiment
has not robustness. I have a lurking suspicion that I
w£is myself rather slow to apj)reciate him. Few people's
225 P
FINE PRINTS
appreciation of the original in Art, comes to them all
at once. And touchy folk — unreasonable, almost irre-
sponsible — are apt to blame one on this account. One
has " swallowed one's words," they say — because one
has modified an opinion. The world, even the intelli-
gent world, they querulously gi'umble, was not ready
to receive them. Is that so very amazing .? Them-
selves, doubtless, were born with every faculty matured
— they possessed, upon their mother's breasts, a nice
discrimination of the virtues of Lafitte of '69. Some
of us, under such circumstances, can but crave their
tolerance — we were born duller.
Of lithographic technique^ Mr. C. H. Shannon — to
go back to him, after an inexcusable digression — is a
master ; and here let it be said that not only does he
draw upon the stone invariably, whilst Mr. Whistler
(it has been named before) sometimes does and some-
times does not draw on it, but he insists also upon
printing his own impressions. He has a press ; he is
an enthusiast ; he sees the thing through. The precise
number of his lithographs it is not important to know.
What is important, is to insist upon the relative
" considerableness " of nearly all of them. With him
the thoroughly considered composition takes the place
of the dainty sketch. Faulty the works of Charles
Shannon may be, in certain points ; deficient in cer-
tain points ; but rarely indeed are they slight, either
in conception or execution. Of each one of them may
it be said that it is a serious work : the seriousness
as apparent in the more or less realistic treatment
226
LITHOGRAPHS
of The ModeUer as in Delia, ideal and opulent and
Titianesque. The Ministrants, of 1894, is perhaps his
most important. AMiat is more exquisite than the
just suggested movements of The Sisters P Sea-Breezes
is noteworthy, of course, in composition, and refined,
of course, in effect.
, Before I go on to discuss a few others of the modern
men, it may be more interesting to remind the reader —
it may be, even to inform him — what is and what may
hope to be Lithographv^s place. In such signs of its
revival as are now apparent, he will surely rejoice.
One does rejoice to find an artist equipped with some
new medium of expression — some medium of expression,
at all events, by which his work, while remaining auto-
graphic, may yet be widely diffused. And the art or
craft of Lithography, whatever it does not do, does at
least enable the expert in it to produce and scatter
broadcast, by the hundred or the thousand if he
choose, work which shall have all or nearly all the
quality of a pencil or chalk drawing, or, if it is desired,
much of the (juality even of a drawing that is washed.
This is excellent ; and then again there is the com-
mercial advantage of relatively rapid and quite inex-
pensive printing. But what the serious and impartial
amateur and collector of Fine Art will have to notice
on the other side, is, first of all, that Lithography
is not richly endowed with a scf)arate quality of its
own. With work that is printed from a metal plate,
this is quite otherwise. Mezzotint ha,s a charm that is
its own, entirely. And Line-Engraving has the par-
227
FINE PRINTS
ticular charm of Line-Engraving. And Etching — the
biting, which gives vigour now, and now extreme deli-
cacy ; the printing, which deHberately enhances this or
modifies that ; the bm-r, the diy-point work, its in-
tended effect ; the papers, and the different results they
yield, of tone or luminousness — all these things contri-
bute to, and are a part of, Etching's especial quality
and especial delight.
A comparison between Lithography and Etching in
particular — putting other mediums aside — leads to
further reflections. Lithography lacks the relief of
etched work. " You can't have grey and black lines "^
— a skilled etcher says to me, who enjoys Lithogra})hy
as well as Etching, and sometimes practises it — "you
can't have grey and black lines, in that the printing
of a lithogi-aph is surface-printing, and every mark
upon the stone prints equally black. Therefore for
gi-ey work in Lithography, you must have a grain
upon the stone — or on the transfer-paper — that your
drawing is made on."" And he adds, " Whatever can
be done upon a lithogi'aphic stone, can be done with a
much higher quality upon a plate." And the soft gi'ey
line, he says, when got upon the stone — " well, if that
is what you want, in a soft-ground etching it can be
got much better."
As to Me/zotint again, to compare the quality of a
fine mezzotint from copper, with any quality that is
obtainable in stone, would, generally, be absurd. We
are brought back, however, to that which is Litho-
graphy's especial virtue and convenience — it gives the
228
LITHOGRAPHS
autographic quality of the pencil drawing, of the chalk
drawing, of the drawing that is washed.
When, in these last words, I tried to indicate Litho-
graphy's natural limits, and said, practically, that its
main function was to produce " battalions "" where ordi-
nary drawing must produce but "single spies," I said
.nothing that need encourage readers to suppose that
its process lay perfectly at the command of every
draughtsman, and that the first-comer, did he know
well how to draw, would get from the lithographic
stone every quality the stone could yield. And this
being so, it can surprise no one if in a chapter on the
Revival of Lithography I give conspicuous place to the
young men who have really fagged at it, rather than
to the possibly more accomplished, the certainly more
famous artists who have drawn just lately on the tracing-
paper, oftener than not in complimentary recognition
of the fact that now a hundred years have passed since
Alois Senefelder invented the method which, half a
century later, Hulmandel did something to perfect.
Mr. C. H. Shannon — pre-eminently noticeable among
these younger men — has been discussed already. We
will look now at the work of another of them — Mr.
Will Ilothensteiii, whose mind, whose hand-work, is
conspicuously unlike Mr. Shannon's, in that, though he
can be romantic, he can scarcely be jioetic. A vivid
realism is bis characteristic, and, with that vivid
realism, romance, phantasy, caprice — either or all —
may find themselves in company; but poetry, hardly.
Mr. Rothenstein — a.s there is some reason, perhaps, for
FINE PRINTS
telling the collector — is not only young, but extremely
young. His series of Oxford lithographs were wrought,
most of them, when he was between twenty and two-
and -twenty years old. It was an audacious adventure,
with youth for its excuse. For this set of Oxford
portraits was to be the abstract of the Oxford of a
day. In it, Professors and Heads of Houses are — men
who for perhaps a generation remain in their place —
but in it, too, are athletes, engaging undergi-aduates,
lads whose achievements may become a tradition, but
whose places know them no more. The first part of
the "Oxford Characters'"' — that is the proper name
of it — appeared in June 1893. In it, is the portrait
of that gi-eat Christ Church boating man, W. L.
Fletcher, and a portrait of Sir Henry Acland, for
which another more august-looking rendering of the
same head and figure was after a while substituted.
Asrain, there is an admirable vision of Max Mviller —
Mr. Rothenstein's high-water mark, perhaps, in that
which he might probably suppose to be the humble art
of likeness-taking.
Quite outside the charmed Oxford life are the sub-
jects of some of Mr. Rothenstein's generally piquant
portraits. There is the portrait of Emile Zola, for
instance. I never saw the man. This may or may
not be a terre-a-terre view of him. Most probably it
is. But certainly the face, with its set lips and hollow
cheeks, is cleverly rendered, though in such rendering
we may fancy not so much the author of the Faute de
VAhhe Mouret and of the Page cT Amour, as the author
230
LITHOGRAPHS
of Nana and of Le Ventre de Paris. Again, there is a
portrait, at once refined and forcible, of that great
gentleman, path-breaking novelist, and dainty con-
noisseur, Edmond de Goncourt, elderly, but with fires
unquenched in the dark, piercing eyes, and the great
decoration, so to say, of snow-white hair. Then again,
the pretty, pleasing lady, the fresh young thing with
her big bonnet — the lady seen full-face, her lips dra^vn
so tenderly. Such flesh and blood as hers, had the
Millament of Congi-eve. If sometimes in them the
anatomy of the figures is expressed insufficiently, these
works are at least executed with well-acquired know-
ledge of the effects to which Lithography best lends
itself. It can escape no one that, whatever be their
faults, the artist utters in them a note that is
his own.
To trace, with fairness, the revival of Lithogi-aphy,
even in England only, it should be mentioned that a
generation after the achievements of Samuel Prout —
his records of architecture in Flanders and in Germany
— and the somewhat overrated performances of Hard-
ing, the members of the Hogarth Sketching Club made
one night, at the house of Mr. Way, the elder — the
date was the 15th of December, 1874 — a set of draw-
ings on the stone. They must be rare, now. Indeed
the only copy I have seen was that shown to me at the
printing-h<juse in Wellington Street. One of the best
was Charles Green's drawing of two iiuii — ostlers, both
of them, or of ostler rank — one ol" tlicin iigliliiig his
pipe. The hand is excellently modelled : the light and
231
FINE PRINTS
shade of the whole subject has crispness and vigour.
Sir James Linton contributed a Coriolanus subject, in
something more than outline, though not fully ex-
pressed — and yet it is beautifully drawn. Mr. Coke
sent a Massacre of the Innocents, classic and charming
in contour; while to look at the Sir Galahad of Mr.
E. J. Gregory is to recall to mind completely the great
Romantic Gregory of that early day.
In the Paris Exhibition of Lithographs and in that
at Mr. Dunthorne's, there have figured a group of sub-
jects done lately by well - known Academicians and
others, and printed — some of them with novel effects
— by or under the close direction of Mr. Goulding,
that famous printer of etchings, who now, it seems,
has the laudable ambition of rivalling, as a printer of
lithographs, the great house of Way. He has his own
methods. The original woi'k is of extremely various
quality. Much of it was produced somewhat hurriedly.
I do not mean that the drawings were done rapidly,
or that it would have been wrong if they had been ;
for, obviously, the rapid drawing of the capable is
often as fine as the slowest, and has the interest of a
more urgent message. I mean that they were done, for
the most part, by those not versed, as yet, in such
secrets as Lithography possesses. Yet, coming often
from artists of distinction, many of them have merits.
Not much is finer than a girl's head, by Mr. Watts.
It is mostly " in tone ; " and it is scarcely too much to
say of it that it is strong as anything of Leonardo's —
as anything of Holbein's, one might as easily declare,
232
LITHOGRAPHS
did not Holbein*'s name suggest, along with strength,
a certain austerity which ]Mr. Watts mostly avoids.
There is a gi'aceful figure-drawing by Loi'd Leighton,
who was interested in the new movement, but who
was far too sensible to set vast store by what — as I
remember that he wi-ote to tell me — was the only
■lithographic drawing he had ever executed. There
are strong studies by Sargent — rather brutal perhaps
in light and shade — of male models, whose partial
nudity there is little to render interesting.
We are brought back then to the work of artists not
Academicians at all — men some of them comparatively
young in years, but older in a faithful following of the
lines on which the craft of Lithography most properly
moves. There is Mr. C. J. Watson, for instance. The
personal note — which, I cannot conceal it, I esteem most
of all, and most of all nmst revel in — the personal note
may be, with him, a little wanting ; but thorough crafts-
man he undeniably is. And by Mr. Oliver Hall, one
of the most delightful of our younger etchers, who
as an etcher has been treated in his place, there is a
vision of some gicv sweeping valley — Weivikydalc — with
trees only in middle distance, or in the remote back-
ground. In it, and perhaps even more especially in that
quite a<lmirable lithograj)h, The Kdgc of the Moor,
we recognise that wav of looking at the world which
we know in the etchings ; but the intelligence and
sensitiveness of the artist have suffered him, or led
him rather, to modify the work : to pro})erly adapt
it to the newer nicdiniii. The Edge of the Moor
2fJ3
FINE PRINTS
is, I have inijilied, quite masterly ; and then again
there is a tree-study in which Mr. Hall recalls those
broad and massive, yet always elegant sketches made
by the great Cotman, in the latest years, generally, of
a life not too prolonged.
Again, among fine lithographs exhibited or not
exhibited, there is, by Mr. Raven Hill, Tlic Oyster-
Barroxv — a marvellously vivid, faithful study of " Over
the Water " (or of Dean's Yard, it may be) by night
— and the equally momentary, spontaneous vision of
TTie Bahy, with the rotundity of Boucher, and more
than the expressiveness of the late Italian : a baby lost,
one must avow, to all angelic dreams, and set on carnal
things. Perhaps Mr. George Thomson's finest litho-
graph remains the Brentford Eyot, though there is
charm of movement in at least one figure-study. By
Mr. Charles Sainton there is a luxurious head of just
the type one might expect from the author of silver-
points promptly seductive and popular. Mr. Walter
Sickert's work, whether you like it or not, at least has,
visibly, its source in personal observation and deliberate
principle.
By M. Theodore Roussel there are a whole group of
lithographs, dainty and delightful, exquisite and fresh
— with so much of his own in them, as well as some-
thing, of course, of Mr. Whistler's. By the side of his
Scene on the River — a quaint Battersea or Chelsea bit,
I take it — j)lace one of his supple nudities, and against
his supple nudity place his Opera Cloak. The man is
a born artist — he not only draws but sees, sees with
234
LITHOGRAPHS
refinement and distinction. And there must come a
time when Roussel's work will be appreciated far more
widely.
By Mr. Jacomb Hood there is a spirited elderly
man's portrait, and an Idyll — a Classical or an Arca-
dian pa,s de quatre — of singular, unwonted charm. By
Mr. Corbett, the semi-classical landscape painter, there
is a nude study — a torso, magnificently modelled. By
Mr. Solomon Solomon there is a Venus, correct in
draughtsmanship of course; nor wanting in dramatic
quality, for it is not the undressed woman of too many
students, but Aphrodite herself — "Venus, a sa proie
attachee.'"' And lastly — since I cannot merely cata-
logue — there is Mr. Anning Bell, who has bestowed on
us enjoyable designs — book-plates hois ligne indeed,
so charming are they in their reticence and grace
and measured beauty. In Lithogi-aphy, we may be
thankful for the Tanagi-a-like grace of his Dancing
Girl. But "Why Tanagra?" am I asked. Because
Classical without austerity : provokingly Modern, and
yet endowed with the legitimate and endless fascina-
tion of Style.
And now, to end with, it seems julvisable to say
something on the very practical matter of the acquisi-
tion of lithographs by the collector, and on their cost.
The money value of the lithograph is most uncertain.
When the lithograph aj)pcars in a ])()j)uliu- niaga/ine
— the actual lithograph, rcmLMiilxT ; no iiitTcly j)h()to-
graphic vciiroduction of it — it is, on publication, valued
at a couple of shillings, or at a shilling, or, as in the
235
FINE PRINTS
extraoi-dinary case of publication in the extinct Whirl-
zvhid, even at a })enny. The prices I have named are,
most of them at least, absurd ; but on the other hand
the dealer's price— sometimes the original artist's price
— for an impression, is wont to be excessive. A litho-
graph can be printed — as magazine issue suffices to show
— in considerable numbers. Nothing restricts it as the
ordinary unsteeled etching is restricted : still less, as the
dry-point is restricted. There is no reason, except the
scantiness of the public demand, why it should not be
issued in an edition almost as large as that of the
average book. Nor is the printing costly. Nor has
the drawing on stone or transfer-paper involved any-
thing more of labour, skill, or genius, than is involved
in the preparation of a single chapter of a fine novel —
of a single paragraph in a fine short story. Yet while
the novel sells probably at six shillings, and the whole
short story (and other short stories along with it)
sells, very likely, at three-and-sixpence, the impression
of a lithogi-aph — unless, as I have said before, it be
published in a magazine — is sold seldom for less than
a guinea. The Fine Ai"t Society asked something like
three guineas apiece, I think, for the lithographs of
Mr. Whistler, when it exhibited them. I mentioned
the circumstance to a man who was interested in the
question, both as artist and connoisseur. " You do not
want to vulgarise lithographs," he said, " by issuing too
many impressions." I wonder how many impressions
of Gray's " Elegy " have been issued ? And how many
of the "Ode to Duty.^" And I wonder whether Words-
236
LITHOGRAPHS
worth and Gray have been "vulgarised," because the
fruit of theii- genius has been widely diffused ?
About five shillings seems a reasonable price for a
lithogi-aph issued in our time. AVhen draughtsmen
(and their publishers) realise this, they will confer a
boon upon themselves, and will do no injury what-
.€ver to us who admire them. And until they do
realise it, the collecting of lithographs will go on only
within a limited circle — a circle of rich people, possibly,
but most likely idle, and therefore probably, at bottom,
unappreciative. Indeed such a circle cannot be said
to consist, truly, of " collectors." They will be " pur-
chasers," rather — which is a different affair.
237
APPENDIX
CERTAIN WOODCUTS
Though when this volume was first planned, it was
supposed that in its regular course it might embrace a
chapter upon Woodcuts, mature consideration and the
progress of the work revealed to me the undesirableness
of treating either by my own or by a more qualified hand
the theme of Woodcuts, at any important length ; and in
adding here a Note on certain examples of that ancient
art, it is convenient that I should say plainly why the
matter is left to an Appendix.
First, then, treatment exhaustive, or adequate, could
only have been supplied by some one other than myself :
my own knowledge of Woodcuts being merely that of an
outsider who cannot withhold a measure of interest from
any department of Art. To have invited the continued
presence of an expert — an enthusiast in the particular
thing — would have been at least to deprive the book of
that unity of sentiment which comes of undivided author-
ship, and which even in a work of this sort may conceiv-
ably 1)0 a benefit : moreover, although a comj)lete Guide
to Old Prints must include of necessity many words about
woodcuts, it was doubtful whether the sulycct of " Fine
Prints" involved even a mention of then). I mean, it
might be argued, plausibly, that woodcuts, however fine
in their design -and the design of the giant Diiror was
given to some of them — are in the very nature of tilings
scarcely " fine " in execution. To say that tlie best recall
the utterance of noble sentiment by rough and uncouth
tongue, is not for a moment to minimise their sterling
241 u
FINE PRINTS
wortli. Lastly, too, the collectors of them — in England
at least — are scanty in the extreme. When — one may ask
— do they appear at Sotheby's ? As objects of research,
they seem hopelessly out of fashion. It may be that they
had their day when only the Past was thought interesting.
But it has been one of the objects of this book to acknow-
ledge specially the interest of more modern achievement,
and not to call contemporary genius only "talent," until
it is contemporary no longer, and, being dead — and dead
long since — may be accorded its due.
But I should like to tell the beginner in the study
of prints one or two quite elementary things — as, for
instance, that the best and the most numerous of old
woodcuts are German ; that not a few of the earlier
masters of copperplate engraving carried out upon the
wood-block certain of their designs ; that in the days
of Bewick the ai-t had a certain revival, finding itself
well adapted — in book illustration at all events — to the
rendering of Bewick's homely and rustic themes. And
so one might go on — but after all, book illustration is no
part of one's theme. Let it just be mentioned about
Bewick — before we leave the P^nglish woodcuts for the
earlier masters — that the rarest and in some respects the
most important of his works (not, I think, the most fas-
cinating) is the piece known as the Chillingham Bull.
When only a few impressions had been taken from it, the
original block split. Hence the print's scarcity ; and in
its scarcity we see in part at least the cause of its attrac-
tiveness.
A passage in the last annual report made by Mr.
Sidney Colvin to the Trustees of the British Museum — in
his capacity as Keeper of the Prints — reminds me of a
splendid gift made lately to the nation by the munificence
of Mr. William Mitchell : a gift which the possession of
money alone, and of a generous intention, could not have
242
APPENDIX
empowered him to make ; only deep knowledge, and
real diligence in the art of collecting, made the thing
possible. Through Mr. Mitchell'-s gift thei'e passes into
the store-house of the Department of Prints this connois-
seur's collection of German and other woodcuts, including
a series of those by Albert Diirer, which is almost com-
plete, and "quite unrivalled," Mr. Colvin says, "in quality
and condition." The whole array includes 1290 early
woodcuts, chiefly, as will be seen, German, and consti-
tuted for the most part as follows: — 104 by anonymous
German artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ;
151 single cuts by Albert Diirer, together with the Little
Passion (set of j^roofs), the Life of the Virgin (first state,
without text), and the Great Passion, the Life of the
A'irgin, and the Apocalypse (all with Latin text, edition
of 1511); 63 by Hans Schaufelein, including two sets of
proofs of two series of the Passion ; 1 8 by Hans Spring-
inklee, including 14 proofs of illustrations to " Hortulus
Animae ;" 7 by Wolfgang Huber; .')'() by Hans Baldung ;
7 by Johann Wechtlin ; 19 by Hans Scbald Beham ; 43 by
Lucas Cranach, including an unique impression of the St.
George, printed in gold on a blue ground ; fiO by Albert
Altdorfer; 40 by Hans Burgkmair ; 313 by or attributed
to Hans Holbein; 9 by Urs Graf; 12 by Heinrich Holz-
niiillcr ; 14 by J. von Calcar ; 5 by Jost Amman; 11 by
Anton von Worms ; \G by Lucas van Leydcn ; 6 attributed
to Geofl'roy Troy ; one attributed to Marie de Medicis ;
the large view of Venice by Jacopo de I^arbarj, first state ;
9 by Niccolo Holdrini ; 5 by I.H. with the bird.
An insj)('cti<tn of this collection alone, in the Museinn
Print Kooni, constitutes, at first hand, an introtiuction
to the study of an ancient, (piaint, and pregnant art.
So luucli li.id I written when there came to me a note
fnnii Mr. (). Gutekunst, curiously confirming, on the whole,
lli<- view that I had taken as to the sinall place filled by
FINE PRINTS
Woodcuts, generally, in the scheme of the modern collec-
tor. It is not, however, so much on this account that I
print the note here, as because it contains one or two
particulars — especially as to money value — not named
by me, and which may be of interest. "The history of
Woodcuts," says Mr. O. Gutekunst — instructing my ignor-
ance — " begins, as you know, practically with printed
books in which the woodcuts took the place of the minia-
tures, &c., in Manuscripts. During almost the whole of the
Fifteenth Century the Woodcut was thus confined to illus-
tration, and belongs far more to the bibliophile than to the
Print-collector. Vide ' Biblia Paupcrum ' and similar works
— in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands — Block Books,
Incunabula, &c., &c. The great period of Wood Engrav-
ing as a distinct art by itself — a then and now appreciated
mode of expression of the artist — is the first half of tlie
Sixteenth Century." Mr. Gutekunst then cites to me works
by masters, some of whom have been named. " There were
Diirer, Cranach, Holbein, Altdorfer, Brosamer," he says.
" Fine specimens of these men's work, particularly por-
traits, and when printed in one, two, or more colours, are
now, and always must have been, exceedingly rare, with
prices varying from, say £20 to £80 for single very fine
specimens. The decadence begins with .lost Amman,
for instjince, in Germany, and Andreani, say, in Ital}',
where the works of earlier, and more particularly the
masters of the wrong half of the Sixteenth Century, were
reproduced in chiar-oscuro.". With the exception perhaps
of the remarkable impressions in Mr. Mitchell's collection,
Mr. O. Gutekunst asserts that the finest specimens always
were most appreciated in Germany, and adds, "There
has ever been more interest taken in Woodcuts by German
collectors than by any others."
244
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Alvin, Louis. Catalogue Raisonn(5 de I'QiIuvre des trois
fr^res, Jean, Jerome, et Antoine Wierix. 8vo. 1866.
Andresen, Andreas. Der Deutsche Peintre-Graveur, oder
die Deutschen Maler als Kupferstichsammler. Two
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Apell, Aloys. Handbuch fiir Kupferstichsammler. 1880.
AumOli.er, E. Les Petits Maitres AUemands. Barthel
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Les Petits Maitres AUemands. Jacques Binck, 8vo.
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Bartsch, Adam. Le Peintre-Graveur, and Supplement.
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Blanc, Charles. L'CEuvre Complet de Rembrandt. Two
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Bocher, Emmanuel. Les Gr.avuros Franraises du Dix-
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Nicholas Lavreince. 1875.
Pierre Antoine Baudouin. 1875.
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Jean I^Iichel Moreau, lo jeune. 1882.
BouRfARi), fJusTAVK. Los FOstumpes du Dix-lluitiumo
Sicclo. 1885.
245
FINK PRINTS
Bryan, Michaet- Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.
8vo. 1865.
Supplement, by Ottley. Bvo. 1886.
A New Edition, by Graves. 8vo. 1884-86.
Chavignerie, Emile Bellieb de la, et Louis Auvray.
Dictionnaire General des Artistes de I'Ecole Fran^aise.
Two vols. 1885.
Cohen, Henri. Guide de TAmateur des Livres a Vignette,
du XVIir"^ Sitcle. 1873.
A New Edition. 1880.
Cumberland, George. An Essay on tlie Utility of Col-
lecting the Best Woi-ks of the Ancient Engravers of
the Italian School. 4to. 1827.
Daniell, Frederick B. Catalogue Raisonn6 of the En-
graved Works of Richard Cosway, R.A. With a
Memoir of Cosway by Sir Philip Carrie. 1890.
Delaborde, Le Vic;omte Henri. La Gravnre en Italie
avant Marc Antoine. 1882.
Le D^partement des Estampes a la Bibliotheque
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DiDOT, A. Firmin. Histoire de Gravure sur Bois. 8vo.
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Les Drevet : Catalogues Raisonnds de leur Q^uvre.
1876.
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Drake, Sir W. R. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched
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24G
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Haden, Francis Seymour, About Etching. 8vo. 1878.
Etched Work of Rembrandt. A Monograph. 1879.
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert. Etching and Etchers. 1868.
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Hamilton, Edward. A Catalogue Raisonnc of the En-
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24.7
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:n<)
INDEX
Absidc de NClre-Dame, 72, 73, 74
Adam and Eve, 144, 146, 16()
^£sacus and Hcsperie, 192
Agamemnon, 101, 104
Aldegrever, 15, 154, 155, 156
Altdorfer, 150, 151
Amstcrdum, Vieio o/53
Ancient Italy, 207
Angertoii Moss, 135
Annis, 198
Antonio da Brescia, 164
Anttverp Cathedral, 44, 46
Arche du Pont NCtre-Dame, 72
Arms of Paris, 81
Armstrong, Elizabeth, 135
Arundel, 207
Arundel, Lord, 42
Assemblee au Concert, 185
Assumption, 164
Audran, 171
Aumiiller, 150, 152, 153
Aveline, 171
Avery, Samuel, 83, 109
Babi/, The, 234
Baccio Baldini, 161
Bacon, Sir Hickman, 69
Bain Pruid Chevrier, 81
Jialcony, The, 112
Bale, Sackville, 166
Bal Pave, Le, 183
Barnard, John, 38, 146
Barrett, Edward, 109
Bartolozzi, 25, 26
Bartsch, Adam, 141, 149, 163
Basire, James, 190
BasU, 203
Bate, Francis, 225
Battersea Bridge, 120
Battcrsea : Dawn, 108
Battersea Railway Bridge, 107
Battersea Reach, 103
Baudelaire, 82
Baudouin, 183, 184
Becheurs, Les, 68
Beham, Barthel, 149, 150
Beham, Hans Sebald, 149, 150,
152-154
Beignets, Les, 182
Bell, Anning, 235
Ben Arthur, 203, 204
' Binedicite, Le, 179
Beraldi, 84
Bercsford, Hon. Mrs.. 218
Binck, Jacob, 149, 155
Binyon, 36
Black Lion Wharf, 116
Blanc, Charles, 48
Bocher, Emanuel, 179
Bolingbroke, Miss, 131, 135
Bolswert, 13
Bonne Merc, Im, 182
Bonus, Ephraim, 59
Border Towers, 133
Borghese Gardens, 129
Bosquet de Bacchus, 173
Boucher, Francois, 181, 182
Bouillon, Jules, 166, 175
Bouvier, Le, 38. 39, 193
Boydell, Alderman, 193
Bracquemond, 82
Brentford Eyot, 234
Brion, 171
Brocca Italienne, 89
Brooke, Stopford, 109, 145 198, 201
Brosamer, Hans, 149
Buccleuch, Duke of, 57, 203
250
INDEX
Buffoon and Two Couples, 154
Burty, P. , 82, 83
Butterflies, 45
Calm, A, 203
Camargo, Mile., 176
Cameron, D. Y., 133, 134
Campo Vaccino, 37, 39
Canal, The, 56
Carritr's Stable, 219
Cars, Laurent, 171, 176
Carwardine, Mrs., 218
Cattle Going llovM- in Stormy
Weather, 37, 38
Cecilia, Saint, 162, 1G7
Cest un Filf, Monsieur / 186
Chain Pier, Brighton, 133
Chalice, The, 46
Clialloner, Sir Thornxis, 40
Champs Ell/sees, 173
Chanires Espa'ino's, 127
Chardin, 18, 19, 34. 87, 177-180
diaries the Fifth, 154
Chemise enlevde, 182
Chiffre d' Amour, 183
Christ Ilealinif the Sick, 58
Christ JJesci.ndin'i into Hell, 166
Chrisfoj/her, Saint, 142
Cipriani, 26
Clarke, Mary Constance, 201
Claude, 16, 37-30
Clausen, George, 225
Clement, 166
Clint, 198
Clovclly, 21, 37, 205, 206
Coat of Arms ivilh thr Cork, 14),
146, 147, 153
Coat of Arins with the Skull, 144,
146, 147
Cochin, 171
Colnaghi, 56, 59, 147, 175, 202, 219
Colvin, Sidney, 164, 243
C'/tnbc liottoin, 106, 107
CoTnmunum dans VE'jli»c St. Mf'.d-
urd, 127
Concert, Ijt, 1H3
Constable, 20, 210, 211
Cooke, George, 21
Cooke, Williuni, 21
Cojipennl , (JO
Corbett, 235
Coriolanus, 231
Corot, 85
Cottage with Dutch Uay Barn, 17, 54
Cottage with White Palinqs, 53
Crepy, 173
Crowhurst, 196
CrUche Casscc, 181
Dance of Cupids, 166
Dance of Damsels, 164
Dance by the Water-side, 38
Dance under the Trees, 38, 39
Dancing Girl, 235
Danlos, 166, 167
Daubignv, 85
David, 187
Dawe, 198
Day, Mr. Justice, 69
Dean, John, 218
Death Surprising a Wom.an, 154
Debucourt, 27
Delaborde, 164
Delatre, 118
Delia, 226
Demarteau, 182
Dii'art pour Ic Travail, Le, 68
Dei)rez, 23, 58, 107
Derby, Elizabeth, Countess of, 218
Desir dc Plaire, 177
Dewint, 129, 211
Diderot, 170, 181
Directeur dcs Toilettes, 185
Dowdcswdl, Walter, 109
Drake, Kir William, 102, 106, 121
Drevet, 13, 214
Dufios, 1K2
Duniesnil, 38
Diinkarton, 198
Dunlhorne, 106, 122
Duplessis, 163
Diirazzo, 164
Diirur, Albert, 14, 139-147, 161
Earloni, 97, 193, 212, 213
Eurlii Mornin'i, 224
KaHling, 198 '
East, Alfred, 135
"EauxFortes aur Pari»,"' 77
251
INDEX
Edelinck, 13
Edijc of the Forest, 135
Edge of the Moor, 233
Edinburgh, 43
Eisen, 1S3
Elliot, Mrs., 218
Ellis, F. S., 118
Embarqucment jwur Cythirc, 173
Ewpti/ Pitcher, 40
" England and Wales," 205
Entombment, 166
En trie du Vouvcnt dcs Capucins, 80
Epecs, Lctnrjucs dc Bumfs, Poig-
iiards, 94
Erasmus, 84
Erith Marshes, 107
Etienne-du-Mont, St., 72, 76
Etude dc Jeune Fillc, i)8
Etude du Dcssein, 179
Evening, Bosham, 130
Faber, junior, 212
Family, The, 41
Fanny Lryland, 61, 101, 115, 121
Fantin-Latour, 222
Farm behind Scai-borowjh, 128
Farmyard with a Cock, 192
Farmer s Stable, 219
Femme d la Tasse, 98
Fight for the Standard, 154
Fisher, Richard, 38, 41, 57, 146,
153, 163
Fisher, R. C, 73
Fishermen Going Out, 219
Flagellation, The, 166
Forge, The, 121
Four Naked Women, 143
Fragonard, 182, 183
Fribourg, 85
Fruit S'lwp, 120
Gainsborough, 215, 217, 218
GaUrie de Notre-Dame, 72
Galichon, 163
Garden, The, 112, 121
Geddes, 52, 66, 67
" Gemmes et Joyaux de la Cour-
onne," 89, 91, 97
Genii, The Three, 140
Girtin, 194
Glaiteuscs, Lcs, 68
Gobelct d' Argent, Lc, 178
Goff, Colonel, 131-133
(ioldwcighcr. The, 55
Goldweighcrs Field, 54, 55
Goncourt, Edmond et Jules de,
184
Goncourt, Edmond de, 231
Gonse, Louis, 90, 96
Goulding, 118, 232
Grande Toilette, La, 186
Gregory, E. J., 232
Green, Charles, 231
Green, Valentine, 218
Greenwich, Long View of, 45
Greuze, 19, 180, 181
Grim Spain, 105
Gutekunst, 41, 58, 147
Gutekunst, O., 244
Gutekunst, R., 122
IJaaring, Old, 59
Haden, Seymour, 38, 39, 64, 100-
107
Hall, Oliver, 134, 135, 233
Halliford-on- Thames, 66
Halsted, 201
Hamerton, P. G., 73, 107, 160, 161
Hamilton, Lady, 217
Hamilton, Dr., 216
ITaut d'lm Battant dc Porte, Le, 84
Heaton, Mrs., 145
Helleu, P., 22, 98
Herkomer, 131
Heureuse Fecondit6, L', 182
Hey wood. Rev. J. J., 43, 82
Higgins, Alfred, 69
Hill, Raven, 234
Hind Head Hill, 203
Hippesley, Sir John, 201
Hirsch, 82
Hivcr, L', 176
"Histoire de la Porcelaine," 88,
89, 90, 95, 97
Hodges, 198 ,
Hogarth, 18
Holbein, 57
Holford, 17, 55, 58, 166
Hollar, Wenccslaus, 36, 42-47
Hollar, 46
252
INDEX
Hdy hlrnul Cathedral, 203
Hood, Jacomb, 185, 234
Hoppner, 215
Home, Percy, 21G
Holrovd, Charles, 128, 129
Horsburgh, 37
Hubert, Saint, 147
Huet, Paul, 67
Hulmandel, 220
Hume, Sir Abraham, 57
Hutchinson, 121
Huysum, Jan Van, 97
Hymans, Henri, 99
lie Enclianti'e, L\ 174
Incendie, L\ 127
Irvjleborough, 20(>
his, Temple of, 204
" Italy," The, 207
Jtchen Abbas Bridge, 133
Jacquemart, Albert, 86
Jacquemart, Jules, 86-97
Jealousy, 145
Jeaurat, ISO
Jeu de Cdche-cdche, 170
Jeu de VOye, 179
Jeu de Quatre Coins, 176
JevAsh Briile, The Great, 60
Jonyhe, Clement de, 17, 61, 62
Jo.seph, Samuel, 95
Jupiter ct Ledti, 182
Kennedy, 109, 111
Keppel, Frederick, 68, 100, 109
Kin/s Lynn, 135
Kitchen, Thr, 119
Kneller, 213
Kniffht of Death, The, 145, 147
Knowl(;s, Jarncs, 7!>
Koehlcr, 141
Lacroix, 179
Laitiiirr, I/t, IHl
Lalanno, Maximo, 85
Lnncret, IH, 175
Lundscnpe nilh ii Flnr.k of f^heep,
L'lndHrnpr irit/i nn f>l>rliiil-, 56
Landscape irith a Tower, 1 7
56
Lar.je " Pool," The, 120
Larmessin, De, 176
Lavrcince, 184, 185
Lebrun, 67
Leda, 154
Ledikant, 63
Legros, Alphonse, 126-128
Leighton, Lord, 233
Lely, 20
Letitia, The Story of, 219
Lewis, 194
Leyden, Lucas van, 14, 156, 157
"Liber Studiorum," 20, 189 204
"Liber Veritatis," 191, 193
Lime- Burners, 121
Linton, Sir J. D., 231
Little Boat-house, 105
Loftie, Rev. W. J., 150, 153, 154
London from the Top of Arundel
House, 45
London from Greenwich, 203, 204
London Bridge, 120
fjow Tide and the Evening Star, 130
Low Tide : Mouth of the Hampshire
Avon, 133
Lucas, David, 20, 210
Lurrrtia, 162, 1(J7
Lupton, Thomas, 198
Lutma, 17, 60
M'Ardell, 20, 214
Maberly, 29
Macgeorge, 15. B., 73, 79, 82
Madonna with the Sleeping Child,
154
Mansfield, Howard, 73, 83
Manffgna, l!!, 161, 164, 165
Marc Antonio, 13, 162
Murrhande de Moutarde, 121
Margate, 37
Mdigot la Critique, S4
Marriof/r I'l la Mode, 19
Marshall, Julian, 39, 15 46
Ma.so da Kinigncrra, 159
Massard, 19, IKl
Mimlrr iif the Cadnccus, 163
Mauler of \Am, The. 161
M;iy. W. H.. 131
M.-rler, 1 1
Meer, Van der, 96
Ji5:J
INDEX
McUmcJwlia, 140, 144. Hf., 147
Mire lie Ranhraiidt au Voile Noir,
Gl, 115
Mc'ryon, 21, (;9-83
Metsu, UG
Middleton-Wake, Rev. C. H., 49,
141, 143
Mill Brid'/e, Bosham, 130
Miller, William, 21, 205^
Millet, .Tean-Fraii(,'ois, G7, G8
M in ist rants, 227
Miroir Fraii<;(iix, 92
Mitchell, William, 243
Modern Itali/, 207
Mont 6<. Gothard, 203
"Monte Oliveto," 128
Moreau le jeune, 19, 186
Morgue, The, 72
Morland, 12, 21G, 219
Mart tt le Bucheron, La, 127
Mart du Vctfjtdtond, La, 127
Muff, The, 115
Muffs, 44
Mytton Hall, 103, 106
Naissance de Veni^s, 182
Nuked Woman seen from Behind, 63
Nanteuil, 214
Nativity, The, 140
Nave of St. Qcnrye's Chapel, 44
Niel, 82
Nine Barrow Doion, 105
Nocturne, Batlersea, 223
Norfolk Bridye, Slioreham, 132
No7th of London, Six Views in the,
45
Noseda, Mrs., 202
Noseda, Urban, 219
Oakhampton Castle, 199
Ocianie, 80
Old Clothes Shop, 120
Oriival, 55
Oraye, A', 9G
Ornament with a Cuirass, 154
Ornament, Punel of, 157
Obtade, 3G, 40, 41
Out of Study- Window, 104
Painter, The, 41
Palaces, 121
Palace, Stirling, 133
Porw, Isle de la Cite, 119
Part hey, 43
Passavant, 141
"Passion, Little," 142
"Passion upon Copper," 142
Pater, 176, 177
Peasant Paying his Reckoning, 41
Pcckhain Rye, 66
Pencz, 149, 155
Pennell, J., 131
Perspective, 173
Petit Pont, 73
Petite Pompe, 81
PicMcd Herring Stairs, 121
Pine Trees, Christchurch, 132
Plague, 'The, 167
Pompe N6lrc-Dame, 73
Pont au Change, 72, 74
Pont au Change vers 1784, 79, 80
Pont Neiif, 72
Pont Neuf et la Samaritaine, 79
Pope's villa, 191
" Ports of England," 206, 207
Pourvoyeuse, La, 178
Premier Baiser, 96
Price's Candle- Works, 120
Procris and Ccphalus, 192
Putney, 225
Putney Bridge, 120
Pye, John, 191
Quarrel with Drawn Knives,
Quarter Boys, 130
41
Rag Gatherers, 119
Rape of Europa, 39
Raphatl, 12, 162
Rapilly, 179
Ravishcr, The, 144
Rawlinson, W. G., 189, 190, 201
Receipt, 'J he, 67
Reid, G. W., 141
Rembrandt, 16, 17, 48-65, 88
Rembrandt Drawing, 57, 58
Rembrandt with a Sabre, 58
Rembrandt with a Tiirned-up
Hat, 58
254
INDEX
Rembrandt Farm, A, 133
Rive d'Amcrur, 96
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 12, 215, 216
" Richmondshire,'' 206
River in Ireland, 101
"Rivers of France," 207
Road in Yorkshire, 211
Rochouz's Card, 81
Roget, J. L., 196
Romanet, 186
Romnev, 12, 217
Rops, 9"9
Rosenberg, Dr., 150, 155
Rothenstein, Will, 229
2iou7id Temple, 129
Rousseau, Theodore, 67
Roussel, Theodore, 234
Royiil Exchati'/e, 46
Rubens, 13, 174
Rue des Mauvais Garrwis, 82
Rue dis ToUcs, 80
Rupert, Prince, IS
Ruskin, 198
Salikre dc Troyes, 94
San £iat/io, 121
Sainlfi/ A hbiy, 105
Say, W.. 197
Schijngauer, Martin, 139, 140, 161
Scotin, 19
Scott, W. B., 119, 151, 155
Sea Shells, 46
Seasoru, Thf, 45
Senefeldf-r, 221
Set' rn and Wi/e, 199, 204
Shannon, C. H., 225-227
Shfjiherd aivl Shejjherdeai Convers-
ing, 38, 39
Sherc Mill Poml, 103, 106
Short, Frank, 129, 130
Sichel, Mr., 125
Sickert, Walter, 234
Sie<,'«n, Liidwi;,' von, 209
Six, IhirijomdHtcr, 59
SUc/iny till tlic Flood, 1.30
Smith, Challoner, 21 'J
Smith, John, 20, 213
Smith, J. l{a|,liacl, 1^, 213
Smith nj' the Place du Ora;jon, 22'l
Snydrrs, 40
Sortie de VOpera, 186
•' Southern Coast," 204, 205
Spckc Hall, 121
Spring, 211
Stamford, 206
Stonchenge, 195
Stork nixd Aqueduct, 195
Stourbridge Canal, 130
Strang, Ian, 125
Strang, William, 124, 125
Summerland, 211
Summer Storm, 132
Sunset, 37
Sunset on the Thames, 105
Surugue, 171
Suttermans, 40
Sylvius, 60
Tardieu, 171, 173
Taunay, 27
Taylor, J. E., 201
Techener, 97
"Thames Set," 118, 121
Thausing, 145
Theobald, H. S., 69
Thomas, Ralph, 108
Thomson, George, 234
Thompson, J. Pvke, 73
Three Trees, The] 55
"Tickets," 26
Tillic, 120
Timber Ships, 225
Toilette, La, 184
Toilette, La Grande, 186
Tolling, Van, (iO
Toinbeau de MoUtre, 78
Tour de V Ilurloge, 72
Tourclle, dite "dc Marat," 78
Tourelle, Rue dr la Tixiranderie, 72
Trees on tin Ihlhidc, 134
Turner, Charles, 191, 197
Turner, J. M. W., 20, 21, 1.SH-20H,
210
"Twenty-six Etchings," 117, IIS
Two Ihtjfooiis, 154
Two Fauns, 166
Vandyke, .36, 39
V'innntux rt Sarrellcs, H4
Vaughan, Hi-nry, 201, 211
55
INDEX
" Venice," The, 112,117
Venus and Cupid, 154
VigneUe with Four Cujiids, 154
Vicux Cof/, Le, 85
Virnin by the City WaU, 140, 147
Virgin with the Child in Swaddling
Clothes, 143
Virgin and Child with the Monkey,
144
Virgin with Long Hair, 146
Vokins, 216
Vosttrinan, Lucas, 40
Vosterman, 13
Wael, Be, 40
Wakefield, 191
Walsh. Jacob, 163
Ward, William, 197
Wareham Bridge, 105
Water Meadow, 106
Wasset, 75, 82
Watei-cress Gatherers, 204
Watson, C. J., 233
Watteau, 171-175, 177, 181
Way, T. R, 222
Weary, 121
Westminster Bridge, 119, 121
Whealley, 27
Whistler, 100, 107-121,222-224
Whistler's House, 103
Whitstable, 37
Wilkie, Sir David, 67
Willshire, Dr., 29
Windmill Hill, 104, 105
Windy Day, 134
Winged Hat, The, 223
Witte, De, 99
Woman with the Arrow, The,
63
Yarmouth, 206
Zaayidam, 107, 121
Zoan Andrea, 164
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