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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68720 ***
+
+PRINTS AND THEIR MAKERS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PROFILE BUST OF A YOUNG WOMAN
+
+After Leonardo da Vinci
+
+“Of the prints attributed to Leonardo, the fascinating _Profile Bust of
+a Young Woman_ stands out from the rest for the sensitive quality of
+its outline, but even here I would be more ready to see the hand of an
+engraver like Zoan Andrea.”
+
+Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Reproduced from the unique impression in the British Museum]
+
+
+
+
+ PRINTS
+ AND THEIR MAKERS
+
+
+ ESSAYS ON ENGRAVERS AND
+ ETCHERS OLD AND MODERN
+
+ EDITED BY
+ FITZROY CARRINGTON
+ EDITOR OF “THE PRINT-COLLECTOR’S QUARTERLY”
+
+
+ WITH 200 ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+ NEW YORK
+ THE CENTURY CO.
+ 1912
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright, 1912, by
+ THE CENTURY CO.
+
+ Copyright, 1911, 1912, by
+ FREDERICK KEPPEL & CO.
+
+ _Published October, 1912_
+
+
+ THE DE VINNE PRESS
+
+
+
+
+ TO
+ FREDERICK KEPPEL
+ IN MEMORY OF A FRIENDSHIP OF TWENTY
+ YEARS THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY
+ THE EDITOR
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+ DÜRER’S WOODCUTS 1
+ BY CAMPBELL DODGSON, M.A.
+
+ SOME EARLY ITALIAN ENGRAVERS BEFORE THE TIME
+ OF MARCANTONIO 17
+ BY ARTHUR M. HIND
+
+ A PRINCE OF PRINT-COLLECTORS: MICHEL DE
+ MAROLLES, ABBÉ DE VILLELOIN 33
+ BY LOUIS R. METCALFE
+
+ JEAN MORIN 52
+ BY LOUIS R. METCALFE
+
+ ROBERT NANTEUIL 70
+ BY LOUIS R. METCALFE
+
+ REMBRANDT’S LANDSCAPE ETCHINGS 94
+ BY LAURENCE BINYON
+
+ GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI 112
+ BY BENJAMIN BURGES MOORE
+
+ FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES 153
+ BY CHARLES H. CAFFIN
+
+ A NOTE ON GOYA 164
+ BY WILLIAM M. IVINS, JR.
+
+ THE ETCHINGS OF FORTUNY 166
+ BY ROYAL CORTISSOZ
+
+ PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SIR SEYMOUR
+ HADEN, P.R.E. 173
+ BY FREDERICK KEPPEL
+
+ THE WATER-COLORS AND DRAWINGS OF SIR
+ SEYMOUR HADEN, P.R.E. 196
+ BY H. NAZEBY HARRINGTON
+
+ MERYON AND BAUDELAIRE 204
+ BY WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY
+
+ FÉLIX BRACQUEMOND: AN ETCHER OF BIRDS 220
+ BY FRANK WEITENKAMPF
+
+ AUGUSTE LEPÈRE 228
+ BY ELISABETH LUTHER CARY
+
+ HERMAN A. WEBSTER 239
+ BY MARTIN HARDIE
+
+ ANDERS ZORN--PAINTER-ETCHER 259
+ BY J. NILSEN LAURVIK
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ PROFILE BUST OF A YOUNG WOMAN _Frontispiece_
+
+ FACING PAGE
+
+ DÜRER. Portrait of Albert Dürer, aged 56 2
+
+ The Four Riders of the Apocalypse 3
+
+ The Whore of Babylon, Seated upon the Beast with
+ Seven Heads and Ten Horns 4
+
+ Christ Bearing His Cross 5
+
+ The Resurrection 6
+
+ Samson and the Lion 7
+
+ The Annunciation to Joachim 8
+
+ The Annunciation 9
+
+ The Flight into Egypt 10
+
+ The Assumption and Crowning of the Virgin 11
+
+ St. Jerome in his Cell 12
+
+ The Holy Family 13
+
+ Saint Christopher 14
+
+ The Virgin with the Many Angels 15
+
+ BARTOLOMMEO DI GIOVANNI. Triumph of Bacchus and
+ Ariadne 18
+
+ BOTTICELLI. The Assumption of the Virgin 19
+
+ FINIGUERRA SCHOOL. The Libyan Sibyl 20
+
+ FINIGUERRA SCHOOL. The Libyan Sibyl 21
+
+ MASO FINIGUERRA. The Planet Mercury 22
+
+ FINIGUERRA SCHOOL. A Young Man and Woman Each
+ Holding an Apple 23
+
+ ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO. Battle of Naked Men 24
+
+ CRISTOFANO ROBETTA. The Adoration of the Magi 25
+
+ ANDREA MANTEGNA. The Risen Christ between St. Andrew
+ and St. Longinus 26
+
+ ZOAN ANDREA (?). Four Women Dancing 27
+
+ NICOLETTO DA MODENA. The Adoration of the Shepherds 28
+
+ JACOPO DE ’BARBARI. Apollo and Diana 29
+
+ GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. St. John the Baptist 30
+
+ GIULIO AND DOMENICO CAMPAGNOLA. Shepherds in a Landscape 31
+
+ CLAUDE MELLAN. Portrait of Michel de Marolles, Abbé
+ de Villeloin 38
+
+ NANTEUIL. Portrait of Michel de Marolles, Abbé de
+ Villeloin 39
+
+ Jules, Cardinal Mazarin 42
+
+ Louis XIV 43
+
+ CLAUDE MELLAN. Agatha Castiglione 50
+
+ Claude de Marolles 51
+
+ MORIN. Louis XIII, King of France 54
+
+ Anne of Austria, Regent of France 55
+
+ Cardinal Richelieu 58
+
+ Pierre Maugis des Granges 59
+
+ Henri de Lorraine, Comte d’Harcourt 62
+
+ Guido, Cardinal Bentivoglio 63
+
+ Nicolas Chrystin 66
+
+ Antoine Vitré 67
+
+ Jean-François-Paul de Gondi 68
+
+ Omer Talon 69
+
+ NANTEUIL. Louis XIV 76
+
+ Anne of Austria, Queen of France 77
+
+ Jules, Cardinal Mazarin 78
+
+ Bernard de Foix de la Valette, Duc d’Epernon 79
+
+ Jean Loret 82
+
+ François de la Mothe le Vayer 83
+
+ Nicolas Fouquet 86
+
+ Basile Fouquet 87
+
+ Jean Chapelain 88
+
+ Pompone de Bellièvre 89
+
+ Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne,
+ Maréchal de France 90
+
+ Jean-Baptiste Colbert 91
+
+ REMBRANDT. The Windmill 96
+
+ View of Amsterdam 97
+
+ The Three Trees 102
+
+ Six’s Bridge 103
+
+ Landscape with a Boat in the Canal 104
+
+ Farm with Trees and a Tower 105
+
+ The Gold-weigher’s Field 106
+
+ Landscape with a Milkman 107
+
+ F. POLANZANI. Portrait of Giovanni Battista Piranesi 112
+
+ PIRANESI. Arch of Septimius Severus 113
+
+ Arch of Vespasian 114
+
+ Arch of Trajan at Benevento, in the Kingdom of Naples 115
+
+ The Basilica, Pæstum 116
+
+ The Temple of Neptune at Pæstum 117
+
+ The Temple of Concord 118
+
+ Site of the Ancient Roman Forum 119
+
+ View of the “Campo Vaccino” 120
+
+ The Arch of Titus 121
+
+ The Arch of Titus 122
+
+ Façade of St. John Lateran 123
+
+ View of the Ruins of the Golden House of Nero, Commonly
+ Called the Temple of Peace 124
+
+ Interior of the Pantheon, Rome 125
+
+ Piazza Navona, Rome 126
+
+ Interior of the Villa of Mæcenas, at Tivoli 127
+
+ The Temple of Apollo, near Tivoli 128
+
+ The Falls at Tivoli 129
+
+ The Falls at Tivoli 130
+
+ St. Peter’s and the Vatican 131
+
+ The Villa d’Este at Tivoli 132
+
+ Title-page of “The Prisons” 133
+
+ The Prisons. Plate III 134
+
+ The Prisons. Plate IV 135
+
+ The Prisons. Plate V 136
+
+ The Prisons. Plate VI 137
+
+ The Prisons. Plate IX 138
+
+ The Prisons. Plate VII 139
+
+ The Prisons. Plate VIII 140
+
+ The Prisons. Plate XI 141
+
+ The Prisons. Plate XIII 142
+
+ The Prisons. Plate XIV 143
+
+ FRANCESCO PIRANESI. Statue of Piranesi 146
+
+ PIRANESI. Antique Marble Vase 147
+
+ Section of one of the Sides of the Great Room, or Library,
+ of Earl Mansfield’s Villa at Kenwood. Engraved
+ by I. Zucchi 148
+
+ Ionic Order of the Anteroom, with the rest of the Detail
+ of that Room at Sion House, the Seat of the Duke
+ of Northumberland in the County of Middlesex. Engraved
+ by Piranesi 149
+
+ Title-page to “Il Campo Marzio dell’Antica Roma” 150
+
+ Upper left-hand Portion, bearing a Dedication to Robert
+ Adam, of Piranesi’s etched plan of the Campus
+ Martius 151
+
+ GOYA. Portrait of Goya, drawn and etched by himself 154
+
+ The Dead Branch 155
+
+ Back to his Ancestors! 156
+
+ “Birds of a Feather Flock Together” 157
+
+ They have Kidnapped her 158
+
+ “Bon Voyage!” 159
+
+ The Infuriated Stallion 160
+
+ The Bird-Men 161
+
+ Good Advice 162
+
+ God Forgive her--It’s her own Mother! 163
+
+ Love and Death 164
+
+ Hunting for Teeth 165
+
+ FORTUNY. Arab watching beside the Dead Body of his
+ Friend 166
+
+ Idyll 167
+
+ The Serenade 168
+
+ A Moroccan Seated 169
+
+ A Horse of Morocco 170
+
+ Interior of the Church of Saint Joseph, Madrid 171
+
+ PORTRAIT OF SEYMOUR HADEN. At the Age of Sixty-two.
+ By C. W. Sherborn 174
+
+ HADEN. Portrait of Seymour Haden etched by himself at
+ the Age of Forty-four 175
+
+ Portrait of Sir Seymour Haden. By A. Legros 176
+
+ Woodcote Manor. By Percy Thomas 177
+
+ Reproduction of a Page of Manuscript in the
+ Handwriting of Sir Seymour Haden 178
+
+ Facsimile of the Certificate of Seymour Haden’s Candidacy
+ for Membership in the Athenæum Club 179
+
+ Whistler’s House, Old Chelsea 180
+
+ Battersea Reach 181
+
+ Out of Study Window 182
+
+ Thomas Haden of Derby 183
+
+ PORTRAIT OF SEYMOUR HADEN in 1882 (photograph) 184
+
+ PORTRAIT OF SIR SEYMOUR HADEN. By J. Wells Champney 185
+
+ Mytton Hall 186
+
+ On the Test 187
+
+ A By-road in Tipperary 188
+
+ A Sunset in Ireland 189
+
+ A Lancashire River 190
+
+ Sawley Abbey 191
+
+ The Breaking-up of the Agamemnon 192
+
+ Calais Pier 193
+
+ An Early Riser 194
+
+ Harlech 195
+
+ Salmon Pool on the Spey 198
+
+ Old Oaks, Chatsworth 199
+
+ Course of the Ribble below Preston 200
+
+ Dinkley Ferry 201
+
+ Encombe Woods 202
+
+ An Elderly Couple, Chatsworth Park 203
+
+ BRACQUEMOND. Frontispiece for “Les Fleurs du Mal” of
+ Baudelaire 206
+
+ PORTRAIT OF CHARLES BAUDELAIRE. By Bracquemond 207
+
+ PORTRAIT OF CHARLES MERYON. By Bracquemond 208
+
+ MERYON. Le Pont au Change 209
+
+ Le Petit Pont 210
+
+ PORTRAIT OF CHARLES MERYON. By Flameng 211
+
+ BRACQUEMOND. Ducks at Play 220
+
+ A Flock of Teal Alighting 221
+
+ Pheasants at Dawn: Morning Mists 222
+
+ The Bather (Canards Surpris) 223
+
+ Geese in a Storm 224
+
+ Sea-gulls 225
+
+ The Old Cock 226
+
+ Swallows in Flight 227
+
+ LEPÈRE. Rheims Cathedral 228
+
+ Belle Matinée. Automne 229
+
+ Vue du Port de la Meule 230
+
+ Peupliers Tétards 231
+
+ Le Moulin des Chapelles 234
+
+ A Gentilly 234
+
+ La Chaumière du Vieux Pecheur 235
+
+ Le Nid 235
+
+ Provins 236
+
+ L’Eglise de Jouy le Moutier 236
+
+ L’Enfant Prodigue 237
+
+ WEBSTER. St. Ouen, Rouen 240
+
+ La Rue Grenier sur l’Eau, Paris 241
+
+ Quai Montebello 242
+
+ Le Pont Neuf, Paris 243
+
+ La Rue Cardinale 244
+
+ La Rue de la Parcheminerie, Paris 245
+
+ St. Saturnin, Toulouse 246
+
+ Ancienne Faculté de Médecine, Paris 247
+
+ Notre Dame des Andelys 248
+
+ Port des Marmousets, St. Ouen, Rouen 249
+
+ Vieilles Maisons, Rue Hautefeuille, Paris 250
+
+ La Route de Louviers 251
+
+ Bendergasse, Frankfort 252
+
+ Cortlandt Street, New York 253
+
+ Lowenplätzchen, Frankfort 254
+
+ Der Langer Franz, Frankfort 255
+
+ The Old Bridge, Frankfort 256
+
+ La Rue St. Jacques, Paris 257
+
+ ZORN. Portrait of the Artist and his Wife 260
+
+ The Waltz 261
+
+ Madame Simon 262
+
+ Ernest Renan 263
+
+ August Strindberg 264
+
+ Sunday Morning in Dalecarlia 265
+
+ The Bather, Seated 266
+
+ Edo 267
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+“Good wine needs no bush,” and these essays need no commendatory
+word from the Editor. The plan of this book is a simple one. Certain
+lovers of prints have been asked to write on the engravers, etchers,
+or periods which chiefly interest them and upon which they are best
+qualified to speak; and, furthermore, to treat their special subjects
+in their own way. So far as subject matter is concerned, the essays
+are grouped approximately in chronological order, and the reader may
+range from Italian engravers before the time of Raphael and woodcuts
+by Albrecht Dürer to contemporary etchings by Zorn, Lepère, and Herman
+A. Webster. Throughout the essays one dominant note will be found--a
+sincere love of Prints and an interest in their Makers.
+
+FITZROY CARRINGTON.
+
+New York,
+
+September, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+DÜRER’S WOODCUTS
+
+BY CAMPBELL DODGSON, M.A.
+
+Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum Author of the
+Catalogue of German and Flemish Woodcuts in the British Museum and
+Honorary Secretary of the Dürer Society
+
+
+The first decade of the twentieth century lies not very far behind
+us, but perhaps it is not too soon to assert that one of its marked
+features, in the retrospect of a print-lover, is a great revival or
+extension of interest in every form of engraving among cultivated
+people who are not specialists. Increased attention has been
+paid, among other things, to the German woodcuts of the fifteenth
+and sixteenth centuries, which used to be rather despised by the
+old-fashioned nineteenth-century collector, with a few enlightened
+exceptions, as rough and ugly old things which were curious as
+specimens of antiquity or instructive as illustrations of the life and
+religion of the generations that produced them, but were not to be
+taken very seriously as works of art. That estimate is being revised.
+A generation no longer blinded to the merits of primitive art by the
+worship of Raphael and the antique is ever tapping fresh sources of
+delight and enriching itself by the perception of beauty where its
+fathers saw nought but the grotesque and quaint. It is not surprising,
+indeed, that German art has made slower progress than Italian on the
+road to popularity. Even the primitives, on the south side of the
+Alps, shared in the winning grace and suavity of the old Mediterranean
+culture, while their brethren in the North, the French excepted,
+were indisputably more rugged and barbarous in draughtsmanship and
+painting, and few of their engravers, except Schongauer, can vie with
+the Florentines if their achievements are judged by the test of formal
+beauty. But it is wonderful how, in the North, now and again, art could
+suddenly blossom and ripen under the creative impulse of an innovator,
+whose successors, rather than the pioneer himself, lay themselves open
+to the charge of angularity and uncouthness. The perfection of the
+very earliest printed books is a commonplace. Less generally known,
+perhaps, is the great beauty to which the earliest of all the German
+engravers known to us at all as a personality, though not by name,
+was capable of attaining. The “Master of the Playing-Cards,” who was
+at work about 1430-40, produced work of extraordinary charm, not only
+in some of the figures, animals and flowers of the playing-cards
+themselves, but especially in the large engraving of the Virgin Mary
+with the human-headed serpent, or Lilith, beneath her feet, which
+is one of the most splendid and mature creations of the fifteenth
+century. Then, again, the early book illustrators of Augsburg and
+Ulm, in the seventies, when the use of blocks for such a purpose had
+only recently come in, produced woodcuts that were never surpassed
+by any successors in their simple and direct vivacity and strength,
+with the utmost economy of line. But the real beauty of some of the
+much earlier single woodcuts, illustrating, chiefly, the legends of
+Our Lady and the Saints, has been much less generally appreciated.
+They are very rare, and most of them repose, in a seclusion seldom
+disturbed, in their boxes in the great European print-rooms or even
+in monastic libraries. They are only beginning to be reproduced, and
+they are rarely exhibited. But such an exhibition of the earliest
+German woodcuts as was held at Berlin in the summer of 1908 was truly
+a revelation. The soft and rounded features, the flowing lines of the
+drapery, in the prints of the generation before sharp, broken folds
+were introduced under the influence of the Netherlands, have something
+of the charm of Far Eastern art, and the gay coloring with which most
+of the prints were finished has often a delightfully decorative effect
+when they are framed and hung at a proper distance from the eye. Such
+praise is due, of course, only to some of the choicer examples; there
+are plenty of fifteenth-century woodcuts in which the line is merely
+clumsy and the coloring merely gaudy, but these are more often products
+of the last quarter of the century than of its beginning or middle.
+It would not be true to say that the advance of time brought with it
+progress and perfection in the woodcutter’s art; on the contrary,
+the first vital impulse spent itself all too soon, and gave way to
+thoughtless and unintelligent imitation.
+
+[Illustration: Albrecht Dürer Conterfeyt in seinem alter
+
+Des L V I. Jares.
+
+DÜRER. PORTRAIT OF ALBERT DÜRER, AGED 56
+
+The rare second state (of 3 states) before the monogram of Dürer and
+the date 1527
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 12¾ × 10 inches]
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE FOUR RIDERS OF THE APOCALYPSE
+
+From “The Apocalypse”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 15¼ × 11 inches]
+
+What was the state of things when Dürer appeared upon the scene?
+He did so long before the close of the fifteenth century, for his
+first authenticated woodcut is an illustration to St. Jerome’s
+Epistles, printed at Basle in 1492. Whether he or an unknown artist
+is responsible for a large number of other illustrations produced
+at Basle about 1493-95, is a question about which no consensus of
+opinion has been formed, and this is not the place to discuss it. All
+the woodcuts that the world knows and esteems as Dürer’s were produced
+at Nuremberg after his return from the first Venetian journey (1495).
+Let us see, for a moment, how they stand comparison with what had
+gone before them. The older woodcuts are nearly all anonymous, and if
+they bear any signature, it is that of a woodcutter (Formschneider
+or Briefmaler) who was a craftsman allied to the joiner, rather than
+the painter. Just before Dürer’s time the painter begins to make his
+appearance on the scene as a designer of woodcuts. There are a few
+isolated cases in which the almost universal rule of anonymity is
+broken, and we learn from the preface to a book the name of the artist
+who designed the illustrations. Breydenbach’s “Travels to the Holy
+Land” (Mainz, 1486) was illustrated by woodcuts after Erhard Reuwich,
+or Rewich, a native of Utrecht, who had accompanied the author on
+his journey, and the immense number of woodcuts in the “Nuremberg
+Chronicle” by Hartmann Schedel (1493) were the work of the painters
+Wohlgemuth and Pleydenwurff; to whom the much finer illustrations of
+the “Schatzbehalter” (1491) may also safely be attributed. It is now
+almost universally believed that the “Master of the Hausbuch,” one of
+Dürer’s most gifted predecessors in the art of engraving on copper, was
+also a prolific illustrator, the principal work assigned to him being
+the numerous illustrations in the “Spiegel der menschlichen Behaltnis”
+printed by Peter Drach at Speyer about 1478-80. There are speculations,
+more or less ill-founded, about the illustrators of a few other woodcut
+books of the fifteenth century, but I believe it is true that the
+first book after those already named in which the artist’s name is
+settled beyond doubt is Dürer’s “Apocalypse” of 1498.
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE WHORE OF BABYLON, SEATED UPON THE BEAST WITH
+SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS
+
+From “The Apocalypse”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 15¼ × 11 inches]
+
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. CHRIST BEARING HIS CROSS
+
+From “The Great Passion”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 15¼ × 11⅛ inches]
+
+Dr. Naumann, the editor of a recent facsimile of the cuts in the
+Speyer book just mentioned, claims for the “Hausbuchmeister” that he
+was the first painter, or painter-engraver, who attempted to get the
+most out of the craftsmen employed in cutting blocks from his designs.
+That is rather a speculative opinion, and the woodcuts in question
+are not, from the technical point of view, superior to many other
+contemporary illustrations. But there can be no question that Dürer
+effected an immense reform in this respect, and carried the technique
+of wood-engraving to a perfection unparalleled in its previous history.
+Not by his own handiwork, for there is no reason to suppose that Dürer
+ever cut his blocks himself. All the evidence points, on the contrary,
+to his having followed the universal practice of the time, according
+to which the designer drew the composition in all detail upon the
+wood block, and employed a professional engraver to cut the block,
+preserving all the lines intact, and cutting away the spaces between
+them, so that the result was a facsimile of the drawing as accurate as
+the craftsman was capable of making it. Dürer set his engravers, we may
+be sure, a harder task than they had ever had to grapple with before,
+and he must have succeeded in gradually training a man, or group of
+men, on whom he could rely to preserve his drawing in all its delicacy
+and intricate complexity. This was a work of time, and perfection
+was not reached till after Dürer’s return from his second journey to
+Venice, when a great increase of refinement on the technical side
+becomes noticeable, culminating in that extraordinary performance, the
+_Holy Trinity_ woodcut of 1511. But even in the large fifteenth-century
+blocks, the “Apocalypse,” the earlier portion of the “Great Passion”
+and the contemporary single subjects, much cross-hatching is used
+and the space is filled with detail to an extent hitherto unknown.
+Without ever losing sight of the general decorative effect, the telling
+pattern of black and white, Dürer put in a vast amount of interesting
+little things, with the conscientiousness and care that characterized
+everything that he did, and every detail of the leaves of a thistle or
+fern, or of the elaborate ornament, birds and flowers and foliage and
+rams’ heads, on the base of a Gothic candle-stick, had to be reproduced
+so that the crisp clearness of the original pen-drawing lost nothing of
+its precision. The result was a work so perfectly complete in black and
+white, as it stood, that nobody ever thought of coloring it, and that
+in itself was a great innovation and advance. The fifteenth-century
+“Illuminirer,” or the patron who gave him his orders, seems to have
+had an instinctive respect for excellent and highly finished work in
+black and white, which made him leave it alone. Line-engravings of
+the fifteenth century are very frequently found colored, but they are
+usually quite second-rate specimens, and prints by the great men,
+such as the “Master E. S.” and Schongauer, were respected and left
+alone. But such consideration was not often shown to woodcuts, which
+were frequently colored, especially when used as illustrations, well
+into the sixteenth century. It was very rarely, however, that any
+illuminator laid profane hands on anything of Dürer’s, woodcut or
+engraving, and when he did so the result is stupid and disagreeable,
+for it is always the work of a later generation, out of touch with
+Dürer’s genius.
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE RESURRECTION
+
+From “The Great Passion”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 15⅜ × 10⅞ inches]
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. SAMSON AND THE LION
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 15 × 10⅞ inches]
+
+It may be said that if Dürer and his contemporaries did not cut their
+own blocks, the woodcuts are not original prints by the masters
+themselves. It must be conceded that they are not original prints quite
+in the same sense as engravings and etchings, in which the whole work
+was carried out upon the plate by the masters’ own hand, but it would
+be a mistake to describe them as examples of reproductive engraving.
+Such a thing as a reproductive engraving was, in fact, unknown in
+the Germany of Dürer’s time. A design originally projected in one
+medium might be reproduced in another in a case where an engraving by
+Schongauer, or Meckenen, or Dürer himself, was copied by some inferior
+woodcutter, as an act of piracy, for a bookseller who was too stingy
+to pay an artist to draw him a new Virgin or Saint for his purpose.
+But it would never have occurred to any one to reproduce an engraving
+or woodcut, a picture or drawing, done for its own sake, as a separate
+and complete work of art. Reproductions of pictures scarcely exist
+in German art of the sixteenth century; they are commoner in the
+Venetian School, among the woodcutters influenced by Titian, and Rubens
+established the practice once for all by his encouragement of engraving
+from his pictures, a century after Dürer’s time. But when woodcutting
+was taken up by the German painters, with Dürer as their leader, for
+the purpose of circulating their compositions at a cheaper price than
+they could charge for engravings of their own, they always had a
+strictly legitimate object according to the canons of graphic art.
+Rarely working even from sketches, never from a work already finished
+in another medium, they drew the subjects intended for printing
+directly upon the block in a technique adapted for the purpose,
+avoiding such combinations of lines as the most skilful craftsmen
+would be unable to cut. Their actual handiwork was preserved upon the
+surface of the block, much as in the modern original lithograph the
+artist’s actual work survives upon the surface of the stone; if it
+was in any way disfigured, as often, no doubt, it was, that must be
+set down to failure on the cutter’s part. Anything original that the
+cutter puts in, any swerving that accident or clumsiness permits him
+to make from the line fixed by the painter’s pen for him to follow, is
+a blemish, and the best woodcuts of Dürer, Holbein, Baldung, Cranach,
+Burgkmair and the rest of their generation have no such blemishes. They
+are strictly autographic: the lines that the artist’s pen has traced
+remain and are immortalized by the printing-press; the white spaces,
+also limited by his controlling will and purpose, result from the mere
+mechanical cutting away of blank wood that any neat-handed workman
+can perform. So when we speak of the woodcuts of Millais, Rossetti,
+Whistler, Walker, Pinwell, Sandys and the rest of the “Men of the
+Sixties,” we know that the blocks were cut by Dalziel or Swain, but
+every good print is none the less what the designer meant it to be, and
+what none but himself could have made it.
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE ANNUNCIATION TO JOACHIM
+
+From “The Life of the Virgin”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 11⅝ × 8³/₁₆ inches]
+
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE ANNUNCIATION
+
+From “The Life of the Virgin”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 11⅝ × 8¼ inches]
+
+Of Dürer’s woodcutters, unluckily, we know nothing till the
+comparatively late period when he had been enlisted in the service
+of the Emperor Maximilian, whose imposing, but somewhat ponderous and
+pedantic, _Triumphal Arch_ was cut from the designs of Dürer and his
+school by Hieronymus Andreä. There is much more information about the
+Augsburg cutters than about those of Nuremberg, and there is no single
+artist in the latter city whose work is so strongly marked out by its
+excellence from that of his contemporaries as was Lützelburger’s, who
+cut Holbein’s “Dance of Death.”
+
+To understand Dürer’s woodcuts aright, it is necessary to get to know
+them in their chronological sequence. In conservative collections,
+where they are arranged by order of subject, on the system of Bartsch,
+the student is continually confused by the juxtaposition of quite
+incongruous pieces, placed together merely because “Jérôme,” for
+instance, comes in alphabetical order next after “Jean.” The British
+Museum collection has been arranged for more than ten years past in
+chronological order, which, in Dürer’s case, is unusually easy to
+determine with approximate accuracy, because his methodical turn of
+mind caused him to be fond of dates, while the undated pieces can
+be fitted in without much difficulty by the evidence of style. The
+justification of the system became all the more apparent when the
+woodcuts were exhibited for a few months in 1909, and fell naturally
+into consistent and coherent groups upon the screens, while separated,
+as a matter of practical convenience, from the engravings. Since then
+two even more interesting experiments have been made, in exhibitions
+held at Liverpool and Bremen, toward a reconstruction of Dürer’s
+entire life-work in its chronological sequence, his pictures,
+drawings, engravings and woodcuts--represented mainly, of course,
+by reproductions--being merged in a single series. That is a timely
+warning against the risks of excessive concentration upon one single
+side of his many activities, but here we will not digress further from
+the woodcuts, which are at present our theme.
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
+
+From “The Life of the Virgin”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 11⅝ × 8¼ inches]
+
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE ASSUMPTION AND CROWNING OF THE VIRGIN
+
+From “The Life of the Virgin”
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 11½ × 8⅛ inches]
+
+The series opens magnificently with the group of large and stately
+woodcuts, abounding in vitality and dramatic invention, produced by
+Dürer between 1495 and 1500. These include the fifteen subjects of the
+“Apocalypse,” the seven early subjects of the “Great Passion” (not
+completed until 1510-11) and seven detached pieces uniform with the
+two series already named in dimensions and style, but independent of
+them in subject. The blocks of the majority of these single pieces
+are now, by the way, in an American collection, that of Mr. Junius S.
+Morgan, but they have suffered sadly from the ravages of the worm.
+There is a certain exaggeration and over-emphasis of gesture in the
+“Apocalypse” woodcuts, but Dürer never invented anything more sublime
+than the celebrated _Four Riders_ or the _St. Michael defeating the
+Rebel Angels_, which I regard as at least equal to the subject more
+frequently praised. Superb, too, is the group of _Angels restraining
+the Four Winds_. The landscape at the foot of _St. John’s Vision of
+the Four-and-twenty Elders_ (B. 63) is a complete picture by itself,
+and there is a rare early copy of this portion alone, which is itself
+a beautiful print, and doubtless the earliest pure landscape woodcut
+in existence. _Samson and the Lion_, the mysteriously named _Ercules_
+and the _Knight and Man-at-arms_, often described as its companion,
+and the _Martyrdom of St. Catherine_ are among the finest of the single
+subjects. After this tremendously impressive group, there is for a
+time a certain relaxation of energy, or rather Dürer was more bent
+on other things, especially engraving. To the years 1500-04 belong
+a number of woodcuts of Holy Families and Saints, much smaller than
+the “Apocalypse,” and rather roughly cut. Some critics have wished to
+dismiss one or another of them as pupils’ work, but for this there is
+really no justification. Then comes another very good period, that of
+the “Life of the Virgin,” of which set Dürer had finished seventeen
+subjects before he left for Venice in 1505, while the _Death of the
+Virgin_ and _The Assumption_ were added in 1510, and the frontispiece
+in 1511, when the whole work came out as a book, assuredly one of
+the most desirable picture-books the world has ever seen! It is
+impossible to weary of the beautiful compositions, the details drawn
+with such loving care, the tender and homely sentiment, the humor,
+even, displayed in the accessory figures of _The Embrace of Joachim
+and Anne_, the beer-drinking gossips in the _Birth of the Virgin_,
+where the atmosphere of St. Anne’s chamber is sweetened by an angelic
+thurifer, and the merry group of angelic children playing round Joseph,
+bent on his carpenter’s business, while their elders keep solemn watch
+round Mary at her distaff and the Holy Child in the cradle. We find
+landscapes at least as beautiful as those in Dürer’s best engravings
+in the pastoral background of the _Annunciation to Joachim_ and the
+mountainous distance of the _Visitation_. The architectural setting of
+the _Presentation of Christ in the Temple_, and the tall cross held
+aloft, with the happiest effect on the composition, by the Apostle
+kneeling on the left in Mary’s death-chamber, are among the memorable
+features of the set.
+
+Beautiful again, especially in fine proofs, is the next and latest of
+the long sets, the “Little Passion,” consisting of thirty-six subjects
+and a title-page, begun in 1509 and finished, like all the other
+books, in 1511. But it has not the monumental grandeur of the earlier
+religious sets, and there is an inevitable monotony about the incessant
+recurrence of the figure of Our Lord, when the history of the Passion
+is set forth in such detail. The most original and impressive subjects,
+in my opinion, are _Christ Appearing to St. Mary Magdalen_ and the next
+following it, _The Supper at Emmaus_.
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. ST. JEROME IN HIS CELL
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 9¼ × 6¼ inches]
+
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE HOLY FAMILY
+
+St. Anne, attended by St. Joseph and St. Joachim, receiving from His
+Mother the Infant Jesus
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 9¼ × 6⅛ inches]
+
+The years 1510 and 1511 were the most prolific of all, and witnessed
+the publication of other connected pieces, the _Beheading of John
+the Baptist_ and _Salome bringing the Baptist’s Head to Herod_, and
+then the three little woodcuts, _Christ on the Cross_, _Death and the
+Soldier_, and _The Schoolmaster_, which Dürer brought out on large
+sheets at the head of his own verses, signed with a large monogram
+at the end of all. The single sheets of 1511 include, besides the
+marvelous _Trinity_ already mentioned, the large _Adoration of the
+Magi_, the _Mass of St. Gregory_, a _St. Jerome in his Cell_, which is
+the best, after the celebrated engraving of 1514, of Dürer’s repeated
+versions of that delightful subject; the _Cain and Abel_, which is one
+of the great rarities; two rather unattractive _Holy Families_; and the
+beautiful square _Saint Christopher_, of which many fine impressions
+are extant to bear witness to its technical virtues. The average
+level of all the work of the year 1511 is so astonishingly high, that
+it must be regarded as the culminating period of the woodcuts, just as
+a slightly later time, the years 1513-14, witnesses the climax of the
+engravings. In the next few years Dürer’s time was much taken up with
+carrying out the emperor’s important but rather tiresome commissions
+for the _Triumphal Arch_ and two _Triumphal Cars_, the small one which
+forms part of the _Procession_, and the much bigger affair, with the
+twelve horses and allegorical retinue, which did not appear till 1522.
+All this group offers a rich field of research to the antiquary, but
+is simply unintelligible without a learned commentary, and appeals
+much less than the sacred subjects to the average collector and lover
+of art, who cannot unearth the heaps of pedantic Latin and German
+literature in which the motives by which Dürer was inspired, if I
+may use the word, lie buried. Inspiration certainly flagged under
+the influence of Wilibald Pirkheimer and other learned humanists who
+encouraged Maximilian in his penchant for allegory, and compelled
+Dürer, probably somewhat against his will, to use a multitude of
+symbols, intelligible only to the learned, instead of speaking directly
+to the populace in the familiar pictorial language derived from old
+tradition but enriched and ennobled by his own matchless art.
+
+The later woodcuts are comparatively few in number. They include a
+few that are primarily of scientific interest, such as the celestial
+and terrestrial globes and the armillary sphere, besides the numerous
+illustrations to Dürer’s own works on Measurement, Proportion, and
+Fortification. But among them are the two splendid portraits made from
+drawings now in the Albertina, the _Emperor Maximilian_ of 1518 and
+the _Ulrich Varnbüler_ of 1522. Of the former several varieties exist,
+from no less than four different blocks, and it is now established that
+the only original version is the very rare one in which the letters
+“ae” of the word “Caesar” are distinct, not forming a diphthong, and
+placed within the large “C.” The other cuts are all copies, produced
+probably at Augsburg, the fine large one, with an ornamental frame and
+the imperial arms supported by griffins, being indisputably the work of
+Hans Weiditz. Only three impressions of the original are known, in the
+British Museum, the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, and the Hofbibliothek
+at Vienna, in addition to which the École des Beaux-Arts at Paris
+possesses a fragment damaged by fire at the time of the Commune, when
+it was still in private hands. It is more generally known that the
+handsome chiaroscuro impressions of the _Varnbüler_ date, like those
+of the _Rhinoceros_, from the seventeenth century, the color blocks
+having been added in Holland. The brown and green varieties belong to
+different editions, distinguished by the wording of the publisher’s
+address at the foot, which in the majority of cases has been cut off.
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. SAINT CHRISTOPHER
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 8⁵⁄₁₆ × 8¼ inches]
+
+
+[Illustration: DÜRER. THE VIRGIN WITH THE MANY ANGELS
+
+Size of the original woodcut, 11¹³/₁₆ × 8⅜ inches]
+
+The _Virgin with the many Angels_, of 1518, is one of Dürer’s
+most accomplished woodcuts, and quite good impressions of it are
+comparatively common to-day. The latest of his compositions of this
+class, the _Holy Family with Angels_, of 1526, is, on the other
+hand, extremely rare. Some critics doubt its being an authentic work
+of Dürer, but in spite of certain rather eccentric and unpleasant
+peculiarities in the drawing, I consider this scepticism unfounded.
+Quite at the end of Dürer’s life comes that rather fascinating subject,
+_The Siege of a Fortress_, unique among Dürer’s woodcuts in the tiny
+scale on which its countless details are drawn. Of the many heraldic
+woodcuts and ex-libris attributed by Bartsch and others to Dürer, very
+few can be regarded as his genuine work, and most of these are very
+rare. The best authenticated are his own coat of arms; the arms of
+Ferdinand I in the book on Fortification; those of Michel Behaim, of
+which the block is extant with a letter written by Dürer on the back;
+the arms of Roggendorf, mentioned in the Netherlands _Journal_, of
+which only one impression is known, and the arms of Lorenz Staiber, of
+which the original version is also unique. There can be no doubt that
+the Ebner book-plate of 1516 is by Dürer; the much earlier Pirkheimer
+book-plate is intimately connected with the illustrations to the books
+by Celtes, and cannot be regarded as a certain work of the master
+himself, while the arms of Johann Tschertte are also doubted.
+
+It is a fortunate circumstance for the museums and collectors of
+to-day that Dürer’s prints have always been esteemed, and his monogram
+was held in such respect and so generally recognized as the mark of
+something good that they have been preserved during four centuries,
+while so much that was interesting was allowed to perish because it was
+unsigned or its signature was not recognized as the work of any one
+important. It may be paradoxical to say that Dürers are common; few of
+them are to be had at any particular moment when one wants to get them;
+but they are commoner than any other prints of their period, and a
+large number of impressions of some subjects must come into the market
+in the course of every ten years. But the sort of Dürer the collector
+wants, the really beautiful, fresh, clean impression, with the right
+watermark and genuine, unbroken border-line, is not, and never has
+been, common. It is surprising how few, even of the famous museums of
+Europe, have a really fine collection of the woodcuts, perhaps because
+so many of them were formed some generations ago in uncritical times,
+when people were apt to think it enough if the subject was represented,
+in whatever condition it might be. The first-rate proofs are scarce,
+and getting scarcer every year; when they are to be had, they should be
+grasped and treasured.
+
+
+
+
+SOME EARLY ITALIAN ENGRAVERS BEFORE THE TIME OF MARCANTONIO
+
+BY ARTHUR M. HIND
+
+Of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum
+
+Author of “Catalogue of Early Italian Engravings in the British
+Museum,” “Short History of Engraving and Etching,” “Rembrandt’s
+Etchings: an Essay and a Catalogue,” etc.
+
+
+Fifteenth-century Italian engraving is not an easy hunting-ground for
+the collector, but it is one of the most fascinating not less for its
+own sake than for the difficulty of securing one’s prize.
+
+From the time of Raphael onward Italian engraving presents an
+overwhelmingly large proportion of reproductions of pictures, and loses
+on that account its primary interest. But in the fifteenth and the
+early sixteenth century, the engravers, though for the most part less
+accomplished craftsmen, were artists of real independence. We may in
+some cases exaggerate this independence through not knowing the sources
+which they used, but the mere lack of that knowledge adds a particular
+interest to their prints. Treated not only in virtue of their special
+claim as engravings, but merely as designs, we find something in them
+which the paintings of the period do not offer us.
+
+In general, the presence and influence of one of the greater artistic
+personalities of the time may be recognized, but seldom definitely
+enough for us to trace the painter’s immediate direction. Mantegna is
+the most brilliant exception of a painter of first rank who is known
+to have handled the graver at this period. But forgetting the great
+names it is remarkable how in the early Renaissance in Italy even the
+secondary craftsmen produced work of the same inexpressible charm that
+pervades the great masterpieces.
+
+One of the most beautiful examples I can cite is the _Triumph of
+Bacchus and Ariadne_, which is known only in the British Museum
+impression. It has all the fascination of Botticelli’s style without
+being quite Botticelli--unless the engraver himself is to account for
+the coarsening in the drawing of individual forms. Mr. Herbert P.
+Horne, the great authority on Botticelli and his school, thinks it
+is by Bartolommeo di Giovanni (Berenson’s “Alunno di Domenico”). But
+whether immediately after Botticelli or after some minor artist of the
+school, there is the same delightful flow and rhythmic motion in the
+design that one thinks of in relation to Botticelli’s _Spring_.
+
+[Illustration: TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS AND ARIADNE
+
+After a design by a close follower of Botticelli, possibly by
+Bartolommeo di Giovanni
+
+“But whether immediately after Botticelli or after some minor artist of
+the school, there is the same delightful flow and rhythmic motion in
+the design that one thinks of in relation to Botticelli’s _Spring_....
+We could ill afford to lose the charm of the early Florentine _Triumph
+of Bacchus and Ariadne_ for all the finished beauty of Marcantonio’s
+_Lucretia_, and it is still the youth of artistic development, with its
+naïve joy and freshness of outlook, which holds us with the stronger
+spell.”
+
+Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Reproduced from the unique impression in the British Museum
+
+Size of the original engraving, 8⅛ × 22 inches]
+
+[Illustration: THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
+
+Florentine engraving, in the Broad Manner, after a design by Botticelli
+
+“Most important of all the contemporary engravings after Botticelli
+is the _Assumption of the Virgin_.... An original study by Botticelli
+for the figure of St. Thomas, who is receiving the girdle of the
+Virgin, is in Turin, and clinches the argument in favor of Botticelli’s
+authorship. The view of Rome, a record of Botticelli’s visit, is an
+interesting feature of the landscape.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 32⅝ × 22¼ inches]
+
+Botticelli was in early life under the immediate inspiration, if not
+in the very service, of the great goldsmith Pollaiuolo (witness his
+picture of _Fortitude_ in Florence). One almost expects in consequence
+that he may at some period have tried his hand at engraving, but there
+is no proof that he did anything besides supplying the engravers with
+designs. His chief connection with the engravers was in the series of
+plates done for Landino’s edition of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (Florence,
+1481). Altogether nineteen plates (and a repetition of one subject)
+are known, but although spaces are left throughout the whole edition
+for an illustration to each canto, it is only in rare copies that more
+than two or three are found. Even the fine presentation copy to
+Lorenzo de’ Medici (now in the National Library, Florence) is without
+a single plate, showing perhaps the small regard that was paid to
+engraving for book decoration at that period. This lack of appreciation
+and the difficulties (or double labor) the printers experienced in
+combining copperplate impressions with type led soon after this and
+a few other experiments of the period to the use of woodcut as the
+regular mode of book illustration for well over a century. Apart from
+the plates to this edition, Botticelli’s devotion to Dante is shown in
+the beautiful series of pen drawings--in the most subtly expressive
+outline--preserved at Berlin and in the Vatican. It seems on the whole
+probable that they are later than the 1481 edition, so that we cannot
+point to the original drawings for the prints.
+
+Most important of all the contemporary engravings after Botticelli
+is the _Assumption of the Virgin_, the largest of all the prints of
+the period (printed from two plates, and measuring altogether about
+82.5 × 56 cm.). An original study by Botticelli for the figure of St.
+Thomas, who is receiving the girdle of the Virgin, is in Turin, and
+clinches the argument in favor of Botticelli’s authorship. The view of
+Rome, a record of Botticelli’s visit, is an interesting feature of the
+landscape.
+
+This engraving is produced in what has been called the BROAD MANNER
+in contradistinction to the FINE MANNER, e.g. of the _Dante_ prints.
+In the BROAD MANNER the lines are laid chiefly in open parallels,
+and generally the shading is emphasized with a lighter return stroke
+laid at a small angle between the parallels. Its aim is essentially
+the imitation of pen drawing after the manner of such draughtsmen
+as Pollaiuolo and Mantegna. The FINE MANNER on the other hand shows
+shading in close cross-hatching (somewhat patchy and cloudy in effect
+in most of the early Florentine prints), and gives the appearance of
+imitating a wash drawing.
+
+The two manners may be well compared in the series of “Prophets and
+Sibyls,” which exists in two versions, the earlier being in the Fine,
+and the later in the Broad Manner. The first series shows a craftsman
+who drew largely from German sources (putting a _St. John_ of the
+Master E. S. into the habit of the _Libyan Sibyl_). In the second we
+have an artist who discarded all the ugly and awkward features which
+originated in the German originals, and showed throughout a far truer
+feeling for beauty and a much finer power of draughtsmanship than
+the earlier engraver. Mr. Herbert Horne suspects, rightly I think,
+that Botticelli himself directly inspired this transformation of the
+“Prophets and Sibyls.”
+
+Through our lack of knowledge of the engravers of this early period
+in Florence we are driven to a rather constant use of the somewhat
+unattractive distinctions of the Fine and Broad Manners. We may
+claim, however, to have advanced a little further in the elucidation
+of questions of authorship, though the great German authority on
+this period, Dr. Kristeller of Berlin, would still keep practically
+all the early Florentine engravings in an unassailable anonymity.
+This is of course better than classing all the engravings of the
+period and school, both in the Fine and Broad Manners, under the
+name of Baccio Baldini, which has long been the custom. A certain
+“Baccio, _orafo_” has been found in documents as buried in 1487,
+but there is practically nothing to connect his name with the
+substance of our prints. We would not on that account regard him as
+a myth, but are reduced at the moment to Vasari’s statement that
+“Baldini, the successor of Finiguerra in the Florentine school of
+engraving, having little invention, worked chiefly after designs by
+Botticelli.” Considering the fact that both Broad and Fine Manners
+(in all probability the output of two distinct workshops) show prints
+definitely after Botticelli, we are still in entire darkness as to the
+position of Baldini.
+
+[Illustration: THE LIBYAN SIBYL
+
+From a series of the “Prophets and Sibyls,” engraved in the Fine Manner
+of the Finiguerra School
+
+Size of the original engraving, 7 × 4¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: THE LIBYAN SIBYL
+
+From a series of the “Prophets and Sibyls,” engraved in the Broad
+Manner of the Finiguerra School
+
+Size of the original engraving, 7 × 4¼ inches]
+
+With regard to an important group of Fine Manner prints, Sir Sidney
+Colvin has given strong reasons for the attribution to Maso Finiguerra,
+made famous by Vasari as the inventor of the art of engraving.
+Considering Vasari’s evident error in regard to the discovery of
+engraving (for there were engravings in the north of Europe well before
+the earliest possible example of Finiguerra), modern students have
+been inclined to regard Finiguerra as much in the light of a myth as
+Baldini. But there is no lack of evidence as to his life and work, and
+without repeating the arguments here, which are given in full in Sir
+Sidney Colvin’s “Florentine Picture-Chronicle” (London, 1898), we would
+at least state our conviction that a considerable number of the early
+Florentine engravings, as well as an important group of nielli, must be
+from his hand. Vasari speaks of him as the most famous niello-worker
+in Florence, and he also speaks of his drawings of “figures clothed
+and unclothed, and histories” (the “figures” evidently the series
+traditionally ascribed to Finiguerra in Florence, but now for a large
+part labeled with an extreme of timidity “school of Pollaiuolo”; the
+“histories,” probably the “Picture-Chronicle” series, acquired from
+Mr. Ruskin for the British Museum). Then considering Vasari’s fuller
+statement that Finiguerra was also responsible for larger engravings in
+the light of a group of Florentine engravings which correspond closely
+in style with many of the only important group of Florentine nielli
+(chiefly in the collection of Baron Édouard de Rothschild, Paris) as
+well as with the Uffizi drawings, we can hardly escape the conviction
+that Vasari was correct in his main thesis. A curiously entertaining
+side-light is given by one of these engravings, the _Mercury_ for the
+series of “Planets.” Here we see the representation of a goldsmith’s
+shop in the streets of Florence, stocked just as we know from documents
+Finiguerra’s to have been. And the goldsmith is evidently engaged in
+engraving, not a niello, but a large copperplate.
+
+[Illustration: THE PLANET MERCURY
+
+Florentine engraving in the Fine Manner, attributed to Maso Finiguerra,
+or his school
+
+“A curiously entertaining side-light is given by one of these
+engravings, the _Mercury_ for the series of ‘Planets.’ Here we see
+the representation of a goldsmith’s shop in the streets of Florence,
+stocked just as we know from documents Finiguerra’s to have been. And
+the goldsmith is evidently engaged in engraving, not a niello, but a
+large copperplate.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 12¾ × 8⁹⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: A YOUNG MAN AND WOMAN EACH HOLDING AN APPLE
+
+A Florentine engraving in the Fine Manner, attributed to the school of
+Finiguerra
+
+“One of the “Otto Prints” (so called from the eighteenth-century
+collector who possessed the majority of the series), _A Young Man and
+Woman Each Holding An Apple_, is in the Gray Collection, Harvard, and
+it is a charming example of the amatory subjects of the series, prints
+such as the Florentine gallant might have pasted on the spice-box to
+be presented to his _inamorata_. The badge of Medici (the six “palle”
+with three lilies in the uppermost) added by a contemporary hand in
+pen and ink suggests that this one may have been used by the young
+Lorenzo himself between about 1465 and 1467, which accords well with
+the probable date of the engravings.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+(The inscription above reads _ò amore te qª_ (questa) and _piglia qª_:
+“O Love, this to you” and “Take this.”)
+
+Size of the original engraving, 4¼ × 4¼ inches]
+
+The engravings most certainly by Finiguerra, such as the _Judgment
+Hall of Pilate_ (Gotha), the _March to Calvary and the Crucifixion_
+(British Museum), _Various Wild Animals Hunting and Fighting_ (British
+Museum), are of course rarities which most collectors can never hope to
+possess. The same may also be said of somewhat later prints in the same
+manner of engraving (which may be the work of the heirs of Finiguerra’s
+atelier, which is known to have been carried on by members of his
+family until 1498), such as the Fine Manner “Prophets and Sibyls” and
+the “Otto Prints.” We will in consequence devote less space to these
+rarities, possessed chiefly by a few European collections, than their
+artistic interest would justify, keeping our argument henceforward
+more to the engravings that the American amateur has the chance of
+seeing or acquiring at home.
+
+One of the “Otto Prints” (so called from the eighteenth-century
+collector who possessed the majority of the series), _A Young Man and
+Woman Each Holding An Apple_, is in the Gray Collection, Harvard, and
+it is a charming example of the amatory subjects of the series, prints
+such as the Florentine gallant might have pasted on the spice-box to
+be presented to his _inamorata_. The badge of Medici (the six “palle”
+with three lilies in the uppermost) added by a contemporary hand in
+pen and ink suggests that this one may have been used by the young
+Lorenzo himself between about 1465 and 1467, which accords well with
+the probable date of the engravings.
+
+The only known engraving by the goldsmith and painter Antonio
+Pollaiuolo, the large _Battle of Naked Men_, shows a far greater artist
+than his slightly elder contemporary Finiguerra. They had both studied
+in the same workshop and probably continued a sort of partnership
+until Finiguerra’s death. Pollaiuolo’s draughtsmanship evinces a grip
+and intensity that Finiguerra entirely lacks in his somewhat torpid
+academic drawings, and it is seen at its best in this magnificently
+vigorous plate. An excellent impression, surpassed by few in the
+museums of Europe, is, I believe, in the collection of Mr. Francis
+Bullard of Boston.
+
+Before leaving Florence for north Italy we would allude to that
+attractive engraver of the transition period, Cristofano Robetta. His
+art has lost the finest flavor of the primitive Florentine without
+having succeeded to the sound technical system of the contemporaries
+of Dürer, but it has a thoroughly individual though delicate vein of
+fancy. The _Adoration of the Magi_, one of his finest plates, is a
+free translation of a picture by Filippino Lippi in the Uffizi, but
+the group of singing angels is an addition of his own, and done with
+a true sense for graceful composition. Fine early impressions of this
+print are of course difficult to get, but it is perhaps the best known
+of Robetta’s works, because of the number of modern impressions in the
+market. The original plate (with the _Allegory of the Power of Love_
+engraved on the back) belonged to the Vallardi Collection in the early
+nineteenth century, and is now in the British Museum, happily safe from
+the reprinter.
+
+Among the greatest rarities of early engraving in north Italy is
+the well-known series traditionally called the “Tarocchi Cards of
+Mantegna”--somewhat erroneously, for they are neither by Mantegna, nor
+Tarocchi, nor playing-cards at all. As in the case of the “Prophets
+and Sibyls,” there are two complete series of the same subjects by two
+different engravers. Each series consists of fifty subjects divided
+into five sections and illustrating: (1) the Sorts and Conditions of
+Men; (2) Apollo and the Muses; (3) the Arts and Sciences; (4) the Genii
+and Virtues; (5) the Planets and Spheres. A considerable number of the
+earliest impressions known are still in contemporary fifteenth-century
+binding, and it seems as if the series was intended merely as an
+instructive or entertaining picture-book for the young. There is the
+most absolute divergence of opinion as to which is the original series,
+and the student is encouraged to whet his critical acumen on the
+problem by the excellent set of reproductions which has recently been
+issued by the Graphische Gesellschaft and edited by Dr. Kristeller.
+Unfortunately Dr. Kristeller takes what seems to me an entirely wrong
+view of the matter. I cannot but feel that the more finely engraved
+series is at the same time the more ancient, and almost certainly
+Ferrarese in origin, so characteristic of Cossa is the type of these
+figures with large heads, rounded forms, and bulging drapery. The
+second series shows a more graceful sense of composition and spacing
+(the heads and figures being in better relation to the size of the
+print), but its very naturalism is to me an indication of its somewhat
+later origin. The less precise technical quality of this second series
+is closely related to the Florentine engravings in the Fine Manner,
+and I am inclined to regard it as the work of a Florentine engraver of
+about 1475 to 1480, i.e. about a decade later than the original set.
+
+[Illustration: ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO. BATTLE OF NAKED MEN
+
+“The only known engraving by the goldsmith and painter Antonio
+Pollaiuolo, the large _Battle of Naked Men_, shows a far greater
+artist than his slightly elder contemporary, Finiguerra. Pollaiuolo’s
+draughtsmanship evinces a grip and intensity that Finiguerra entirely
+lacks in his somewhat torpid academic drawings, and it is seen at its
+best in this magnificently vigorous plate.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Reproduced from the impression in the Print Department, Museum of Fine
+Arts, Boston
+
+Size of the original engraving, 15¹¹⁄₁₆ × 23⁷⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: CRISTOFANO ROBETTA. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
+
+“Cristofano Robetta’s art has lost the finest flavor of the primitive
+Florentine without having succeeded to the sound technical system of
+the contemporaries of Dürer, but it has a thoroughly individual though
+delicate vein of fancy. The _Adoration of the Magi_, one of his finest
+plates, is a free translation of a picture by Filippino Lippi in the
+Uffizi, but the group of singing angels is an addition of his own, and
+done with a true sense for graceful composition.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11⅝ × 11 inches]
+
+Leaving the pseudo-Mantegna for the master himself, we are in
+the presence of the greatest of the Italian engravers before
+Marcantonio--if not of all time. Like the Florentines, Mantegna was an
+ardent lover of antiquity, but his spirit was far more impassive, far
+more like the antique marble itself. His classical frame of mind was to
+some extent the offspring of his education in the school of Squarcione
+and in the academic atmosphere of Padua. His art has a monumental
+dignity which the Florentines never possessed, but it was without the
+freshness and inexpressible charm that pervade Tuscan art. An engraving
+like the _Risen Christ between St. Andrew and St. Longinus_ is an
+indication of the genius that might have made one of the noblest
+sculptors, and one regrets that he never carried to accomplishment the
+project of a monument to Vergil in Mantua, which Isabella d’Este wished
+him to undertake.
+
+Seven of the engravings attributed to Mantegna (including the _Risen
+Christ_) are so much above the rest in subtle expressiveness, as well
+as in technical quality, that we cannot but agree with Dr. Kristeller’s
+conclusion that these alone are by Mantegna’s hand, and the rest
+engraved after his drawings. They are similar to Pollaiuolo’s _Battle
+of Naked Men_ in style, engraved chiefly in open parallel lines of
+shading with a much more lightly engraved return stroke between the
+parallels. It is this light return stroke, exactly in the manner of
+Mantegna’s pen drawing, which gives the wonderfully soft quality to
+the early impressions. But it is so delicate that comparatively few
+printings must have worn it down, and the majority of impressions that
+come into the market show little but the outline and the stronger lines
+of shading. Even so these Mantegna prints do not lose the splendidly
+vigorous character of their design, but it is of course the fine early
+impressions which are the joy and allure of the true connoisseur. The
+seven certainly authentic Mantegna engravings are the _Virgin and
+Child_, the two _Bacchanals_, the two _Battles of the Sea-Gods_, the
+horizontal _Entombment_, and the _Risen Christ_, already mentioned.
+
+[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA. THE RISEN CHRIST BETWEEN ST. ANDREW AND
+ST. LONGINUS
+
+“Of all the early Italian engravers, Andrea Mantegna is by far the most
+powerful, though scarcely the most human. Like many of the Florentines,
+he was an ardent lover of antiquity, but his spirit was far more
+impassive than theirs, and far more like the antique marble itself. His
+art has a monumental dignity which the Florentines never possessed, but
+it lacks the freshness and inexpressible charm that pervade Tuscan art.
+His was a genius that would have made one of the noblest sculptors: the
+engraving of the _Risen Christ_ shows what he might have achieved in
+the field.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 15⁷⁄₁₆ × 12¹¹⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: ZOAN ANDREA(?). FOUR WOMEN DANCING
+
+This engraving, based on a study by Mantegna for a group in the Louvre
+picture of _Parnassus_, is one of the most beautiful prints of the
+school of Mantegna. It is most probably by Zoan Andrea.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 8⅞ × 13 inches]
+
+Nearest in quality to these comes the _Triumph of Caesar: the
+Elephants_, after some study for the series of cartoons now preserved
+at Hampton Court. But it lacks Mantegna’s distinction in drawing, and
+Zoan Andrea, who is probably the author of one of the anonymous
+engravings of _Four Women Dancing_ (based on a study for a group in the
+Louvre picture of _Parnassus_), one of the most beautiful prints of
+the school, was certainly capable of this achievement. Even Giovanni
+Antonio da Brescia, who did work of a very third-rate order after
+migrating to Rome, produced under Mantegna’s inspiration so excellent a
+plate as the _Holy Family_.
+
+Other prints attributed to Mantegna, such as the _Descent into Hell_
+and the _Scourging of Christ_, possess all Mantegna’s vigor of design,
+and reflect the master’s work in the manner of the Eremitani frescos,
+but we can hardly believe that they were engraved by the same hand
+as the “seven,” even supposing a considerably earlier date for their
+production.
+
+Each of Mantegna’s known followers (Zoan Andrea and G. A. da Brescia)
+entirely changed his manner of engraving after leaving the master; in
+fact, except in his immediate entourage, Mantegna’s style was continued
+by few of the Italian engravers. For all its dignified simplicity,
+it is more the manner of the draughtsman transferred to copper, than
+of the engraver brought up in the conventional use of the burin. We
+see Mantegna’s open linear style reflected in the earlier works of
+Nicoletto da Modena, and the Vicentine, Benedetto Montagna, but each of
+these engravers tended more and more in their later works to imitate
+the more professional style of the German engravers, and of Dürer in
+particular. Dürer was constantly copied by the Italian engravers of the
+early sixteenth century, and details from his plates (chiefly in the
+landscape background) were even more consistently plagiarized.
+
+In the example of Nicoletto da Modena, the _Adoration of the
+Shepherds_, which we reproduce, it is Dürer’s immediate predecessor,
+Martin Schongauer, from whom the chief elements in the subject are
+copied. But in this example the background, with its vista of lake with
+ships and a town, suggested no doubt by one of the subalpine Italian
+lakes, is thoroughly characteristic of the South, while Schongauer’s
+Gothic architecture is embellished with classical details. Isolated
+figures of saints or heathen deities against a piece of classical
+architecture, set in an open landscape, became the most frequent
+type of Nicoletto’s later prints, which are practically all of small
+dimensions.
+
+Like Nicoletto da Modena, Benedetto Montagna gradually developed
+throughout his life a more delicate style of engraving, entirely
+giving up the large dimensions and broad style of his _Sacrifice of
+Abraham_ for a series of finished compositions which from their smaller
+compass would have been well adapted for book illustration. Several of
+these, such as the _Apollo and Pan_, illustrate incidents in Ovid’s
+“Metamorphoses,” but there is no evidence for, and there is even
+probability against, their having ever been used in books. Several of
+the subjects are treated very similarly in the woodcuts of the 1497
+Venice edition of Ovid in the vernacular. When engravings and woodcuts
+thus repeat each other, the woodcutter is generally the copyist, but in
+this case the reverse is almost certainly the case, as the Ovid plates
+belong to Montagna’s later period, and could hardly have preceded 1500.
+
+[Illustration: NICOLETTO DA MODENA. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
+
+“In the _Adoration of the Shepherds_ it is Dürer’s immediate
+predecessor. Martin Schongauer, from whom the chief elements in the
+subject are copied. But in this example the background, with its
+vista of lake with ships and a town, suggested no doubt by one of the
+subalpine Italian lakes, is thoroughly characteristic of the South,
+while Schongauer’s Gothic architecture is embellished with classical
+details.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 9⅞ × 7¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: JACOPO DE’ BARBARI. APOLLO AND DIANA
+
+“Jacopo de’ Barbari is of peculiar interest as a link between the
+styles of Germany and the South. Whether of Northern extraction or not
+is uncertain, but the earlier part of his life was passed in Venice.
+Dürer was apparently much impressed by his art on his first visit to
+Venice between 1495 and 1497, and ... even seems to have taken an
+immediate suggestion for a composition from Barbari, i.e. for his
+_Apollo and Diana_. Dürer’s version shows a far greater virility and
+concentration of design, but for all its power it lacks the breezier
+atmosphere of Barbari’s print.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 6¼ × 3⅞ inches]
+
+Apart from Mantegna, Leonardo and Bramante are the two great names
+which have been connected with engravings of the period. But I incline
+to doubt whether either of them engraved the plates which have been
+attributed to them. The large _Interior of a Ruined Church_, splendid
+in design and reminiscent of the architect’s work in the sacristy of S.
+Satiro, Milan, might equally well have been engraved by a Nicoletto da
+Modena, with whose earlier style it has much in common. Of the prints
+attributed to Leonardo, the fascinating _Profile Bust of a Young Woman_
+(p. 252), unique impression in the British Museum, stands out from the
+rest for the sensitive quality of its outline, but even here I would be
+more ready to see the hand of an engraver like Zoan Andrea, who after
+leaving Mantua seems to have settled in Milan and done work in a finer
+manner influenced by the style of the Milanese miniaturists (such as
+the Master of the Sforza Book of Hours in the British Museum).
+
+In Venice Giovanni Bellini’s style is reflected in the dignified
+engravings of Girolamo Mocetto, and in the region of Bologna or Modena
+one meets the anonymous master “I B (with the Bird),” whose few
+engraved idyls are among the most alluring prints of the lesser masters
+of north Italy.
+
+More individual than Mocetto and far less dependent on any other
+contemporary painter is Jacopo de’ Barbari, who is of peculiar interest
+as a link between the styles of Germany and the South. Whether of
+Northern extraction or not is uncertain, but the earlier part of his
+life was passed in Venice. Dürer was apparently much impressed by
+his art on his first visit to Venice between 1495 and 1497, and his
+particular interest in the study of a Canon of Human Proportions was
+aroused by some figure-drawings which Barbari had shown him. Dürer even
+seems to have taken an immediate suggestion for a composition from
+Barbari, i.e. for his _Apollo and Diana_. Dürer’s version shows a far
+greater virility and concentration of design, but for all its power it
+lacks the breezier atmosphere of Barbari’s print; it is redolent of the
+study, while the latter has the charm of an open Italian landscape.
+There is a distinct femininity about Barbari; perhaps this very feature
+and the languorous grace of his treatment of line and the sinuous folds
+of drapery give his prints their special allure.
+
+I would close this article with some reference to two other engravers
+of great individuality of style--Giulio and Domenico Campagnola, of
+Padua.
+
+Domenico’s activity as a painter continued until after 1563, but
+the probable period of his line-engravings (about 1517-18), and his
+close connection with Giulio Campagnola (though the exact nature of
+the relationship is unexplained), justify his treatment among the
+precursors rather than in the wake of Marcantonio.
+
+Giulio Campagnola, like Giorgione, whose style he so well interpreted,
+was a short-lived genius. He was a young prodigy, famous at the tender
+age of thirteen as a scholar of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, besides being
+accomplished as a musician and in the arts of sculpture, miniature, and
+engraving. Little wonder that he did not long survive his thirtieth
+year. Probably his practice as an illuminator as well as his particular
+aim of rendering the atmosphere of Giorgione’s paintings led him to
+the method of using dots, or rather short flicks, in his engraving,
+which is in a sense an anticipation of the stipple process of the
+eighteenth century, though of course without the use of etching. Most
+of his prints are known in the two states--in pure line, and after the
+dotted work had been added.
+
+[Illustration: GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
+
+“One of the most splendid of his plates is the _St. John the Baptist_,
+with a dignity of design whose origin may probably be traced back to
+some drawing by Mantegna, though the landscape is of course thoroughly
+Paduan or Venetian in its character.” Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Reproduced from the impression in the Print Department, Museum of Fine
+Arts, Boston
+
+Size of the original engraving. 13⅝ × 9⁵⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: GIULIO AND DOMENICO CAMPAGNOLA. SHEPHERDS IN A LANDSCAPE
+
+“It is Giorgione again whom we see reflected in the _Shepherds in a
+Landscape_, a plate which seems to have been left unfinished by Giulio
+and completed by Domenico Campagnola. There is a drawing in the Louvre
+for the right half of the print, and there is every reason to think
+that this drawing as well as the engraving of that portion of the
+landscape is by Giulio. But the group of figures and trees on the left
+is entirely characteristic of the looser technical manner of Domenico.”
+Arthur M. Hind.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 5⅜ × 10⅛ inches]
+
+One of the most splendid of his plates is the _St. John the Baptist_,
+with a dignity of design whose origin may probably be traced back to
+some drawing by Mantegna, though the landscape is of course thoroughly
+Paduan or Venetian in its character. More completely characteristic,
+and the most purely Giorgionesque of all his prints, is the _Christ and
+the Woman of Samaria_, one of the most wonderfully beautiful of all the
+engravings of this period.
+
+It is Giorgione again whom we see reflected in the _Shepherds in a
+Landscape_, a plate which seems to have been left unfinished by Giulio
+and completed by Domenico Campagnola. There is a drawing in the Louvre
+for the right half of the print, and there is every reason to think
+that this drawing as well as the engraving of that portion of the
+landscape is by Giulio. But the group of figures and trees on the left
+is entirely characteristic of the looser technical manner of Domenico.
+The existence of a copy of the right-hand portion of the plate alone
+points to the existence of an unfinished state of the original, though
+no such impressions have been found. In any case it distinctly supports
+the theory that the other part of the original print was a later
+addition.
+
+We may have to admit in conclusion that there is nothing in Italian
+engraving before Marcantonio quite on a level with the achievement of
+Albrecht Dürer, but the indefinable allure that characterizes so much
+of the work of the minor Italian artists of the earlier Renaissance is
+more than enough compensation for any lack of technical efficiency.
+With Marcantonio we find this efficiency in its full development,
+joined to a remarkable individuality in the interpretation of sketches
+by Raphael and other painters. Yet we could ill afford to lose the
+charm of the early Florentine _Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne_ for all
+the finished beauty of Marcantonio’s _Lucretia_, and it is still the
+youth of artistic development, with its naïve joy and freshness of
+outlook, which holds us with the stronger spell.
+
+
+
+
+A PRINCE OF PRINT-COLLECTORS: MICHEL DE MAROLLES, ABBÉ DE VILLELOIN
+(1600-1681)
+
+BY LOUIS R. METCALFE
+
+
+The French make a fine distinction between three varieties of that very
+special individual to whom we refer in a general way as “a collector.”
+They have always been authorities on that subject and one of them has
+said: “On est amateur par goût, connaisseur par éducation, curieux
+par vanité.” While another adds: “Ou par spéculation.” By “collector”
+we simply mean a person who has formed the habit of acquiring the
+things in which he is particularly interested, and these in as many
+varieties as possible. It implies neither an artistic pursuit nor a
+deep knowledge of the subject. By _curieux_, however, is meant, as a
+rule, an _amateur_, a man of taste who collects things which pertain
+to art exclusively; he is in most cases a _connaisseur_, and always an
+enthusiast.
+
+Paris, the home of taste, has never been that of the _curieux_ more
+so than at the present day, when, it seems, every one who can afford
+a rent of over four thousand francs has a hobby of some sort and is
+a mad collector. A general history of the weakness for things either
+beautiful or odd or rare, or merely fashionable, would be both
+voluminous and chaotic, if a distinction were not made between that
+which pertained to art and that which did not. A complete description
+of the latter, a hopelessly heterogeneous mass, would make an amusing
+volume, for there is no end to the variety of things in which vanity
+and folly have caused human beings to become interested to the point of
+collecting in large numbers.
+
+George IV collected saddles; the Princess Charlotte and many others,
+shells. Tulips were so madly sought after in Holland that one root
+was exchanged for 460 florins, together with a new carriage, a pair
+of horses, and a set of harness. Shop-bills and posters have been
+the specialty of many, while thousands of persons have collected
+postage-stamps and coins. A Mr. Morris had so many snuff-boxes that it
+was said he never took two pinches of snuff out of the same box. A Mr.
+Urquhart collected the halters with which criminals had been hanged;
+and another enthusiast, the masks of their faces. Suett, a comedian,
+collected wigs, and another specialist owned as many as fifteen hundred
+skulls, Anglo-Saxon and Roman. If there have been men who have shown a
+propensity to collect wives, Evelyn tells us in his diary:
+
+“In 1641 there was a lady in Haarlem who had been married to her
+twenty-fifth husband, and, having been left a widow, was prohibited
+from marrying in future; yet it could not be proved that she had ever
+made any of her husbands away, though the suspicion had brought her
+divers times to trouble.”
+
+Although we much regret that such an intensely interesting work as a
+Comprehensive History of Collecting has never been written, we realize
+that a mere description of rare and beautiful objects would be
+unsatisfactory as long as we did not know their history and the way in
+which they had been gathered together. It is the soul of the collector
+which we should like to see laid bare. Was his work a labor of vanity
+or one of love? Were his possessions mere playthings, speculation, to
+him, or did they represent treasures of happiness greater than all the
+gold in Golconda?
+
+Without a doubt, it is one thing to collect what is highly prized on
+all sides, with large means at one’s disposal, and the constant advice
+of experts, and quite another to search patiently oneself for things
+which the general public has not yet discovered, and then to acquire
+them with difficulty.
+
+Who shall know with what admirable zeal some collectors have made
+themselves authorities on the things which they loved? with what
+untiring energy they have sifted for years masses of trash in the
+hope of finding the hidden pearl? Who can tell the inner history of
+the auction-room, the heart-beats of those who were after the jewel
+which no one else seemed to have noticed, the sacrifices which many
+with a slender purse have made in order to secure the precious “find,”
+and lastly the enjoyment which they ever afterward derived from its
+possession? Many of the great French collections of the last century
+were made in this spirit: they were begun with a modest outlay and
+devoted to things which, at that time, no one else wanted. I know of
+one of the first collectors of Eastern Art in the nineteenth century,
+who at one time had greatly to reduce his household in order to satisfy
+his passion for Japanese vases; and of another wealthy enthusiast who
+would travel third-class to London to secure an old Roman bronze. The
+history of such collections becomes that of human beings for whom life
+is nothing without beauty, and it is too personal to be recorded. The
+collector will seldom believe that his enthusiasm can be understood by
+others besides himself: maybe, also, he would be unwilling to reveal
+the more or less innocent subterfuges to which he had recourse in order
+to acquire more than one of his treasures.
+
+The American chapter of such a history is the most recent one, and the
+world is now watching its development with bated breath. The art of
+the Old World is being imported by the ship-load; fortunes are paid
+for single paintings, while the paneled wainscots of French châteaux,
+the ceilings of Italian palaces, the colonnades of their gardens,
+and the tapestries of the Low Countries, not to mention a hundred
+varieties of _objets d’art_, are constantly wending their way to the
+treasure-houses--still in course of construction--of the New World. All
+this is taking place to the indignation of Europeans and the æsthetes
+who consider such a radical change of background a desecration, and do
+not stop to think that this transplantation is hardly more unnatural
+than the sight of the Elgin marbles in foggy London, or the winged
+bulls of Ecbatana in the halls of the Louvre.
+
+So long as we as a nation will learn a much-needed lesson and thereby
+greatly improve our taste, let all honor and glory be given to those
+who have been responsible for such valuable acquisitions. Our American
+collections already contain many “gems of purest ray serene,” and who
+will dare say that they are not destined to become in time worthy
+successors of the famous ones which have preceded them?
+
+From the writings of Pliny and other classic historians, and from
+several catalogues and rare documents which have come down to us from
+the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we have abundant proof that
+there never was a time when works of art were not treasured. Cicero,
+Atticus, and Varro collected writings, and the libraries of Aristotle,
+Theophrastus, and that of Epaphroditus of Chæronea, which contained
+thirty-two thousand manuscripts, were famous. Hannibal was a lover of
+bronzes: it was he who owned the little Hercules of Lysippus which the
+master himself had presented to Alexander the Great and which afterward
+became the property of Sulla.
+
+Both Pompey and Julius Cæsar possessed splendid masterpieces of that
+Greek art which was so highly prized in Italy. The Venus of the
+Hermitage comes from Cæsar’s gallery, and the Jupiter of the Louvre
+from that of Antony; while the Faun with the Child, and the Borghese
+vase, now treasured in the Louvre, were once among the possessions of
+Sallust in his palace on the Quirinal. Not only sculpture was collected
+in those times, for we also hear of the tapestries of Saurus, valued
+at twenty millions in the currency of the day; the jewelry of Verres,
+reputed the finest in existence; the priceless crystals of Pollio; and
+the two thousand vases of precious stone owned by Mithridates, King of
+Pontus.
+
+Throughout the Middle Ages the _trésor_ of the kings and the most
+powerful nobles was in reality their collection. That of Dagobert was
+the result of four Italian conquests. The inventory of the jewels of
+the Duc d’Anjou, son of John the Good, contains 796 numbers, while
+his brother, the Duc de Berry, had a passion for reliquaries, old
+church ornaments, and rare manuscripts which he caused to be mounted
+like jewels. The library of Charles V and his _trésor_ were valued
+at twenty millions of francs, and the collection of curiosities of
+Ysabeau de Bavière had not its equal. It contained, among other things,
+an ivory box in which was kept the cane with which Saint Louis used
+to flagellate himself. The Dukes of Burgundy for centuries were the
+greatest collectors of richly inlaid armor. And what of the treasures
+of Jacques Cœur, the great banker of Charles VII? With his fleet of
+trading-vessels and his many banking-houses he secured the pick of the
+market. We know that his silverware was piled up to the ceiling in the
+vaults of his palace at Bourges.
+
+In the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ for the year 1869 we read a description
+of the home of Jacques Duchié, a famous art collector who flourished
+during the first half of the fifteenth century. In the courtyard
+were peacocks and a variety of rare birds. In the first room was a
+collection of paintings and decorated signs; in the second, all kinds
+of musical instruments--harps, organs, viols, guitars, and psalterions.
+In the third was a great number of games, cards and chessmen; and
+in the adjoining chapel, rare missals on elaborately carved stands.
+In the fourth room the walls were covered with precious stones and
+sweet-smelling spices, while on those of the next was hung a great
+variety of furs. From these rooms one proceeded to halls filled with
+rich furniture, carved tables, and decorated armor.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MICHAEL DE MAROLLES, ABBÉ DE VILLELOIN
+
+Engraved by Claude Mellan, from his own design from life, in 1648]
+
+[Illustration: _Illustrissimi Viri L. H. Haberti Monmory libellorum
+Supplicum Magistri, EPIGRAMMA in Effigiem_
+
+_MICHAELIS DE MAROLLES Abbatis de Villeloin._
+
+_Nobilitas, Virtus, Pietas, Doctrina MAROLLI Debuerant Sacrà cingere
+fronde comam._
+
+_Nantüeil ad viuum faciebat 1657_]
+
+The Renaissance was the Golden Age of Collectors. What could have
+withstood the influence of that tremendous movement? The art of Italy
+and the magnificence of the nobility and the princes of the Church
+shed, like the Augustan Age, a golden glamour over civilization.
+
+The Médicis set the example, and they were closely followed by the
+Sforzas, the Farneses, and the Gonzagas. The patronage of the Fine Arts
+was on such a scale, and the rivalry among the collectors so keen, that
+in 1515 there were in Rome thirty-nine cardinals who had veritable
+museums for palaces. It was for Agostino Chigi that Raphael decorated
+that Farnesina Villa in which such treasures were stored, and for whom,
+later, he designed those plates on which parrots’ tongues were served
+to Leo X.
+
+What a rage for beauty there was when Baldassarre Castiglione advised
+all the sons of noble families to study painting, in order that they
+might become better judges of architecture, sculpture, vases, medals,
+intaglios, and cameos. What a madness for antiques, when Cardinal San
+Giorgio sent back to Michelangelo his “Amorino” because he considered
+it too modern. Would that we could follow the vicissitudes through
+which went the great collections of the day--the drawings of Vasari,
+the books of Aldus and Pico della Mirandola, the armor of Cellini, the
+portraits of Paolo Giovio and the medals of Giulio Romano!
+
+Certain is it that many of their treasures eventually crossed the Alps.
+It was after Charles VIII had shown to the élite of his nation “the
+remnants of antiquity gilded by the sun of Naples and of Rome” that the
+French Renaissance, already well on its way, received new inspiration,
+and that the French collectors renewed their activity. Judging by the
+fabulous accounts given by the country-folk, the contents of many
+a turreted castle on the Loire must have been wonderful, indeed.
+Following the lead of Francis I, who had his library, his _pavillon
+d’armes_, and his _cabinet de curiosités_, and the example of Catherine
+de Médicis, who had brought from Italy many of her family’s treasures,
+the leading nobles, like Georges d’Amboise in his Château de Gaillon,
+collected beautiful things with admirable catholicity. It was not only
+books in sumptuous bindings which were sought after by Louis XII and
+the Valois, Diane de Poitiers, Queen Margot, Amyot, and de Thou, but
+art in every form. In the case of Grolier himself, are we not told
+by Jacques Strada, in his “Epithome du Thrésor des Curiositez,” that
+“great was the number of objects of gold, silver, and copper in perfect
+condition, and remarkable the variety of statues in bronze and marble,
+which his agents were collecting for him all over the world”?
+
+Most significant is the inventory of the collection of Florimond
+Robertet, the able treasurer of the royal finances under Charles
+VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, which was made in 1532 by Michelle
+de Longjumeau, his widow. Never was a catalogue such a labor of love
+as this one. It is a detailed description of the entire contents of
+a museum on which a great financier spent his entire fortune; it is
+full of significant touches concerning the customs of the time and
+the origin and use of the objects described; and it bears witness to
+the great enjoyment which both husband and wife derived from their
+treasures throughout their lifetime. There were many jewels and some
+pear-shaped pearls of great size, silver andirons, thirty sets of silks
+and tapestries, bronzes and ivories. Among the paintings and sculpture
+were a canvas and a statue by Michelangelo. The porcelain was the first
+brought to France from China, and there was much pottery from Turkish
+lands and Flanders, French faïence, Italian majolica, church ornaments,
+precious books, and four hundred pieces of Venetian glass, “gentillisez
+des plus jolies gayetez que les verriers sauraient inventer.”
+
+It was the religious wars of the end of the century which brought
+French collecting to a stop. Constant strife and persecution
+discouraged the last artists of the Renaissance, ruined many a noble
+family, and scattered the contents of their palaces. Not until years
+afterward, during the seventeenth century, was it taken up again; then
+it was to reach great brilliancy during the reign of Louis XIV. The
+leading families of France began to rebuild their collections when
+Henry IV and his favorite, Gabrielle d’Estrées, indulged their fondness
+for medals, cameos, and intaglios, and Marie de Médicis had brought
+from Tuscany those paintings which she considered such an indispensable
+luxury. In after years Louis XIII collected armor; Anne of Austria,
+delicate bindings; and Richelieu, finely chased silverware. And when
+Louis XIV began to reign, Paris was the proud center of the collecting
+world. From this time on we have full records of the treasures amassed
+by many people of taste and culture and we are able to follow them into
+the following century, no matter how often they change hands--this,
+thanks to specialists like Felibien and Germain Brice and the
+thousand references to art in the memoirs of the time. In 1673 there
+were in Paris eighty-five important art collectors who owned among
+them seventy-three libraries, and twenty years later this number had
+increased to one hundred and thirty-four, a remarkable development for
+such a short space of time.
+
+The greatest example was set by Cardinal Mazarin and Fabri du Peiresc.
+The wily Italian who had succeeded Richelieu gave as much time to his
+collections as to the ship of state, and his fellow-grafter, Nicolas
+Fouquet, treasurer of the kingdom, was allowed to make himself the
+most powerful man in France just as long as he was able to supply his
+Eminence with the millions he was so constantly in need of for the army
+and his gold-threaded tapestries and busts of Roman emperors. Just
+before his death. Mazarin had himself carried through a gallery lined
+with 400 marbles, nearly 500 canvases (among them seven Raphaels), and
+50,000 volumes, while he kept weeping and exclaiming: “Faudra-t-il
+quitter tout cela?” In the south of France, Fabri du Peiresc, great
+savant and collector, had agents in constant quest of rarities. It is
+related that “no ship entered a port in France without bringing for
+his collections some rare example of the fauna and flora of a distant
+country, some antique marble, a Coptic, Arab, Chinese, Greek, or Hebrew
+manuscript, or some fragment excavated from Asia or Greece.”
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. JULES, CARDINAL MAZARIN
+
+Engraved in 1655 when Mazarin was fifty-three years of age Size of the
+original engraving, 12⅝ × 9½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. LOUIS XIV
+
+Engraved in 1664, from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life Louis was
+twenty-six years of age when this portrait was engraved
+
+Size of the original engraving, 15⅜ × 12 inches]
+
+By this time there was a new fine art to be collected seriously--that
+of Engraving. To the masterpieces of Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, and
+Marcantonio, now over a century old, had succeeded the spirited
+etchings of Callot. It was he who first popularized the art in
+France and paved the way for the enthusiastic appreciation of Morin,
+Mellan, and Nanteuil. The school of engravers established by Colbert
+at the Gobelins made their art rank in importance with Painting and
+Sculpture, and their work won such popular favor that many engravers
+became publishers, and did a great business selling their prints and
+those of their pupils to the leading collectors. The first man of taste
+to make a serious collection of engravings was Claude Maugis, Abbé
+de Saint Ambroise, almoner to the Queen, Marie de Médicis. He spent
+forty years making a collection which at his death was sold to Charles
+Delorme, that physician-in-ordinary to Henry IV and Louis XIII of whom
+Callot has made such an interesting little portrait. It was when the
+first part of the Delorme Collection and that of a Sieur de Kervel had
+been added to his own possessions by the Abbé de Marolles that there
+was begun the greatest collection of prints and drawings ever assembled.
+
+Michel de Marolles, Abbé de Villeloin, was one of the most picturesque
+figures of the seventeenth century. He was born in Touraine in 1600,
+and died in 1681, the son of the gallant Claude de Marolles, _maréchal
+de camp_ in the army of Louis XIII, who had won a famous duel fought
+in the presence of two armies in the War of the Ligue. His life was
+indeed a peaceful one. At the age of twenty-six, after having pursued
+a complete course of studies, he was presented by Richelieu with the
+abbey of Villeloin in Touraine, and for the remainder of his days he
+drew its income, cultivated the most interesting people in France,
+translated the classics, wrote his memoirs, and collected prints as no
+one ever did before him, or after. Truly, an ideal existence!
+
+Although he tells us that at the age of nine he decorated the walls of
+his bedroom with prints given him by a Carthusian monk, we know that
+for the first half of his life the Abbé de Villeloin did little more
+than collect friends. This must have given him little trouble, for his
+rank gained him admission to the entire nobility, and his appreciation
+of literature and the fine arts enabled him to carry on a friendly
+intercourse with the best-known artists and _connoisseurs_. During
+this intercourse there was a constant exchange of gifts; in fact, to
+receive presents seemed to have been the Abbé’s object in life. In his
+“Memoirs” there are one hundred and fifty pages devoted to a complete
+enumeration of all the persons who have presented him with a gift, or
+“honored him extraordinarily by their civility,” and the list includes
+the best-known personages of the day.
+
+What did de Marolles give them in return, besides the pleasure of his
+company and the charm of his appreciation? A mass of bad translations
+of the classics: that was the great weakness of the Abbé de Villeloin.
+Chapelain, the poet, complained of it in a curious letter to Heinsius,
+saying:
+
+“That fellow has vowed to translate all the classic authors, and has
+almost reached the end of his labors, having spared neither Plautus
+nor Lucretius nor Horace nor Virgil nor Juvenal nor Martial, nor many
+others. Your Ovid and Seneca have as yet fought him off, but I do
+not consider them saved, and all the mercy they can expect is that
+of the Cyclops to Ulysses--to be devoured last.” That Chapelain was
+not the only one who did not appreciate the literary talent of the
+Abbé, and that he often found difficulty in finding publishers for his
+translations, is admitted by de Marolles himself when, in his poem on
+“The City of Paris,” he says:
+
+ “J’ai perdu des amis par un rare caprice
+ Quand je leur ai donné des livres que j’ai faits
+ Comme gens offensés, sans pardonner jamais
+ Bien qu’on n’ait point blessé leur méchant artifice.”
+
+But it is not as a man of letters that de Marolles interests us: it is
+as a great lover of the art of Engraving and the greatest collector of
+prints in history. Not until he had reached the age of forty-four did
+he begin to collect them systematically. Then he purchased the first
+part of the Delorme Collection for one thousand _louis d’or_, the
+prints owned by Kervel, and those of several other small collectors.
+His activity was so great that nine years later, in his memoirs, he was
+able to refer to this collection as follows:
+
+“God has given me grace to devote myself to pictures without
+superstition, and I have been able to acquire a collection numbering
+more than 70,000 engravings of all subjects. I began it in 1644, and
+have continued it with so much zeal, and with such an expense for one
+not wealthy, that I can claim to possess some of the work of all the
+known masters, painters as well as engravers, who number more than 400.”
+
+He further adds:
+
+“I have found that collecting such things was more suited to my purse
+than collecting paintings, and more serviceable to the building up of a
+library. Had we in France a dozen such collectors among the nobility,
+there would not be enough prints to satisfy them all, and the works
+of Dürer, Lucas, and Marcantonio, for which we now pay four and five
+hundred _écus_ when in perfect condition, would be worth three times
+that amount.... It seems to me that princes and noblemen who are
+collecting libraries should not neglect works of this kind, as long
+as they contain so much information on beautiful subjects; but I know
+of no one who has undertaken to do this except for medals, flowers,
+architecture, machines, and mathematics.”
+
+The collection of the Abbé de Marolles had become so famous by 1666,
+that Colbert, after having had it examined and appraised by Felibien
+and Pierre Mignard, advised Louis XIV to purchase it for the royal
+library. The deed was signed in 1667, and in the following year
+the Abbé de Villeloin received from the royal treasury the sum of
+twenty-six thousand livres ($25,000) for what was described in a
+seal-colored document as “un grand nombre d’estampes des plus grands
+maîtres de l’antiquité.” Let us see what this meant.
+
+De Marolles tells us himself, in his catalogue of 1666, that his
+collection consisted of 123,400 original drawings and prints, the
+work of over 6000 artists, and that it was contained in 400 large
+and 141 small volumes. As to the variety of subjects represented, it
+had no end: it included, for instance, landscapes, views of cities,
+architecture, fountains, vases, statues, flowers, gardens, jewelry,
+lacework, machines, grotesques, animals, costumes, decoration, anatomy,
+dances, comedies, jousts, heraldry, games, heroic fables, religious
+subjects, massacres, tortures, and over 10,000 portraits.
+
+In describing his collection to Colbert, the Abbé made especial note of
+his greatest treasures as follows:
+
+“_Leonardo da Vinci._ His work is in 5 pieces.
+
+“_Anthony van Dyck._ There are 210 plates after his work, of which 14
+are etched by his own hand.
+
+“_Marcantonio_ from Bologna, that excellent engraver who has done such
+beautiful work after Dürer, Mantegna, Raphael, and Michelangelo, is the
+greatest of all engravers, and the one whose works are the most sought
+after. I own 570 of them, in two volumes.
+
+“_Andrea and Benedetto Mantegna._ The work of the former is in 104
+pieces, that of the latter in 74, all rare, making 178 pieces in all,
+some of which are engraved by Marcantonio.
+
+“_Lucas van Leyden_, excellent painter and engraver, of whom I have
+collected in one volume all the works engraved both on copper and on
+wood, besides 25 drawings in pen and pencil from his own hand, all
+very singular. I have 180 of these engravings, many in duplicate, all
+of great beauty, among them the portrait of Eulenspiegel, unique in
+France, the other having been sold more than twelve years ago for 16
+_louis d’or_. Among the woodcuts, the Kings of Israel are here done in
+chiaroscuro, and unique in this state.
+
+“_Albert Dürer._ One folio volume, bound in vellum, contains 12
+portraits of the artist by various masters; 15 drawings by his own
+hand, which are singular and priceless; his three plates on brass
+[_sic_], his six etched plates, and all his copper engravings in
+duplicate, with three impressions of Maximilian’s sword-hilt, all
+having been collected by the Abbé de Saint Ambroise, almoner of Queen
+Marie de Médicis....
+
+“_Rhinbrand_ [_sic_]. The work of this Dutch painter and etcher
+consists of many prints, of which I have collected 224, among which are
+portraits and fancy subjects most curious.”
+
+He further adds that he possesses 192 original crayon portraits by
+Lagneau, a successor of the Clouets, and 50 by Dumonstier, and that the
+prints of the old masters of Italy, Germany, and Flanders are contained
+in 19 folio volumes.
+
+After this enormous collection had passed into the hands of the King,
+the Abbé de Marolles was engaged to catalogue and classify it, and also
+to superintend the binding of its 541 volumes. For this he received on
+two occasions a payment of 1200 livres. The binding was done in full
+levant morocco, decorated with the royal arms, Louis’s monogram, and
+richly tooled borders; for this purpose 500 green and 1200 crimson
+skins had been specially imported from the East.
+
+Our indefatigable collector had hardly parted with the result of the
+labor of twenty-two years when he began the formation of a second
+collection. To the second part of the Delorme Collection which he then
+purchased were added the prints of MM. Odespunck and la Reynie, the
+collection of M. Petau, who had made a specialty of portraits, and that
+of the Sieur de la Noue, which contained a great number of original
+drawings. We know very little about this second collection of the
+Abbé de Marolles, except that when it was catalogued in 1672 it was
+contained in 237 folios. What became of it has never been ascertained;
+in all probability it found its way into the print-cabinets of the many
+_amateurs_ of the end of the century. It is evident that he wished to
+dispose of it, probably for the purpose of starting a third collection,
+for we have a letter on the subject addressed to M. Brisacier,
+_secrétaire des commandements de la Reine_, of whom Masson made that
+famous engraved plate known as “The Gray-haired Man.” In it de Marolles
+describes his second collection as being hardly less important than
+the one he had previously sold to the King, and as containing a great
+number of masterpieces which were unique.
+
+Not satisfied with such extensive researches in the realm of art,
+the Abbé de Villeloin decided to record all his information on the
+subject, and in the spring of 1666 announced the title of a colossal
+work on which he was engaged as: “Une histoire très ample des peintres,
+sculpteurs, graveurs, architectes, ingenieurs, maîtres-écrivains,
+orfèvres, menuisiers, brodeurs, jardiniers et autres artisans
+industrieux, où il est fait mention de plus de dix mille personnes,
+aussi bien que d’un très grand nombre d’ouvrages considérables, avec
+une description exacte et naīve des plus belles estampes ou de celles
+qui peuvent servir à donner beaucoup de connaissances qui seraient
+ignorées sans cela.” This work was, unfortunately, never published, and
+its manuscript has never been found; it would have been a wonderful
+compendium of French art during the seventeenth century, and would have
+given us much precious information concerning a number of prominent
+engravers of whom so little is known to-day.
+
+All that remains of it is the summary, written in bad verse and
+published under the title of “Le livre des peintres et des graveurs.”
+It is a curious little book, containing little more than the names of
+thousands of artists who were obscure in their day and who are now
+completely forgotten. To many of them, however, and particularly to
+the most prominent, are affixed such descriptive little touches, that
+what would otherwise have been a monotonous pattern becomes an original
+piece of historical ornament.
+
+As to the “Memoirs” of the Abbé de Marolles, they possess the same
+defect as many other autobiographies of the time: they were published
+too soon, and they prove how anxious the author was to witness the
+sensation he thought he would make. In this case they were published
+in 1653, fourteen years before the Abbé had sold his first collection,
+and they tell us little more than that he possessed a very extended
+circle of acquaintances who thought the world of him on account of
+his patronage of the fine arts and his literary talent. It is evident
+that he included himself among his most sincere admirers, and that he
+regarded the friendship of such a charming woman as Louise-Marie de
+Gonzague, who later became Queen of Poland, and the incense which all
+the engravers in France ostentatiously scattered before him, as both
+natural and deserved. Claude Mellan, Poilly, and Robert Nanteuil were
+on particularly friendly terms with him, each in turn engraving his
+portrait from life, the last with such delicacy and finish that that
+plate ranks among his most successful portraits. Mellan, furthermore,
+engraved the portraits of his parents, Claude de Marolles and Agatha
+Castiglione.
+
+[Illustration: AGATHA CASTIGLIONE
+
+Wife of Claude de Marolles and mother of Michel de Marolles, Abbé de
+Villeloin
+
+Engraved by Claude Mellan from his own design
+
+Size of the original engraving, 6¼ × 5 inches]
+
+[Illustration: CLAUDE DE MAROLLES
+
+Father of Michel de Marolles, Abbé de Villeloin Engraved by Claude
+Mellan from his own design
+
+Size of the original engraving, 9¼ × 7⅜ inches]
+
+The tastes and the mania for collecting of the Abbé de Villeloin were
+so well known that it is not impossible that it was he of whom La
+Bruyère was thinking when, in his famous “Caractères,” he gives the
+following description of a collector:
+
+“‘You wish to see my prints,’ says Democenes, and he forthwith brings
+them out and sets them before you. You see one which is neither dark
+nor clear nor completely drawn, and better fit to decorate on a holiday
+the walls of the Petit Pont or the Rue Neuve than to be treasured in a
+famous collection. He admits that it is engraved badly and drawn worse,
+but hastens to inform you that it is the work of an Italian artist who
+produced very little, and that the plate had hardly any printing; that,
+moreover, it is the only one of its kind in France; that he paid much
+for it, and would not exchange it for something far better. ‘I am,’
+he adds, ‘in such a serious trouble that it will prevent any further
+collecting. I have all of Callot but one print, which is not only not
+one of his best plates, but actually one of his worst; nevertheless, it
+would complete my Callot. I have been looking for it for twenty years,
+and, despairing of success, I find life very hard, indeed.’”
+
+This is admirably descriptive of a born collector; and what would have
+been a ridiculous mania in a philistine became a natural attitude
+on the part of such a _connaisseur_ as the Abbé de Marolles. In our
+eyes his weaknesses were insignificant, and we forgive him his bad
+translations, his unpublished history of Art, and the rather monotonous
+self-sufficiency of his Memoirs, for the encouragement which his
+honest enthusiasm and indomitable collecting gave to the artists
+who made the Golden Age of Engraving--for having been the Prince of
+Print-collectors.
+
+
+
+
+JEAN MORIN
+
+1600-1666
+
+BY LOUIS R. METCALFE
+
+
+The Exhibitions of French Engraved Portraits of the Seventeenth Century
+recently made at the New York Public Library and at the Boston Museum
+of Fine Arts, give one an excellent idea of the vogue of the portrait
+and the excellence attained by that remarkable school of engravers
+which flourished under the auspices of Louis XIV. A score of masters
+are represented, from Michael Lasne to the superb Nanteuil, and their
+models, the most representative personages of that grand century of
+French history, whether plotters against Henry IV, friends and foes of
+Richelieu or flatterers of Louis XIV, stand proudly on parade for the
+twentieth-century American, in all their glory of immense wigs, armor
+and lace collars, or in the quieter garb of prelates and counselors to
+the king. It is a remarkable illustration to the history of a great
+period. The nobility represented the survival of the fittest, for in
+the early part of the century four thousand of them had died in those
+street duels which Richelieu had abolished only with the help of the
+executioner. As to the clergy, no wonder that so many of those portly
+prelates could afford to have their portraits painted and engraved:
+the wealth of the church had never been greater. Their example was
+followed by every one of any importance in the public eye; he had his
+portrait made with no more hesitation than one has nowadays to sit to a
+photographer of recognized excellence.
+
+It was the Golden Age of Portrait-painting, for they were the days of
+Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt and that host of splendid Dutch artists
+for whom physiognomy had no secrets. They in turn inspired Philippe de
+Champaigne and, later, Lebrun and Mignard, Rigaud and Largillière. Many
+of their glorious canvases have long been public property and remain
+to-day enshrined in national museums, but many more have for years
+remained jealously guarded heirlooms in private collections, and have
+been known only to a few. Many of those which have not been destroyed
+have become so altered by time and damaged by faulty restoration that
+they hardly do justice to their creators.
+
+Thanks to the engraver, these portraits are just as alive to-day as
+when they were painted, for in an engraving there is no paint to
+fade or darken, no values to become altered. A brilliant impression
+of an early state remains to-day what it was when it emerged from
+the master’s hand two and a half centuries ago. Such collections as
+are now exhibited represent more than brilliant examples of an art
+which is lost; they are historical and artistic documents of great
+importance, and the French Engravers of the Seventeenth Century deserve
+infinite praise for having showed all the possibilities of an art
+which, as Longhi claims in his book _La Calcografia_, “publishes and
+immortalizes the portraits of eminent men for the example of present
+and future generations, better than any other serving as the vehicle
+for the most extended and remote propagation of deserved celebrity.”
+
+Among the many artists who were responsible for the Golden Age of
+Engraving, Jean Morin occupies a unique position. He was born in
+1600 and died in 1666. Morin has the distinction of having not only
+immediately preceded and influenced the master of them all, Nanteuil,
+but also of having produced fifty portraits which, in contradistinction
+to all other reproductive engravers, he etched instead of engraved
+with the burin. It is difficult, however, to realize what a strikingly
+original and personal artist he was, without first considering in what
+stage of development his first efforts had found the art.
+
+When had engraved portraiture begun in France? We must look for its
+first steps in the illustrations of the books which were published
+during the second half of the sixteenth century; they teem with
+carefully executed small-sized portraits which, as a rule, were framed
+in decorative cartouches and bore lengthy inscriptions. Very few of
+them have been drawn from life; the first engravers, not trusting
+their own powers, were content to copy those exquisitely sensitive
+and delicate drawings, the crayon portraits which the Clouets made of
+royalty and the court at the time of Francis I, Henry II, and Catherine
+de Medicis. They are a wonderful pendant to Holbein’s drawings of the
+courtiers of Henry VIII. The finest are now hanging in the famous
+Gallery of Psyche at Chantilly. Nothing can describe the subtlety with
+which the artist has combined refinement and realism and drawn with
+delicate color the features of the famous personages of those tragic
+times.
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. LOUIS XIII, KING OF FRANCE
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11⅜ × 9⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. ANNE OF AUSTRIA, REGENT OF FRANCE
+
+Widow of Louis XIII and Mother of Louis XIV
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11½ × 9¼ inches]
+
+Here is Henry IV as a careless youth next to the terrible Catherine
+when she was an innocent-looking young bride; further on are the
+baby daughter of Francis I and the indomitable head of the house of
+Guise. The sad Charles IX is represented here as a mere boy; there,
+a week before his death, shaking with fever and tortured by remorse
+for the fearful massacre which he had instigated. The ill-fated Mary
+Stuart wears becomingly her widow’s mourning, and is surrounded by the
+chivalry and the beauty of the court. The success of these drawings was
+so great that every one desired complete sets of them, and the result
+was that they were copied over and over again, first by other artists,
+and finally by amateurs who were not very faithful to their models.
+The work of the Clouets was intelligently continued by several members
+of the family of Dumonstier, and the vogue of this exquisite form of
+portraiture lasted until the middle of the following century.
+
+It was these finished miniatures which the first engravers attempted
+to reproduce on wood and copper; their drawing was in most cases weak,
+and consequently the resemblance was seldom faithful; their knowledge
+of line-work was very meager, and therefore the modeling was most
+primitive; but in spite of this, their work is interesting for its
+exquisite finish and its consistent effort to express the character
+of the individual. Such very personal little portraits as those of
+Philibert Delorme in his treatise on architecture, Orlando di Lasso in
+a book of motets, and the great Ambroise Paré in his treatise on the
+fractures of the skull, shared the fame of those of Henry IV by Thomas
+de Leu, and greatly increased the popularity of engraving.
+
+By the beginning of the seventeenth century it had become extremely
+fashionable to dabble in engraving, and painters, architects,
+goldsmiths, noblemen and even ladies were busy gouging wood and cutting
+copper with an enthusiasm which has bequeathed us a mass of small
+illustrations, tail-pieces, grotesques, mottos, emblems and other
+embellishments. Then there appeared during the reign of Louis XIII a
+peculiar genius in Claude Mellan. He adopted such an original technique
+that he had practically no followers. Considering cross-hatching rank
+heresy, Mellan spent a great part of his life making facsimiles on
+copper of more than four score charming pencil-drawings which he had
+made from life, using distinct lines which he made broader in the
+shadows. Although he thereby succeeded in producing a set of very
+remarkable plates, he was prevented by the exaggerated simplicity of
+his system from securing all the detail, the refinement of expression
+necessary to a real psychological study, and he was unable to express
+any color, texture or chiaroscuro whatever.
+
+The most original artistic genius at that time was Callot, who had
+introduced etching in France; he delighted everybody with the facility
+and _esprit_ with which he handled the needle, and he produced a great
+number of plates full of crisply drawn little figures which possessed
+so much animation that nothing like them had previously been seen. His
+two attempts at portraiture, however, are far from being significant;
+it may be said that he was not serious enough for such work.
+
+By that time portrait-engraving had become extinct in Germany, and
+it was achieving little of importance in Italy and Spain; in the Low
+Countries, however, it was producing masterpieces. Even if Rembrandt
+and Van Dyck had given the world nothing more than their etched
+portraits, their fame would live forever. In the former, the world
+found an artist who painted as effectively with the needle as with
+the brush, and an etcher who reveled in such powerful and correct
+chiaroscuro that his portraits were a perfect revelation. The glowing
+light with which he illumined his faces and the boldness and freedom
+of his line-work amazed the engravers of his time, for in comparison
+they had worked only in outline, and those who attempted to imitate him
+achieved very little success. In the plates of Rembrandt the engraved
+portrait reaches the last degree of warmth of expression and life.
+
+As to Anthony Van Dyck, he had followed the example of Rubens and
+encouraged the leading engravers of Antwerp to reproduce his portraits
+on copper. The result was that noble work called his “Iconography,”
+which contained over a hundred portraits of the leading painters and
+art patrons of the time, most brilliantly engraved by Soutman, the
+Bolswerts, Vorstermann and Paul Pontius under the master’s jealous
+supervision. In directing this work Van Dyck developed such enthusiasm
+that he himself etched eighteen portraits from life, in which the faces
+are modeled with small dots; they are charming drawings which exhibit
+such a wonderful knowledge of physiognomy, and possess so much life
+and color in spite of the simplicity of their treatment, that they
+remain masterpieces for all times.
+
+Through the genius of Rubens and Van Dyck the art of engraving had
+become transformed; at last life and color had come into it. No such
+brilliancy in the treatment of flesh and varied texture had been
+attained by pure line-work before the appearance of Pontius’s portrait
+of Rubens, and with the exception of the etchings of Rembrandt, nothing
+so human had previously been seen as Van Dyck’s etching of Pontius
+himself.
+
+But in spite of the best achievements of the Flemish engravers, there
+was still an important advance to be made before the copperplate could
+give such a faithful translation of a painting that besides the drawing
+and the color, it could reproduce all the refinement of detail, all the
+texture and chiaroscuro, all the painter-like effect of the canvas.
+That interval could be bridged only by a born draughtsman who had the
+soul of a portrait-painter and by an artist who would devote himself
+exclusively to the solution of that one problem. For that final step of
+its development, reproductive engraving had to go to France and to the
+unique Jean Morin.
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. CARDINAL RICHELIEU
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11½ × 9¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. PIERRE MAUGIS DES GRANGES
+
+Maître-d’Hôtel of Louis XIII
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11½ × 9⅛ inches]
+
+It is incredible that so little should be known about an artist of
+his prominence, particularly as at that time the best artists were
+constantly “_en evidence_” and undertaking distant travels for the
+sake of their education and in order to gain patrons. We must assume
+that Morin lived a very quiet life and cared little for recognition.
+Who were his first masters remains a mystery; the references which
+are made to him in the records of the time point only to the fact
+that he was always held in high esteem for the excellence of his work,
+and that everywhere his serious character commanded respect. Two
+things are nevertheless certain concerning him. One is that he had
+begun by becoming a well-schooled painter, for his etched work is of
+singularly uniform excellence; the other is that he had been influenced
+exclusively by the Flemish School. It was the etching of Van Dyck which
+tempted him to give up the brush for the graver, and it was his own
+peculiarly calm and conscientious temperament which impelled him to
+carry the original technique of that prince of portraiture to the last
+degree of finish.
+
+On the other hand, it was from another Flemish artist, Philippe de
+Champaigne, who had made France his home, that he received inspiration
+and guidance throughout his life-work. In return for this he devoted
+himself to the faithful reproduction of as many of that master’s
+canvases as he could engrave before his death.
+
+Morin’s work consists of a few figure-subjects and landscapes and fifty
+portraits. These are among the finest that were engraved during the
+seventeenth century, and they have the distinction of illustrating
+the reign of Louis XIII and his minister Richelieu. As an historical
+gallery they possess as much importance as the portraits made later by
+the school of Nanteuil: four of them are after Van Dyck, fourteen are
+from the works of various painters, including Titian, and all the rest,
+thirty-two in number, reproduce the dignified canvases of Philippe de
+Champaigne. It was natural for Morin to turn to the Flemish painter,
+not only because the latter had soon after his arrival become the
+painter of the court and the head of the French School, but because his
+calm, precise art was admirably suited to the engraver’s work.
+
+The canvases of Philippe de Champaigne have little of the power of
+Rubens, or the coloring and supreme elegance of Van Dyck, nor do they
+possess the depth and originality of the portraits of Rembrandt, but
+they are characterized by an uncommon strength of draughtsmanship and
+composition, and they unfailingly exhibit such profound seriousness,
+restraint and dignity as few masters can boast of. As in the case
+of most of Morin’s portraits, it is hard to gaze upon them without
+experiencing that peculiar sensation of familiarity with the human
+being represented, without being convinced that here is the bare truth
+just as an intelligent and thoroughly sincere nature beheld it, without
+feeling that some of the model’s soul has passed into the canvas. It
+could not be otherwise with the work of an artist who had toiled so
+earnestly to follow an ideal, and who himself had been visited by
+so much affliction. De Champaigne became at the end of his life a
+Jansenist and a devoted Port Royalist--that is, a member of a community
+of austere human beings whose lives were so simple and whose thoughts
+were so high that they were a perpetual reproach to the selfish
+clergy of the day and the empty butterflies who crowded the salons of
+Versailles.
+
+He has never come into his own, principally because he stood in such
+close proximity to more brilliant lights, and also because so many of
+his scattered paintings have become darkened with age. His work as the
+painter of Richelieu established such a popularity for the portrait
+as it had not known before and as it has not known since. To-day, when
+his name is mentioned, one shrugs his shoulders and says: “Oh, well,
+but what was he compared to Rubens, Van Dyck and Rembrandt?”, and then
+suddenly remembers that it was he who painted Richelieu and that the
+full length portrait which hangs in the Salon Carré of the Louvre and
+the triple study of the head which is in the National Gallery, London,
+will always rank with the masterpieces of portrait-painting.
+
+Such was the artist to whom Jean Morin went for advice and for whom he
+developed such intense admiration and devotion. The Flemish painter
+must have readily seen how much the engraver’s temperament had in
+common with his own, and immediately understood that his faultless
+drawing and conscientious nature would make of him an admirable
+interpreter of his canvases. Certain it is that he lost no time in
+encouraging him to develop his technique, and that he cheerfully gave
+him his portraits to copy. The friendship which ensued continued until
+death, and Morin devoted his life to popularizing the portraits of
+Philippe de Champaigne, later becoming himself affiliated with the
+noble sect of Port Royalists.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The peculiar significance of Morin’s work, aside from the fact that it
+has been the principal means of perpetuating the work of a remarkable
+artist, is that it represents the first effort in the history of
+Engraved Portraiture to reproduce a painted portrait with all its
+refinement of drawing and variety of tones. No such trouble had
+previously been taken fully to represent all the color and chiaroscuro
+of a picture. In order to accomplish this the engraver had to develop
+a painter’s technique, and that was something very different from the
+precise and methodical line-work of the engravers who had preceded him.
+The etched work of Callot was mere line-work; Van Dyck supplemented
+this with some delicate modeling made with small dots; and Morin,
+developing this system to the last degree of refinement, bent all his
+energy to the absolutely faithful reproduction of the canvas in every
+detail of line and gradation of light. His technique is chiefly etching
+combined with burin work. As a rule, his faces are modeled entirely
+with etched dots, and he does this with such delicacy and refinement
+that in many cases they have the quality of a fine mezzotint. Only
+in a few of his plates does he use line-work to deepen his shadows,
+and this is done over the stippling. By means of this system he was
+able to express the greatest variety of tones, from the very light
+complexion of a blond Englishwoman to the dark skin and blue-black hair
+of a southern Frenchman. The hair he always etched with great care,
+with a line admirable alike for its precision and freedom; the frame
+alone seems to have been done with the burin. It is, however, in the
+treatment of the costume that Morin shows his independence of technical
+finish; he makes little pretense at securing realism in his expression
+of texture. Compared to the work of Nanteuil the surface of his armor
+and his moiré silk cassocks and rich lace collars often lack realism,
+while his backgrounds possess little of that soft gradation which
+enhances the beauty of so many later engravings.
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. HENRI DE LORRAINE, COMTE D’HARCOURT
+
+The Marshal-in-Chief of the Armies of Louis XIII
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11¹¹⁄₁₆ × 9⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. GUIDO, CARDINAL BENTIVOGLIO
+
+The Papal Nuncio to the Court of Louis XIII
+
+After the painting by Anthony Van Dyck
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11½ × 9⅛ inches]
+
+But it is this very freedom which makes his plates so original and
+gives them such especial charm. Besides, why should etching partake
+of the character of slow and precise burin work? Morin’s chief
+preoccupation is the rendering of the face and the preservation of all
+the character of the original; it is evident that he spares no pains
+to make his reproduction an absolutely faithful one. As to the rest of
+the picture, he does not consider it necessary to do more than recall
+the picturesque effect of the original’s ensemble, but if he treats it
+with freedom he is careful to make every line serve a definite purpose;
+he is never careless. It is to his great sympathy and conscientiousness
+that Morin owed his success as a reproductive engraver, and the fact
+that his plates had a great influence on his contemporaries. Before
+him no such delicate tones and deep velvety blacks had been seen,
+no engraver had been so consistently correct and expressive in his
+drawing; so much justice had never been done to a painter.
+
+The art of Morin was so personal that the efforts of his pupils
+Alix, Plattemontagne and Boulanger to follow his technique remained
+unsuccessful; he was as inimitable in his brilliant effects of
+chiaroscuro as Mellan with his fiendishly clever but exaggerated
+simplicity of line.
+
+Nevertheless, the lesson of thorough faithfulness he had given was
+not lost; the seed fell on fertile ground when Robert Nanteuil, at
+the outset of his career, studied Morin’s work closely enough to
+imitate his technique in such portraits as those of Pierre Dupuis, the
+royal librarian, and the poet Gilles Menage. The engraver from Rheims
+had doubtless profited by the example of his own master Regnesson,
+whose work had already shown Morin’s influence. Those clever little
+portraits as well as a few others done in that style show a marked
+advance on the previous ones, in which he had followed that of Mellan,
+and the delicate little dots with which their faces are modeled
+paved the way for that system of close, short strokes with which he
+eventually succeeded in imitating to perfection the peculiar texture of
+skin. Nanteuil was to inherit the best in all who had preceded him and
+to combine all previous systems into one which would carry the art of
+Engraved Portraiture to its greatest development; but it was Morin who
+gave him the most eloquent example and who pointed out to him the last
+remaining step to technical perfection.
+
+
+HIS WORK
+
+On looking through a complete collection of Morin’s portraits one
+is immediately impressed by the small number of plates which denote
+crude beginnings. As none of them is dated, it is next to impossible
+to arrange his works chronologically, all the more so as the engraver
+perfected his technique and found his manner very early in his career.
+We find only one portrait which is really unsatisfactory, that of
+_Louis XI_, copied possibly from an old miniature, and only two which
+show any hardness of tone, the portraits of _Augustin_ and _Christophe
+de Thou_; they are undoubtedly early works, the head of the dreaded
+hermit of Plessis-les-Tours being probably Morin’s first effort. Then
+we have that most Gallic of Frenchmen, _Henry IV_, a quaint head drawn
+with much character; _Marie de Médicis_, after Pourbus; and _Henry
+II_, after Clouet. These last two are most excellent plates, the
+first showing us that intriguing Italian princess shortly after her
+arrival from Florence, in all the glory of her wonderful complexion and
+golden hair; the second recalling the exquisite art of Clouet in the
+simplicity and delicacy of the treatment of the face and the superb
+detail of the costume.[1] We are then brought face to face with the
+great _Philip II_ of Spain, in one of Morin’s most serenely elegant
+plates after Titian, and the portraits of the two great saints of the
+time, _Saint François de Sales_ and _San Carlo Borromeo_. To the four
+portraits after Van Dyck we must give special attention, for they
+contain Morin’s masterpieces, the portrait of _N. Chrystin_, son of the
+Spanish plenipotentiary at the Peace of Vervins, and that of _Cardinal
+Bentivoglio_, the papal nuncio to the court of Louis XIII. Here we have
+Morin in his grand manner, transferring all the color of the original
+canvas to his copperplate and interpreting his models with a boldness,
+a softness, a clearness of purpose and a strength of sympathy wholly
+admirable. In awarding the palm, we hesitate between the deep tones,
+the velvety finish in the head of the somber Spaniard and the subtle
+modeling of the beautifully illumined, sensitive Italian face. Either
+of these portraits alone would have established Morin’s fame.
+
+[1] Why such an authority as Robert-Dumesnil should have classed the
+portrait of Henry IV’s queen among the doubtful plates of Morin is a
+mystery. It is clearly the work of that master, and although an early
+plate, it is one of his brilliant ones.
+
+The other two plates after Van Dyck represent women, _Margaret Lemon_,
+beloved of the painter, and the _Countess of Caernarvon_, a remarkable
+study in high lights, and one of Morin’s most delicate plates.
+
+The remainder of the gallery consists of his interpretation of
+Philippe de Champaigne’s portraits, and the array of celebrities there
+represented is a notable one. What would we know of the features of
+that eccentric monarch, the melancholic _Louis XIII_, if we did not
+possess this striking etching of Morin? The father of “_le roi soleil_”
+is here posing, ill at ease, and probably wondering what Richelieu is
+going to make him do next. An unsatisfactory human being was he whose
+“principal merit was to have done what few mediocre characters ever do,
+bow down to the superiority of genius.” His queen, _Anne of Austria_,
+is here shown both in the quiet garb of a widow (a delightfully simple
+portrait) and in the more ceremonious court mourning, while his prime
+minister, _Richelieu_, is represented in a plate than which there is
+none more interesting among Morin’s works. A comparison between this
+impression of the great cardinal’s character and that recorded in the
+superb engraving by Nanteuil is a most interesting one. In the latter
+we see the steersman of the ship of state in all his grandeur of noble
+purpose and responsibility, and we feel the immense will-power with
+which, in constant danger of his life, he bore long with his enemies,
+and then, driven to action, “went far, very far and covered everything
+with his scarlet robe.” But in Morin’s interpretation of the canvas
+of de Champaigne we see quite another side of the great statesman. It
+is the Richelieu whom we perceive through some memoirs of the time
+(and not the least trustworthy ones), and in the literary history of
+the early seventeenth century. It is a man wholly lacking in a sense
+of humor, possessing plenty of vanity and constantly yearning for
+recognition as a literary light and a squire of dames.
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. NICOLAS CHRYSTIN
+
+Son of the Plenipotentiary of King Philip IV of Spain to the Peace of
+Vervins
+
+After the painting by Anthony Van Dyck
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11½ x 9¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. ANTOINE VITRÉ
+
+Printer to the King and the Clergy
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 12¼ x 8⅜ inches]
+
+Quite a different portrait is that of his nephew, _Vignerod_, shown
+here in three-quarter figure as the Abbé de Richelieu, a most
+attractive plate, and one of the only two portraits of Morin’s in which
+the model is shown otherwise than in the usual bust form. The other
+one is that of _Vitré_, a famous printer of the time; it is one of the
+lowest-toned engraved portraits extant, and in its velvety blackness it
+is a most striking production. A fine impression of it will turn one’s
+thoughts to Rembrandt and show the full extent of Morin’s originality.
+
+The list contains many famous personages: _Mazarin_; _Michel Le
+Tellier_; _Charles de Valois, duc d’Angoulême_, son of Charles IX and
+the beautiful Marie Touchet; the _Maréchal d’Harcourt_, the “_Cadet à
+la perle_” of the more famous portrait by Masson and the valorous head
+of the armies of Louis XIII; the charming _Comtesse de Bossu_ and her
+secretly married second husband the _Duc de Guise_; the _Maréchal de
+Villeroy_, preceptor of Louis XIV; _Potier de Gesvres_, also a warrior;
+and the _Chancellor Marillac_, whose brother was executed by Richelieu
+and who himself became the cardinal’s victim, though in a less tragic
+way. All these plates are an admirable interpretation of their
+models, and show an absolute lack of mannerism. With their brilliant
+contrasts of light and shade and the uncommon amount of texture
+due to the freedom of the line-work and the rich color of the ink
+employed, they have a richness of tone and a decorative effect shared
+by few of the portraits made later in the century. Some of them are
+engraved in a rather high key and show a simply modeled head against
+a light background, as in the case of _Brachet de la Milletière_,
+the savant who was first an intolerant Calvinist and then became a
+militant Roman Catholic. In other portraits like that of _Maugis_, the
+_maître-d’hôtel_ of the king, the artist seems to have reveled in the
+deepest tones of his inky palette, and he renders the olive skin and
+the raven hair of this strong-featured individual with a most striking
+intensity.
+
+Splendid likenesses of prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries are to be
+found among the portraits which complete this interesting gallery,
+but one there is which we must pause to contemplate, and it is the
+faithfully reproduced portrait of that extraordinary human being, J.
+Paul de Gondi, better known as the _Cardinal de Retz_. In a masterpiece
+of draughtsmanship, Morin duplicates the art of de Champaigne in
+expressing all the cleverness and daring, the ambition and the sense
+of humor, of this born gambler, whose genius for intrigue was at the
+bottom of the war of the Fronde. One can see him, with his yellow,
+oily face, unkempt and unshaven, limping through the narrow streets of
+Paris, distributing largesses among a populace which, the following
+hour, he would betray to the nobles, and then again champion.
+
+As a pendant we have the brilliantly executed head of _Omer Talon,
+avocat-général du Parlement_, the greatest pillar of French
+jurisprudence and a great man in his day; it is a plate which Rembrandt
+would have deigned to look at more than once.
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. JEAN-FRANÇOIS-PAUL DE GONDI
+
+This personage is better known by his later title of Cardinal de Retz
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 11½ × 9⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: MORIN. OMER TALON
+
+Advocate-General of the Parliament of Paris
+
+After the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+Size of the original engraving, 12¼ × 9⅛ inches]
+
+Finally the famous Port Royal is here represented in the persons of
+_Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres_, who raised such a storm in church circles
+of that time; _Arnauld d’Andilly_, the head of the great family
+of that name and the protector of Port Royal; and _Jean Du Verger de
+Houranne, abbé de Saint-Cyran_, its confessor, a man worthy of the
+first centuries of Christianity. They were famous men in their day,
+and their names were on everybody’s lips; their story spells the most
+serious chapter of the history of their age, and still they are all but
+forgotten in comparison with the great personages of the court, and
+even their painted portraits are relegated to obscurity.
+
+In these masterly prints of Morin, however, they appear to us just as
+they looked in their day, with much of their strength and weakness,
+their aspirations and their secret ambitions. So much animation is
+there in their faces that it is no hard matter to feel like the old
+monk in the Spanish monastery who, left alone of all his brothers,
+said, as he looked on the new pictures by Velasquez, “I sometimes think
+_we_ are the shadows.”
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT NANTEUIL
+
+1630-1678
+
+BY LOUIS R. METCALFE
+
+
+It is a curious fact that in these days of exhaustive research
+in everything which concerns the fine arts, Robert Nanteuil, the
+portrait-engraver of Louis XIV, has remained until so recently both
+illustrious and unknown. To be sure, his name has been mentioned in all
+the histories of art, and in the text-books of engraving he is dwelt
+upon at some length and given a prominent place among the engravers
+of his time; but he was never found worthy of any especial study, of
+the least little _brochure_. His name has been familiar only to the
+connoisseurs and the print-collectors; to them it has always been
+synonymous with the greatest excellence attained by the lost art of
+line-engraving.
+
+This silence was broken finally in the artist’s own birthplace. In 1884
+Mr. Charles Loriquet, curator of the library of the city of Rheims,
+who had just completed a collection of Nanteuil’s portraits for the
+city museum, addressed the Academy at one of its public sittings and
+eloquently pleaded with the authorities to erect a monument to him whom
+he considered second only to the great Colbert as the most illustrious
+son of Rheims. His description of the artist and his work created such
+enthusiasm that he was later induced to publish it, together with some
+interesting documents concerning Nanteuil. The unique little book found
+its way into many libraries, private as well as public, and has ever
+since been unfindable.
+
+Many new books on engraving have appeared since that day which have
+devoted as much as two or three pages to this brilliant artist without,
+however, giving his work more than a superficial criticism. It was
+not until Mr. T. H. Thomas published his recent work “French Portrait
+Engravers of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” that the artist
+received proper recognition. Nanteuil is here frankly recognized as one
+of the most admirable figures in the history of art, and proclaimed not
+only prince of portrait-engravers but also a great artist among the
+portrait-makers of all times. The thirty pages which are devoted to him
+constitute the most brilliant and thorough criticism that has ever been
+made of a line-engraver,--they are a splendid analysis of the artist’s
+technique, his development, his influence on his contemporaries, and
+the exalted position which he occupied among them. Without doubt many
+readers of that interesting work will wonder why they never had before
+heard of such an important artist.
+
+It was only four years ago that I for one made his acquaintance. While
+I was looking through a large collection of old engraved portraits, one
+head in particular arrested my attention; it was drawn with such rare
+precision, modeled with such _maestria_, it had such expressive eyes
+and mouth, that it made all the other portraits seem flat and lifeless.
+My admiration turned into wonderment when I saw by the signature
+that the artist had drawn it from life as well as engraved it. I had
+known the work of only those showy engravers who, in the time of Louis
+XV, were content to copy the work of the leading painters of the day
+and improve on it if they could. There was no _traduttore traditore_
+about this expressive portrait; here was something of a very different
+order. The artist was a real portrait-maker, a student of character, a
+worthy comrade of Holbein, a draughtsman whose ambition it was first
+to represent the subject as he really looked, then to make as fine an
+engraved plate as possible.
+
+The text-books on engraving which fell into my hands informed me of the
+rank he had occupied in that famous school of engraving established
+by Louis XIV and of the great number of prominent people he had drawn
+from life. That was enough to whet my curiosity to the limit, for
+my interest in physiognomy had become a passion, and whenever I had
+found in the galleries of Europe a convincing portrait of a well-known
+historical personage, my delight had been keen. Holbeins, Van Dycks,
+Mierevelts and Quentin de Latours had been for years the objects of my
+enthusiasm; they were living documents, revelations of personalities
+such as few memoirs provided. When the catalogue of Robert-Dumesnil,
+the only complete list of Nanteuil’s portraits, had informed me that
+Nanteuil’s models had been in great part the men who had given so much
+greatness to the reign of the most splendid of modern potentates, I
+felt that the collection must constitute an historical document of
+no mean interest, if the likenesses of those celebrities were as
+convincing as that of the obscure _Louis Hesselin, Président de la
+Chambre des Deniers_, which I now owned.
+
+But it was not until I had pored over the contents of six huge volumes
+containing his complete works, at the Cabinet des Estampes of the
+Bibliothèque Nationale, that I realized what a unique achievement
+had been that of the engraver from Rheims. He had made, it seems, a
+multitude of drawings from life of his contemporaries, in pencil,
+silverpoint, crayons, and pastels, from the King himself down to the
+humblest curé of his parish, and had then engraved many of them on
+copper, securing thereby so many impressions that although almost
+all of his original drawings have disappeared, his work has been
+perpetuated for all times. (Whoever has said that a multitude of
+sheets of paper scattered among the museums of the world constituted a
+monument more enduring than the pyramids, must have been a collector,
+for he realized with how much jealousy a treasure can be guarded.)
+Throughout all this work Nanteuil exhibited such power as a draughtsman
+that his portraits won international fame for their resemblance,
+and moreover he engraved with such perfection that his work and the
+influence he exerted over the great school formed by Louis XIV mark the
+Golden Age of Line-engraving.
+
+It is therefore in a dual capacity that Nanteuil must be admired, and
+this point has not been sufficiently emphasized by his critics. He is
+an inspiring example of a man who has set out to do only one thing
+(for he never attempted anything but heads)--but has learned to do it
+so well that he rises far above his rivals and has made his name a
+synonym for supreme excellence. To carry the engraved portrait to its
+greatest possible perfection had been his ambition, and he succeeded
+in this, for it is not possible to imagine the burin producing more
+decided color, greater fullness of tone, and finer finish than can
+be found in a great many portraits by Nanteuil. It can be said that
+he used the sharp metal point with the same freedom as a great
+painter uses a brush; his technique was so elastic and susceptible of
+modification that he was enabled to test to the fullest extent the
+possibilities of his medium and to determine its limitations.
+
+When one is lucky enough to have the wonderful collections of the
+Cabinet des Estampes at his disposal, the next thing to do after having
+seen the works of Nanteuil is to examine those of his contemporaries.
+It becomes perfectly clear which artists have influenced him, and to
+what extent; it will also be evident at a glance that he influenced all
+the rest. This study, however superficial, will take several days, for
+the number of _peintre-graveurs_ encouraged by Louis XIV through the
+indefatigable Colbert was great, and their work was enormous. Edelinck,
+who until recently has been better known than Nanteuil, was extremely
+prolific, and Pitau, the Poillys, Masson, Lombart, and Van Schuppen,
+to say nothing of Mellan and Morin among many others, produced a great
+many portraits. What a collection! What a complete iconography of _le
+grand siècle_! Here is everybody who was at all prominent in the most
+civilized country of the time. Is it possible not to develop a love of
+portraiture, a strong interest in engraving and a desire to collect
+engraved portraits, of all pictures the most convenient, the most
+possible to acquire and keep in large numbers?
+
+I am reminded of John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys as well as of the abbé
+Michel de Marolles, who were the first great or systematic collectors
+of engraved portraits, the Frenchman owning twenty thousand prints and
+all the portraits extant. Evelyn wrote to Pepys advising him to collect
+them, for, as he said, “some are so well done to the life that they
+may stand in competition with the best paintings.” He then adds: “This
+were a cheaper and so much a more useful curiosity as they seldom are
+without their names, ages and eulogies of the persons whose portraits
+they represent. I say you will be exceedingly pleased to contemplate
+the effigies of those who have made such a noise and bustle in the
+world, either by their madness and folly, or a more conspicuous figure
+by their wit and learning. They will greatly refresh you in your study
+and by your fireside when you are many years returned.” We later see
+him write in his “Diary” that he had “sat to the great Nanteuil who
+had been knighted by the king for his art” and had considered himself
+“unworthy of being included in that gallery of models whom Nanteuil’s
+art has made famous.” We know by his own “Diary” that Pepys became
+an enthusiastic collector and that he went over to Paris to buy many
+prints by the great engraver, at a later date commissioning his wife to
+secure for him many more which he strongly desired.
+
+Portrait-painting had at that time become a mania, and there was no
+one of any prominence who did not wish to leave to posterity a record
+of his physical appearance. Richelieu in a single order had called
+for an entire gallery full of portraits of celebrities. The French
+_peintre-graveurs_ proved how effectively color could be translated
+into black and white, and by revealing the true relation of engraving
+to painting shared the fame of their contemporaries in the other arts.
+
+It is not possible for the lover of prints to glance at this
+interminable gallery and not be amazed at the number of portraits which
+show much originality in their treatment and infinite skill in their
+execution, but I defy the admirer of truth in art not to be impressed
+by the small number of those by other engravers which are distinguished
+by both simplicity and conviction. The heads of Mellan, which were
+drawn with as few lines as possible, remain absurdly unique, and the
+etched portraits of Morin, who was a faithful translator of Philippe
+de Champaigne, are too personal for comparison. But the mass of the
+_peintre-graveurs_ give constant proofs of having been influenced by
+Nanteuil’s method, and in the case of Van Schuppen there is a very
+close following indeed in the master’s footsteps. He is supposed to
+have been his favorite pupil.
+
+Nevertheless, Edelinck, brilliant colorist as he was and a wonderfully
+clever artist with his burin, refused to do any original work and too
+frequently attempted to add vigor and brilliancy to the portraits he
+copied. In modeling his faces he, in the opinion of Nanteuil himself,
+broke his lines unnecessarily. The work of Masson lacks quiet and
+balance, when his faces are not out of drawing, while that of the
+rest of the school displays that great vitality and style which made
+it a model for all the artists of the following century, without,
+however, combining these qualities with the solidity, consummate
+science, and restraint which characterize almost all Nanteuil’s
+portraits.
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. LOUIS XIV
+
+Engraved in 1666 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+Louis XIV was twenty-eight years of age when this portrait was engraved
+
+“In appearance Louis, though admirably proportioned, was slightly below
+the middle height. His eyes were blue, his nose long and well formed.
+His hair, which was remarkable for its abundance, was allowed to fall
+over his shoulders. With his handsome features and his serious--perhaps
+phlegmatic--expression he seemed admirably fitted to play the part of a
+monarch.” Arthur Hassall. _Louis XIV._
+
+Size of the original engraving, 19¾ × 16¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. ANNE OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE
+
+Engraved in 1666 from Nanteuil’s own design from life
+
+Anne of Austria was the daughter of Philip III of Spain, wife of Louis
+XIII of France and mother of Louis XIV. She was Regent from 1643 to
+1661.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 19¾ × 16¾ inches]
+
+Nothing more admirable has been done in the realm of engraving than
+these quiet prints in which there is no affectation, no parade of
+technical brilliance, and it is a question whether anything more
+sincere has been accomplished in the history of portraiture. The
+portraits of Nanteuil take their place with perfect dignity alongside
+of the subtle crayon portraits of the courtiers of Henry VIII at
+Windsor Castle, and the exquisite drawings of the courtiers of
+Francis I and Henry II, which alone would make Chantilly worthy of a
+pilgrimage. Nanteuil’s drawing is perfect and his massing of tones
+masterly; his expression of texture has both realism and breadth, and
+his indication of skin by means of a system of very close and delicate
+short strokes is an admirable solution of a problem which had been the
+despair of the entire school.
+
+The most superficial study of his modeling of that side of the face
+which is in full light, for instance, will reveal the supreme delicacy,
+the never-failing tact, with which he carries out this most difficult
+part of the work. His burin is as light as a feather, there is not a
+line too many, and he knows the exact value of each and every tone. It
+is interesting to note that, according to one of his pupils, he had
+made a careful study of the chiaroscuro of Leonardo, a master for whom
+he had an especial admiration.
+
+The great simplicity of his composition allowed him to concentrate all
+the resources of his art on the expression of character in the head.
+With an understanding of character which was the most sympathetic of
+his day, he strove to represent his model with all the outward calm
+of nature which was possible in an age when form reigned supreme and
+every one was _en parade_. To secure this touch of life Nanteuil, at
+the last sitting, would do everything in his power to bring out in his
+sitter’s face that look of amused attention which is so characteristic
+of his portraits, with the result that, as a brilliant critic has
+recently remarked, “instead of one vivid impression his portrait is the
+sum of many impressions, a balanced conclusion rather than a single
+piece of evidence.” It is this which makes his work so interesting
+as a historical document. Here we see in the truest light the divine
+monarch, the arrogant noble, the worldly prelate, the serious
+man-of-letters, and the humble commoner who fill all the French memoirs
+of the seventeenth century.
+
+It is indeed high time that the artist who has been called “the Louis
+XIV of engraving” came into his own again, or that he at least be
+accorded some of the immense popularity which he enjoyed during the
+palmy days of the _grand siècle_. For two centuries he has lain in an
+obscurity which it is not easy to understand, in spite of the fact that
+his style of portraiture went out of fashion long before the great
+monarch died. It remained extremely unpopular throughout the eighteenth
+century, for what could those austere bust portraits against a plain
+dark background, in the simplest of settings, have in common with
+the decorative compositions of the days of Louis XV, in which velvet
+and embroideries, ermine and rich lace, inlaid armor, canopies and
+complicated furniture, played such an important part? In comparison
+with these decorative panels they seem cold and uninteresting, but on
+the other hand they alone represent real portraiture; they reflect the
+earnestness of Port-Royal.
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. JULES, CARDINAL MAZARIN
+
+Engraved in 1656 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+This is one of the most interesting of the many portraits of the great
+minister engraved by Nanteuil.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 13½ × 10½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. BERNARD DE FOIX DE LA VALETTE, DUC D’EPERNON
+
+Engraved in 1650 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+“This man was the son of the Duc d’Epernon, who was seated in the
+carriage with Henry IV at the time when the king was assassinated.
+The Duc was suspected of complicity in the plot, but this never was
+proved. Both the elder and the younger Espernon were extremely haughty
+and arrogant men. Their possessions in Guienne were of an almost royal
+character and they governed them practically independent of the royal
+authority. Both were associated with the reactionary party.”
+
+J. B. Perkins, _France under Richelieu and Mazarin_.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 12⅝ × 10 inches]
+
+There cannot have been a time when they were not admired by those who
+possessed true artistic perception, but there is no indication that any
+special value was attached to them or that they were collected. Suffice
+it to say that at the Mariette sale, in 1775, the complete works of
+Nanteuil, two hundred and eighty proofs of two hundred and sixteen
+plates in choice impressions, realized only a trifle over one hundred
+dollars. More than five times that sum has recently been paid for one
+single print. In 1825, at a famous auction, record prices of twelve
+dollars and nine dollars were paid respectively for the portraits of
+_Pompone de Bellièvre_ and _Richelieu_. Half a century later their
+value was not much greater, and general interest in them remained
+dormant until four years ago when the collecting world suddenly
+realized their artistic worth, and made a raid on the leading markets
+of Europe.
+
+It is said that Nanteuil kept a journal; if so, we must greatly
+deplore the fact that it has not been preserved to us, for we would
+have been treated to a delightful account of the habits of painters
+in that time and to many anecdotes connected with their sittings. Who
+shall ever know the number of Nanteuil’s sitters? His studio was found
+full of pastel portraits many of which had never been engraved, and
+his pencil and pen sketches seem to have been innumerable. In spite
+of his reputation of _bon vivant_ and his popularity with both the
+_bourgeoisie_ and the nobility, allusions to Nanteuil in the memoirs
+of the day are fragmentary and we know little about the man. We are
+told, however, that he was born in Rheims about 1630 and that he drew
+so persistently during his school years that his studies were sadly
+neglected. It was only through the excellence of the frontispiece which
+he engraved for his thesis that he succeeded in securing his degree.
+The conscientious engraver Regnesson taught him all he knew, gave him
+his sister in marriage, and sent him to Paris, not to complete his
+apprenticeship, for Nanteuil was already more famous than his master,
+but in order to place him under the influence of the court painters.
+
+In the great city his wit and conviviality won him many friends and
+his talent for securing an excellent likeness secured him instant
+fame. It is said that he received his first order by following some
+divinity students to a wine-shop where they were wont to take their
+meals. There, having chosen one of the portraits he had brought from
+Rheims, he pretended to look for a sitter whose name and address he
+had forgotten. It is superfluous to add that the picture was not
+recognized, but it was passed from hand to hand, the price was asked,
+the artist was modest in his demands, and before the end of the repast
+his career had begun. He made so many portraits in a week that he
+was advised by a famous connoisseur to limit his production to four.
+At night he copied them in pen-and-ink for the sake of familiarizing
+himself with that burin work which later was to astonish Europe.
+
+During many months he catered to the growing demand for the portrait,
+with drawings in the style of those of the Clouets and the
+Dumonstiers. One has but to realize in what favor all portrait-makers
+were in those days in order to understand how this peculiarly gifted
+artist sprang into such sudden popularity. The dignity of French
+portrait-painting was being upheld by the noble Philippe de Champaigne,
+under whose influence the painters of the time produced a great number
+of portraits which, if not technically brilliant, were presented with
+that serious dignity which was characteristic of the early seventeenth
+century and were drawn with admirable sincerity and correctness. To him
+Nanteuil went for advice and encouragement, and soon after presented
+the engraved copy of the painter’s latest portrait; it met with so much
+success that it can be said to have started the tremendous vogue of the
+engraved portrait and the formation of the great school which Colbert
+installed at the Gobelins.
+
+Meanwhile the artist, already a perfect draughtsman and very proficient
+with pastels, had carefully studied the technique of all the leading
+engravers, and as soon as he had evolved a system of his own bent all
+his efforts on revolutionizing the art. Nanteuil made a picturesque
+début during that incredible opera-bouffe, the War of the Fronde. He
+was draughted into military service, but although frequently active
+with a blunderbuss and wearing a false beard in imitation of the
+dreaded Swiss mercenaries, he succeeded in making a portrait of all the
+heroes of the day. For him sat _Condé_ and the _Duc d’Epernon_, the
+last representative of feudalism in France; the _Ducs de Bouillon_,
+_de Mercœur_, _de Nemours_, and _de Beaufort_, who met in taverns to
+appoint the generals of an army which did not exist; the Archbishop
+of Paris, _de Retz_, who appeared in Parliament armed like a pirate;
+that fat poet and peasant _Loret_, who sold on street corners his
+“Muse Historique,” a daily satire on the intriguing nobles “who were
+not afraid of bullets but who were in deadly fear of winter mud,”
+and lastly the indomitable prime minister, _Cardinal Mazarin_, whom
+the populace twice drove from Paris and then so madly welcomed back
+that many were trampled to death in the riot. Of that wily Italian he
+engraved as many as fourteen portraits.
+
+During the few years which followed the civil war he made his most
+interesting portraits.
+
+It was then that he assiduously frequented the literary salons of the
+capital where, a poetaster of some renown, he was ever welcome and made
+that beautiful pastel portrait of _Madame de Sévigné_ which has been
+preserved to us, and another of _Mlle. de Scudéry_, who thanked him as
+follows:
+
+ Nanteuil en faisant mon image
+ A de son art divin signalé le pouvoir,
+ Je hais mes traits dans mon miroir,
+ Je les aime dans son ouvrage.
+
+At this time he engraved the set of small-size portraits which
+represents the high-water mark of his talent. Can one possibly imagine
+anything more exquisitely choice than his heads of _Maridat_ the
+philosopher and _Hugues de Lionne_ the secretary for foreign affairs?
+With equal excellence he made the portraits of _Chapelain_, one of the
+founders of the French Academy, who reported himself to the King as
+a greater poet than Corneille, _Scudéry_, who signed the popular
+novels written by his sister, the witty _Marquis de St. Brisson_,
+the poets _Loret_ and _Sarrazin_, the genial _Abbé de Marolles_,
+savant and print-collector, the learned octogenarian _Le Vayer_, and
+the ex-preceptor of the King, the archbishop of Paris, _Péréfixe de
+Beaumont_.
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. JEAN LORET
+
+Engraved in 1668 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+Loret is chiefly remembered for his _Gazette_, written in _vers
+libres_, which he began to issue in 1650, and continued until his death
+in 1666.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 10⅛ × 7⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE LE VAYER
+
+Engraved in 1661 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+Few were Le Vayer’s equal either in wit or learning. His writings were
+exceedingly numerous. Regarded as the Plutarch of his century for his
+boundless erudition and his mode of reasoning. He died at the age of
+eighty-six, in 1672, having enjoyed good health to the last days of his
+life.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 10¾ × 7½ inches]
+
+These portraits owe their size to the fact that they had been used
+as frontispieces for the works of those various personages, but the
+special care, the _con amore_ finish with which they are executed,
+is due to the fact that the subjects were warm personal friends
+of the artist. The portrait of _John Evelyn_ was made in the same
+way, although before the artist’s technique had reached its fullest
+development.
+
+Before the year 1660 Nanteuil made, besides many portraits including
+those mentioned above and several of Mazarin, four very remarkable
+ones of a larger size. They are those of _Cardinal de Coislin_, the
+young _Duc de Bouillon_, _Marie de Bragelogne_, and the abbé _Basile
+Fouquet_. The prelate was a Jesuit who became chaplain of Versailles;
+the youth, as lord chamberlain of France, had the honor of handing
+the King his nightshirt, an honor which he forfeited forever when on
+two successive nights he forgot his gloves. The woman was an old love
+of Richelieu; the delicate modeling of her careworn face is worthy
+of Holbein’s best manner and is executed with a tact that baffles
+description. This plate reminds us of the fact that out of two hundred
+and sixteen portraits Nanteuil made only eight of women; of these
+only two were made from life,--that of _Anne of Austria_ and the one
+mentioned above, but they are gems of purest ray serene which make
+us sigh when we think of what he could have done with Henrietta of
+England and Mesdames de Lavallière, de Montespan, and de Maintenon!
+As to the fourth portrait, it is that of the brother of the great
+_Surintendant des Finances_, Nicolas Fouquet; he was at that time the
+head spy of Mazarin as well as the chancellor of the orders of the King
+and the most accomplished rascal who ever fished in troubled waters.
+
+These four engraved portraits are masterpieces of characterization, and
+exhibit in the most eloquent way the master’s powerful draughtsmanship,
+his utter lack of mannerisms, and the sympathetic way in which he
+varied his entire technical treatment to suit different subjects.
+Here is abundant proof that he was primarily a portrait-maker, that,
+in spite of the fact that he handled the burin with as much ease and
+sureness as his pencil and chalks, he never strove after effect and
+never allowed his skill to carry him away and mar the unity of his
+perfectly balanced composition. He is a psychologist who consistently
+strove to brand his model’s soul on his countenance. Of no other
+_peintre-graveur_ can we say as much.
+
+With the year 1660 came the royal marriage, and a twelvemonth later
+the death of the despotic Mazarin and the emancipation of the young
+King. Nanteuil’s fame by this time was thoroughly established, he was
+everywhere recognized as a past-master of his art and was in a position
+to refuse as many orders as he pleased. The leading men in the church,
+the parliament, and the _bourgeoisie_, which always followed the lead
+of the nobility, did not rest until they had the artist from Rheims
+engrave their portraits and strike off many hundred impressions, which
+were quickly enough distributed among their families and friends.
+Among them were the Maître d’Hôtel and the physician of the King,
+_Guenault_, the quack who looked after the health of the Queen,
+and _Dreux d’Aubray_, who became the first victim of his daughter,
+the famous murderess, the Marquise de Brinvilliers. The two great
+protectors of Nanteuil at this time were _Michel Le Tellier_ and
+_Nicolas Fouquet_. Of the former, who was then war minister and who as
+chancellor of France died the day after signing the fatal Revocation
+of the Edict of Nantes, we have ten convincing portraits, as well
+as five of his son _Charles Maurice_ who became the worldliest of
+archbishops, and one of his eldest son who became the dreaded war
+minister _Louvois_. These sixteen portraits of the Le Tellier family
+represent some of Nanteuil’s best work. The portrait of _Fouquet_ is a
+great historical document, a piece of most subtle characterization done
+in the artist’s best manner, and it is interesting to note that it was
+made only a very short time before the sensational fall of that then
+most powerful man in the kingdom. Could we but know what thoughts ran
+through the head of the Lord of Vaux as he sat for his portrait with a
+quizzical smile! Nanteuil, by the way, has left us the record of the
+appearance of practically all the principal figures of that sensational
+trial which lasted three years and the outcome of which alone assured
+the complete independence of the King.
+
+Nanteuil had now patrons influential enough to insure him a gracious
+welcome at court. His greatest ambition had been to paint the young
+King and he felt able to improve greatly on the efforts of both
+Mignard and Lebrun. With this end in view he addressed to the King a
+petition for a sitting in such eloquent verse that the request was
+readily granted. The first pastel portrait of the King seems to have
+made a small sensation at court; “Come and look at your husband in this
+portrait, madame,” said Anne of Austria to the young Queen; “he fairly
+speaks.” Still greater, however, was the King’s delight when he saw the
+engraved copy of the portrait which Nanteuil later presented to him.
+He rewarded with a gift of 4000 livres the artist whom he had already
+named court painter and engraver with a lodging at the Gobelins, and at
+whose bidding he had raised the status of engraving to a fine art.
+
+There are in all eleven of these portraits of Louis XIV and they
+give us an excellent idea of the haughty appearance, the conceited
+expression of the demigod during the happiest period of his life. What
+care we for the old monarch who later was caricatured by the pomp
+of Rigaud’s painting and the satire of Thackeray? This is the young
+Alexander who has just seized the reins of government and set up the
+most brilliant court in history. In the earliest one he is twenty-six
+years old, madly in love with Mlle. de La Vallière, and building
+Versailles with feverish haste; at the last sitting he is thirty-eight
+and hopelessly under the sway of Madame de Montespan. Here he bears our
+gaze with a contemptuous air, the man who, “if he was not the greatest
+of kings, was the greatest actor of majesty who ever filled a throne.”
+These portraits were considered extraordinary in point of resemblance.
+The great Bernini himself, who had come from Italy to make a bust of
+the King, warmly congratulated the engraver on “the best portrait
+ever made of his Majesty,” and this before the leading personages of
+the court.
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. NICOLAS FOUQUET
+
+Engraved in 1661 from Nanteuil’s own design from life
+
+“Of the three ministers to whom Louis had openly given his confidence,
+Lionne, Le Tellier, and Fouquet, the last named was the only one who
+possessed the qualities necessary for a prime minister.
+
+“‘It was generally believed,’ says Madame de La Fayette, ‘that the
+Superintendent would be called upon to take the Government into his
+hands.’ There is no doubt whatever that Fouquet himself expected
+eventually to succeed Mazarin.” Arthur Hassall, _Louis XIV_.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 13 × 10 inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. BASILE FOUQUET
+
+Engraved in 1658 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+Basile Fouquet, Abbé de Barbeaux and Rigny, Chancelier des Ordres du
+Roi, was the brother of Nicolas Fouquet, the famous Superintendent of
+Finance.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 12¾ × 9¾ inches]
+
+An unusual feature of these royal portraits is that seven of them are
+life-size, a feat which had not been previously attempted.
+
+It had become the fashion to hang these portraits in rich frames at the
+top of the high wainscots used in those days, and the very large size
+adopted by Nanteuil made of them decorative panels which held their
+own even in a roomful of paintings. Many of the nobles must have owned
+complete sets. They met with such favor that during the last four years
+of his life the artist engraved entirely in that size, about twenty-two
+inches by thirty, and had started a gallery of all the great men of
+France; he had actually produced as many as thirty-six before he died
+in 1678. The list includes the portraits of the Queen Mother _Anne of
+Austria_, decked out in all her finery a few weeks before she died,
+that of the young _Dauphin_, the effeminate brother of the King the
+_Duc d’Orléans_, _Colbert_, _Turenne_, _Louvois_, _Bossuet_, the _Duc
+de Chaulnes_, and several other celebrities. They are admirable plates
+in which he secured broad masses and simple effects by means of the
+same system he used in his small portraits. In spite of the very large
+surface and what seems like a million lines there is no confusion, not
+a flaw in the unity of his composition. They had formed the special
+admiration of the last Medici Duke of Tuscany when, on a visit to
+France, he had insisted on meeting Nanteuil. From him he purchased for
+the Uffizi Gallery in Florence the portrait of the painter himself
+and those of the King and Turenne. He moreover obliged him to accept
+a pupil _dans l’intimité_, a thing which Nanteuil had never done
+for he always locked himself up when he engraved his plates. It was
+that Domenico Tempesti who has left us such an interesting record of
+the habits of the engraver and the ideas he held on the subject of
+portraiture. It is from him that we know that the master made all those
+delightful pastel portraits in three sittings of exactly two hours
+each. Would that we knew how long it took him to engrave them! we can
+only form a vague idea of this from the fact that in his most prolific
+year he made fifteen engraved portraits. Robert-Dumesnil limits to
+ten the portraits engraved entirely by Nanteuil; the selection he
+makes is judicious, but the number was certainly far greater. Of
+course the purely mechanical draughting of the frame and the filling
+of the background was the work of assistants, and it is more than
+probable that in many of the less important plates and in the life-size
+portraits, on account of the great surface to be covered, the costume
+was engraved by such pupils as Pitau and Van Schuppen, for instance,
+as their cleverness for such work almost equaled their master’s. But
+in all the small portraits and those of _Turenne_ and the _Ducs de
+Bouillon_, for instance, we recognize everywhere the vigorous yet
+tactful touch of Nanteuil himself.
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. JEAN CHAPELAIN
+
+Engraved in 1655 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+Jean Chapelain, born at Paris, December 4, 1595, died February 22,
+1674. His mediocre poem “La Pucelle” brought him much more renown than
+the “Iliad” brought to Homer. It was Chapelain who corrected the first
+poems of Racine.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 10⅝ × 7½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. POMPONE DE BELLIÈVRE
+
+Engraved in 1657 (when Nanteuil was twenty-seven years of age) after
+the painting by Charles Lebrun. By many authorities it has been
+described as the most beautiful of all engraved portraits.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 12¾ × 9¾ inches]
+
+Reproductive work was for Nanteuil an exception. The plates which he
+engraved from the paintings of other artists number thirty-eight;
+to each of them he affixed the name of the painter with a fairness
+which Edelinck, for one, seldom exhibited. It is natural that these
+plates should show little of that inspiration and originality which
+were distinctive of a born character student like the artist
+from Rheims, but the majority are supremely interesting and the
+finest are masterpieces. It is evident that in the earliest ones,
+notably in the head of _Chavigny_, reputed a son of Richelieu, he was
+experimenting with technique and that several others which were used
+as frontispieces were merely potboilers. Even the portrait of Queen
+_Christina of Sweden_ and the much overrated one of the Dutch lawyer
+_van Steenberghen_ are nothing more than interesting studies of simple
+linework and softness of tone. In those of the two little sons of the
+Duchesse de Longueville, the _Comte de Dunois_ and the _Comte de Saint
+Paul_, we see how easy it was for Nanteuil’s technique to express the
+soft outline and the tender complexion of youth with a charming effect.
+
+After Lebrun he engraved with an admirable chiaroscuro the head of
+the Chancellor _Seguier_, and that well-known portrait of _Pompone de
+Bellièvre_, statesman and philanthropist, which, if lacking in vigor,
+represents the highest point reached by the intelligent refinement of
+linework. But it is only with the sober and precise work of his master
+Philippe de Champaigne that Nanteuil had a positive affinity. The two
+artists held identical views about portraiture and the Flemish painter
+found in the engraver from Rheims an interpreter who fairly breathed in
+unison with him. It is not possible to imagine anything more admirable
+than the engraved portraits of _de Neufville_, bishop of Chartres,
+_Richelieu_, and Marshal _Turenne_. They undoubtedly represent the last
+word on the subject of line-engraving. The face of the Cardinal is
+treated with all the subtlety of Velasquez and the head of the greatest
+captain of his time is modeled with a strength of coloring which
+Rembrandt himself would have admired. This plate shows in the clearest
+way Nanteuil’s ability to represent different textures: the hair, skin,
+lace, silk, and steel armor are treated with precision which is wholly
+satisfying and a breadth which commands the highest admiration.
+
+From the inventory made in his house the day after his death we learn
+that Nanteuil had for years been dissipating in extravagant living
+the large sums he had earned with his work. His household goods, his
+drawings, and the tools of his profession were sold under the hammer,
+and it is amusing at the present day to realize that a lot consisting
+of 2966 of his prints, together with many reams of paper and his
+printing-press, were valued at only seven hundred dollars.
+
+It is also explained why most of his portraits went through so many
+different states; it was chiefly on account of the “theses.” A curious
+fashion it was by which wealthy students in law, philosophy, and the
+arts formally dedicated their graduating theses to one or another
+distinguished personage whose engraved portrait they ordered from a
+_peintre-graveur_. This, with a lengthy dedication, was then attached
+to the printed thesis as a frontispiece and sent to the patron and
+to many of his friends. It is thus that the Chancellor d’Aligre
+commissioned Nanteuil, who had the monopoly of such work, to engrave
+and strike off twenty-five hundred proofs of a new and extra-large
+portrait of the King measuring thirty inches by forty-two for his son’s
+thesis; for this and the printing of the thesis itself the engraver
+received the sum of 10,400 livres, or about $9000 of our money. The
+price of an ordinary engraved portrait was $2000. Other less
+wealthy postulants had to be content with ordering a reimpression of
+a plate which had already been used and which needed only a change of
+dedication. In this way the portrait of the Dauphin for instance went
+through fifteen states and one of the King went through eleven; the
+plates were naturally often retouched by the artist in order to enable
+them to withstand so much use. Not to these theses alone, however, must
+the great number of royal portraits which were printed be attributed,
+for they had become immensely popular throughout the kingdom and
+whoever could afford it had one hanging in his house. In 1667 Cardinal
+de Bouillon ordered the portrait of the King for his thesis, and some
+years later another student selected for his patron the Cardinal
+himself. In 1675 it was the son of d’Artagnan, dear to all lovers of
+romance, who was presented by his father with the finest of the King’s
+portraits for his thesis.
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. HENRI DE LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE, VICOMTE DE
+TURENNE, MARÉCHAL DE FRANCE
+
+Engraved from the painting by Philippe de Champaigne
+
+“It is not possible to imagine anything more admirable than the
+engraved portraits of _de Neufville_, bishop of Chartres, _Richelieu_,
+and Marshal _Turenne_. They undoubtedly represent the last word on the
+subject of line-engraving.... The head of the greatest captain of his
+time is modeled with a strength of coloring which Rembrandt himself
+would have admired.” Louis R. Metcalfe.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 15⅛ × 11⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: NANTEUIL. JEAN-BAPTISTE COLBERT
+
+Engraved in 1668 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
+
+To Colbert Louis XIV was indebted for much, if not all, of the success
+of his enterprises during the twenty-five years succeeding the death of
+Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 19¾ × 16¾ inches]
+
+Of course this custom does not account for all the changes of state.
+When an archbishop became a cardinal for instance, the engraver made
+the necessary modification in the costume on the copper and provided
+his patron with a new set of impressions; similarly for a change in
+a title. In the case of Fouquet, the second of five states of his
+portrait was made necessary by a mistake in spelling in the dedication,
+the others being undoubtedly due to the touching-up of the plate on
+account of the great number of impressions ordered by a powerful man
+the circle of whose friends constituted the real court of that time. In
+the case of Cardinal Mazarin, politics undoubtedly played a great part
+in the use which was made of his portraits.
+
+It is not generally known that Nanteuil was himself the author of most
+of the titles and dedications both in prose and in verse, in Latin as
+well as in French, which form such an attractive feature of his prints.
+This was to be expected of the clever versifier who had written such
+amusing sonnets to the royal family and the leaders of the court in
+connection with their sittings, and of the cheerful companion who had
+known so intimately the _beaux-esprits_ whom the hospitality of Fouquet
+had so often convened at his château of Vaux. To the Queen, who had a
+complexion of marvelous whiteness, he wrote a poem thanking her for
+the order for her portrait, which ended with this line: “_Mais prenons
+courage, on a peint le soleil même avec un charbon!_”
+
+Nanteuil’s original drawings in pencil, crayons, and pastels are fewer
+by far than those of the Clouets or the pastellists of the eighteenth
+century which have been preserved to us; probably not more than twenty
+are now to be found in public collections. To my knowledge the Louvre
+has two, the Museum of Rheims four, the Chartres Museum one, Florence
+three, Chantilly four, and Stafford House, London, six. They are
+supremely interesting for that simplicity and sincerity, that living
+truth, which make one feel as if he recognized old acquaintances. As
+for his engravings, there are splendid collections of them in Paris,
+Dresden, and Chantilly, and there doesn’t exist a private collection of
+any importance in the world which does not contain some of the noble
+work of the past-master of engraved portraiture, the painter of the
+most brilliant period in modern history, the genial artist who had
+said to his pupil: “_Le temps et la peine ne font pas tant les beaux
+ouvrages que la bonne humeur et l’intelligence._”
+
+
+
+
+REMBRANDT’S LANDSCAPE ETCHINGS
+
+BY LAURENCE BINYON
+
+Assistant-Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum Author of
+“Dutch Etchers,” “Painting in the Far East,” etc.
+
+
+The pioneers of landscape art, those who have opened up new
+possibilities of design in landscape themes, were, at least until the
+nineteenth century, certain great masters of figure-painting. Titian,
+Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrandt, each of these gave a fresh impulse to the
+painting of landscape, an impulse which even to-day has not lost its
+inspiration; while the conventions established by Claude, Ruysdael and
+Salvator Rosa seem by comparison tame and more or less artificial or
+demoded.
+
+Of these masters Rembrandt is the nearest to modern feeling. The
+famous _Mill_, in which a landscape motive is treated with a richness
+and depth of humanity that hitherto had found expression only in
+figure-subjects, stands in this respect as a monument in European art.
+
+Yet landscapes form a very small proportion of Rembrandt’s paintings.
+Rembrandt as a painter rarely seems to treat landscape for its own
+sake. He composes for the most part arbitrarily, using broad spaces of
+level and hill-masses with ruined towers as the material elements of
+a scene for which some visionary play of gleam and cloud seems the
+real motive in his mind, the counterpart of the emotions he sought to
+communicate and evoke.
+
+We are now concerned with Rembrandt as an etcher. Here again the
+proportion of landscape to figure-subjects is small. There are seven
+and twenty out of a total of some three hundred etchings.
+
+We note at once that the etched landscapes present a different aspect
+from the painted landscapes.
+
+In his paintings Rembrandt shows none of the characteristics of the
+national landscape school of Holland, of those artists who relied
+on the features of their native land,--its wide pastures, its
+canals, its seaports, its sand-dunes, its farms, its great skies
+and immense horizons,--and made of the plain portraiture of these
+familiar scenes their pride and glory. Rather he took hints from his
+traveled countrymen and the painters who had sought the classic South.
+Landscape, whether treated simply or as an adjunct to some scene from
+Scriptural story, was to him a source of romantic appeal. And just
+as Italian masters, like Botticelli, have sometimes introduced as
+background foreign scenes from the Rhineland suggested by the work
+of Northern painters, so Rembrandt, to whom mountains had all the
+fascination of strangeness and romance, took from actual drawings of
+Titian’s school which he may have possessed or seen, or from pictures
+by traveled Dutchmen like Hercules Seghers, the features he desired,
+fusing them into a world of his own imagination.
+
+The etchings, on the contrary, are for the most part pure Holland. Yet
+their inspiration is very different from that of the typical Dutch
+painter or etcher. They are not mere portraits of places. Even when
+apparently simple transcripts from the scene before the artist’s eyes,
+the composing spirit is at work in them, rearranging and suppressing.
+And perhaps just because of this absence of the literal topographical
+spirit, they seem to contain the essential genius and atmosphere of
+Dutch landscape.
+
+Practically all Rembrandt’s landscape work belongs to the middle period
+of his life. Some writers have sought to account for this by supposing
+that he turned to such subjects in some rural retreat to soothe his
+overwhelming grief at the loss of his wife. The actual dates hardly
+support this supposition. Saskia died in the summer of 1642. But the
+landscapes begin a few years before that date. The first ten years of
+the master’s life at Amsterdam--the years of his prosperity--were, we
+know, crowded with portrait commissions; and landscape work would only
+have been a relaxation. It was hardly more than this at any time, but
+for some reason it interested him more during the ten or twelve years
+after 1640 than in his youth or old age.
+
+The earliest date on a landscape etching is 1641; the latest, 1652. The
+undated plates can be placed with tolerable certainty within a year or
+so.
+
+In 1634 Rembrandt had etched the large _Annunciation to the Shepherds_,
+in which the landscape is of the same visionary kind as appears in the
+paintings. The general effect is of white on black, the supernatural
+effulgence in the sky, which so startles the shepherds and their
+flocks, calling out of the gloom mysterious waving heights of foliage
+and obscure gleams of distance.
+
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. THE WINDMILL
+
+“In the _Windmill_ Rembrandt found a perfect subject. There is no
+adventitious impressiveness lent by strong effect of light and shadow
+in this beautiful plate: all is plain and simply rendered.... We feel
+the stains of weather, the touch of time, on the structure; we feel the
+air about it and the quiet light that rests on the far horizon as the
+eye travels over dike and meadow....” Laurence Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 5¹¹⁄₁₆ × 8³⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. VIEW OF AMSTERDAM
+
+“In the little _Amsterdam_, as in nearly all these etchings, the sky
+is left absolutely clear and empty. And how far more truly it suggests
+to us the brightness of a cloudless day than the most successful of
+plein-air painting in vivid color, which stops the imagination instead
+of leaving it free and active! This little plate is filled with air and
+sun.” Laurence Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 4⅜ × 6 inches]
+
+
+In none of the etchings of pure landscape does Rembrandt adopt this
+method and conception. None of them has that effect of illuminated
+gloom which is so peculiarly associated with the master’s name. Their
+effect is of black on white, and the line is given its full value. One
+of the earliest, probably, is a small plate (B. 207), sometimes called
+_A Large Tree and a House_. I believe some critics have cast a doubt on
+it, but it is unmistakably Rembrandt’s in conception and “handwriting.”
+The little piece might well be called _Twilight_. We seem to be near
+the shores of a lake; light is fading out of the sky and scarcely
+permits us to discern any details; the presence of a few figures and a
+human dwelling is felt rather than seen. All is gray and quiet; nothing
+stands out saliently. It is the silvery evenness of tone which is the
+charm of this tiny plate, in no way striking, yet indefinably revealing
+a master’s hand. Usually Rembrandt would make such quiet etched work,
+all of one biting, the basis of a rich effect produced by dry-point. He
+may have intended to have used the dry-point here, but perhaps thought
+the scale was too small.
+
+With the _Windmill_ and the _Cottage and Hay-barn_, both dated 1641, we
+come to a group of plates which are typical of Rembrandt’s landscape
+manner in etching. Close to these in date, presumably, are the little
+_Amsterdam_ and the _Cottage and Large Tree_. Mr. Hind, in the latest
+catalogue of the etchings, follows von Seidlitz in assigning the
+_Amsterdam_ to 1640, though Dr. Six maintains that the absence of a
+tower not finished till 1638 proves it to be earlier than that year.
+Rembrandt, however, was quite capable of abolishing towers to suit his
+composition. The simplest materials presented by the country-side are
+used in these etchings. Though Rembrandt never seems to have cared to
+make pictures of such subjects, he made a great number of drawings of
+them. A wonderful series of these sketches, once in the possession of
+his pupil, Govert Flinck, is at Chatsworth; and numbers of course in
+the great public collections. These summary small drawings, made with
+a reed-pen and sepia, and sometimes with a wash of sepia added, do not
+appeal to every one, certainly not to those whose pleasure is in the
+external aspect of things, the softness of verdure, the glitter of
+trees; to say nothing of the want of grandeur and impressiveness in the
+scenes themselves, the absence of anything scenic, such as makes the
+most obvious appeal, whether in nature or art.
+
+But the more one studies drawings, and the more one becomes familiar
+with the qualities which differentiate the first-rate from the second,
+the higher one inclines to rank these sketches. For one thing, they
+are almost miraculous in the certainty with which the reality of
+things is evoked, and the planes of recession indicated. Slight as
+is the means employed, rough and summary as is the stroke of the
+blunt pen, sometimes even with what seems a superficial clumsiness or
+carelessness, the things seen are there,--trees, buildings, bridges
+and canals, men and women,--and not only visible but, as it were,
+tangible. We can walk in imagination into these little landscapes, and
+not only do we breathe an infinite air but we are sure of every step.
+And this is the great test of mastery in such drawings. Take, for
+instance, the landscape drawings of Domenico Campagnola, which are also
+in reed-pen and sepia. These, with their broken foregrounds, upland
+farms among trees of delicate foliage, and distant mountain-ranges,
+are much more attractive to the eye at first sight than the great
+Dutchman’s sketches. But when in imagination we move into these
+pleasant landscapes, we are disconcerted by unrealities; our steps are
+uncertain, for they are not on solid ground. And in fact a pleasant
+pattern of pen-strokes remains a pattern and nothing else. But
+Rembrandt’s rough strokes have somehow molded all the ground with its
+saliences and depressions and filled the whole with light and air.
+
+It is the same with the etchings. But there is a difference: the
+difference of the medium. True artist as he is, Rembrandt conceives all
+he does in the terms of the material used. His etchings are born as
+etchings and nothing else; they are not drawings transferred to copper.
+
+There is a specific beauty of the etched line which is quite different
+from the beauty of a line made by the pen or chalk, or the line
+ploughed by a burin on copper. If it is unsuited to the sweeping
+rhythms of large movement in design, such as we associate with Rubens,
+for instance, its want of modulation and even character help a quiet
+dignity of draughtsmanship; and the etcher has means of enhancing
+homeliness of detail unrivaled in any other medium. Old buildings,
+wharves, boats and shipping at a river-side or quay,--such things as
+these naturally attract the etcher, for they are congenial to his
+medium. And in the _Windmill_ (B. 233, dated 1641), Rembrandt found a
+perfect subject.
+
+There is no adventitious impressiveness lent by strong effect of light
+and shadow in this beautiful plate: all is plain and simply rendered.
+But we have only to compare this etching with the etchings of some of
+Rembrandt’s immediate predecessors, like Jan and Esaias Van de Velde,
+to see the difference not only between a great and an average artist,
+but between a great and a commonplace etcher. The picturesque tracery
+of a windmill’s sails and timber-work are seen and enjoyed in the
+Van de Veldes’ plates, but how much more than this is in Rembrandt’s
+_Mill_! We feel the stains of weather, the touch of time, on the
+structure; we feel the air about it and the quiet light that rests
+on the far horizon as the eye travels over dike and meadow; we are
+admitted to the subtlety and sensitiveness of a sight transcending our
+own; and even by some intangible means beyond analysis we partake of
+something of Rembrandt’s actual mind and feeling, his sense of what the
+old mill meant, not merely as a picturesque object to be drawn, but
+as a human element in the landscape, implying the daily work of human
+hands and the association of man and earth. Here is a classic in its
+kind which many generations of etchers have found an inspiring model.
+An accident in the biting apparently is the cause of an aquatint-like
+broken tone of gray in the sky above the mill; but it comes with
+congruous effect, and is rather a beauty than a blemish.
+
+In the little _Amsterdam_, as in nearly all these etchings, the sky is
+left absolutely clear and empty. And how far more truly it suggests
+to us the brightness of a cloudless day than the most successful of
+plein-air painting in vivid color, which stops the imagination instead
+of leaving it free and active! This little plate is filled with air and
+sun.
+
+A first state of this etching belongs to my friend Mr. Gustav Mayer in
+London, but is absolutely unknown to all catalogues previous to that
+of Mr. Hind. In it there is a hare running over the fields, but it is
+a thought too big in scale, and Rembrandt doubtless suppressed it as a
+distracting incident.
+
+The _Cottage and Hay-barn_ (B. 225) and the _Cottage and Large Tree_
+(B. 226) seem companion plates; and though the latter is not dated,
+it is natural to assume for it the same date as that inscribed on the
+former--1641. If the _Cottage and Large Tree_ is the finer of these
+two oblong plates in design, the _Cottage and Hay-barn_ is the more
+brilliant as an etching. The cottage and shed which give the plate
+its name are in the center of the design, and the dark mass, full of
+tender shadows and reflections, emphasizes by contrast the play of open
+light on the fields stretching on either side, the river, the house
+nestling in a wood, beyond, and the distant towers of Amsterdam. Though
+all is treated in Rembrandt’s broad way, it is surprising how full,
+how suggestive of intimate detail the landscape is. As we look at it
+there comes over us the sense of sleepy, bright air and sunshine, the
+quiet of the fields, in which, though nothing outwardly is happening,
+we are conscious of the stir of natural life, of growing things, of
+flowers and grass and insects, and peaceful human occupations going
+on unobtrusively; of “all the live murmur of a summer’s day.” It is
+interesting, in view of Rembrandt’s treatment of topography, to note
+that Dr. Jan Six has shown that the master has here combined two
+different views in a single composition.
+
+In the _Cottage with White Palings_ (B. 232, dated 1642), effective
+use is made of the broad white planks of the fence to enforce the
+pattern of black and white in the design. Here again the subject is
+placed in the center with views on either side, though the horizon is
+higher than usual.
+
+With the _Three Trees_ (B. 212) of 1643, we come to the most famous
+of Rembrandt’s etched landscapes. This plate stands in the same sort
+of relation to the rest as the _Mill_ to the rest of his landscape
+paintings. It is the grandest and most typical, most expressive of
+the master’s temperament. Here the composition is less accidental,
+and more (so to speak) architectural. The group of three trees stands
+up darkly on a bank of high ground at the right. At the left one
+looks over the level fields to the horizon and a glimmer of distant
+sea. A thunderstorm is passing away, with contorted clouds piled in
+the upper sky and trailing over the plain, and rods of violent rain
+slant across the corner of the scene. For once Rembrandt builds up a
+landscape design out of sky and earth; and the something elemental
+which inspires it gives the etching a pregnancy and significance which
+are absent from the other landscapes, in themselves, at their best,
+more intimately charming. There are those who object to the straight,
+hard lines of the rain; but I do not find them untrue, and they are of
+great value in the design. Then, what beauties lurk in this etching,
+wherever one looks into it! The return of the light after rain, than
+which there is nothing more beautiful in nature, gives a wet sparkle
+to the fields; and again we notice how the trees in their dark relief
+give glory to the space of luminous clearness beyond. The wagon on
+the top of the high bank is moving toward the light, and a painter
+sits by the roadside, sketching the passing of the storm. An angler
+fishes in a pool; lovers, hardly discerned, sit together, away from the
+world in a thicket’s obscurity. All the plain, so solitary at first
+sight, is filled with moving life. Of what particular species the three
+trees are, it might be difficult, as often with Rembrandt, to say with
+confidence; from their shape and the sturdy growth of their boughs, I
+suppose them to be oaks. There is no doubt, however, about the willow
+in the _Omval_ (B. 209). The gnarled, seamed trunk of an old tree,
+with its rugged wrinkles and smooth bosses, irresistibly invites the
+etcher’s needle; and Rembrandt, like other etchers since, has evidently
+found a great enjoyment in this willow-stem, as in that other old
+willow to which he added, not very felicitously, a St. Jerome reading,
+spectacles on nose, and a perfunctory lion (B. 232, dated 1648). The
+_Omval_ shows a different kind of composition; the willow at the edge
+of a thicket, in whose shadow two lovers are embowered, divides the
+plate; the right and larger part is all light and open--a river-bank on
+which a man moves down to the ferry, and the broad sunny stream, and
+houses, masts, and windmills across the water--a picturesque river-side
+such as Whistler and Haden loved to etch.
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. THE THREE TREES
+
+“With the _Three Trees_ of 1643, we come to the most famous of
+Rembrandt’s etched landscapes. This plate stands in the same sort
+of relation to the rest as the _Mill_ to the rest of his landscape
+paintings. It is the grandest and most typical, most expressive of the
+master’s temperament.” Laurence Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⁵⁄₁₆ × 11 inches]
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. SIX’S BRIDGE
+
+“To the same year--1645--belongs the well-known _Six’s Bridge_, a plate
+in which the pure bitten line, with no close hatching or shadow-effect,
+is given full play. Of its kind, this is a perfect etching.” Laurence
+Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 5¹⁄₁₆ × 8¹³⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+To the same year--1645--belongs the well-known _Six’s Bridge_ (B.
+208), a plate in which the pure bitten line, with no close hatching
+or shadow-effect, is given full play. Of its kind, this is a perfect
+etching. Every one knows the story of its being done while Six’s
+servant went to fetch the mustard. But there is nothing hasty or
+incomplete about it: the masterly economy of lines is perfectly
+satisfying in its absolute directness and simplicity. There is great
+pleasure in contemplating a work like this, so clean, so free from any
+superfluous element.
+
+But from this time onward Rembrandt seems to grow dissatisfied with
+pure etching. He grows more and more fond of dry-point, using it very
+frequently to enrich an etched plate, and in his later years preferring
+often to dispense with the acid altogether.
+
+Dry-point is employed in the delightful little plate, the _Boat-house_
+(B. 231), to deepen the shadows of the arch over the water; but in
+ordinary impressions this has worn off and only the groundwork of
+bitten lines remains. This is the kind of subject which most artists
+would have drawn in delicate detail; but Rembrandt is always rather
+remarkably indifferent to the particular beauty and character of
+vegetation (probably this was one of the reasons why he made so little
+appeal to Ruskin); and it is surprising that with all the indifference
+and roughness in the drawing of the plant-forms on the river-bank, the
+little plate should still have so intimate a character and suggest so
+much of the beauty of dark, quiet water in which reflections of flower
+and herbage are asleep.
+
+In one or two of the plates of 1650 and thereabouts, as if tired of
+level horizons, Rembrandt closes the view with a mountain or range of
+hills. Such are the _Canal and Angler_ and the _Boat in the Canal_ (B.
+235 and 236), which, joined together, form one composition; and one
+might add the _Sportsman with Dogs_ (B. 211), though Mr. Hind assigns
+the completion, at any rate, of this etching to a date of a few years
+later.
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. LANDSCAPE WITH A BOAT IN THE CANAL
+
+“In one or two of the plates of 1650 and thereabouts, as if tired of
+level horizons, Rembrandt closes the view with a mountain or range of
+hills. Such are the _Canal and Angler_ and the _Boat in the Canal_.”
+Laurence Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 3¼ × 4¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. FARM WITH TREES AND A TOWER [LANDSCAPE WITH A
+RUINED TOWER AND CLEAR FOREGROUND]
+
+“... a long, oblong plate, of great beauty for its pattern of light and
+shade. Part of the sky is shadowed, and the last light, before a shower
+pours over the trees, illuminates the foliage on one side.” Laurence
+Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 4⅞ × 12⅝ inches]
+
+The _Hay-barn with Flock of Sheep_ (B. 224) is an instance of
+a favorite feature in Rembrandt’s landscape--a road seen in
+perspective at one side of the design. The _Landscape with a Cow
+Drinking_ (B. 237) is a beautiful etching in a rather slight manner,
+with a suggestion of wind in the branches of trees, and light coming
+with the wind. Even in the _Three Trees_, though there is storm, there
+is little impression of movement in the air; and it is characteristic
+of the landscape etchings as a whole that they are serene and still,
+and more often suggest a sunny day than gray skies.
+
+Dry-point becomes more emphatic in the _Obelisk_ (B. 227); indeed, in
+the earliest impressions of this plate the black of the bur is too
+pronounced, and only after it had been printed from till this effect
+had merged and blended with the etched lines was the right effect
+attained. Here the obelisk gives character to the design; and in the
+_Landscape with a Square Tower_ (B. 218) a building dominates,--an old
+tower of rather blunted outlines, such as Rembrandt loved to crown dark
+hills with in the visionary landscapes of his painting.
+
+Another old tower occurs, less prominently, in the _Farm with Trees
+and a Tower_ (B. 223), a long, oblong plate, of great beauty for its
+pattern of light and shade. Part of the sky is shadowed, and the last
+light, before a shower pours over the trees, illuminates the foliage
+on one side. In the first two states there is a small cupola on the
+tower; but Rembrandt, no doubt rightly, judged that the design would
+be improved by lopping it off. The change certainly subdues the local
+character of the scene.
+
+Another long oblong of perhaps greater beauty is the _Gold-weigher’s
+Field_ of 1651 (B. 234). This is all air and sun and space, the
+etched lines light and open, with dry-point adding a kind of gleam and
+vibration to the fertile fields. It is a revelation of what a great
+artist can do, unaided by tone or color, with a scene that to the
+average eye would be tame enough. There is a sense, too, of the riches
+of the earth, the farmer’s pride in broad acres and growing crops,
+which gives a human touch, never absent from Rembrandt’s work.
+
+In contrast with this is another plate of the previous year--the _Three
+Gabled Cottages_ (B. 217)--where the dry-point is freely used to give
+color and softness to the thatched roofs, checkered with the shadow of
+an old tree. But it is the gratefulness of shadow in the noonday, not
+its gloom, which is the motive of the etching.
+
+The last group of landscapes are in pure dry-point. It is interesting
+to compare one of the earlier bitten plates with the _Road by the
+Canal_ (B. 221), delicious in its freshness and spontaneous effect, or
+the _Clump of Trees with a Vista_ (B. 222). Of this last there is a
+first state with a mere indication of part of the design; the trees,
+with the peep through the thicket, seem to have been an afterthought.
+
+_The Wood over Palings_ (B. 364), the principal one of several
+unfinished studies on one plate, has velvety dry-point in the foliage.
+It is a plate that seems to have served for inspiration to Andrew
+Geddes, the Scotch artist who was one of the first to inaugurate the
+revival of etching in the nineteenth century and to realize once
+again--what had been so unaccountably forgotten since Rembrandt’s
+time--the possibilities and beauty of the dry-point method.
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. THE GOLD-WEIGHER’S FIELD
+
+“This is all air and sun and space, the etched lines light and open,
+with dry-point adding a kind of gleam and vibration to the fertile
+fields. It is a revelation of what a great artist can do, unaided by
+tone or color, with a scene that to the average eye would be tame
+enough. There is a sense, too, of the riches of the earth, the farmer’s
+pride in broad acres and growing crops, which gives a human touch,
+never absent from Rembrandt’s work.” Laurence Binyon.
+
+Size of the original etching, 4¾ × 12⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: REMBRANDT. LANDSCAPE WITH A MILKMAN
+
+This etching, like _The Wood over Palings_, has velvety dry-point
+in the foliage, and may have suggested to Andrew Geddes, the Scotch
+artist who was one of the first to inaugurate the revival of etching
+in the nineteenth century and to realize once again--what had been so
+unaccountably forgotten since Rembrandt’s time--the possibilities and
+beauty of the dry-point method.
+
+Size of the original etching, 2⁹⁄₁₆ × 6⅞ inches]
+
+And so the series comes to an end, and landscape disappears from
+the master’s work, save as a background to figure-compositions. One of
+these backgrounds may be noticed for its special interest. About 1653
+Rembrandt took up a copperplate already etched by Hercules Seghers--a
+_Tobias and the Angel_ (after a composition of Elsheimer’s)--and
+transformed it into a _Flight into Egypt_. Suppressing the two figures,
+which were of very large size in proportion to the design, he masked
+the traces of them by a mass of trees, put in his own figures on a much
+smaller scale, and by the most vigorous use of the dry-point wrought
+the whole into harmony. The treatment of shadowy masses of foliage
+reminds us how little there is of this element of landscape in the
+etchings we have been considering. There is nothing of that feeling for
+the majesty and mystery of leafy forest-trees which Claude expressed
+so beautifully in the _Bouvier_ etching, and still more in his sepia
+drawings. Critics have also remarked on other limitations of landscape
+interest in Rembrandt--the absence of seas and water in movement, the
+comparative absence of wind and weather, in his etchings.
+
+For all that, when we think of the other Dutch etchers of landscape,
+we realize how far he towers over those who professed no other
+subject,--over Molyn. Ruysdael, Everdingen, Waterloo, and Italianizers
+like Both.
+
+Hercules Seghers is the one who showed most variety and temperament;
+and his work evidently had a great interest for Rembrandt. He was
+a curious experimenter, and though he rarely seems quite master of
+his intentions, he was the antithesis of those landscape artists,
+so frequent, who “take out a patent,” as has been said, for some
+particular corner or aspect of nature, and never do anything else but
+repeat their favorite theme with variations.
+
+With Rembrandt landscape was a kind of interlude and holiday from more
+serious design. We feel it in the sunny temper which pervades the
+majority of the etchings. But how far superior he is to all the rest
+in his sensitiveness to beauty! As we have seen, he is not greatly
+interested in the details of landscape form. We find scribbles and
+shapelessness in his foliage and plants; but his grasp of essential
+truths overrides all criticism of this kind, and always and everywhere
+we feel his intense joy in expressing light. The etchings of his
+contemporaries seem cold and hueless, without air or sun, beside his.
+
+I find it hard to express a preference among the series. The _Three
+Trees_ stands by itself, but there are others which touch one with a
+more vivid charm. Turning from one to another, I find each arresting
+the eye with some particular beauty, though the set of oblong plates,
+from the _Cottage and Hay-barn_ to the _Gold-weigher’s Field_, contain,
+I think, the most delight; they are those in which all Holland seems to
+lie before us, with its pastures and its many peaceful waters.
+
+The landscape of Holland, with its level distances and low horizon, has
+inexhaustible attractions for the painter of skies and atmosphere. To
+the born designer it is less stimulating. One of the things that most
+impress in any representative exhibition of Rembrandt’s etchings is the
+extraordinary variety and freshness of his designing. The proportions
+of the plate, upright, square, or oblong; the relation of the figures
+to the frame; the proportion of light to dark; the use of tone and
+line;--all these show a constant variety. Those who, when they think of
+Rembrandt, call up the image of a dark panel with light concentrated
+on a head or group in the middle of it, find a series of the etchings
+quite subversive of their preconception.
+
+Now to an inventive designer like Rembrandt the resources of the Dutch
+landscape offered but little. Where he blends landscape with figure,
+as in the infinitely pathetic _Burial of Christ_, or the _Woman of
+Samaria_, or the _Christ Returning with His Parents from the Temple_,
+though the human types, as always, are taken from the world around the
+artist, the landscape is drawn from his imagination, or borrowed from
+others. In the _St. Jerome_ (B. 104) the background is no doubt taken
+from a Venetian drawing. Such methods were, indeed, inevitable, since
+one cannot go on weaving designs of human forms and landscape material
+where the typical form of this last is little more than a straight
+line, or a series of straight lines, across the field of sight.
+
+One may wonder, perhaps with regret, why Rembrandt did not for once
+etch a landscape of his inner vision, like those paintings at Cassel
+and at Brunswick. It may be that he felt that for such tone-effects
+etching was not the appropriate medium. Had he lived in a later day,
+he might have used mezzotint, as Turner did in his _Liber Studiorum_;
+and certainly that process should in his hands have yielded marvelous
+results.
+
+But we may well be content with these landscape etchings which he has
+left us. They express the genius of the Dutch country, the “virtue”
+of it, as Pater would have said, as no other of his countrymen has
+expressed it. The series of plates in which Legros has expressed the
+genius of the country of Northern France, with its poplar-bordered
+streams and sunny pastures, has something of the same native quality.
+Each of these masters seems to have seized an essence which no one
+not born of the soil, however enamoured of a land’s beauty, can quite
+possess and make his own.
+
+What is it that gives these landscapes their enduring charm, and why
+do we rank them so high? Many a later etcher has had equal skill with
+needle and acid; some have had even greater. Whistler is more delicate,
+perhaps, more exquisite, more unexpected in his gift of spacing. Yet
+neither Whistler nor any other master of etching has the secret power
+of Rembrandt. I say “secret,” because we cannot argue about it or
+explain it. It lay in what Rembrandt was: in the depth and greatness
+of his humanity. When we have wondered at the sensitive instrument of
+his eyesight, when we have exalted his magical draughtsmanship, when we
+have admired his instinctive fidelity to the capacity and limitations
+of the medium used, when we have recognized the profound integrity of
+his art, there is still something left over, beyond analysis, and that
+the rarest thing of all.
+
+How it is we cannot say, but there has passed into these little works
+an intangible presence, of which we cannot choose but be conscious,
+though it was not consciously expressed,--the spirit of one of the
+fullest, deepest natures that ever breathed. Whatever Rembrandt does,
+however slight, something of that spirit escapes him, some tinge of
+his experience,--of those thoughts, “too deep for tears,” which things
+meaner than the meanest flowers could stir in him.
+
+
+
+
+GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI
+
+(1720-1778)
+
+PART I
+
+BY BENJAMIN BURGES MOORE
+
+
+The life of Piranesi was eminently that of a man of genius,
+characterized by all the peculiarities ascribable to genius, perhaps as
+failures of human nature, but also distinguished by that which imparts
+to its possessor an imperishable renown. Those peculiarities are worthy
+of notice, as they bear so much on the character of his work; but his
+works, wonderful as they are in point of execution, are less to be
+admired for this than for the interest of the subjects he chose, _and
+that which he imparted to them_. In an age of frivolities, he boldly
+and single-handed dared to strike out for himself a new road to fame;
+and in dedicating his talents to the recording and illustrating from
+ancient writers the mouldering records of former times, he met with a
+success as great as it was deserved, _combining, as he did, all that
+was beautiful in art with all that was interesting in the remains of
+antiquity_.”
+
+These words were prefixed to an account of Piranesi’s career published
+in London during the year 1831 in “The Library of the Fine Arts,” and
+based upon a sketch of his life written by his son, Francesco, but
+never published, although the manuscript at that period had passed
+into the hands of the publishers, Priestly and Weale, only to be
+subsequently lost or destroyed.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI
+
+From the engraving by F. Polanzani, dated 1750
+
+It is impossible to study this little known portrait without being
+convinced of its accurate likeness. It certainly conveys an impression
+of the man’s dæmonic force, which is not given by the more frequently
+reproduced statue executed by Angelini.
+
+Size of the original etching, 15¼ × 11¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS
+
+A rendering almost as faithful as an architect’s drawing, which
+Piranesi’s unfailing genius has transformed into an enchanting work of
+art. This arch stands in the Roman Forum. It was dedicated 203 A.D. in
+commemoration of victories over the Parthians.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅜ × 27¾ inches]
+
+Eighty years, therefore, have passed since this evaluation of the great
+Italian etcher was written, yet to-day he is no more appreciated at
+his full worth than he was then. At all times it has been not uncommon
+for an artist to attain a kind of wide and enduring renown, although
+estimated at his true value and for his real excellences by only a few;
+but of such a fate it would be difficult to select a more striking
+or illustrious example than Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Living and
+dying in the Eternal City, Rome, to whose august monuments his fame
+is inseparably linked, he was the author of the prodigious number of
+over thirteen hundred large plates, combining the arts of etching and
+engraving, which, aside from their intrinsic merit as works of art, are
+of incalculable value on account of the inexhaustible supply of classic
+motives which they offer to all designers, and to which they, more than
+any other influence, have given currency.
+
+These prints, in early and beautiful proofs, are still to be bought at
+relatively low figures, while each year sees the sale, by thousands,
+of impressions from the steeled plates still existing at Rome in the
+Royal Calcography;--impressions which, although in themselves still
+sufficiently remarkable to be worth possessing, are yet so debased as
+to constitute a libel upon the real powers of Piranesi.
+
+The wide diffusion of these ignoble prints, and the fact that
+Piranesi’s output was so great as to place his work within the reach
+of the slenderest purse, are largely responsible for the failure of
+the general public to apprehend his real greatness; for rarity calls
+attention to merit, to which in fact it often gives a value entirely
+fictitious, while there is always difficulty in realizing that things
+seen frequently and in quantities may have qualities far outweighing
+those of work which has aroused interest by its scarcity. This is why
+the fame of Piranesi is widely spread, although his best and most
+characteristic work is almost unknown, and his real genius generally
+unrecognized.
+
+Born in Venice, October 4th, 1720, and named after Saint John
+the Baptist, Piranesi was the son of a mason, blind in one eye,
+and of Laura Lucchesi. His maternal uncle was an architect and
+engineer,--for in those days the same person frequently combined the
+two professions,--who had executed various water-works and at least
+one church. From his uncle the young Giovanni Battista received his
+earliest instruction in things artistic, for which he appears to have
+displayed a conspicuously precocious aptitude. Before he was seventeen
+he had attracted sufficient attention to assure him success in his
+father’s profession, but Rome had already fired his imagination, and
+aroused that impetuous determination which marked his entire career.
+His yearning after Rome report says to have been first aroused by a
+young Roman girl whom he loved, but, however that may be, he overcame
+the determined opposition of his parents, and, in 1738, at the age of
+eighteen, set out for the papal city to study architecture, engraving,
+and in general the fine arts; for even in those degenerate days there
+were left some traces of that multiform talent which distinguished
+the artists of the Renaissance. When he reached the goal of his
+longing, the impression produced by the immortal city on so fervid an
+imagination must have been so deep, so overwhelming, as to annihilate
+all material considerations, although they could not have been other
+than harassing, since the allowance received from his father was
+only six Spanish piastres a month, or some six or seven lire of the
+Italian money of to-day. By what expedients he managed to live we
+cannot even conjecture, but it may be supposed that he was boarded,
+apprentice-wise, by the masters under whom he studied. These teachers
+were Scalfarotto and Valeriani, a noted master of perspective and a
+pupil of one Ricci of Belluno, who had acquired from the great French
+painter and lover of Rome, Claude Lorrain, the habit of painting
+highly imaginative pictures composed of elements drawn from the ruins
+of the Roman Campagna. This style was transmitted to Piranesi by
+Valeriani, without doubt stimulating that passionate appreciation of
+the melancholy grandeur of ruined Rome already growing in his mind, and
+afterward to fill his entire life and work.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. ARCH OF VESPASIAN
+
+In this, as in many of Piranesi’s compositions, the figures are frankly
+posing, but their presence adds such charm to the scene that none could
+wish them absent.
+
+Size of the original etching, 19 × 27⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. ARCH OF TRAJAN AT BENEVENTO, IN THE KINGDOM OF
+NAPLES
+
+A fine rendering of that air of glory which the most dilapidated
+fragments of a Roman Arch of Triumph never lose. The Arch of Trajan,
+one of the finest of ancient arches, was dedicated A.D. 114. It
+is of white marble, 48 feet high and 30½ wide, with a single arch
+measuring 27 by 16½ feet. The arch is profusely sculptured with reliefs
+illustrating Trajan’s life and his Dacian triumphs.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅜ × 27½ inches]
+
+At the same time, he acquired a thorough knowledge of etching and
+engraving under the Sicilian, Giuseppe Vasi, whose etchings first
+aroused the great Goethe’s longing for Italy. At the age of twenty,
+thinking, probably not without foundation, that this master was
+concealing from him the secret of the correct use of acid in etching,
+Piranesi is reported, in his anger, to have made an attempt to murder
+Vasi. Such an act would not be out of keeping with the character
+of the fiery Venetian, for, before leaving Venice, he had already
+been described by a fellow-pupil as “_stravagante_,” extravagant, or
+fantastic, a term not restricted by Italians to a man’s handling of
+money, but applied rather to character as a whole, in which connection
+it usually denotes the less fortunate side of that complete and
+magnificent surrender to an overwhelming passion which aroused so
+lively an admiration of the Italian nature in the great French writer,
+Stendhal. When we, tame moderns, judge the “extravagance” of such
+characters, it is only fair to recollect that, with all their faults
+and crimes, these same unbridled Italians were capable of heroic
+virtues, unknown to our pale and timid age. Men like Cellini and
+Piranesi, who had much in common, are simply incarnate emotional force,
+a fact which is, at the same time, the cause of their follies and the
+indispensable condition of their genius.
+
+After this quarrel Piranesi returned to Venice, where he attempted to
+gain a livelihood by the practice of architecture. There is reason
+to believe that at this period he studied under Tiepolo; at any rate
+there exist in his published works a few curious, rather rococo plates
+entirely different from his usual manner, and very markedly influenced
+by the style of Tiepolo’s etching. He also studied painting with the
+Polanzani who is responsible for that portrait of him which forms
+the frontispiece to the first edition of “Le Antichità Romane,” and
+gives so vivid an impression of the dæmonic nature of the man. Meeting
+with little success in Venice, he went to Naples, after returning to
+Rome, attracted principally by archæological interests. He stayed at
+Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Pæstum, where at this time, undoubtedly, he
+made the drawings of the temples afterward etched and published by his
+son. The drawings for these etchings of Pæstum, among the best known
+of the Piranesi plates, are now in the Soane Museum in London.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE BASILICA, PÆSTUM
+
+Size of the original etching, 17¾ × 26⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE AT PÆSTUM
+
+Size of the original etching, 19½ × 26⅜ inches]
+
+Having decided that he had no vocation for painting, which he
+definitely abandoned at this time, Piranesi returned to Rome, and
+settled there permanently. His father now wished him to return to
+Venice, but he was altogether unwilling to do so, and replied,
+characteristically, that Rome being the seat of all his affections
+it would be impossible for him to live separated from her monuments.
+He intimated that in preference to leaving, he would give up his
+allowance, a suggestion upon which his father acted promptly by
+stopping all remittances, so that, estranged from his relatives,
+Piranesi was now entirely dependent upon his own resources for a
+livelihood.
+
+His poverty and suffering at this period were undoubtedly great, but
+his indomitable nature could be crippled by no material hardships.
+He devoted himself entirely to etching and engraving, and, when
+twenty-one, published his first composition. At this time he was living
+in the Corso opposite the Doria-Pamphili Palace, but even if the
+neighborhood was illustrious, it is not pleasant to think what wretched
+garret must have hidden the misery of his struggling genius. His
+first important and dated work, the “Antichità Romane de’ Tempi della
+Republica, etc.,” was published in 1748, with a dedication to the noted
+antiquary, Monsignore Bottari, chaplain to Pope Benedict XIV. This
+work was received with great favor, as the first successful attempt to
+engrave architecture with taste, and from the day of its appearance
+Piranesi may be said to have been famous. However, he still experienced
+the utmost difficulty in finding the money necessary to subsist and to
+procure the materials requisite to his work. Yet, despite his terrible
+poverty, his labor was unceasing and tireless to a degree that we can
+now scarcely conceive. It must be borne in mind that, in addition
+to etching and engraving, he was engaged in the extensive study of
+archæology, which led him to undertake many remarkable researches. He
+became a noted archæologist of great erudition, as is shown by numerous
+controversies with famous antiquarians of the day. Some idea of the
+copiousness of his knowledge can be gained from the fact that his
+argument covers a hundred folio pages in that controversy in which he
+upheld the originality of Roman art against those who claimed it to be
+a mere offshoot of Grecian genius. In the preface to one of his books,
+he refers to it as the result of “what I have been able to gather from
+the course of many years of indefatigable and most exact observations,
+excavations, and researches, things which have never been undertaken in
+the past.” This statement is quite true, and when we realize that the
+preparation of a single plate, such as the plan of the Campus Martius,
+would, in itself, have taken most men many years of work, we can only
+feel uncomprehending amazement at the capacity for work possessed by
+this man of genius.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD
+
+From this plate it is possible to gain an idea of the greater beauty
+possessed by ruined Rome when still shrouded in vegetation. The Arch of
+Septimius Severus is seen in the middle distance
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅛ × 27⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. SITE OF THE ANCIENT ROMAN FORUM
+
+A very interesting historical document which makes it possible to
+realize an aspect of the Forum at present difficult to conceive
+
+Size of the original, 14⅞ × 23¼ inches]
+
+The very spirit of imperial Rome would seem to have filled Piranesi,
+making him its own, so that the vanished splendor was to him ever
+present and added to the strange melancholy of the vine-grown ruins
+which alone remained from the “grandeur that was Rome.” In every age
+and in every province most Italians have been animated by a lively
+sense of their direct descent from classic Rome,--a feeling that its
+fame was peculiarly their inheritance in a way true of no other people,
+so that this glorious descent was their greatest pride and claim to
+leadership. In the darkest days of oppression and servitude, when Italy
+sat neglected and disconsolate among her chains, there were never
+lacking nobler souls who kept alive a sense of what was fitting in the
+descendants of classic Rome, and took therein a melancholy pride. But
+no Italian was ever more completely an ancient Roman than Piranesi,
+who certainly, in despite of his Venetian birth, considered himself a
+“Roman citizen.” This sentiment played an important part in, perhaps,
+the most characteristic act of his whole life, namely, his fantastic
+marriage, of which he himself left an account not unworthy of Cellini.
+
+He was drawing in the Forum one Sunday, when his attention was
+attracted by a boy and girl, who proved to be the children of the
+gardener to Prince Corsini. The girl’s type of features instantly
+convinced Piranesi that she was a direct descendant of the ancient
+Romans, and so aroused his emotions that on the spot he asked if it
+were possible for her to marry him. Her exact reply is not recorded,
+although it must have conveyed the fact that she was free, but it can
+surprise no one to hear that the girl was thoroughly frightened by
+such sudden and overpowering determination. His hasty resolution was
+confirmed when Piranesi afterward learned that she had a dower of one
+hundred and fifty piastres, or some three hundred lire of to-day, a
+fact certain to arouse a keen realization both of his poverty and of
+the value of money in those days. Without any delay, he proceeded to
+ask the girl’s hand in marriage of her parents, who, like the girl,
+appear to have been so terrified and overwhelmed by the cyclonic nature
+of the man as to be incapable of the slightest resistance. Whatever may
+have been the motives of all the parties concerned, the fact is that
+Piranesi was married to the descendant of the ancient Romans exactly
+five days after he first laid eyes on her classic features! Immediately
+after the wedding, having placed side by side his wife’s dowry and
+his own finished plates, together with his unfinished designs, he
+informed his presumably astonished bride that their entire fortune was
+now before them, but that in three years’ time her portion should be
+doubled; which proved to be no boast but a promise that he actually
+fulfilled.
+
+According to report, he told his friends that he was marrying in
+order to obtain the money required for the completion of his great
+book on Roman Antiquities. However, even if he did marry for money,
+he maintained all his life, to the poor woman’s great discomfort, as
+jealous a watch over his wife as could be expected of the most amorous
+of husbands; so his affections as well as his vanity may, perhaps,
+have been called into play by his marriage. At any rate, his ideas as
+to family life were worthy of the most severe Roman _paterfamilias_.
+His son, Francesco, born in 1756, relates that, when absorbed in
+his studies, he would quite forget the hours for meals, while his
+five children, neither daring to interrupt him nor eat without him,
+experienced all the miseries of hunger. His domestic coercion and
+discipline were doubtless extreme, but the family would seem to have
+lived not too unhappily.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. VIEW OF THE “CAMPO VACCINO”
+
+The Site of the Ancient Roman Forum showing the Arch of Septimius
+Severus, Columns of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans and of the Temple of
+Concord and, in the distance, the Arch of Titus, the Colosseum, etc.,
+etc.
+
+Size of the original etching, 16⅛ × 21½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE ARCH OF TITUS
+
+In this plate can be seen a favorite device of Piranesi’s, which is
+to enhance the size and stability of massive architecture by placing
+on some part of the ruin a human figure in active motion. The Arch of
+Titus was built in commemoration of the taking of Jerusalem. The vault
+is richly coffered and sculptured, and the interior faces of the piers
+display reliefs of Titus in triumph, with the plunder of the temple at
+Jerusalem.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅝ × 27¾ inches]
+
+Every two years, if not oftener, a monumental book would make its
+appearance, to say nothing of separate plates, and Piranesi was now a
+famous man. With the exception of Winckelmann, he did more than any
+one to spread a knowledge and love of classic art, while his learning
+and his researches aroused a widespread appreciation of the nobility
+of Roman ruins, thereby largely contributing to their excavation
+and protection. His exhaustive acquaintance with antiquity and his
+impassioned admiration for its beauty, combined with his singular and
+interesting character, caused him to mingle with all that was most
+remarkable in the world of arts and letters in Rome, at the same time
+bringing him into relation with whatever foreigners of distinction
+might visit the city. He was, however, then and always a poor man, for
+his first important work, “Le Antichità Romane,” sold in the complete
+set for the ridiculous pittance of sixteen paoli, or about seventeen
+lire, while later the Pope was wont to pay him only a thousand lire for
+eighteen gigantic volumes of etchings. The very fact that his fertility
+was so enormous, lowered the price it was possible to ask for his
+plates during his lifetime, just as since his death it has militated
+against a correct valuation of his talent. Forty years after he came to
+Rome, he wrote to a correspondent that he had made, on an average, some
+seven thousand lire of modern money a year, out of which he had had to
+support his family, pay for the materials required in his business, and
+gather together that collection of antiquities which was a part of his
+stock in trade.
+
+The rapidity with which Piranesi worked, and the number of plates, all
+of unusually large dimensions, which he executed, are so extraordinary
+as to leave one bewildered by the thought of such incomprehensible
+industry. Competent authorities vary in their statements as to the
+number of plates produced by Piranesi, but accepting as correct the
+lowest figure, which is thirteen hundred, it will be found that for
+thirty-nine years he produced, on a rough average, one plate every two
+weeks. Ordinarily, great productiveness will be found to have damaged
+the quality of the work accomplished, but this is not true in the case
+of Piranesi. Although his work is of varying merit, like that of all
+true artists, and even comprises examples lacking his usual excellence,
+there is no plate which betrays any signs of hurry or careless
+workmanship, while in many the meticulous finish is remarkable. Such
+an output is in itself phenomenal, yet in preparation for these works
+he found the time to pursue archæological researches and studies, in
+themselves sufficiently exhaustive to have occupied the life of an
+ordinary man. Moreover, in his capacity of architect, he executed
+various important restorations, including those of the Priorato di
+Malta, where he is buried, and of Santa Maria del Popolo. Most of
+his restorations were undertaken by command of the Venetian, Pope
+Clement XIII, who bestowed on him the title of Knight, or Cavaliere,
+a distinction of which he was proud, as he was of his membership in
+the “Royal Society of Antiquaries” in London, of which he was made an
+honorary fellow in 1757.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE ARCH OF TITUS
+
+Showing the relief of the Triumph of Titus and the carrying away of the
+Seven-branched Candle-stick from Jerusalem. A particularly beautiful
+and not very well-known plate, which clearly shows Piranesi’s fine
+sense of composition, and his keen appreciation of that singularly
+picturesque contrast between the ancient ruins and the more modern
+buildings in which they were then embedded.
+
+Size of the original etching, 15⅞ × 24¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. FAÇADE OF ST. JOHN LATERAN
+
+Piranesi, almost without exception, placed a written description of the
+scene on every one of his plates, using it as a decorative feature.
+In this case it proves an integral part of a group which makes an
+interesting etching out of what otherwise would have been a simple
+architectural drawing.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅞ × 27½ inches]
+
+The question of how much assistance Piranesi received in the execution
+of his plates is an interesting one. In a few prints, the figures
+were etched by one Jean Barbault, whose name sometimes appears on
+the margins with that of Piranesi. The latter’s son, Francesco,
+was taught design and architecture by his father, whose manner he
+reproduced exactly, although none of the numerous etchings which he
+left behind him show any signs of those qualities which constitute the
+greatness of his parent’s work. The daughter, Laura, also etched in the
+manner of her father and has left some views of Roman monuments. These
+two children, together with one of his pupils, Piroli, undoubtedly
+aided him, but their moderate skill is a proof that their assistance
+could not have been carried very far. That his pupils never formed a
+sort of factory for the production of work passing under their master’s
+name, as happened with some famous painters, is made certain by the
+fact that he established no school which caught his manner and produced
+work reminiscent or imitative of his. His unparalleled output must,
+therefore, be almost entirely a result of his own unaided labor.
+
+Piranesi died at Rome, surrounded by his family, on the ninth of
+November, 1778, of a slight disorder rendered serious by neglect. His
+body was first buried in the church of St. Andrea della Fratte, but was
+soon afterward removed to that Priory of Santa Maria Aventina which
+he had himself restored. Here his family erected a statue of him,
+carved by one Angelini after the design of Piranesi’s pupil, Piroli.
+Baron Stolberg writes in his “Travels”: “Here is a fine statue of the
+architect Piranesi, as large as life, placed there by his son. It is
+the work of a living sculptor, Angelini, and though it certainly cannot
+be compared with the best antiquities, it still possesses real merit.”
+
+The singular figure of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, with his power, his
+fire, and his passionate love of Roman grandeur, not unworthy of some
+great period of rebirth, appears all the more phenomenal when viewed
+in relation to his times and his surroundings. The corruption of the
+pontifical city had been flagrant since the days when it filled with
+scorn and loathing the wonderful “Regrets” penned by the exiled French
+poet, Joachim du Bellay, whose homesick heart took less pleasure in the
+hard marble and audacious fronts of Roman palaces than in the delicate
+slate of the distant dwelling built by his Angevin ancestors,--but
+its depravity had at least been replete with virility and splendor.
+After the Council of Trent, however, the Counter-Reformation spread
+over the Roman prelacy a wave of external reform, which left the inner
+rottenness untouched, but veiled it decently with all the stifling and
+petty vices of hypocrisy, until Roman life gradually grew to be that
+curious androgynous existence which we see reflected so clearly in
+Casanova’s memoirs. During the eighteenth century, when Piranesi lived,
+the whole of Italy had sunk to depths of degradation such as few great
+races have ever known, not because the people were hopelessly decayed,
+for their great spirit never died, but lived to flame forth in 1848
+and create that marvelous present-day regeneration of Italy, which is
+perhaps the most astonishing example of the rebirth of a once great
+but apparently dead nation that the world has yet seen. The debased
+condition of Italy at that time was caused, rather, by centuries of
+priestly and foreign oppression, which had stifled the entire country
+until it had fallen into a state of torpor little different to
+death. Any sign of intellectual or political activity, however slight
+or innocent, had long been ruthlessly repressed by Austria and the
+petty tyrants who ruled the states of Italy. Since men must find
+some occupation to fill their lives, or else go mad, in a land where
+every noble and even normal employment was forbidden, the Italian of
+the day was forced to confine himself within the limits of an idle
+inanity, concerned only with petty questions and petty interests. It is
+difficult for people of to-day to conceive the abject futility to which
+such oppression and enforced inactivity can reduce an entire nation.
+In France the comparative freedom enjoyed under the old régime gave to
+the eighteenth century, in its most frivolous and futile moments, a
+charming grace utterly denied to enslaved and priest-ridden Italy. To
+realize the situation, it is only necessary to consider for a moment
+the institution of the cicisbeo, and to read Parini’s “Il Giorno.”
+In this world of little loveless lovers, of sonneteers and collector
+academicians, the figure of Piranesi looms gigantic, like a creature
+of another world. He had a purity of taste in artistic matters quite
+unknown to his contemporaries, while his originality, his passion, and
+his vigor seem indeed those of some antique Roman suddenly come to life
+to serve as pattern for a people fallen on dire days.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. VIEW OF THE RUINS OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE OF NERO
+COMMONLY CALLED THE TEMPLE OF PEACE
+
+A striking image of the romantic desolation in Roman ruins long since
+removed by modern research
+
+Size of the original etching, 19¼ × 28 inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. INTERIOR OF THE PANTHEON, ROME
+
+A good illustration of Piranesi’s originality in choosing a point of
+view so curious as to give a novel air to the best known subjects
+
+The Pantheon, completed by Agrippa B.C. 27, consecrated to the divine
+ancestors of the Julian family, and now dedicated as the Church of
+Santa Maria Rotonda, is 142½ feet in diameter and its height, to
+the apex of the great hemispherical coffered dome, is the same.
+The lighting of the interior is solely from an opening, 28 feet in
+diameter, at the summit of the dome. The dome is practically solid
+concrete.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅞ × 22¼ inches]
+
+Francesco Piranesi, after the death of his father, sold the collection
+formed by him to Gustavus III of Sweden in return for an annuity. He
+continued the publication of etchings, many, although unacknowledged,
+from drawings by his father, and was assisted in his archæological
+research by Pope Pius VI. After various rather dishonorable
+transactions, as spy to the court of Sweden, he started for Paris by
+sea in 1798, having with him the plates of his father’s etchings,
+and accompanied in all probability by his sister Laura. The ship on
+which he traveled was captured and all it contained taken as a prize
+by a British man-of-war, England and France being then engaged in
+hostilities. By some curious chance, the English admiral knew the
+worth of Piranesi’s work, and persuaded the officers who had made the
+capture to restore the plates to his son, and in addition obtained, by
+some still more curious chance, both the admission of the plates into
+French territory free of duty, and government protection of Francesco’s
+ownership. At Paris, Francesco Piranesi and his brother, Pietro, tried
+to found both an academy and a manufactory of terra-cotta. He also
+republished his father’s etchings and his own, thus creating the first
+French edition, already inferior in quality to the original Roman
+impressions. He died in Paris, in 1810, in straitened circumstances.
+The plates of both the father’s and the son’s work passed into the
+hands of the publishers Firmin-Didot, who republished them once more.
+The original plates, which at one time were rented for almost nothing
+to any one who wished them for a day’s printing, finally found a
+refuge, as before said, in the Royal Calcography at Rome, where they
+have been coated with steel and rebitten, so that it is now possible to
+print as many copies every year as tourists and architects may desire.
+It can, therefore, be seen that, most unfortunately, the world is
+flooded with countless impressions which, even if they have value for
+an architect as documents, or still retain enough character to give
+them some merit as pictures, are yet so utterly changed and debased as
+to do the gravest and most irreparable injustice to the reputation of
+the genius who created them.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. PIAZZA NAVONA, ROME
+
+This plate shows how Piranesi could render a complicated view without
+confusion and, at the same time, give an air of novelty to a well-known
+place
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅜ × 27⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. INTERIOR OF THE VILLA OF MÆCENAS, AT TIVOLI
+
+An example of Piranesi’s skill in making a rather ordinary scene appear
+dramatic, and arousing a sense of vastness greater than that imparted
+by the actual building
+
+Size of the original etching, 16⅝ × 23⅝ inches]
+
+
+PART II
+
+“LE CARCERI D’INVENZIONE” (THE PRISONS)
+
+Any one who bestows even a passing inspection on the etchings of
+Piranesi will be struck by the intensity of imagination which they
+display, a quality whose precise nature it will perhaps be useful to
+analyze, since, despite the fact that we use the word constantly, the
+thousand differing values which we attach to it render our ideas of
+its true meaning in general of the vaguest. Reduced to its ultimate
+essence, imagination would appear to be the faculty of picture-making;
+that is to say, the power of bringing images before the mental eye
+with absolute exactitude, and of clothing ideas with a definite form,
+so that they have a reality quite as great as that which characterizes
+the objects of the external world. So long as ideas remain in the mind
+in the form of abstract conceptions, they are food for reason, but
+have no power to move us. It is only when, by means of the imaginative
+faculty, the concept has presented itself as a definite image, that
+it arouses our emotions and becomes a motive of conduct. When, for
+example, the idea of an injury to some one we love comes into our
+sphere of consciousness, a concrete picture of that injury presents
+itself in some form or other to our inner vision, and is the cause of
+the emotion which we experience. Our sympathy and understanding will be
+proportionate to the varying distinctness with which our imaginative
+power offers such images for our contemplation. Imagination therefore
+connotes the ability to conceive the emotions and experiences of
+others, and is thus indissolubly connected with sympathy and all the
+nobler qualities of human nature.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO, NEAR TIVOLI
+
+Size of the original etching, 18¾ × 24⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE FALLS AT TIVOLI
+
+This etching illustrates a little known side of Piranesi’s talent,
+namely, his ability to etch pure landscape
+
+The Falls of the Teverone (the ancient Anio) at Tivoli are fifteen
+miles east-northeast of Rome. Tivoli was the favorite place of
+residence of many Romans--Mæcenas, Augustus, Hadrian--and the ruins of
+both Hadrian’s Villa and the Villa of Mæcenas are still to be seen.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18⅞ × 28⅛ inches]
+
+The fact that our conduct is determined not by concepts, but by mental
+images which motive emotion, although at first it appear paradoxical,
+will certainly be recognized by any one who is willing to study,
+if only for a short time, his own mental experiences. This truth
+was realized with such force as to be made the base of their entire
+spiritual discipline by that notable Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, and
+his followers, the Jesuit fathers, who have understood the complex and
+subtle mechanism of the human soul more profoundly and exhaustively
+than any other body of men which has ever existed. In classic times
+Horace was cognizant of this peculiarity of man’s mind when he wrote
+that the emotions are aroused more slowly by objects which are
+presented to consciousness by hearing than by those made known by
+sight. Burke, it is true, disputes this dictum of the Latin poet, on
+the ground that, among the arts, poetry certainly arouses emotions more
+intense than those derived from painting. Although this is probably
+true, for reasons which he details and which it would be wearisome to
+reiterate here, it is certain that poetry moves us exactly in ratio to
+the power it possesses of creating vivid images for our contemplation,
+while it is certainly doubtful whether any emotion excited through
+hearing surpasses in vivacity that experienced on suddenly seeing
+certain objects or situations.
+
+All artists at all worthy of the name are, therefore, possessed to a
+certain degree of imagination. It is the gift which makes visible to
+them whatever they embody in words, pictures, sounds, or sculpture.
+If totally deprived of it, they could create nothing, for no man can
+express what does not appear to him as having a real existence for at
+least the moment of creation. In the domain of art, imagination, in
+its lower forms, is merely the power of recollecting and reproducing
+things endowed with material existence; but in its highest development,
+when handling the conceptions and emotions of an original mind, it
+acquires the power of actual creation, and is inseparably attached to
+the loftiest acts of which man is capable.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE FALLS AT TIVOLI
+
+Among later works there are few better expressions of that feeling for
+nature in its wildest aspects, which, practically unknown until the
+time of Rousseau, is now considered the speciality of modern artists.
+That Piranesi appreciated this side of nature, and was able to express
+its poetry and power, could be proved by this plate alone.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18¾ × 28⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. ST. PETER’S AND THE VATICAN
+
+This is perhaps the best example of Piranesi’s exaggerated perspective.
+It is quite justified, in this case at least, by the success with
+which it creates an impression of vastness and of grandeur which was
+certainly aimed at by the architects of St. Peter’s, but which the
+exterior of the actual building, quite as certainly, fails to arouse.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18 × 27¾ inches]
+
+Every plate etched by Piranesi betrays to even a careless glance the
+presence of imagination in some form, while in one series this noble
+faculty is revealed with an amplitude almost unparalleled. If it
+be only the presentment of fragments of Roman epitaphs, he finds a
+way by some play of light or shade, or by some trick of picturesque
+arrangement, to throw a certain interest about them, relieving the
+dryness of barren facts; if it be the etching of some sepulchral
+vault, in itself devoid of any but antiquarian interest, he introduces
+some human figure or some suggestive implement to give a flash of
+imagination to the scene. In those very plates where he depicts the
+actually existing monuments of classic Rome, and in which it was his
+expressed intention to save these august ruins from further injury
+and preserve them forever in his engravings, he created what he saw
+anew, and voiced his own distinctive sentiment of the melancholy
+grandeur of ruined Rome. To-day the word _impressionism_ has come to
+have a rather restricted meaning in connection with a recent school of
+art, but Piranesi’s work, like that of all really great artists,
+is in the true sense of the word _impressionistic_. In passing, it
+may be remarked that he was one of the rare artists in earlier times
+who worked directly from nature, a habit distinctive of our modern
+impressionism. Piranesi is concerned with the expression of his own
+peculiar impression of what he sees; for the benefit of others and
+for his own delight he gives form to his own particular vision of
+whatever he treats. He certainly was desirous of, and successful in,
+recording the existing forms of the buildings he loved so well; it is
+also true that his etchings and engravings are in many ways faithful
+renderings which have immense historical and antiquarian value, since
+they preserve an aspect of Rome none shall ever see again, but together
+with the actual facts, and transcending them, he offers the imaginative
+presentment of his own creative emotion. What he draws is based on
+nature, and is full of verisimilitude, but it is not realistic in the
+base way that a photograph would be. It contains while it surpasses
+reality, and is faithful to the _idea_ of what he sees, using that word
+in its Platonic sense.
+
+Taine, in what is probably the most lucid and exhaustive definition
+of the nature of a work of art ever given, starts from the statement
+that all great art is based on an exact imitation of nature; then
+proceeds to demonstrate how this imitation of nature must not extend
+to every detail, but should, instead, confine itself to the relations
+and mutual dependencies of the parts; and finally states, as the
+condition essential to creating a work of art, that the artist shall
+succeed, by intentional and systematic variation of these relations,
+in setting free, in expressing more clearly and completely than in the
+real object, some essential characteristic or predominating idea. This
+is wherein art transcends nature, and a work of art is, therefore,
+constituted by the fact that it expresses the essential idea of some
+series of subjects, freed from the accidents of individuality, in
+a form more harmoniously entire than that attained by any object
+in nature. Now this is precisely what Piranesi did. He is often
+taken to task for his departure from a literal statement of fact
+in his renderings of architectural subjects, but, in so departing,
+he is varying the interrelation of parts so as to disengage the
+characteristic essence of what he depicts, and thus create a work of
+art, not a historical document. If he lengthens Bernini’s colonnade
+in front of St. Peter’s, he is only composing with the same liberty
+accorded to Turner, when, in one picture of St. Germain, he introduces
+elements gathered from three separate parts of the river Seine; and by
+so doing he expresses the idea of limitless grandeur, latent in St.
+Peter’s, with a fullness it does not possess in the actual building. In
+his “Antiquities of Rome,” he disengages a sense of devastation and of
+desolate majesty which is the fundamental characteristic of Roman ruin,
+and one that could have presented itself with such directness and force
+only to the mind of an artist of genius. His own vision of the inner
+truth of what he saw, stripped of everything accidental, is what he
+gives to posterity, and what lifts his work out of the field of simple
+archæology into the proud realm of true art.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE VILLA D’ESTE AT TIVOLI
+
+It is interesting to note that at the time Piranesi etched this fine
+plate the avenue of Cypress trees, which now adds so much to the
+picturesqueness of the Villa d’Este, was not even planted.
+
+Size of the original etching, 18½ × 27⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. TITLE-PAGE OF “THE PRISONS”
+
+From “Opere Varie di Architettura Prospettive Grotteschi Antichita
+sul Gusto Degli Antichi Romani Inventate, ed Incise da Gio. Batista
+Piranesi. Architetto Veneziano.” (Rome, 1750.)
+
+Size of the original etching, 21¼ × 16¼ inches]
+
+Even in those plates where he etches actual scenes with loving
+care, Piranesi passes nature, as it were, through the alembic
+of his own personality, doing this moreover in a way peculiar to
+him and to him alone. His originality consists in this,--that his
+mind, when considering an object, seized instinctively on certain
+distinguishing features peculiar to that object, qualities which his
+mind, and only his, was capable of extracting from the rough ore of
+ordinary perception; and that for the powerful impression which he
+thus experienced, he was able to find an adequate and distinctive
+expression. It was his good fortune to behold Rome in a moment of
+pathetic and singular beauty, irrevocably vanished, as one of the
+penalties to be paid for the knowledge gained by modern excavation.
+In those days the Roman ruins did not have that trim air, as of
+skeletons ranged in a museum, which they have taken on under our
+tireless cleansing and research. For centuries the barbarians of Rome
+had observed the precept: “Go ye upon her walls and destroy; but
+make not a full end,” so that only the uppermost fragments of temple
+columns protruded through the earth where the cattle browsed straggling
+shrubbery above the buried Forum, while goats and swine herded among
+cabins in the filth and century-high dirt which covered the streets
+that had been trod by the pride of emperors. But that which, more than
+anything else, helped to create an atmosphere of romantic beauty none
+shall see again, was the indescribable tangle of vine, shrub, and
+flower, which in those days draped and hid under a mass of verdure the
+mighty ruins of baths and halls that still stupefy by their vastness
+when we see them now, devoid of their ancient marble dressing, stripped
+clean like polished bones. Shelley tells how even in his day the
+Baths of Caracalla were covered with “flowery glades, and thickets
+of odoriferous blossoming trees, which are extended in ever-winding
+labyrinths.”
+
+The sentiment of august grandeur inspired by the indestructible mass
+of Roman ruins was, therefore, in those days curiously complicated by
+the contrast between them and the fantastic growth of ever-passing,
+ever-renewed vegetation which wrapped them as in a mantle. The
+poignancy of this beauty Piranesi seized with a felicity and expressed
+with a plenitude given to no one but to him. He was, both by nature
+and by volition, profoundly classical, yet he enveloped all that he
+handled, however classic it might be in subject, with a sense of
+mysterious strangeness so strong as to arouse the sensation called in
+later times _romantic_. This contrast is one of the distinctive phases
+of his originality.
+
+It would be pleasant to think that Edmund Burke was familiar with the
+creations of Giambattista Piranesi when he wrote so searchingly of
+“The Sublime and Beautiful”; but, if this be perhaps an idle fancy, it
+is certainly true that it would not be easy to find concrete examples
+demonstrating more clearly than the etchings of Piranesi the truth
+of large parts of his enquiry, and in particular of the following
+definition of the sublime: “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite
+the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort
+terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a
+manner analogous to terror, is a source of the _sublime_; that is,
+it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable
+of feeling. When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable
+of giving any delight, and are simply terrible, but at certain
+distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are,
+delightful, as we every day experience.”
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE III
+
+Size of the original etching, 21¼ × 16¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE IV
+
+Size of the original etching, 21½ × 16¼ inches]
+
+The application of these words to the work of Piranesi will probably
+surprise those persons acquainted only with his etchings of classic
+ruins. However, even these plates exemplify this definition in many
+ways which it would be tedious to enumerate, while to feel its full
+appositeness it is only necessary to study Piranesi’s least-known and
+greatest achievement, commonly called “The Prisons,” and known in
+Italian as “Le Carceri d’Invenzione.” These sixteen fantasies, executed
+at the age of twenty-two and published at thirty, form a set of prints
+in which it is no exaggeration to say that imagination is displayed
+with a power and amplitude that have elsewhere never been surpassed in
+etching or engraving, and only rarely in other forms of pictorial art.
+Although scarcely known to the public at large, they have always formed
+the delight of those who feel the appeal of imaginative fantasy, and
+notably of Coleridge and of De Quincey, who has recorded his impression
+in golden words. They are reputed to represent scenes which burned
+themselves into the artist’s consciousness while delirious with fever,
+and it is certain that they do possess that terrible, vivid reality, so
+enormously amplified as to lose the proportions of ordinary existence,
+which characterizes all oppressive dreams and particularly those
+induced by narcotics. They represent interiors of vast and fantastic
+architecture, complete yet unfinished, composed of an inexplicable
+complexity of enormous arches springing from massive piers built,
+like the arches they carry, of gigantic blocks left rough-hewn. By a
+contrast that could only have been conceived by genius these monstrous
+spaces are traversed in every direction by frail scaffoldings, together
+with ladders, bridges, and all manner of works in wood; and are filled,
+at the same time, with an inexhaustible succession of ropes, pulleys,
+and engines, finely described by De Quincey as “expressive of enormous
+power put forth or of resistance overcome.” They are distinguished by
+one of Piranesi’s greatest qualities, the power to express immensity
+as, perhaps, no one else has ever done, and are flooded with light
+which seems intense in its opposition to the brilliant shadows, so
+that altogether it would be difficult to understand their title of
+“Prisons,” were it not for the presence of engines of torment, and
+of mighty chains that twine over and depend from huge beams, or
+sometimes bind fast the little bodies of human beings. The unusual
+and inexplicable nature of these “Prisons” gives to the beholder’s
+imagination a mighty stimulus productive of strange excitement.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE V
+
+Size of the original etching, 21¼ × 16¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE VI
+
+Size of the original etching, 21¼ × 15¾ inches]
+
+The “English Opium-Eater” in likening his visions to these
+pictures,--and what higher praise of their imaginative force
+could there be?--speaks of their “power of endless growth and
+self-reproduction.” One of their distinguishing peculiarities is
+this repetition of parts, as of things which grow out of themselves
+unceasingly, reproducing their parts until the brain reels at the idea
+of their endlessness. This characteristic, together with that curious
+opposition between their air of open immensity and their suggestion
+of prison-horror, gives them that particular appearance of absolute
+reality in the midst of impossibility, which is a distinctive
+feature of dreams. In this way they arouse a sense of infinitude in the
+mind of the beholder; now, although size is in itself of no importance,
+it is nevertheless true that, when combined with other qualities of
+value, “greatness of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime.”
+This greatness, both in conception and in material execution, they
+possess, together with that opposition of light to obscurity which
+“seems in general to be necessary to make anything very terrible.”
+Indeed, that these etchings reveal a more imaginative vigor arouse
+a kind of awe in any one who gives them more than a passing glance,
+while the horror which they suggest is never physical so as to nauseate
+or “press too nearly” and cause pain, but imparts, on the contrary,
+a sense of danger and of terror that causes a delightful excitement,
+certainly fulfilling the definition of the sublime as given by Burke.
+
+Although it does not follow that Piranesi is a greater etcher than
+Rembrandt, it may still be true that these etchings reveal a more
+imaginative vigor than is shown in those of the great Dutchman. They
+do not possess that subtle imagination which envelops everything that
+Rembrandt ever touched in an air of exquisite mystery, and gives to
+his least sketch an inexhaustible fund of suggestion, nor can they
+be compared to his etchings as consummate works of art; yet they do
+have a titanic, irresistible force of sheer imagination, which neither
+Rembrandt nor any other etcher, however superior in other ways,
+possessed to the same extent. Their preëminence in this one point is
+certainly admissible, and as it has been shown, presumably, that they
+are imaginative, original, and sublime, is it too much to say that,
+at least in the expression of certain intellectual qualities, Piranesi
+in these plates carried the art of etching to the highest point yet
+attained, so that no one who does not know these plates can know quite
+all that etching is capable of expressing?
+
+“The Prisons” are also the most notable example of that principle of
+opposition, or contrast, of which Piranesi made so masterful a use in
+whatever he did. The application of this law in the handling, and at
+times in the abuse, of blacks and whites, is, of course, apparent to
+even the most casual observer in all that came from his hand. In the
+present series, however, this law may be seen carried to its utmost
+limit. From every stupendous vault there hangs a long, thin rope, while
+up gigantic pillars of rough masonry climb frail ladders of wood,
+and great voids between immense piers are spanned by light bridges,
+also of wood, bearing the slightest and most open of iron railings.
+In his plates of Roman ruins, Piranesi introduces the human figure
+dressed in the lovely costume of the eighteenth century, in order to
+contrast grace with force, and to oppose the living and the fugitive
+to the inanimate and the enduring; but here his use of the human
+figure rises to the truly dramatic. In the midst of these vast and
+awful halls with their air of stillness and of power, of “resistance
+overcome,” he places men who seem the smallest and the frailest among
+creatures. Grouped by twos or threes, whether depicted in violent
+motion or standing with significant gesture, they are always enigmatic
+in their attitudes, so that their presence and obvious emotion amid
+this immense and silent grandeur arouse a sense of tragic action,
+a feeling of mysterious wonder and curiosity that gives to all lovers
+of intellectual excitement a pleasure as keen as unusual. Particularly
+in one vision of a monstrous wheel of wood revolving in space, no one
+knows how, above a fragment of rocky architecture, while three human
+beings engaged in animated converse are obviously unconscious of the
+gigantic revolutions, the limits of fantasy are reached, and the mind
+turns instinctively to those images of the spheres rolling eternally in
+infinite space which are found in Milton and all mystic poets.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE IX
+
+Size of the original etching, 21½ × 16 inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE VII
+
+Size of the original etching, 21⅝ × 16⅛ inches]
+
+These plates are also interesting as a striking and curious proof of
+Piranesi’s conscious mastery of his art. They are filled with such a
+fury of imagination, and are etched with such dash and boldness of
+execution that it seems as though they must be, if not, as was once
+said, the sane work of a madman, at least burned directly on the plate
+by the force of a fever-stricken mind. But not so; they are, however
+fevered their original inspiration may have been, the result of careful
+elaboration, and are but one more proof of the saying of that other
+and still greater etcher, Whistler, that a work of art is complete,
+and only complete, when all traces have disappeared of the means by
+which it was created. There exists in the British Museum a unique, and
+until recently unknown, series of first states of “The Prisons.” Now,
+although these first states have the main outline and, as it were, the
+germ of the published states, these latter are so elaborated and, on
+the whole, improved, as to make it at first incredible that they could
+ever have grown out of, or had any relation to, the earlier states. The
+idea of vast masses of masonry is there, thrown on the paper with a
+simplicity of decorative effect and a directness of touch which have
+been lessened in the later work; but, on the other hand, all those
+scaffolds, engines of torment, and groups of men above described,
+are lacking, so that the power of contrast and the sense of terror,
+productive of the sublime, are entirely wanting, and are, therefore,
+shown to be the result of conscious art used by Piranesi in elaboration
+of an original inspiration.
+
+Piranesi possessed a style so intensely individual that every print
+he produced is recognizable as his by any person who has ever looked
+at two or three of his plates with moderate attention, yet this style
+never degenerated into _manner_; that is to say, into an imitation
+not of nature, but of the peculiarities of other men or of one’s own
+earlier work. It became a manner or process in the hands of his son,
+Francesco, but with Giovanni Battista it always remained _style_, which
+is the expression of an original intellect observing nature before
+consciously varying the relations of elements drawn by it from nature,
+to the end of producing a work of art. This style, whose faults lie
+in excessive contrasts of black and white, in inadequate handling of
+skies, and, at times, in a certain general hardness of aspect, is
+marked by great boldness, breadth, and power, both in conception and
+in actual execution, but it is never marred by crudity or roughness.
+It is a remarkable fact that the immense force, which first of all
+impresses one in Piranesi’s work, does not exclude, but is, on the
+contrary, often combined or contrasted with extreme elegance and
+fineness of touch. To cite but one instance: in that wonderful print
+which forms the title-page of “The Prisons,”--the figure of the chained
+man, who imparts such a sense of terror to the whole scene, is handled
+with a grace and delicacy worthy of Moreau or any of those French
+contemporaries who filled the land with their exquisite creations for
+the endless delight of later generations. It is this contrast, together
+with his dramatic introduction and grouping of the human figure, which
+gives to Piranesi’s style a character that has been aptly qualified as
+_scenic_. An etching by Piranesi produces very much the same curious
+effect that a person experiences on entering a theater after the
+curtain has risen, so that he receives from the stage a sudden, sharp
+impression, not of a passing moment of the play, but of one distinct,
+dramatic picture. His etchings are never theatrical in the sense of
+something factitious and exaggerated beyond likeness to nature, but are
+always truly dramatic.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE VIII
+
+Size of the original etching, 21½ × 15¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE XI
+
+Size of the original etching, 16 × 21½ inches]
+
+It will have been noticed that plates by Piranesi have been referred to
+both as etchings and engravings; this is because he used both etching
+and engraving in the same plate, a proceeding which, if decried by
+theoretical writers, has none the less been habitually employed by
+many of the greatest masters of both means of expression. Despite his
+faults and his Latin exuberance, Piranesi is technically one of the
+great etchers, in whose hands, particularly in certain plates in “The
+Prisons,” the etching-needle attained a breadth of vigorous execution
+that no one has surpassed. In judging an artist, the obvious precept,
+to consider what he was aiming to do, is unfortunately too often
+neglected. To expect of Piranesi either the incomparable delicacy of
+Whistler, or the unsurpassed crispness of Meryon would be futile, but
+he does possess certain forceful qualities which are not theirs. When
+he used the burin, he could handle it with the greatest precision and
+skill. In such a plate as the one known as _The French Academy_, the
+building is engraved with a skill not at all unworthy of the engravers
+who were at that time doing such wonderful work in France, while the
+plate, as a whole, gains a delightful quality,--that neither pure
+etching nor pure engraving could have given,--from the contrast which
+the sharp and delicately engraved lines make with the figures that are
+etched with a consummate freedom and dash worthy of Callot, who, one
+cannot but think, must have influenced Piranesi.
+
+In his valuable monograph on Piranesi, Mr. Arthur Samuel makes the
+statement that “architectural etching has culminated with him”; and it
+is certain that in this field his work surpasses, both in architectural
+correctness and in artistic merit, any that has been done either before
+or since his day.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE XIII
+
+Size of the original etching, 16 × 21¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. THE PRISONS. PLATE XIV
+
+Size of the original etching, 16⅜ × 21½ inches]
+
+
+PART III
+
+THE INFLUENCE OF PIRANESI ON DECORATION IN THE XVIII CENTURY
+
+There is still another side of Piranesi’s originality, public
+ignorance of which may be said to be complete--namely, his relation to
+architecture, and the very great debt owed him by that art. That he
+was an architect who signed himself as such on many plates during his
+entire life is a fact ignored even by many of those architects who are
+most indebted to him; but this fact is negligible, together with the
+work which he actually executed as an architect. The benefits which he
+conferred were rendered in other ways.
+
+His first, and perhaps greatest, service consisted in the collection
+of materials. The classic motives which he gathered and etched form an
+inexhaustible store of ornament on which generation after generation
+of architects has drawn, and will continue to draw. The enormous
+quantity and variety of classic fragments of the best quality that
+Piranesi brought together is in itself astounding, but a fact of still
+greater importance is that it was he who, more than any one else, gave
+these motives currency. In his day no one, except Winckelmann--now
+known chiefly by his influence on Goethe, and by his tragic death--did
+as much as Piranesi to foster appreciation and spread knowledge of
+classic antiquity; while his plates, both by their greater currency
+and higher artistic merit, did wider and more enduring good than could
+ever be accomplished by the work of a critic and connoisseur, even
+of Winckelmann’s talent and prestige. His boundless enthusiasm and
+his real learning aroused more people than we shall ever know, at
+the same time that his labors, so indefatigable as to be incredible,
+spread abroad in prodigal profusion the reproductions of the remains
+of classic buildings, statues, and ornament. The greater part of these
+relics would have continued, but for him, to be known to only a few
+collectors and frequenters of museums; and it is certain that more
+classic motives have come into use, directly or indirectly, from the
+works of Piranesi than from any other one source, with the possible
+exception of modern photography.
+
+In this connection it is impossible to insist too much on his exquisite
+taste, which, although it had its lapses, as in his designs for
+chimney-pieces, was on the whole of the highest. This fact seems
+quite incredible if the time and place of his life be considered.
+The intellectual degradation of all Italy at this period has already
+been alluded to, and, art being always a reflection and expression
+of contemporary life, it follows that the artistic degradation of
+Piranesi’s Italian contemporaries was complete. It is difficult to
+conceive the rococo horrors of eighteenth-century Italy. In France
+the most contorted productions of the Louis XV style, or the most
+far-fetched symbolic lucubrations under Louis XVI, never reached such
+depths of bad taste; for the French, in their most unfortunate moments,
+can never divest themselves entirely of an innate taste and a sense of
+measure which give some redeeming grace to their worst follies. The
+lack of tact, of a sense of limitations, which often characterizes
+Spanish and Italian art, and at times makes possible splendid flights
+never attempted by the French, also permits them, when misguided, to
+sink to abysmal depths. It would be hard to find much good in the heavy
+contortions of the rococo work of eighteenth-century Italy, which,
+starting from Bernini, exaggerated all his faults and kept none of even
+his perverted genius. Amid this riot of bad taste, Piranesi, with his
+love of classic simplicity, his sense of the noble, and his feeling for
+balance and distance, stands out an inexplicable phenomenon.
+
+In certain plates, Piranesi, while using elements taken from antiquity,
+created a style of ornamental composition which inspired or was copied
+in work praised for its originality, and passing under the name of
+other styles. No one dreams of speaking of a Piranesi style, yet there
+is many a piece of decoration that calls itself Louis XVI, or Adam, or
+anything else, which comes directly from the work of this much-pilfered
+Italian. He stands in relation to a great deal of architectural
+decoration much as do, in science, those profound and creative minds
+who discover a great principle, but neglect its detailed application,
+only to have it taken up by lesser inventors of a practical trend, who
+put it to actual uses, the tangible value of which excites so great an
+admiration that no thought is taken of the man who discovered the very
+principle at the base of it all. In such plates as those dedicated to
+Robert Adam and Pope Clement XIII there can be found, fully developed,
+the style we call currently Louis XVI, although the greater part of
+it was produced under Louis XV contemporaneously with the work which
+goes by that name. The style in question is there, with its exquisite
+detail copied from the antique; we can see its inspiration taken from
+the classic which it wished to reproduce, together with its fortunate
+inability to do so, and its consequently successful creation of
+something entirely original but yet filled with classic spirit. That
+interruption of ornament, that alternation of the decorated and the
+plain, that sense of balance and of contrast, distinctive of the Louis
+XVI style--all are here. To think that these qualities came to Piranesi
+through French influence would be ridiculous, for the style under
+discussion obviously took for its model classic art, to which it was an
+attempted return; and as Piranesi was all his life in direct contact
+with the source of this inspiration, he could scarcely have been formed
+by a derivation of that which he knew directly.
+
+If this be true, it may be asked why Piranesi’s work did not create in
+Italy at least sporadic attempts at a style analogous to that of Louis
+XVI. The reason for this lies in the already mentioned condition of
+the Italy of that day, for a work of art is absolutely conditioned by,
+and a result of, the environment in which it occurs. Here and there a
+work of art may, by some phenomenon, occur in opposition, or without
+apparent relation, to its surroundings; but in such circumstances
+it will have no successors, just as an unusually hardy orange-tree
+may thrive far to the north, but will not bear fruit and propagate
+itself. A great critic has said: “There is a reigning direction, which
+is that of the century; those talents who try to grow in an opposite
+direction find the issue closed; the pressure of public spirit and of
+surrounding manners compresses or turns them aside by imposing on them
+a fixed flowering.” The torpor and bad taste engendered in Italy by
+political and intellectual oppression precluded the work of Piranesi
+from bearing any fruit in his own country.
+
+[Illustration: Statue of Piranesi, by Angelini, assisted by Piranesi’s
+son, and erected in the Church of Santa Maria in Aventino (Rome). It
+faces the great candelabra which Piranesi had designed to illuminate
+his statue. This plate was engraved by Piranesi’s son, Francesco, in
+1790.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 19⅞ × 12¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. ANTIQUE MARBLE VASE
+
+From “Vasi. Candelabri. Cippi. Sarcofagi. Tripodi. Lucerne ed Ornamenti
+Antichi Disegn. ed inc. dal Cav. Gio. Batta. Piranesi.” (1778) Vol.
+II, plate No. 73. Piranesi’s dedication of this plate reads: “Al Suo
+Carissimo Amico Il. Sig. Riccardo Hayward Scuttore Inglese.”
+
+Size of the original etching, 24 × 16⅜ inches]
+
+To think, on the other hand, that Piranesi exerted an influence on
+French art of his day is not so fanciful as might at first be supposed.
+If it be true, as just stated, that it is impossible for the work of
+an artist to produce any result when his environment is hostile, it
+is equally true that an artist, or a body of artists, can exert an
+enormous influence when their surroundings favor and the ground is
+ready to receive the seed they sow. France was ripe for such seed as
+Piranesi cast abroad vainly in Italy, and in the former country an
+incalculable influence in the creation of the Louis XVI style was
+exerted by those men who accompanied Mme. de Pompadour’s brother, Abel
+Poisson, Marquis de Marigny, on his travels in Italy. Three years
+previously this great patron of art had caused her brother to be
+appointed to the succession of the “Surintendance des Beaux-Arts,” and
+after three years of apprenticeship, in order to make himself worthy
+of this important and exalted position, she sent him, in the company
+of a numerous suite, to Italy in December, 1749, to complete his
+education by remaining there until September, 1751. In his following
+were Soufflot, the architect, and Charles Nicholas Cochin _fils_, the
+celebrated engraver. On his return from Italy, M. de Marigny directed
+all the works of art undertaken by the government throughout France,
+while Soufflot built the church of Ste. Geneviève, now known as the
+Panthéon, and was one of the most conspicuous and influential men in
+the world of art in his day. Cochin, aside from being a great engraver,
+was intellectually one of the most interesting artists of the day,
+and, as M. de Marigny’s right-hand man, wielded an influence almost
+incomprehensible to us of to-day. The latter part of his life, he
+really ruled in M. de Marigny’s stead, and his absolute dictatorship in
+all matters of art in France can only be compared to that of Le Brun
+under Louis XIV.
+
+That his Italian travels were the decisive influence of Cochin’s
+career is clearly shown in his own work, and is expressly stated
+by Diderot, who says of him that, “judge everywhere else, he was a
+scholar at Rome.” Soufflot was only seven years older than Piranesi,
+and Cochin but five. Now, when these distinguished Frenchmen were in
+Rome, Piranesi was already famous and frequented the most interesting
+artistic circles. His talents and his remarkably impetuous personality
+made him one of the curiosities of Rome, so that it is scarcely
+credible that these visiting foreigners should not have seen much of
+him. As their express object was the study of antiquity, and as no one
+in Rome knew more of the ruins or had so lively an enthusiasm for them
+as Piranesi, it is certainly probable that he influenced them deeply.
+
+[Illustration: SECTION OF ONE OF THE SIDES OF THE GREAT ROOM, OR
+LIBRARY, OF EARL MANSFIELD’S VILLA AT KENWOOD
+
+Robert Adam, Architect, 1767. Engraved by J. Zucchi in 1774
+
+From “The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam.” (London,
+1778)]
+
+[Illustration: IONIC ORDER OF THE ANTEROOM, WITH THE REST OF THE DETAIL
+OF THAT ROOM AT SION HOUSE, THE SEAT OF THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND IN
+THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX
+
+Robert Adam, Architect, 1761. Engraved by Piranesi
+
+From “The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam.” (London,
+1778)]
+
+Aside from these men, the list is long of famous Frenchmen who studied
+in Rome during the height of Piranesi’s artistic production, and must
+certainly have felt his influence. It includes Augustin Pajou, the
+sculptor, who went to the Villa Médicis as Prix de Rome in 1748, at
+eighteen, and who afterward decorated the opera built at Versailles by
+Ange Gabriel, architect of the faultless buildings which ennoble the
+Place de la Concorde; Jean Jacques Caffieri, the sculptor, who was in
+Rome from 1749 to 1753; Chalgrin, Prix de Rome in 1758, successor
+to Soufflot as architect of the city of Paris, and architect of St.
+Philippe du Roule and of the Arc de Triomphe; Jean Antoine Houdon,
+the sculptor, Prix de Rome in 1761, at twenty, who came to America
+with Franklin to execute the statue of Washington now in Richmond;
+and finally Claude François Michel, known as Clodion, who gained the
+Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1763 and filled whatever he touched
+with unrivaled grace, raising the art of terra-cotta figurines to a
+degree of loveliness no one else ever attained. It must be remembered
+that these architects and sculptors did not confine themselves to
+architecture pure and simple, as do our prouder and less talented
+contemporaries. With the spirit which animates all periods of great
+art, they considered no object too insignificant to be made lovely by
+their talent. They decorated theaters and houses, designing furniture,
+clocks, vases, and every article of daily life; filling them all with
+the consummate, delicate art that remains the despair of all who
+have followed. If, therefore, as is to be supposed, they underwent
+Piranesi’s influence while in Rome, it would have made itself felt,
+through them, in all the decorative arts of France.
+
+If Piranesi’s influence in France be a subject for hypothesis, in
+England it can be decisively proved in the case of the so-called
+Adam style, a vulgar caricature of which is at present so prevalent
+in New York. Robert Adam, a Scotchman who studied in Rome, was so
+delightfully original and adventurous as to fit out an expedition
+to explore the then totally unknown Palace of Diocletian at Spalato
+in Dalmatia. He was also a friend of Piranesi, who dedicated his
+views of the Campus Martius to “Robert Adam, a British cultivator
+of architecture, as a proof of his affection.” Now Adam, a man of
+unusually alert mind and delicate taste, was a poor architect, with a
+most defective sense of proportion in the composition of a building
+as a whole, who nevertheless possessed unusual and distinctive talent
+as a decorator. His fine taste led him to cover his work with detail
+executed and often conceived by remarkable persons, so that much of
+the credit for originality and delicacy given to him is due, as with
+so many an architect, to the artists whom he had the cleverness and
+good fortune to employ and the ability to direct. In the preparation
+of his monumental book he was assisted by “Eques J. B. Piranesi,” as
+he there signs himself, who actually engraved three plates with his
+own hand, while the rendering of every design in the book shows his
+influence. Knowing this, it is impossible to doubt that Adam’s taste
+and style were profoundly influenced by, and indebted to, so original
+and masterly a mind as that of Piranesi.
+
+A comparison of Adam’s book with certain plates by Piranesi will
+clearly show the debt, while a careful study of only three of his
+compositions--namely, the title-page before mentioned as dedicated
+to Adam and the two plates inscribed with the name of Pope Clement
+XIII--will in itself make clear that much decorative work called either
+Louis XVI or Adam takes its forms as well as its inspiration directly
+from the creations of Giambattista Piranesi. Piranesi’s influence can
+also be proved in the case of George Dance, architect of old Newgate
+Prison; of Robert Mylne, architect of old Blackfriars Bridge; of Sir
+John Soane, architect of the Bank of England; and of many more. The
+subject of Piranesi’s influence in England has been so exhaustively
+treated by Mr. Arthur Samuels in his monograph as to make useless any
+attempt to rehandle the subject here.
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. TITLE-PAGE TO “IL CAMPO MARZIO DELL’ ANTICA
+ROMA”
+
+(Rome, 1762)
+
+The dedication to Robert Adam is upon the column to the left
+
+Size of the original etching, 19⅞ × 13¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PIRANESI. UPPER LEFT-HAND PORTION, BEARING A DEDICATION
+TO ROBERT ADAM, OF PIRANESI’S ETCHED PLAN OF THE CAMPUS MARTIUS
+
+Size of the original etching (of which the above is a part only), 53 ×
+45½ inches]
+
+Still another example of Piranesi’s influence is to be found in the
+sketches of the present-day German, Otto Rieth, the originality
+of whose drawings is so vaunted. Very talented and individual
+they certainly are, but to any one thoroughly familiar with the
+architectural fantasies of Piranesi, the source of inspiration is so
+obvious as to make it impossible that Rieth should not have known the
+work of his great Italian predecessor.
+
+The influence which Piranesi exerts on the École des Beaux-Arts, and
+consequently on the leading contemporary architects of both France and
+the United States, is enormous, if hard to define. The use of detail
+which he furnishes is never-ceasing, but more important than this is
+the constant inspiration sought in a study of those architectural
+fantasies which he has filled with the qualities of grandeur and
+immensity so much valued by the French to-day. The buildings of New
+York are covered with motives either inspired by Piranesi or taken
+directly from his work--ornament much of which would never have
+come into vogue but for him; while a recent number of a leading
+architectural periodical, without acknowledgment, printed a design of
+his for its cover.
+
+It is ardently to be hoped that a wider and more just appreciation of
+Piranesi’s unique work may gradually gain currency. Mere productiveness
+is, of course, of no intrinsic value; but that any human being should
+be capable of so vast a labor as Piranesi must in itself excite in
+us a lively sense of wonder and admiration. When, moreover, it is
+found that his work, in addition to putting the art of architecture
+under an enormous debt, is distinguished by imagination, originality,
+sublimity, and immense skill of execution,--a certain portion of it at
+least possessing these qualities to a degree unsurpassed by any artist
+using the particular medium employed,--it is surely not unreasonable to
+attribute to their creator the rare quality of original genius.
+
+ NOTE: I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Arthur Samuel
+ of London, both for material contained in his book and for personal
+ courtesy.
+
+
+
+
+FRANCISCO GOYA Y LUCIENTES
+
+BY CHARLES H. CAFFIN
+
+Author of “The Story of Spanish Painting,” “Old Spanish Masters,
+Engraved by Timothy Cole,” etc., etc.
+
+
+The phenomenon of Goya is among the curiosities of the history of
+art. For in the latter half of the eighteenth century, when, under
+the feeble Bourbon dynasty, Spain had reached the lowest ebb of her
+national and artistic life, an artist arose who represented more than
+any other her racial characteristics and was destined to exert a
+world-wide influence on the art of the succeeding century.
+
+While the rest of Europe was seething with the spirit of revolution,
+Goya, the man, was already in revolt, and at the same time had
+discovered for himself a revolutionary form of art, which anticipated
+by half a century the consciousness elsewhere of the need of a new
+method to fit the new point of view. In a word, he drove an entering
+wedge into the contemporary classicalism that was based upon a dry
+imitation of Roman marbles and Raphaelesque compositions, restored
+nature to art, and adapted his vision of nature to the spirit of
+inquiry, observation, and research that was in process of fermentation.
+Finally, he adjusted to his vision of life a method of composition,
+freer and more flexible than the older ones: that was preoccupied less
+with the representation of form than with the expression of movement
+and character; its aim, in fact, being primarily expressional. Thus
+he anticipated the motive of modern impressionism and determined in
+advance the methods of rendering it.
+
+No less remarkable is the degree in which he was an avatar of the
+mingled traits of his race. For ethnologically the Spaniard is a
+Celt, who first was disciplined by Roman civilization, then merged in
+the flood of a Germanic wave, and later infused with the blood and
+culture of the Arab and the Moor. A truly wonderful amalgam--the ironic
+humor of the Celt; the mysticism, vigor, and grotesque imagination
+of the forest-bred Goth; the subtle inventiveness, sensuousness, and
+abstraction of the Orient, and the uncouth strain of the Black Man,
+whom to-day we are discovering to be the flotsam of a far-off submerged
+civilization in Darkest Africa. All these traits are recognizable in
+the work of Goya that he did to please himself: namely, in his painted
+figure-subjects, other than portraits, and in his drawings and etchings.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. PORTRAIT OF GOYA, DRAWN AND ETCHED BY HIMSELF
+
+Size of the original etching, 5⁵⁄₁₆ × 4⅞ inches]
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. THE DEAD BRANCH
+
+From “_The Proverbs_” (Lefort No. 126)
+
+A reference to the Spanish court, which rests on a dead branch over an
+abyss
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⅜ × 12⁹⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+In the modern craze for making over biographies of past worthies,
+so as to bring their lives into conformity with the standards of
+respectability in the present, there is a tendency to suggest that
+many of the records of Goya’s career may be apocryphal. This would rob
+the story of art of a very picturesque personality; one, moreover,
+which seems to be quite convincingly represented in his art. He was
+born in 1746, in the little town of Fuendetodos near Zaragoza in the
+province of Aragón, his father being a small farmer. Reared among
+the hills, he breathed independence, throve mightily in bodily vigor,
+and proved precociously disposed to art. Accordingly, at the age of
+fourteen he was put under a teacher, Luzan, in Zaragoza. But it was
+never Goya’s way to take instruction from a spoon, and at this period
+he distinguished himself less as a student than as a roistering young
+fellow, apt for gallantry and brawls and ready with his rapier. Having
+drawn on himself the attention of the authorities of the Inquisition,
+he found it convenient to proceed to Madrid. Here again his escapades
+aroused notoriety, so that he abandoned the capital and set forth for
+Rome, working his way to the sea-board by practising as a bull-fighter.
+In Rome he mainly nourished his artistic development by observation
+of the old masterpieces, meanwhile indulging in gallantries, which
+culminated in a plot to rescue a young lady from a convent. This time
+he found himself actually in the grip of the Inquisition and was
+only released from it by the Spanish ambassador, who undertook to
+ship him back to Spain. Arrived the second time in Madrid he found
+a friend in the painter Francisco Bayeu, who gave him his daughter,
+Josefa, in marriage and introduced him to Mengs, the arbiter of art
+at Court. Josefa bore him twenty children, none of whom survived him,
+and patiently put up with his infidelities. Mengs had been urged by
+the king, Charles III, to revive the Tapestry Works of Santa Barbara,
+and intrusted Goya with a series of designs, which to-day may be seen
+in the basement galleries of the Prado, while some of them, executed
+in the weave, adorn the walls of a room in the Escoriál. The vogue
+at the time was for Boucher’s pretty pastoral ineptitudes, but Goya
+took a hint from Teniers and represented the actual pastimes of the
+Spanish people. He, however, far outstripped the Flemish artist in the
+variety, naturalness, and vivacity of his subjects, while in the matter
+of composition he showed himself already a student of the harmonies of
+nature rather than a perpetuator of studio traditions.
+
+These designs secured his general popularity and paved the way for
+his _entrée_ into royal favor at the accession of Charles IV in 1788.
+Goya, turned forty, was already the darling of the populace and now
+became the cynosure of the Court. He would pit his prowess against
+the professional strong man in the streets of Madrid and plunged with
+equal aplomb and assurance into the gallantries of the royal circle,
+which was a hotbed of intrigue under the lax régime of Queen Maria
+Luisa, whose amours were notorious. Foremost among her lovers was
+Manuel Godoy, whom she raised from the rank of a guardsman eventually
+to be prime minister. He embroiled his country in a war with England,
+and finally ratted to Napoleon, conniving at the invasion of the
+French troops and the placing of Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of
+Spain. Meanwhile, in the interval before this _débâcle_, Goya, while
+dipping into intrigue, notably with the beautiful Countess of Alba,
+and establishing his position as an artist to whom every one who would
+be anybody must sit for a portrait, maintained an attitude of haughty
+mental exclusiveness. He was the rebel, the insurgent, the nihilist;
+lashing with the impartial whip of his satire the rottenness of the
+Court and the shams and hypocrisies of the Middle Class, the Church,
+Law, Medicine, and even Painting. Also, like many devotees of
+sensual pleasures, he was hot in his denunciation of lust, a terrible
+exponent of its consequences in satiety and sapped vitality.
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. BACK TO HIS ANCESTORS!
+
+“Poor animal! The genealogists and the kings of heraldry have muddled
+his brain, and he is not the only one.”
+
+Manuel Godoy, satirized in this print, had a long and fictitious
+genealogy made for himself, according to which he was a direct
+descendant of the ancient Gothic kings of Spain.
+
+From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 39).]
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. “BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER”
+
+“The question is often raised whether men or women are superior. The
+vices of either proceed from bad upbringing; where the men are depraved
+the women likewise are depraved.”
+
+From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 5).]
+
+This last is the theme of one of his most horribly arresting subjects
+in oils, an allegory of the Fates, wherein lust and its accompanying
+exhaustion represent the futility of man’s existence. It is painted
+in colors of extreme neutrality that almost amount to monochrome.
+Thus it illustrates a dictum of Goya’s that color no more than line
+exists in nature; there are only differences of light and shade. It
+accordingly prepares one for an appreciation of his etchings, in which
+aquatint plays so intrinsically important a rôle. As a painter he had
+begun with positive hues--to abandon them, as soon as he reached his
+maturity, for a sparing use of color and a liberal differentiation of
+color values. In this he was following Velasquez, whom he admitted to
+be one of his teachers, the others being Rembrandt and nature. It was
+Rembrandt, unquestionably, who helped him to a vision of nature that
+reduced itself to the principle of light and dark; but from nature
+herself he gained corroboration of the essential truth of such a
+vision. How true it is the artist of the present day has learned from
+Goya. Like the latter, he sees color in nature not as positive hues,
+but as a complex weave of varying intensities of light and shade that
+play over and transform the hues. It is by the correlation of these
+varying values that he builds up the structure and secures the planes
+of his composition, and realizes a unity and harmony of _ensemble_.
+And it is in Goya’s etchings that he finds these principles of color
+in relation to composition represented with most adequate reliance on
+simplification, organization, and expression--the three watchwords of
+contemporary artists who are working in the latest modern spirit.
+
+Expression is the keynote of Goya’s etchings, as it is of his
+paintings. It is the quality of feeling rather than of seeing that is
+interpreted. Thus, in the oil painting of the _Maja_, _Nude_, it was
+Goya’s intent not so much to represent the young form as to interpret
+the expression of its youth through the play of light and shadow on
+the supple torso and limbs; an expression so exquisitely subtle and
+tender that it defies the copyist’s attempted imitation and eludes the
+resources of photographic reproduction. Similarly, in the splendid
+impressionism of the group-portrait of Charles IV and his family it is
+not the appearance of the jewels, clustered on the breasts of the royal
+pair, but the effect of their luster that he designed to render. And
+so throughout his drawings and etchings the prime purpose is not to
+represent the thing seen but to suggest its effect upon the feelings.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Goya’s etched work, as catalogued in 1907 by Julius Hofmann, comprises
+268 pieces. These include 22 Various Subjects; 16 Studies after
+Velasquez; 83 Caprices; 21 Proverbs; 82 Disasters of War and 44
+Tauromachies, or Scenes from the Bull-Fight. To this list of engraved
+work are to be added 20 lithographs.
+
+The best known of these groups is _Los Caprichos_, etched in 1794-1798
+but not published until 1803. These _Caprices_ represent the most
+spontaneous expression of Goya’s temperament and of his attitude toward
+the life and the society of his day. At the same time, the designs,
+as in the case of all his etchings and lithographs, were executed
+with due deliberation, worked out previously in drawings in which
+every effect was carefully calculated and assured. With corresponding
+fidelity the drawings were copied on the plate.
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. THEY HAVE KIDNAPPED HER
+
+“The woman who does not know how to guard herself is the first to
+be attacked. And it is only when there is no longer time to protect
+herself that she is astonished that she was carried off.”
+
+From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 8).]
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. “BON VOYAGE!”
+
+“Where go they across the shadows, this infernal cohort which makes the
+air ring with their cries? If only there were daylight-- ... Then it
+would be another thing: because with a gun we could bring them down....
+But it is night and nobody can see them.” From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort
+No. 64).]
+
+It is in this set that the creative quality of Goya’s imagination is
+most demonstrated. He could not only summon visions from the void, but
+clothe them in convincing shape. Whether he stretched some human type
+to the limit of caricature or invested it with attributes of bird,
+beast, or reptile, or used some familiar form of animal, or created
+a hybrid monster, he had the faculty of giving it an actuality that
+makes it seem reasonable. As to the meaning of the subjects, the
+titles which he himself gave them furnish, except in a few instances,
+an intelligible clue. Prints of this set were brought to England by
+officers engaged in the Peninsular War and later found their way to
+Paris and exercised a very conscious influence upon Delacroix. For they
+not only echoed the turbulence of his own spirit, but helped him to
+give expression to his own visions of the horrible and fantastic. The
+best proofs are those of the first edition, many of which were pulled
+by the artist himself.
+
+_The Proverbs_, although engraved between 1800 and 1810, were not
+published until 1850. While their subjects are often difficult to
+comprehend, they show generally a marked technical advance over the
+previous work. This is apparent not only in the character of the
+drawing, but also in the increased simplification and more highly
+organized arrangement of the composition. Some of the latter, as for
+example in the case of _The Infuriated Stallion_ and _The Bird-Men_,
+present designs of extraordinary distinction.
+
+The last prints of _La Tauromachie_ are dated 1815. This series falls
+short of the others in esthetic interest, being more conspicuously
+illustrative. It was, indeed, designed to represent the various phases
+through which the baiting of bulls in Spain had passed. Beginning with
+the early hunting of the bull in the open country, both on horseback
+and on foot, it proceeds to the methods introduced by the Moors, who
+are represented in the attire of Turks. Thence it gradually traces
+the development of a precise science and technique in the management
+of the sport and incidentally commemorates the prowess of individual
+bull-fighters, beginning with the Emperor Charles V, and passing to
+well-known professional toreadors. Contemporary proofs of Goya are very
+rare; and it was not until 1855 that a complete set was published in
+Madrid. A later issue, including seven extra prints, was published by
+Loizelet in Paris.
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. THE INFURIATED STALLION
+
+From “_The Proverbs_” (Lefort No. 133)
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⅜ × 12½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. THE BIRD-MEN
+
+From “_The Proverbs_” (Lefort No. 136)
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⅝ × 12⅞ inches]
+
+Of the _Disasters of War_ no prints exist prior to those of the set
+published by the Academy of San Fernando in 1863. Etched during 1810
+and the succeeding years of the Peninsular War, the _Disasters_ are
+regarded as the finest products of Goya’s needle. Yet he was sixty-four
+years old when he commenced them. Though he had subscribed to the
+Bonaparte régime and still held the position of Court painter, he
+lived apart from active affairs in the seclusion of his country home.
+The prints are inspired by his country’s sufferings, but he did not
+publish them. To do so would have been to raise a protest against the
+crime of the French invasion and to stir his countrymen to increased
+patriotism. Under the circumstances of his equivocal position Goya may
+have thought such a course impolitic. Perhaps he felt the national
+condition to be hopeless. At any rate, he closed himself around in an
+atmosphere of profound pessimism. “Was it for this they were born?”
+is the legend beneath one of the prints which shows a heap of mangled
+corpses. It is the note of the whole series--the criminal horror of
+war, and its futility. Nowhere else is the element of the _macabre_
+in his genius more fully revealed. The designs are in no sense
+illustrative; they are visions of his own brooding, projected against
+darkness and emptiness. Yet, just as in the _Caprices_ he gave bone and
+flesh to the eery fabrics of his imagination, so by the magic of his
+needle his abstract imaginings of the enormity of war became visualized
+into concrete actuality.
+
+Of Goya’s lithographs it must suffice here to mention the set of four
+prints, _The Bulls of Bordeaux_. They were executed in that city in
+1825. For after the expulsion of the French by Wellington and the
+restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in the person of Ferdinand VII, Goya
+again turned his coat. “For your treason you deserve to be hanged,”
+remarked the new king, “but you are a great artist and I overlook the
+past.” He was reappointed Court painter; but, broken in health and
+spirits, so deaf that he could no longer indulge his musical taste in
+playing, he obtained the king’s permission to retire to Bordeaux, where
+he was cared for by a Madame Weiss and her daughter. It was during
+this time that he visited Paris and was enthusiastically welcomed by
+Delacroix and the other Romanticists. When he drew _The Bulls_ _of
+Bordeaux_ he was in his seventy-ninth year and able to work only with
+the aid of a powerful magnifying-glass. Yet the prints in their intense
+and vigorous movement show no slackening of artistic power. He died
+three years later, in 1828, and was buried in the cemetery of Bordeaux.
+After lying there for seventy-one years, his body was claimed by his
+country and interred with honors in Madrid. For by this time the modern
+world of art had recognized Goya’s greatness and its own indebtedness
+to his genius.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Goya’s etchings reveal him a great master of design. The versatility
+of his invention suggests the exuberance of nature, yet calculated art
+determines each composition. It is architectonic, organic, functional;
+possessing the quality of a built-up structure, with perfect
+correlation of its parts and absolute adjustment of means to end.
+Moreover, it carries the final mark of distinction in that it appears
+to have grown: it has the vitality, movement, and character of a living
+organism. It is discovered to be the product of a new mating of nature
+and geometry, inspired by a wider and more penetrating observation
+of the former and a more extended and imaginative use of the latter.
+Hence, at times it strangely anticipates what we are now familiar with
+in Oriental composition.
+
+Most remarkable also is the plastic quality, which is realized not
+only in the _ensemble_ but also in the component parts. Goya’s
+compositions are no mere patterning of surfaces, but an example of
+actual space-filling, in the true sense that they occupy the third
+dimension. The substance of his forms and their position in space
+are so concretely realized that they most actively excite the tactile
+sense. And yet, for all their concreteness, they are permeated with a
+quality of abstraction. Thus they fascinate alike by their actuality
+and their suggestion of a vision. They are frequently hideous, but
+in their capacity of sense-enhancement and in their stimulus to the
+esthetic intellectuality they are beautiful.
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. GOOD ADVICE
+
+“And this advice is worthy of her who gives it. Worse yet is the damsel
+who follows it to the letter, and misfortune to the first one who
+accosts her!” From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 15).]
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. GOD FORGIVE HER--IT’S HER OWN MOTHER!
+
+“The damsel while young left her native land, served her apprenticeship
+in Cadiz, and is now returned to Madrid. She has drawn a prize in the
+lottery, goes one day to the Prado, and is accosted by an old and
+decrepit beggar--she repulses her; the beggar woman insists. The beauty
+turns and recognizes her--this poor old woman is her mother.”
+
+From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 16).]
+
+And the beauty of these compositions is materially increased by the
+sense of color which they suggest. In consequence of Goya’s influence
+aquatint is coming largely into vogue with modern etchers; but he with
+this process, and his contemporary, Turner, with mezzotint, were the
+first to explore fully the resources of tint in combination with line.
+The English artist, however, used it mainly as a convenient method
+of representation. In Goya’s hand it became a medium of intellectual
+and emotional expression, comparable to tone in music. Goya, in fact,
+by his study of nature, advanced the circle of his art, so that, on
+the one hand, it embraced more of the universal geometry and, on the
+other, intersected more freely the circles of the other arts. Thus he
+anticipated the latest modern thought, in its consciousness of the
+essential unity of the arts and of the essential unity of art with
+life.
+
+
+
+
+A NOTE ON GOYA
+
+BY WILLIAM M. IVINS, JR.
+
+
+No other artist in black and white has ever exhibited such tremendous
+vitality as Goya. Look back along the line, and there is no maker of
+prints who has put into them the same exuberant, full-blooded delight
+in life. For sheer physical strength Mantegna only may be compared
+with him. And, strangely, with this often almost delirious overflow
+of animal spirits there is the most remarkable sensitiveness to the
+significance of gesture. Who, except Hokusai, has ever expressed, in
+black and white, _weight_--the heaviness of tired bodies, the leaden
+fall of an unconscious woman’s arm, or the buoyancy of excitement--as
+this Spaniard? Who has ever made motion so moving--made young limbs so
+supple, elastic, and graceful? His every line is kinetic--he does not
+relate motion, he exhibits it--and in art as elsewhere deeds are worth
+more than words.
+
+For sensitiveness to the beauty of the human body, for curious
+research in the esthetic inversion, the beauty of the hideous, Goya
+stands alone. No one, not even Leonardo, has plumbed so deep in the
+hidden shadowy parts. No one has so pictured _fear_--theatricalities a
+plenty--but only here real terror.
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. LOVE AND DEATH
+
+“Here is a lover who, like those in Calderon, because he could not
+refrain from mocking his rival, is dying in the arms of his beloved,
+and by his temerity has lost all. It is not well to draw the sword too
+often.” From “_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 10).]
+
+[Illustration: GOYA. HUNTING FOR TEETH
+
+“The teeth of those who have been hanged are very efficacious in
+bringing luck. Without this ingredient nothing worth while can be done.
+Is it not pitiful that the common folk believe such foolishness?” From
+“_The Caprices_” (Lefort No. 12).]
+
+On the purely technical side--the broad massing of sharply contrasted
+light and shade, the ability to tell a tale with the simplest means,
+the instinctive choice of the pictorially dramatic detail--Rembrandt
+and Goya stand alone.
+
+On another side that is purely technical, it should be borne in
+mind that Goya is the only one who has availed himself of all the
+possibilities of aquatint--the only one who has used the medium with
+audacity and resolution and success; the only one who has dared use it
+to express powerful and fundamental things.
+
+Goya, both in himself and for his influence, is one of the greatest
+artists that the world has seen these last hundred and fifty years--and
+his greatest work is his black and white.
+
+
+
+
+THE ETCHINGS OF FORTUNY
+
+BY ROYAL CORTISSOZ
+
+Literary and Art Editor of the New York _Tribune_
+
+
+The etchings of Fortuny make an inviting theme, inviting in itself
+and doubly sympathetic because it provokes talk about Fortuny. I have
+always had a weakness for that endearing personality and I cannot, for
+the life of me, go with foot-rule and a spirit of cold analysis through
+the twenty-five or thirty plates--twenty-nine, to be exact--recorded
+in the useful compendium of Beraldi. You cannot be pedantic about an
+artist whose work has meant to you an early enthusiasm and a lifelong
+sense of gaiety and brilliance. The first work of art I ever yearned
+to possess was a drawing by Fortuny. I did not get it into my hands.
+The spell faded, but it was revived, and long afterward it involved me
+in an enchanting task. In Paris, one summer, the late Philip Gilbert
+Hamerton asked me to write a memoir of Fortuny and for two years I
+spent a good deal of my leisure going hither and yon, collecting
+material. The book never got itself written, for reasons which I found
+both pathetic and comic. Too much of the “material” aforesaid proved
+too heart-breakingly expensive. Mr. Hamerton and I and his London
+publisher, the late Mr. Seeley, ruefully concluded as we counted up
+the figures, that, humorously speaking, ruin stared us in the face. We
+turned to other things.
+
+[Illustration: FORTUNY. ARAB WATCHING BESIDE THE DEAD BODY OF HIS FRIEND
+
+(Beraldi No. 1)
+
+Size of the original etching, 7½ × 15¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: FORTUNY. IDYLL
+
+(Beraldi No. 4)
+
+Size of the original etching, 7⅝ × 5½ inches]
+
+That, as I have said, was years ago, but every now and then I go
+back to Fortuny, for old sake’s sake if for no other reason, though
+he was, of course, a remarkable artist to whom one would be bound,
+anyway, frequently to return. As a matter of fact, his genius has
+needed, of late, to be restored to the public consciousness. When the
+Impressionists came in, Fortuny, or perhaps I should more specifically
+say, the hypothesis for which he stood, went out. One of the results
+of my understanding with Mr. Hamerton was a series of visits to the
+_palazzo_ in Venice which is still the home of Fortuny’s family, and
+there you found a contrast that was full of meaning. On the _piano
+nobile_ Fortuny’s art held its own in numerous unfinished pictures,
+sketches, and the like. But, up-stairs, in his son’s studio, all was
+changed. When young Marianito sought inspiration as a painter, he
+did not follow in his father’s footsteps, but went to Munich, and on
+his walls I saw huge canvases illustrating Wagnerian motives in a
+huge and splashy manner, strongly suggestive of Franz Stuck and his
+followers. I confess that at this distance of time I do not recall very
+accurately just what they were all about; but I can remember as though
+it were yesterday how extremely different they were from the paintings
+down-stairs. Of course no one could blame Marianito. An artist must
+seek salvation in his own way. But it is impossible not to feel a
+certain indignation over the ignorance of those who have tried to wave
+Fortuny aside as a painter of bric-a-brac.
+
+We saw too much of that sort of thing when the works of Sorolla
+and Zuloaga were shown at the Hispanic Museum and people went into
+hysterics over them, talking especially about how the first of these
+painters was rejuvenating Spanish art. I used to hear such talk in
+Madrid, some fifteen years ago, amongst the younger men who were even
+then hailing Sorolla as a pioneer. They were right, and it is right,
+as I have argued elsewhere, to recognize in this painter’s work an
+influence of the highest value to the modern Spanish school. But there
+were great men before Agamemnon, and it is stupid to ignore what was
+done for Spanish painting by Fortuny long before any one ever heard
+of Sorolla. I have great respect and plenty of admiration for that
+accomplished technician, and yet I think that he himself, if pressed
+in the matter, would cheerfully admit that nothing he ever painted
+could quite touch the portrait in the Metropolitan Museum, _A Spanish
+Lady_, which Fortuny painted in 1865. Outside of France that was not a
+particularly good year amongst painters, but Fortuny, then twenty-seven
+years old, was proving himself not unworthy of Velasquez. He was
+drawing with mastery and he was painting blacks with amazing skill
+and taste, with amazing sensitiveness to the beauties lying entangled
+in one of the most difficult of a colorist’s problems. Indeed, I may
+note in passing that this picture alone would show Fortuny to have
+enforced lessons in tone which no Spaniard since his time, not even the
+prodigiously clever Sorolla, has begun to commence to prepare to equal.
+
+[Illustration: FORTUNY. THE SERENADE
+
+(Beraldi No. 10)
+
+Size of the original etching, 15½ × 12¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: FORTUNY. A MOROCCAN SEATED
+
+(Beraldi No. 19)
+
+Size of the original etching, 5½ × 4 inches]
+
+There are many other paintings of his over which it would be pleasant
+to linger, but, having the etchings in view, I forbear. At the same
+time I have driven at nothing irrelevant in speaking of Fortuny’s
+command over the brush, for that is very closely related to his
+command over the needle. It is important to remember, in the first
+place, that he was a born draughtsman. The fact was brought home to
+me when I made a pilgrimage to Barcelona, to see the big Moroccan
+battle-piece which he painted for the municipality not long after he
+had won the Prix de Rome. I saw in the spirited picture the Fortuny we
+all know, but I saw also, in some earlier pieces, the kind of academic
+work that he did under the influence of old Soberano, his master at
+Reus, where he was born in 1838. Yes, it was academic work, but it
+was the work of a youngster of genius who had a _flair_ for form and
+drew it with astonishing adroitness. There, to be sure, you have the
+essence of Fortuny, more even than in the glitter of light and color
+conventionally associated with his name. The artists and critics who
+think that the history of painting began with Manet are wont to damn
+Fortuny with faint praise, talking about his dexterity as though that
+were a very ordinary and perhaps specious gift. Well, there is a
+dexterity, there is a sleight of hand, as honest as anything that you
+will find in Manet, and Fortuny had it. There are moments, no doubt, in
+which it takes your breath away as though by some deceptive stroke of
+conjuror’s work. But at bottom there is a sterling sincerity about it,
+and this, I think, is sharply perceptible in the etchings.
+
+Paradoxically, these do not proclaim Fortuny what the master of etching
+is wont to be--a lover of line for its own sake, a user of it as a
+language possessing its own special character and charm. Rembrandt’s
+strength and Whistler’s exquisiteness were alike unknown to him. The
+truth is that Fortuny employed the needle somewhat as he employed the
+pen, simply for purposes of swift and free expression. There are some
+bewitching drawings of his, reproduced by the Amand-Durand process in
+the memoir by Baron Davillier, and there are others in the catalogue of
+the great sale of his studio effects in 1875, which, for the impression
+they leave, might almost be regarded as etchings. The impression in
+either category is very much one of “black-and-white.” Has not Fortuny
+been the master of a generation of illustrators? Nevertheless his
+drawings and his etchings are not absolutely interchangeable. In the
+latter there is too much of the painter for that; his figures are too
+closely modeled and his backgrounds are too transparent. Some of his
+plates, such as _The Serenade_, _The Anchorite_, the _Kabyle Mort_, and
+_The Farrier_, are wonderfully rich in color such as no pen draughtsman
+could secure. He knew how to fill his backgrounds with deep warm tone,
+and he could use the same vivifying touch in his treatment of the
+figure. It is worth while to go carefully through the little collection
+of etchings that he left, looking more particularly for those
+rather thin staccato effects which his imitators affect--one is so
+delightfully disappointed. I have spoken of his sincerity, his honesty.
+Amongst all the plates there is only one, _La Victoire_, which hints
+a contradiction. There is something factitious about the composition,
+recalling the Sicilian nudities hawked about by the photographers in
+Southern Italy. But even this etching has undeniable brilliance as
+a piece of technique, and, for the rest, Fortuny is the quite artless
+connoisseur of picturesqueness, etching his Moorish types and his
+portraits in the mood of the serious observer of nature aiming at the
+truth. On two or three occasions he appears to have let his fancy rove.
+His _Amateur de Jardin_ and his _Méditation_ both belong amongst those
+graceful studies of costume and pseudo-romantic sentiment with which
+his paintings have made us so familiar. And once he turned poet in a
+small way, etching that charming _Idylle_ which may reflect no emotion
+whatever, but has, at all events, a certain dainty elegance; but do not
+think that Fortuny was really a poet. It was not in his temperament. He
+was sensuous, mundane, in the soul of him; the very man to enjoy just
+the career that fell to his lot.
+
+[Illustration: FORTUNY. A HORSE OF MOROCCO
+
+(Beraldi No. 20)
+
+Size of the original etching, 4¼ × 6¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: FORTUNY. INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT JOSEPH, MADRID
+
+(Beraldi No. 21)
+
+Size of the original etching, 5⅜ × 9¼ inches]
+
+New Yorkers will recall the sale here of the collection formed by the
+late W. H. Stewart in Paris, the “Cher Monsieur Guillermo” of more
+than one of the artist’s letters printed by Davillier. It was full of
+Fortunys, which made a dazzling array when they were put up at auction.
+But it was better to see them scattered about in Mr. Stewart’s home by
+the Seine, and there they breathed the atmosphere of a clearly defined
+character. You did not think of Fortuny in Spain, quietly painting
+at Granada; you did not think of him on the more adventurous soil of
+Morocco, nor did you dwell on thoughts of his days in Rome and on the
+beach at Portici. You thought, instead, of the Fortuny who took the
+collectors of Paris by storm, who moved Théophile Gautier to jeweled
+eloquence, who was young, successful, and happy, who had a great gift
+and used it truly with a _gaillard_ grace. He was not the specious
+entertainer, bemusing his audience with incredible tricks. All his
+wizardry, all his diabolical cleverness, was quite natural to him,
+springing from his heart and in no wise diminishing his weight and
+seriousness as a student of nature. Beraldi applauds his etchings for
+their originality. Let us honor them too for their fidelity to life,
+for their simple strength, as well as for their light, vivacious charm.
+
+
+
+
+PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SIR SEYMOUR HADEN, P.R.E.
+
+PART I
+
+BY FREDERICK KEPPEL
+
+
+Many treatises have been published on Seymour Haden the artist, but not
+one, as yet, on Seymour Haden the man. This is as it should be; because
+no one can write freely and frankly on the personality of a famous man
+while that man is still living, and Sir Seymour lived until the year
+1910, when he died at the great age of ninety-three.
+
+I met him often every year for about thirty years, and I first made
+his acquaintance when he lived in his very handsome house in the
+aristocratic region known as Mayfair, in the west end of London. His
+house adjoined the residence of the Lord Chief Justice of England.
+
+The doctrine held by the ancients that the Goddess of Fortune was
+stone-blind has much to warrant it. Let us take the case of three
+contemporary nineteenth-century etchers, all three being men of genius.
+I mean the two French masters, Charles Meryon and Jean-François Millet,
+and the Englishman Seymour Haden. The two French etchers lived in dire
+poverty and often had to go hungry because they had not the means to
+pay for a meal; while, to their English contemporary, “the lines were
+fallen in pleasant places” and he never knew the wants that pinch the
+poor.
+
+Born in 1818, in his father’s fine house in Sloane Street, London
+West, Francis Seymour Haden had the advantage of coming of a good and
+well-known family, in easy circumstances, and the further advantage of
+having received an excellent university education, so that he found
+himself, from the first, the social equal of many of the best in the
+land, and he never had to invade and overcome that formidable social
+barrier which in England so sternly divides the “somebodies” from
+the “nobodies”; and during his long and active life he certainly did
+nothing to diminish or discredit the high social standing to which he
+was born and bred.
+
+This being so, he remained to the end of his life an ideal Tory
+aristocrat, a condition which might be compared to that of the Bourbon
+kings, who “never forgot anything and never learned anything.” In
+maintaining any opinion which he had formed, or inherited, he was as
+immovable as the rock of Gibraltar, and it made no difference to him if
+later evidence showed that his earlier opinions were wrong.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SEYMOUR HADEN AT THE AGE OF SIXTY-TWO
+
+From the engraving by C. W. Sherborn
+
+Size of the original engraving, 6 × 3½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SEYMOUR HADEN AT THE AGE OF FORTY-FOUR
+
+From his etching from life, done in 1862
+
+Size of the original print, 7¾ × 10⅝ inches]
+
+I well remember hearing that man of genius, Henry Ward Beecher, say in
+a sermon: “Talk of the sin of Pride--we haven’t half enough of it!” Be
+that as it may, Seymour Haden was always a proud man, and this innate
+pride sometimes rendered him intolerant of the opinions of other good
+men whose ideas were also entitled to due respect. Indeed, I have never
+known a man who set a higher value on himself. Nothing was too good
+for him--whether it might be his collection of the best prints by
+older masters, his house and its appointments great and small, or the
+instruments which he used when he practised surgery,--everything must
+be of the very best. This determination of his was, within limits, a
+noble one, although it sometimes made him intolerant of other men who
+were unable to rise to his high ideals.
+
+In this ingrained pride and self-esteem of Seymour Haden’s he was far
+too proud to be vain. I do not think he had any vanity at all. In
+this respect he differed, “as far as the east is from the west,” from
+his illustrious brother-in-law, Whistler. The latter’s lifelong habit
+was to pose and to perform like an actor on the stage--whether his
+audience consisted of many auditors or of only one; while Haden, though
+an eminently well-bred gentleman, cared nothing whatever about the
+impression he might be making on his auditors--so long as his actions
+were approved by himself. On such occasions all went charmingly until
+some other person uttered a heterodox opinion on art, or politics, or
+any other subject; but when that happened Sir Seymour’s indignation
+would burst forth like a raging volcano.
+
+On one such occasion, while I was a guest in his country house, I
+infuriated him--though with no evil intention. It was at the time when
+the patriot Charles Stewart Parnell was making such a brave struggle in
+the House of Commons on behalf of Home Rule for Ireland, I expressed
+my admiration for Parnell, when Sir Seymour got very angry and so
+made all the company uncomfortable. Thus far I did not blame myself;
+but a year later I certainly was ashamed of my own indiscretion. I
+had quite forgotten about the outbreak of the former year and I again
+expressed my warm sympathy with the cause of Irish Home Rule. It was
+just at the beginning of dinner at Sir Seymour’s hospitable table, but
+no sooner had I mentioned the subject than he flung down knife and
+fork, marched out of the dining-room, banged the door behind him, and
+tramped up-stairs to his bedroom. That sweet woman, Lady Haden, said to
+me very quietly, “We shall see no more of Sir Seymour to-night,” and
+next morning, before my host appeared at breakfast, his very tactful
+wife, laying her hand gently on my arm, said to me, “Mr. Keppel, in
+conversing with my husband, pray avoid the subject of Home Rule in
+Ireland.” Most readers would think that the little incident ended
+here; but it didn’t. Presently Sir Seymour came down to breakfast and
+carried in his hand a large and handsome book which he presented to
+me. On the fly-leaf I read a long and most kindly dedication written
+by himself; and so _that_ was the end of the incident. I remember that
+when I received this _amende honorable_ my first impulse was to recall
+a characteristic Irish adage which says: “First cut my head, an’ then
+give me a plasther!”
+
+[Illustration: SIR SEYMOUR HADEN
+
+From the drawing by Alphonse Legros, done in 1895]
+
+[Illustration: WOODCOTE MANOR (the Home of Sir Seymour Haden)
+
+From the etching by Percy Thomas
+
+Size of the original etching, 6⅝ × 10½ inches]
+
+Lady Haden was, in a very quiet and refined way, a remarkable woman.
+She was daughter of an American army officer, Major Whistler, and she
+bore the Puritan Christian names of Deborah Delano. In more than one
+of Sir Seymour’s etchings her first name is quieted down to “Dasha.”
+She was half-sister to the great Whistler, who was the issue of her
+father’s second marriage, and she clung to her “brother Jimmie” to the
+end of her life. All the art which was inherent in the Whistler
+family manifested itself in Lady Haden’s music. She was a marvelous
+reader of piano music, and when Sir Seymour got possession of the fine
+old Elizabethan mansion of Woodcote Manor in Hampshire, Lady Haden,
+perceiving that there was no musical skill among the young men of the
+neighboring village of Bramdean, organized a band or orchestra for
+these rustics. To one she taught the violin, to another the flute, to
+another the trombone, etc. After about two years of drilling I had
+the opportunity of hearing her band performing in the school-house at
+Bramdean, and they played respectably well, while the sweet old lady
+conducted the music with her baton. Toward the end of her life she
+became totally blind, and after that I never was more affected in my
+life than when, at Woodcote Manor, I saw her grope her way to her piano
+and heard her play, superbly, some great compositions by Beethoven and
+Chopin.
+
+At Woodcote Manor Sir Seymour enjoyed his life thoroughly (except
+when something went wrong and made him angry). The mansion stood in
+its own park and there was a beautiful old garden inclosed with high
+stone walls. One summer when his long hedge of sweet pea was in full
+bloom he took me to see it and told me that he had thought out a new
+and interesting botanical fact, on which he had written a paper for
+the learned Royal Society, and that he intended to send it to them in
+London and to invite some eminent botanists of the Society to come to
+Woodcote and see the phenomenon for themselves. His theory was that
+garden flowers always had a tendency to return to the original color of
+the same blossoms in the wild plant, especially when the garden plant
+grew tall, and then he showed me that, in his hedge of sweet pea, the
+purple blossoms at the top were much more numerous than the flowers of
+pink or blue or white which were lower down, thus proving that when a
+garden sweet pea grew tall the blossoms returned to the original purple
+color of the wild pea.
+
+I had always been somewhat of a horticulturist myself and so I said to
+him: “It is evident that the plants here bearing purple flowers grow
+taller than the others; but you must remember that any single plant
+of sweet pea can give you nothing but one and the same color in its
+blossoms.” Sir Seymour sent for his pig-headed old Hampshire gardener,
+put the question to him, and although the old man was greatly in awe
+of his master he gave his decision on my side and against Sir Seymour.
+“You are a pair of fools,” was the old gentleman’s angry answer, and he
+started to leave us. But I overtook him and said: “Now, Sir Seymour, it
+is not fair to me to leave this little scientific question undecided.
+Pray come back for a few minutes and let me cut two or three of your
+plants at the roots, disentangle them from the hedge, and show you that
+although they mingle when growing close together yet you never get
+more than one colored bloom from one plant.” To this he consented, and
+of course my demonstration showed that his theory was wrong; but his
+anger against me lasted till bedtime, and it was only next morning that
+he said to me: “Keppel, you made me angry yesterday about those sweet
+peas,--but, all the same, I am glad you saved me from making a damned
+fool of myself before the Royal Society.”
+
+[Illustration: REPRODUCTION, IN REDUCED SIZE, OF A PAGE OF MANUSCRIPT
+IN THE HANDWRITING OF SIR SEYMOUR HADEN]
+
+[Illustration: FACSIMILE, IN REDUCED SIZE, OF THE CERTIFICATE OF
+SEYMOUR HADEN’S CANDIDACY FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE ATHENÆUM CLUB]
+
+Sir Seymour’s anger on this occasion was mild compared with the rage
+he flew into with his gardener when, after the master had been absent
+for a day in London, he returned and found that his man had spent a
+laborious day in scraping off the beautiful green moss which adorned
+the trunks and larger branches of the old apple-trees in the garden. I
+was with Sir Seymour when he made the distressing discovery and I heard
+the furious sound of the vials of wrath which he poured on the stupid
+old man’s head. After Sir Seymour had gone the poor gardener said
+to me: “And that’s my thanks for having worked hard to make his old
+apple-trees look neat and tidy!”
+
+Besides being a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Sir Seymour
+Haden was a member of the most exclusive club in London--if not in the
+world--the Athenæum. It generally took from fifteen to twenty years for
+any candidate to be elected. Sir Seymour had to wait eighteen years.
+The usage of this club is to hang on the wall a large sheet of paper
+setting forth the name and the qualities of the candidate, and any
+member who approved of this candidate would sign this paper. Whether
+many of these eminent persons had much idea of the quality of a fine
+etching is quite another matter, but Sir Seymour’s nomination sheet
+at the club was crammed with signatures of eminent men advocating
+his election. Among these signatures are those of Robert Browning,
+Anthony Trollope, Matthew Arnold, Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury;
+Huxley, the great scientist; Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, and Sir E.
+J. Poynter, now President of the Royal Academy of Arts. Besides the
+signatures of these famous men who had “achieved greatness” other
+signers of this Athenæum document had been “born great,” including
+several hereditary peers; and--to finish Shakespeare’s sentence--the
+gentleman chiefly concerned never waited to have “greatness thrust upon
+him,” for he was always quite willing to meet greatness half-way.
+
+The Athenæum Club is so desperately exclusive that no member can
+bring in an outsider except to a little sentry-box inside the main
+portal, which room is only large enough to accommodate two persons.
+On one occasion when I was visiting Sir Seymour I did one of the few
+deliberately wicked things that ever I did in my life. As I stood in
+the little sentry-box I perceived His Grace the Archbishop of York
+entering with a friend at the front door of the club. The two walked
+straight to the glass door of the little sentry-box where I was, and
+the eminent prelate said to his friend, in a loud authoritative voice:
+“We can sign the documents here in a moment.” Then it was that “Satan
+entered into me.” I knew that this was my only chance ever to make a
+British archbishop wait till I was “good and ready,” and so, although I
+had finished my business with Sir Seymour, I began talking and talking
+about his friends in Paris and what they were doing, until I kept the
+very impatient archbishop striding up and down before the little door
+for more than ten minutes, and twice when I caught his eye he looked at
+his watch, glared at me, and exclaimed, “Dear me, how tiresome!” (It
+will be remembered that in genteel English parlance the word “tiresome”
+means “annoying” or “provoking.”) At last, when I could talk no more,
+Sir Seymour rose from his chair, opened the door, and met the raging
+Dr. Maclagan outside. “Oh, Archbishop,” said he, “I do hope we have not
+kept you waiting,” and His Grace made answer in a very fretful voice,
+“Well, in point of fact, Sir Seymour, _you have!_” I cannot claim that
+this prank of mine did me any credit, but in my boyhood days in England
+my family and I had suffered from the pomposity of English prelates.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. WHISTLER’S HOUSE, OLD CHELSEA
+
+Etched in 1863. On the left is Lindsay Row, in which Whistler’s house
+is indicated by a small stellated mark above the chimney. To the right
+is old Chelsea Church and Battersea Bridge
+
+Size of the original etching, 6⅞ × 13 inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. BATTERSEA REACH
+
+A view of the Thames at Battersea, etched in 1863, looking out of
+Whistler’s window
+
+Size of the original etching, 5⅞ × 8⅞ inches]
+
+The feud between Seymour Haden and Whistler was known throughout
+Europe. Whistler loathed Haden and Haden detested Whistler. But Sir
+Seymour drew a distinction between the man whom he abominated and the
+artist whom he greatly admired. This admiration led him to make a
+notable collection of Whistler’s prints. On one occasion Sir Seymour
+said to me that if he were forced to part with his Rembrandt etchings
+or with his Whistlers he would find it hard to determine which master’s
+works he must let go. Later on I repeated this saying to Whistler and
+that modest gentleman calmly remarked: “Why, Haden should first part
+with his Rembrandts, of course.”
+
+Among the historic questions which can never be definitely determined
+is the one--whether Seymour Haden was the man who kicked Whistler
+down-stairs or whether it was Whistler who administered this violent
+treatment to Haden. I have heard the story from both, and each of these
+eminent men stoutly maintained that _he_ had been the kicker and his
+adversary the kicked one.
+
+As president of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers Sir Seymour did
+a great work in maintaining sound doctrine in etching. Nothing was
+admitted which was “commercial” in character, and etchings which were
+done after paintings by other hands were rigorously ruled out.
+
+The membership comprised foreign as well as British artists, and
+membership was eagerly sought for,--so much so that many famous etchers
+never were elected, although they tried hard to be.
+
+The members often had to complain of the masterful ways of their
+president; he ruled them with a rod of iron, but still the malcontents
+were forced to endure it,--well knowing that no other man could give to
+the Society the prestige and authority that Seymour Haden gave to it.
+
+In all other art exhibitions a good thing, done by an outsider, is
+accepted and welcomed, but the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers
+exhibits nothing except the work of its own members.
+
+We have seen that Sir Seymour Haden, in spite of his good
+qualities--and his great qualities--was a man of a domineering and
+disputatious nature. I know of no figure in dramatic literature whom
+he resembled so closely as Sheridan’s _Sir Anthony Absolute_. Both of
+these _Sirs_ were of a violent and masterful temper, and yet both of
+them were good men.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. OUT OF STUDY WINDOW
+
+Etched from an upper window in Mr. Haden’s house in Sloane Street. In
+the mid-distance is the suburb of Brompton
+
+Size of the original etching, 4¼ × 10¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. THOMAS HADEN OF DERBY
+
+“Thomas Haden of Derby, my grandfather, was, under a polished exterior,
+one of the most determined men I have ever known, and one of the
+bravest. He would have made a hero of romance if he had had the chance.
+At the age of eighty-five he defended his home against the whole mob of
+Derby, keeping them at bay all night.”
+
+Seymour Haden.
+
+Size of the original etching, 13⅞ × 9⅜ inches]
+
+Besides Seymour Haden’s signal achievements as etcher and as surgeon,
+and his zeal as an angler, he, like some other good men, had a special
+hobby which he rode for years, and which he often ventilated in the
+London _Times_. His theory was that no corpse should be buried in a
+solid wooden coffin, but that it should be inclosed in a loose wicker
+case, where the earth could come in direct contact with the dead body.
+He contended that such contact would very quickly turn “earth to
+earth.” One of his demonstrations was practised on the dead body of
+a large old sow that died in his farm-yard. (The animal’s name, I
+remember, was Mary Jane.) Sir Seymour had Mary Jane buried in the
+garden, in a shallow grave, and he had a covering of not more than
+three inches of earth laid over her. Then every visitor to Woodcote
+Manor had to visit the grave and to use his olfactory organs over it. I
+myself had to do this on two occasions and I must say that I detected
+no foul odor whatever.
+
+For more than twenty years I enjoyed a peculiar privilege in connection
+with Woodcote Manor. The old couple, used to the stir and bustle of
+London, where they had “troops of friends,” sometimes found themselves
+somewhat lonely in the solitude of Hampshire, and so it happened that
+for more than twenty years I was given _carte blanche_ to invite to
+Woodcote any person I pleased. I was very particular as to the persons
+whom I thus invited; but the people so invited were charmed with their
+visit, whether it lasted for three days or for two weeks, and the
+English know very well how to make a guest comfortable.
+
+In the park at Woodcote Manor there is an etched tablet, nailed to the
+trunk of an ancient hawthorn-tree. It reads:
+
+ A loyal friend through weal and woe,
+ At last, stern death o’ertakes him:
+ Here sleeps my loving, wise old crow,
+ Till Gabriel’s trumpet wakes him.
+
+I wrote this epitaph at Lady Seymour Haden’s request. She gave to my
+dear old pet crow a resting-place when he died. That crow was more like
+a friend than a pet. On Atlantic steamers he would fly about among the
+sea-gulls, and in London I used to open the windows and he flew where
+he pleased, but I was always sure that he would come back to me.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The present article is already so long that I must not prolong it
+further; but in a later number of THE PRINT-COLLECTOR’S QUARTERLY I
+intend to give an account of Sir Seymour Haden’s visit to the United
+States.
+
+
+PART II
+
+SEYMOUR HADEN IN AMERICA
+
+The former chapter of my article on Sir Seymour Haden referred entirely
+to my experiences with him in Europe; this second and concluding
+portion will contain nothing except an account of his sayings and
+doings during his visit to the United States in the year 1882. The
+purpose of his American visit was to expound and vindicate the
+importance of original etching as a fine art. This he did by delivering
+a series of lectures on the subject, and these lectures, in the main,
+were very well received.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SEYMOUR HADEN
+
+From a photograph from life: taken in New York in 1882]
+
+[Illustration: CHAMPNEY. PORTRAIT OF SIR SEYMOUR HADEN
+
+Sketched (unknown to him) in the Print Room of the British Museum by J.
+Wells Champney of New York. Sir Seymour afterward wrote on this sketch.
+“Excellent! S. H. 1899.”
+
+Size of the original drawing, 9 × 8 inches]
+
+Being a born and case-hardened controversialist he soon found out that
+in America no man’s unproved _ipse dixit_, however eminent he might
+be, was dutifully accepted as it would have been in one of the older
+civilizations of Europe, and so it came about that several unprofitable
+controversies were hotly waged on both sides. Seymour Haden was
+by nature pugnacious and “toplofty,” and such an attitude went down
+badly in America. But, all the same, the man himself was treated with
+distinguished consideration here, and his lectures did genuine good to
+the cause of true art. He lectured in all our principal cities from New
+York to Chicago, and although when he landed here I think he had very
+few personal acquaintances (except myself), yet when he sailed back to
+England he took with him the cordial friendship and good will of many
+Americans of the right sort.
+
+His first lecture was delivered before a distinguished audience in
+Chickering Hall, Fifth Avenue, New York. He had plenty of voice to
+make his auditors hear him; but his lecture dragged considerably--for
+a peculiarly British reason: it is known to some of us that in an
+Englishman’s public oration he is not genteel or distinguished if
+he speaks freely and fluently. No, no; he must befog and entangle
+his words with all sorts of hesitations and amendments. It is the
+same in the British House of Commons. I do not mean such master
+orators as Gladstone was, but the public speech of the average
+British member,--let us call him Sir Huddleston Fuddleston--sounds
+like this: “The honorable, hum--the honorable and gallant member
+from--ha--hum--from Hull, has been good enough to--a--um--to
+_say_--etc.”
+
+Well, Seymour Haden modeled his oratory on this preposterous but
+genteel British usage; and yet, in private conversation, I have never
+known a man who used more elegant and appropriate language than he. On
+the day following that of the lecture, I received a visit from my kind
+and valued friend the Right Reverend Monsignor Doane, who was a genuine
+lover of fine prints, and he said to me: “Well, I heard your English
+friend last evening humming and hawing through his lecture.” Soon
+afterward I had the opportunity of bringing these two distinguished
+men together, and after that, during his yearly visit to England, the
+monsignor used to be a welcome and honored guest of Sir Seymour and
+Lady Haden. The artist’s lectures in Boston were listened to with
+earnest attention and he was the guest of honor at a reception given
+at the St. Botolph Club; but even there storms and tempests arose. He
+quarreled with the one eminent American whom, the rest of us would
+think, nobody could quarrel with,--namely, Oliver Wendell Holmes.
+It was all about a “fool” difference of opinion on some question of
+medical ethics and usages in America as compared with England.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. MYTTON HALL
+
+“Mytton Hall is an old Henry the Seventh house which Mr. Haden was in
+the habit of staying at for the purpose of his salmon fishing in the
+river Ribble (the Lancashire River) which runs past it.”
+
+Seymour Haden.
+
+Size of the original dry-point, 4¾ × 10⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. ON THE TEST
+
+“This plate and _A Water Meadow_ were done on the same day, one at
+noon, the other very late in the evening. The Test (in Hampshire) is a
+famous trout stream.”
+
+Seymour Haden.
+
+Size of the original dry-point, 6 × 8⅞ inches]
+
+Before the evening of his reception at the St. Botolph Club, Seymour
+Haden procured a list of the principal personages whom he was to meet
+there. He brought it to me, and said: “Now, what should I _know_ about
+these people?” I wrote down for him as many notes as I could, and when
+he met the Bostonians, I was astonished to see how well he had coached
+himself about them. On his return to New York, he received a great
+number of letters. He was staying at the old Hotel Brunswick, Fifth
+Avenue, and every morning I had to go there and tell him “who was who”
+among the writers of the letters. One day he was called down to the
+parlor by a message that a lady wished to see him. He went down and
+when he came back to his room carrying a card in his hand, he said to
+me, “Well, I certainly am in an extraordinary country. That visitor,
+whom I never knew, is evidently a lady, and she has invited me to come
+and spend a week with her husband and herself at Yonkers.” Glancing at
+the card, I read the name of Mrs. James B. Colgate, and said to Seymour
+Haden, “I should certainly advise you to accept,” and I went on to say
+that it was easy enough for a stranger from England to see our public
+show places, big hotels, etc., but not so easy to get an entrée to
+the home of a really nice American family. Seymour Haden accepted the
+invitation and spent a week with Mr. and Mrs. Colgate. In those years,
+I myself lived in Yonkers, and I called on him at the Colgate house
+the day after his arrival there. The eminent banker showed us into his
+library, and leaving us alone he closed the door. The English visitor,
+first looking around to see that there was no other person present,
+said to me in a sort of whisper: “I am very comfortable here, with
+but one serious drawback. I have been in the habit, all my life, of
+taking wine with my dinner; but last evening, what do you suppose they
+gave me in the place of wine?--_milk!_” This was about nine o’clock at
+night, and when I got home I stated the case to my dear old mother. She
+laughed a little wickedly, and said, “I think I can help your friend
+in this case.” We happened to have some very good sherry. The old lady
+got a large flat bottle, filled it with the wine, corked it and put it
+into an innocent-looking pasteboard box, telling me to take it to him.
+Before leaving my home, I wrote a brief note to Seymour Haden saying
+that the package which I had to deliver to him must be opened only in
+the privacy of his own chamber. The Colgates were total abstainers of
+so pronounced a kind that when Mr. Colgate rented any house of his in
+Yonkers, he made a condition in the lease that no intoxicants of any
+kind were ever to be received in that house. Further than that, one
+of his principles was, not only never to drink wine or spirits, but
+never to touch or carry them. When I got back to Mr. Colgate’s house,
+it was ten o’clock at night, and all the lights in the big house were
+extinguished and the doors locked. I rang and rang at the bell, and at
+last Mr. Colgate himself, wearing trousers and slippers, opened the
+door. I had to manufacture a small fiction, which recalls Sir Walter
+Scott’s couplet:
+
+ Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
+ When first we practise to deceive.
+
+Mr. Colgate said to me rather fretfully that all the household had
+retired, and that Mr. Seymour Haden must wait until the morning. I
+said to him in reply, that he would do me a great favor, if when he
+was passing his guest’s chamber door, he would knock at it and deliver
+the package, and this Mr. Colgate consented to do. Some days later a
+reception was given to Seymour Haden at the Lotos Club, Fifth Avenue,
+and I accompanied him from Yonkers to New York on that occasion. When
+Mr. Haden found himself safe in the train, he said to me: “I couldn’t
+have slept a wink except for that excellent sherry that your mother
+sent me, but I took deucéd good care to carry away the empty bottle
+in my bag.” I remember that from the train we saw the gorgeous sight
+of the sun setting behind the Palisades, and mirrored in the Hudson
+River, and Mr. Haden said to me, with something like reproach in his
+voice: “Now, why have I never been told of the beauty of all this?”
+Later on, he said to me, looking about in the crowded train: “Now,
+isn’t it melancholy to think that nobody among all these people, except
+myself (and perhaps you), has the slightest sense of the beauty of this
+magnificent sunset!” I was tempted to say to him that he had no right
+to assume such callous insensibility on the part of the Americans, but
+though I thought it, I did not say it. Seymour Haden’s reception at the
+Lotos Club was a notable function. I remember that the President, the
+Hon. Whitelaw Reid, made a very graceful speech in honor of his guest,
+and I recall vividly the marvelous cleverness of a very young man who
+had been invited to entertain the company. One of this young man’s
+monologues represented an intimate talk between three Italian opera
+singers, the soprano, the tenor, and the basso; the three continually
+interrupting one another. The speaking of the young man was in “fake”
+Italian, and the three speaking voices were admirably differentiated.
+I inquired who this young man was, and was told that he was the son of
+the famous oratorio singer, Madame Rudersdorf of Boston, that his name
+was Richard Mansfield, and that he was studying for the stage. I then
+uttered a prophecy that that young man would be a great actor later on;
+and so he was.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. A BY-ROAD IN TIPPERARY
+
+This magnificent plate was etched in 1860, in the park of Viscount
+Hawarden. All things considered, it is the artist’s finest rendering of
+tree-forms
+
+Size of the original etching, 7½ × 11¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. A SUNSET IN IRELAND
+
+“This plate, and also _A By-road in Tipperary_, were done in the park
+of Viscount Hawarden, in the most beautiful part of Tipperary.” Seymour
+Haden.
+
+Size of the original dry-point, 5½ × 8½ inches]
+
+After his return from Boston, the artist spent several weeks in New
+York, and while he was there, I arranged for him the first public
+exhibition of his etchings which was ever made in America. The New
+York press took up the subject with enthusiasm, and every important
+newspaper printed a long review of the artist and his work. I
+collected all of these very laudatory articles, and took them to Mr.
+Haden at the Hotel Brunswick. Next day he said to me, “Do you know
+that these reviews of the New York press are distinctly abler and more
+intelligent than if they had been written in London?” He added, “I wish
+you would pay my particular compliments to the gentleman who wrote the
+review in the New York _World_; that article in particular I found to
+be admirable.” He was surprised when he saw me begin to laugh, but I
+explained to him that the “gentleman” in question was a lady, and the
+article which he so greatly admired was from the pen of Mrs. Schuyler
+van Rensselaer.
+
+One very seldom finds that the imaginative and creative artist is
+also endowed with a logical and judicial cast of mind. It was so with
+Seymour Haden. He had brought from England a large collection of
+excellent lantern-slides to illustrate these lectures by means of a
+stereopticon, and in the lecturer’s zeal to glorify original etching
+at the expense of prints done by any other method, he had procured one
+lantern slide of the beautiful little portrait which Rembrandt had
+etched of himself, the complete print of which is hardly bigger than
+a postage stamp. It was the _Rembrandt à trois moustaches_. Alongside
+of this, Mr. Haden had printed a morsel of the same size, taken from a
+crude and unimportant part of the foreground of William Sharp’s famous
+line-engraving of the _Holy Family_, after the painting by Sir Joshua
+Reynolds. Thus this special pleader, Haden, displayed an etching in
+its entirety, and less than one-hundredth part of a line-engraving of
+very large size. Wherever, during his lectures, this illustration
+was exhibited by a stereopticon, there was a universal outcry against
+the unfairness of it. People all, with one accord, declared that if the
+artist wanted to confront and contrast etching with line-engraving,
+fairness would require the lecturer to have chosen two prints of the
+same size; but there was no “budging” Seymour Haden, when he had formed
+an opinion.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. A LANCASHIRE RIVER.
+
+A well-known salmon pool on the Ribble. In Sir Seymour’s opinion this
+is one of his very finest plates. It was awarded the Medal of Honor at
+the Paris Exposition of 1889.
+
+Size of the original etching, 11 × 16 inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. SAWLEY ABBEY
+
+Sawley Abbey stands by a salmon river, the Ribble, which here is
+enlarged into a wide pool. Seymour Haden often came here for his salmon
+fishing.
+
+Size of the original etching, 10 × 14⅞ inches]
+
+While in New York, he visited the exhibition of paintings at the
+National Academy of Design, and was escorted through the galleries
+by the late James D. Smillie, N.A. When his eye fell upon a certain
+painting, he suddenly stopped as if he were paralyzed. “Who did
+that picture?” “It is the work of one of our New York artists, Miss
+So-and-So.” “Why do you allow such dreadful things on your walls?”
+“Well,” said Mr. Smillie, “we like to exemplify various phases in art.”
+“Hum,” rejoined Seymour Haden, while glaring at the picture; “she ought
+to be _disemboweled_!”
+
+Of at least one of our well-known American artists, Seymour Haden
+expressed the strongest admiration. This was the late John Lafarge,
+N.A., and he also spoke with enthusiasm of the original American
+etchings of thirty years ago, the work of such men as Stephen Parrish,
+Charles A. Platt, Peter Moran, and Joseph Pennell. On seeing a very
+large, intricate plate by Mr. Parrish, Mr. Haden made the remark to
+me, “That young man does not know what the sense of fatigue in making
+a picture is.” Even at this period, Seymour Haden was known throughout
+Europe as being the judge _par excellence_ of a fine print, and he was
+also recognized as an admirable judge of paintings.
+
+While on this subject of Haden’s learned judgment of pictures, I will
+record what he remarked to me after he had visited Niagara for the
+first time. What he said was: “No artist, except Turner, should have
+ever dared to attempt making a picture of the Falls of Niagara.”
+
+One of Seymour Haden’s exceptionally good days was the Sunday which he
+spent in visiting that famous art collector and admirable man, James
+L. Claghorn, of Philadelphia. On that occasion, I myself was included
+as a sort of “make-weight.” The Englishman, with genuine zeal, went
+through Mr. Claghorn’s collection of prints, and he wrote with pencil
+on several of them that they were exceptionally fine.
+
+On another side Mr. Haden excelled as a judge, and that was in the
+matter of first-class food and first-class cooking. At lunch, our
+host treated us to a delicious dish of terrapin. Seymour Haden found
+it wonderfully good and declared that not only had he never tasted
+terrapin before, but he had never heard of the dish. “Oh, yes,” said
+I to him; “you certainly have heard of terrapin; don’t you remember
+at church on Sundays, when they sing the ‘Te Deum,’ they sing,
+‘Terrapin and Seraphim.’” “Oh, tut, tut,” said he, “I want to hear no
+irreverence.”
+
+Seymour Haden had ranked as a very able physician. An incident occurred
+while we were at Mr. Claghorn’s house which shows how wise he was in
+this respect: Mr. Claghorn was a huge and corpulent man of about sixty,
+but he was full of force and energy. While we were in his library he
+got up and bustled out on some errand, and Seymour Haden said to me:
+“Your friend will not live long, and when he dies he will go off
+very suddenly.” I was shocked on hearing such an unexpected prophecy,
+and I asked Mr. Haden how long Mr. Claghorn was likely to live. In
+answer he said, “Just about two years.” Two years later, within ten
+days of the time Haden had designated, Mr. Claghorn suddenly fell dead.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. THE BREAKING-UP OF THE AGAMEMNON
+
+Perhaps, all things considered, the artist’s masterpiece. Collectors
+differ as to the relative merits of the various etchings by Seymour
+Haden, but all are agreed in ranking this as a masterpiece, Moreover,
+it was the first etching to be treated in this particular manner, and
+it has become the model for many imitators. This fine plate was etched
+on the Thames, at Greenwich, in 1870. Sir Seymour devoted the money
+obtained from the sale of the proofs to the aid of the London Hospital
+for Incurables.
+
+Size of the original etching, 7¾ × 16¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. CALAIS PIER
+
+Etched by Seymour Haden after the painting by J. M. W. Turner in the
+National Gallery, London. This superb etching stands alone in the
+history of the art. The scene could not be more strongly felt nor more
+vividly presented had the etcher been working from nature instead of
+from a painting by another hand. When this etching appeared, Seymour
+Haden received an enthusiastic letter from John Ruskin, in which the
+latter exhorted him to devote the remainder of his life to etching the
+paintings of Turner.
+
+Size of the original print, 23½ × 33 inches]
+
+Still continuing the subject of Mr. Haden’s critical judgment in
+dining. I may mention that wherever he went, he would never partake, at
+a hotel, of a _table d’hôte_ meal. He insisted on selecting particular
+dishes which he wished for, and he had them specially cooked for him.
+On his return from Cincinnati, he told me that while there he met my
+own dear friend, the late Herman Goepper, and he had given him, at a
+club, the very best, and best-served, dinner that he had ever partaken
+of.
+
+Seymour Haden’s course of lectures at Chicago was a great success, and
+a very notable reception was tendered to him. During the course of
+that reception, a very influential Chicago lady marched up and said
+in a loud voice: “Why don’t you _educate_ your women in England?”
+“I know what you mean,” said the Englishman, “but we don’t like to
+have our English women crammed with a lot of abstruse _isms_ and
+_ologies_.” Another lady, who thought the English guest had been rather
+unfairly attacked, said to him, “Now, Mr. Haden, can’t you attack her
+in return?” “Well, yes,” said he: “in America, you don’t know how to
+make tea, and your table knives will not cut anything.” Another little
+dispute arose in Detroit. Haden had arrived late at night, very much
+fatigued, at the Russell House. At about eight o’clock in the morning
+he was awakened from a much-needed sleep by a sound of hammering and
+grinding in the wall outside his window. He got up, raised the window,
+and saw two men boring a hole into the front wall of the hotel, for the
+purpose of inserting an iron bar from which a sign was to be swung. Mr.
+Haden remonstrated at being disturbed. The two mechanics answered that
+they were “on that job” and that they were going to do it. Then, as
+the _Detroit Free Press_ related the incident, the elderly gentleman,
+dressed in night-clothes and a nightcap, had pushed out both his arms,
+seized the offending and disturbing crowbar, hauled it into his room
+and shut down the window. Very soon after, the proprietor of the hotel
+came, knocked at his guest’s door, and said that the crowbar which had
+been seized was not his property and that he would get into trouble if
+it were not given up at once, but Seymour Haden before giving it up
+stipulated that he was not to be disturbed with any more noise until
+such time as he was ready to leave his bed.
+
+It will be noticed that, while in my former article I called him Sir
+Seymour Haden, in the present one I call him plain Mister. This was
+because it was after his return from America to England that Queen
+Victoria gave him his title, and although in London he had a large
+medical practice he never was even Doctor Haden. In England a surgeon,
+however eminent, is never addressed as Doctor.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. AN EARLY RISER
+
+Engraved in pure mezzotint in 1897. To this plate and Sir Seymour’s
+mezzotint _Grayling Fishing_ was awarded the Medal of Honor at the
+Paris Exposition of 1900.
+
+Size of the original mezzotint, 8⅞ × 11⅞ inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. HARLECH
+
+In _Harlech_ the artist has first mezzotinted his composition and has
+then strengthened and defined the outlines with etched lines. This is
+the reverse of the method employed by Turner in the “Liber Studiorum.”
+Turner first etched the main lines of his composition and then finished
+the plate in mezzotint.
+
+Size of the original engraving, 8⅞ × 12½ inches]
+
+This change to a title of nobility reminds me of a couplet in
+Thackeray’s fine Irish ballad, “Mr. Molony’s Account of the Ball”:
+
+ There was Lord Crowhurst, I knew him first
+ When only Misther Pips he was.
+
+During his stay in America he learned to like our people greatly,
+and it was his intention to make us a second visit and to bring his
+charming American wife along with him; but this purpose of his was
+never carried out.
+
+Shortly before leaving our shores, he said to me: “One thing alone
+would render it impossible for me ever to reside permanently in the
+United States, and that is the intolerable and brutal insolence of the
+lower classes.” To this I made answer: “But, Mr. Haden, in America we
+have no ‘lower classes.’ What you suffered from these people was really
+your own fault. It is all very well in England for a fine gentleman to
+bully and denounce the cabman, the railway-porter, and the servants at
+hotels, but it will not do here, and no American, however eminent, ever
+does it.”
+
+When Seymour Haden returned to England he took with him the genuine
+good will of many Americans, and the lasting friendship of not a few.
+
+
+
+
+THE WATER-COLORS AND DRAWINGS OF SIR SEYMOUR HADEN, P.R.E.
+
+BY H. NAZEBY HARRINGTON
+
+Author of “The Engraved Work of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, P.R.E.”
+
+
+As an etcher the work of Sir Seymour Haden is known to all lovers of
+art the wide world over, and not least in the United States, but his
+general capacity as an artist in other forms of expression is less well
+known, partly from lack of opportunity and partly from the very limited
+amount of material.
+
+It must never be forgotten that art was not the main business of his
+life; it was but an occasional and fitful relaxation in a life devoted
+to another profession and full of other and varied interests. The
+wonder is, not that his artistic work was so limited, but that it was
+so great and so successful.
+
+When a medical student in Paris, instead of spending his evenings in
+the usual frivolities of the Quartier Latin, he attended the classes
+of the Government School of Art, which were held in the same building
+as the School of Medicine. This was done, not from any positive love
+for art, but rather with the fixed idea that such study would train
+his powers of observation and make the hands more alert to obey the
+impulses of the will, and in this way help him in his surgical work.
+What he dissected he drew, what he drew he modeled, and in this way
+obtained a remarkable knowledge of anatomy and some facility in the
+technique of graphic art.
+
+In this way he got into the habit of using drawing as a sort of
+shorthand, and so, when in 1844 he traveled in Italy, his diaries were
+filled with sketches rather than verbal descriptions--sketches that
+unfortunately have been too generously scattered.
+
+While in Italy he met, and spent some time in the company of, Duval le
+Camus, a capable French artist who painted a good deal in water-color,
+and from him no doubt he picked up some knowledge of that medium.
+In Naples and its neighborhood they spent many happy days sketching
+together.
+
+During the next fourteen or fifteen years Seymour Haden had not much
+time for the practice of art. His professional work took up all his
+time and vigor, but he always took a great interest in art and artists
+and counted many artists among his friends. He was appointed Surgeon
+to the Department of Science and Art at South Kensington, and became
+a collector of etchings by the old masters, not merely for the sake
+of acquisition but rather for the purpose of study and comparison. He
+also became the possessor of many pictures and water-color drawings,
+amongst others of several by Turner; and so, when in 1858 his young
+brother-in-law J. M. Whistler returned from France with his recently
+etched plates and his inciting tales of work in the Paris studios,
+Haden became readily infected and took up etching again, with the
+result we all know. Thenceforward, whenever a rare afternoon’s
+holiday could be stolen, or a few moments spared between the casts of
+the line during the annual vacation devoted to fishing, or on the
+rarer occasions of a continental holiday, the copper plate or the
+sketching block was brought into use. And so we find sketches done
+on the Thames and the Ribble, the Teivy, the Test and the Spey; in
+Holland and in Germany, in Spain and Madeira; at Chatsworth, in the
+old towns of Rye and Winchelsea, and above all in the fascinating Isle
+of Purbeck--sketches done for his own pleasure or for his friends,
+with never a thought of placing them before either the critic or the
+purchaser.
+
+The earliest sketch that I have seen is one dated 1841. It is in
+pen and sepia and represents an early morning execution outside the
+Old Bailey. At a first glance it might be mistaken for an etching
+by Cruikshank. It measures only three and one half by two and one
+fourth inches, but is masterly in its drawing, and marvelous in its
+suggestiveness of a large crowd.
+
+The drawings done in 1844 in France and Italy vary from mere thumb-nail
+sketches to comparatively finished drawings. Some of them in their
+carefulness and decision resemble the early drawings of Turner. Two
+or three figure sketches, notably portraits of Duval le Camus and the
+Marquis de Belluno (two of his companions), are very expressive and
+full of character.
+
+While in Rome, through the introduction of the Marquis de Belluno,
+Haden had many interviews with Pope Gregory XVI, and during two or
+three of them he took the opportunity of sketching, on one of his shirt
+cuffs, a somewhat elaborate portrait of His Holiness. The Pope very
+kindly professed not to notice what the artist was doing until the
+portrait was finished. He then quietly remarked that he “now understood
+why M. Haden had attended at three audiences without a change of
+linen.” One would give much to see this portrait (which Sir Seymour
+always said was an excellent one), but it has disappeared, having been
+lent to a friend and never returned.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. SALMON POOL ON THE SPEY
+
+Size of the original charcoal drawing, 14 × 20 inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. OLD OAKS, CHATSWORTH
+
+Size of the original charcoal drawing, 14 × 20 inches]
+
+The drawings done after 1858 were much broader in style than the early
+sketches, and vary in method, being in lead pencil, pen and ink, chalk,
+charcoal, and water-color. Thrown off in a moment of inspiration, as a
+poet would throw off a lyric, he chose the material which chanced to be
+at hand. Some are on sheets of writing paper, and many valuable ones
+are on perishable blotting paper. Here and there among these “slight”
+sketches are specimens that in their economy of line, their stamp of
+decision, and their interpretative insight, suggest the work of his
+great master Rembrandt. What strikes one above all is their vigor and
+“bigness.” There is no dainty indecision about them; they go straight
+for the heart of the subject, giving the vigorous impression of a
+vigorous mind. They do not give all that could be said on the subject,
+but they give all that he feels is best worth saying. They make an
+intellectual appeal to the mind and do not tire with unnecessary
+platitudes.
+
+The water-color drawings show a good but scarcely a great colorist.
+They are in the “grand” manner and the best of them have a fine
+atmospheric quality, as in the _Dinkley Ferry_ here, which reminds one
+of a good De Wint. The _Course of the Ribble_ is probably one of the
+most finished drawings he ever did, and shows to the highest degree of
+what he was capable in this medium when time allowed and when loving
+care was exercised. It is wonderfully mellow, good in color, and true
+in drawing, but has less of the white heat of inspiration:--I envy the
+fortunate possessor! The _Lancashire River_, a drawing of the same
+subject as the etching with the same title, is perhaps his finest piece
+of color.
+
+But it is in his large charcoal drawings of the end of the seventies
+that he rises to his greatest heights,--in the sketches done around
+Swanage in the south of Dorsetshire, and at Chatsworth, and two or
+three drawn from the stores of his memory. What a revelation it was
+to me when--I scarcely like to count how many years ago--I first
+passed into that peaceful little “garden room” that looked out upon
+the old-time bowling green at Woodcote Manor and saw around its walls
+some four and twenty of these large charcoal drawings! It was as
+though some new planet swam into my ken! I had never seen so much
+suggested with such simple means. Two or three hours’ work with a sheet
+of rough paper, a piece of charcoal, and a mezzotint scraper! Heath
+and woodland, sea cliff and river glen, radiant light and quivering
+mist, houses sleeping in the sun and mysterious shadows lurking in the
+corners of the quaint old kitchen or the romantic ruin, or lying full
+length before the giant boles of centuries-old oaks; all suggested with
+equal ease and magic mastery! Many and many an hour did I afterward
+spend in that little treasure-house, ever finding fresh beauties
+revealed to me, and learning through them to see in Nature much that
+had previously been hidden from me. Haden’s etchings had proved him
+to be a great master in line, these drawings proved him to be almost
+equally great in tone. What particularly strikes one is the variety
+and transparency of his shadows. They are not black patches, but
+receding planes of varying densities. And what atmospheric quality they
+have! Driving mist and slanting rain, and sun rays penetrating the
+moisture-laden air, as though by a magician, are fixed for us on paper.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. COURSE OF THE RIBBLE BELOW PRESTON
+
+Size of the original water-color, 12½ × 19 inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. DINKLEY FERRY
+
+Size of the original water-color, 10¼ × 16½ inches]
+
+The origin of many of these drawings has been described by Sir Seymour
+himself in an article written some years ago in _Harper’s Magazine_,
+“On the Revival of Mezzotint as a Painter’s Art.” With the idea that he
+could use mezzotint as he had done etching, face to face with Nature,
+he had taken a previously grounded plate to the bank of the River Test
+and attempted to scrape upon it what he saw before him. The result
+was the plate numbered 234 in my catalogue (_The Test at Longparish
+No. 3_), interesting, but not wholly satisfactory and incomplete in
+intention. This proved that, unlike etching, mezzotint was too slow
+a process with which to work from nature at a single sitting, and a
+return on a later day only proved that the natural effect had changed,
+or that the artist was in a different phase of mind or not in the
+humor to complete the original impression. So instead of taking a
+grounded plate out with him he took a sheet of rough paper which had
+been rubbed all over with charcoal, this black surface corresponding
+to the mezzotint ground upon the copper plate, and on this prepared
+surface he scraped away the lights. As will be readily understood,
+this softer material could be much more rapidly manipulated than the
+harder copper, and so he found that in two or three hours the desired
+effect could be obtained. His intention was to reproduce in the studio
+and at his leisure the effects of these studies upon the copper plate.
+And so, with modifications, in several instances he did--I say _with
+modifications_, for it was almost impossible for him to closely copy
+even his own work. The _Salmon Pool on the Spey_ provided the _motif_
+for the mezzotint plate with the same title (H. 250), and more closely
+of the little _Salmon River_, which served as a frontispiece to Dr.
+Hamilton’s book on “Fly Fishing.” The _Encombe Woods_ supplied the
+subject for the two plates H. 218 and 219, which were intended to
+be a combination of etching and mezzotint, but the latter part of
+the project was never carried out. This too was the case with _Early
+Morning_ (H. 244) and _By the Waters of Babylon_ (H. 245), _Ars Longa,
+Vita Brevis_ (H. 210) and _A Study of Rocks_ (H. 211), all of which
+were etched or dry-pointed from charcoal drawings. The only important
+plates inspired by these drawings that were fully completed, were
+_Evening Fishing, Longparish_ (H. 239), _An Early Riser_ (H. 240),
+_Grayling Fishing_ (H. 241), and _The Pillar of Salt_ (H. 246); but
+they are sufficient to prove what a series of masterpieces we have
+lost through the dimming of the eye and the numbing of the hand by
+relentless Age.
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. ENCOMBE WOODS
+
+Size of the original charcoal drawing, 14 × 20 inches]
+
+[Illustration: HADEN. AN ELDERLY COUPLE, CHATSWORTH PARK
+
+Size of the original charcoal drawing, 13½ × 19½ inches]
+
+However, we must be thankful for what we have, and the regret one
+has that these drawings should be scattered in different directions,
+is tempered by the hope that by one of the marvelous photographic
+processes of to-day this wonderful series of visions may be reproduced,
+and so again brought together for all of us who love beautiful things,
+and who reverence the master who produced them.
+
+
+
+
+MERYON AND BAUDELAIRE
+
+BY WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY
+
+
+All French poets of the middle part of the nineteenth century were
+interested, theoretically at least, in painting and the graphic
+arts, which afforded them an ideal and an example of objectivity for
+their own verbal representations of reality. From Théophile Gautier,
+godfather of Parnassianism, who reserved for his prose the full
+resources of his superb Turneresque palate, to Verlaine, creator
+of decadence, with his limpid and lovely _aquarelles_, pictorial
+preoccupations were, on the whole, paramount. Charles Baudelaire
+almost alone appears, in part, an exception to this rule; but if, in
+his work, the purely visual element is less pronounced than in that
+of most of his contemporaries--if the images of sight yield there
+in number and in clear evocative power to those of sound and of
+scent, thereby preluding the way for a new poetic dispensation--he
+nevertheless fits into the late romantic tradition, if only by reason
+of his keen æsthetic appreciation of the arts of design, and of his
+association, as a disinterested friend or sympathetic critic, with
+many of the most illustrious artists of the age. Himself a rebel and
+an outlaw in the domain of orthodox taste, though with a distinct
+tinge of the traditional, he was especially drawn to the insurgent
+leader, like Delacroix, his championship of whom is as famous as his
+espousal of the cause of Wagner’s music in Paris, or to the solitary
+_attardé_ of romanticism who, like Constantin Guys, worked out his
+own salvation in his own way. It is not that he did not welcome new
+movements in all their collectivity of talents and temperaments; but
+these, to find favor with him, must be vouched for by unmistakable
+evidences of creative vigor and originality in the individual artists,
+not merely by plausible theories or pretentious dogmas professed
+scholastically. Intellectual distinctions counted but little with him
+in matters of art, and a new way of rendering what was actually seen
+or felt seemed to him of infinitely more importance than any merely
+academic discussion as to what an artist should or should not look for,
+deliberately, in order to put it into or leave it out of his pictures.
+
+Thus it was that while he shrugged his shoulders at the realists who
+were not really observers, he turned an attentive eye to the work of
+the group of young painter-etchers who, about 1859, were beginning to
+attract attention in the salons. Baudelaire thought highly of etching
+because it afforded an opportunity for “the most clean-cut possible
+translation of the character of the artist,” and he was attracted
+to those who were engaged in reviving this almost obsolete medium,
+because they gave clear proof in their work of that personal force and
+distinction which he valued above all else, and which he was always on
+the alert to discover in the productions of the new and the unknown.
+
+In his article, _Peintres et Aqua-fortistes_, included in the volume
+of his collected works entitled _L’Art Romantique_, Baudelaire
+mentions the following etchers as among those through whose efforts
+the medium was to recover its ancient vitality: Seymour Haden, Manet,
+Legros, Bracquemond, Jongkind, Meryon, Millet, Daubigny, Saint-Marcel,
+Jacquemart, and Whistler. With at least two of these, on the evidence
+of his published correspondence,[2] he had personal relations:
+Bracquemond and Meryon. The name of the former occurs frequently in the
+letters with reference to a device which Baudelaire wished to adopt as
+a frontispiece to the second edition of _Fleurs du Mal_. The idea of
+this device came to him, as he writes to Félix Nadar (May 16, 1859),
+while turning the leaves of the _Histoire des Danses Macabres_, by
+Hyacinthe Langlois. It was to be “an arborescent skeleton, the legs
+and the ribs forming the trunk, the arms extended in the form of a
+cross breaking into leaf and shoot, and protecting several rows of
+poisonous plants arranged in rising tiers of pots, as in a greenhouse.”
+In casting about for an artist to execute this design, Baudelaire
+mentions and dismisses Doré, Penguilly--whom he afterward wished he
+had taken--and Célestin Nanteuil. Finally, perhaps at the instance of
+his publisher, Poulet-Malassis, he chose Bracquemond,--a most unhappy
+selection as it turned out, for that artist was either unable or
+unwilling to grasp the poet’s conception, and the plate which he etched
+for this purpose was not used. A few proofs were pulled, however, and
+impressions in both the first and second states of the plate are now
+in the Samuel P. Avery collection in the New York Public Library.
+
+[2] Charles Baudelaire: Lettres, 1841-1866. Paris, 1907.
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. FRONTISPIECE FOR “LES FLEURS DU MAL” OF
+BAUDELAIRE
+
+The seven plants symbolize the Seven Deadly Sins, and the outstretched
+arms of the skeleton will support, later, the Fruits of Evil. This
+romantic and remarkable frontispiece was never used. Baudelaire
+criticized the drawing of the skeleton severely, as well as the spirit
+and arrangement of the whole design.
+
+Size of the original etching, 6¾ × 4⁵⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
+
+From the etching by Félix Bracquemond. Of the same size as the original
+etching. Evidently an excellent likeness, since it exactly renders that
+ecclesiastical aspect of the poet which made one of his friends compare
+him to a cardinal.]
+
+Baudelaire’s negotiations with the “terrible Bracquemond,” as he came
+to call him, were carried on for the most part through Poulet-Malassis,
+which perhaps affords a partial explanation of the misunderstanding
+concerning the _macabre_ frontispiece. And, although he speaks in one
+letter of having met the artist and repeated verbally the instructions
+which he had already given, with characteristically minute attention to
+detail, in writing, no such special interest attaches to this meeting,
+by no means unique, as to that between Baudelaire and Meryon which
+occurred about the same time, and to which we owe one of the most vivid
+and fantastic presentments we possess of that mad genius. In his _Salon
+of 1859_, Baudelaire had written of Meryon with an enthusiasm which
+awoke a responsive reverberation in the breast of Victor Hugo.
+
+“Since you know M. Meryon,” the latter wrote to Baudelaire (April 29,
+1860), “tell him that his splendid etchings have dazzled me. Without
+color, with nothing save shadow and light, chiaroscuro pure and simple
+and left to itself: that is the problem of etching. M. Meryon solves it
+magisterially. What he does is superb. His plates live, radiate, and
+think. He is worthy of the profound and luminous page with which he has
+inspired you.”
+
+This page, which Baudelaire afterward incorporated in his _Peintres et
+Aqua-fortistes_, where he speaks further of Meryon as “the true type of
+the accomplished _aqua-fortiste_,” and praises the famous perspective
+of San Francisco as his masterpiece, does, indeed, betray the subtle
+penetration of the poet into the very spirit of his fellow-artist:
+“By the severity, the delicacy, and the certitude of his design, M.
+Meryon recalls what is best in the old _aqua-fortistes_. I have rarely
+seen represented with more poetry the natural solemnity of a great
+capital. The majesties of accumulated stone, _the spires pointing a
+finger to the skies_, the obelisks of industry vomiting their thick
+clouds of smoke heavenward, the prodigious scaffoldings of monuments
+under repair, relieved against the solid mass of architecture, their
+tracery of a filmy and paradoxical beauty, the misty sky, charged with
+wrath and with rancor, the depths of the perspectives augmented by the
+thought of the dramas contained therein,--none of the complex elements
+of which the dolorous and glorious setting of civilization is composed
+is here forgotten.”
+
+Grateful for such recognition on the part of a distinguished man of
+letters who was also accepted as one of the leading art critics of the
+day in Paris, Meryon evidently wrote to Baudelaire, thanking him, and
+asking permission to call; for in his letter of January 8, 1860, to
+Poulet-Malassis, the poet writes as follows:
+
+“What I write to-night,” he begins, “is worth the trouble of writing:
+M. Meryon has sent me his card, and we have met. He said to me: _You
+live in a hotel whose name must have attracted you, because of the
+relation it bears, I presume, to your tastes._--Then I looked at the
+envelope of his letter. On it was ‘Hôtel de _Thèbes_,’ and yet his
+letter reached me.”
+
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CHARLES MERYON
+
+From the etching by Félix Bracquemond, done in 1853
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⁷/₁₆ × 6⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: MERYON. LE PONT AU CHANGE
+
+“In one of his great plates, he has substituted for a little balloon
+a flight of birds of prey, and, when I remarked to him that it was
+lacking in verisimilitude to put so many eagles into a Parisian sky,
+he replied that what he had done was not devoid of foundation in fact,
+since _ces gens-là_ [the imperial government] had often released eagles
+so as to study the presages, according to the rite,--and that this had
+been printed in the newspapers, even in _Le Moniteur_.”
+
+Charles Baudelaire in a letter to Poulet-Malassis (January 8, 1860).]
+
+It is necessary to interrupt the letter at this point to explain
+what is obscure in the foregoing allusion for one not familiar with
+Baudelaire’s haunts and homes in Paris. He was living at this time,
+not in the Hôtel Pimodan where he dwelt so long, and where he held
+those famous meetings described by Gautier in his introductory essay
+to _Fleurs du Mal_, but in modest quarters in the Hotel de Dieppe, 22,
+rue d’Amsterdam, whose principal advantage was its proximity to the
+Gare de l’Ouest whence he took the train for Honfleur on his frequent
+visits to his mother. Thus, through a bizarre confusion between the two
+words, _Dieppe_ and _Thèbes_, is explained Meryon’s curious mistake in
+addressing his letter to Baudelaire.
+
+The poet proceeds with the following report of their conversation: “In
+one of his great plates,[3] he [Meryon] has substituted for a little
+balloon a flight of birds of prey, and, when I remarked to him that it
+was lacking in verisimilitude to put so many eagles into a Parisian
+sky, he replied that what he had done was not devoid of foundation in
+fact, since _ces gens-là_ [the imperial government] had often released
+eagles so as to study the presages, according to the rite,--and that
+this had been printed in the newspapers, even in _Le Moniteur_.
+
+[3] The _Pont-au-Change_.
+
+“I must tell you that he makes no attempt to conceal his respect for
+all superstitions, but he explains them badly, and he sees cabal
+everywhere.
+
+“He drew my attention to the fact, in another of his plates, that the
+shadows cast by one of the masonry constructions of the _Pont-Neuf_[4]
+on the lateral wall of the quay represented exactly the profile of a
+sphinx; that this had been, on his part, quite involuntary, and that he
+had only remarked this singularity later, on recalling that this design
+had been made a short time before the _coup d’état_. But the Prince
+is the real person who, by his acts and his visage, bears the closest
+resemblance to a _sphinx_.
+
+[4] An error of Baudelaire’s. The plate is the _Petit-Pont_.
+
+“He asked me if I had read the tales of a certain Edgar Poe. I answered
+that I knew them better than any one else, and for a good reason. He
+then asked me in a very emphatic manner, if I believed in the reality
+of this Edgar Poe. I naturally asked him to whom he attributed all
+his tales. He replied: ‘_To a society of men of letters who are very
+clever, very powerful, and who are in touch with everything._’ And
+here is one of his reasons: ‘The _Rue_ Morgue. _I have made a design
+of the_ Morgue.--_An_ Orang-ou-tang. _I have often been compared
+to_ a monkey.--_This monkey murders_ two women, a mother and her
+daughter. _I also have morally assassinated_ two women, a mother and
+her daughter.--_I have always taken the story as an allusion to my
+misfortunes. You would be doing me a great favor if you could find out
+for me the date when Edgar Poe, supposing that he was not helped by any
+one, composed this story, so that I could see if the date coincided
+with my adventures._’
+
+“He spoke to me, with admiration, of Michelet’s book on _Jeanne d’Arc_,
+but he is convinced that this book is not by Michelet.
+
+“One of his great preoccupations is cabalistical science, but he
+interprets it in a strange fashion that would make a cabalist laugh.
+
+
+[Illustration: MERYON. LE PETIT PONT
+
+“He drew my attention to the fact, in another of his plates, that the
+shadows cast by one of the masonry constructions of the Pont-Neuf on
+the lateral wall of the quay represented exactly the profile of a
+sphinx; that this had been, on his part, quite involuntary, and that he
+had only remarked this singularity later, on recalling that this design
+had been made a short time before the _coup d’état_.”
+
+Charles Baudelaire in a letter to Poulet-Malassis (January 8, 1860).
+
+Size of the original etching, 9⅝ × 7¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CHARLES MERYON
+
+From the drawing by Léopold Flameng, made in May, 1858, in Meryon’s
+room in the rue des Fossés-Saint-Jacques, the night before Meryon
+became dangerously mad and was taken by his friends, in a cab, to
+Charenton for the first time. Later he was discharged, and took up
+his lodging in the rue Duperré, and in October, 1866, returned to
+Charenton, where he died in February, 1868.]
+
+“Do not laugh at all this with _méchants bougres_. For nothing in the
+world would I wish to injure a man of talent....
+
+“After he left me, I asked myself how it happened that I, who have
+always had, in my mind and in my nerves, all that was needed to make
+me mad, had not become so. Seriously, I addressed to heaven the
+thanksgivings of the Pharisee.”
+
+ * * * * *
+
+It is not surprising that Baudelaire should have been somewhat
+disconcerted by this interview which confirmed so strikingly the
+reports of the mental malady of his visitor to which he had alluded in
+his _Salon of 1859_, and that he should soon have sought, after some
+brief intercourse, to avoid personal and private encounters which might
+have proved embarrassing. He gave notice in ways the artist could not
+long mistake, that he did not wish to continue the acquaintance on a
+footing of intimacy, though, as Crépet, in his _Charles Baudelaire_[5]
+points out, he by no means ceased to interest himself in the artist,
+several sets of whose _Eaux-Fortes sur Paris_ he was instrumental,
+with one or two other admirers of Meryon, in having purchased by the
+Ministry. Poor Meryon! With an incomplete realization of his own
+condition which rendered him incapable of divining the real truth, he
+felt he had offended Baudelaire in some way, and finally addressed
+him the following appeal, tragic in its note of noble and unconscious
+pathos:
+
+[5] Charles Baudelaire: Étude biographique d’Eugène Crépet revue et
+mise au jour par Jacques Crépet. Paris, 1907.
+
+ “_Dear Sir_: I called on you yesterday evening at the Hôtel de Dieppe.
+ I was informed that you had changed your domicile. I wished, above
+ all, to see you, in order to learn from your own lips that you were
+ not angry with me, for I do not think I have ever done anything to you
+ which could serve as a motive for your change of manner toward me.
+ Only, as the last letter which I wrote you has remained unanswered,
+ and as three times I have left my name at your dwelling without my
+ having had the slightest word from you, I am entitled to believe that
+ you have some reason for breaking with me. I did not remind you of
+ your promise to write a newspaper article about my work, because,
+ quite frankly, I was sure that you could make much better employment
+ of your time and of your literary skill. My etchings are known to
+ nearly all whom they could interest and rather too much good has been
+ said of them. As to the interruption of our relations, which have
+ been but of brief duration and of slight importance, I agree to this
+ without a word if such is your desire, and I shall conserve, none the
+ less, the recollection of the eminent services you have rendered me in
+ coming to see me, and in occupying yourself with me at a time when I
+ was utterly destitute.
+
+ “I have forwarded to M. Lavielle, whom I had the advantage of meeting
+ once with you, the set of my views, reworked and a trifle modified; he
+ has, perhaps, shown them to you. I have had difficulty in procuring
+ the ten sets of them (the printer being very busy at that time) that I
+ have disposed of with sufficient rapidity. I have no longer any left
+ and I have destroyed the _Petit-Pont_, which I propose to engrave
+ anew, after I have made in it some rather important corrections.
+
+ “Adieu, dear sir, with all possible good wishes.
+
+ “I am your sincere and devoted friend,
+
+ “C. MERYON.
+
+ “20, rue Duperré.”
+
+The letter to which Meryon refers in the opening paragraph of the
+foregoing as having remained unanswered by Baudelaire is doubtless that
+bearing the date of February 23, 1860, which is the only other one
+given by Crépet in the appendix to his volume. This is it:
+
+ “_Dear Sir_: I send you a set of my ‘Views of Paris.’[6] As you can
+ see, they are well printed, on Chinese tissue mounted on laid paper,
+ and consequently _de bonne tenue_. It is on my part a feeble means of
+ recognizing the devotion you have shown on my behalf. However, I dare
+ hope that they will serve sometimes to fix your imagination, curious
+ of the things of the past. I myself, who made them at an epoch, it is
+ true, when my naïve heart was still seized with sudden aspirations
+ toward a happiness which I believed I could attain, look over some of
+ these pieces with a veritable pleasure. They may, then, be able to
+ produce nearly the same effect upon you who also love to dream.
+
+ “I have not yet terminated the notes that I promised to make in order
+ to aid you in your work; at all events, I shall go to see you soon to
+ discuss the matter with you further. As the publisher recoils before
+ the steps which would still have to be taken, he says, for the placing
+ of these prints, there is nothing pressing about the affair. Thus, do
+ not let this disturb you.
+
+ “Adieu, monsieur; I hope that before your departure, I shall be able
+ to profit by the kindly reception that I have received from you.
+
+ “I am your very humble and very devoted servant.
+
+ “I am going to try to place sets with those persons who have been so
+ good, on your recommendation, as to interest themselves in this work.
+
+ “MERYON.
+
+ “20, rue Duperré.”
+
+[6] Baudelaire had already tried to obtain a set of these prints. In
+writing to Charles Asselineau (February 20, 1859) he commissions his
+friend to get from Édouard Houssaye “all the engravings of Meryon
+(views of Paris), good proofs on Chinese paper. _Pour parer notre
+chambre_, as Dorine says.” He was not successful, however, at that
+time. In quoting Molière, Baudelaire refers to Toinette’s speech in _Le
+Malade Imaginaire_ (Act II slc· v).
+
+This letter renders sufficiently clear the kind of service Baudelaire
+had rendered Meryon over and above the public praise contained in his
+writings. What, at the first glance, is less certain is the work on
+which the poet was engaged at this time and for which Meryon, on his
+own testimony, had promised to assist him with notes. In a foot-note
+to this letter, M. Jacques Crépet states that it was “doubtless
+_L’eau-forte est à la mode_, an anonymous article published by the
+_Revue anecdotique_ in the latter half of April, 1862.” Personally,
+I doubt the correctness of this conjecture. One has but to turn to
+Baudelaire’s letters of the period to see that there was then under
+discussion another piece of work for which Meryon would have been much
+more likely to give assistance in the form of notes, since it directly
+concerned himself. Indeed, the matter almost amounted to a project of
+collaboration between Meryon and Baudelaire. The publisher Delâtre had
+promised to bring out an album of the “Vues de Paris,” and had asked
+the poet to prepare some text for the plates. The first reference to
+this tentative undertaking occurs in Baudelaire’s letter of February
+16, 1860 (just a week before Meryon’s), to Poulet-Malassis:
+
+“And then Meryon!”--he broaches the matter abruptly, after having
+expressed his impatience at the attitude of two other artists,
+Champfleury and Duranty, friends of his, toward Constantin Guys, and
+at a certain note of pedantry and dogmatism that was stealing into art
+under the influence and sanction of “realism”--“And then Meryon! Oh, as
+for him, it is intolerable. Delâtre asks me to write some text for the
+album. Good! there is an occasion to write some reveries--ten lines,
+twenty or thirty lines--on beautiful engravings, the philosophical
+reveries of a Parisian _flaneur_. But Meryon, whose idea is different,
+objects. I am to say: on the right you see this; on the left you see
+that. I must say: here originally there were twelve windows, reduced to
+six by the artist, and finally I must go to the Hôtel de Ville to find
+out the exact epoch of the demolitions. M. Meryon talks, his eyes fixed
+on the ceiling, and without listening to any observation.”
+
+Thus it was historical and antiquarian notes that, in all probability,
+Meryon had promised to jot down to facilitate the composition of
+a running commentary on the etchings. Meryon’s reference to the
+reluctance of the publisher in the very same paragraph in which
+he speaks of these notes, serves to remove the least doubt as to
+what is meant. When he tells Baudelaire not to be disturbed, it is
+clearly as to the time at his disposal for the preparation of his
+text. Baudelaire, however, seems to have been less concerned about
+his own share in the work than about the fate of the project as a
+whole. Evidently he was not satisfied at the prospects of the work
+with Delâtre, for, on March 9, 1860, he wrote in a postscript to
+Poulet-Malassis:
+
+“I turn my letter, to ask you, very seriously, if it would not be
+advisable for you to be the publisher of Meryon’s album (which will
+be augmented) and for which I am to write the text. You know that,
+unfortunately, this text will not be in accordance with my wishes.
+
+“I warn you that I have made overtures to the house of Gide....
+
+“This Meryon does not know how to go about things; he knows nothing
+of life. He does not know how to sell; he does not know how to find a
+publisher. His work is readily salable.”
+
+And again, on March 13, he writes, in response to some proposition from
+his friend:
+
+“Relative to Meryon, do you mean by _buying the plates_ to buy the
+metal plates, or rather the right of selling an indefinite number
+of proofs from them? I can conceive that you fear the conversations
+with Meryon. You should carry on the negotiations by letter (20, rue
+Duperré). I warn you that Meryon’s great fear is lest the publisher
+should change the format and the paper.... What you say to me of
+Meryon does not affect what I write to you concerning him.”
+
+The excellent business sense, the note of prudence and painstaking,
+that comes out in all this correspondence on the part of Baudelaire,
+and which is scarcely less notable than his unwearied devotion to the
+interests of his friends, ought to go far toward discountenancing the
+theory that a poet cannot be a good man of affairs. Still again he
+writes on the same subject, with recapitulations of what he had said
+before, to the same correspondent:
+
+“I am very much embarrassed, _mon cher_, to reply to you relatively to
+the Meryon affair. I have no rights in the matter whatsoever; M. Meryon
+has repulsed, with a species of horror, the idea of a text composed
+of a dozen little poems or sonnets; he has refused the idea of poetic
+meditations in prose. So as not to wound him, I have promised to write
+for him, in return for three copies with the good proofs, a text in the
+style of a guide or manual, unsigned. It is, therefore, with him alone
+that you will have to treat.... The thing has presented itself to my
+mind very simply. On one side, an unfortunate madman, who does not know
+how to conduct his affairs, and who has executed a beautiful work; on
+the other, you, on whose list I want to see the best books possible. As
+the journalists say, I have considered for you the double pleasure of a
+good bit of business and of a good act.” And he compares Meryon’s case
+with that of Daumier, then without a publisher, to wind whom up, “like
+a clock,” would also, he tells Poulet-Malassis, be “a great and good
+bit of business.”
+
+This is the last reference in any of the letters to Meryon, or to the
+album, for which Baudelaire never wrote his text, since no publisher
+was willing to publish the work. Had Poulet-Malassis not failed in
+1861, it might have appeared, and then, in spite of the restrictions
+imposed upon the restive spirit of the poet, we might have had in
+Baudelaire’s text some literary equivalent of Meryon’s etchings. How
+sympathetic this would have been, is shown by the descriptive and
+interpretative passage from the _Salon de 1859_ already quoted, which,
+in a few sentences, completely defines the form of Meryon’s imaginative
+genius, and reveals the inmost source of its power to stir the emotions.
+
+There was, indeed, much that was common to the genius of Meryon and
+of Baudelaire. The work of both was profoundly personal, and in both
+a powerful and somber imagination was tinged with a subtle fantasy
+supplied by a morbid exaggeration in the senses, which did not,
+however, preclude an intense and ardent preoccupation with formal
+perfection.
+
+On the contrary, these two modern _détraqués_ present in their work a
+solidity of construction and an absolute rectitude in the rendering
+of their moods and dreams, that is scarcely to be found in the work
+of even their best-balanced and sanest contemporaries. The art of
+Baudelaire has been compared to that of Racine, and, in the same way,
+Meryon’s design has the complete economy and control of Robert Nanteuil
+or of Callot. Men like these make us doubt and reconsider our stock
+distinctions of “romantic” and “classic.” The work of Meryon and of
+Baudelaire answers equally to both descriptions, and assures them a
+place apart in their generation. Thus, while their paths crossed but
+for a moment, and while they never shared with each other their secret
+thoughts and aspirations, there is, nevertheless, no small interest for
+the student in these slight and fragmentary records of what, had it
+not been for a cruel freak of fate, might have proved an enduring and
+fruitful friendship.
+
+
+
+
+FÉLIX BRACQUEMOND: AN ETCHER OF BIRDS
+
+BY FRANK WEITENKAMPF
+
+Chief of the Department of Prints, New York Public Library
+
+
+Even the artist of various interests actively expressed,--the
+versatile artist, if that adjective be used without the suspicion of
+superficiality which is often its aftertaste--is very apt to become
+associated in the public mind with some one specialty.
+
+Félix Bracquemond is known particularly well as an etcher of birds. Yet
+he has done many things, more than one well enough to have established
+a reputation. At twenty he painted, and exhibited at the Salon of 1853,
+a portrait of himself, in a manner that carries you back to Holbein,
+that even faintly suggests the spirit of Van Eyck in its precise and
+detailed utterance. The portrait clearly indicates his future activity,
+for he holds in his hand a bottle of acid, while etching tools lie on
+a table near him. His etched portraits are numerous, and include such
+comparatively free productions as the ones of Legros and of Meryon, and
+the large, minutely finished one of Edmond de Goncourt. The last named
+is a characteristic and typical example of Bracquemond’s art, which,
+even when most painstaking, somehow or other never seems labored.
+Bracquemond appears as a peculiar and interesting mingling of
+Teutonic thoroughness and Gallic _esprit_.
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. DUCKS AT PLAY
+
+Size of the original etching, 12¾ × 9⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. A FLOCK OF TEAL ALIGHTING
+
+Size of the original etching, 12 × 9⅝ inches]
+
+The characteristic elements in his portraits--“robustness, versatility
+and a resourceful mastery of technique”--are peculiar to all his
+work. The same artist who carefully and with honest and sympathetic
+adaptation translated such different products of painter’s personality
+as Millet’s _Man with the Hoe_ and Meissonier’s _La Rixe_, as well as
+canvases and drawings by Holbein (the magisterial portrait of Erasmus),
+Corot, Gustave Moreau, Gavarni and Delacroix, also, under Japanese
+influence, etched numerous designs for ceramic ware (he was for a time
+a sort of artist director at the Haviland factory at Limoges), fishes
+and birds in swirling, decorative outline. In contrast to these last
+named are his numerous well-finished pictures of birds and mammals. His
+hares, moles and mice done with loving emphasis on the texture of their
+furry pelts. (The vision of happy days, seen by poor bunny suspended
+by one leg, was reproduced as far afield as Poland, in _Tygódnik
+Illustrowány_.) The birds, with the delightful and strong modeling of
+their bodies felt under the sleek surface of their feathery coverings.
+
+A master craftsman, he has found delight, like Buhot, Guérard and
+Mielatz, in technical experiments, and his interest and skill in
+reproductive methods are illustrated in etchings, dry-points,
+aquatints, lithographs, photogravures retouched with etching,
+engravings in color, and plates showing combinations of processes.
+Burty once wrote: “He contrives by repeated use of the acid on certain
+parts of the plate to get a black which for depth and intensity has
+never been equaled.” And Meryon avowed of him: “I cannot etch. That
+one, there, he is the true etcher.”
+
+His active interests, and his all-embracing outlook on the life about
+him, found expression in such occasional productions as the etchings
+of figures modeled in snow by French sculptors in Paris during the
+Commune; the symbolical lithograph of France defending himself against
+the Prussian eagle, while strangling his own imperial bird; the ceramic
+compliment to Uncle Sam: _The Old World and Young America_, or the
+very large plate done as a memorial tablet for Meryon’s coffin. His
+hand recorded the placid, rural beauties of Bas Meudon and the quick
+impression of a steamboat, amusingly described by Beraldi (see No.
+185). And a bit of woodland, possibly in the Bois de Boulogne, in
+winter snows, in combination with a gaunt wolf probably studied at the
+Jardin d’Acclimatation (the Paris “Zoo”), gave him opportunity for his
+effective _Wolf in the Snow_, also known as _Winter_ (Beraldi No. 180),
+which in its spirit of desolation might be many hundred miles from
+Paris.
+
+And with all this, his etchings only have been spoken of here,--and
+they are about 800 in number. But the catalogue (issued in an edition
+of 220 copies) of his work exhibited at the Société Nationale des
+Beaux-Arts (Salon) in 1907, includes not only etchings, but paintings,
+water-colors, pastels and designs executed in embroidered silk,
+ceramics, iron, cloisonné enamel, jade, wood and bookbindings.
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. PHEASANTS AT DAWN: MORNING MISTS
+
+Size of the original etching, 9 × 13⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. THE BATHER (CANARDS SURPRIS)
+
+Size of the original etching, 14 × 10½ inches]
+
+Yet the late Walter S. Carter of Brooklyn, a most catholic
+print-collector, ventured fearlessly on the inviting but not
+always safe sliding pond of analogy, and proclaimed Bracquemond the
+“Michelangelo of ducks.” Without regard to the manner of the statement,
+we may accept the classification. For had Bracquemond never etched
+anything but his bird plates, he would have won his place in the annals
+of the fascinating art of needle and acid. Perhaps he realized that
+when he furnished a title-page design for the third volume, devoted
+to himself, of Beraldi’s “Graveurs du XIXᵉ Siècle,” consisting solely
+of a duck and a portfolio of prints. Much slighter in execution, but
+more significantly allegorical, was his frontispiece (Beraldi No.
+480) for the catalogue of the second portion of the Burty collection.
+It represented a stand holding an open portfolio from which prints
+flying upward are gradually evolved into cranes. Ducks, however, have
+apparently been his special delight. He has pictured them in action,
+as in the delightful oblong picture of two ducks swimming (Beraldi
+No. 185) and in the equally, and amusingly, lifelike one of five
+ducks swimming hurriedly to a central point of common interest. Or
+in allegorical attitude, as in the _Canard_ (Beraldi No. 116), the
+herald of “fake” news. He has observed the teal along the riverside
+and the _Gambols_ of ducks (Beraldi No. 221), done with a simple and
+sympathetic delight in the doings of these water-fowl. Hardly ever,
+perhaps, has he better characterized the useful bird whose call,
+onomatopoetically imitated, has long served to characterize medical
+charlatanry, than in the plate known as _The Bather_ or _Canards
+surpris_. The three birds, who have come down to their accustomed
+swimming hole only to find it already occupied by a comely young
+woman, are alive and moving. The beholder can fairly see and hear
+their wonder at the unwarranted intrusion on their rights, and regards
+their wagging tails with much of the fascination that Septimus and
+Wiggleswick (in W. J. Locke’s “Septimus”) felt in the same diversion.
+
+While the duck apparently appealed most to him, Bracquemond was
+attracted also by other members of the family of _Aves_. The goose,
+cousin to the _Anas_, he showed collectively in _Geese in a Storm_
+(_The Storm Cloud._ Beraldi No. 219), which may be studied in the Avery
+collection at the New York Public Library, in a series of touched
+proofs in which the fortuitous effect of gradually added work in the
+sky gives somewhat the impression of a storm rising as you look at the
+consecutive proofs. _Ducks in a Marsh_ also move under a lowering sky,
+and in _It’s Raining Pitchforks_ (Beraldi No. 212) the flood-gates
+of heaven are fully opened, so that the water-fowl appear to find
+themselves doubly in their element.
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. GEESE IN A STORM
+
+Size of the original etching, 9½ × 13⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. SEA-GULLS
+
+Size of the original etching, 10¾ × 18 inches]
+
+Bracquemond sometimes labored through a number of states on a plate.
+The large portrait of Edmond de Goncourt was patiently carried through
+a number of progressive proofs. And in the process of thus searching
+for ultimate satisfactoriness he may give us such pleasant surprises
+as the fourth state of _Morning Mists_ (Beraldi No. 779), a pheasant
+piece, with its delightful background addition of trees--an airy,
+light impression of early morning. He has done several landscapes
+of a lightness which approaches a Legros-like delicacy, so that it
+is perplexing to compare them with such a faithfully studied but
+somewhat hard plate as that of the duck perplexed at sight of a
+turtle (_L’Inconnu_, Beraldi No. 174), and to realize that the same
+hand did both. Venturing still farther into the field of ornithology,
+he depicted golden pheasants, partridges, swallows, with sympathy for
+his subject and an open eye for its artistic possibilities. The human
+element enters into these pictures very rarely, and then only when
+absolutely in place. So in _At the Jardin d’Acclimatation_ (Beraldi No.
+214), in which two stylishly dressed young ladies are looking at golden
+pheasants in an inclosure. Once, at least, in _Sea-gulls_ (Beraldi No.
+782), he felt and rendered the beautiful effect of a circling, gliding
+flight of gulls over rolling waves, in a graceful swirl of lines
+combining into a harmonious pattern.
+
+The peculiar effect of this last named plate, with its mingling of
+Japanese and other influences, is in striking contrast to his early and
+most remarkable _Haut d’un battant de Porte_ (Beraldi No. 110, done at
+the age of nineteen), in which the dead bodies of three birds of prey
+and a bat are shown nailed to a barn door, held up as a warning example
+in a not too smoothly flowing quatrain. To his plates of moralizing or
+emblematic intention, such as the one just referred to, or the _Canard_
+(Beraldi No. 116), he delighted in adding such inscriptions, generally
+in rhyme. His verses in such cases partake a little of the halting
+metre of those which poor Meryon attached to certain of his plates.
+Such etched letterpress additions appear also in _Margot la Critique_
+(Beraldi No. 113) and in _Le Corbeau_. The last named delineation of
+an old bow-legged crow presents a creature so weird, so uncanny, that
+without adventitious effects it appears as a symbol of some sinister
+power, felt though not realized. But a still more famous plate,
+because most strongly characteristic, is _The Old Cock_ (the original
+drawing for which is owned by Samuel P. Avery), a masterly portrait of
+chanticleer, in all the dignity and pomp of his mature vigor and serene
+self-sufficiency. Here is the poem for this:
+
+ Hé, vieux coq,
+ Vieux Don Juan,
+ Vieille voix, tu t’érailles,
+ Toi-même tu seras
+ La pierre du festin fait à tes funerailles
+ Et les convives, las
+ De livrer à ta chair de trop rudes batailles
+ Se reposeront des dents et des bras
+ Racontant à l’envie, tes amours, tes combats.
+
+He japonized this magnificent fowl in a purely decorative spirit,
+without the psychological element. And on the occasion of the visit
+of the Russian fleet to Toulon in 1893, he repeated and emphasized
+the theme to the verge almost of the grotesque, in a representation
+of the Gallic cock, a Hercules of his kind, with the aggressiveness
+of conscious strength, trumpeting forth his _Vive le Tsar!_ with
+triumphant enthusiasm. This emblematic use of ornithological specimens
+has been already referred to in the case of the _Canard_. It appears
+notably also in _Margot la Critique_. The critic may note that _Margot_
+happens to be particularly unctuous in the state before the verses, but
+will not be otherwise adversely influenced by this etched philippic
+against his brethren.
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. THE OLD COCK
+
+“But a still more famous plate, because most strongly characteristic,
+is _The Old Cock_, a masterly portrait of chanticleer, in all the
+dignity and pomp of his mature vigor and serene self-sufficiency.”
+
+Frank Weitenkampf, _Félix Bracquemond: An Etcher of Birds_.
+
+Size of the original etching, 11¼ × 9⅞ inches]
+
+[Illustration: BRACQUEMOND. SWALLOWS IN FLIGHT
+
+Size of the original etching, 12½ × 10½ inches]
+
+But besides these many realistic studies of bird life there are just
+about as many of purely decorative interest, showing strong Japanese
+influence, and mostly executed for ceramic decoration. There are also
+decorative combinations of _Reeds and Teal_, _Swallows_ flying in
+graceful curves and swirls, _Lapwing and Teal_ swimming and flying.
+Here again we have an entirely different point of view. The loving
+study of nature, sometimes expressed in an uncompromising hardness in
+the reproduction of form or detail, or elsewhere in an almost playful
+lightness of touch in obedience to a passing mood, appears here with
+quite different results. Seemingly endless changes on the same theme
+of swirling, undulating curves of flying, running, strutting, swimming
+bodies of birds and fishes delight the eye with the rhythmic flow of
+ever recurrent accent on the pure beauty of line.
+
+And at the end, when you have gone through the many portfolios of
+Bracquemond’s work, there occurs to you his own statement quoted by
+Clement Janin. It is to the effect that a work of graphic art must bear
+on its face, undisguised, the characteristics of the technique by which
+it was produced. A lithograph must be a lithograph; a wood-engraving a
+wood-engraving and not the imitation of an engraving on copper or of a
+photograph. A review of the arts of reproduction proves that this is
+not the truism it may seem. It is a basic principle in all art, and
+will bear earnest and repeated emphasis. And the notable recognition of
+this fact by Bracquemond is a prime factor in his success in the art
+that has meant so much to him.
+
+
+
+
+AUGUSTE LEPÈRE
+
+BY ELISABETH LUTHER CARY
+
+Art Editor of the New York Times
+
+
+IT is the fashion of the moment to specialize in art as in other
+professions, and we no longer expect to find the multiple tendencies
+and ambitions of a Leonardo or a Dürer, or even of the self-contained
+Rembrandt, in the modern artist. He is a painter or a sculptor or a
+wood-engraver or an etcher. He is even more closely classified as
+a portrait- or a landscape-painter, an animalier or a decorator, a
+dry-point engraver or a disciple of pure etching. If, as sometimes
+happens, he escapes from the threads of the Lilliputians and swings his
+arms in a wider sweep, it is in the mood of deprecation or excuse, as a
+writer may choose to whittle wood or hammer metal in order to clear his
+word-fogged brain.
+
+There is, however, a wholesome and growing impression among thoughtful
+observers that extreme limitation and restriction produce weakness
+rather than strength, and when we find an artist who has something
+of the ancient flexibility of mind and hand it is worth our while to
+acclaim him.
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. RHEIMS CATHEDRAL
+
+Size of the original etching, 14⅛ × 10¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. BELLE MATINÉE. AUTOMNE
+
+Size of the original etching, 7½ × 11¼ inches]
+
+Auguste Lepère has pursued a free course of development, rounding his
+capacities, and forming himself with balanced and reasonable attention
+to diversified interests. He was born in Paris in 1849. His father
+was the talented sculptor François Lepère, and he got, no doubt, from
+his father something of the latter’s taste for suggesting passion, even
+frenzy, in small but monumental figures. While quite young he studied
+with the English engraver Smeeon, and spent his first professional
+years in the service of illustration for _Le Monde Illustré_,
+_L’Illustration_, _Le Magasin Pittoresque_, and _La Revue Illustrée_ in
+Paris, the _Graphic_ and _Black and White_ in London, and _Scribner’s_
+and _Harper’s_ in America.
+
+Tiring of this field, he tried all things. He became in turn a
+metal-chaser, a decorator of leathers, a ceramist, an etcher, a
+wood-engraver and a painter. If we consider him chiefly as an etcher,
+it must be with the full appreciation that any craft mastered by him is
+made subsidiary to the larger principles upon which all works of art
+are based, whatever the medium or process. He has consistently declined
+to fritter away his admirable technique upon technicalities undertaken
+for their own sake, and his work in etching as in painting is the work
+of an intellect concerned with the problems of rhythm and harmony,
+color, tone and form, which assail artists in every field.
+
+As an etcher he received his initiation from Bracquemond, the most
+robust of temperaments and at the same time the most fastidious of
+technicians. Lepère has been worthy of his teaching. From the first he
+has sought to render his impression, recorded by a vision singularly
+prompt and synthetic, with precise care, patiently assembling all the
+complex virtues of his method to the task. To his slightest plate he
+has brought conscience and sincerity, and also a quality without
+which all the moral gifts with which human nature may be endowed would
+have availed him nothing as an artist: the rare capacity, that is, for
+retaining the freshness of his vision throughout a slow process of
+translation.
+
+Before examining a few of his plates to discern their significant
+qualities, it will be interesting to consider his own words on the aim
+of the engraver: notes written with reference to the change in methods
+of reproduction from interpretation by means of the engraver’s art to
+the use of photography and the resultant processes. Even his notes on
+engraving for the purpose of reproduction, though less closely allied
+to the work of his riper years than the notes on engraving from nature
+as an original art, are excellent reading, since they throw a clear
+light upon his ideals and definite convictions:
+
+“Formerly,” he says, “when an engraver had a work to reproduce, it
+was _absolutely necessary for him to see it_. He could then study
+it, comprehend it, and consequently extract its essential principle,
+simplify it, adapt it to his mode of expression, engrave it.
+
+“If he had not the gift of composition, that of design was necessary
+in order to make his transposition; that of interpretation, in order
+to gather the idea of the creator of his model. His work was almost
+the equal of the work of an original engraver who usually interprets a
+composition or a model given by nature.
+
+“His art was that of transposition. He took color or mass and made
+a song in a different key, keeping only the relative values of the
+shadows and lights and the contours of the objects.
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. VUE DU PORT DE LA MEULE
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⅝ × 12½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. PEUPLIERS TÉTARDS
+
+Size of the original etching, 7⅞ × 9¾ inches]
+
+“Photography has come to change all that. It has facilitated the task
+of the engraver, who, for the most part, has not even seen the works he
+reproduces. The science of design is almost reduced to knowing how to
+trace; as for simplifying a photograph, it can only make matters worse.
+Such as it is, a photograph forms a perfect gamut in which nothing can
+be changed without losing everything; to extract a line from it is
+impossible, so indiscernible is the passage from one object to another,
+a figure in the background, etc., etc.
+
+“Photography is a reproduction; it becomes a betrayal. What is the copy
+interpreted by this betrayal? How can one extract the character of
+anything if the true model is not there?
+
+“Here, then, is our engraver obliged to copy with his precise art
+from something quite vague. Photography sees the globs of color, the
+accidents of a picture, with as much interest as the most beautiful
+design. What will he put in the place of these accidents? He traces, he
+copies; and as the photograph is stupid, he copies a stupidity.
+
+“He does this so thoroughly that he can be dispensed with, the means
+of printing a photograph having been discovered. What imitates a
+photograph most completely if not a photogravure? This attains to a
+degree of impersonality so great that the poor engraver can no longer
+battle against it.
+
+“For the engraver who possesses no faculty of composition to do
+artistic work it is necessary that he be an interpreter, a simplifier,
+with a very well-defined idea of the necessities of his craft, and
+that he know how to draw directly! He must renounce all attempts
+to overstep the boundaries of his craft; he must not try to express
+colors. One may, in an engraving, express cold and heat; that is,
+indeed, the main thing. But it is impossible to engrave red, yellow,
+or green. These are researches that encroach upon the domain of the
+painter and spoil everything.”
+
+Of the original engraver more is exacted. As a true artist he
+must respect both his craft and the quality of his vision. He
+must synthetize, simplify, express, avoid photographic vision and
+trivialities of style; he must employ only the means forbidden to
+photography: those well-affirmed indications of the movements of the
+point which are the very foundation of the beautiful technique of
+engraving.
+
+And in one phrase is summed up the essential aim of the engraver
+who treats his art with respect, whether he uses it for purposes of
+reproduction or for original work: “Not to imitate. To express.”
+
+Lepère has followed his own doctrine to its logical conclusion. Never
+servile, even in his most faithful portraiture of a nature that
+enchants him, he works with a plenitude of science, but also with
+unwearied freshness of inspiration and a sympathetic feeling for the
+character of his subject, whether it is a curve of the river near Nôtre
+Dame where horses come down to drink, or a poor man’s hut with climbing
+vines in bloom, or the wide marshes of the Vendée. With the passage
+of time his vision has grown larger and calmer, his interpretations
+magisterial; but in his most classic moments he does not forget
+to infuse into his composition a strong feeling for this intimate
+characterization. He is a true creator, living not only above but in
+his conception. He is at once serene and moved, in command of his
+intellectual instrument and impelled by his personal interest.
+
+The _Journée d’Inventaire_ is a plate that shows clearly this double
+action of the artist’s mind. The composition is stately in both line
+and mass. In the background rises the lofty architecture of the Amiens
+Cathedral; in the foreground, in deep shadow, is a group of figures
+diversely occupied. The upraised arms of these figures lead naturally
+to the pointed arches and ascending spires. In a similar fashion, the
+strong darks of the foreground mount in diminishing quantity through
+the heavy shadows in the recesses of the doorways to the luminous
+blacks that mark the slender openings in the towers. It is a beautiful
+upward movement that repeats the song of the Gothic spirit.
+
+These wonderful darks have also another function. Echoed as they are,
+in the small, sharp shadows of the multitudinous detail, they send the
+light quivering all through the picture. It pours down from a sky empty
+of clouds, and causes the web of decorative imagery with which the
+structure is draped to shimmer like a fabric set with precious stones.
+Only a true master of the subtleties possible to interwoven dark and
+light could thus command his atmospheric effect, and evoke from his
+slight and restricted materials the grandeur of the immense pile of
+stone raised by the hands of man, and the contrasting evanescence of
+the passing sunshine caressing every boss and hollow in the richly
+manipulated surfaces. It is perhaps not too much to say that nothing
+more remarkable in its kind has been done in the present century.
+The element of drama is added by the turmoil of little figures in
+shadow at the base of the cathedral, seen in minute detail through
+the translucent darkness and agitated by their human accidents and
+emotions. The whole spirit of France, its imperishable monuments, its
+sparkle of sunshine, its reasonable architecture, its vivid life, may
+be inferred from this remarkable plate.
+
+Very different in sentiment and less close to perfection in the
+relation of the parts of the design to the whole, is _La Chûte de
+Ballon_; yet this also is a beautiful plate. As in the _Journée
+d’Inventaire_, the eye is led upward by the gestures of the crowd in
+the foreground to the point of interest, the balloon hung poised above
+the trees and houses. There is the same contrast of movement, too, in
+the agitated figures of the foreground with the calm lines and clear
+light of the distance. In this plate, however, is greater piquancy of
+light and shade. The abrupt lines and minor episodes are carried so far
+into the composition as to dominate the general impression, leaving
+the open distance to play a secondary instead of primary part. Figures
+are hurrying in excitement toward the scene of the aërial drama; tree
+branches are tossing, there are little restless clouds passing rapidly
+across the sky; the air is brisk, it is a bright day, there is much to
+see and do, and interest is keen--that is the story one carries away
+from the handsome, stirring print, and also a subtle poetic suggestion
+that beyond the town, as one follows the slow length of a white cliff,
+to where it meets the horizon, is a very great world that turns from
+night to day, from day to night, interminably, unchecked and unspeeded
+by the passing storms of human glee and human woe.
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. LE MOULIN DES CHAPELLES
+
+Size of the original etching, 4¾ × 5¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. A GENTILLY
+
+Size of the original etching, 7⅝ × 9¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. LA CHAUMIÈRE DU VIEUX PECHEUR
+
+Size of the original etching, 8½ × 15¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. LE NID
+
+Size of the original etching, 6¼ × 6⅜ inches]
+
+_La Seine à l’Embouchure du Canal Saint-Martin_ is more commonplace
+in subject, the river and its barges having entered into the artistic
+life of nearly all French etchers; but how few could pass with such
+sureness of plan, such precision of execution, from the dark bulk
+of the vessel in the lower left corner to the snapping black of the
+tree-top in the upper right corner, along a perfect diagonal, without
+a suspicion of stiffness or formalism in the fluent arrangement of
+innumerable details of pattern! This strong sense of appropriate and
+austere design, supported by such an easy grace of handling, is unusual
+in any age, and especially in our own, when grace and austerity find it
+almost impossible to live together in one man’s work.
+
+Turning away from these subjects, in which nature presents a wide range
+to the artist and inspires him to breadth and dignity of treatment, to
+the quaint and touching subjects drawn from peasant life in the Vendean
+homes, we find beneath the admirable form of Lepère’s expression
+thoughts tender and merry and filled with sympathy for common
+experience. His work becomes picturesque and living, the mood of the
+observer changes in response, and the pleasure given is that inspired
+by simple things, although the treatment of the given scene is often
+far from simple.
+
+While all these plates are admirably expressive, one in particular,
+_Le Nid_, seems to me filled with melody, color and charm as well as
+with the efficient intelligence always to be found in Lepère’s work.
+A little solid house with thick walls stands in greenery. Children,
+natural, happy, unconcerned, are playing in the foreground. Beyond is
+a curve of low hill and a glimpse of flat plain; and still beyond,
+a little town with its spire. It is all very naïve and fresh; the
+outdoor setting has much beauty; the types of the children are
+unhackneyed; the gestures and positions unconventional and spontaneous.
+A mere glance reveals the felicity of the subject-matter, but longer
+acquaintance is necessary before all the resources of the design are
+appreciated. Even in this playful note of pleasant summer pastime we
+get something of the gravity and serious purpose indispensable to great
+etchers as to great painters. It was this characteristic that led
+Lepère to pull down all the detail of the middle distance below the
+noble swinging line of the hillock, in order to keep the severity of
+that magnificent curve. It was this which led him to follow a repeating
+curve in the arrangement and environment of the children, apparently
+so carelessly disposed among their shrubs and flowers. “Let all things
+play and bloom and make holiday,” he seems to exclaim in this rare
+plate, “so long as the power of my design is not weakened by them.” The
+artist whose work says that to us is sure of long life in our memories.
+
+There are several of these subjects in which children at play near
+their homes are the principal feature, and it would be easy to find in
+each some special note of gaiety and charm and quick Gallic wit. In
+_Les deux Bourrines_, for example, the groups of little ugly creatures,
+who form again a curved line of beauty, are characterized with a frank
+acceptance of their unclassic physiognomies that would have delighted
+the heart of Daumier. _Le Nid de Pauvres_ is not less romantic in its
+Gothic avoidance of the ideal type.
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. PROVINS
+
+Size of the original etching, 6 × 11¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. L’EGLISE DE JOUY LE MOUTIER
+
+Size of the original etching, 6⅜ × 6⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: LEPÈRE. L’ENFANT PRODIGUE
+
+Size of the original etching, 9½ × 12⅝ inches]
+
+Classic Lepère can be, however, with a curiously vital appreciation
+of what the living classic must have been. He has an etching of a
+swineherd entering the yard in which the beasts are penned. They move,
+grunting, toward him. Outside is a cluster of great trees with bushy
+foliage. The light is clear and warm. The folds of the swineherd’s
+mantle and his gesture are Greek. His figure might have passed across
+the Athenian stage, one fancies, at the time of Sophoclean drama. And
+the landscape has the deep repose immortalized in classic verse--such
+songs as in his extreme old age Sophocles made to do honor to his
+native village:
+
+ Our home, Colonus, gleaming fair and white:
+ The nightingale still haunteth all our woods,
+ Green with the flush of spring;
+ And sweet, melodious floods
+ Of softest song through grove and thicket ring.
+
+Lepère is not often found in this mood, however, and the swineherd
+plate cannot be considered wholly characteristic of his temper of
+mind. It seems to have been one of those rare happenings when the mind
+is lifted above its habitual plane, occasion serves, and the trained
+hand obediently records a moment of peculiar exaltation. He is perhaps
+most of all his daily self in the little plate called _Le Moulin des
+Chapelles_. Here he shows us the machinery of the mill and the round
+white column of the structure as others have done, but he also shows us
+what others seldom do--the use of the mill. A patient horse is standing
+near, a man is shifting the bags of flour to his back. It is not a mere
+accident of landscape; it has a social and utilitarian function; it is
+connected with human life.
+
+This is the most characteristic attitude of mind for an artist so
+alert to the significance of visible things; and it is immensely to
+his credit as an artist that he almost never permits this keen and
+throbbing interest in the world about him to trespass upon his logical
+use of his great instrument.
+
+If organization of line and space, ability to establish in each of his
+compositions a decorative scheme adequate to support easily all the
+delightful episodes and figures which he chooses to introduce, is the
+most important element in Lepère’s artistic equipment, the next in
+significance is the clarity and precision of his utterance. There is
+no vapor in his imagination; he is a poet as well as an artist, with a
+poet’s sensitiveness to definition of form. All that he lacks is the
+intensity of emotion that sweeps away interest in everything but the
+personal feeling. We suspect that the world for him will always be
+“full of a number of things,” and that he will not be able to forget
+any of them in the exaltation of profound self-absorption. But he has
+a genius for infusing a rich suggestiveness into all that he observes,
+and for giving his narrative an epic character.
+
+
+
+
+HERMAN A. WEBSTER
+
+BY MARTIN HARDIE
+
+
+“Did you ever see a barber sharpen his razor? That’s what it
+wants--the decision and the smacks.” That is one of the many quaint
+remarks that old John Varley used to hurl at the pupils who came to him
+for lessons in the complete art of painting in water-color. It is a
+remark very appropriate to the vast quantity of etchings, mechanically
+correct, but unimpassioned and uninteresting, which are produced
+to-day. There are wonderfully few etchers whose work strikes a note of
+imagination and individuality, and appeals by its force and directness,
+its decisions and its smacks. One of that small company is Mr. Herman
+A. Webster.
+
+An artist’s life is written in his work, and the cold facts of his
+biography are of little real importance. To some extent, however, they
+act as a commentary upon his productions, and at the worst they serve
+to satisfy the not unpardonable curiosity which impels all of us to
+inquire into the age and life-history of any man whose pictures or
+prints awaken our instant sympathy. So I put here a few outlines of
+Mr. Webster’s career, merely the mile-stones that mark the route along
+which he has proceeded. It has been a career of strenuous activity,
+for the artist who now prints his finely-wrought plates in his studio
+in the Rue de Furstenberg at Paris (the street of which Whistler made
+a lithograph in 1894) has graduated at a famous university, traveled
+round the world, spent two years in commercial life, toiled as general
+reporter to a big daily paper, worked in a coal-mine, and acted as
+assistant cashier in a bank. And the tale of his years is only just
+over thirty, for he was born in 1878. Need I add--for an English reader
+it would be quite superfluous--that Mr. Webster is an American, with
+New York as his native city?
+
+Mr. Webster came into the world with an innate love of art. In his
+school-days, before he had received any instruction in drawing, he
+made posters, that were perhaps crude but not ineffective, for the
+school games; and at Yale he was one of the editors and a valued
+illustrator of the _Yale Record_. This love of art was fostered by a
+visit to the 1900 Exposition at Paris, where the _genius loci_ has a
+stronger spell for the young artist than anywhere else upon earth.
+Studios and restaurants of the Quartier Latin are fragrant with great
+memories, still haunted by the mighty spirits of the past: Louvre and
+Luxembourg are filled with the living realities that abide. Amid the
+enchantment of this artistic atmosphere, with all its traditions and
+associations, Mr. Webster lingered for some months, and then set out
+on a trans-Siberian tour to the Orient, staying long enough in Japan
+and China for his natural instinct to be quickened by the marvelous
+art which has exerted so strong an influence on the Western world.
+On returning home his desire to adopt art as his life-calling was
+checked by family opposition. Here in England--for I write as one of
+Mr. Webster’s English admirers--many a boy artist has been thwarted
+by a foolish antipathy in the home circle to art in the abstract, but
+for a parent in the New World the conviction must be even more sincere
+that business is the only lucrative profession, while art is at least
+something precarious, if not a downward road to poverty and starvation.
+And so, at his father’s wish, Mr. Webster, in the office of the
+_Chicago Record-Herald_ and elsewhere, served two years of bondage to
+commerce. Determination, however, won its way at last, and in February,
+1904, he set out to Paris with the family consent to “try it for a
+year.” That year is still continuing.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. ST. OUEN, ROUEN
+
+“His chief delight is in the nooks and corners of old-world
+thoroughfares and culs-de-sac, where deep shadows lurk in the angles of
+time-worn buildings, and sunlight ripples over crumbling walls, seamy
+gables, and irregular tiled roofs.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 5½ × 3⅞ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LA RUE GRENIER SUR L’EAU, PARIS
+
+“A fourth plate, perhaps even finer than any of these in its force,
+directness, and concentrated simplicity, is the _Rue Grenier sur
+l’Eau_. There is much of Meryon in its clear, crisp line-work.” Martin
+Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 8¾ × 4⅞ inches]
+
+Seven months during 1904 were spent at the Académie Julien under Jean
+Paul Laurens, in study from the nude; and that is the only academic
+instruction which Mr. Webster has received. A few months after his
+arrival in Paris, chance led him to the Bibliothèque Nationale, where
+he saw some of Meryon’s etchings, and fell instantly under the spell of
+the great artist whose sinister needle first revealed the mysterious
+and somber poetry of Paris and the Seine. From Meryon and from books
+he forthwith taught himself to etch, receiving no outside instruction,
+but evolving his own methods till he attained mastery of the “teasing,
+temper-trying, yet fascinating art”--a mastery the more valuable and
+complete in that it was based on his own experience. A first attempt
+was made from his studio window in the Rue de Furstenberg, and some
+copperplates went with him on his autumn holiday at Grez, that “pretty
+and very melancholy village” in the Forest of Fontainebleau, where
+Robert Louis Stevenson met the romance of his life. As the first-fruits
+of this holiday three little etchings won their way into the next
+summer’s Salon--the _Rue de l’Abbaye_, _The Loing at Grez_, and _The
+Court, Bourron_, the last being the forerunner of several subjects of
+similar type. At the Salon also was hung a large oil-painting of still
+life, a study of fabrics and porcelain; but though color will no doubt
+claim allegiance again, Mr. Webster has been too closely held in thrall
+by etching to essay further experiments in the painter’s craft.
+
+A pilgrimage to Spain in the spring of 1905 was the source of several
+spontaneous and effective plates, among them _St. Martin’s Bridge,
+Toledo_, and _Mirada de las Reinas, Alhambra_. Up to this point Mr.
+Webster’s work may be considered, in a large measure, tentative and
+experimental, but from 1906 onward he has found in Normandy--at Pont de
+l’Arche and Rouen--at Bruges, and above all in Paris, the inspiration
+for a series of plates noteworthy for their fine craftsmanship and
+their expression of individuality. They have won him the recognition
+of connoisseurs and public without his passing through any period
+of undeserved obscurity. At the Paris Salon, at the Royal Academy,
+and in his native land, his etchings have constantly been exhibited
+and admired. Nor must I forget to add that in 1908 he was elected an
+Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, which, under the
+presidency of its veteran founder, Sir Francis Seymour Haden, has done
+so much to foster the revived art of etching.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. QUAI MONTEBELLO
+
+“Few etchers have ever preached the gospel of light with more truth
+and earnestness than Webster himself in the _Quai Montebello_ and many
+other plates.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 7⅞ × 5⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LE PONT NEUF, PARIS
+
+“A fitting companion to this vision of Notre Dame is _Le Pont Neuf_,
+another of the etcher’s largest and most distinguished plates. The
+stern solidity of the bridge, with its massive masonry, its corbeled
+turrets, and its deeply shadowed arches, makes pleasing contrast with
+the irregular sky-line of the sunlit houses that rise beyond.” Martin
+Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⅛ × 11¾ inches]
+
+It is of some of the chief works produced and exhibited during the
+last three years that I have now to speak, and in doing so may perhaps
+indicate a few leading characteristics of the etcher’s work. His chief
+delight is in the nooks and corners of old-world thoroughfares
+and culs-de-sac, where deep shadows lurk in the angles of time-worn
+buildings, and sunlight ripples over crumbling walls, seamy gables,
+and irregular tiled roofs. Of such is a series of subjects found in
+old Rouen--the _St. Ouen_; the _Rue du Hallage_, where the cathedral
+spire towers high above old timbered houses; and that charming plate
+with the title _Old Houses, Rouen_, a quaint corner of tenements
+whose high-pitched roofs stand propped against one another for all
+the world like a castle of cards. The etcher of this and of the _St.
+Ouen_ was welcomed with warm sympathy by the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_,
+which said that “never before has there been so fervent and skilled
+an interpreter of the bowed timber and crumbling plaster of the old
+houses of Rouen, which line the street ending in the cathedral with its
+pointed spire against the open sky.” And so we pass to two courtyard
+scenes--belonging, like the Rouen subjects, to the year 1906--the
+_Cour, Normandie_, and _Les Blanchisseuses_. In both we find the artist
+becoming more adept in using broad and balanced disposition of light
+and shade to give not merely chiaroscuro but the suggestion of actual
+color, and more skilled in adding exquisiteness of detail to refined
+truth of visual impression. _Les Blanchisseuses_, in particular, with
+its rich mystery of shadow, with its sunshine falling on white walls
+and lighting the seamed interstices of plaster and timber, has an
+indefinable charm that, for myself at any rate, makes it a high-water
+mark in Mr. Webster’s art. Of similar type is the _Old Butter Market,
+Bruges_, where a cobbled street curves beneath a shadowed archway; and
+then for variety you step from _Bruges la Morte_, from the silent
+cobbles that centuries ago were a busy thoroughfare for ringing feet,
+to the Bruges of to-day. It is Bruges in a very different aspect, this
+free and spirited study made on July 27, 1907, on the day of the Fête
+de l’Arbre d’Or, giving a quick impression of gay holiday crowds, of
+banners fluttering against the open sky, and of the “belfry old and
+brown” whose carillon inspired America’s poet, as its tall form and
+fretted outline have inspired the American etcher of whom I write. This
+_Bruges en Fête_, and _Paysanne_, a clever and direct figure-study of
+an old peasant at Marlotte, come as an episode of pleasing variety
+in Mr. Webster’s work, and tend to show that, though he has his
+preferences, he is not really fettered by any limitation of subject or
+treatment.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LA RUE CARDINALE
+
+“_La Rue Cardinale_ has affinity of general treatment with _Rue de la
+Parcheminerie_, and is not the less interesting for an amazing _tour de
+force_ in the rendering of color and texture in the striped blind over
+a shop-front.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 10⅞ × 7⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LA RUE DE LA PARCHEMINERIE, PARIS
+
+“Closely akin to _Rue Brise Miche_ in restful balance of composition
+and in fine shadow effect is the _Rue de la Parcheminerie_--of special
+value now, for the old street has disappeared largely since the making
+of the plate.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 11⅛ × 7 inches]
+
+It is but natural that an artist of Mr. Webster’s temperament, a
+devoted admirer of Meryon, should become absorbed in Paris herself and
+endeavor to put upon copperplate the “poésie profonde et compliqué
+d’une vaste capitale.” The Bruges and Rouen plates showed Mr. Webster
+to be keenly susceptible to the magnetism and charm of medieval
+tradition, but Paris, steeped in sentiment even more than Rouen or
+Bruges, was to rouse a still greater warmth and feeling. He began by
+searching out those picturesque streets in the old quarters that have
+survived the wholesale demolishment of Baron Haussmann, a name hated by
+artists as that of Granger by lovers of books. The _Rue Brise Miche_
+found its way to the Royal Academy, and was also honored by publication
+in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ (July, 1907). Closely akin to it in
+restful balance of composition and in fine shadow effect is the _Rue
+de la Parcheminerie_--of special value now, for the old street has
+disappeared largely since the making of the plate. _La Rue Cardinale_
+has affinity of general treatment, and is not the less interesting
+for an amazing _tour de force_ in the rendering of color and texture
+in the striped blind over a shop-front. A fourth plate, perhaps even
+finer than any of these in its force, directness, and concentrated
+simplicity, is the _Rue Grenier sur l’Eau_. There is much of Meryon
+in its clear, crisp line-work. Some day perhaps these loving studies
+of the old Paris of Balzac may be gathered in a series illustrating
+the “Quartier Marais,” and published in an _édition de luxe_ with
+descriptive text by the etcher. Let us hope that this may come to pass,
+for the buildings that Mr. Webster depicts are far more than a prosaic
+record of architectural features. There is a spiritual and human
+suggestiveness behind the mortar and bricks of his pictures: as a poet
+of his own nation has it, they are “latent with unseen existences.” He
+has appreciated the fact that etching--an art hedged in by limitations
+and depending upon power of suggestion--is the one art that can give at
+once those delicate lines, those broad shadows, those crumbling bits of
+texture. The lover of etching can regard his subject with indifference,
+and take full joy in the soft play of sunlight, the fine choice of
+line, the effective massing of light and shade.
+
+Another plate of this “Quartier Marais” series is a noble
+representation of Notre Dame seen from an unusual aspect. It is a
+drawing from near the Hôtel de Ville and shows the splendid mass of
+the cathedral rising above the irregular houses that face the Quartier
+Marais and the Quai aux Fleurs. There is freedom and charm in the
+treatment of the foreground, where a little tug puffs along the river
+and the big barges move cumbrously under the lee of the near bank, and
+in the middle distance where the light plays pleasantly over the old
+houses; but the roof of the cathedral itself, put in with unpleasing
+rigidity of line, comes like cold fact in the middle of romance. It is
+as though Meryon here had imposed his weakness as well as his strength
+upon Mr. Webster, for in the _Morgue_, for instance, the one small
+blemish is the ruled precision of the lines upon a roof. A fitting
+companion to this vision of Notre Dame is _Le Pont Neuf_, another of
+the etcher’s largest and most distinguished plates. The stern solidity
+of the bridge, with its massive masonry, its corbeled turrets, and its
+deeply shadowed arches, makes pleasing contrast with the irregular
+sky-line of the sunlit houses that rise beyond.
+
+It may be said of all Mr. Webster’s etchings--and perhaps there could
+be no higher praise--that each possesses the faculty of provoking fresh
+interest. That is certainly the case with four of his most recent
+plates. One is an interior of _St. Saturnin, Toulouse_, majestic and
+stately, full of suggestive mystery in the religious light that falls
+with soft touch upon the pillars, throws into relief the dark masses
+of the choir-stalls, and strives to penetrate the dim recesses of
+the vaulted roof. _St. Saturnin_ will be among the rariora of the
+collector, for the plate unfortunately broke when twelve proofs only
+had been printed.
+
+The artist’s subtle perception of light and his refined draughtsmanship
+have been used to singular advantage in the _Ancienne Faculté de
+Médecine, 1608_. One is grateful to him for his fine record of this
+domed building that was a little gem of Renaissance art, though
+there is a note of sadness in the substructure of balks and struts set
+at its base by the ruthless hand of the destroyer.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. “ST. SATURNIN, TOULOUSE”
+
+Size of the original etching, 10⅛ × 4¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. ANCIENNE FACULTÉ DE MÉDECINE, PARIS
+
+“The artist’s subtle perception of light and his refined draftsmanship
+have been used to singular advantage in the _Ancienne Faculté de
+Médecine, 1608_. One is grateful to him for his fine record of this
+domed building that was a little gem of Renaissance art, though there
+is a note of sadness in the substructure of balks and struts set at its
+base by the ruthless hand of the destroyer.”
+
+Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 11⅞ × 7⅞ inches]
+
+Gothic canopies and tracery are drawn with loving care in the _Porte
+des Marmousets, St. Ouen, Rouen_, but here again it is the mystery of
+shadow in the deep porch that supplies the true theme. A church porch
+has also supplied the subject of one of Mr. Webster’s latest works,
+_Notre Dame des Andelys_. The ordinary observer will delight in the
+print for its beautiful rendering of a noble fragment of architecture.
+Those who have real knowledge of etching will appreciate it still more
+for its clever biting and for its subtle delicacy of line so cunningly
+used for the indication of stone, glass, and woodwork with their
+different surfaces and textures.
+
+That plate of _Notre Dame des Andelys_, though not the most instantly
+engaging, is perhaps the most accomplished which the artist has
+produced. It is in this accomplishment that from the coldly critical
+point of view I see an indication--a hint only--of possible danger.
+Here, and to some extent in the _Pont Neuf_ and the _Rue Grenier_,
+the careful, tense, concentrated work shows almost too disciplined a
+self-control. Close study of these prints gives just a touch of the
+irritation that comes from watching the monotonous perfection of a
+first-class game-shot or golfer, bringing a malicious desire for some
+mistake or piece of recklessness. The true etching always appeals in
+some degree by its spice of adventure, by some happiness of accident,
+and so while the _Pont Neuf_ and the _Notre Dame des Andelys_ rouse
+full admiration and respect for their splendid artistry, the more
+haphazard methods of the _Rue Brise Miche_ and _Les Blanchisseuses_
+touch a far deeper note of sympathy. They have in them the breezy,
+natural oratory that is often so much more stirring than the fluent,
+polished periods of the accomplished speaker. But even where Mr.
+Webster is most precise in his articulation, most resolute in his
+adherence to familiar truths, he always combines with this a personal
+aspect and a power of selection that, disregarding the commonplace and
+petty, lends poetry to the interpretation. His “careful” work is very
+far removed from the cold and careful work of the ordinary uninspired
+craftsman.
+
+In studying the work of a young etcher--and Mr. Webster is still young
+as an etcher--it is almost always possible to trace certain influences
+which, quite legitimately, have acted upon his choice of subject and
+his technique. In one of his first etchings, _The Court, Bourron_, the
+Whistler influence is frankly apparent. _Les Blanchisseuses_ is in no
+sense an imitative plate, but I should have said it was the work of a
+man who knew Whistler’s _Unsafe Tenement_ by heart. And there comes in
+the critic’s danger of leaping to rash conclusions, for Mr. Webster
+tells me he never saw that print by Whistler till long after his
+etching was made. For the Meryon influence, which is clearly apparent
+in much of his work, Mr. Webster makes no apology. Nor need he do
+so; for if he reminds us, here a little of Whistler, there a little
+of Meryon, there is always a large measure of himself besides. The
+true artist lights his torch from that of his predecessors: it is his
+business to carry on great traditions. “I have done my best simply to
+learn from him, not to steal”--that is Mr. Webster’s own expressive
+way of putting it.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. NOTRE DAME DES ANDELYS
+
+“The ordinary observer will delight in _Notre Dame des Andelys_ for its
+beautiful rendering of a noble fragment of architecture. Those who have
+real knowledge of etching will appreciate it still more for its clever
+biting and for its subtle delicacy of line so cunningly used for the
+indication of stone, glass, and woodwork with their different surfaces
+and textures.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 11 × 7⅛ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. PORTE DES MARMOUSETS, ST. OUEN, ROUEN
+
+“Gothic canopies and tracery are drawn with loving care in the _Porte
+des Marmousets, St. Ouen, Rouen_, but here again it is the mystery of
+shadow in the deep porch that supplies the true theme.”
+
+Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 10⅛ × 7 inches]
+
+Mr. Webster has not learned from Meryon at the cost of his own
+individuality, and one reason for the freshness that characterizes
+his work is that he is one of those who like to transfer their first
+impressions of nature direct to the plate in the open air. With very
+few exceptions, that is how his etchings have been made. A certain
+amount of work is necessarily done afterward in the retirement of the
+studio, but the straightforward method of rendering nature gives a
+vividness and spontaneity that careful work from intermediate studies
+in pencil or color can rarely produce. This spontaneity is the very
+essence of good etching, for with etching, as with water-color, its
+highest charm is inevitably troubled by mechanical labor; it is
+essentially a method of which one feels that “if ’twere done, ’twere
+well done quickly.” The etcher should no more be able to stay the quick
+gliding of his needle in the middle of a line than the skater to stand
+still upon the outside edge. And I think that the etcher who works
+straight from nature is more apt to search out the notes and accents
+of character and to seize upon those structural lines which are a
+fundamental necessity to his work.
+
+Another chief excellence in Mr. Webster’s work lies in the fact that
+from the first he has been his own printer. He is no believer in the
+principle followed by many other etchers of biting their plate and
+leaving it to some one “with the palm of a duchess” to do the rest.
+Patient acquisition of craftsmanship is bound to tell, for the paid
+printer, be he never so skilled, cannot hope to understand an artist’s
+intentions quite so well as the artist himself. Mr. Webster, however,
+has no need of any artifice; there is no trace in his etchings of the
+meretricious printing which Whistler condemned as “treacly.” Light and
+shade enter into charming alliance in his prints, but line is always
+of the confederacy, and it is to purity of line that the shadows which
+tell so strongly owe their strength. In the very depths of them there
+is always a luminous gloom, never a trace of the harshness and opacity
+that come from slurred workmanship and reliance upon printer’s ink.
+
+Perhaps I have said too much already, for Mr. Webster’s work is well
+able to speak for itself. But there is one noteworthy feature, common
+to all his plates, that claims attention, and that is his power of
+rendering sunlight. If he loves dark and dingy thoroughfares with
+dilapidated roofs and moldering plaster, it is for the sake of those
+quaint shadows that peep from their recesses and climb the high walls,
+and still more for the patches of brilliant, quivering sunlight to
+which the shadows give so full a value. He seems to hear, like Corot,
+the actual crash of the sun upon the wall--“l’éclat du soleil qui
+frappe.”
+
+
+PART II
+
+It is difficult to clothe one’s speech in the detached terms of a
+catalogue when writing of an artist whose work always kindles fresh
+enthusiasm. And so I may perhaps be pardoned if, in adding something to
+a previous essay upon the etchings of Herman A. Webster, I venture to
+strike a more personal note.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. VIEILLES MAISONS, RUE HAUTEFEUILLE, PARIS
+
+“He loves dark and dingy thoroughfares with dilapidated roofs and
+moldering plaster, ... for the patches of brilliant, quivering sunlight
+to which the shadows give so full a value.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 11¼ × 5⅞ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LA ROUTE DE LOUVIERS
+
+“In landscape, as in his architectural work, Webster sets his theme
+upon the plate with fine skill of arrangement and with exquisite
+draughtsmanship.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 6 × 8¼ inches]
+
+There can be few men to whom art is more of a religion than to Webster.
+On two occasions when I saw him during his hurried visits to London
+in the spring of 1910, he spoke of his art with all the zeal of a
+missionary and the fervor of a convert. He seemed to be laboring in
+a slough of despond, beset with a feeling that his past work was
+something worthless, to be thrown aside like Christian’s bundle. He
+appeared to be torn in sunder by divers doctrines, telling me of the
+constant ebb and flow of argument in the Paris cafés and studios
+between the _parti métier_ and the _parti âme_--those who maintained
+that finished technique, the “_cuisine_” of the French student, was
+the final aim, and those who held that the artist’s own emotion,
+howsoever it might find expression, was the greatest thing of all.
+Webster felt--and it was a fact, indeed, at which I hinted in writing
+of his work before--that he was sacrificing something of the _âme_
+to the _métier_; and his own realization of that is already becoming
+apparent in his outlook and his style. Then, too, his talk was all of
+the attainment and suggestion of light as the supreme quality in an
+etching; and here I could reassure him, for few have ever preached the
+gospel of light with more truth and earnestness than Webster himself in
+the _Quai Montebello_ and many other plates.
+
+Still, there matters stood more than a year ago, and the plates that
+Webster had etched at Marseilles and elsewhere lay rejected and
+unbitten in his studio. Then he set out to America, where he spent
+the summer of 1910, and, like Mr. Pennell, fell a victim to the
+sky-scrapers of New York. “They are the most marvelous things,” he
+wrote, “on the face of Mother Earth to-day. It took me two months to
+begin to see them, but then they began to glow, to take shape, and to
+grow. Perhaps no work of human hands in all the world offers such a
+stupendous picture as New York seen from almost anywhere within the
+down-town district, or from the river or the bay. There are cliffs and
+cañons where sun and shadow work the weirdest miracles, and soaring
+above them, between forty and fifty stories from the ground, rise
+arched roofs and pointed ones, gray and gold and brown, that one must
+see with one’s own eyes to have the faintest conception of. From across
+the Hudson in the afternoon when the sun goes down you can watch the
+shadows creep up the sides of these mountains of brick and stone until
+you’d swear you were looking out on some gigantic fairyland.”
+
+His admiration of those sky-scrapers found expression in a series of
+drawings made on behalf of _The Century Magazine_, and in, at any
+rate, one etching--the _Cortlandt Street, New York_. The subject will
+appeal most, perhaps, to those who live beneath the familiar shade
+of these monstrous habitations, with their hundreds of staring eyes;
+but the ordinary man, though he may find it strangely uninspiring
+and unromantic, will at any rate admire the firm decision of the
+drawing and welcome the slender filaments and trembling gray spirals
+of smoke--so difficult to express in line with a point of steel--that
+cast a veil over the sordid reality of the scene. Though Webster
+carried that one plate to a finish, he was still obsessed by all sorts
+of doubts. Many drawings were torn up, and many plates that he etched
+were wilfully destroyed. Just as the golfer falls victim to too much
+reading of theoretical works, so for Webster his eager indulgence in
+theory and science put him “off his game.” I say all this to account
+for what must seem a small output during two years for a man whose
+sole work is etching. It is all to the artist’s credit; but, none
+the less, we have suffered, _nous autres_, for his convictions. Now,
+however, Richard is himself again. A month or more spent in Frankfort
+this summer has produced a series of pencil-drawings and etchings which
+should bring satisfaction and content both to the artist and to all who
+admire his work.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. BENDERGASSE, FRANKFORT
+
+“Then there are the _Street of the Three Kings_, the _Bendergasse_, and
+_Sixteenth Century Houses_, all of them felicitous in charm of theme,
+in play of light and shade, and in the suggestion of life given by the
+animated figures.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 8 × 5¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. CORTLANDT STREET
+
+Size of the original etching, 12⅞ × 7½ inches]
+
+Before speaking of the Frankfort series of etchings, a word may be
+said about Webster’s pencil-drawings. I know of no other artist, save
+perhaps Mr. Muirhead Bone, who can use the pencil-point with such
+exquisite fineness and precision in the production of an architectural
+drawing that, with all its accuracy, still retains the freshness of
+a sketch. Finding in a portfolio a drawing of _Cortlandt Street_ and
+several others that repeated the subjects of the Frankfort etchings,
+I felt curious as to the exact relationship between these drawings
+and the work on the copperplate. This interest was largely, perhaps,
+that of a fellow-etcher, keen to see “how the wheels go round,” but
+Webster’s reply to a question on this subject may interest others as
+well. “I determine my composition,” he wrote, “in outline first. This
+outline I transfer to the plate. Then I go out and carefully study
+in pencil, on the original outline sketch, the subject I want to do,
+so as to ‘get acquainted’ with it before beginning the more exacting
+work upon the copperplate. I never use a drawing to work from except
+sometimes as an extra guide in the biting, where a careful study can
+be very useful.” They are beautiful things, these pencil-drawings
+of New York and Frankfort, but there can be only one of each. The
+etchings, fortunately, can be shared and enjoyed by many possessors.
+
+Frankfort has grown to be a large and very modern town with broad
+thoroughfares and palatial buildings; but it has its old quarter
+as well, and among the houses that nestle in narrow streets round
+the cathedral, Webster has found the same kind of subject that
+fascinated him before in Bruges and Marseilles and Paris. A brilliant
+draughtsman, he never seems to hesitate or lose his way among the
+manifold intricacies of the old-world buildings that he depicts. He
+aims always at knitting his subjects into fine unity of composition
+by broad massing of light and shade. “In the last few months,” he
+writes, “I have grown never to make an etching for etching’s sake, but
+for the means it gives of studying closely the play of light across
+my subject.” That is his main theme: the light that travels now with
+cold curiosity as it did centuries ago, glancing into open windows,
+throwing into relief a corbel or a crocket, casting a shadow under eave
+or window ledge, revealing, like a patch in some tattered garment, the
+cracks and seams in moldering plaster or time-worn timber. In depicting
+these storehouses of human joys and aspirations, hopes and despairs,
+he has none of Meryon’s gloom and morbidness. It is true that behind
+many of the windows in these poor homes of his pictures some Marie
+Claire may be toiling in sad-eyed poverty; yet for Webster the outside
+shall be sunny, little white curtains shall veil the gloom, and flowers
+shall blossom on the window ledge, though the sad worker may have
+watered them with her tears. And if sunshine is still potent in these
+new plates, there is also a fresh and joyous note of life and movement
+in the streets. The introduction of figures, well placed and full of
+character, is a new development in Webster’s art. Bustling workers, or
+happy groups of gossiping women, or the dark mass of a distant crowd,
+are introduced with consummate skill, and the picturesqueness of the
+old streets gains new value from the suggestion of this living stream
+of human traffic. The presence of modern life enhances the gray and
+wrinkled age of the buildings which have watched so many generations
+come and go.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LOWENPLÄTZCHEN, FRANKFORT
+
+Size of the original etching, 8 × 6⁵⁄₁₆ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. DER LANGER FRANZ, FRANKFORT
+
+“_Der Langer Franz_, a view of the Rathaus tower that took its nickname
+from a tall burgomaster of the town, is a little gem, brilliant with
+light and rich in the mystery of shadow.”
+
+Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching. 4⅞ × 3⅜ inches]
+
+Among the new plates are four that deal with street scenes in the Alt
+Stadt of Frankfort. _Der Langer Franz_, a view of the Rathaus tower
+that took its nickname from a tall burgomaster of the town, is the
+smallest of all, but a little gem, brilliant with light and rich in the
+mystery of shadow. Then there are the _Street of the Three Kings_, the
+_Bendergasse_, and _Sixteenth-century Houses_, all of them felicitous
+in charm of theme, in play of light and shade, and in the suggestion of
+life given by the animated figures. There are admirable figures again
+in _An Old Court_, one of the plates that the collector of future days
+will most desire to possess. There is less in it of obvious labor than
+in the street scenes; the etcher has overcome a natural fear of blank
+spaces; and his reticence and more summary execution have lent to this
+plate much of the unconscious and unpremeditated charm that is one of
+the finest qualities which an etching can possess.
+
+Two etchings of old bridges over the Main at Frankfort must rank
+among the best work that Webster has yet produced. One is a small and
+spirited plate showing the tower of the cathedral and a row of houses,
+most delicately drawn, rising with a beautiful sky-line above the solid
+mass of the shadowed bridge with its heavy buttresses. The other shows
+the old bridge that spans the Main between Frankfort and Sachsenhausen.
+Legend tells that in compensation for finishing the building within
+a certain time the architect made a vow to sacrifice to the devil
+the first living being that crossed the bridge. Then, when the fatal
+day arrived, he drove a cock across, and so cheated the devil of his
+due. Much the same story of outwitting the devil is told about the
+building of the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle. Whether Webster ventured
+upon any compact I do not know; but this plate, in its building, in
+its well-constructed composition, in its splendid effect of brilliant
+sunshine, is one of the most successful tasks he has ever accomplished.
+The group of figures on the near bank, happily placed like those in
+Vermeer’s famous _View of Delft_, adds no little to the charm of the
+scene. I would set this plate beside _Les Blanchisseuses_ and the
+_Quai Montebello_, which Mr. Wedmore has found “modestly perfect,” as
+representing the very summit of Webster’s art.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. THE OLD BRIDGE, FRANKFORT
+
+This old bridge spans the river Main between Frankfort and Sachsenhausen
+
+“I would set this plate beside _Les Blanchisseuses_ and _Quai
+Montebello_, which Mr. Wedmore has found ‘modestly perfect,’ as
+representing the very summit of Webster’s art.” Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 5½ × 8½ inches]
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER. LA RUE ST. JACQUES, PARIS
+
+“... One of the best etchings he has ever made.... It is not merely
+fine in its pattern of light and shade, but it has a direct force and
+simplification that are rich with promise for the future.”
+
+Martin Hardie.
+
+Size of the original etching, 8⅝ × 5⅞ inches]
+
+While he has surrendered for the time being to the charm of Frankfort,
+Webster has not been unfaithful to the Paris of his early love. Of
+Paris he might say, like Montaigne, “That city has ever had my heart;
+and it has fallen out to me, as of excellent things, that the more
+of other fine cities I have seen since, the more the beauty of this
+gains on my affections. I love it tenderly, even with all its
+warts and blemishes.” All the more for the warts and blemishes of
+its old buildings Webster loves it, too; and while working on his
+Frankfort plates he has completed another of _La Rue St. Jacques,
+Paris_, which, I think, is one of the best etchings he has ever
+made. At times, even in his Frankfort plates, one still feels that
+his superb draughtsmanship and his love of detail--_ce superflu, si
+nécessaire_--have led him to a uniformity of finish that is almost
+too “icily regular.” I do not mean that Webster’s elaboration is the
+cold, almost meaningless, elaboration of the line-engraver; nor do I
+forget that the technique of Meryon, one of the greatest masters of
+etchings, was, in Mr. Wedmore’s happy phrasing, “one of unfaltering
+firmness and regularity, one of undeterred deliberation.” All the same,
+one wishes that Meryon had done a few more things like the _Rue des
+Mauvais Garçons_, and wishes that Webster also, in a similar way, were
+now and then less sure of himself, were held sometimes by a trembling
+hesitancy, or driven sometimes by the passion of the moment to allow
+room for fortunate accident and rapid suggestion. For that reason I
+welcome his _Rue St. Jacques_. It is not merely fine in its pattern of
+light and shade, but it has a direct force and simplification that are
+rich with promise for the future.
+
+Since writing the above, I have seen working-proofs of two new etchings
+of landscape. And here, too, there is high promise. They show, at
+least, that Webster is not going to remain a man of one subject; that
+he is opening his heart to the beauty and romance of simple nature. He
+has sought his first themes in that pleasant countryside where, between
+tall poplars, you get peeps of Château Gaillard, nobly set upon its
+hill. In landscape, as in his architectural work, Webster sets his
+theme upon the plate with fine skill of arrangement and with exquisite
+draughtsmanship. These two plates, _Château Gaillard_ and _La Route
+de Louviers_, are exhilarating in their feeling of sunshine, and they
+please by their absolute simplicity of statement. They are honest, and
+without artifice. Printed “as clean as a whistle,” without any of the
+doubtful expedients that give a meretricious attractiveness to so much
+modern etching, they appeal by their rightness of pattern and precision
+of line. Those who see high promise as well as present fulfilment in
+Webster’s art, will not regret that he has left the town and set out
+where
+
+ thro’ the green land,
+ Vistas of change and adventure,
+ The gray roads go beckoning and winding.
+
+
+
+
+ANDERS ZORN--PAINTER-ETCHER
+
+BY J. NILSEN LAURVIK
+
+
+Broadly speaking there are but two kinds of artists--innovators and
+imitators. The first may be known by the opposition they arouse in
+the sacred sanctums of mediocrity and by their final but reluctant
+acceptance by the self-appointed custodians of the Hall of Fame whose
+business it is to exclude genius until Time shall have tempered all its
+buoyant, youthful enthusiasms, which are the very signs and tokens of
+those starry creatures whom the gods have blessed. Youth and all its
+amazing prodigality are of the very essence of genius, and it is by
+virtue of this exuberant overflowing of the spirit that the works of
+Anders Zorn make their vital appeal.
+
+He celebrates with fervent, dramatic strokes the pageant of the visible
+world, and all that his alert eyes can see his nimble fingers depict
+with an unfailing sense of the pictorial possibilities inherent in the
+passing procession of contemporary life. There is in his work something
+of childlike spontaneity,--a healthy, natural enjoyment in the mere
+practice of his art that is infectious. He has the same impartial
+love for nature as it is as had Velasquez and Frans Hals, and the
+same incomparable interdependence of head and hand. His art is, in
+the best sense of the word, purely objective, dedicated to a specific
+transcription of the outward semblance of things. These bright,
+vivacious plates are not evolved by any painful process of mental
+cogitation, nor are they the result of imaginative vagaries.
+
+Zorn is concerned but little with abstract form or involved
+compositions. But he cannot be accused of evading difficulties through
+any fear of failure, as he has so convincingly demonstrated in his
+vivid, sun-flecked _Interior of a Parisian Omnibus_ with its sharply
+characterized passengers, and in his dramatically effective _Waltz_
+with its assemblage of swaying figures moving rhythmically through the
+spacious ball-room, both marvels of discerning observation recorded
+with an almost clairvoyant magic of line that evoke the kaleidoscopic
+shimmer and brilliancy of the scenes depicted. The difficulties
+presented by these complex subjects are surmounted with the same
+nonchalant ease and certainty that distinguish his long series of
+individual portraits and figure pieces. That the latter predominate
+in the hierarchy of his etched work is a matter of choice rather than
+of chance and may, I think, be taken as an indication of his keen
+appreciation of the limitations as well as the possibilities of this
+medium. No one, not even Whistler, has realized more clearly than he
+that etching at its best is essentially an impressionistic art, to be
+practised only in the happiest moods, and his finest plates are marvels
+of swift, stenographic notations that have been scratched upon the
+copper direct from nature in a white heat of enthusiasm.
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AND HIS WIFE
+
+Size of the original etching, 12½ × 8⅜ inches]
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. THE WALTZ
+
+Size of the original etching, 13¼ × 9 inches]
+
+He calls etching his diversion, which accounts for the uniformly
+high quality of this side of his art. Done for the sheer love of
+it, as other men would ride horseback or play golf, these plates are
+the product of a joyousness that is the mother of all great art. It
+is typical of him that he should have taken up the practice of this
+exacting though elusive art merely as an amusement, as he himself
+says, “with which to while away odd hours, instead of sitting at
+home or going about for entertainment.” This is characteristic of
+his whole life and harks back to the genesis of his artistic career
+when, as a mere lad, he carved in birch-wood with his clasp-knife
+images of the flocks he tended in the Dalecarlian forests. Even in
+those early days this son of humble peasant folk revealed a power of
+lifelike characterization that did not pass unnoticed by these shrewd,
+clear-eyed peasantry whose sole criterion in matters of art was whether
+or not the counterfeit presentment looked like the original. And in
+these small carved images of cows and sheep they found a striking
+resemblance to their models that aroused their keenest admiration. His
+first patron was one of these peasant folk, a shepherd friend of his,
+who bought from him a carved statuette of an enraged cow for which
+Zorn received in payment a sou and a little white loaf. To make his
+sculpture more lifelike he used to imitate antique statuary by tinting
+his work. His palette was the palm of his hand, in which he mixed a
+composite of bilberry juice and certain coloring substances obtained
+from little forest flowers.
+
+That was the beginning of a sturdy naturalism that no subsequent
+academic training has been able to nullify. Even in these first
+tentative attempts at personal expression he revealed the essential
+qualities of his genius,--his very powerful color sense and his acute
+observation of natural phenomena. His work betrays an almost savage
+delight in the truth of nature, and if to be truthful is to be cruel,
+then Zorn is often cruel. He employs no gentle gloss, and, whether it
+be friend or casual sitter, each is treated with unblushing frankness.
+A full-blooded art, somewhat primitive and exulting in its crude
+strength, it gives one a pulsating sense of reality. His work has the
+natural daring of one who is on familiar terms with all the secrets
+of his art. Conveying an appearance of brilliant, almost reckless
+improvisation, it is none the less the result of astute and penetrating
+observation that has in each case recorded the face of actuality as
+well as its deeper and abiding spirit.
+
+Strongly opposed to all the conventionalities of the studio, he abhors
+posing as much as he dislikes monogamy, preferring to study his
+subjects under natural conditions when they are off their guard and
+then to transcribe his impressions very largely from memory, after the
+essential lines have been noted. Thus have come into being some of his
+most memorable plates, such as the _Renan_, and the portrait of himself
+and his wife, each executed in a few hours of concentrated effort. The
+very swiftness with which these impressions have been recorded has no
+doubt contributed much toward giving them that convincing finality
+which, paradoxically enough, are theirs in a preëminent degree no
+matter how casual may appear the means by which this effect has been
+achieved. That is the impression left upon one by his illuminating
+portrait of the pontifical-looking Renan, for example.
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. MADAME SIMON
+
+Size of the original etching, 9 × 6¼ inches]
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. ERNEST RENAN
+
+Size of the original etching, 9⅜ × 13½ inches]
+
+Here is set down for all time in a few unerring lines the soul and body
+of the man--the casuist and the voluptuary of thought, the Balzacian
+bulk of him physically and the bigness of him mentally. The massive and
+apparently grotesque exterior of this speculative dreamer, immersed in
+his own meditations, conveys something of the same sense of aloofness
+with which Rodin has invested his statue of Balzac. They both appear
+to be dreaming of life and its mysteries until the immense torso seems
+but an Olympian pedestal supporting the domelike head. It is more than
+a pocket-edition biography, this portrait. Executed in one sitting in
+Renan’s study in April of 1892, nine years after his initiation into
+the mysteries of etching, this plate may be said to epitomize the whole
+art of Zorn,--his vigorous truthfulness, his synthetic treatment of
+salient points of character, and his love of dramatic contrasts of
+sharply juxtaposed masses of black and white. Moreover, it furnishes a
+striking exposition of the purely technical side of his art in which
+he has created for himself a highly original and personal method. No
+one has eschewed more rigorously than he the “happy accidents” employed
+as a convenient cloak by masquerading incompetents, foisting their
+meaningless scrawls on a bewildered public, to whom etching has become
+synonymous with a pretty dilettantism that is within the easy reach of
+every aspiring fledgling of art. These parallel, slanting strokes that
+seem to cut and divide the form into unrelated sections are really the
+expression of an accurate and well-defined intention that manifests
+itself in the extraordinary verisimilitude of the figure and its
+adroitly suggested accessories. It is like a fleeting glimpse in a
+mirror in which the impalpable spirit of reality is reflected, evoking
+by some mysterious incantation the most fugitive nuances of expression
+and gesture with the slightest inflection of his modeling.
+
+It is the extreme refinement and subtility in this seeming brutality
+that give to these plates their unique value and interest. Seldom
+has a man suggested his predecessors less than does Zorn in these
+epigrammatic etchings. They are according to no established formula.
+If he has looked upon Rembrandt, as what practitioner of aqua fortis
+has not, there is but slight evidence of it in these straightforward
+vibrant plates. To be sure, he has the same love of bold contrasts of
+light and shade as had the master of Amsterdam, without the romantic
+glamour of the dreamy Dutchman. This modern Swede is more direct, more
+incisive, his line has something of the penetrating and biting analysis
+of a page from Strindberg, and not infrequently, as in the case of
+his haunting portrait of the besotted poet Paul Verlaine, there is
+discernible a sort of ironic humor that throws a revealing light upon
+his sitter. With what discerning and subtle insight he has portrayed
+that gentle flavor of intellectual skepticism which is the chief
+characteristic of Anatole France; while the head of Rodin, laughing in
+his foaming beard, is highly indicative of the immense creative energy
+of the author of _Le Penseur_. In every instance he has successfully
+summarized the essential and abiding characteristics of his sitter,
+no less effectually accomplished in the twenty-minute impromptu of
+Marcelin Berthelot than in the more deliberately studied portrait
+of Marquand, or the very succinctly realized version of August
+Strindberg, the Swedish author. These portraits of contemporary men and
+women are fascinating records of repeated excursions into the realm of
+_character_, which holds for Zorn the strongest appeal, as it has ever
+for all men of the North, whose supreme happiness is the realization of
+a clearly defined individualism.
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. AUGUST STRINDBERG
+
+Size of the original etching, 11⅜ × 7⅝ inches]
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. SUNDAY MORNING IN DALECARLIA
+
+Size of the original etching, 10¾ × 7¾ inches]
+
+While Zorn to-day occupies a position of unchallenged supremacy in the
+difficult and exacting field of portraiture--his portrait etchings
+would alone make a notable Pantheon of contemporary worthies--it is in
+his frank, unabashed nudes and in his delineations of Swedish peasant
+types that we find the most personal expression of his peculiar genius.
+Nowhere has his faculty of instantaneous perception, his ability to
+grasp at a glance and in its entirety either an isolated individual or
+a group of figures, been employed to greater advantage than in these
+brilliant, dazzling nudes and in these veracious records of his beloved
+Dalecarlian peasants. With a few swift, sure strokes he gives us the
+soft contour, the undulating curves of the fresh, firm flesh, of these
+strong-limbed Junos, as well as the wrinkled, time-worn visages of the
+aged tillers of the soil.
+
+His interest in this type is not episodic, it is persistent. They were
+his first subjects as well as his first patrons, and throughout his
+career it is to them that he has turned for rest and refreshment from
+the social banalities of the mundane life in the great capitals of the
+world where he is in constant demand as a painter of exclusive society.
+At heart he remains a peasant, retaining a strong love for the scenes
+of his boyhood with all their simple associations. Here he is at home,
+and here he has given untrammeled expression to that paganism which is
+the dominant trait of his character. He delights in portraying these
+sturdy, flaxen-haired peasants in all the unconscious abandon of their
+naïve natures, and the series of plates celebrating the intimate life
+of these people are the most authentic expressions of his art because
+the most closely related to the mainsprings of his personality.
+
+His love of the unstudied, unposed naturalness of life has found its
+culminating expression in these nudes of women and children as seen in
+the open air in the free solitude of the shores of Dalecarlia. Zorn
+regards nature with the eagerness of the primitive, and these ruddy
+women are virile protests against the anemic, hyperæsthetic refinements
+of the school-room conventions. Stripped of all regard for the accepted
+ideals of feminine beauty these women of Zorn repel or appeal by the
+unfeigned candor of every look and gesture. These big, blonde women,
+whose naked bodies move with unrestrained freedom through the tonic,
+balsam air are imbued with a superb, healthy animalism such as has
+never been depicted in the whole history of art. They spring from a
+strong artistic impulse that has its roots in the subsoil of nature.
+To see these frankly realistic versions of unsophisticated, throbbing
+femininity is to feel that the nude has never before been adequately
+portrayed--all other nudes seem mere means toward some elaborately
+preconceived end while those of Zorn are gloriously self-sufficing, an
+end in themselves.
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. THE BATHER, SEATED
+
+Size of the original etching, 6¼ × 4¾ inches]
+
+[Illustration: ZORN. EDO
+
+“Edo” is the name of the Swedish island where Zorn etched this
+beautiful plate
+
+Size of the original etching, 7 × 4⅝ inches]
+
+An ardent sensuousness marks all these things, but it is sane and
+wholesome, with no trace of doubtful submeaning. That is strikingly
+exemplified in _My Model and my Boat_, in which the exuberant,
+re-creating force of life is presented in all its tantalizing
+seductiveness of ample, quivering curves. The beauty of vigorous
+symmetry, of inherent strength, overcome the somewhat obvious
+coarseness of the type of woman depicted here, and one can have nothing
+but admiration for the underlying sincerity as well as the consummate
+mastery revealed in every stroke of these plates. But the purely
+physical allure of his nudes is by no means always as insistent as in
+the foregoing. The elusive and half-reticent feminine charm has not
+escaped him, and there are some nudes out of doors, in the lambent
+light of dawn and twilight, more delicate, more subtly suggestive, than
+anything hitherto accomplished in etching.
+
+The nudes of Rembrandt would look singularly coarse and heavy by
+comparison with these silvery, exquisitely modeled Brunhildas of
+Zorn, who disport themselves on the sunlit beach or emerge from
+the enveloping shadow of some protruding cliff with a childlike
+unconsciousness and a pagan naïveté that disarms prudish prejudices. In
+its supple grace and vibrant vitality the delicately modulated back of
+the bending figure of _The Bather--Evening_ is a pantheistic hymn to
+the eternal efflorescence of life. She pauses in the silvery twilight,
+before breaking the surface of the mirror-like lake into a thousand
+jewels of refracted light, and she is as much a part of the enshrouding
+stillness as the aged rocks on which she stands. Whistler never did
+anything more evanescent than the landscape of this plate, which is
+printed in a key as light and airy as the magically executed lines,
+that give the softness of the figure’s contours as well as the hardness
+of the rocks and the veiled serenity of distant lake and woodland.
+It is a splendid affirmation of the extremely delicate sensibilities
+possessed by this most vigorous and brilliant of contemporary etchers,
+whose art is one of the most powerful and significant manifestations of
+the re-awakened æsthetic impulse of the twentieth century.
+
+
+
+
+ Transcriber’s Notes:
+
+ Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
+
+ Small capitals have been capitalised.
+
+ Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
+
+ Perceived typographical errors have been changed.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68720 ***
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