Engraving for Illustration Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 3.--Old Wood Engraving.

"Horace Walpole, the historian of the graphic arts."

_Block supplied by the London Electrotype Agency Ltd., from the "Ill.u.s.trated London News."_]

Hogarth, "The inimitable Hogarth,"

"Whose pictured morals charm the eye, And through the eye correct the heart,"

was a brilliant exponent of the expressive power of the engraver's art.

Possessing a profound knowledge of human nature, and a keen sense of all that is humanely interesting, he expressed in his pictures a wonderful creative fancy, and a well directed humour. He almost invariably represented character rather than scenes, and while displaying immense fertility of design, he retained sufficient realism in the composition of his pictures to render them valuable as records of the manners and customs of his times. They, moreover, describe their incidents in the most direct and piquant fashion. His somewhat defective drawing was redeemed by a wealth of suggestion and an endless variety of grotesque conceptions. He possessed the happy art of seizing a fleeting impression from which he would evolve a caricature full of peculiar and quaint humour. Hogarth's place in the art annals of this country is undoubtedly a.s.sured, for it has been said that he _represented_ his characters with more force than most men could _see_ them. His career may be dated from 1724, when he produced the ill.u.s.trations for _Hudibras_ and _La Mortray's Travels_.

There is a most extraordinary story related in connection with Hogarth's last engraving. While spending a merry evening with some friends he was heard to say: "My next undertaking will be _the end of all things_."

"If that is so," remarked one of his companions, "there will soon be an end of the artist." "Yes, there will be," Hogarth replied, "and the sooner my task is finished the better." The engraving was executed under the impulse of an intense excitement. "Finis," he exclaimed, as he finished that most remarkable design, "All is now over," and, strange to relate, this was actually his last work, for he died about a month later.

Robert Strange, who was contemporary with Hogarth, was a native of the Orkney Islands. He was an art student in Edinburgh when Prince Charlie landed, and his Jacobite sympathies led him to throw aside his work and join the young chevalier. When the remnant of the army of 1745 was flying before Duke William after the battle of Culloden, Strange, closely pursued by a number of soldiers, sought shelter in the house of the Lumsdales. Miss Lumsdale was sitting with her work by one of the windows, and at once offered to conceal the young soldier underneath the folds of her skirt. Ladies' skirts of the crinoline period were of such proportions as to render the concealment easy, and Miss Lumsdale, to lull the suspicions of the pursuing soldiers, continued her sewing, and affected considerable surprise and indignation at their intrusion.

They shamefacedly withdrew upon finding the lady alone, and Strange afterwards made good his escape to France. Grat.i.tude to his deliverer, intensified by the romantic situation which saved his life, quickly ripened into love, and, it is needless to add, a good old-fashioned love match.

Strange settled in London about 1750, when, by his zeal and skilful work, he added much to the fame of historical engraving in this country.

He engraved over eighty plates during his lifetime, and displayed a literary talent of no mean order. He was not a brilliant draughtsman, but the tone and texture of his engravings are almost perfect.

He was knighted in 1781.

There is yet one other engraver of this period whose career merits a share of attention and interest.

James Gilray was born in 1757, and, like Hogarth, commenced at the bottom rung of the ladder as a letter engraver. He also became a notable caricaturist, and some idea of his skill in this branch of pictorial art may be gleaned from the fact that over 1200 designs were the product of his inventive fancy. Though not by any means indolent, his habits were dissipated, and unfortunately for him he, for many years, resided with his publisher, who gratified his pa.s.sions so long as his art was sufficiently productive. Gilray's designs were not all caricatures. A number of ill.u.s.trations for Goldsmith's _Deserted Village_ were designed and engraved by him. He also engraved a few of Northcote's pictures.

His style was free and spirited, and he was one of the first English engravers to prove the merits of stipple engraving.

The stipple manner of engraving was a curious development of the art. It appeared as though line engraving could not keep pace with the ever-growing demand for pictures, and was therefore combined with stipple to facilitate production. In capable hands very fine results were obtained with this combination.

English engraving was still in its infancy, however, and continental productions were favoured by the art patrons of this country, until a stimulus was given to native art by the painters Reynolds, Wilson, and West. Profiting by this renewed interest, Woollet entered upon a career of unqualified success, and eventually succeeded in obtaining full recognition for the merits of English engraving.

As a boy Woollet showed his artistic proclivities in a strange manner.

His father, it is stated, won a 5000 prize in a lottery, and bought an inn, glorying in the name of "The Turk's Head," a t.i.tle which the embryonic artist endeavoured to express pictorially on a pewter pot.

The father, struck by some quality in the drawing, apprenticed young Woollet to an obscure London engraver. From an artistic point of view this apprenticeship was of little value. Woollet was a born artist, and although his early training may have intensified the natural bent of his genius, it did little to cultivate it. He possessed versatile talents.

His historical pictures were, in every respect, equal to his landscapes, and these will long remain as lasting and convincing monuments of his skill. The boldness of contrast and accuracy of execution displayed by Woollet in his landscape engravings far surpa.s.sed all previous efforts to express pictorial effects with the graver.

Raimbach was a miniature painter of some note, who, like many other artists, turned from creative to reproductive art, and became a successful engraver. In 1812 he became a.s.sociated with David Wilkie, and it is generally supposed that he was retained by that artist for the reproduction of his pictures. Raimbach's translations of Wilkie's works were in every sense artistic productions and faithful representations.

He was said to be so careful and conscientious in his work that he employed no a.s.sistants, but this was not entirely true. Careful and conscientious he undoubtedly was, but he frequently employed a.s.sistants to engrave the less important parts of his commissions. Raimbach was born in 1776, and died 1843.

F. C. Lewis was a progressive engraver contemporary with Raimbach.

His most notable productions were after Landseer and Lawrence. He was appointed engraver first to George IV., then William IV., and afterwards to Queen Victoria.

Samuel Cousins was another most influential engraver. A brief sketch of his artistic career is given in another chapter.

C. G. Lewis was both a line and mezzotint engraver. He was probably Landseer's favourite engraver, and his name is best known in a.s.sociation with that artist's pictures. Born 1808; died 1880.

When John Pye engraved his first Turner picture, "Pope's Villa," in 1811, that famous artist expressed his unqualified approval when he said, "If I had known there was anyone in this country who could have done that, I would have had it done before," and on more than one occasion he mentioned Pye's engravings as "the most satisfactory translations of my colour into black and white." An adequate interpretation of Turner's pictures requires a masterly appreciation of the gradations and balance of tone which suggest both colour and s.p.a.ce; and to merit such expressions of satisfaction from the great artist himself was proof of John Pye's artistic power and skill.

He began his career as an engraver about the year 1800 after a short apprenticeship with James Heath, a clever and practical man, who was quick to perceive the ability of his apprentice.

John Pye was a recognised authority on the pictorial effect of colour, and it was said that during his long and eminently useful life "no engraver did more than he to spread a knowledge of the sound principles of landscape art." He was frequently consulted by his fellow artists, and without even a suggestion of professional jealousy, he was ever ready with his advice and, if need be, practical help. The following copy of a letter--now in the Swansea Art Gallery--gives some idea of the esteem in which his opinion was held by contemporary artists:--

_Monday._

_To J. Pye, Esq._

Thursday night, at half-past five, if you please. I hope that day will be convenient to you. I should like, if possible, to see you here by daylight, as your opinion is always valuable to me, and I have some few things to show you.--Your faithful servant,

Ed. Landseer.

Pye was long known in art circles as the "Father of landscape engraving,"

and he certainly succeeded, as no other engraver has done, in his translation of colour values and suggestion of aerial perspectives.

Turner's paintings were his favourite subjects, and his interpretations of them are brilliant in expression, and charged with the very essence of artistic feeling.

His life and work indicated a progress as distinct as it was far reaching.

"And still the work went on, And on, and on, and is not yet completed.

The generation that succeeds our own Perhaps may finish it."

It has been through the efforts of these men and others who, though less influential, were not less skilful perhaps, or less earnest, that English engraving, in its daring innovations and substantial improvements, has far outstripped that of other countries. By them its reputation has been built up and enhanced, so that "its influence is conspicuously visible in the principles and history of Art."

CHAPTER V

_ETCHING_--EARLY RECORDS--DESCRIPTIVE--REMBRANDT'S INFLUENCE--WENCESLAUS HOLLAR.

_MEZZOTINT_--INVENTION--DESCRIPTION--ARTISTIC QUALITIES--DILETTANTI ART--A MODERN MEZZO ENGRAVER

"By its very character of freedom, by the intimate and rapid connection which it establishes between the hands and the thoughts of the artists, etching becomes the frankest and most natural of interpreters."--Lalanne.

It has been a.s.serted, and not without some show of reason, that of all the reproductive arts etching stands pre-eminent as a medium of pictorial expression wherein perfect freedom of drawing is retained.

It has found considerable favour with artists, because it enables them to reproduce their own works with ease and rapidity, and without any perceptible loss of expressive power.

=Early Records.=--The first account of the art of etching comes from Dutch sources, but whether or not it had its birth in Holland is a matter of pure conjecture. It was certainly cradled in the Low Countries, and finding the time and conditions of art congenial there, flourished abundantly. A book bearing the t.i.tle, _A Book of Secrets_, was published in England in 1599. It was a translation from the Dutch, and described "A method of engraving with strong waters on steel or iron." The art of etching must have been known in Holland some time previous to the date of this publication.

It was an unfortunate tendency which led the early etchers, or at any rate etchers of the latter part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to practise a style of execution in direct imitation of the work of the graver. Their productions were robbed of their peculiar character and charm, their directness and completeness of representation.

=Descriptive.=--The practical phase of the etcher's work claims a more than pa.s.sing interest from the earnest reader. A carefully polished sheet of copper is covered with an acid resist in the form of a thin coating of wax or some similar composition. When this has been blackened by the smoke of a candle, or by any other suitable means, the drawing is made with steel points. The bright sheen of the copper exposed by each stroke of the point or etching needle will show the progress of the work very distinctly. The etching mordant is poured over the drawing thus made, when the exposed parts of the plate will be corroded or etched away until sufficient depth is obtained. These are, of course, but the bare outlines of the process, yet they will suffice to ill.u.s.trate the facility and simplicity of its operations.

Because it is so admirably adapted for light and sketchy drawings, etching has been described as a kind of summary of pictorial expression, and in some respects such a description fits it perfectly; yet, for a just appreciation of its merits, it will be needful to put aside the idea that it is little more than a sketchy framework. It is true that some of the finest etchings have been executed with the fewest possible lines and without any pretence of elaboration, yet tone and texture may be fully expressed though not actually realised. Hence the term sometimes so aptly applied to etching when it is referred to as "the stenography of artistic thought." It is upon this principle of limitation that the chief merits of the etcher's art rests,--a system of pictorial representation which does not always produce illogical and inartistic interpretation or the imperfect transcription of light and shade. It may be frequently characterised by a certain amount of caprice in its execution, but it is nevertheless capable of producing form and expression of a very high character. Albert Durer, who possessed a most remarkable artistic versatility, etched a number of plates; but they can scarcely be regarded as successful examples of his work, for, like other artists of his time, he endeavoured to imitate the productions of the graver with his etching needle. It was altogether a futile experiment, if indeed it can be regarded as an experiment, and Durer's etchings show but little of that rare power and technical skill for which he was justly famous in other phases of graphic art.

=Rembrandt's Influence.=--Rembrandt, who was said to be "The greatest artistic individuality of the seventeenth century," manifested a deep and lasting enthusiasm for the art of etching,--an enthusiasm which was abundantly displayed in the marvellous diversity of form by which he reproduced the characteristic grace and delicate modelling of his pictures. His graver and etching needle possessed the same spirited touch as his brush, and when "with his own hand he presented his bold principles of light and shade," he almost invariably combined strength of expression with great facility of invention.