aS a ey ie CATALOGUE OF AN EXHIBITION OF ETCHINGS BY JAMES McBEY DECEMBER IST TO IITH, 1926 M. KNOEDLER & COMPANY 14 EAST FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET NEW YORK int JAMES McBEY HEN I look at McBey’s work in its different ) phases from year to year, from subject to sub- ? ject, it seems always to show new zest and eagerness, and ardour unabated in the search of fresh experience. As each new set of his 7 work has come forward, there has always been a suggestion of the rising tide. In each set there is al- ways one that quietly and unobtrusively creeps beyond all its forerunners. And as it swells and advances, his work seems to embody less particularisation, and an increasing tendency to detachment and abstraction, to a search not for the circum- stances but for the essence and spirit of life and nature. It 1s not the crowd that interests him, but its movement; not the sea, but its power and its menace; not the desert, but its vast- ness and its silence; not the man, but the mind behind the mask of the features. Others have made notable etchings of cathedrals and crumbling architecture, of ships and the sea- shore, of wide stretches of landscape. All this McBey has done; but why does he give, every now and then, the little more (and how much it is!) that few have ever given? Can I explain what I mean by saying that he leads us to a realisa- tion of rhythmical forces in lifeand nature, and toa perception, not merely of the actual, but of the poetry and romance behind the actual; to an understanding of the deep and mov- ing drama that always throbs beneath the surface of ordinary, everyday life; to a realisation that man and his works, all things animate and inanimate, sea and sky and all that in them is, have a past and a future as well as a present? That is what I have tried to indicate in speaking of such plates as The Pool, The Sussex, Dawn, The Gale at Port Erroll, The Piantst, and The Ebb Tide. He has achieved his success by methods of his own. Except CMe perhaps in some of his earlier plates, he is not directly influ- enced by any man or school. Just as each of us inherits some- thing—of colour, habit, character—from his ancestors, so each of McBey’s works owes something to his great forbears (even to his great contemporaries), and yet has its own body, its own colour, its own soul—possibly an immortal soul. If he has been influenced by Rembrandt, by Whistler, by Haden, by Forain, he has been influenced more by their outlook than by their methods. They are the stars by which he has some- times steered his course. But he has never been an imitator. He accepts each subject, as Sir Walter Raleigh recently wrote about Whistler, ‘‘as presenting a new set of conditions to be studied and subdued, by new devices, to theservice of beauty. Great traditions of the past, splendid stirrings of the present, may act as leaven to his yeast; but he never asks himself, ‘How would Rembrandt have seen this?’’ or “How would Whistler have set it on the copper?’ He prefers to begin at a new beginning, and create afresh. And heis like Rembrandt and Whistler, not so much in his work as in his resistance to the besetting temptation of every artist—the danger of being led by a past success into formula and repetition. It is a feature of his art that he has always been untiring in ad- venture, seeking always to find the new peak, the further view. .. . One cannot overlook the part played in his work by paper and by printing. Ever since his first visit to Amsterdam in 1910, he has been an enthusiastic collector of old paper. He felt, from the first, that it had qualities of tone and texture and durability that made it desirable for the printing of an etching, and since then ‘‘he has used no other.” And he ts right; for, to quote his own words, ‘‘the skin of old paper has become soft and velvety, due to the action of time on the surface size, while the strength of the actual paper has not been impaired.’’. . . Every proof is printed with his own hands and carefully considered before he writes his signature C4) beneath. And the collector may like to know that he may own proofs printed on paper coming from the volumes in which Rembrandt kept his prints, or from one that belonged to Sir Peter Lely in 1669. . . . But sheets of old paper are so varied that each calls for a different kind of printing. ‘‘When the artist himself prints,’’ he says, “‘the printing may be re- garded as actually a continuation of his etched work, the com- bination of both culminating in the finished proof.’’. . [still believe that McBey’s work will survive all fluctuating mem- ories and sympathies, just because it has an individual soul that is imperishable. So, like the mounted figures that in his Dawn set out into the boundless desert, let my belief in his work go out, along with it, into the vast incertitude of the future. MARTIN HARDIE Gs") CATALOGUE t Portsoy Harspour Hardze 8 21 proofs 2 Vicroria BripGe, ABERDEEN Hardte1x ‘55 proofs only 3 Nortu Bripce, EpiInsurGH Hardie 22. ~—‘10 proofs only 4 PLUMsTONE CLOSE Hardze 2.4 10 proofs only 5 Moray House Hardie 30 ‘5, proofs only 6 THe Cowcate, EDINBURGH Hardze 33 26 proofs 7 MoontLiGHT IN THE Woop Hardze 45 3, proofs only 8 MorninGc, CATTERLINE Hardie56 —- 40 proofs 9g ENKHUISEN Hardie67_ ~—- 40 proofs 10 Hoorn CHEESEMARKET Hardze 69 8 proofs only The Cheesemarket in the Rodesteen at nae To the left, a bronze statue inscribed JAN PrETERSZ. COEN 1587-1620. 11 RANSDORP Hardie 75 AI proofs eZ) 12 Otp Macuar Towers. (No.2) . Hardie 85 Proof No.2 — 4 proofs printed 13 BurGos Hardze 93 25 proofs 14 AvILA Hardie94 =: 3,0 proofs 15 VALENCIA BEACH Hardze 97 30 proofs 16 BENICARLO Hardie 100 27 proofs 17 VINAROZ Hardie 101 22 proofs 18 Vinaroz: Boat BuILDING Hardie1ou —_ 40 proofs 19 Tue Picapor INcrITEs THE BULL Hardie 104 30 proofs 20 Tur Picapor UNHORSED Hardie 106 20 proofs 21 THe BANDERILLAS Hardze 107 27 proofs 22 Tue Towy aT CARMARTHEN Hardie 111 30 proofs 23, CARMARTHEN Hardie 112 —-20 proofs C8) 24 A View In WALEs Hardie 113 4o proofs 25 ApRiIL IN KENT Hardie 114 26 THe SKYLARK Hardie 117 he 1 8 8" Hardie 123 (A) -Frarst State (B) Proof C of 12 proofs 28 THe Breap Market, TETUAN Hardie 127 29 [THE ORANGE SELLER Hardie 128 30 THE JEwisH QuarTER, TETUAN Hardze 129 31 THe Story—-TELLER Hardze 13,0 32 GunsmiTHs, TETUAN Hardie 13,2. 33, Beccars, Tetuan (No.2) Hardze 13,4 34 Ex Soxo Hardze 13,5 35 A Moroccan Market Hardie 136 C9) 36 Tue Approach To TETUAN Hardze 13,7 37 TETUAN Hardie 13,8 38 Tur Forp Hardie 140 39 TANGIER Hardie141 = (A) Trial proof (sp) Published State 40 THe TimBer Mitty Hardie142 ~— Trial proof B Interior of the timber mill at Overschie, between Rotterdam and Delft. 41 GRIMNESSESLUIS Hardze 143, The Grimnessesluis, a canal at Amsterdam 42. PENZANCE Hardie144_—- (A) Trial proof 8 (sp) Published State 43, REPAIRING A BARGE Hardie 148 44 THE Poo. Hardie1so ~— (A) Trial proof 9 (sp) Published State 45 GAMRIE Hardie 151 A view, from a height, over the harbour of Gamrie (the old Scots name for Gardenstone), in Morayshire. C10 ) 46 THe Moray Firtu Hardie 152 47 SEA AND Rain Hardze 153 48 BucHaNn Hardie 154 49 NEwBURGH Hardte 155 The village of Newburgh is seen across a bend of the river Ythan. Knockhall Castle stands against the sky on the left. 50 DisqureTuDE (Portrait oF Mrs. Martin Harvie) Hardie1s6 ~— (A) Trial proof 5 (p) Published State 51 Nicut in Evy CaTHEDRAL Hardie 161 52 [HE Istz or Ety Hardie 162 53 Portrait or Martin Harvie (No. 1) Hardze 163 24 proofs 54 Portrrarr or Martin Harpie (No. 2) Hardie 167 24 proofs 55 [HE Crucifix, BOULOGNE Hardie 168 56 A Norman Port Hardie 169 (a8) 57 [HE Quai GAMBETTA, BOULOGNE Hardze 170 58 THE Sussex Hardie 171 59 RovEN Hardie 172 60 Tur SEINE AT ROUEN Hardie 173 61 THE SomME FRONT Hardie 174 62 Francais INCONNUS Hardie 176 63 SPRING, 1917 Hardze 177 64 ALBERT Hardze 179 65 Ras-EL-AIN Hardze 180 66 Dawn. THE CaMet Patrot SETTING OuT Hardie 181 This and the following four plates deal with the work of a Camel Patrol starting from a post on the Suex Canal into the desert of Sinai towards Beersheeba. 67 THe Mrp-Day Hatt Hardie 182 ~~ (A) Trial proof (a) Published State C12) 68 Tue Desert or Srnar (No. 2) Hardie 184 69 SuNsET: WapI-uM-MUKHSHEIB Hardie 185 70 STRANGE SIGNALS Hardie 186 71 A DEsERTED Oasis Hardze 187 72 [HE S1tk Dress Hardie 188 73, Marcor as Lopoxova Hardie 189 74 THE PIANIstT Hardie 190 75 Dust, BEERSHEBA Hardie 193 76 THe SNIPER (No. 2) Hardie 195 77 [ue First SIGHT OF JERUSALEM Hardie 197 78 THE ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM Hardie 198 79 THE SURRENDER OF JERUSALEM Hardie 199 Coe. 80 GAzA: PRISONERS OF WAR Hardie 202 8x1 GuN Fire, Mount oF OLIves Hardie 204 82 JERUSALEM FROM OLIVET Hardiexo5 ~— (A) Trial proof 5 (B) Published State 83 THe Deap Sra Hardie 206 84 Hermon: Cavatry Movine on Damascus Hardiezo7 ~— (A) Trial proof 7 (sp) Published State 85 A FLoop IN THE FENs Hardie 209 86 MaAcpDUFF Hardie 210 87 BriGHTLINGsEA (No. 2) Hardie 112 88 GERONA Hardie 213 89 ANTWERP Hardie 214 90 GALE AT Port Erroiu Hardie 215 C14) gi Tue Ess Tipe Hardie 216 92 VEERE Hardie 218 93 THE Squat, KaAMPEN Hardze 219 94 THE ZuIDER ZEE Hardie 220 95 ZAANSTREEK Hardie 221 96 Mersza: SUNSET Hardie 222 97 BosHamM 98 Hastincs Crs) GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE UNO 3 3125 01277 3590