books NE 2135 . H5 1892 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/etchingmezzotintOOherk PAINTER-ETCHING M B-Z Z 0:T I K T ■ E N G R A V I LECTURES DELIV-E^b ■ AT OXFOPvE/ HUBERT HSRKO’MER, R A,: ETCHING AND MEZZOTINT ENGRAVING LECTURES DELIVERED AT OXFORD BY HUBERT HERKOMER, R.A., M.A. SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD ETC. ETC. HonUon MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1892 CONTENTS PAINTER-ETCHING ..... A New White Ground for Positive Process The Transfer ...... The Work on the Plate .... The Acid Bath ..... Cleaning the Plate ..... The Transparent Ground .... The Work on the Plate through the Second Ground Dry-point ...... The Burin ...... Further Auxiliaries to Etching Printing ...... The Ink ...... The Wiping of the Plate .... The Paper ...... Selection of Subjects ..... The Sale of Etchings .... I 23 28 35 41 46 47 49 52 54 56 56 61 62 65 71 74 CONTENTS vi Mezzotint Engraving ...... The Rocking Tool ...... The Mezzotint Ground . . . . . The Scraper ....... On the Character of Mezzotint . . . . On the Interpretation of Pictures . . . . Pure Mezzotint ...... Etching as a Medium for the Interpretation of Pictures LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Etcher ....... Frontispiece A Pen Etching ....... To face page 30 A Bavarian Peasant (i). . . . . . „ 38 A Bavarian Peasant (2) . . . . . » 38 A Charterhouse Study . . . . . . „ 5° Gwenddydd . . . . . . . ,,52 A Study ........ » 54 A Portrait (i) ...... . » 58 A Portrait (2) ...... . ,>58 A Mezzotint . . . . . . . >,78 The Rocking Tools ...... „ 80 Rocking a Mezzotint Ground . . . . . ,,82 A “Spongotype” . . . . . . . ,,104 PAINTER-ETCHING The peculiar charm that belongs to the form of art we call etching, or rather painter-etching, cannot be adequately described in words, — it must be felt. I take the term etching in its broad and most compre- hensive sense; that is, including dry-point as well as “bitten work,” or a combination of both ; I would also include aqua- tint or soft-ground etching under this heading, provided always that the result is artistic. There has been from time to time such quibbling over the mere terms given to the different forms of painter-etching that it has made the public, who cannot follow the ins and outs of the technique, suspect every production, and ask nervously if it really is an etching proper before they buy. I am told that one of the rules of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers is, that “All forms of engraving on metal, whether by the burin, the etching-needle, by mezzotint or aquatint, or by whatever other form (of engraving) the artist may choose as a means of original expression, are understood to be included in the term painter-etching.” That is precisely what I feel to be the right acceptation PAINTER-ETCHING of the term. For instance, if we refuse to admit dry-point into the term etching, we can have no name for the etchings to which tone and colour have been given by a few dry- point touches here and there. Rembrandt’s greatest period, to my thinking, was his middle period, during which years he always, as Mr. Seymour Haden points out, added dry- point to the bitten work. Whatever the form of work on the metal, whether by corrosion, or indentation with a point or a burin, I freely give it the term etching so long as the character of the work strictly represents the freest expression of an artistic nature. Laboriously wrought plates invariably pass over the border line, though the methods of work employed may be the same as I have justified in the term etching. But there is no measurement, and there are no rules, by which the right thing can be recognised. The right thing has a charm and the wrong thing leaves us cold. The charm of etching, then, must be felt ; to feel it one needs a peculiar gift of appreciation, but the gift for the right appreciation of this subtle art is only given to a few. It can be absent in the mind of a great painter, or it can be present in the mind of a person who has never attempted to touch brush or pencil. It can be dormant for years and suddenly burst into active life, but there it must be, — a gift of nature. No form of art-expression gives its exponent such intense pleasure, or causes such excitement in the doing. The etcher is under a spell whilst at work, for he is not wholly conscious of the actual character of the work he is doing, but by an PAINTER-ETCHING 3 inexplicable sub-conscious action of the brain, which amounts to a spell, his hand produces something that his plain every- day, wakeful mind could not have devised or done by cold calculative effort. Thus it is that all etching must be uncertain, as it can never be subjected to conditions that are measurable, or wholly under control. But in all arts it is the hopeless mannerist alone who can be certain of his results. This man, who seeks for no fresh thoughts, who ventures not an inch beyond the ground most familiar to him, must not be our guide. The great student of nature, whose mission is to interpret nature in all her phases and not to produce a commercial article out of her, must be our pattern. This student of nature, this inter- preter of nature whose wide soul longs to transcribe in some permanent form his impressions of the beauties around him, will find all his methods of expression un- certain, and most of his results a mockery. Still, he must keep true to the unrest within him, and try again and again to express himself. The commercial artist will not risk failure, but the true artist almost courts it, for he dreads nothing more than to fall into a groove. That the methods hitherto employed in etching have been needlessly complicated and troublesome cannot be gainsaid. On this point I shall dwell later on, because I think I have, through long experimenting, been able to reduce what to me was always most troublesome in the working of the art to its minimum. From what I have said of the true artist, it will be gathered 4 PAINTER-ETCHING that enough trouble is to be expected from his idiosyncrasy and temperament to keep all methods, however ingeniously devised, well within the bounds of uncertainty. Hamerton’s handbook for etchers gave me the first neces- sary hints in the technique of etching. I followed out the instructions as well as my temperament permitted, and even went so far as to apply the border wax with a hot key. But when I think back, and remember that I had never seen an etched plate when I commenced my experiments, nor had seen any impression of a Rembrandt etching, I wonder how I could have produced such work as my own portrait (with my two children in the corner of the plate), which must, after all, remain one of my best etchings. Quite at the begin- ning of my experiments a most irrational eagerness to see a print of the plate caused me to hurry the work, and to force it with violent biting, on the extremely doubtful ground. I am not the only etcher who, at the beginning of his career, has had an inordinate desire to see what his few touches looked like when printed. It is through expecting certain magical results from the printing that the young etcher suffers his greatest and bitterest disappointment. It is always the printing he relies upon when he cannot judge the appear- ance of the work on the plate itself. My principal troubles arose from the fact that the process was a negative one, and it is only just within a few months that I have discovered a ground which enables me to see my lines black, or nearly so, upon a dead white surface, like paper. There is then no longer any need for Mr. Ruskin PAINTER-ETCHING 5 to call it a “blundering art” (I quote from Mr. Seymour Haden’s pamphlet). Further, a plate or several plates, can be carried about in a box with grooves to answer all the purposes of paper blocks for pencil sketching. Of course it takes great moral courage to use such plates like paper, but the possibility is there. As far as I have seen in books, especially in Mr. Hamer- ton’s, I find the positive process only used for working in the acid bath. Therefore I am certain that my positive process will be welcomed by all who wish to have as little accident, and as little blundering as possible, in the working of this fascinating art. Besides the pleasure of working on a white surface, a further delight and assistance is experienced in the biting with such a ground, as it remains somewhat of a warm white colour when placed in the bath, and the lines turn black by the action of the mordant. One of our most eminent etchers came to see me one day when I had such a plate in the bath. It was just ready to take out, and when the ground was removed he exclaimed : “Why, there are no more surprises !” — so clearly had he been able to see the work on the plate whilst it was biting in the bath. Thus my positive process renders the work as clear to the sight as a drawing done on paper. The difficulties attendant on the biting of the plate will always remain, for it is in that action that the full expression of the line is given. But I may express a hope that my new white ground may tempt painters to take up original etching 6 PAINTER-ETCHING seriously, for it removes some of the primary difficulties of the technique. I look round with amazement at the few painters who have attempted to etch, and must per- force deplore the want of even ordinary interest for the art in most of my contemporaries. In removing some of the technical difficulties of etch- ing — difficulties that have stopped so many painters from attempting it — I may be doing an injury to etchers who would wish the practice of etching to remain with those who intend devoting their whole lives to this art alone, and who consider the technical difficulties a part of the art, to be overcome only by the chosen few. I cannot, I fear, give much weight to the feelings of men to whom the un- certainty of the process has a particular charm, although a well-known etcher once said to me that to him the charm of etching lay in getting qualities by flukes. I do not consider that view of any art to be the right one. And I say this advisedly, as, up to a recent date, all my good results have been more or less by flukes, and I never felt able to claim the full credit for them ; but now I need only blame my artistic feelings at the time of working for any failure. Surely life is more desirable with such a reduction of the chances of failure ! It will surprise none when I confess that twenty times and more did I give up etching, and twenty times and more did I take it up again. I have burned holes with the acid in my clothes, and holes in my skin ; I have spoiled carpets and had PAINTER-ETCHING 7 inflamed 'throats from poring over the fumes ; I have sat up half through the night with a plate that would not come right, and had finally to be abandoned ; I have taken plates to my bedroom and worked at them when half-undressed, then gone to bed and had frightful dreams about them ; I have neglected all duties in the dog-days of my etching career, have made my family miserable and ill by filling the whole house with bad fumes ; and yet I live to say that I love etching with all my heart and soul, and believe that good times are coming for all good etchers. The only chance of success for those who intend to practise etching is to throw themselves headlong into it, for etching cannot be practised in a perfunctory manner — much less learnt. Nor is it well to start etching on the first symptoms of the craving for it. Much disappointment and disgust arise from a premature plunge. By that I mean, without proper materials to work with, or without having seen some etcher at work, or seen how plates generally look with bitten lines, etc. Had I known an etcher willing to impart his knowledge to me I might have been spared many an hour of sore trial to mind and temper, and might have been saved from that terrible error, into which I soon fell, of doing plates of enormous dimensions. Having pleaded guilty, I am at liberty to condemn the practice in others, — in modern etchers. The fashion (for I can call it nothing else) of making 8 PAINTER-ETCHING SO many etchings from pictures has of late resulted in the production of huge plates, and they have followed each other in such rapid succession — thanks to competing publishers — that we cannot wonder at the market getting overstocked. Thus it has happened that the curse has fallen upon etchings of being bought for their furnishing qualities, and not for their artistic merits. For two guineas you can get a good impression in print-state (the plate being steel-surfaced from the first) of an etching that will cover the whole wall- space over a mantelpiece in any ordinary bedroom. Then you may add another guinea and a half for framing; or you buy one more “ to match ” it (publishers always see that large plates get companions to match without delay), which just “sets off” the wall — that awkward wall, opposite the mantelpiece — next to the wardrobe ; and lo ! your bedroom is furnished pictorially in the newest style. Who asks whether it is a copy or an original etching ? I have copied pictures in mezzotint, and have seen them about in houses doing such service as I have just described. The astonishment of my host was worth seeing when I declared I engraved that plate. Oh, they thought, or were under the impression, or somehow got the idea, that it was a picture by Millais. “True, but” (I further insist) “I copied it, and this print is my work.” I then put my finger to the corner of the margin and show my name as engraver. Dear me, they never thought of looking at the name. Finally, the host tells the whole thing to the hostess, but he gets mixed between the plate, the picture, and the PAINTER-ETCHING 9 print, and tells her that I printed that picture which hangs up over the mantelpiece in the spare room. I am really not surprised that Mr. Seymour Haden, in his Address to the Painter Etchers a couple of years ago, said : “ It is, we feel, impossible to shut our eyes to the fact that, owing to a variety of circumstances . . . the whole subject of the painter engravers’ art is still but very imperfectly under- stood.” I would add that among the circumstances he re- ferred to must be included the amount of picture-copying that has been done in etching, for I emphatically declare that etch- ing is not a fit process for the complete reproduction of a picture. Another unfavourable circumstance is, as I said, the abnormal sizes that plates have attained. If my memory serves me rightly, Mr. Whistler is the only English etcher who has never sinned in this direction of size. My “ sins of size ” lie heavy on my conscience, for I perpetrated life-size heads, with lines bitten half through the plate, looking for all the world like ropes, and tearing the canvas, during the operation of printing, into shreds. The area of the backgrounds having been too vast for lines, I resorted to a file. Fancy filing a background to a head on a copper-plate, as if it were a piece of engineering work ! One glimpse at a Rembrandt etching would have set me right. But, incomprehensible as it seems to me now, I never thought of going to the British Museum to look at those incomparable works. Well, I must not be too severe upon myself for this c lO PAINTER-ETCHING omission, for I have spoken to many etchers who have not studied Rembrandt as an etcher, and even to some who have hardly seen any original impressions of his plates. Not many of the painters who go to the print-room of the British Museum have the Rembrandt etchings placed before them, and this brings me to the question of the interest shown by painters generally in this country for etching. My brother painters must forgive me if I venture to chide them for their indifference to original etching. As I have had particular opportunities of witnessing this fact, I feel the more sad to think that in most cases they only interest themselves in the reproductions of their pictures, and pass over original work that may be small in scale but rare in quality. I will presently try to find some cause for this in the painter’s training and habits of thought. Meanwhile let us not be too severe on the public for their indifference to original etching. They are bewildered when they enter a printseller’s shop, and they certainly do not know as a rule what are the characteristics of an etching. I give the public the hint to buy Almand-Durand’s reproductions of Rembrandt’s etched works if they cannot buy original impressions of the same master. The public will be better able to form a right taste by having these wonderful reproductions of the greatest of all masters in etching about them, than by trusting only to the influence of modern work in all its endless and confusing variety ; for Rembrandt towers above all etchers, ancient or modern, as PAINTER-ETCHING 1 1 Shakespeare towers above the dramatists of his and our own times. It is a sad sight to see an intelligent, well-educated, and even art-loving person stand before an etching of undoubted beauty without showing an atom of interest in it, let alone understanding of it. I own it is difficult to give reasons for one’s love of etching, and I have suggested that its secret must be felt, as it cannot be described. I realised this when I once questioned a friend of mine, who was looking at some original Rembrandt etchings I had in the house for a time, as to the reasons for her evident delight in them. The lady, used to the terminology of art (a limited thing, I own, at its best), and always among artists, was quite unable to answer me at first, because, as she said, she had never made it clear to herself. Then she said something about boldness, freshness, rhythm of line, and in fact everything but the one word that we etchers would apply first — “ quality.” Now it seems to me that the quickest way for the public to get a critical judgment of etchings (provided always the natural gift of that particular appreciation is within) is to study new and old works together. For pictorial art we have a National Gallery, where we can get refreshed or impressed without fuss or hindrance. But it is too troublesome to go to the British Museum and ask for the portfolios containing the etchings of that one master, Rembrandt. Now, how would it do to have regular exhibitions of 12 PAINTER-ETCHING modern painter-etchings side by side with those of the old master or masters ? This opportunity is actually offered by the exhibition of the Society of Painter Etchers, but I fear it is only a small section of the public that is even aware of this opportunity, one reason perhaps being that the exhibition is held out of the season. I have watched the progress of the Painter Etchers’ Society with much interest, for I was present (by Mr. Haden’s invitation) at the first meeting, when he read to us his first sketch of the scheme. My recollection is somewhat dim ; I can only recall the presence of Professor Legros (who did not understand English and was sketching all the time), and of M. Tissot (who confined himself to vowing vengeance against the dealers). I was too inexperienced then to see the drift of the scheme, and withdrew before any of the plans had been ripened or settled. Though not a member, I have watched its progress with much interest, and distinctly think it right and wise that such a society should be founded for the painter etcher’s art alone. It has now, I believe, a much firmer basis than it ever had before. It is a Royal Society with a charter, and its president, Mr. Seymour Haden, tells me they have at last got over their trade difficulties by the appointment of a master printer (Goulding) and also a publisher (Dunthorne), with both of whom they have agreements which, while fairly protective of their interests, are liberal to the trade and “clear of the abominations attaching to the Printsellers’ Associa- PAINTER-ETCHING 13 tion.”-* They, moreover, consider their position a fairly good one, and their Society as firmly established and perfectly safe from all sorts of opposition and intrigue. I regret that at present they have not a building of their own, but must share the Royal Water Colour Society’s Gallery. The most original and interesting feature of their exhibi- tions is the fact that while three of the walls are hung with works by the fellows and associates, the fourth is given up to the work of some past great master. Last year they had Rembrandt, and this year they had Turner. What a capital thing it would be if the Royal Academy were to devote one room to past masters during the summer exhibition, instead of having all the old masters together in the winter. How instructive if we could look quickly from a Reynolds or a Gainsborough to a Millais, or from a Landseer to a Briton Riviere. I believe that the effect would be most corrective and salutary as well as instructive. Something of this sort was experienced a few weeks ago in the first, and in every way most interesting, exhibition given by the new Society of Portrait Painters. Though it was originated by younger spirits, they were wise enough to invite old hands to send some works of recognised repute. Not only is it a great delight to see old friends among pictures again, an opportunity not offered otherwise in London except at rare intervals, but the comparison is most wholesome. To return to the painter etchers, there were some wise heads among them when this plan was devised. It is an 14 PAINTER-ETCHING inestimable boon to the members of the Society, and a distinct training to the public, if they will but go and look for themselves, and study. The indifference of the public has no doubt made the struggle of the Society a hard one, but it will have to contend with still further difficulties ; among which one of the most serious, to my judgment, will be for the immediate present the dearth of good original etchers, from whom they can add to their ranks ; for it is an exclusive society, and not like the Royal Academy, which this year placed two thousand outside works by the side of two hundred contributed by members. This forces me to reiterate my regret that so few painters attempt etching, for, from what class of artists shall we hope to draw recruits for original etching, if not from the painters ? When Brahms was asked why he did not write operas, he replied that a composer must have at least two failures in operatic writing before he can hope to succeed, and for himself that he was too old. A painter of standing could well say that he must have two dozen failures in etching before he can hope to succeed, and that he was too old for that experiment. Then the whole mental training of the painter is somewhat antagonistic to the necessary mental vision of an etcher. There is a wild fascinating disorder about the feelings of an etcher when at work that would throw a trained painter off his balance. A painter can sit down to paint a scene in nature with a pretty clear assurance in his own mind that he can make something of it. He can sit down without any PAINTER-ETCHING 15 special mental preparation for the work — or in other words, with but little mental screwing tip — and succeed. How dif- ferent is the case of the etcher. Even if a subject should attract him he must be “peculiarly ready” before he can grasp it for expression by synthesis or in a manner wholly suggestive. Pictorial interest must give way to the etcher’s sense of line, and he must feel before he begins that he can account for everything in that scene by an indirect truthfulness. Now a good camera- obscura will reduce the forms and tones of nature into a perfectly pictorial aspect, an aspect that a painter would at once grasp and strive to get. This view of nature is useless to the mind of the etcher. There is nothing to guide him but that subtle inner consciousness that can neither be counted upon nor passed from one per- son to another. In each it is an original and indispensable condition of the mind. An etcher starts over and over again with some distinct plan of work, after a complete surrender to a favourite etching of a past master, but the spell works and puts him out of his fixed path, and lo ! there comes something else altogether, — so he thinks at least, — until looking back he sees that his work has reflected the work that he vainly strove to copy. Does this prospect tempt my brother painters? The difficulties in the way have not been disguised, but there would be little chance for success unless the painter threw himself heart and soul into the work. He must have a good printing press, and all things ready PAINTER-ETCHING i6 and handy for good printing. He must have dishes for biting, and not rely, as a friend of mine did, upon a bed- room wash-hand basin. He must above all not mind trouble and disappointment, and be of a temperament that can keep red-hot with enthusiasm in spite of constant disillusions and irritations, and not allow a plate to over- bite out of pure bad temper, or revenge for past wrongs. All this makes the painter, who has already a position in his art, hesitate before he takes the plunge. It is not worth while urging a painter to do a plate now and again just to satisfy one’s curiosity as to his probable capacity for the art. Excite him about etching certainly, but he must ignite spontaneously. Again, some painters have thought it only necessary to draw the subject on the plate, and leave the biting to a “ practical man.” That is even worse than composing a piece of music in piano form, and then giving it to another musician to score for orchestra. Dry-point a painter might always manage, but the bitten line, with its unapproachable grandeur, strength, and clearness, must always tax even the most capable etcher to the utmost — ay, and he never seems to get to the end of its capabilities. Therefore the painter who entrusts to another this form of final expression cannot be called an etcher. As Mr. Frank Short says, he is only a “draughtsman on copper.” Far better that such an one should draw with pen on paper and have his ink lines reproduced mechanically. It is this double expression that startles and balks the PAINTER-ETCHING 17 painter when he first touches copper. Again, to be forced to abstain from pressure for gradation of tone is a second irrita- tion. Lastly, to make a line deliberately that is not to remain the width it is drawn seems so alien to the painter’s nature. Here, indeed, are obstacles enough, and yet I am convinced that more etchers can be drawn from the ranks of painters than from mere draughtsmen, because the etcher must be by nature a colourist ; whereas a wood-draughtsman’s work deadens his sense of colour. One would naturally suppose, however, that those clever draughtsmen on wood, or as we call them illustrators, who have made the illustrated papers of the last twenty-five years so remarkable, were almost ready-made etchers. There is a long list of such men, beginning with Sir John Gilbert, then going on to Fred Walker, Pinwell, Du Maurier, Charles Keene, A. B. Houghton, Charles Green, Luke Fildes, Small, E. J. Gregory, R. W. Macbeth, Mrs. Allingham, and Frank Holl. Then comes a newer and much longer list of younger men, who are so clever that it would have gone hard with many of us if they had existed a couple of decades earlier. But of the former list, how many have become etchers? I think Mr. Macbeth and I make up the company. The habits of sight — of artistic sight — are vastly different in the wood-draughtsman and the etcher. The draughtsman has a totally different method of getting at form and tonality, even if he draws with lines. There is immediate finality in his touches, which he would have to unlearn as an etcher. D PAINTER-ETCHING How little practice the wood-draughtsman gets in colour with his work we see by his first attempts to paint, for he only succeeds in producing a drab-coloured drawing. This is hardly surprising, seeing that colour is by far the most delicate and sensitive of the artistic faculties. It is the slowest to come, and often the first to go. They say Meryon was colour blind, and therefore took to etching. I cannot believe that. No etcher could have suggested such richness of colour, through the grandest quality of the bitten line, without being by nature a superb colourist. Probably he never handled the colour pigments enough to realise his conception of tone and colour, but it leaped out readily when he once handled copper. His early sketches in pencil of New Zealand are miserable productions — but not so his etched edition of the same. Of course there was a considerable interval between the two periods, and his sense of local colour may have grown into maturity during the interval. Or look at Turner’s earliest water-colours, and then go to his golden middle period ! Look at Fred Walker’s earliest water colours, so cold, and so like tinted book illustra- tions, and then compare them with his later period of the “Fish Shop,” “Marlow Ferry,” or even “ The Swallow ” ! Endless examples can be found of this slow and delicate growth of the colour faculty. In my own school I lay the greatest importance upon the quality of the colour my pupils produce ; for I know they will be as good draughtsmen as their natural gifts will enable them PAINTER-ETCHING 19 to be ; but unless watched by a patient master, or by them- selves, the delicate faculty of colour may wither before they know of its real existence, or it may be never properly brought into life. It is therefore the sense of colour that an etcher must possess quite as much as power of drawing. The real colourist will give you in an etching all the sensations of looking at a fully toned rendering of nature, but with little labour. The poor colourist labours to get local tonality. In a word, the best etchers suggest tone and cotour ; the worst etchers make tone either by a multitude of tedious lines, or by undue or illegitimate “ dodging" in the printing. You will gather from what I have so far said, that etching is for the few — for the few to appreciate, and for the few to produce. If, however, I did not think that it is pos- sible to increase the minority of producers, I should not now be preaching to you my faith. When last I lectured here on this subject, I gave but little critical attention to it, merely giving some details of the ordinary methods of work. My object is a different one now. If I preach a faith that I have, after many years of doubt and experiment, arrived at, it is to suggest remedies for the future. And my first point of attack must be fashion, responsible as it is for endless harm to art. Its existence no one can seriously doubt, though no one has yet been able to say with certainty how a fashion gets started. As an instance of the way in which it changes, look at the engravers who formed 20 PAINTER-ETCHING their style on Cousins’ work when his reputation was at its highest. Such of them as still survive are nearly unem- ployed. And why ? Because the fashion has reverted from the mixed style of engraving to etching (not original) and pure mezzotint. Now plates that become popular are always, or nearly always, a surprise to all concerned in them; sometimes the surprise is doubly great when an undoubtedly good plate becomes popular. But the moment a certain subject proves to be successful, the publishers “ rush ” several other similar subjects into the market, generally with fatal results. Meanwhile the damage to taste has been done. The pub- lishers think of what will sell with the public ; but, strange to say, the public does not know what to buy, and it is the publisher who can, and who does, make the public buy what he likes. Therein lies one of the remedies, for I have faith in the generation of dealers ; and if they would but stand shoulder to shoulder, the public would gladly submit to the right thing with mind and purse, and the artists would take off their hats to them. It is a mere question of drifting or not drifting into wrong paths of life. It is a mere question of strength, whether the dealers will allow themselves to drift with a mysterious current or fashion, or stay the current with the strong arms they possess, thus benefiting the art itself, and saving themselves from the certainty of having much work on their hands that will be unsaleable when the short- lived fashion has passed. I hold their opportunities of doing PAINTER-ETCHING 2 I good to art in general to be equal to their powers of doing evil, but I sincerely believe they would do the best thing for art in general, if it did not mean certain ruin, and that is but a natural and thoroughly human precaution. But we shall find in the long run that the best thing in art pays best. In the print trade I would certainly urge that the liabilities of dealers should be lessened with regard to original work, even if the profits are reduced, and surely that will level con- ditions again. The artist should have a secure basis in making his charges, and I cannot believe that this can be accomplished if all the liabilities rest with the dealers, for in that case the artist must himself lose unjustly at times through the force of circumstances. I shall treat this subject further in my next lecture. If fashion can change within a decade, I plead that the next change shall be in favour of original etching, with a revulsion of feeling against such immense plates, and that the public shall make it worth the dealer’s while to encourage this art before all reproductive art, which would still leave a large margin for the reproduction of the best works of the year in the most artistic manner. But such reproductions could only be executed worthily by men who are thorough artists, and who could also do original work if only encouraged. All the young engravers that I have trained belong to this category. That dealers can do much when they stand together was shown not long ago, when they, through some right instinct, practically drove photogravure out of the market as a means 22 PAINTER-ETCHING of producing the best pictures. Their instinct was more correct than that of the painters, for the painters instantly showed an incomprehensible delight in this new mechanical process that was to oust all living engravers for ever from the field. They said, “ Here at least is our own work, and not that of another man.” How little truth there is in such an assertion I shall hope to make plain when I treat the subject of mezzotint engraving. At present I only mention this fact to prove once more that our English dealers show right instincts, and can, and do, change a current fashion or a sudden craze. A better remedy still against certain evils in the print trade would be, that the public, who must give up that indecision with which they usually enter a dealer’s shop, should decide upon the thing they want without depending entirely upon the dealer’s advice. The dealer will of course submit certain things to the judgment of the client, but, in the better state of public taste to which we look forward, the decision should rest with the client. Thus the public and the dealer would combine to a great end. I am no friend to the middleman, but our methods of life positively necessitate some channel by which the lover of art can be made cognisant of obtainable etchings, as he will other- wise waste too much time in trying to get at the worker himself. This is the excuse for modern advertisements, without which, for instance, none of our illustrated papers could exist. PAINTER-ETCHING 23 For the advancement of original etching, such a body as the Royal Society of Painter Etchers should be able to do a great deal' — that is, when it once secures the confidence of the public. And as for the producers, with whom my sympathies naturally lie, I feel sure that the unnecessary difficulties of the technique have deterred many a painter from attempting etching. If my new positive ground relieves them of the terror of the technique, as it has done me, and if in the next decade it shall help the production of good etching work from the painters, I shall deem it a great privilege to be classed with the two men, G. P. Hamerton and F. S. Haden, who have for years fought so bravely for the revival of an art that was lost, but that must in the near future be as universally appreciated as it was in the days of Rembrandt. A New White Ground for Positive Process. It is my intention in these lectures to describe only the processes that I have found best, and I refer such of my hearers as may wish to compare what I have either invented, or now recommend, with the older processes, to Mr. Hamer- ton’s book, called The Etchers' Handbook. One sleepless night not long since I lay pondering over the principles of grounds for etching, and the thought came again and again to me to try to find a white ground, for a positive process, that should for all time do away with 24 PAINTER-ETCHING the old negative method, which had given me such endless trouble, — a ground that should enable me to see my lines black on the white surface. How could I tell what I was doing when I saw glittering copper lines on a jet black ground, knowing all the time that they were eventually to represent black lines on a white ground ? I constantly felt all the joy taken out of the work by the uncertainty of the process, but reflected that it had always been the method — Rembrandt did it, and it was only my misfortune that I could not master the recognised processes with any degree of certainty. Still I thought, and thought, and thought. It was with figure subjects that I found the old process most troublesome and irritating,— and I have done a large proportion of original figure subjects in the last ten years, although I disclaim many of them from a technical point of view, — something clearly had to be done before I could start a new series of etchings. That night I got as far as to think of an ordinary ground, but unsmoked, being covered with Chinese white. The trial proved that the white chipped under the needle. This, therefore, was useless, because there must be abso- lutely no hindrance to the free use of the needle ; there must also be the possibility of making lines close together, without in any way breaking up the ground in between. But I clearly saw that so far I was on the right track, and the principle was, to lay an ordinary ground on the plate first, unsmoked, and then to coat that with some- PAINTER-ETCHING 25 thing that should produce a dead white surface, without adding a perceptible pigment to the underground. Long and unsuccessful experiments followed, until my wife in conversation led my thoughts to a material which, upon the very first trial, realised my dream. Here it is. First lay a ground — say Rembrandt's or Bosses — in the ordinary way, with a dabber, but leave it unsmoked. It has a golden, light brown colour, and is diy as soon as the plate is cold. Then take what all actors use for their faces-so-called grease-paint. It is in handy sticks costing a shilling each, and is to be had in all colours at any theatrical shop, such as Clarkson’s, Wellington Street, Strand. You take the white grease-paint stick, and hold it in your left hand, and take from it what you get by dabbing your finger on it, which you dab back on to the ground that is already laid on the plate. Dab it as equally as possible, but not too thickly. Then rub into that somewhat soft upper ground, which will be of a pale, warm white colour, the finest powdered zinc-white with a soft and rather thick camel-hair brush. This at once clings to the greasy substance of the grease- paint, and the result is a dead white surface like pafer. Where the point removes this white ground, the copper shows as a dark brown or almost black line. The plate must not be too cold when the grease-paint is dabbed on, and the chill should just be taken off when the zinc-white is brushed into it, but not more than the chill. 26 PAINTER-ETCHING Here we have literally two grounds put upon the plate : the first an ordinary ground, which in itself is sufficiently safe for all biting, if properly laid ; and the second, being composed mostly of mutton fat, has its own inherent power of resisting acid. An ordinary ground may be made as follows : — White Wax, 2 oz. Gum Mastic, i „ Asphaltum, i „ I make my own ground, and shall do so as long as the splendid asphaltum lasts which I got from a mummy’s head that Mr. F. Goodall, R.A., presented to me some years ago. Laying this ground is simple. First take care that your room is as free from dust as possible, continually dusting the table with a damp towel, so that the bits of fluff and dust that would again rise from it with the least breath are arrested. Screw one little corner of the plate tightly in a hand-vice, and warm it over a spirit- lamp. Your ground, which is a hard ball, covered with taffeta silk, is then passed over the surface of the hot copper. The ground will ooze out through the silk, and must be equalised by the dabber, until it is of uniform thickness on the plate. Then heat the plate once more, to melt the ground all over, and, without further touching it, place the plate with its face to a clean wall to cool. Care must be taken not to get the plate too hot, or the ground will burn and thereby lose its efficacy. PAINTER-ETCHING 27 The dabber is made by first cutting a circular piece of cardboard, of about three inches in diameter, upon which you place a little bunch of horsehair, then cotton-wool on the top of that, finally covering all with the same silk just mentioned and bound with string at the back. A number of grounds can be done at the same sit- ting (for they only take a few moments to do), and then covered with demy paper and put away. As soon as the plate is cool it is ready for use, and the white ground can be put over it without further delay. The convenience of the white ground is as great a charm as its certainty. Those sticks of white grease-paint can always be trusted, but of course the first ground must be firmly laid, for we principally rely on that to resist the acid, as the finger lays the grease-paint on rather porously ; but I have not found any better way of doing it. Still its main object is to hold the zinc-white, and rather assist than injure the lower ground. The shavings which the point brings up during work are of no consequence, and can be brushed off with a soft sable brush without reducing the whiteness of the zinc-white. The time it takes to lay such a double ground on a plate 6x8, without counting the time for the plate to cool after the first ground, is about fifteen to twenty-five minutes. Every etcher should lay his own grounds or he cannot know their quality. The white grounds described in Mr. Hamerton’s book are really transparent grounds, and are not white in aspect 28 PAINTER^ETCHING unless the plate is first silvered. This is very well when you work in the bath, when the lines turn black by the action of the Dutch mordant. But to try to work out of the bath on this waxed silver ground, one would have to go through the silver before the copper told as a black or dark line. This would at once deprive the etcher of that freedom of action with the needle that should be “as easy ” (to quote Mr. Ruskin) “ as lying.” My white coating can be applied to most unsmoked grounds. It can be put over Rhind’s transparent chloroform ground, which is poured on to the plate, — -a ground much liked by some etchers; or upon a ground that is made soft with oil of lavender, and applied with the roller ; only the latter takes some time to dry,— sometimes long enough to cool the etcher’s ardour. But I recommend the ordinary ground applied with the dabber as the underground for my white surface. The Transfer. The finest draughtsman needs a little play with the pencil before he can place his correct line; therefore some sort of transfer is necessary before the etcher can start on his plate. It is next to impossible to start a figure or a face direct on the copper, unless it be in dry-point, in which the light scratches are almost as easily erased as pencil from paper. But once remove the ground with your point and you are seriously committed. None of the transfers I know of are quite satisfactory. PAINTER-ETCHING 29 as most of them are apt to cause some confusion to the eye when the work with the point is placed over the transferred lines. I have even tried photography as a means of transfer. Not very long before I discovered my white positive ground I made a last desperate attempt to find some method whereby I could transfer and bite in the first pen sketch for a composition, as a preparation for the further work on the plate. This was when I was engaged upon the illustrations to my Pictorial Music Play: An Idyll. I had already done some of them in the ordinary and orthodox way ; but I had a peculiarly difficult task in these illustrations, because the scenes had to be represented as nearly as possible as I had placed them on the stage, as so many people had witnessed, and, I am happy to say, remembered the play. I should have had no difficulty with my white ground, because the entire work is visible on the plate, — in black lines on a white surface. But on the black ground I never seemed to know what my composition was like, and to copy a drawing literally meant losing all spontaneity in the work. So I tried, only in a few of the illustrations, to get the design which I had drawn larger, and with pen and ink on paper, on to the plate in reduced size. These lines were transferred by means of photography, and then bitten in the usual way. But my troubles were increased instead of reduced by this method, because the pen makes too broad a line, and by this process of transfer they remain too shallow in the biting. Again, only half the lines came out in the reduced state. As the work that was produced on the plates was so shallow, I 30 PAINTER-ETCHING was compelled to rebite the plates and work them up by a succession of fresh grounds, taking care that all my additional lines were broad, so as to match the original lines. Instead of a steel point I used a closed up pen-nib ; but by not biting the lines deeply, I found they were apt to run together in a manner that was not to be remedied. Thus I had light places where depth was required, and this was caused by the bitten spaces, which were too open and large, no longer catching the ink. Some etchers rather encourage this by what is called surface biting, but I do not like it. Having so far criticised the few etchings to this opera worked in this way, I may add that amongst the black music notes they seem to take their places well, and almost better than the etchings in which the lines were deeper but narrower. But let it be clearly understood that the manner of transfer of the design adopted for a few of these illustrations (afterwards rebitten and worked all over) in no way altered the fact of their being etchings in the real sense of the word. The lines were done by the artist and bitten in by the artist, and that with original design constitutes an original etching. A mere reproduction of a pen drawing is quite another thing, and does not enter into our field of investigation. I have used the pen in former times to start etchings — for the outline in fact — but without photography, and in this way : — I silvered the copper plate first, then I drew freely with pen and Indian ink (which works beautifully on this silvered surface). Then I covered this whole drawing with litho- graphic ink, which I laid on with the roller. The next A PEN ETCHING. This is fully described on page 30. 'p^ ^ ^ •< /v ’ PvA-v:V. ':^:^:>:i-^ . •-_ , • V ■ ^'ji'’ '- tJ "- - ^ 5’;^' r ”- ^' ■■■^' is‘- -^^^~\ • ; -Vv/./ i- „. ~ -H. . ... t';. , ■* :'f-r.'- L ■ \ ‘ ,/■•;• ■■^"■>- =• ',.S*’«f'*S?J is^l^ ■jj’ J i. (n-.' |kv., , » C'a 4 '> ,^-i:... m. rh PAINTER-ETCHING 31 process was to place the plate in cold water, and begin manipulating the surface that was covered with lithographic ink with cotton-wool — that is, by gently rubbing it. Soon the lithographic ink came away from the places where the Indian ink lines had been drawn, but remained on the surface where there were no lines. I became acquainted with this process in America in the year 1883, when I was initiated into it as a secret upon payment of a heavy sum ; but I find that a method sub- stantially similar is mentioned in Mr. Hamerton’s book. Here you had the lines drawn on the plate in a positive form, and turned afterwards into a negative form ready for biting in no, not quite ready, because the lithographic ink is too porous to resist the acid well, and to give it more resisting power it had to be dusted with dragon’s blood in powder form, which adheres to the greasy ink, and can be brushed away from the places where lines are made. The plate is then subjected to the acid in the usual way, and parts stopped out. But you never get rid of the look of pen work in this process, as you will see in the illustration I give. Photography as applied to scientific purposes is only beginning its wonderful career. Perhaps the day will come when it may give etchers some assistance, but at present I cannot see its utility. One of the first portrait painters in Europe not only transfers his outlines from negatives taken direct from nature, but goes over the lines with pen and ink, and often allows those lines to show through the thin paint. He evidently 32 PAINTER-ETCHING finds photography a useful servant, but I have never been able to see the same proportions in nature that a lens produces, and cannot help wondering how he arrives at his photo- graphic view of nature. The often-asked question, Should an artist use photography? can be answered in these few words : Photography can only be used well by a first-rate artist, and his art will in no way be jeopardised by the use of it as a suggestive adjunct. I should like to know how many artists there are in the world at the present time who never have attempted to make use of photography. Not many. But although I think it can be of the greatest use to the strong artist, I think it has done infinite mischief to some of the younger generation of painters, and has given a peculiar and often offensive turn to the art of our times. But to return to the “transfer" after this digression, I have to declare that after all my experiments I have come back again to the thin paper that is black-leaded on one side. As you buy it there is too much black-lead on the surface, and I wipe a large portion of it off. Then I place the black- leaded side face downwards on my white ground, draw the ends over the edges to the back of the plate, and fix them there with shellac, which, as we shall see later on, is my stopping-out material. Now you can begin to scribble lightly on the white side of your transfer paper, and as soon as your eye grasps the form within your suggestive scribbling, you draw your firm outline with a greater pressure of the pencil — which will PAINTER-ETCHING 33 cause the black-lead to repeat them on the white ground. With the old method of black ground, it was customary to damp the paper upon which the pencil outline was made, and then to lay the pencilled side face downward on the ground and run it through the press. If successful, the pencil would come off as a light gray line upon the black ground ; but success can by no means be ensured by this method. If the pressure is too great you run the risk of the paper sticking to the ground ; if too light, the lines will not come off ; besides, damped paper stretches unequally, and I have found outlines which demanded great exactitude to be disastrously put out of drawing from this cause. For outdoor work, or work direct from nature, this method is almost prohibited, because you cannot expect an etcher to make only an outline at the first sitting, and return to the real work after such an interval as must elapse if he is obliged to make use of a printing press. Subjects that are complete in nature give comparatively little trouble in the outlining. Even a head or a single figure offers few difficulties ; but when it is a question of design, — of composition in figure work, the real difficulties begin. I have come to the conclusion that there is no more practicable way of getting such an outline on the plate than to draw the whole mass of your design, without nature, upon the white side of the black-leaded paper, not finishing or elaborating the parts ; and then to draw each figure direct from nature into the indications of the design F 34 PAINTER-ETCHING thus transferred to the plate, of course remembering all the time its relation to the rest of the composition. In our early days of wood-drawing we proceeded in this way. Just as it enabled us then to keep the spontaneity in the work which can only be obtained by direct work from nature, so will the etcher keep his whole feeling fresh without having blunted any of his sensibility by the making of elaborate sketches, or the tedious ordeal of elaborate out- lining. Here again my white ground stands incomparably above all other grounds that I have known, for the simple reason that the whole result is as clearly seen on it as if it were drawn with the pen upon paper. The transfer paper I have named should be tested before setting to work, to find what pressure of the pencil is necessary, because great inconvenience will be experienced by the black-lead transfer line appearing too strong on the white surface, being very like the colour of the copper when the white ground is removed by the point. In any case, the lines transferred should be as few as possible. In the old method I have described of laying the pencilled lines face downwards on the ground, and running them through the press, the outline of course came the reverse way on the plate. Should it be required to reverse the subject on the plate in order to make it come out the right way when printed, it will be necessary, in using my method, to draw the subject the reverse way on the transfer paper, which can easily be done by drawing from the reflection of the subject in a mirror. PAINTER-ETCHING 35 This must be done if you wish to keep a scene topo- graphically correct. But I think every subject should be first examined with a mirror, because a motive in landscape may look best the way it is seen in nature, in which case it should be done the reverse way on the plates. Portraits should always be drawn the reverse way on the plate, because much of the likeness depends upon the irregularities of the face being given to the parts as they occur in nature, and not be made to finally come out the reverse way. The Work on the Plate. I have already stated that the direction of the line and the character given to the line in etching involve two distinct mental efforts. The etcher, whilst drawing the line, should always think of the second expression he intends to give it by the acid. That is, after all, a matter of judgment and experience. The action and scheme of line-work are the outcome of his most intense artistic sensibility. Nature, with all its complex forms, has to be made clear with a few touches, and the union of its elements has to be built up by means of a few lines. And yet how wonderful it is that such a method of synthetic expression should represent complex nature at all, for there is no line in nature. But it again illustrates the fact that true art is not an imitation, but an interpretation of nature. There is to me no mental phenomenon more wonder- 36 PAINTER-ETCHING ful than the artistic “seeing” of nature. Six first-rate artists painting the same thing will paint six different versions of that object, because the artistic seeing of each artist is influenced by his idiosyncrasy and habits of thought. Etching, more than all the other arts, reveals the innermost feelings of those who practise it successfully. When we take into consideration how splendid are the qualities that can be given to the most rapid workmanship, we need not wonder that this art takes so strong a hold upon some natures. A pencil sketch, or a pen sketch, can be done with somewhat the same rapidity ; but what a poor thing is such a line on paper compared to the etched or dry-point line when printed ! Without rapidity of workmanship etching becomes a cool calculative effort, deprived of all its joy — barren, unimpassioned, worthless. Hence the character, the indisputably legitimate character, of etching is so often lost when mere painstaking and con- scientious work breaks the spell under which the best work alone can be done. An etcher must have a craving for a certain subject before he attempts to etch it ; if he can wait calmly for days before he attacks it, he lacks the finest instinct of the etcher. An artist who has never etched cannot know how valuable is line, or how much it can do, even unassisted, to represent tonality. But even an etcher requires a long time before he can realise how much tone can be suggested by a few open lines, much of course depending upon the way they are bitten and printed. Still, myriads of lines can be employed PAINTER-ETCHING 37 without losing one jot of the artistic freshness of the etchings. It depends where they are placed, as well as how they are drawn. The use of line differs in etching according to the etcher’s mood and temperament. But it also differs from the line that is found in wood-draughtsmen’s or pen-draughts- men’s work, which is always more pictorially suggestive than definite and structural. If you take a magnifying glass and look at the eye of Rembrandt’s etching of himself leaning on a stone sill, you will see what I mean by structural work, — he has passed his line uncompromisingly round the actual forms ; and if you apply the same means of examina- tion to one of that excellent artist. Abbey’s, pen-drawings — say to his book of Herrick, or his illustrations to Shake- speare — you will see what I mean by pictorial suggestiveness of work. Too much of the latter feeling is apt to lead the artist into a false kind of etching, where the meaning of the line is neglected in the endeavour to produce tone by the mere multiplication of lines. Forms are painted out with stopping- out varnish on a layer of lines produced more or less mechanic- ally, often by means of four needles soldered close together. Mr. Rhind makes these tempting needles very well, but they are the most dangerous things that can be put into the hands of an etcher ; I still have them by me, but use them most sparingly. They have been much used by some eminent etchers in the copying of pictures, in order to force etching artificially into a vehicle for the imitation of tonality, for which it was never intended. I have also seen it in original etchings within the last few years. PAINTER-ETCHING 3S Here I have touched one very difficult point in etching, namely tonality ; it is a perpetual stumbling-block, and leads many an etcher into filling up his work with too many lines. How terrible is the danger then in being able to make four lines with one stroke ! We must always remember that the line is the thing in etchings and if it is to represent anything it must be free fro7n all mechanism— from all mechanical repetition. But I have already stated that lines can be introduced in large numbers without danger to the freedom of the work; for instance, by putting a mass of lines in a face so close together that, with light biting, they form a tone, you still see the glimmering through the tone, of structural work, if the lines have been drawn with one point, and with a proper feeling for the forms. Therefore, as etching is capable of so many varieties of line-work, indeed, of as many as there are temperaments to practise it, it is useless to press any theory too far. Within the bounds that I have suggested, there are endless pos- sibilities of great work without attempting what must strike most observers on reflection as false or forced. And now the question arises. How much difference of width in line should be given with the point on the plate before biting ? I fear I must differ from Mr. Hamerton, who says that “ In general practice it is most desirable that lines should remain as nearly as possible such as they were originally drawn.” A BAVARIAN PEASANT (D. This is a fac-simile (reproduced by photo-etching) of the drawing on the plate before it was bitten by the mordant ■, printed in a colour somewhat resembling that of the copper as seen where the point had removed my white ground. The reproduction is defective in that all the lines are wider than in the original drawing. s, ‘.Sai *k ^ " ^ ■*< ^ 5’J. ■;■• «‘ . ,%• : ..:-c^M'i-> ... . r-.-u-;;i.sS -- w'VV =s:. ,V'!y , .; •■ -v.-wr ■•‘'3m?%'- ;4..^:u4^T ■ . ,■ '-» V 4lr4yia»i..y;., '■^’^•^1- ' JB V, ; ■ - .„, " ■ .' ,'f "■ - M jy ' ■ ..y » " ^ '-. .'v ■'■ ■ . !. ^ * A BAVARIAN PEASANT (2). Print from the bitten plate. The work on the plate took less than an hour to do, direct from nature; the biting about five hours, at a temperature of 65° Fahr. There were five stoppings-out, and Dutch mordant only was used. ' 1 ■ ‘]|4f iU k ‘^’k-m< > 'iii i " ' ^ yi^^Syf ^-^'-i>(^fy: trv^Y^i'tyr 'f^r.J.-Ur^f ' ^ \1'^ '^Y^-i% ’-^t, ■'' ^ ■^<^f \h - PAINTER-ETCHING 39 This would at once deprive you of the benefits arising from the second and additional mode of expression. It is, moreover, a fallacy to think that the Dutch mordant, for which the virtue is claimed of leaving your work as you draw it, does not widen the lines as it goes down deeply through any ordinarily good ground. Compare my illustra- tion of the Bavarian peasant in its bitten state with the reproduction of the lines before they were bitten. You will see that — although the lines in the latter are too wide, owing to the photo-mechanical process employed — I used mostly one width of line throughout, and varied them only in the biting, and this was done with the Dutch mordant alone. (Of course there is no comparison between the widening powers of the Dutch mordant, or the perchloride of iron mordant, and nitric acid, which latter tears at the sides, where the point has removed the ground, much more violently.) The lines that are drawn on the plate should be more or less of one width, so as to allow the mind to concentrate itself on their direction, thereby separating etching from every other kind of drawing. I am speaking now of the bitten line, and shall leave the dry-point and burin line for separate analysis and treatment. By the force of artistic feeling an etcher will seize essentials and leave out non-essentials. The passion that must goad him along will bring out a truth in nature that is only accurate in the abstract, for he may deviate from the literal truth, from measurable or photographic truth, as much as he likes ; but his individuality must appear in the result. 40 PAINTER-ETCHING This individuality by its passion and force becomes a “truth- finder” in itself, and forces other minds to see with it. No man can be called an etcher who does not possess this power of carrying others along with him. We may say this of artists in every other branch of art ; but it applies most strongly to the etcher. Therefore the work on the plate can be summed up in a single sentence ; — it is the mind of the artist. We have now to consider the steel “ point ” with which we draw on the plate — that is, with which we remove the ground, to permit the acid to attack the plate. The best way of sharpening a “ point ” is not the usual method of passing it up and down the stone, but to roll the body of the point between the palms of your hands, so that it may touch the stone only at the end of the steel. By careful manipulation in this way you can get a very sharp or a very rounded top to the point. As it is most essential that all the ground should be re- moved with the point, the end of your steel should, when tried on your nail, just scratch it a little, but not so much as to stick ; if the point sticks into the copper you seriously impede the freedom of workmanship. But if it scratches a little no impediment is put in the way of freedom of work, and yet you can be quite sure that all the ground will be removed, thus ensuring regular biting. One end of your steel point can be ground so as to produce a rather wider line than the other end, but, as I have explained before, it is better to rely on the biting to give variety of width. Varying the PAINTER-ETCHING 41 width of the lines on the plate is all very well when you do not intend to stop-out parts during the biting. In fact the stopping -out might entirely negative the intention you originally had in varying the lines. Let me then repeat that you are to draw freely and without restraint, choosing the point that suits you best, and then allow it to pass over the surface as rapidly as your mind can direct it, and leave the further and fuller expression of the lines thus produced to the action of biting with the acid. The Acid Bath. My white ground enables you to see absolutely and without any question of doubt or uncertainty the entire work on your plate; and that is a blessing. But here the full blessing must stop, as the further process of biting a plate must always remain to some extent hazardous and conjectural. I pass now to some details. When the drawing on the plate is completed the back and edges must be covered with some acid-resisting material, and for this purpose I find shellac, dissolved in absolute alcohol, most useful, as it dries in a few minutes ; then examine your work once more very closely, until you can make up your mind as to the treatment you intend to give it in the bath. Believe me, failure in biting arises much more from not knowing how wide or deep you ought to bite your lines than from any of the difficulties of judging the bitten line before the ground is removed. I cannot insist on this too much, G 42 PAINTER-ETCHING for doubt or uncertainty in this matter means failure, or at the best success by a fluke, neither of which conditions is desirable. Therefore, with a thorough certainty of the kind of lines you want, you may place your plate bodily in the bath of the Dutch mordant, and be pretty sure of getting the result you desire, in spite of the hazardous nature of this part of the work. As you place the plate in the bath, you will be surprised to see the mordant cause the zinc-white in my positive ground to come off unequally — leaving a few spots of white here and there. This is of no consequence, and by passing a feather over the surface they will all be removed by the time the lines on the plate have become darkened through the action of the mordant. The grease- paint ground remains as you put it on at first, and this gives a very sweet colour over the light brown ground — something of a pale white flesh-colour. You must bear in mind that heat accelerates the action of your mordant. To effect this acceleration without in- creasing unduly the temperature of your room, place your china dish containing the bath and plate upon the so-called heater, or plate - warmer, used for heating the plates in printing — an iron plate, heated underneath by a spirit- lamp, or by gas ; or place your dish in a larger one con- taining hot water, which will have to be renewed from time to time. All mechanical timing of the biting is useless. You may measure the strength of your bath ; you may keep the PAINTER-ETCHING 43 exact temperature of your room ; you may time your plate to a minute ; and you will still find a constant variation in results. Therefore trust to the examination of your line with a powerful magnifying glass. If you hold the plate in a sharp side light, you can, with considerable cer- tainty, judge how deeply the lines are bitten. Another way is to pass a needle across some lines where an extra line or two will not matter, and form your judgment by the resistance the bitten lines give your needle; but I have found the former answer most accurately. Biting a plate is a different kind of excitement from drawing on the plate, for the etcher has to concentrate his whole mind on the action of the bath, and the character he intends to give his lines. During this operation all interruptions are fatal to the temper of the etcher, which, with the strain of attention upon it, is easily upset, and that with dreadful consequences ; wives of etchers — please note ! It happens, now, that after a certain time the mordant stops work. It apparently bites no further. If the etcher is weak, or of a hesitating nature, he will remove the ground, and find to his annoyance that the lines are not bitten enough ; but if he is master of his material he will not let such a freak interfere with his firm intention of biting the lines as he wants. What has caused this stoppage ? It is explained by Mr. Hamerton thus : “By allowing the mordant to remain long undisturbed on the copper, a coat of oxide gets formed, which is not dissolved as the acid solvent is weakened.” To 44 PAINTER-ETCHING set the plate free from this bondage, take it out of the bath and wash it with clean water, passing a soft brush about the work. I also frequently give the plate a rinse with a weak solution of nitric acid and water. This, though it takes the black out of the lines caused by the Dutch mordant, yet makes the latter attack it well again, pre- venting, in fact, the stoppage of the eating. The Dutch mordant will immediately blacken the lines again, as soon as you put the plate back into the bath. Shellac, of the best kind, dissolved in purest alcohol makes, as I have found by experience, an excellent stopping- out material. It dries almost instantaneously, and can be applied with a tiny sable brush to the smallest portions of the plate that you desire to save from the acid. When lines are already strongly bitten, the shellac must be put on a little thicker in the stopping-out. Stopping-out during the process of biting is a part of the work that is tedious and time-robbing. But it is of the greatest importance, if the etcher desires to give to his lines that full expression which corresponds to the expression given by an executant on any particular instrument to a composer’s work. You may take the design and scheme of line work as corresponding to the composition, the performance of the composition being paralleled by the action of biting in the lines. Suppose the work on the plate is done ; it has been the outcome of artistic passion thrown off at white heat. Now must come cool judgment and mental restraint — as this crucial work of stopping-out begins. PAINTER-ETCHING 45 To produce the full expression of the line it is well to employ, alternately, both mordants — the Dutch mordant and nitric acid. The former is composed of — Chlorate of Potash, i oz. (avd.) Hydrochloric Acid, 5 „ (liq.) Water, 30 ,, and bites much more deeply than broadly. The latter, which should be used with equal parts of water, broadens the lines, and may be especially employed for the strongest parts of the plate. I mention the alternate use of both mordants because every now and then the etcher desires to give the whole scheme of lining a little touch up in width. And as he stops-out the finest lines first, and then the next finest, and so on, until he has a series of lines left at the last that are to be very strongly bitten, it is well to finish off with this powerful nitric acid, always keeping a sharp eye on the stopped-out parts. However, for all general use and for all delicate work, the Dutch mordant is incomparably the best. Its advantages are many : it blackens the line and thus enables you to see your work in the bath, — that is, with an unsmoked ground or w'ith my grease-paint ground ; it does not give off any unpleasant gases ; it does not stain your clothes ; it is not injurious to the health of the operator; and it attacks the plate equally, whether the lines are far apart or close together. Nitric acid, on the other hand, bites far more rapidly where the lines are close together; it does not darken the 46 PAINTER-ETCHING lines, and gives off most offensive gases during the action of biting, which are injurious to throat and chest ; also any drop of it on your clothes means a yellow spot that can never be removed. Still we cannot dismiss this useful but un- pleasant auxiliary. As every etcher should make his own mordant, I will just describe the method. First, measure ten ounces of ordinary water, boil that, and pour it when boiling over one ounce of chlorate of potash, which should be in a stone jar ; to this, when thoroughly melted, add twenty more ounces of cold water. Now measure five ounces of pure hydrochloric acid, throw in a few little bits of zinc, which will soon be eaten up by the acid ; pour this into the stone jar, and the whole mixture will be ready for use in an hour or two. The solution should be kept in a bottle with a glass stopper, and it can be used again and again, until too much charged with copper, when it becomes inefficient. The indication of inefficiency will be a dark green colour ; a pale green does not matter. For the purpose of examining the plate and stopping-out parts, the plate should be taken out of the bath, and the surface dried with blotting-paper. Cleaning the Plate. When you have bitten the plate as fully as you intend, take it out, put it on the heater, and warm it. Then, after pouring on ordinary methylated spirit, which dissolves the shellac, and finally turpentine, which dissolves the ground. PAINTER-ETCHING 47 wipe the surface till it is quite clean, changing your rags as often as necessary. Here it may happen that you think some parts are over- bitten, or that there is some “ foul biting ” here and there. Do not let this distress you, but take a rubber, or, as it is called in the language of the trade, a “dolly,” and rub the surface of the plate with fine emery-powder and oil. You will sometimes find that what seemed too broad a line was really only a narrowly- bitten line, with its edges stained black by the action of the Dutch mordant ; and that the foul biting was a mere stain on the surface arising from the same cause. This appearance causes all the lines to look broader and deeper than they really are, whilst in the bath ; and if one judges the line by its blackness alone, one is very apt to go astray. Now, however satisfactory the drawing on the plate and the stopping-out may have been, you will invariably find that the work is a little hard and disjointed — that the plate, in fact, lacks unity. In order to blend the parts, and, as it were, pull the work together, fresh lines need to be added, and to enable you to make this addition a second ground will have to be put over the plate. The Transparent Ground. The second ground must be of a transparent nature, and must protect the edges of the bitten lines absolutely from the acid to which you intend to subject the plate again. 48 PAINTER-ETCHING As far as I can make out, nearly all the transparent grounds that are mentioned in books, or sold in the trade, have a considerable degree of uncertainty in their operation. But a friend of mine, Mr. Baskett, the Master of the School of Art at Colchester, has invented a ground that is perfectly transparent, and absolutely protects the edges of the bitten lines. It is quickly put on, and is ready for use within half an hour after it is cold. By his kind permission I herewith give you the ingredients. Melt three ounces of the best paraffin candles with half an ounce of resin in a porcelain- lined milk saucepan ; when they are both thoroughly melted, thin them down with benzoline until the mixture is quite fluid, then pour it over the plate (which has been made warm), just as photographers flood a plate with collodion, — that is to say, hold the plate with a hand -vice, pour the hot mixture into the centre of the plate, manipulate it until it reaches the edges, then pour it off, and when it ceases to run place it quickly on a cold iron plate; this causes the surface to turn dull and dead, — “ matt,” in technical language. A quantity of this ground ought to be made and kept in a jar without the addition of the benzoline, which should be added whenever a small quantity is warmed up for use, — the greatest possible care being taken not to let the benzoline come near any flame, for it is most inflammable. A little practice is necessary to lay the ground on very thinly ; but it is one of the safest grounds I know, and even a moderately thick coating of it works well in the bath. PAINTER-ETCHING 49 The Rembrandt transparent ground, which I lay first on the plate to receive my white ground, would answer the same purpose, and would be absolutely safe. But it can only be so used when it is light enough in colour to permit one to see the most delicate additional lines clearly through it. Most commercial samples I find very dark, probably owing to the inferior quality of asphaltum used in their composition. The Work on the Plate through the Second Ground. I have said before that the etcher should know exactly what character he intends to give the line before he puts the plate first into the bath ; similarly, before he puts it into the second bath he must know whether he intends to finish up the plate entirely with bitten lines, as Rembrandt did exclusively in his first period, or whether he intends to finish his plate with dry-point work, as Rembrandt did in his second period. Dry-point is the easier to apply of the two methods, but it is often of the greatest importance that the first work should be completed and finished in the same character. For this purpose a second ground is indispensable. With the first work perfectly visible through the trans- parent ground, it is possible, by working in the bath, which should always be of the Dutch mordant, to make the most delicate gradations, — either by adding lines to work that seems too open, or by re-enforcing lines that are too faint, H 50 PAINTER-ETCHING or by drawing together parts that seem too disjointed,— in fact, to mend and perfect the first bitten work. You must always bear in mind when you work in the bath that the line you make with the steel point immediately begins to bite; therefore the line you make first will bite more deeply than the line you make last. The process of re-grounding the plate can be repeated as often as you like, and if you have the patience, the most delicate finish can be put into a plate in this way, because with each ground you leave the work underneath secured, and can add fresh lines as well, correcting imperfect ones. Thus I think it far safer, and altogether more practicable, to finish plates in the bath, which is again a positive process, so that from the beginning of the plate, with my white ground, to the different stages of finishing, the etcher sees clearly what he is doing ; in fact he is working all the time with positive processes. A plate can be entirely worked in the bath, which is the positive process used by Mr. Seymour Haden, and also described by Mr. Hamerton. A plate done in this way will have a gradation of line far superior to any gradation that is possible by stopping-out. For landscape with intricate leafage it is a most delightful, not to say logical, method. But I use it also to give delicate tone and modelling to faces — a practice in which I am inclined to think I have not many, if any, followers. I have often felt the desire to give a face a soft tone, something of the character of aquatint or mezzotint, but formed by a mass of lines that are not A CHARTERHOUSE STUDY. This is fully described on page 51. ■KSW- '■ I , 'Wi'-J If, \ *. .' .',• n„,; 1 ‘ . K py?,;;: jl%3/ ... V- ,;-: ^.r ■ ;^’^V' ■ to4: ;, :: ,v , ¥" v^'■ ^ '■ S. ^ ■- ' . .' ■ ■ t:^-' .:' -^'‘' PAINTER-ETCHING 5 1 mechanical, but distinctly of a structural nature. In my new series of etchings I have applied it to several delicate faces to my satisfaction. It gives a character that is as delicate as dry-point, but of a peculiar gray that the dry-point cannot produce. To this end the mordant should be a little weaker, otherwise the lines bite too rapidly, and you cannot get all your modelling done before the acid bites too deeply for the purpose you have in view. A plate in which all the conditions were favourable, and in which I consider the face and hands successfully bitten, is the illustration called “ A Charterhouse Study.” The whole of the plate was first heavily bitten, with the exception of the hands and face, which were left in outline ; then the plate was covered with a “ Baskett ” ground, and the tone and shading given to the hands and face in about twenty minutes. There was no further touching either by dry-point or further bitings. Before passing to dry-point I ought to describe the method of effacing etched work. It is done by first scraping out the etched line with a three-sided scraper, then grinding successively with snakestone and a lump of charcoal (both with oil), and finally working up the surface afresh with fine emery powder and oil on a rubber. To level up the hollow which this erasure necessarily causes, lay the plate face downwards on a small polished-steel anvil and hammer it up from the back with a chaser’s hammer. 52 PAINTER-ETCHING Dry-point. In Rembrandt’s third period he gave up biting his plates, and even finishing bitten lines with dry-point, and produced all his plates in pure dry-point. We have this upon the authority of Mr. Seymour Haden, who has carefully studied Rembrandt’s three periods. The quality of dry-point is as distinct from the quality of the bitten line as the tone of a brass instrument is from the tone of a stringed instrument. There is no rivalry between the two. Each has its distinct value. But how wonderful it is that in spite of their distinct characters they should amalgamate so well in one plate, — in fact that they should complement each other. In bitten work there so often remains a rawness and a wiriness of line, which can be at once mellowed by a few dry-point touches, and for that reason I feel that the combination of the two methods produces the most agreeable results. If there remains too much clearness and sharpness in bitten work, dry-point alone, on the other hand, is apt to be too soft and lacking in emphatic clearness. The etcher should, therefore, allow his feelings to be guided by the character of the subject when he decides upon the method of work he intends to employ. The beauty of the dry-point line is occasioned by the “burr” which is raised as the needle passes into the copper; in fact it pushes up a ridge of copper on one side of the line, sometimes on both, which catches and holds the ink in the printing. Many a subject in nature at once suggests the use GWENDDYDD. 'ffimc^': t^: 1 ' /i,‘'’-'i.- ^ ' . .^ ■ ■i'* , *ii ii". ■“/‘■" ' / " • ' ’ ‘ " *"‘ ' ' , ' - r^ i‘^'^-’'^-'^ ', r/ t'-.'.,vjJ 3 >• ■■:( V-. ;•- ',' |i^/'‘ ;. tl;y '“•■') ' ■ , j. , : . •• ' ' ^ ' ,■ . ' ‘ /f' yi ' ('Vf'"' -.' ■ ■ ^•fe ''■:/■■ ' 3-' u- - ..■ ' ‘■■' <■ 4 y"-W, : ^ ■■ 's; . PAINTER-ETCHING 53 of such characteristics, and wherever dry-point is used alone it should be understood that the retention of the burr shall constitute the charm that the etcher hopes to give the plate. This burr can be removed — that is, can be cut away with a three-cornered scraper. But I think a strong veto should be put upon that habit. I am now speaking of dry-point produced by the steel needle or diamond point, and not of the burin. The diamond point cuts out somewhat of a shaving, and therefore does not produce half the burr that is occasioned by the steel needle. Hence its employment is at once suggested for the more delicate parts. Cutting off the burr should, to my mind, only be done to lines in very gray parts, where regularity in the printing is most essential. But simply to dig in a deep line with some instrument, and to deprive it of its mantle of beauty, the burr, is an absolutely wrong use of the material. A light incision on a plate, with the little natural burr left on the side, has always a beautiful quality when printed. A line made a little stronger, but deprived of its burr, prints invariably like a nasty scratch. The line may be correct, but it is without quality. I rather fancy cutting off the burr has become a habit with some etchers, through the necessity of making it easier for the printer; but that would be as foolish as composing music for imperfect performers, or rearranging classical works in an easy form for bad players. The one exception I should make is when the etcher knows that a great many impressions 54 PAINTER=ETCHING are likely to be required, say for a book where, from a com- mercial point of view (ugly phrase !), rapid printing or easy printing has to be thought of. Although dry-point is an easier method of work than the acid method, I cannot impress the fact too strongly upon you, that it holds as high a position in the painter-engraver’s art as any other form of painter-etching. There are sticklers in the world who are not satisfied unless an artistic effort is carried out in a single material, however limited that may be. They will no more accept dry-point as a form of painter-etching than they would admit the use of body-colour as a permissible auxiliary to water-colour painting. The latter question indeed was the cause, many years ago, of a younger society being formed, as the old Water-Colour Society would not admit works in which body-colour was used. This unutterably stupid rule was certainly broken through when they elected Frederick Walker into their ranks. Similarly, painter etchers can afford to disregard the opinion of those people who refuse to value dry-point or receive it as a part of their art. The Burin. Burin work is a form of dry-point, but as the burin is a lozenge-shaped tool, it cuts out the copper in a V-shape, and produces quite a different quality of line from that pro- duced by the point, especially when its slight burr is retained. If deftly used it can be made most serviceable in drawing A STUDY. This plate is worked entirely with the burin, and direct from nature without preparatory sketch, — about three hours’ work. The plate printed badly from the steeled-surface. PAlNTER-EtCHlNG 55 together bitten lines that are imperfect ; but the moment that burin lines stand alone, their identity is established. And here the danger arises that they will not harmonise in quality with the rest of the work in the plate. A great many etchers employ the burin for finishing bitten work, but on the whole, I think, if you wish to retain the complete appearance of the bitten line throughout your plate, you should rely upon the method I have already described of working in the bath. The burin can produce most wonderful qualities, as any one may see in the engravings of Albrecht Diirer. I may lay claim to a tour de force with this instru- ment in my engraving from my portrait of Richard Wagner, which is entirely done with the burin, but which I would not otherwise mention. Mdryon has used the burin in finishing his bitten work with a marvellous skill ; no better example can be found of the harmonious combination of the two than in the works of this incomparable master. The action that the burin requires in the hand is always a forward push, which allows of much less freedom in handling than digging in a steel point. The greatest free- dom, however, is only to be obtained with the bitten line, because there you have only to remove the ground with a point that is so sharpened that it glides over the surface without entering the copper. 56 PAINTER-ETCHING Further Auxiliaries to Etching. Of mezzotint, which is sometimes used in giving tone to certain parts of an etching, I will speak in a separate lecture. The roulette is a little wheel which impresses a number of little dots on the surface, and makes a kind of miniature mezzotint ground. This can be used to give tone in dark places, where the lines may be too open, but unless very judiciously used it produces a most disagreeable effect on the plate. Aquatint, by which tints can be bitten over the surface of a plate to any depth and gradation you wish, is a method I cannot recommend, for it never harmonises with any other kind of work. Flat sttlphur tints I would also summarily dismiss. Soft-ground etching I will not describe, because it is no better than ordinary lithography, and much more troublesome to manage. Printing. We have now reached a most important part of our subject — printing the plates. The artist is too apt to forget that it is in the printed state alone that all etchings are to be judged. It matters not how a plate looks, as long as it can be printed well ; but it matters a great deal how the plate is treated in the printing if you want an artistic rendering. PAINTER-ETCHING 57 There is plain printing, like the printing of visiting cards, and there is artistic, or artificial printing, which means the application of endless “dodges.” These two methods re- present the two extremes in printing. The plate, when finished, is blackened all over with printer’s ink by means of a dabber made of the blanketing used for the rubber, as described before. Then all this is apparently wiped off, and the feeling of an outsider will be one of astonishment that enough ink is left in the work to produce the requisite impression. But herein lies the mystery of printing. It is not only in the way the ink is left in the work, or between the work, that the artistic effect is given, but also in the very quality of the ink, which depends both upon the colours that are used and the oil with which they are ground. In order to have all the resources of the art of printing at one’s fingers’ ends, one must undergo some apprenticeship with a clever printer. But there are printers and printers ; and it is astonishing how few printers there are in England who can print artistic plates satisfactorily. In illustration of this I may mention an incident that happened to me some time back. You must know that I have had for some years a small printing establishment of my own at Bushey — of which I make a business. Now it happens that work sometimes comes with a rush, so that my two printers cannot get through it. On one of these occasions I thought I would send one of my etchings (a copy of a portrait) to some other printer. I sent it to one of the I 58 PAINTER-ETCHING first firms in London, with a sample of the manner in which I wanted it printed ; in addition to this my printer gave them a minute description of the method of making up the ink, the nature of the oils used, and how the plate was to be treated in the wiping. Yet they failed after repeated trials to get anything even approaching our sample, and declared themselves unable to produce the result desired. There is, of course, Mr. Goulding, who probably cannot be rivalled even by the French printers for ability. But a new generation of printers will have to be reared, because Mr. Goulding cannot do all the printing of the artistic plates that we hope will be forthcoming in the near future, nor do I wish to enlarge my establishment very much. Etchers themselves would never be able to print editions, but they should always do some of the most valuable im- pressions of their plates ; for an etcher himself may be permitted to toy with his plate in the printing, to vary the impressions according to his mood, and as long as he signs them as printer, the public cannot complain. But such a privilege could not be extended to other hands, not even to the skilful hands of Mr. Goulding. Every etcher should at the start of his career equip himself fully for printing. The press need not be large, but it is absolutely necessary that it shall have cog-wheel action, and have a fly-wheel instead of the star handle. This would have to be ordered, as nearly all the small presses are made with a star handle, which cannot give you the amount of pressure often required, the action being A PORTRAIT (I). For this I had a first sitting of one hour and a quarter, and a second of half an hour for the dry-point finish after the plate had been bitten. The same width of point was used throughout. The numerous lines by the side of the face, drawn close together but only slightly bitten, were intended when first drawn to be bitten in this way. The coat, hands, and darkest lines in the face and background were enforced by nitric acid. There is dry-point work in the background and in the shadow side of the face. The point is retrousaged. A PORTRAIT (2). Printed in the “visiting-card” style, to show how much printing can do for an etching ; the plate being in precisely as good condition as with the preceding print. PAINTER-ETCHING 59 direct. I have had to hang on to these star-handled, single- actioned presses with all my weight, and even get a member of my family to assist in further weighting it. There is no use in having anything but the best kind of press, and all inventions in the shape of “ convenient ” travelling presses are worse than useless. I have just the kind of press for my “ proving ” that would answer every etcher’s purpose. It has a twenty-inch plank, double action, made by Messrs. Alex. Seggie & Son, Broughton Market Works, Edinburgh, and costs The etcher needs but little room for all the things he requires, if he is orderly. As I make some claim to the possession of the bump of order, I may as well describe my little studio in my German home at Landsberg, in Bavaria, which is a good example of how much can be practically placed in a small room. It is only ii feet by 13^ feet, and contains a table with an etching desk and shade on it ; a printing press, and all the arrangements for printing — that is, “ heater,” “ jigger,” slab for grinding the ink, slab for wetting and preparing the printing-paper, shelves for storage of paper, cupboards for storage of bottles, etc. Under the seat by the table are my bottles, with the mordants and my dishes for the plates. In the drawer of the table are all my tools. I should add that there is a stove near the door. Here is a complete etching and printing establishment, but so carefully are all the things arranged, thoroughly carrying out the old adage, “A place for everything and everything in. its place,” that I still have plenty of room 6o PAINTER-ETCHING for painting figures from nature, on a small scale. Adjoining the north end of the studio is a little glass house, seven feet long, six feet wide, and seven feet six inches high in the centre. Three steps lead up to this, and these steps are within the studio proper. Thus the model, who sits in the glass house, is raised, as he would be on a platform in an ordinary studio, whilst 1 sit in the studio, which is lighted by a side light, placed higher than the top of the glass house. This window looks to the north. I use this glass house also for hanging up impressions to dry. To return to printing. If an etcher never prints his own “ artists’ proofs ” (I use the term in its true meaning) he cannot know the real character of his plate. It is under his own hand that the capabilities of the plate in the printing should be tested ; the ink, the wiping, the paper, the pressure in the press, all have to be varied according to the demands of the work in the plate. It is not a safe plan to “ work up ” to a certain printer’s proving, any more than it would be safe for a physician to prescribe for a patient whose pulse he had not examined himself. The etcher must himself regulate the style of printing when the plate reaches the hands of the printer who is to print the edition. PAINTER-ETCHING 6i The Ink. The colours usually employed in the making of inks are the two blacks, German and French — Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre, Crimson Lake, Bistre. These colours are kept in powder, and ground each day as they are required ; for printing ink loses its brilliancy when it is kept for a long time. The German black is probably the same that Rembrandt used, the other is a French black of more recent introduction, by which one can more readily obtain an artificial blackness, but to my taste it is often very unsatisfactory. Either black, alone, would produce an almost bluish tint ; to obviate this the warmer tints are added. But a further character is given to the ink by the different strengths of the oil with which it is ground. The strength of the oil is given to it by a process of burning, which, on account of its dangerous character, has to be carried out in the open, and some distance away from any habitation. Here the linseed oil is placed in a large cauldron and heated with a fire underneath. When it boils, a red-hot poker is thrust into the oil, which stalls a flame on its surface. Now commences the tedious work 62 PAINTER-ETCHING of ladling the oil over the flame, until the requisite degree of strength has been attained. To produce very strong oil we need to burn it nine con- secutive hours. But two or three hours will suflice for the weaker kind of oil. When the colours are ground up with strong oil the result is an ink which wipes away readily from the bare places and sticks to the lines. This quality gives strength to the impres- sion. For delicacy and tone the weaker ink has advantages, and the etcher must use his judgment in combining the two. The Wiping of the Plate. For ordinary or so-called visiting-card printing, a plate is covered with the ink by means of the dabber, which is passed along backwards and forwards in a rocking fashion. Then it is wiped, first with a rough canvas, afterwards with a muslin, and finally the surface of the plate is polished with the hand. For this last operation the palm of the right hand is covered with printing ink, and then passed across a large lump of fine whiting, the quantity being regulated by friction on the palm of the left hand. With the right palm thus prepared you can, by sufficient friction, clean the surface of the plate until no vestige of ink remains except in the lines. But it has pushed the ink so far within the edge of the line that you only get the very minimum of the line in the print ; and you naturally get a hard, unsympathetic, inartistic impression of your work. PAINTER-ETCHING 63 The first method of artistic printing that I will describe is done as follows : — The plate is inked in as usual all over, being first warmed on the heater, the greater part of the ink is taken off with a rough canvas whilst the plate is a little warm, and the surface wiped until your whole work appears in a soft and somewhat “blurry” state. Then you take some fine and very soft muslin and gently wipe the whole plate, keeping the plate cool, but warming the muslin every now and again. Some parts may, according to discre- tion, be wiped more than others, and with this treatment applied fairly all through you will find a gentle tone left all over the plain parts of the plate, as well as a con- siderable tone between the strong lines where they are close together. This method does not bring out the strongest aspect of the work. To produce this we must resort to what I shall call the second artistic method of printing, which is termed refroussage. When the plate has been wiped to what I already called the blurry state, you apply the palm of the hand again, but more gently and with less whiting on it. This leaves a soft tone over the whole surface of the plate, besides pushing the ink well into the lines, leaving them, however, perfectly full. By this process you leave between the lines the same tone as will be left on the bare copper. The plate at this stage will not have a very rich appear- ance. Now take your muslin, fold it up so as to get a nice flat face to it, and after warming it on the heater pass it lightly over the whole plate, with barely the weight of the 64 PAINTER-ETCHING muslin itself. This produces instantly a magical effect, for the lines seem to turn a deep black, and to be twice the width they originally were. What the muslin really does is to pull the ink a little out of the lines, and spread it over the edges. This method, if overdone, causes a fringe to remain by the side of every line, and may be considered a cheap way of getting a poor etching to look a little artistic. But when properly and dexterously used it is an invaluable method in printing. There are etchers who denounce retroussage in all its forms, and whose theory is that the line should be filled with ink but no more. Here again I wish to declare that it is neither safe nor wise to drive a theory too far ; many a plate might be saved from a commonplace aspect by a little retroussage judiciously introduced into parts. Again, an etcher can work for a certain kind of printing, so that for some of his plates retroussage would be altogether mis- applied. But to say that retroussage or any form of artistic printing is illegitimate, would be simply to repeat the mistake of the old Water-Colour Society on the subject of body colour. A plate worked in dry-point is printed in the same way as a bitten plate, except that for the final wiping the hand had best be used instead of the muslin pad. There is still a third method of artistic or artificial printing in use which seems to me very disagreeable and undesirable, namely, that of leaving great tracts of printing ink over parts of the plate, like a wash of colour, to give an PAINTER-ETCHING 65 artificial tone which is in no way indicated by the lines. In this way some of the most meretricious plates have been positively painted up to pass muster in the eyes of the un- educated public. It is unnecessary to describe any other distinct methods, because every etcher by experimenting will and must find out what suits him best. The Paper. It is not enough that the paper you select for printing should bring out the work in the plate in all its detail ; it must give the work a quality as well. When I explain to you that the paper (which is always damped for printing) has to be pressed into the lines, so that they come out in an embossed form, you will understand that the paper must either be originally of a soft nature, or else by lying under moisture for several days must be thoroughly softened. Be the paper English, Dutch, German, or French, it must be hand-made. Nearly all the paper of former centuries is good, but the amount of worthless stuff that has been manufactured in the latter half of this century is perfectly alarming. I have heard it stated that in thirty years’ time not a book or document will have survived except such as are printed on Whatman’s hand-made paper. Imitations are plentiful enough, especially in Holland, but I very much dislike them. Modern imita- tions of old Dutch hand-made paper are all very well for K 66 PAINTER-ETCHING bookwork, but not for the best impressions. With the ex- ception of the Japanese, who will always manufacture delight- ful paper if left alone, and not interfered with by European agents, I do not think that any nation produces at present a paper of the quality of either English, or Dutch, or German, of the sixteenth, or seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries. I should be glad to be convinced that I am wrong, and should rejoice to have modern paper of the old quality sent me. But acting on my scepticism, I determined, during my last visit to Germany, to seek out some more or less primi- tive hand-paper manufactory, where I could get some paper made more like the old than anything I have yet seen. After much inquiry I heard of a man who still manufactured hand -made paper, and it was not long before I visited him. I found him nestled in the corner of one of those delightful streams on the borders of the Bavarian mountains, a master-workman, as unlike the modern type of manu- facturers generally as the modern paper itself is unlike the old. The bell was answered by the master himself ; he had his blue apron on, and was in his shirt-sleeves, — a man standing six feet two inches, with a broad, strong, manly face, and a clear gray eye that looked at you with a straightforward honesty that was truly refreshing. We sat down in his scantily furnished room, which was quite of the peasant type. I showed him some samples of old paper, and told him what I wanted. His enthusiasm was quickly fired, and he declared that he was not only willing to make such paper, but felt confident that PAINTER-ETCHING 67 he would succeed. We then were shown over his manu- factory,— that is, all of the party who could stand the pungent and almost overpowering smell that permeated every corner of that interesting place. I found things well organised, with powerful machines for all kinds of machine-made writing paper, and hand-made paper as well ; for he had the sole right of manufacturing such paper for the Bavarian Govern- ment. Here were bundles of rags ; farther on there were large tubs filled with the rags, in a pulp-form, produced by grinding in machines, identical with those which we use for stone- crushing and mortar- mixing. Then in a damp, ill-lighted compartment one man dipped his wire tray into the tub of watery pulp, and after giving the tray a shake passed it on to his neighbour, who took the pulp off the tray by inverting and pressing it on to thick rough flannel, after which he passed back his empty tray. A layer of flannel was then placed upon the pulp, and this went on until there was a pile about four feet high of flannels, with a flattened- out pulp between each. The whole pile was then put under enormous pressure, which squeezed out the water, after which the sheets of pulp were hung up to dry. The next process was to size the paper, and it is upon this that the hardness or softness of the paper depends. When we term paper soft it means that the paper has not been much sized, or, in such forms as blotting-paper, not at all. The final stage is to give the paper a glossy or a smooth surface, by passing each sheet, placed between two smooth cardboards, through a roller press. 68 PAINTER-ETCHING This is, roughly speaking, the way hand-made paper is manufactured. The wire tray produces the lines that are seen when holding up the paper against the light, and the water-mark, of which we have such an infinite variety in old papers, is made also with wire, raised a little higher than the wire of the tray. There will be a little delay in starting my paper, as special wire trays have had to be made, with my own water- mark on them ; but if my Bavarian succeeds, I shall not fail to place it before the notice of brother etchers, who may be equally dissatisfied with modern papers, or may find the search for old paper rather troublesome. There is, of course, a great quantity of old paper still to be found, and it has a tone that certainly cannot be imitated or given except by the hand of time. For instance, in that little German town of Landsberg, in Bavaria, of which I am a citizen, I and my family derived much entertainment during our last visit from searching for blank sheets through the old documents stowed away in the town-hall. It made one’s heart ache to think that only four years ago two hay-carts were filled with these precious documents, which were sent to the paper-mills to be ground up again into pulp, and turned into machine-made paper. We found exquisite paper of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Much of it felt like velvet under the touch, but was excessively tough and hard to tear. I found I had to soak this paper and keep it damp for at least four days, before it was quite soft PAINTER-ETCHING 69 and ready to take the most delicate line of a plate, but then it proved to be unrivalled. It is such paper that gives quality to the work, — I might almost say virility ; whereas Japanese paper, some kinds of which bring out the work beautifully, is apt to give it a semi-transparent and somewhat greasy look, only useful for certain subjects. But there is a thick, hard - surfaced Japanese paper, which is much used simply because the publishers have demanded it, but which hardly ever brings out the best character of the etching. It gives the impression a certain commercial elegance which passes for quality in the eyes of the public; but no paper should be used that does not do entire justice to the work on the plate. Old paper, or paper made as nearly as possible in the same way, cannot be made on a large scale, as the manipulation of the pulp in the tray cannot be accomplished satisfactorily if the tray is too large for one man to handle, — another reason why etchings should be kept within reasonable dimensions. Further, let me mention that large margins on etchings are a mistake. An inch and a half beyond the plate is excessive, and an eighth of an inch would suffice ; for, when mounted on cardboard, they look far more valuable than with large margins. In mounting an etching it is a further mistake to paste it all round to a cardboard ; it is only the top of the etching that should be attached by means of a little slip of paper a quarter of an inch wide, pasted half on to the proof, and half 70 PAINTER-ETCHING on to the cardboard. This enables the etching to be ex- amined from the back. In former times line engravings and mezzotint engravings were printed on hand-made paper such as I have described. When they were artistic productions, the paper certainly gave the right kind of lustre to the work. But, with the introduction of that horrible “ mixed style ” of engraving, of ruled lines, etched lines, and mezzotint mixed up, of which I shall speak very freely in my next lecture, there came in a method of printing such plates on soft and very thin machine-made paper, called India paper, which was at the time of printing mounted on thick but very soft white paper. The “India” being soft, as well as the backing upon which it is pasted, certainly brings out all the work in the plate with the very minimum of trouble to the printer, but the effect of this can only be described as commercial ; it is never artistic. Impressions printed on such paper are called in the language of the trade “ India proofs.” But for etching there still remains to describe a most beautiful material, but difficult of management, and that is vellum. Although it has a tendency to give some plates too much transparency, it every now and then gives a brilliancy which is unrivalled. But every skin seems to be different in its preparation, which very much baulks the printer in his desire to get regularity. Various tones of paper can be used to advantage, according to the subject of your plate. For instance, the green paper used by M^ryon gives a superb effect to his architectural PAINTER-ETCHING 71 work. But all choice of colour in paper must be controlled by the taste of the etcher. It remains to mention the drying of the impressions. As I have already said, the work is brought out on the paper in an embossed form. This gives etching its peculiar richness of quality, far above every other form of engraving. For when looked at in a side light, as all etchings should be, every line casts its own shadow. Now when a fresh im- pression is put damp under pressure of mill-boards, these raised lines will be pressed back into the paper, and you lose at once one of the great sources of beauty in the art. Hence it is necessary to hang up fresh impressions on a line for several days, until the ink which covers the raised line has become thoroughly hard. Then you redamp the im- pressions, and lay them between what is called soft backing paper (the same as used in the printing of India proofs) ; the whole is then laid between thick mill-boards and heavily weighted. If this were not done the proofs would remain in a cockled condition, and thereby lose much of their charm. Selection of Subjects. I should dismiss this portion of my lecture as impossible to treat, did I not think that many of my hearers would be disappointed if I shrank from an attempt to give some kind of analysis of a perplexing element in the career of most young etchers. An artist may suddenly see the poetic aspect of a subject. 72 PAINTER-ETCHING though he may have passed it a dozen times before without having been attracted by it. Whether a painter works in oil or water-colours, or in etching, he ought to choose carefully the material that is most suited to the representation of the subject before him. There is no law to guide one in the selection of a subject or material. Indeed all selection is distinctly a personal matter, and “not transferable.” An artist soon finds out that what will paint well will not always etch well, and vice versd. But the etcher has one enormous advantage over the painter; he need not wait for any particular effect as long as the 7notive is before hhn. The painter can do nothing with the mere motive : it must be bathed in an artistic effect before it attracts him, and then he must wait for its repetition before he can go on with his work. An etcher ca7i 7uake 7iature turn on the pivot of his ow7t mdividuality . The truth he produces comes more from within than from without. Although the painter can also imprint his personality on his work, he cannot reproduce nature in such an abstract way as the etcher, because he must employ far more means to represent the simplest thing. Hence he is far more subjected to the bondage of outward truthfulness, and can- not enslave nature in the same way. All this gives the etcher a greater scope in selection than the painter. I would, however, point out two things in etching that must be avoided : triviality and ostentatiously bad drawing. Both are the strongholds of the enemies of original etching. PAINTER-ETCHING 73 People say, “ Are we to go into raptures over this scrawl ? What does it mean ? — what does it represent ? ” You tell them “ it represents the mind of the artist,” or give them some other abstract explanation, and you cause laughter ! They are right, these Philistines, many a time, and there would be no trouble of this kind if etchers avoided both the faults that I have pointed out. The etcher need not always etch a story that shall be plain to inartistic minds ; it, however, is but fair to ask that a cow shall not be mistaken for a wheelbarrow, or a windmill for a cat. By triviality in selection I do not mean simplicity of subject, because simplicity is our first aim. I mean the downright trivialities that are put before the public with only here and there a scratch or two to indicate what the artist is pleased to call his mind. Placing a subject on the plate is by no means an easy task, and many a time one feels after the plate is done that it ought to have been placed differently. Therefore it is a wise, though perhaps an extravagant plan, to work on rather a larger plate than you want, and cut it down when your plate is done. Many painters work on larger canvases until their compositions are settled, and then cut the canvas down as the subject demands. There are so few figure etchers, compared to landscapists, that I make a strong appeal for more subjects in which the human figure is the prominent feature. For instance, I would gladly see reserved for etching some of the subjects that suggest themselves to painters, who do not, however, L 74 PAINTER-ETCHING see their way clear to treating them in oil or water-colour, and so let them slip. In a word, regard for simplicity must not induce the etcher to ignore the fact that his production, however good as an etching, will be none the worse — I should say it will be decidedly the better — for being also a good subject. The Sale of Etchings. Before leaving the subject of etching, let me say a few words about the sale of etchings. , I feel that I am now treading upon delicate ground. But I have myself for years drifted with the stream of modern methods adopted by publishers in the sale of etchings ; and now that I have arrived at a full and definite conviction with regard to those methods, and have turned aside to act in accordance with it, I am perhaps the better able to review the situation, free from suspicion of any ulterior motive. Both dealers and publishers have been uniformly courteous to me, and perhaps at times have found me not easy to deal with. But I must say that the methods of dealing with plates into which they have drifted need thorough alteration. Now, the errors into which the print-world has fallen, and to remedy which it seems to me so important that action should be taken, are errors due to the advance of science. Let me explain. Many years ago steel was introduced as the metal for the PAINTER-ETCHING 75 engraver to work upon instead of copper, because it yielded more impressions. But the superb qualities obtainable in the softer metal, especially in the matter of mezzotint engraving, were changed for a thin, smoky character, quite deficient in the artistic aspect. This defect arises from the fact that the tool cannot go so deeply into steel as into copper. Again, the quality of bitten lines on steel differs wholly from that on copper. A steel-plate engraving would very often yield five hundred good impressions, which were erroneously called ‘‘ artist’s proofs.” From a copper two hundred would be an excessive number. This steel period went on for some time, until science stepped in and showed us how an infinitesimally fine coating of steel could be given to the surface of a copper plate. This coating could be placed over the finished work without giving any indications of the work being either filled up or changed in any perceptible way. Here we at once gave the engraver the chance of returning to the softer metal for comfort, and quality in the work, with the additional oppor- tunity of changing the surface of his plate, so as to render thousands instead of hundreds of impressions a possibility. Now, the one-thousandth impression of a plate that has been repeatedly re-steeled when the coating showed signs of wear is just about as good as the first ; and this constitutes a diffi- culty as well as a danger. Your plate no longer goes through any form of wear, your print or second state is not really a change from the first state. You can only vary the quality by the selection of paper and the care in the printing. To put anything like market value on the impressions, a plate has to 76 PAINTER-ETCHING be literally destroyed after a certain declared number of impressions have been taken — destroyed whilst the work is yet in a perfectly sound condition. Here we have the first difficulty, which cannot be so easily removed, except by a radical change in the methods of publication. A publisher said to me it would never pay him to print from an un-steel-surfaced copper, because he buys the plate at usually a large price from the engraver, and has to get not only his money back, but a large profit in addition, which can only be accomplished by the plate rendering a large number of impressions. He is bound to lose a great deal on some plates, and therefore has to make up by large hauls on others. Here we have the danger — distinct danger to the art of the times, because a publisher instead of helping the artist to form the popular taste has himself to submit to its dictation. In the case of original etchings, the remedy that I should suggest would be for publishers to minimise their risk by not buying the plate outright from the etcher, but by taking as many impressions as they needed, or could manage to sell, with a commission on each, say of a third of the selling price, i.e. 33^ per cent. This would at the same time avoid that ghastly rush that is made with every new plate, in order to sell all the “ declared proofs ” whilst the sound of the boom they give it is still in the air. That the artist, who is often, alas ! in a chronic state of impecuniosity, would sometimes prefer cash down in a lump sum when the plate is done, or even before it is done, I know PAINTER-ETCHING 77 from personal experience. But I am certain that if he can arrange his affairs so as to be able to do the first waiting, he will get every chance of the large haul over a plate that might turn out popular. By placing all the risks in the hands of the publisher, the market is kept in a feverish condition, dangerous for artists and dealers, and injurious to the public. I also feel that there are two strong reasons against the adoption of the steel-sttrfacing of the painter etcher s plates. First and foremost, it is not possible to get the artistic quality in the printing from a steel-surface that you get from the copper, because on the former the ink slips away so readily, whereas on the copper it clings sympathetically, and the wiping can be done with an artistic certainty and richness that I never found possible on the steel-surface. Let any etcher print an impression from the copper, and then from the same plate when steel - surfaced, and he will at once understand what I mean. He will alter his ink and his method of wiping, and his pressure on the press — all without avail ; for the result from the steel-surface will not be the same as from the copper. This is not so much owing to the fact that the steel facing fills up the work — I believe the change is imperceptible, but it is that the surface takes the ink so differently. The second reason is one that more especially affects the collector. Say what we will, there is in mankind an inherent desire to have what is rare. Place in the hands of any intelli- gent art-lover an etching, and tell him fifteen hundred im- pressions have been printed of that plate, and all as good as 78 PAINTER-ETCHING the one he holds in his hand. Then place another etching in his hand, and say only fifty or a hundred impressions were printed of that plate, because the plate would not render more, and that that identical impression happened to be an extra good one. Supposing both the subjects to interest him artistically, his collector’s instinct will overrule all other feel- ings, and he will value the latter most. The collector, on whom we rely for the purchase of etchings, possesses two strong traits in his idiosyncrasy — that of the amateur and that of the connoisseur. The former is supposed to love art for art’s sake, the latter knows about things, “ states,” etc., and seeks rarity. The man who loves art for art’s sake hardly ever becomes a collector, unless the second trait exists in his nature. But I wish it to be understood that I utterly depre- cate the paying of large sums for the impressions of plates taken before the plates are finished — early states, that should only see the light of the artist’s studio. It is, therefore, a matter of great importance that painter-etchings should be printed from the copper plate until the work shows signs of wearing. The price of the plate should, to a great extent, be fixed in accordance with the number of impressions that the plate yields. When the plate no longer yields the best impressions, the plate may be steel-surfaced, a second state printed, and the print sold at a much smaller price, because the etcher may print as many impressions of the plate in the second state as the trade or buying public would require. I would further recommend that every impression be stamped at the back with A MEZZOTINT. Printed from my larger plate of the Right Hon. the Speaker of the House of Commons, the rest of the plate being stopped-out with paper. PAINTER-ETCHING 79 this sentence : “ Printed from the copper-plate ” or, “ Second state, and printed from the steeled-surface.” The misnomer of ‘‘artist’s proof” should be abandoned altogether. “ Remark proof” is another fad which should be abolished. By “ remark ” is meant a little etching of a figure or anything you like on the margin of the plate. That remark is made to identify a certain early state of the plate which, as matters are now arranged, is not allowed to wear or change. It has happened to me more than once that my remark on the margin was the only interesting part of the plate. I like the German word “ Abdruck,” but “impression” seems to answer very well. It is only when the 2iX\\'=X proves the work on his plate that the “Abdruck” can be called a “proof,” — an “artist’s proof,” — and those ought not to be brought into the market, and would only be very few in number, because he would certainly endeavour to save his plate if he knew it had to be printed from the copper itself. Mezzotint Engraving. Prince Rupert, or one of his assistants, is supposed to have invented the process termed mezzotint. Its characteristics are softness, and a velvety quality in the blacks, with, however, a deficiency of sharpness of definition. A description of its technique will at once make this clear to you. In mezzotint, unlike etching, there is no acid used ; but what is called the “ground ” on a mezzotint plate consists of 8o PAINTER-ETCHING a bed of burr^ produced with a tool having a toothed edge some two or two and a half inches wide, which is rocked to and fro all over the plate in many directions until the whole surface is, as I have said before, a bed of burr. If this burred surface were inked, and an impression taken from it, the result would be an even sheet of dense black. Here, there- fore, is practically a black plate ; and the whole process of engraving is accomplished by scraping away in various degrees this burr which prints black, leaving the entire burr for the deep blacks, and scraping down to the bare copper for the highest lights. In former days, when copper plates alone were used, the effect was rich and strong ; but when steel was substituted for copper, to enable more impressions to be printed from the harder surface, all that richness and strength were lost, and mezzotint was made to play a secondary part in those showy plates, done in what was called the “ mixed style,” which were designed to attract the eye of an unwary public as they passed the printseller s shop window. As copper is soft, the teeth of the tool enter deeply, and you have a strong burr ploughed up to catch and retain the ink. Steel, on the other hand, is hard and does not permit the tool to enter far into its surface ; hence a thin smoky ground is all that can be produced on that metal. Now, copper is again used for mezzotint work, as it can be preserved by a thin coating of steel, deposited by electricity, after the engraving is finished, as I have already described. THE ROCKING TOOLS. PAINTER-ETCHING The Rocking Tool. This consists essentially of a flat piece of steel, very much like the flat blade of a chisel, grooved down one side into a number of ridges — sometimes as many as 120 to the inch — running parallel to its length. An edge is given to it by grinding from the smooth side only, so that the ridges termi- nate in the edge, forming teeth. And as, further, it is so ground that the edge is semicircular in outline, it can be rocked to and fro across the plate, leaving a series of dotted lines which, when repeated and interlaced often enough, pro- duce the bed of burr. In olden days the tool was set in a handle and held upright in the hand, the rocking being done by the turn of the wrist. That was a difficult method and needed much practice. But the accidental inequalities of the ground produced by it, resulting partly from its very difficulty, give, to my mind, some of their greatest charm to old mezzotints ; and it was my first endeavour, when I started mezzotint engraving, to produce the same effect. The original mezzotint ground of Prince Rupert was not a series of dots, but a series of lines scratched into the copper in circular sweeps. The drawback to this method is that the ground when scraped down was apt to show want of solidity, and look threadbare, whereas in our present method, especially with “ pole-rocking,” such regularity is ensured that there is absolute certainty of the tone remaining solid, to whatever degree the ground is scraped. M 82 PAINTER-ETCHING “ Pole-rocking” is now used instead of the free-hand rock- ing which I have described. This ensures regular movement of the rocking tool, the tool being fixed at right angles to one end of the pole, where it is grasped by the hand, while the other end of the pole runs in a groove. The pole is also weighted according to the depth of burr which it is desired to rock. These tools are expensive, but last a considerable time, as they can be ground down until the handle is reached, the price ranging generally from los. to los. 6d. per inch. They are sold by Sellars of Sheffield. Great care must be taken not to injure the side with the ridges, so that there may not be a tooth missing when it is ground down. The temper of the tool also must be just right. There are several ways of sharpening the tool, which must be varied to meet the requirements of the work in hand. If you want a close ground it is necessary to have the teeth sharp and rock closely ; if you want a series of elongated dots, that are almost short lines, the teeth must be ground down a little at the edge. There are coarse tools, with only 15 teeth to the inch, and every degree of fineness above this up to 120 to the inch. I may mention that Mr. Sydney James of Eversley, New South Gate, makes most excellent appliances for rocking; pole with contrivance for weighting inside the handle ; groove for the pole to run in, with arrangement for screwing on to a table, and also straight-edge, attached to a disc of brass. The cost of these in ebony and brass is about six guineas. ROCKING MEZZOTINT GROUND. 'SAom 'fn trdi '■ r^:>. 'X'jj?il^.?| ■i:-- f '- < ' ■'>.,,KUiio;lt’i| . i.:sts:,;Si«ifei ' i, Jr\;-r\.3*i::i ••'mI' ' i>'.' • • r-/ • .. ^ ! ‘i riJ- ' .-^'vrC ■ ■ . ' , • -. ,. >y>:' - .'■ ;■ .- ^., ., .■ ■■ ••■• • ’ , / f - • r' (“H - I UiiiPi'^ vr.:-. •-■ ■ ,,:.••••<• • •■ t ' ';i f s »-C‘ ch"r • ) ' ■ ' ’■ ‘ ' ■ ■ ' ' ' ^ 71' ••t.l I » ,