The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-26

especially partial to the slight and the incom-
plete, and indifferent to the noble works of art
Whlch nave been slowly brought to perfection
by the efforts of months or wears All that we
say Is, that this rapid and abstract art is
good and valuable in its own kind and that
IL mas certain special qualities and utilities
OF Its own which do not belong to the arts
oil elaboration. II is amongst the arts rs
amongst the characters of men-you have the
rapid and decisive characters, and the slow,
patient characters 1t would be very
narrow view of humanity which would
desire TO see either of the two suppressed. since
each Kind is good for uses of its own. And
SO 1t would be u narrow view of the fine arts
which would desire the suppression either of the
Tl Whlch swiftly notes impressions, or of that
which patiently claborates them. In fact, there
exists between the two q certain intcrdcpend-
ence. The power OF making a swift and COM
prchcnsiVe synthess must be preceded by ea-
borate analytical study: whilst on the other
hand the picture which tt takes years to exc
cute must be founded upon synthetic cOnccp-
ton. An art critic who the arts in their just
relations would be the very last person to deny
the value of analysis in study. No man ever
executed a fine synthetic etching without having
gone through the most patient analysis and
when atechniC reviewers accuse us of being
carried away by an especial enthusiasm for
etching which blinds us to theyalue of elaborated
work in other arts, they little know how large
share analysis must have i'm the education of the
swiitcst aquaiOrtists.
The question whether elaborate or summary
expression needs the higher artistic accomplish
mcnt is answered in opposite ways by different
artists and theorists, and is indeed, one of those
questions which seem lequally to suggest two
opposite solutions. We will endcavor to state
the arguments on both sides with equal force.
1t may be argued that the elaborate expression
requires greater knowledge, because the mere
elaboration or finish is in itself the adding of
more truth. For instance, if you take rapid
etching or other memorandum from nature, and
paint picture from it, you have to add more
m. add q
and dark, and you have to add color. 4 picture,
therefore, it may be argued, contains all that an
etching of the same subject and equal quality
contains. whilst il also contains much more. and,
therefore. to produce it, greater knowledge and
ability are needed. This is the view most gene
rally received not only by atcchncs, but by
many artists and by some critics.
On the other hand, it may be argued that since
an etching is an abstract or cptOme of nature,
for which greater power of selection is needed,
the mere exercise of selection, if thoroughly
well DONE implies certain mental superiority;
and that this faculty of selection being less
needed in elaborate work. and hardly exercised
at all in very initiative and literal painting lof
which we have had much in England), the elabo-
rate art may in certain sense be less noble than
! the abstract This idea may be readily illus
| tratCd from literature. Suppose that publisher
| gave n commission to a man OF letters to COM
| pile a catalogue Of all cNtant ancient Greek
| writings, the work would be laborious and the
! list would be long; but suppose that he gave Il
|
extracts from Greek literature illustrating some
especial subject, rs, for instance. Greek religious
| sentiment and to group these extracts so rs to
make them throw the utmost possible light upon
each other, would not the work here be Of a
| higher kind, merely because the faculty OF syn
| thetic selection was called into play?
The two views may be expressed with great
| breyity. According to the first, elaboration is
| greater than summary expression, as needing
more knowledge, and according to the second,
psNTl linn
| equal knowledge and more selection.
The truth is, that to make any summary really
| well, we must know great deal more than can
| be visbly set down in it, and the knowledge of
nature and art possessed by an accomplished
| etCher must always be much vaster in bulk than
| the concentrated essence he gives us. The diff
| ference between the critic and the atechniC lies
in this, that the one infers the masses of know
ledge from which the abstract has been made,
and that the other does not infer them.
1t seems to Us very erroneous view to con-
slider good etching as merely the rude skeleton
of Il work of art 1t is not n skeleton, but a
resume. The difference between the two things
may be illustrated from tle practice of sculp
ture. Before a sculptor makes statue he
makes n sketch of the complete idea in model
ing clay, and afterwards, for the larger anC
elaborated model, a framework or skeleton o
iron is set up. Etchings do not answer to this
rigid and formless skeletons; they answer to the
first little mOdel-the synthetic expression of thu
entire and living idea.
Inc nCCChSlJy lOI TlplullS III CJCulug pTcSup
poses that the idea is quite ripe for expression
If the hand goes faster than the thought, thu
work will fail in the direction of unmeaning
mannerism; if, on the other hand, the hanC
waits for the thought, and the thought come
too slowly the work may be delicate and care
full but il can hardly have the look of free anC
passionate inspiration, which is the glory of first
rate etching. Now, there are many excellent anC
admirable artists who come by their beautiful
thoughts in dwelling upon them and to whom
| SlOWnpSS hesitation
| cution are necessary. The method which i
natural and right for them is elaboration, ant
consequently il may be wise in them to abstain
from the etching needle. We do not wish Il
imply that etching is above them, we mean onl
that it is unsuitable for them. In the same wa
there are authors who can write powerful book
but cannot make an effective speech. Many q
the best painters have etched very inditterently
OF not at all.
In speaking of etching as n kind of short
hand we are quite aware that much might b
said to prove that the process is also aVailabl
for elaboration. For instance several member
= OF the English schools have produced plate
= which are highly elaborate, and, in their way
p very beautiful, especially Samuel Palmer &c
whose exquisite art | would always speak wit
| | deep respect), Frederick Tayler, and Hool
! But il seems to me that in this they have nC
- insisted upon the especial and peculiar power
e the art and might have expressed their thought
equally well in some other way. Then, agail
! there is that wonderful man, Jules JacquC
+ mart, who has carried dareinedk kind of imitation
= far in etching ms TO retute trumphantly the pOpl
lar notion that etching cannot give light and dar
5 properly, and is not suitable for delicate draw
c ing but still, perhaps jules Jacquemart ma
c have quilted, in some degree, the ground WhiC
n peculiarly belongs TO etching. 1t may be sal
e that we are somewhat arbitrary and narrow
Il desiring to define etching rs shorthand, since
u is capable of just as much elaboration as an
u other kind of engraving; but the question alwa,
d Is, with reference to an artistic product, Con-