Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-03
HERKoMER's NEW ART.
The Process for Reproducing Pictures in
Black and White.
London Telegraph.

Black and White.
London Telegraph
A company of ladies and gentlemen, in
Guiding many experts in artistic matters,
spent a delightful hour in the Fine Art
society's rooms in listening to descrip-
ton by Prof. Hubert Herkomer of the
new black and white art of which he Is
the inventor, and in witnessing dem
onstration of its results and capabilities.
Professor Herkomer explained at the
outset that by this new art the painter
had 1t in his power to do black and white
work, diffusible by the printing press,
without departing from his accustomed
methods, for he was provided with paint
to manipulate with the brush. He had
no new technicalities to acquire, such as
were needed for the production of va
rious forms of engraving-techncal
that had hindered many an artist from
taking to plate work.
Proceeding to describe the working of
thisnnew invention, Professor Herkomer
stated that on the polished surface of
/ copper plate, coated with silver, the ar
fist painted his picture with thick black
pigment resembling printers ink. In the
production of this painting he used
brushes, feathers, bits of wood, his finger
tips-in fact, anything that would enable
him to get the desired effect. So far, 1t
was a positive success, requiring, there
fore, no reversion of the subject on the
plateau inestimable boon to the artist.
An examination of the painted plate
showed that the ink was on the surface
in different degrees of thickness and in
this variety of depth in the ink lay the
first vital point of the invention. The ar
t st, however, need in no way think of this
necessary condition; 1t came without con-
Scious effort in the making of his tones and
gradations This painted surface, with
the ink still wet, or SOFT was then dust
Jar wi q ~ ri a q
powder, until neither the black paint nor
the brighter parts of the plate were
visible. A knock on the back of the
plate and the subsequent use of soft
camel hair brush removed the superfiu
Gus powder. AS the powder contained
both coarse and fine PARTICLES, it stuck to
the various parts in the most discrimina-
tive way, the coarser grain adhering
to the parts where the ink happened to
be thick, and the finer where the ink was
less, such as is the gray or light tones.
Thus there was now secured a painted
picture busted with a powder which
graduated the painted touches in perfect
proportion to their depth of tone, with
out, however in any way altering their
autographs character. But 1t caused the
paint to cover new technical ground, and
was the first stepping stone towards the
conversion of the painted surface into a
printing surface.
In the third stage there was taken of
lDlS STdHIiGt tu SuIldce d HltldiDc
| mould" or in other words, an electro
type. Such was the conductibility of this
surface that (all things being right in
ten minutes blush of copper would
spread over the whole surface when sub
jected to the electric bath. This settled
in and repeated the most minute crevices
and interstiees. The plate was left in the
bath until the copper deposit was as
thick as an ordinary printing plate. By
filing the edges the deposited plate was
separated from the original painted
plate and IN the former was obtained
an exact negative or mould of the paint
ed and powdered surface from which by
ordinary methods of copperplate print
ing. perfect reproduction of the origi-
nal painting was obtained. Up to the
stage when the original plate is ready for
the bath Professor Herkomer gave
most interesting demonstration of the
process, and thereby conveyed concep-
ton of its pecuiarities and merits.
In the course of few minutes he pro-
duced on the plate picture of a group of
pollarded willows growing on the reed
covered banks of a stream, the effect con-
firming his contention that the utmost
range of tones and varieties of textures
could be attained. The fiexibility of the
art was clearly shown, as the paint,
which practically never dries. so responds
to the touch that the painter can manip-
ulate 1t till he secures an effect which sat
isles him. In conclusion, Herkomer
maintained tnat TINS, Wn1cn is a tone
art, and not a line-art, stood alone That
it would have to stand side by side with
engraving was certain; but-that did not
mean a state of rivalry. He thought the
time was undoubtedly ripe for just such
an autographs art, and he could safely
say that there existed no black-a nd
white art diffusible by the copper plate
printing press by which the artist could
so readily reach the masses with his au-
tographic touch
The company afterwards inspected n
number of pictures produced by the new
| process, the softness of tone secured be-
ing the subject of much admiration.
His Private Opinion.
Crummer-What sort of a man n