The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-21
ART OF WOOD ENGRAVING

| duced in the negative by the dark por-
tions of the drawing reflect little light
SO that but feeble rays can pass through
making only pin points of light in the
negative. In the lighter portions the rays
are sufficiently powerful to pore larger
areas Of light and to Join up the dots
into a series of lines. Thus in the light
grays in the final proof are seen black
dots surrounded by white and in the dark
places white dots surrounded by black.
The negative is in it's turn printed on a
zinzc or copper plate with a chemically
prepared surface This plate is then plac-
ed in an acid solution, wf1cn penetrates
and eats away the metal where unpro-
tected by the black lines or dots of the
Photographic print. There Is thus plate
with a printing surface in relief, or
raised above it's surrounding incised
space, which Is subject to the conditions
of the type printing press the same as
wood engraved blocks.
Since wood blocks, unlike engraving on
copper or steel, photogravure or ltho-
graphy could be printed on the same
page and at the same time with the type,
making possible the publication of large
editions, they were, from the practical
point of view, without rival until the
development of the half-tone process. Ar
the engraver's personality were inclined
to favor the new process, and this added
to its comparative cheapnesS brought
about its general adoption. Moreover pub
| locations which used the finest wood en-
craving, finding it possible to improve
the half-tone plates by etching and en-
| craving through the mesh on the sur
+, face of the metal, encouraged most OF
| the wood-engravers in this work, until
| the majority of the best American en-
| gravers, having once turned their ener-
/ giles to it. 1t seems impracticable for
| them to take up the old threads and en-
| grave on wood.
Still there remain several of the chief
opponents of the art of wood engraving
who hold, as 1t were, a domain of their
| own unassailable by ordinary vicissi-
tudes Although Elbridge Kingsley, John
P. Davis, Frank French. F. S. King and
! w. B. Clausson have practically aban-
| doned the graver for the painters brush
| and palette, and T. Johnson for the
etcher's needle, they will be remember
ed for important original work done in
the past, examples of which are careful
ly preserved by those fortunate enough
to own them. Gustave Kruell is still hon.
| ored by connoisseurs, who do not fail to
obtain one Of the large hand-press proofs
of his portraits pulled under his own SUI
| pervision, whenever a new subject is pro-
duced by his graver.
| Two men alone in America continue to
be represented in magazine work, Henry
Wolf and Timothy Cole, who give dis
tinction to every issue in which they APP
pear. 1t is interesting to compare the
work of the two men, one almost en-
tirely occupied with Interpreting the
paintings of modern French English and
American artists. the other exclusively
absorbed by the old masters of Europe.
Since in wood engraving modelling is
obtained not by the laying on of tones
solidly, as in a brush drawing, but by
the cutting in of pure white lines on a
uniformly black surface. so that all grad
ations of gray tones are formed by the
/ combined action of black and white lines
side by side modifying eacn other, the
mental and artistic force of the engraver
can be gagged by the use he is able to
make of the latent possibilities contained
in this technical characteristic. Combin-
ations of the most subtle and infinite
variety are possible to MASTER and
Timothy Cole, acknowledged the great
est living master of the crart, has devel-
oped them in a mastery way, a faithful
Interpretation Of the original being al