The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
BURIN. NEEDLE AND sCRAPER.

Some Frenchman has called the theatre
a book reversed. 1t is a happy epigram.
By a similar analogy the engraving or
mezzotint might be described as a reversed
picture. And with still more propriety
black n white reproductions could be
compared to the pianoforte in the hands
OF a skilful artist. The pi~anoforte can
interpret in cooler tones orchestral scores.
It gives in its all formal severity the line;
the color Ia only suggested. But such is the
tendency Of modern music toward painting
that the success Of a ~pianoforte virtuoso
to-day depends upon his ability to arouse
within his listeners imagination the idea
OF color-in reality the emotional element.
The engraver evokes color by his cunning
interplay OF line and cross Matching; the
mezzotinter by his disposition OF dark
masses and white spaces. Indeed, the
mezzotint by reason Of its warm. more
sympathetic and ductile medium has al
ways seemed more colorful in his plates
than the most laboriously executed steel
engravings. In this sense the scraper
beats the BURN, while the etcher, especially
II he be a painter, attains a more personal
vision than either one Of these processes.
Above all, the appeal of engraving, mezzo-
tint and etching is to the refined. 1t is
an art OF a peculiarly intimate character.
just as some prefer the exquisite tonal
purity and finished performances Of the
Kneisel String Quartet to the blare and
thunder Of the Philharmonic Society; just as
some enjoy in silence beautiful prose moro
than our orude- drama, so the lovers OF
black and white may feel themselves a
distinctive class. They have at their elbow
disposed in portfolios or spaced on walls
the eloquent portraiture, the worlds MASTER
pieces, marine views and landscapes.
There is no better way to study painting
historically than in the cabinet of an engrav-
ing collector. Furthermore, Invested OF
bad or mediocre paint-many famous
pictures by famous names are mere car
toons. the paint peeled or peeling of-the
student and amateur penetrates to the very
marrow OF the painters conception, to the
very skeleton of his technical methods.
Here in New York there are abundant
opportunities Of gratifying ones tastes
in this direction. Our private collections
are especially rich and at such establish
ments as those Of Messrs. Keppel, Wunder-
Itch, Knoedler, Kraushaar and others
specimens OF thS glorious art may be viewed
or purchased at will. Who ~knows-per-
iAoIH OiAl hhy WI6u lu0 ClTOIldtlC unO6T-
tones of WhistleT's art shall ave faded
his etchings may remain the chief witness
of his extraordinary art and personality
Few are so luckily situated as to be able
TO acquire a painted Rembrandt, but a
Rembrandt etching does not altogether
dangle in the clouds. Perseverance, in
the gentle art OF economy will secure at
least one glimpse Of this great mystio's
afnhn1 ADfAs.. - EF- r. \
Wunderlich's galleries, 22O Fifth avenue,
you may stroll in and feast upon the Whistler
albums, containing some Of his most dis
tinguished etchings.' What joyl Here is
the Venetian series-familiarity will never
dull its elusive beauties Whistler acknowl-
edged no method in art but that in which
all traces of effort had disappeared.
So his art is eAortless; it concerns itself
primarily with beauty. Consider that
portrait etching of Stephan Mallarme, the
symbolist poet, formerly of Paris, now Of
Parnassus (where they say that not even
Euphues-Lyly, Marini or Robert Browning
understands his poetic speeoh). II is the
man not drawn but evoked from the white
paper. and in a few careless yet deeply
signifying strokes. This is pictorial art
raised to the pitch of music.
The -LimebuTner" in various states meets
your eye. or some Japaneselike simpHf-
cation Of warehouses on the Thames or a
crooked street in old Chelsea; else a door
way in Venice, such a mysterious doorway
behind its carved arch may be a dozen
dramas, or the odor of quaint cheese and
garlic. Whistler's every line may be impish
or poetic, but is mastery always. Meryon
is an etcher who is coming into his own,
now that he is dead. His plates reveal a
particularly rich, if morbid, temperament.
Wunderlich can show you realistic views
of Notre Dame-one of the apses-and
Of old Paris, which prove Meryon to have
possessed an eye that anticipated much
latter day realism. Or, if you seek a more
mellow style, there is Seymour Hsden and
his celebrated "Shere Mill Pond,' a plate
in which the dignified. refined and subtle
art of this amateur etche is embodied.
We saw with unmixed pleasure several
brilliant impressions OF Albrecht Durer's
wonderful @Melancholia," with the date
1914. Not even the prose eloquence OF
Edmund Clarence Stedman or of Gabrielle
d'Annunzio-two writer's who devoted pages
TO the theme-can do justice to this MASTER
piece. There are colored plates after tbe
Wards, Williamson and C. Turner in the
same galleries, not 20 mention che usual
sporting prints for frivolous folk.
Mir. keppel, in his new gallery, 4 East
Thirty-ninth street, has really a permanent
exhibition. At n time you may revel
in the masters Of line engraving from Boil
swert TO our own times; in ~etchings from
Durer and Martin Schongauer 10 Cousins
and Rapon; In mezzotints Of the English
schools, Green, Smith, Ward, Turner.
Earlom-have you ever seen those fruit
and flower pieces OF his after Huysum?
-Baillie, MacArdell or WGtson-only re-
call Schalcken's Girl Reading by Candle
light" and ask yourself II the original
could be more finely suggestive than j.
Watson's Interpretation on a sheet Of con-
perl just now Keppel Is exhibiting in the
rear gallery portraits Of Ladies and Chill
dren. Mostly French. Of the Eighteenth
Century" There arc some admirably en-
graved plates, notably Adrienne Lecou-
vreur-represented as Cornelia weeping
over Pompey's ashes, engraved by Pierre
Drevet, after Coypel. It has not the mas
siva DOu,n of the BOssIlet pOrtrait nra,,o.t.