Evening star., 1943-12-12
By Leila Mechlin.

The Office OF Public Relations o1
the Navy Department has lately
received, from John Taylor Arms
the first of a series of etchings
which, under special arrangements
with the Navy Department, and fol
its uses, he has proposed to make
of naval vessels, built, or building
for combat purposes and the for
warding of the freedom of the seas
1t is a large plate and Mr.. Arms
Is a slow etcher, because of the care
he takes in rendition, especially in
the matter of detail, and toward his
ideal of perfection-to its execution
he has given almost year. The
subject is of three destroyers, built
at Kearney, N. j., and lying
at the outfitting docks there. The
first five hundred impressions go
to the Navy Department for dis
tribution, after which subsequent
impressions will be released to the
etcher, and through him to the
public. Obviously the conviction is
that better conception of the Her.
culean task undertaken, and achiev-
ed, by our Nation in ship building
and equipment, can be reached
through the medium of pictorial
representation-such as Mr. Arms
has given-than would be possible
through verbal expression.
John Taylor Arms is one of the
outstanding etchers of today. His
works are in all the more important
print collections here and abroad
His name is no less we'll known in
France and England and Italy,
among collectors and etchers, than
here in the United States. He is
president of the Society of American
Etchers, associate member of the
Royal Society of Painter Etchers
and Engravers, London, a National
Academician, member of the Insti-
tute of Arts and Letters, advisor to
the Division of Fine Arts of the
Library of Congress, and constantly
appealed to for guidance and en-
couragement in matters pertaining
to the graphic arts. Furthermore
Mr.. Arms is outstanding as a tech
nician, rendering in his plates of
architectural subjects effects of light
and shade together with finest de-
tail with an accuracy and charm
almost unbelievable.
Work Has Fine Quality
To etch destroyer outftting is,
however, a different matter from
etching Gothic cathedral or a
Venetian palace, yet in this first
plate that he has done for the Navy
Department there is found some of
the same feeling and deftness of
touch that in his works heretofore
have brought him distinction. Like
Joseph Pennell at the time of the
first World War he has found beauty
In the mechanics of ship building
in derricks, in equipment, even in
screws and bolts. If, therefore, the
fever of war would seem to be
missing in this etching of destroyers,
1t Is because there was no place
for 1.-THE power of man to fab
ricate such creatures of the sea
elevating him in the eyes of the
etcher to the realm of creation. To
him and to others the wonder of
work Is astounding, silencing, espe-
clally when interpreted as here
without exaggeration, with calmness
and control.
Mr.. Arms lives now in New York,
but he was born in Washington and
attended the Western High School.
Later he went to Princeton Uni
versity and to the Boston Institute
of Technology. In World War I
he served as an ensign in the
U. S. N. R. He has written a stand
ard handbook on Print Making
and Print Makers" and has COL
laborated with his wife-Dorothy
Noyes Ames-in the publication of
two volumes-"Hill Towns and
Cities of Northern Italy" and
"Churches of France" he supply
Ing etched illustrations and she
delightful text.
The Nays Art Section
The Office of Public Relations of
the Navy Department has as officer
in-charge of its art section, 1t.
Robert Parsons, for some years as
sistant director of the Corcoran
Gallery of Art and now merely on
furlough for the duration.
1t was also on 1t. Parsons recon-
mendation that Mitchell Jameson
of this city was commissioned to
make a series of water colors of
services rendered by the Navy in the
North African and Sicilian cam
paigns-works which will be found
to have exceptional merit. Mr..
Jameson has returned from over
seas with his completed paintings