,,four ,,masters ,,of ,,etching         
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--------------------------------        
,this ,edition is limited to            
,two ,hundred and ,fifty ,copies4       
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--------------------------------        
,,four ,,masters ,,of ,,etching4        
,,by                                    
,,frederick ,,wedmore4                  
,,with ,,original ,,etchings            
,,by                         ,,haden1   
,,jacquemart1 ,,whistler1 ,,and         
,,legros4                               
,,london3                         ,,the 
,,fine ,,art ,,society1 ,,limited4      
#adh1 ,,new ,,bond ,,street4            
#ahhc4                                  
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,,preface      ,,it is well to say1 in a
 word or two1 what this short book aims 
at4  ,unavoidably inferior to ,mr4      
,hamerton's in merit1 it is voluntarily 
much  more limited in scheme4 ,taking   

only the four artists who seem to me    
most  worthy of note among the many good
 etchers of our day1 it seeks to study  
their work with a degree of detail      
unnecessary and even impossible in a    
volume of wider scope4 ,in trying to do 
this1 it can hardly help  affording1 at 
least incidentally1 some notion of what 
,i hold to be the  right principles of  
etching1 nor can it wholly ignore the   
relation of  etching to other art1 or   
the relation of ,art to ,nature and     
,life4 ,but  these points are touched   
but briefly1 and only by the way4    ,a 
book of larger aim1 on ,etching in      
,england and ,france1 might  justifiably
 have given almost as much importance to
 ,macbeth and ,tissot  here1 and to     
,bracquemond there1 as has been given in
 the annexed pages  to ,haden1          
,whistler1 ,jacquemart1 and ,legros4    
,but ,macbeth and ,tissot  belong to a  
younger generation than do any of my    
four masters4 ,much of  what the art of 
etching could do in modern days was     

already in evidence  before their work  
began4 ,my four masters are four        
pioneers4 ,bracquemond  may be a pioneer
 also2 but in his original work1 skilled
 and individual  as that is1 he has     
chosen to be very limited4 ,the place he
 occupies is  honourable1 but it is     
small4    ,about the four chapters that 
here follow ,i need say very little4    
,that on  ,seymour ,haden has been      
passed through the ,art ,journal1 that  
on ,legros  through the ,academy1 that  
on ,jules ,jacquemart through the       
,nineteenth  ,century4 ,all have now    
been revised4 ,something of the chapter 
on  ,whistler has also appeared in the  
,nineteenth ,century1 but in quite      
different form1 and ,i will explain why4
 ,in the first place1 since that        
article appeared1 ,mr4 ,whistler has    
given me cause to modify to some  extent
 my estimate of his art4 ,having seen   
this cause1 ,i have acted on  it4 ,i am 
not a ,mede nor a ,persian4 ,and in a   
system of criticism which  seeks to     

inquire and understand1 rather than to  
denounce1 there is place  for change4   
,again1 much of the article in the      
,nineteenth ,century was  occasioned not
 by ,mr4 ,whistler's practice1 but by   
the attack which he  made upon a great  
teacher and critic1 and1 by implication1
 upon all  critics who allow themselves 
that abstinence from technical labour   
which  is often essential if their      
criticism is to be neither immature for 
want  of time to spend on it nor        
prejudiced because of their exclusive   
association with some special ways or   
cliques in art4 ,whatever dealt  with   
this business ,i have now withdrawn4 ,it
 was written for a particular  purpose1 
and its purpose was served4    ,a word  
now on a matter of detail4 ,two         
expressions in the body of this         
volume--8our ,dusty ,millers0 7page     
#aj71 and 8,m4 ,rodin here0 7page       
#db7--which only the really careful     
reader will honour me by noticing1 are  
due to the fact that after the body of  

the volume was finally printed1  some   
change was made in the choice of the    
illustrations4 ,for ,mr4 ,haden's       
copper of ,dusty ,millers1 ,i have been 
happy to be able to substitute  ,grim   
,spain1 the only ,spanish subject of his
 which ,i thoroughly like4  ,and in     
place of ,m4 ,legros's learned but      
hardly attractive portrait of ,m4       
,rodin1 it has been still more fortunate
 that it has been possible to  procure  
the portrait of ,mr4 ,watts1 the        
painter1 one of the most  triumphant    
instances of ,legros's art4             
,f4 ,w4    ,london1 #ahhc4              
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--------------------------------        
,,table ,,of ,,contents4                
,,page                    ,,chapter ,i4 
,,seymour ,,haden             #a        
,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,jules ,,jacquemart    
#ab                    ,,chapter ,,iii4 
,j4 ,a4 ,m4 ,,whistler        #bh       
,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,alphonse ,,legros     
#dj                                     

----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,list ,,of ,,illustrations4            
,,page             8,,grim ,,spain0     
,etched by ,f4 ,,seymour     #aj        
,,haden             ,,oriental          
,,porcelain         by ,,jules          
,,jacquemart     #af                    
,,putney                  by ,j4 ,a4    
,,mcn4 ,,whistler     #cf               
,,portrait ,,of ,g4 ,f4           by    
,,alphonse ,,legros     #db             
,,watts1 ,r4,a4                         
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,chapter ,i4                           
,,seymour ,,haden4      ,,perhaps the   
two qualities which1 as one gets a      
little blas about the  productions of   
,art1 continue the most to stir and     
stimulate1 and to  quicken the sense of 
enjoyment1 are the quality of vigour and
 the  quality of exquisiteness4 ,if an  
artist is so fortunate as to possess    
both these virtues in any fulness1 he is

 sure not only to please a  chosen      
public during several generations1 but  
to please the individual  student--if he
 be a capable student--at all times and 
in all moods1 and1  of the two1 perhaps1
 that is really the severer test4 ,but  
to have these  qualities in any fulness1
 and in equal measure1 is given to a man
 only  here and there over the range of 
centuries4 ,it is given to a ,titian1 it
  is given to a ,rembrandt1 and of      
course to a ,turner2 it is given in the 
days of the ,grand ,monarch to a        
,watteau1 and in the days of the ,second
  ,empire to a ,mryon4 ,but so notable  
and rare a union is denied--is it       
not8--even to a ,velasquez2 while what  
we praise most in ,moreau le ,jeune  is 
by no means a facility of vigour1 and   
what is characteristic of ,david  ,cox  
is certainly no charm of exquisiteness4 
,to unite the two qualities--,i  mean   
always1 of course1 in the fulness and   
equality first spoken  of--demands not a
 rich temperament alone4 ,the full      

display of either by  itself demands    
that4 ,it demands a temperament of quite
 exceptional  variety3 the presence1 it 
sometimes seems1 almost of two          
personalities--so unlike are the two    
phases of the gift which we call        
genius4    ,with the artists of energy  
and vigour ,i class ,mr4 ,seymour       
,haden4 ,theirs  is the race to which1  
indeed1 quite obviously1 he belongs4    
,alive1  undoubtedly1 to grace of form1 
fire and vehemence of expression are yet
  his dominant qualities4 ,with him1 as 
the artistic problem is first           
conceived1 so must it be executed1 and  
it must be executed immediately4  ,his  
energy is not to be exhausted1 but of   
patience there is a smaller  stock4 ,for
 him1 as a rule1 no second thought is   
the wisest2 there is no  fruitful       
revision1 no going back to-day upon     
yesterday's effort2 little  of careful  
piecing and patching1 to put slowly     
right what was wrong to  begin with4 ,he
 is the artist of the first impression4 

,probably it was  just and justly       
conveyed2 but if not1 there the failure 
stands1 such as  it is1 to be either    
remembered or forgotten1 but hardly to  
be retrieved4  ,such as it is1 it is    
done with1 no more to be recalled than  
the player's  last night's performance  
of ,hamlet or ,macbeth4 ,other things   
will be in  the future3 the player is   
looking forward to to-night2 but last   
night--that is altogether in the past4  
,there is no understanding ,seymour     
,haden's work1 its virtues and          
deficiencies1 unless this note of his   
temperament1 this characteristic  of his
 productions1 is continually borne in   
mind4 ,it is the secret of  his especial
 delight in the art of etching2 the     
secret of the particular  uses to which 
he has so resolutely applied that art4  
,with the admission  of the             
characteristic1 comes necessarily the   
admission of the limitation  it         
suggests4 ,accustomed to labour and     
patience1 not only in the  preparation  

for the practice of an art1 but in the  
actual practice of  it1 one may possibly
 be suspicious of the art which         
substantially  demands that its work    
shall be done in a day if it is to be   
done at all4  ,such art1 one says1      
forfeits1 at all events1 its claim to   
the rank that  is accorded to the uvre  
de longue haleine1 when that is carried 
to a  successful issue and not to an    
impotent conclusion4 ,to flicker bravely
  for an hour2 to burn continuously at a
 white heat--they are very  different   
matters4 ,the mental powers which the   
two acts typify must be  differently    
valued4 ,and the art that asks1 as one  
of its conditions1  that it shall be    
swift1 not only because swiftness is    
sometimes  effective1 but because the   
steadiness of sustained effort has a    
difficulty of its own--that art1 to use 
an illustration from poetry and  from   
music1 takes up its place1 voluntarily1 
with the lyrists1 and with  ,schubert1  
as we knew him of old--foregoes         

voluntarily all comparison with  the    
epic1 and with ,beethoven4    ,well1    
this remark--a remonstrance we can      
hardly call it--has undoubtedly  to be  
accepted4 ,only it must be laid to ,mr4 
,seymour ,haden's credit that  he has   
shown a rare sagacity in the choice of  
his method of expression4  ,the         
conditions of the art of etching--a     
special branch of the engraver's  art1  
and not to be considered wholly         
alone--are fitted precisely to his      
temperament1 and suit his means to      
perfection4 ,etching is qualified       
especially to give the fullest effect to
 the mental impression with the  least  
possible expenditure of merely tedious  
work4 ,etching is for the  vigorous     
sketch--and it is for the exquisite     
sketch likewise4 ,it is for  the work in
 which suggestion may be ample and      
unstinted1 but in which  realisation    
may1 if the artist chooses1 hardly be   
pursued at all4 ,to say  that1 has      
become one of the commonplaces of       

criticism4 ,we are not all of  us so    
gifted1 however1 that commonplaces are  
to be dispensed with for  the remainder 
of time4    ,of the great bygone masters
 of the art1 some have pursued it in    
,mr4  ,haden's way1 and others have made
 it approach more nearly to the work of 
the deliberate engraver4 ,vandyke etched
 as a speedy and decisive  sketcher2 the
 later and elaborate work added to his  
plates was added by  other hands1 and   
produced only a monotonous completeness 
destructive of  the first charm1 the    
charm of the vivid impression4 ,mryon1  
whose noble  work ,mr4 ,haden has       
rightly felt and pronounced to be 8not  
impulsive and  spontaneous1 but         
reflective and constructive1 slow and   
laborious10 used  etching evidently in a
 different method and for different     
ends4 ,with  something of the patience  
of a deliberate line-engraver1 he built 
up his  work1 piece by piece and stroke 
by stroke3 touching here1 and tinkering 
there--he says so himself--and the      

wonder of it is1 that for all his       
slowness and delay1 the work itself     
remains simple and broad1 and the       
poetical motive is held fast to4 ,this  
,mr4 ,haden has expressly  recognised4  
,nothing eluded ,mryon4 ,the impressions
 that with some men  come and go1 he    
pertinaciously retained4 ,through all   
mechanical  difficulties1 his own       
quality of concentrativeness preserved  
to his work  the quality of unity4      
,then1 again1 it must be said that the  
greatest  etcher of old time1           
,rembrandt1 and one of the greatest1    
,claude1 employed  the two methods1 and 
found the art equal to the expression   
both of the  first fancy and of the     
realised fact4 ,to see which1 one may   
compare the  first state of ,rembrandt's
 ,clment de ,jonghe--with its rapid     
seizure of  the features of a character 
of extraordinary subtlety--and the      
,ephraim  ,bonus1 with its deliberate   
record of face and gesture1 dress and   
environment2 and in ,claude the         

exquisite free sketching in the first   
state of ,shepherd and ,shepherdess with
 the quite final work of the  second    
state of ,le ,bouvier4 ,mr4 ,haden1     
then1 has full justification  for his   
view of etching2 yet ,mr4 ,haden's view 
of etching is not the only  one that can
 be held with fairness4    ,for all but 
forty years now ,seymour ,haden has been
 an etcher1 so that we  may naturally   
see in his work the characteristics of  
youth and those of  an advanced         
maturity1 in which1 nevertheless1 the   
eye is not dimmed nor  the natural fire 
abated4 ,that is to say1 the mass of his
 labour--over a  hundred and eighty     
etchings--already affords the           
opportunity of  comparison between      
subjects essayed with the careful and   
delicate  timidity of a student of      
twenty1 and subjects disposed of with   
the  command and assurance that come of 
years1 of experience1 and--may ,i       
add8--of recognition4 ,but in his early 
time ,mr4 ,haden did but little on  the 

copper1 and then he would have had no   
reason to resent the title of           
8amateur10 now somewhat unreasonably    
bestowed on a workman who has given  us 
the ,agamemnon1 the ,sunset on the      
,thames1 the ,sawley1 and the  ,calais  
,pier4 ,somewhere1 perhaps1 knocking    
about the world are the six  little     
plates1 chiefly of ,roman subjects1     
which ,mr4 ,haden painfully and         
delicately engraved in the years #ahdc  
and #ahdd4 ,all that remains of  them1  
known to the curious in such matters1 is
 a tiny group of  impressions cherished 
in the upper chambers of a house in     
,hertford  ,street--a scanty barrier1   
indeed1 between these first tentative   
efforts  and oblivion4    ,but in #aheh 
and #ahei ,mr4 ,haden began to etch     
seriously2 he began to give  up to the  
practice of this particular way of      
draughtsmanship a measure  of time that 
permitted well-addressed efforts and    
serious  accomplishments4 ,fine         
conceptions in all the ,arts ask1 as    

their most  essential condition1 some   
leisure of mind1 some power of          
acquisition of  the happy mood in which 
one sees the world best1 and in which   
one can  labour joyously at passing on  
the vision4 ,the best ,art may be       
produced  with trouble1 but it must be  
with the 8joyful trouble0 of ,macduff4  
,nothing is more marked in the long     
array of ,mr4 ,haden's mature work than 
the sense of pleasure he has had in     
doing it4 ,how much1 generally1 has  it 
been the result of pleasant impressions6
 ,how much the most  satisfactory and   
sufficient has it been when it has been 
the most  spontaneous6 ,compare the     
absolute unity1 the clearly apparent    
motive1 of  such an etching as ,sunset  
on the ,thames with the more obscure aim
 and  more limited achievement of the   
,windsor4 ,the plates of the fruitful   
years #ahei1 #ahfj1 #ahfc1 #ahfd1 and so
 onward1 were done1 it seems1 under     
happy conditions4    ,any one who turns 
over ,seymour ,haden's plates in        

chronological order1  will find that    
though1 as it chanced1 a good many years
 had passed1 yet  very little work in   
etching had been done before the artist 
had found  his own method and was wholly
 himself4 ,there were first the six     
dainty  little efforts of #ahdc and     
#ahdd2 then1 when etching was resumed in
  #aheh--or1 rather1 when it was for the
 first time taken to seriously--there   
were the plates of ,arthur1 ,dasha1 ,a  
,lady ,reading1 and ,amalfi4 ,in  these 
he was finding his way2 and then1 with  
the first plates of the  following year1
 his way was found2 we have the ,mytton 
,hall1 the  ,egham1 and the ,water      
,meadow1 perfectly vigorous1 perfectly  
suggestive sketches1 still unsurpassed4 
,in later years we find a later  manner1
 a different phase of his talent1 a     
different result of his  experience2 but
 in #ahei he was already1 ,i repeat1    
entirely himself1 and  doing work that  
is neither strikingly better nor        
strikingly worse than  the work which   

has followed it a score of years after4 
,in the work of  #ahei1 and in the work 
of the last period1 there will be found 
about an  equal measure of beautiful    
production4 ,in each there will be      
something  to admire warmly1 and        
something that will leave us            
indifferent4 ,and in  the etchings of   
#ahei1 in the very plates that ,i have  
mentioned1 there is  already enough to  
attest the range of the artist's        
sympathy with nature  and with          
picturesque effect4 ,mytton ,hall1 seen 
or guessed at through  the gloom of its 
weird trees1 is remarkable for a certain
 garden  stateliness--a disorder that   
began in order1 a certain dignity of    
nature  in accord with the curious      
dignity and quietude of ,art4 ,the      
,egham  subject has the silence of the  
open country2 the ,water ,meadow is an  
artist's subject quite as peculiarly1   
for 8the eye that sees0 is  required    
most of all when the question is how to 
find the beautiful in  the apparently   

commonplace4    ,next year1 amongst     
other good work1 we have the sweet      
little plate of  ,combe ,bottom1 which1 
in a fine impression1 more than holds   
its own  against the ,kensington        
,gardens1 and gives us at least as much 
enjoyment by its excellence of touch as 
does the more intricate beauty  of the  
,shore ,mill ,pond1 with its foliage so 
varied and so rich4 ,in the  next year  
to which any etchings are assigned in   
,sir ,william ,drake's  catalogue--a    
thoroughly systematic book1 and done    
with the aid of much  information from  
the author of the plates--we find ,mr4  
,haden departing  from his usual habit  
of recording his impression of nature1  
for the  object1 sometimes not a whit   
less worthy1 of recording his impression
 of  some chosen piece of master's art4 
,this is in the year #ahfe1 and the     
subject is a rendering of ,turner's     
drawing of the ,grande ,chartreuse1  and
 it is an instance of the noble and     
artistic translation of work to  which a

 translator may hold himself bound to be
 faithful4 ,and here is  the proper     
place1 ,i think1 to mention the one such
 other instance of a  subject inspired1 
not by nature1 but by the art of        
,turner1 which ,seymour  ,haden's work  
affords--the large plate of the ,calais 
,pier1 done in #ahgd4  ,nothing shows   
,mr4 ,haden's sweep of hand1 his        
masculine command of his  means1 better 
than that4 ,such an exhibition of       
spontaneous force is  altogether        
refreshing4 ,one or two points about it 
demand to be noted4 ,in  the first      
place1 it makes no pretence1 and        
exhibits no desire1 to be a  pure copy4 
,without throwing any imputation on the 
admirable craft of the  pure interpreter
 and simple reproducer who enables us to
 enjoy so much  of an art that might    
otherwise never come near to many of us1
 ,i may yet  safely say that ,i feel    
sure that ,mr4 ,haden had never the     
faintest  intention of performing for   
the ,calais ,pier this copyist's        

service4 ,to  him the ,calais ,pier of  
,turner--the sombre earlyish work of the
 master1  now hanging in the ,national  
,gallery--was as a real scene4 ,it was  
not to  be scrupulously imitated2 what  
was to be realised1 or what was to be   
suggested1 was the impression that it   
made4 ,with a force of expression       
peculiar to him1 ,seymour ,haden has    
succeeded in this aim2 but1 ,i think1   
he has succeeded best in the rare       
unpublished state which he knows as  the
 8first biting10 and next best in the   
second state--the first state  having   
some mischief of its own to bear which  
in the preparatory proofs  had not      
arisen1 and in the second state had     
ceased4 ,the plate is  arranged now with
 a ground for mezzotint--it lies        
awaiting that work--and  if ,mr4 ,haden1
 having now retraced to the full such   
steps as may have  been at least        
partially mistaken1 is but master of the
 new method--can  but apply the         
mezzotint with anything of that curious 

facility and  success with which ,turner
 applied it to a few of his plates in   
,liber  ,studiorum1 in which the        
professional engraver had no part--then 
we shall  have a chef-d'uvre of         
masculine suggestion which will have    
been worth  waiting for4    ,to go back 
to the somewhat earlier plates4 ,the    
,penton ,hook1 which is  one of many    
wrought in #ahfd1 is another            
instance--and we have had several       
already--of the artist's singular power 
in the suggestion of tree form4  ,of    
actual leafage1 leafage in detail1 he is
 a less successful  interpreter1 as is  
indeed only natural in an etcher devoted
 on the whole  to broad effects1 looking
 resolutely at the ensemble4 ,detail is 
nothing to him--ensemble1 balance1 is   
all4 ,but the features of trees1  as    
growth of trunk and bend of bough reveal
 them1 he gives to us as no  other      
contemporary etcher can4 ,and in old    
,art they are less varied in  ,claude   
and in ,ruysdael4 ,mere leafage counted 

for more with both of  these4 ,and if it
 is too much to compare ,mr4 ,haden as a
 draughtsman of  the tree with a master 
of painting so approved as ,crome--the  
painter  especially of oak and          
willow--as an etcher of the tree he may 
yet be  invited to occupy no second     
place1 for ,crome's rare etchings are   
remarkable for draughtsmanship chiefly4 
,crome knew little of technical         
processes in etching1 and so no full    
justice can ever be done to his  etched 
work1 which passed1 imperfect1 out of   
his own hands1 and was then  spoilt in  
the hands of others--dull1 friendly     
people1 who fancied they  knew more than
 he did of the trick of the craft1 but  
who knew nothing of  the instinct of the
 art4 ,crome himself in etching was like
 a soldier  unequipped4 ,mr4 ,haden has 
a whole armoury of weapons4    ,seymour 
,haden has been a fisherman2 ,i do not  
know whether he has been a  sailor4     
,but1 at all events1 purely rural life  
and scene1 however varied  in kind1 are 

discovered to be insufficient1 and the  
foliage of the  meadow and the waters of
 the trout stream are often left for the
 great  sweep of tidal river1 the long  
banks that enclose it1 the wide sky that
  enlivens every great flat land1 and by
 its infinite mobility and  immeasurable
 light gives a soul1 ,i always think1 to
 the scenery of the  plain4 ,then we    
have ,sunset on the ,thames 7#ahfe71    
,erith ,marshes  7#ahfe71 and the       
,breaking ,up of the ,agamemnon 7#ahgj71
 the last of them  striking a deep      
poetic note--that of our associations   
with an ,england of  the past that has  
allowed us the ,england of to-day--a    
note struck by  ,turner in the ,fighting
 ,tmraire1 and struck so magnificently  
by  ,browning and by ,tennyson#a in     
verse for which no ,englishman can ever 
be  too thankful4    ,footnote #a3      
,i mean1 of course1 in 8,home ,thoughts 
from ,abroad10 and in the    8,revenge3 
a ,ballad of the ,fleet40    ,in the    
technique of these later etchings there 

is1 perhaps1 no very  noticeable        
departure from that of the earlier but  
yet mature work4 ,but  in composition or
 disposition of form we seem to see an  
increasing love  of the sense of        
spaciousness1 breadth1 potent effect4   
,the work seems1 in  these best         
examples1 to become more dramatic and   
more moving4 ,the hand  demands occasion
 for the large exercise of its freedom4 
,these  characteristics are very        
noticeable in the ,sawley ,abbey of     
#ahgc4 ,nor  are they absent from our   
,dusty ,millers4    ,illustration       
,sawley ,abbey is etched on zinc1 a     
substance of which ,mr4 ,haden has of   
late become fond4 ,it affords 8a fat    
line0--a line without rigidity--and so  
far it is good4 ,but the practical      
difficulty with it is that the          
particles of iron it contains make it   
uncertain and tricky1 and we may  notice
 that an etching on zinc is apt to be   
full of spots and dots4 ,it  succeeds   
admirably1 however1 where it does not   

fail very much4 ,of course  its frequent
 failure places it out of the range of  
the pure copyist who  copies or         
translates as matter of business4 ,he   
cannot afford its risk4  ,in #ahgg--;a  
year in which ,mr4 ,haden made a number 
of somewhat undesirable  etchings in    
,spain1 and a more welcome group of     
sketches in ,dorsetshire1  on the downs 
and the coast--,mr4 ,haden worked much  
upon zinc4 ,and it is in  this year that
 a change that might before have been   
foreseen is clearly  apparent4 ,dry     
point before this had been united with  
etching1 but not  till now have we much 
of what is wholly dry point2 and from   
this date  the dry-point work is almost1
 though not altogether1 continuous1 the 
artist having rejoiced1 he tells me1 in 
its freedom and rapidity4    ,the       
,dorsetshire etchings1 ,windmill ,hill1 
,nine ,barrow ,down1 and the  like1 are 
most of them dry points4 ,in them1      
though the treatment of  delicate       
distances is not evaded1 there is       

especial opportunity for  strong and    
broad effects of light and shade4       
,perhaps it is to these that  a man     
travels as his work continues1 and as1  
in continuing1 it develops4  ,at least  
it may be so in landscape4    ,here1 for
 the present1 is arrested the etched    
work of an artist  thoroughly           
individual1 thoroughly vigorous1 but    
against whom ,i have  charged1 by       
implication1 sometimes a lack of        
exquisiteness1 the only too  frequent   
but not inevitable drawback of the      
quality of force4 ,so much  for the work
 of the hand4 ,for the process of the   
mind--the character  which sets the hand
 upon the labour1 and pricks it on to   
the execution  of the aim--the worst has
 been said also1 when ,i said1 at the   
beginning1  that ,mr4 ,haden lacked that
 power of extremely prolonged           
concentration  which produced the epic  
in literature and the epic in painting4 
,these  two admissions made1 there is   
little of just criticism of ,seymour    

,haden's work that must not be admiring 
and cordial--the record of  enjoyment   
rather than of dissatisfaction--so much 
faithful and free  suggestion does the  
work contain of the impressions that    
gave rise to  it1 so much variety is    
compassed1 so much are we led into      
unbroken  paths1 and so much evidence is
 there of eager desire to enlarge the   
limits of our ,art1 whether by plunge   
into a new theme1 or by application  of 
a new process4                          
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,chapter ,,ii4                         
,,jules ,,jacquemart4      ,,there died1
 in ,september1 #ahhj1 at his mother's  
house in the high road  between the ,arc
 de ,triomphe and the ,bois1 a unique   
artist whose death  was for the most    
part unobserved by the frequenters of   
picture  galleries4 ,he had contributed 
but little to picture galleries4 ,there 
had  not been given to ,jules           
,jacquemart the pleasure of a very wide 

notoriety1 but in many ways he was      
happy1 in many fortunate4 ,he was       
fortunate1 to begin with1 in his birth2 
for though he was born in the           
bourgeoisie1 it was in the cultivated   
bourgeoisie1 and it was in the          
bourgeoisie of ,france4 ,his father1    
,albert ,jacquemart1 the known          
historian of pottery and porcelain1 and 
of ancient and fine furniture1  was of  
course a faithful and diligent lover of 
beautiful things1 so that  ,jules       
,jacquemart was reared in a house where 
little was ugly and much  was precious2 
a house organized1 albeit unconsciously1
 on ,william  ,morris's admirable plan1 
8,have nothing in your home that you do 
not know  to be useful or believe to be 
beautiful40 ,thus his own natural       
sensitiveness1 which he had inherited1  
was highly cultivated from the  first4  
,from the first he breathed the liberal 
and refining air of ,art4  ,he was happy
 in the fact that adequate fortune gave 
him the liberty1 in  health1 of choosing

 his work1 and in sickness1 of taking   
his rest4 ,with  comparatively rare     
exceptions1 he did precisely the things 
which he was  fitted to do1 and did them
 perfectly1 and being ill when he had   
done  them1 he betook himself to the    
exquisite ,south1 where colour is1 and  
light--the things we long for the most  
when we are most tired in  cities--and  
so there came to him towards the end a  
surprise of pleasure  in so beautiful a 
world4 ,he was happy in being surrounded
 all his life  long by passionate       
affection in the narrow circle of his   
home4 ,his  mother survives him--the    
experience of bereavement being hers1   
when it  would naturally have been his4 
,for himself1 he was happier than she1  
for  he had never suffered any quite    
irreparable loss4 ,and in one other way 
he was probably happy--in that he died  
in middle age1 his work being  entirely 
done4 ,the years of deterioration and of
 decay1 in which first  the artist does 
but dully reproduce the spontaneous work

 of his youth1  and then is sterile     
altogether--the years in which he is no 
longer the  fashion at all1 but only the
 landmark or the finger-post of a       
fashion  that is past--the years when a 
name once familiar is uttered at rare   
intervals and in tones of apology as the
 name of one whose performance  has     
never quite equalled the promise he had 
aforetime given--these years  never came
 to ,jules ,jacquemart4 ,he was spared  
these years4    ,but few people care1 or
 are likely to care very much1 for the  
things  which chiefly interested him1   
and which he reproduced in his art2 and 
even the care for these things1 where it
 does exist1 does1  unfortunately1 by no
 means imply the power to appreciate the
 art by  which they are retained and    
diffused4 8,still-life10 using the      
expression  in its broadest sense--the  
pourtrayal of objects1 natural or       
artificial1  for the objects' sake1 and 
not as background or accessory--has     
never been  rated very highly or very   

widely loved4 ,here and there a         
professed  connoisseur has had pleasure 
from some piece of exquisite            
workmanship2 a  rich man has looked with
 idly caressing eye upon the skilful    
record of  his gold plate or of the     
grapes of his forcing-house4 ,there has 
been  praise for the adroit ,dutchmen1  
and for ,lance and ,blaise ,desgoffe4   
,but  the public generally--save perhaps
 in the case of ,william ,hunt1 his     
birds' nests and his primroses--has been
 indifferent to these things1 and  often
 the public has been right in its       
indifference1 for often these  things   
are done in a poor spirit1 a spirit of  
servile imitation or  servile flattery1 
with which ,art has nothing to do4 ,but 
there are  exceptions1 and there is a   
better way of looking at these things4  
,william ,hunt was often one of these   
exceptions2 ,chardin was always--save   
in a rare instance or so of dull        
pomposity of rendering--,jules          
,jacquemart1 take him for all in all1   

was of these exceptions the most        
brilliant and the most peculiar4 ,he1 in
 his best art of etching1 and his       
fellows and forerunners in the art of   
painting1 have done something to  endow 
the beholders of their work with a new  
sense1 with the capacity  for new       
experiences of enjoyment--they have     
pourtrayed not so much matter  as the   
very soul of matter4 ,they have put     
matter in its finest light3 it  has got 
new dignity4 ,chardin did this with his 
peaches1 his pears1 his  big coarse     
bottles1 his copper saucepans1 his      
silk-lined caskets4 ,jules  ,jacquemart 
did it--we shall see in more of detail  
presently--very  specially with the     
finer work of artistic men in household 
matter and  ornament2 with his blue and 
white porcelain1 with his polished steel
 of  chased armour and sword-blade1 with
 his ,renaissance mirrors1 with his     
precious vessels of crystal and jade and
 jasper4 ,but when he was most  fully   
himself1 his work most characteristic   

and individual1 he shut  himself off    
from popularity4 ,even untrained        
observers could accept the  agile       
engraver as an interpreter of other     
men's pictures--of ,meissonier's        
inventions1 or ,van der ,meer's1 or     
,greuze's--but they could not accept him
  as the interpreter at first hand of   
the treasures which were so  peculiarly 
his own that he may almost be said to   
have discovered them  and their beauty4 
,they were not alive to the wonders that
 have been done  in the world by the    
hands of artistic men4 ,how could they  
be alive to  the wonders of this their  
reproduction--their translation1 rather1
 and a  very free and personal one--into
 the subtle lines1 the graduated darks1 
the soft or sparkling lights1 of the    
artist in etching8    ,on ,september    
#gth1 #ahcg1 ,jacquemart was born1 in   
,paris1 and the  profession of ,art1 in 
one or other of its branches1 came      
naturally to a  man of his race4 ,a     
short period of practice in             

draughtsmanship1 and only  a small      
experience of the particular business of
 etching1 sufficed to  make him a       
master4 ,as time proceeded1 he of course
 developed2 he found  new methods--ways 
not previously known to him4 ,but little
 of what is  obviously tentative and    
immature is to be noticed even in his   
earliest  work4 ,he springs into his art
 an artist fully armed1 like ,rembrandt 
with  the wonderful portrait of his     
mother 8lightly etched40 ,in #ahfj1 when
 he  is but twenty-three1 he is at work 
upon the illustrations to his  father's 
,histoire de la ,porcelaine1 and though 
in that publication the  absolute       
realisation of wonderful matter is not1 
perhaps1 so noteworthy  as in the       
,gemmes et ,joyaux de la ,couronne--the 
touch is not so large1  so energetic1   
and so free--there is evident already   
the hand of the  delicate artist and the
 eye that can appreciate and render     
almost  unconsidered beauties4          
,exquisite matter and the forms that    

,art has given  to common things have   
found their new interpreter4 ,the       
,histoire de la  ,porcelaine contains   
twenty-six plates1 most of which are    
devoted to  ,oriental china1 of which   
the elder ,jacquemart possessed a       
magnificent  collection at a time when  
the popular rage for 8blue and white0   
was  still unpronounced4 ,many of       
,albert ,jacquemart's pieces figure in  
the  book2 they were pieces the son had 
lived with and which he knew            
familiarly4 ,their charm1 their         
delicacy1 he perfectly represented1 and 
of each individual piece he appreciated 
the characteristics1 passing  too1      
without sense of difficulty1 from the   
bizarre ornamentation of  the ,east to  
the ordered forms and satisfying        
symmetry which the high  taste of the   
,renaissance gave to its products4      
,thus1 in the ,histoire de  la          
,porcelaine1 amongst the quaintly       
naturalistic decorations from  ,china1  
and amongst the ornaments of ,svres1    

with their pretty boudoir  graces and   
airs of light luxury fit for the        
,marquise of ,louis ,quinze and  the    
sleek young abb1 her pet and her        
counsellor1 we find1 rendered  with just
 as thorough an appreciation1 a ,brocca 
,italienne1 the ,brocca  of the         
,medicis1 of the sixteenth century1     
slight and tall1 where the  lightest of 
,renaissance forms1 the thin and        
reed-like lines of the  arabesque--no   
mass or splash of colour--is patterned  
with measured  exactitude1 with rhythmic
 completeness1 over the smoothish       
surface4 ,it  is wonderful how little   
work there is in the etching1 and how   
much is  suggested4 ,the actual touches 
are almost as few as those which        
,jacquemart employed afterwards in some 
of his light effects of  rock-crystal1  
the material which he has interpreted   
perhaps best of all4  ,one counts the   
touches1 and one sees how soon and how  
strangely he has  got the power of      
suggesting all that he does not actually

 give1 of  suggesting all that is in the
 object by the little that is in the    
etching4 ,on such work may be bestowed1 
amongst much other praise1 that         
particular praise which1 to fashionable 
,french criticism1 delighted  especially
 with the feats of adroitness1 and      
occupied with the evidence  of the      
artist's dexterity1 seems the           
highest--,il n'y a rien1 et il y a      
tout4    ,illustration    ,execution so 
brilliant can hardly also be faultless1 
and without  mentioning many instances  
among his earlier work1 where the defect
 is  chiefly noticeable1 it may be said 
that the roundness of round objects  is 
more than once missing in his etchings4 
,strange that the very quality  first   
taught to1 and first acquired by1 the   
most ordinary pupil of a  ,government   
,school of ,art should have been wanting
 to an artist often as  adroit in his   
methods as he was individual in his     
vision6 ,the ,vase de  ,vieux           
,vincennes1 from the collection of ,m4  

,lopold ,double1 is a case to  the      
point4 ,it has the variety of tone1 the 
seeming fragility of texture  and       
ornament1 the infinity of decoration1   
the rendering of the subtle  curvature  
of a flower1 and of the transparency of 
the wing of a passing  insect4 ,it has  
everything but the roundness--everything
 but the quality  that is the easiest   
and the most common4 ,but so curious a  
deficiency1  occasionally displayed1    
could not weigh against the amazing     
evidence of  various cleverness1 and    
,jacquemart was shortly engaged by the  
publishers  and engaged by the ,french  
,government4    ,the difference in the  
commissions accorded by those two--the  
intelligent  service which the one was  
able to render to the nation in the act 
of  setting the artist about his        
appropriate work1 and1 broadly speaking1
  the hindrance which the other opposed 
to his individual  development--could   
nowhere go unnoticed1 and least of all  
could go  unnoticed in a land like ours1

 too full of a dull pride in laissez    
faire1 in private enterprise1 in        
,government inaction4 ,to the initiative
  of the ,imperial ,government1 as ,mr4 
,hamerton well pointed out when he was  
appreciating ,jacquemart as long as     
twelve years ago1 was due the           
undertaking by the artist of the        
colossal task1 by the fulfilment of     
which he secured his fame4 ,moreover1 if
 the ,imperial ,government had not  been
 there to do this thing1 this thing     
would never have been done1 and  some of
 the noblest and most intricate objects 
of ,art in the possession  of the ,state
 would have gone unrecorded--their      
beauty unknown and  undiffused4 ,even as
 it is1 though the task definitely      
commissioned was  brought to its proper 
end1 a desirable sequel that had been   
planned  remained untouched4 ,the hand  
that recorded the ordered grace of      
,renaissance ornament would have shown  
as well as any the intentions of  more  
modern craftsmen--the decoration of the 

,eighteenth ,century in  ,france1 with  
its light and luxurious elegance4       
,the ,histoire de la ,porcelaine1       
then--begun in #ahfj1 and published in  
#ahfb by ,techener1 a steady friend of  
,jacquemart--was followed in #ahfd by   
the ,gemmes et ,joyaux de la ,couronne4 
,the ,chalcographie of the  ,louvre--the
 department which concerns itself with  
the issue of  commissioned              
prints--undertook the publication of the
 ,gemmes et ,joyaux4  ,in the series    
there were sixty subjects1 or at least  
sixty plates1 for  sometimes            
,jacquemart1 seated by his window in the
 ,louvre 7which is  reflected over and  
over again at every angle in the lustre 
of the  objects he designed71 would etch
 in one plate the portraits of two      
treasures1 glad to give 8value0 to the  
virtues of the one by  juxtaposition    
with the virtues of the other2 to       
oppose1 say1 the  brilliant transparency
 of the rock-crystal ball to the        
texture1 sombre  and velvety1 of the    

vase of ancient sardonyx4 ,of all these 
plates ,m4  ,louis ,gonse has given an  
account1 sufficiently detailed for most 
people's purposes1 in the ,gazette des  
,beaux-,arts for #ahgf4 ,the  catalogue 
of ,jacquemart's etchings there         
contained was a work of  industry and of
 very genuine interest on ,m4 ,gonse's  
part1 and its  necessary extent1 due to 
the artist's own prodigious diligence in
 work1  sufficiently excuses1 for the   
time at least1 an occasional            
incompleteness of description1 making   
absolute identification sometimes  a    
difficult matter4 ,the critical         
appreciation was warm and intelligent1  
and the student of ,jacquemart must     
always be indebted to ,gonse4 ,but for  
the quite adequate description of work  
like ,jacquemart's1 there was  needed   
not only the ,french tongue--the tongue 
of criticism--but a ,gautier  to use it4
 ,only a critic whose intelligence gave 
form and definiteness  to the           
impressions of senses preternaturally   

acute1 could have given  quite adequate 
expression to ,jacquemart's dealings    
with beautiful  matter--to his easy     
revelry of colour and light over lines  
and contours  of selected beauty4       
,everything that ,jacquemart could do in
 the rendering  of beautiful matter1 and
 of its artistic and appropriate        
ornament1 is  represented in one or     
other of the varied subjects of the     
,gemmes et  ,joyaux1 save only his work 
with delicate china4 ,and the work      
represents  his strength1 and hardly    
ever betrays his weakness4 ,he was never
 a  thoroughly trained academical       
draughtsman4 ,a large and detailed      
treatment of the nude figure--any       
further treatment of it than that       
required for the beautiful suggestion of
 it as it occurs on ,renaissance        
mirror-frames or in ,renaissance        
porcelains--might have found him        
deficient4 ,he had a wonderful feeling  
for the unbroken flow of its line1  for 
its suppleness1 for the figure's        

harmonious movement4 ,perhaps he was    
not the master of its most intricate    
anatomy2 but1 on the scale on which  he 
had to treat it1 his suggestion was     
faultless4 ,by the brief shorthand  of  
his art in this matter1 we are brought  
back to the old formula of  praise4     
,here1 indeed1 if anywhere--,il n'y a   
rien1 et il y a tout4    ,and as nothing
 in his etchings is more adroit than his
 treatment of the  figure1 so nothing is
 more delightful1 and1 as it were1      
unexpected4 ,he  feels the intricate    
unity of its curve and flow1 how it     
gives value by  its happy accidents of  
line to the fixed and invariable        
ornament of  ,renaissance decoration--an
 ornament as orderly as well-observed   
verse1  with its settled form1 its      
repetition1 its refrain4 ,i will mention
 two  or three instances which seem the 
most notable4 ,one of them occurs in    
the drawing of a ,renaissance           
mirror--,miroir ,franais du ,seizime    
,sicle--elaborately carved1 but its     

chief grace1 after all1 is in its  fine 
proportions2 not so much in the         
perfection of the ornament as in  the   
perfect disposition of it4 ,the         
absolutely satisfactory filling of a    
given space with the enrichments of     
design1 the occupation of the space     
without the crowding of it--for that is 
what is meant by the perfect            
disposition of ornament--has always been
 the problem for the decorative  artist4
 ,recent fashion has insisted1 quite    
sufficiently1 that it has  been best    
solved by the ,japanese2 and they indeed
 have solved it1 and  sometimes with a  
singular economy of means1 suggesting   
rather than  achieving the occupation of
 the space they have worked upon4 ,but  
the  best ,renaissance design has solved
 the problem quite as well1 in  fashions
 less arbitrary1 with rhythm more       
pronounced1 and yet more  subtle1 with a
 precision more exquisite1 with a       
complete comprehension  of the value of 
quietude1 of the importance of rest4 ,if

 it requires 8an  ,athenian tribunal0 to
 understand ,ingres and ,flaxman1 it    
needs1 at all  events1 some education in
 beautiful line to understand the art of
  ,renaissance ornament4 ,such art      
,jacquemart of course understood        
absolutely1 and against its ordered     
lines the free play of the nude  figure 
is indicated with touches dainty1       
faultless1 and few4 ,thus it is1  ,i    
say1 in the ,miroir ,franais du ,seizime
 ,sicle4 ,and to the  attraction of the 
figure has been added almost the        
attraction of  landscape and landscape  
atmosphere in the plate ,no4 #bg of the 
,gemmes et  ,joyaux1 representing scenes
 from ,ovid1 as an artist of the        
,renaissance  had pourtrayed them on the
 delicate liquid surface of cristal de  
roche4 ,and1 not confining our          
examination wholly to the ,gemmes et    
,joyaux--of which obviously the mirror  
just spoken of cannot form a  part--we  
observe there or elsewhere in           
,jacquemart's work how his  treatment of

 the figure takes constant note of the  
material in which the  first artist1 his
 original1 was working4 ,is it raised   
porcelain1 for  instance1 or soft ivory1
 or smooth cold bronze1 with its less   
close and  subtle following of the      
figure's curves1 its certain measure of 
angularity in limb and trunk1 its many  
facets1 with somewhat marked  transition
 from one to the other 7instead of the  
unbroken harmony of the  real figure71  
its occasional flatnesses8 ,if it is    
this1 this is what  ,jacquemart gives us
 in his etchings--not the figure only1  
but the figure  as it comes to us       
through the medium of bronze4 ,see1 for 
instance1 the  ,vnus ,marine1 lying half
 extended1 with slender legs1 long a    
possession of ,m4 ,thiers1 ,i believe4  
,you cannot insist too much on          
,jacquemart's mastery over his          
material--cloisonn1 with its many low   
tones1 its delicate patterning outlined 
by metal ribs2 the coarseness of  rough 
wood1 as in the ,salire de ,troyes2 the 

sharp clear sword-blade1  as the sword  
of ,franois ,premier1 the signet's      
flatness and delicate                   
smoothness--,c'est le sinet du ,roy     
,sant ,louis--and the red porphyry1     
flaked1 as it were1 and speckled1 of an 
ancient vase1 and the clear soft        
unctuous green of jade4    ,and as the  
material is marvellously varied1 so are 
its combinations  curious and wayward4  
,i saw1 one autumn1 at ,lyons1 the      
sombre little  church of ,ainay1 a      
,christian edifice built of no ,gothic  
stones1 but  placed1 already ages ago1  
on the site of a ,roman temple--the     
temple used1  its dark columns cut      
across1 its black stones rearranged1 and
 so the  church completed--,antiquity   
pressed into the service of the ,middle 
,age4  ,jacquemart1 dealing with the    
precious objects he had to pourtray1    
came  often upon such strange meetings3 
an antique vase of sardonyx1 say1       
infinitely precious1 mounted and altered
 in the twelfth century for the  service

 of the ,mass1 and so1 beset with gold  
and jewels1 offered by its  possessor to
 the ,abbey of ,saint ,denis4    ,it was
 not a literal imitation1 it must be    
said again1 that ,jacquemart  made of   
these things4 ,these things sat to him  
for their portraits2 he  posed them2 he 
composed them aright4 ,placed by him in 
their best lights1  they revealed their 
finest qualities4 ,he loved an effective
 contrast of  them1 a comely            
juxtaposition2 a legitimate accessory he
 could not  neglect--that window1 by    
which he sat as he worked1 flashed its  
light  upon a surface that caught its   
reflection2 in so many different ways   
the  simple expedient helps the task1   
gives the object roundness1 betrays its 
lustre4 ,some people bore hardly on him 
for the colour1 warmth1 and life  he    
introduced into his etchings4 ,they     
wanted a colder1 a more  impersonal1 a  
more precise record4 ,jacquemart never  
sacrificed precision  when precision was
 of the essence of the business1 but he 

did not care  for it for its own sake4  
,and the thing that his first critics   
blamed him  for doing--the composition  
of his subject1 the rejection of this1  
the  choice of that1 the bestowal of    
fire and life upon matter dead to the   
common eye--is a thing which artists in 
all ,arts have always done1 and  will   
always continue to do1 and for this most
 simple reason1 that the  doing of it is
 ,art4    ,not very long after the      
,gemmes et ,joyaux was issued1 as we now
 have  it1 the life of ,frenchmen was   
upset by the war4 ,schemes of work      
waited  or were abandoned2 at last men  
began1 as a distinguished ,frenchman at 
that time wrote to me1 8to rebuild their
 existence out of the ruins of  the     
past40 ,in #ahgc1 ,jacquemart1 for his  
part1 was at work again on his  own best
 work of etching4 ,the ,histoire de la  
,cramique1 a companion to  the ,histoire
 de la ,porcelaine1 was published in    
that year4 ,to an  earlier period 7to   
#ahfh7 belong the two exquisite plates  

of the light  porcelain of              
,valenciennes1 executed for ,dr4 ,le    
,jeal's monograph on the  history of    
that fabric4 ,and to #ahff belongs an   
etching already  familiarly known to the
 readers of the ,gazette des            
,beaux-,arts and to  possessors of the  
first edition of ,etching and           
,etchers--the ,tripod--a  priceless     
thing of jasper1 set in golden carvings 
by ,gouthire1 and now  lodged among the 
best treasures of the great house in    
,manchester ,square4    ,but it is      
useless to continue further the         
chronicle of the triumphs that          
,jacquemart won in the translation1 in  
his own free fashion of black and       
white1 of all sorts of beautiful matter4
 ,moreover1 in #ahgc1 the year of  the  
issue of his last important series of   
plates1 ,jules ,jacquemart1  stationed  
at ,vienna1 as one of the jury of the   
,international ,exhibition  there1      
caught a serious illness1 a fever of the
 typhoid kind1 and this  left him a     

delicacy which he could never overcome2 
and thenceforth his  work was limited4  
,where it was not a weariness1 it had to
 be little but  a recreation1 a         
comparative pause4 ,that was the origin 
of his  performances in water colour1   
undertaken in the ,south1 whither he    
repaired at each approach of winter4    
,there remains1 then1 only to speak  of 
these drawings and of such of his etched
 work as consisted in the               
popularisation of painted pictures4 ,as 
a copyist of famous canvasses he  found 
remunerative and sometimes              
fame-producing labour4    ,as an        
interpreter of other men's pictures1 it 
fell to the lot of  ,jacquemart1 as it  
generally falls to the lot of           
professional engravers1  to engrave the 
most different masters4 ,but with so    
very personal an  artist as he1 the     
interpretation of so many men1 and in so
 many years1  from #ahfj1 or            
thereabouts1 onwards1 could not possibly
 be always of  equal value4 ,once or    

twice he was very strong in the         
reproduction of the  ,dutch portrait    
painters2 but as far as ,dutch painting 
is concerned1 he  is strongest of all   
when he interprets1 as in one now       
celebrated  etching1 ,jan van der ,meer 
of ,delft4 ,der ,soldat und das lachende
  ,mdchen was one of the most noteworthy
 pieces in the rich cabinet of ,m4      
,lopold ,double4 ,the big and somewhat  
blustering trooper common in ,dutch     
,art1 sits here engaging the attention  
of that pointed-faced1 subtle1 but      
vivacious maiden peculiar to ,van der   
,meer4 ,behind the two1 who are         
occupied in contented gazing and        
contented talk1 is the bare sunlit      
wall1 spread only with its map or       
chart--the ,dutchman made his wall as   
instructive as ,joseph ,surface made his
 screen--and by the side of the  couple1
 throwing its brilliant1 yet modulated  
light on the woman's face  and on the   
background1 is the intricately patterned
 window1 the airy  lattice4 ,rarely was 

a master's subject or a master's method 
better  interpreted than in this print4 
,frans ,hals once or twice is just as   
characteristically rendered4 ,but with  
these exceptions it is  ,jacquemart's   
own fellow-countrymen whom he renders   
the best4 ,seldom was  finish so free   
from pettiness or the evidence of effort
 as it is in the  ,dfil des populations 
lorraines devant l',impratrice  ,nancy4 
,le  ,liseur is even finer--,meissonier 
again2 this time a solitary figure1     
with bright1 soft light from window at  
the side1 as in the ,van der ,meer  of  
,delft4 ,the suppleness of ,jacquemart's
 talent--the happy speed of it1  rather 
than its patient elaboration--is shown  
by his renderings of  ,greuze1 the ,rve 
d'amour1 a single head1 and ,l',orage1 a
 sketchy  picture of a young and        
frightened mother kneeling by her child 
exposed  to the storm4 ,greuze1 with his
 cajoling art--which1 if one likes1 one 
must like without respecting--is        
entirely there4 ,so1 too1 ,fragonard1   

the  whole ardent and voluptuous soul of
 him1 in ,le ,premier ,baiser4 ,labour  
it is possible to give in much greater  
abundance2 but intelligence in          
interpretation cannot go any further or 
do anything more4    ,between the       
etchings of ,jacquemart and his         
water-colour drawings there  is little  
affinity4 ,the subjects of the one      
hardly ever recall the  subjects of the 
other4 ,the etchings and the water      
colours have but one  thing in          
common--an extraordinary lightness of   
hand4 ,once1 however1 the  theme is the 
same4 ,jacquemart etched some           
compositions of flowers2 ,m4  ,gonse has
 praised them very highly3 to me1       
elegant as they are1 fragile  of        
substance and dainty of arrangement1    
they seem inferior to that  last-century
 flower-piece which we ,english are     
fortunate enough to know  through the   
exquisite mezzotint of ,earlom4 ,but in 
the occasional  water-colour painting of
 flowers--especially in the decorative  

disposition of them over a surface for  
ornament--,jacquemart is not easily     
surpassed2 the lightness and            
suggestiveness of the work are almost   
equal  to ,fantin's4 ,a painted fan by  
,jacquemart1 which is retained by ,m4   
,petit1  the dealer1 is dexterous1 yet  
simple in the highest degree4 ,the theme
 is  a bough of the apple-tree1 where   
the blossom is pink1 white1 whiter1     
then whitest against the air at the     
branch's end4    ,but generally his     
water colour is of landscape1 and a     
record of the  ,south4 ,perhaps it is   
the sunlit and flower-bearing coast1 his
 own refuge  in winter weather4         
,perhaps1 as in a drawing of ,m4 ,may's1
 it is the  mountains behind            
,mentone--their conformation1 colours1  
and tones1 and  their thin wreaths of   
mist--a drawing which ,m4 ,may1 himself 
an habitual  mountaineer in those       
regions1 assures me is of the most      
absolute truth4  ,or1 perhaps1 as in    
another drawing in the same collection1 

it is a view  of ,marseilles2 sketchy at
 first sight1 yet with nothing          
unachieved  that might have helped the  
effect2 not the ,marseilles1 sunny and  
brilliant1 parched and southern1 of most
 men's observation--the  ,marseilles    
even of the great observer1 the         
,marseilles of ,little  ,dorrit--but the
 busy port1 with its ever-shifting life1
 under an effect  less known2 the       
,marseilles of an overcast morning3 all 
its houses1 its  shipping and its quays1
 grey or green and steel-coloured4 ,such
 a work is  a masterpiece1 with the     
great quality of a masterpiece1 that you
 cannot  quickly exhaust the restrained 
wealth of its learned simplicity4 ,to   
speak about it one technical word1 we   
may say that while it belongs by  its   
frank sketchiness to the earlier order  
of water-colour art1 an art  of rapid   
effect1 as practised best by ,dewint and
 ,david ,cox1 it belongs  to the later  
order--to contemporary art--by its      
unhesitating employment of  body colour4

    ,the true source of the diversity of
 ,jacquemart's efforts1 which ,i have   
now made apparent1 is perhaps to be     
found in a vivacity of intellect1 a     
continual alertness to receive all      
passing impressions4 ,that alone makes  
a variety of interests easy and even    
necessary4 ,that pushes men to  express 
themselves in art of every kind1 and to 
be collectors as well as  artists1 to   
possess as well as to create4           
,jacquemart inherited the  passion of a 
collector2 it was a queer thing that he 
set himself to  collect4 ,he was a      
collector of shoe-leather2 foot-gear of 
every sort and  of every time4 ,his     
father1 ,albert ,jacquemart1 had held   
that to know the  pottery of a nation   
was to know its history4 ,jules saw many
 histories1  of life and travel1 and the
 aims of travel1 in the curious objects 
of  his collection4 ,their              
ugliness--what would be to most of us   
the extreme  distastefulness of         
them--did not repel him4 ,nor were his  

attentions  devoted chiefly to the      
dainty slippers of a dancer--souvenirs1 
at all  events1 of the art of the       
ballet1 very saleable at fancy fairs of 
the  theatrical profession4 ,he etched  
his own boots1 tumbled out of the worst 
cupboard in the house4 ,he looked at    
them with affection--souvenirs de       
voyage4 ,the harmless eccentricity      
brings down1 for a moment1 to very      
ordinary levels1 this watchful and      
exquisite artist1 so devoted  generally 
to high beauty1 so keen to see it4      
,what more would he have done had the   
forty-three years been greatly          
prolonged1 a spell of life for further  
work accorded1 ,hezekiah-like1 to  a    
busy labourer upon whom ,death had laid 
its first warning hand8 ,we  cannot     
answer the question1 but it must have   
been much1 so variously  active was his 
talent1 so fertile his resource4 ,as it 
is1 what may he  hope to live by1 now   
that the most invariably fatal of all   
forms of  consumption1 the most fatal   

while the least suspected1 la phthisie  
larynge1 has arrested his effort8 ,a    
very gifted1 a singularly agile  and    
supple translator of painters' work1 he 
may surely be allowed to be1  and a     
water-colour artist1 perfectly          
individual1 yet hardly actually  great2 
his strange dexterity of hand at the    
service of fact1 not at the  service of 
imagination4 ,he recorded nature2 he did
 not exalt or  interpret it4 ,but he    
interpreted ,art4 ,he was alive1 more   
than any one  has been alive before1 to 
all the wonders that have been wrought  
in the  world by the hands of artistic  
men4                                    
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,chapter ,,iii4                        
,j4 ,a4 ,m4 ,,whistler      ,,years ago 
,james ,whistler was a person of high   
promise3 he has since been  an artist   
often of agreeable and exquisite1 though
 sometimes of  incomplete and apparently
 wayward1 performance4 ,he has the      

misfortune to  have been greatly known  
to a large public as the painter of his 
least  desirable works1 these having    
reached an easy notoriety1 while the    
others have thus far too much escaped a 
general fame4 ,much of ,mr4  ,whistler's
 art has the interest of originality1   
and some of it the charm  of beauty2 and
 yet the measure of originality has at  
times been  over-rated1 through the     
innocent error of the budding amateur1  
who1 in  the earlier stage of his       
enlightenment1 confuses the beginning   
with the  end1 accepts the intention for
 the adequate fulfilment1 and exalts an 
adroit sketch into the rank of a        
permanent picture4 ,mr4 ,irving as      
,philip of ,spain--three years ago at   
the ,grosvenor--was a murky caricature  
of ,velasquez2 the master's sketchiness 
remained1 but his decisiveness  was     
wanting4 ,and in some of the ,nocturnes 
the absence1 not only of  definition1   
but of gradation1 would point to the    
conclusion that they  are but engaging  

sketches4 ,in them we look in vain for  
all the delicate  differences of light  
and hue which the scenes depicted       
present4 ,like the  landscape art of    
,japan1 they are harmonious decorations1
 and a dozen or  so of such engaging    
sketches placed in the upper panels of a
 lofty  apartment would afford a        
justifiable and welcome alternative even
 to  noble tapestries or ,morris        
wall-papers4 ,but1 on the large scale on
 which  they are painted--a scale in    
which their well-considered sketchiness 
is  carefully emphasized--it is in vain 
that we endeavour to receive them as    
cabinet pictures4 ,they suffer curiously
 when placed against work not of  course
 of petty and mechanical finish1 but of 
patient achievement4 ,but  they have    
merits of their own2 nor are their      
merits too common4 ,so short  a way have
 they proceeded into the complications  
of colour1 that they  avoid the         
incompatible3 they avoid it cleverly2   
they say little to the  mind1 but they  

are restful to the eye1 in their        
agreeable simplicity and  limited       
suggestiveness4 ,they are the record of 
impressions4 ,so far as  they go1 they  
are right2 nay1 in one sense they are   
better than right1  for they are        
charming4    ,and1 moreover1 there is   
evidence enough elsewhere that ,mr4     
,whistler1  confined to colour alone1   
can produce more various and more       
intricate  harmonies than those of a    
,nocturne in silver and blue1 than those
 of a  scherzo in blue1 or than those   
even in that fascinating portrait of    
,mrs4 ,meux1 in which it was not so much
 the face as the figure and the         
movement that came to be deftly         
suggested1 if hardly elaborately        
expressed4 ,a great apartment in the    
house of ,mr4 ,leyland1 which ,mr4      
,whistler has decorated1 has shown that 
a long and concentrated effort at  the  
solution of the problems of colour is   
not beyond the scope of an  artist who  
has rarely mastered the subtleties of   

the intricate human  form4 ,it has      
shown1 moreover1 that his solution of   
such problems can be  strikingly        
original4 ,as a decorative painter--as a
 painter of large or  brilliant         
sketches--,mr4 ,whistler has had few    
superiors in any time or  land4 ,his    
skill is sometimes genius here4 ,why1 in
 the ,grosvenor ,gallery1  the very year
 in which the irrepressible painter     
proffered the most  unwelcome of his    
,nocturnes1 there was a quite delightful
 picture1  suggested1 indeed1 by        
,japanese ,art1 but itself not less     
subtle than the  art which prompted     
it--,a ,variation in ,flesh-colour and  
,green--bare-armed  damsels of the      
farthest ,east1 lounging in attitudes of
 agreeable  abandonment in some balcony 
or court open to the genial sunlight and
 to  the soft air4 ,the damsels--they   
were not altogether meritorious4 ,the   
draughtsmanship displayed in them was   
anything but 8searching40 ,but the      
picture had a quality of cool           

refreshment such as the gentle colour   
and  clean-shining material of ,luca    
della ,robbia affords to the beholder of
  ,tuscan ,art1 as he comes upon ,tuscan
 ,art under ,tuscan skies4    ,the      
interest of life--the interest of       
humanity--has confessedly occupied  ,mr4
 ,whistler but little2 yet in spite of  
his devotion to the art  qualities of   
the peacock1 it has not been given to   
him to be quite  indifferent to the race
 to which he belongs4 ,his portraits1   
sometimes1  whatever may be his         
theories1 have not been very obviously  
considered as  arrangements of colour   
only for colour's sake4 ,they may even  
have  profited by the adoption of hues  
such as suited their themes1 and here   
,mr4 ,whistler may have delivered1      
through his language of colour1 a       
message which some men would have       
intrusted to line alone4 ,anyhow he has 
been able to paint with admirable       
expressiveness a portrait of his        
mother1 and to have recorded on a       

doleful canvas the head and figure of   
,carlyle1 and in both1 the simplicity   
and veracity of effect are things  to be
 noted4 ,not indeed that the pictures   
are without mannerism3 the  straight and
 stiffish disposition of the lines in   
the first is not so  much a merit as a  
peculiarity4 ,but a certain dignified   
quietude and a  certain reticent pathos 
are apparent in the portrait of the     
lady1 and  the rugged simplicity of     
,carlyle--a simplicity which his own    
generation  received with so naive an   
admiration--is suggested not only with  
skill of  hand1 but with the mental     
skill that discovers quickly1 in        
presence of a  subject1 wherein lies the
 best opportunity for high success in   
treating  it4    ,but ,i take it to be  
admitted by those who do not conclude   
that the art  is necessarily great which
 has the misfortune to be unacceptable1 
that  it is not by his paintings so much
 as by his etchings that ,mr4           
,whistler's name may aspire to live4 ,in

 painting1 his success is  infrequent   
and it is limited--though when it       
occurs1 its very peculiarity  gives us a
 keen relish for it--in etching1 it is  
neither limited nor  rare1 though of    
course it is not uninterrupted nor      
unbroken4 ,in  painting1 ,mr4 ,whistler 
is an impressionist--he is an           
impressionist in  etching1 but etching  
permits the record of the impression    
only1 while  painting demands at all    
events the occasional capacity to       
realise with  weeks of labour what a few
 hours might happily enough suggest4    
,moreover--and the circumstance is odd  
and noteworthy--it is in his  etchings  
that ,mr4 ,whistler has reached         
realisation the best1 and he has        
reached it1 in the earlier ,thames-side 
work of twenty years ago1 with no       
sacrifice whatever of freedom and of    
frankness in treatment4 ,his best       
painting betrays something of that      
exquisite sensitiveness1 that almost    
modern sensitiveness1 to pleasurable    

juxtapositions of delicate colour  which
 we admire in ,orchardson1 in ,linton1  
and in ,albert ,moore2 it  betrays      
sometimes1 as in a portrait of ,miss    
,alexander1 a deftness of  brushwork1 in
 the wave of a feather1 in the curve of 
a hat1 that recalls  for a moment even  
the great names of ,velasquez and of    
,gainsborough2 and  of high art         
qualities it betrays not much           
besides--though these1 which  are very  
rare1 we are properly grateful for4 ,but
 the etchings--that is  indeed another  
matter4 ,they must be considered in     
detail4 ,no criticism  is wasted that   
concerns itself carefully with them1 and
 that points out  from the many1 which  
are fair1 and which are exquisite1 and  
which are  flagrantly offensive4    ,in 
some of his prints1 ,mr4 ,whistler makes
 good a claim to live by the  side of   
the finest masters of the etching       
needle1 and a familiarity with          
,rembrandt and with ,mryon increases    
rather than lessens our interest in  the

 ,american of to-day4 ,but ,mr4         
,whistler has etched too much for his   
reputation1 or at least has published   
too much4 ,no one who can look at  work 
of ,art fairly1 demands that it shall be
 faultless2 least of all can  that be   
demanded of work of which the very      
virtue lies sometimes in its            
spontaneousness2 but one has good reason
 to demand that the faults shall  not   
outweigh the merits4 ,now in some of    
,mr4 ,whistler's figure-pieces1         
executed with the etching-needle1 and   
offered to the public  indiscreetly1 the
 commonness and vulgarity of the person 
pourtrayed find  no apology in          
perfection of pourtrayal--the design is 
uncouth1 the  drawing is intolerable1   
the light and shade an affair of a      
moment's  impressiveness1 with no       
subtlety of truth to hold the interest  
that is  at first aroused4 ,see1 as one 
instance1 the etching numbered #c in    
,mr4  ,thomas's published               
catalogue--notice the size of the hands4

 ,and see again  ,no4 #ef1 in which the 
figure is one vast black triangle1 in   
which there  is apparently not a single 
quality which work of ,art should have4 
,the  portraits of ,becquet1 the        
violoncello player1 of one ,mann1 and of
 one  ,davis1 have character1 with no   
mannerism1 but with a good simplicity of
  treatment4 ,but neither face          
pourtrayed1 nor ,art pourtraying it1 is 
of a  kind to command a prolonged       
enjoyment4 ,on the other hand1 in some  
of the  etchings or dry points1 not1 it 
seems1 included in the catalogue1 and in
  the refined and sensitive little      
etching of ,fanny ,leyland there is     
apparent a distinct feeling for grace of
 contour--for the undulations of  the   
figure and its softness of modelling4   
,these are but the briefest             
sketches--they have a quality of their  
own4 ,it is not ungenerous to  suggest  
that carried further they might have    
failed4 ,for the true genius  of etching
 is in them as they are4 ,as they are   

they have not failed4    ,many have been
 the themes which1 in the art of the    
aquafortist1 ,mr4  ,whistler has        
essayed4 ,he has essayed landscape2 he  
has drawn a tree in  ,kensington        
,gardens1 and a tree in the foreground  
of the ,isle ,st4  ,louis1 ,paris2 but  
that tree at least seems of no known    
form of  vegetable growth--it has the   
air of an exploding shell4 ,here and    
there--occupied with those              
juxtapositions of light and shade which 
fascinated the masters of ,holland--,mr4
 ,whistler has drawn interiors1 and  in 
one of his interiors we note a success  
second only to the very  highest these  
,dutchmen attained4 ,this is the        
interior described as ,the  ,kitchen4   
,only the finest1 the most carefully    
printed impressions  possess the full   
charm2 but when such an impression      
presents itself to  the eye1 the ,dutch 
masters1 who have followed most keenly  
the glow and  the gradation of light on 
chamber-walls1 are seen to be almost    

rivalled4  ,the kitchen is a long and   
narrow room1 at the far end of which1   
away  from the window and the keen      
light1 stand artist and spectator4      
,farthest  of all from them the light   
vine leaves are touched in with a grace 
that  ,adrian van ,ostade--a master in  
this matter--would not have excelled4   
,by  the embrasure of the window1 just  
before the great thickness of the  wall1
 stands a woman1 angular1 uncomely1 of  
homely build1 busied with  8household   
chares40 ,in front of her comes the     
sharp sunlight1 striking  the thick     
wall-side1 and lessening as it advances 
into the shadow and  gloom of the humble
 room2 wavering timidly on the plates of
 the dresser1  in creeping half gleams  
which reveal and yet conceal the objects
 they  fall upon4 ,the meaningless      
scratch and scrawl of the bare floor in 
the  foreground is the only fault that  
at all seriously tells against the      
charm of work otherwise beautiful and of
 keen sensitiveness2 and the  case is   

one in which the merit is so much the   
greater that the fault may  well be     
ignored or its presence permitted4      
,again1 ,la ,vieille aux  ,loques--a    
weary woman of humblest fortunes and    
difficult life--shows1 ,i  think1 that  
,mr4 ,whistler has now and then been    
inspired by the pathetic  masters of    
,dutch ,art4    ,we have seen already   
that two things have much occupied ,mr4 
,whistler--the  arrangement of colours  
in their due proportions1 the           
arrangement of  light and shade4 ,and   
the best results of the life-long study 
which1 by  his own account1 he has given
 to the arrangement of colour are seen  
in  the work that is purely1 or the work
 that is practically1 decorative--the   
work that escapes the responsibility of 
a subject4 ,and the best results  of the
 study of the arrangements of light and 
shade are seen in a dozen  etchings1    
most of which--but not ,the ,kitchen and
 not the ,vieille aux  ,loques--belong  
to that series in which the artist has  

recorded for our  curious pleasure the  
common features of the shores of the    
,thames4 ,here  also there is evident   
his feeling1 not exactly for beauty1 but
 at all  events for quaintness of form1 
for form that has character4 ,it had    
occurred to no one else to draw with    
realistic fidelity the lines of  wharf  
and warehouse along the banks of the    
river2 to note down the  pleasant       
oddities of outline presented by roof   
and window and crane2 to  catch the     
changes of the grey light as it passed  
over the front of  ,wapping4 ,mr4       
,whistler's figure-drawing1 generally   
defective and always  incomplete1 has   
prevented him from seizing every        
characteristic of the  sailor-figures   
that people the port4 ,the absence1     
seemingly1 of any  power such as the    
great marine painters had1 of drawing   
the forms of  water1 whether in a broad 
and wind-swept tidal river or on the    
high  seas1 has narrowed and limited    
again the means by which ,mr4 ,whistler 

has  depicted the scenes 8below         
,bridge40 ,but his treatment of these   
scenes is  none the less original and   
interesting4 ,by wise omission1 he has  
managed  often to retain the sense of   
the flow of water or its comparative    
stillness4 ,its gentle lapping lifts the
 keels of the now emptied boats  of his 
,billingsgate4 ,it lies lazy under the  
dark warehouses of his  ,free ,trade    
,wharf4 ,it frets and flickers and      
divides in pleasant light  against the  
woodwork of the bridge in the larger    
,putney4    ,the limitations of ,mr4    
,whistler's art are very conspicuous in 
a more  recent experiment than the      
original ,thames-side series--the series
 of  ,venice4 ,so evident1 indeed1 are  
they in that set that the set has been  
undervalued by many amateurs of taste1  
who have exacted too much that  ,mr4    
,whistler should give them1 not what he 
was best able to see in  ,venice1 but   
what cultivated readers of ,art history 
have been most  accustomed to see there4

 ,the ,venice series is in the etcher's 
later  manner--a style in which         
ever-increasing reliance is placed on   
the  faculty of slight and suggestive   
sketching4 ,now etching1 even when      
practised with the greatest possible    
union of fidelity and freshness1 is     
hardly the appropriate medium for       
conveying the charm of delicate         
architecture4 ,of such architecture     
,mryon himself only now and then        
essayed to give the charm1 and he       
essayed it1 deliberately1 at the cost   
of abandoning not a little of the       
etcher's freedom--he became1 for the    
nonce at least1 a 8great original       
engraver20 he took his art beyond its   
habitual bounds4 ,his triumph justified 
him4 ,but ,mr4 ,whistler1 even in  his  
earlier manhood1 when those of the      
,thames etchings which are the  fullest 
of detail were wrought with sureness and
 precision of hand1  never betrayed     
either the capacity or the will to      
reproduce the charm of  delicate        

architecture4 ,yet in an art to which   
colour is denied1 the  charm of delicate
 architecture must be the charm of      
,venice4 ,it remained1  however1 for    
,mr4 ,whistler to see whether the place 
had yet some aspects  which his etching 
could record--an impression1 not a      
reproduction3 that  was all that could  
be looked for4 ,and ,mr4 ,whistler      
etched his  impressions with curious    
uncertainty and curious inequality4 ,he 
was now  adroit1 now wavering4 ,he took 
from ,london to ,venice his happy       
fashion of  suggesting lapping water4   
,he looked at ,venice as a whole1       
keenly1  delicately1 but never in       
detail--we had bird's-eye views of it4  
,it had  been interesting to wonder what
 would be the vision granted to a       
fantastic genius of a fantastic city4   
,well1 little new came of it1 in        
etching--nothing new that was beautiful4
 ,afterwards1 in a series of  pastels1  
it became clear who it was that had seen
 ,venice4 ,it was ,mr4  ,whistler the   

exquisite colourist1 not the exquisite  
etcher4    ,illustration    ,mr4        
,whistler's fame as an aquafortist1     
then1 rests chiefly still on his        
,thames-side work2 and1 even there1 less
 on the faint agreeable sketches  done  
of later years1 though these have their 
charm1 like the better of  his painted  
,nocturnes1 than on the work of his     
first maturity4 ,the  ,london ,bridge   
and the ,free ,trade ,wharf and one or  
two ,putneys--one  of them is in this   
book--may be named1 however1 among the  
happiest  examples of the later art that
 is specially brief in recording an     
impression4 ,the spring of the great    
arch in ,london ,bridge1 as seen  from  
below1 from the water-side1 is rendered1
 it seems1 with a  suggestion of power  
in great constructive work1 such as is  
little  visible in the tender handling  
of so many of the prints of the river4  
,the ,free ,trade ,wharf is a very      
exquisite study of gradations of tone   
and of the receding line of murky       

buildings that follows the bend of the  
stream4 ,it is1 in its best printed     
impressions1 a thing of faultless       
delicacy4 ,a third river-piece1 not     
lately done1 has been rather lately     
retouched--the ,billingsgate3 ,boats at 
a ,mooring4 ,in the retouch is an       
instance of the successful treatment of 
a second 8state0 or even a later        
8state0 of the plate1 and such as should
 be a warning to the collector  who buys
 8first states0 of everything--the      
,liber ,studiorum included--and  8first 
states0 alone1 with dull determination4 
,of course the true  collector knows    
better3 he knows that the impression is 
almost all1 and  the 8state0 next to    
nothing1 except as indicating what is   
probable as to  the condition of the    
plate1 and he must gradually and        
painfully acquire  the eye to judge of  
the impression4    ,a few years ago ,mr4
 ,whistler retouched his ,billingsgate  
for the  proprietors of the ,portfolio1 
and the proof impressions of the state  

issued by them reach the highest        
excellence of which the plate has been  
capable4 ,not sheltering itself under   
the extreme simplicity and  singleness  
of aim kept so adroitly in the ,free    
,trade ,wharf and in the  ,london       
,bridge1 it falls into faults which     
these avoid4 ,the ghostliness  of the   
foreground figures demands an ingenious 
theory for its  justification1 and this 
theory no one has advanced4 ,but the    
solidity of  the buildings introduced   
into this plate--the clock-tower and the
 houses  upon the quay--are a rare      
achievement in etching4 ,for once the   
houses are  not drawn1 but built1 like  
the houses and the churches and the     
bridges  of ,mryon4 ,the strength of    
their realisation lends delicacy to the 
thin-masted fishing boats with their yet
 thinner lines of cordage1 and  to the  
distant bridge in the grey mist of      
,london1 and to the faint  clouds of the
 sky4 ,perhaps yet more delicate than   
the ,billingsgate is  the ,hungerford   

,bridge1 so small1 yet1 in a fine proof1
 so spacious and  airy4 ,it lacks       
substance1 of course1 and solidity--and 
so does the  impression of landscape in 
a dream4    ,finally1 there are the     
,thames ,police1 the ,tyzack ,whiteley1 
and the  ,black ,lion ,wharf4 ,these1   
which were executed a score of years    
since1  are the most varied and complete
 studies of quaint places now           
disappearing--nay1 many of them already 
disappeared--of places with no  beauty  
that is very old or very graceful1 but  
with interest to the  every-day         
,londoner and interest1 too1 to the     
artist4 ,here are small  warehouses     
falling to pieces1 or poorly propped    
even when they were  sketched1 and      
vanished now to make room for a vaster  
and duller  uniformity of storehouse    
front4 ,here are narrow dwelling-houses 
of our  ,georgian days1 with here a     
timber facing and there a quaint bow    
window1  many-paned--narrow houses of   
sea-captains1 or the riverside          

tradesfolk1  or of custom-house         
officials1 the upper classes of the     
,docks and the  ,east-end4 ,these too   
have been pressed out of the way by the 
aggressions  of great commerce1 and the 
varied line that they presented has     
ceased to  be4 ,of all these riverside  
features1 ,thames ,police is an         
illustration  interesting to-day and    
valuable to-morrow4 ,and ,black ,lion   
,wharf is yet  fuller of happy accident 
of outline and happy gradation of tone1 
studied  amongst common things which    
escape the common eye4    ,it is a      
pleasure to possess such faithful and   
spirited records of a  departing        
quaintness1 and it is an achievement to 
have made them4 ,it  would be a pity to 
remove the grace from the achievement by
 insisting  that1 as in ,nocturne and   
,arrangement1 the art was burdened by a 
here  unnecessary theory2 that the study
 of the 8arrangement of line and form0  
was all1 and the interest of the        
association nothing4 ,when ,dickens was 

tracing the fortunes of ,quilp on ,tower
 ,hill1 and on that dreary night  when  
the little monster fell from the wharf  
into the river1 he did not  think only  
of the cadence of his sentences1 or his 
work would never have  lived1 or lived  
only with the lovers of curious         
patchwork of mere words4  ,perhaps1     
without his knowing it1 some slight     
imaginative interest in the  lives of   
,londoners prompted ,mr4 ,whistler1 or  
strengthened his hand1 as  he recorded  
the shabbiness that has a history1 the  
slums of the eastern  suburb1 and the   
prosaic service of the ,thames4 ,here1  
and often  elsewhere1 his work1 if it   
has shown some faults to be forgiven1   
has  shown1 in excellence1 qualities    
that fascinate4 ,the ,future will forget
  his failures1 to which in the ,present
 there has somehow been accorded1       
through the activity of friendship or   
the activity of enmity1 a  publicity    
rarely bestowed upon failures at all2   
but it will remember the  success of    

work that is peculiar and personal4     
,these best things we have  dwelt upon  
are not to be denied that length of days
 which is the portion  of exquisite     
,art4                                   
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,chapter ,,iv4                         
,,alphonse ,,legros4      ,,any         
generation since the brilliant times of 
,art--since the sixteenth  century in   
,italy1 the seventeenth in ,holland1 the
 eighteenth in ,england  and in         
,france--has had to deem itself         
fortunate if it has produced three  or  
four artists of individuality united    
with large attainment2 and it is  much  
to be surmised that no generation will  
have greater cause than our  own to     
think it has done well if it has        
produced even as many4  ,notorieties of 
the moment may always be counted by the 
score1 but fame  remains so rarely for  
the most popular1 that the serious      
student of the  work of a master in any 

art has no reason to question his own   
judgment  when it points him to         
admiration1 merely because the object of
 his  admiration is not to be counted   
among the immediate successes of the    
hour4 ,legros is not an immediate       
success4 ,he has worked for             
five-and-twenty years1 and there are    
intelligent people who see little  in   
his pictures beyond their first         
ugliness4 ,each to his taste--we cannot 
always blame them2 and ,legros has been 
ugly sometimes gratuitously1  sometimes 
with wantonness4 ,but ,legros is also a 
very grave and enduring  master1 whose  
work is now full of mistake1 and now of 
power1 and now  again is certainly      
touched with that higher and keener     
faculty we call  inspiration4    ,the   
etchings of ,legros range already1      
however1 over a period of               
seven-and-twenty years2 and that he     
began so young1 and at a time when      
etching was not popular and the art had 
not become a trade1 is a proof  at least

 of the spontaneity of his pursuit of   
it4 ,by temperament and  instinct he was
 as much etcher as painter1 perhaps even
 more4 ,the  process of etching         
being--always in skilled hands1 of      
course--perhaps the  readiest for the   
rendering of impressions and the        
expression of artistic  thought1 it is  
natural that ,legros1 whose art1        
whatever it may lack in  immediate      
attractiveness1 is one undoubtedly of   
impressions and of  thoughts1 should    
have turned to this process4 ,and so    
well1 indeed1 has  he increased his     
command of it--always with reference to 
his own  particular business1 to the    
order of impressions it is his own task 
to  convey--that1 though there are1     
indeed1 several of his paintings which  
have the qualities of a master's work1  
we get the best of him in his  etchings4
 ,great is the technical progress he has
 made in these since  some of the first 
plates catalogued so well by ,m4        
,poulet-,malassis and  ,mr4 ,thibaudeau1

 but it is not to be imagined that the  
progress has been  uninterrupted4       
,incompleteness and uncertainty are     
still likely to be  visible4 ,his       
execution1 skilful at one time1 and     
entirely responsive to  his desire1 is  
at another time halting1 wayward1       
insufficiently  controlled and directed4
 ,therefore1 though1 as ,i say1 the     
execution is  not seldom                
excellent--economical of means and yet  
rich in the possession  of various      
means--it would rarely be in itself the 
occasion of attracting  notice to his   
work4 ,with ,legros1 it is the          
conception that dominates4  ,the        
conception is often such as recalls the 
highest achievements of ,art4           
,illustration    ,but the imagination of
 ,legros1 in virtue of which1 quite as  
much as by  occasional mannerisms of    
handling1 he recalls that older and more
  pregnant ,art which has well nigh     
passed from the very ken of the         
producers of our own day's trivial      

array1 is not in any sense derived  from
 this or that past master2 it is        
charged1 on the contrary1 in his  most  
considerable pieces with a serious and  
pathetic poetry quite his  own4 ,here   
and there1 indeed1 as in one early      
work--,procession dans les  ,caveaux de 
,saint-,mdard--it is not imagination at 
all1 as that is  generally understood1  
but the keen observation of an artist   
content to  reproduce1 that alone is    
remarkable2 and here there is a certain 
amount  of audacity in the fidelity with
 which he has rendered the commonplace1 
the mean1 the narrow faces of a certain 
section of the ,parisian lower          
bourgeoisie engaged in devotions which  
there is no beauty of form or  of       
thought to make interesting to the      
beholder4 ,it is a piece of pure        
realism--the hideous flounces and more  
hideous crinolines1 the squat  figures1 
the slop-shop fashions1 the common faces
 empty of records4 ,and  in this pure   
and unrelieved realism there is a       

certain value1 if there  is no charm4   
,but the pieces to which ,legros will   
owe such fame as the  better-judging    
connoisseurs and critics shall          
eventually accord him are  those in     
which the artistic instinct and desire  
of beauty1 either of  form or of        
thought1 has found some expression4 ,it 
will be in part by  such masculine1 yet 
refined and graceful1 portraits as those
 of ,m4 ,dalou  and ,mr4 ,poynter1 such 
subtle ones as that of ,cardinal        
,manning1 such  pathetic ones as that of
 ,m4 ,rodin here1 that ,legros will     
stand high4 ,it  will be in part by the 
etchings in which the pourtrayal of     
actual life  has been guided by the     
research for beauty1 as1 for instance1  
in the  ,chur d'une ,eglise ,espagnole1 
where not only is the head firm and     
dignified and the lighting more         
intricate than is usual with this       
master1 but where the composition of    
bent figure and curved violoncello  is  
of great repose and refinement of       

beauty4 ,a more various specimen of  the
 same type is to be found in a fine     
impression of ,les ,chantres            
,espagnols4 ,they are eight in the choir
 of a church--four sit in the  stalls1  
the others stand1 of whom one turns the 
page of a missal placed  on a lectern4  
,the scene is mostly dark--mostly even  
very dark--but the  light1 by a very    
skilled treatment of it1 falls here and 
there on  lectern1 missal1 and hand of  
the old man sitting in the choir4 ,the  
observation of reality in this plate has
 been at the same time keen and         
poetical1 for nothing can be truer and  
nothing more impressive than the  study 
of old faces out of which so much of the
 desire of life has gone1  and the study
 of gestures which are those of hand and
 will waxing  feeble4 ,two men1 at      
least1 are placed together in a pathetic
 harmony of  weakness3 the drooping hand
 of one and his drooped head1 as he sits
 in  his long-accustomed place2 the open
 mouth of the other--his mouth opened   

with the feebleness of a decayed        
intelligence1 with the slow             
understandings of a departing mind4 ,or1
 not to insist too much on a            
picturesqueness in which pathos         
predominates1 notice1 when the occasion 
presents itself1 the first rendering of 
the subject known as the  ,lutrin1 with 
its acolyte of rare youthful dignity2 or
 as an example of  work in which some   
little beauty of modelling has been     
sought to be  united even with every-day
 realism1 see the design of the bare    
knee in  ,l',enfant ,prodigue4    ,but  
where ,legros is most apart and alone   
is1 after all1 in the subjects  which   
owe most to the imagination1 and of     
these the very finest are ,la  ,mort du 
,vagabond1 ,la ,mort et le ,bcheron1 and
 ,le ,savant endormi4  ,something of the
 art that gives interest to these pieces
 is contained in  the careful           
persistence with which the etcher brings
 the realism of  physical ugliness into 
close contact and contrast with the     

spiritual and  supernatural4 ,a comely  
and well-to-do youth slumbering in his  
chair at  the ,marlborough could have no
 dreams an artist of ,legros's nature   
would  think worthy of recording1 but   
the ugly votary of science and          
intellectual speculation1 who sleeps1   
from sheer weariness1 in the  armchair  
before which are still the implements of
 his study and  research1 has the       
dignity of strained endeavour2 and ,m4  
,legros1 in  pourtraying him and        
suggesting the subjects of his dream1   
has reached an  elevation which         
separates him from most of his          
contemporaries1 by as  much as the      
,melancholia of ,drer is separated from 
the ,melancholia  of ,beham4 ,la ,mort  
du ,vagabond is not a whit less         
suggestive in its  contrast between the 
feebleness of the worn-out beggar now   
stretched out  lonely on the            
pathside--his head raised1 gasping1 and 
his hat knocked  away--and the force and
 fury of the storm that beats over dead 

tree and  desolate common4 ,the unity of
 tragic impression in homely life1      
preserved in this plate1 will give it a 
permanent value among the great  things 
of ,art4 ,la ,mort et le ,bcheron is    
more tender1 not more nor  less         
poetical1 but less weird2 and nothing   
short of a high and vigorous            
imagination could have saved from chance
 of ridicule1 in days in which  the     
symbolical has long ceased to be an     
habitual channel of expression1  this   
etching of the veiled skeleton of ,death
 appearing to the old man  still busy   
with his field-work1 and beckoning him  
gently1 while he1 with  simple and      
ignorant yet not insensitive face1      
touched with awe and  surprise1 looks up
 under a sudden spell it is vain to hope
 to cast off1  since for him1 however   
unexpectedly1 the hour has plainly come4
 ,of this  very fascinating subject1    
there exist impressions from two        
different  plates3 one of the plates1   
and in some respects the better and more

  pathetic one--the one in which the    
figure of ,death is gentler and more    
persuasive1 and in which the face of the
 woodman is the more mildly             
expressive--having suffered an accident 
after only about a dozen  impressions   
had been taken from it4 ,the second was 
then executed1 with  something less at  
first than the success of the earlier   
one1 so that the  almost unique and very
 rare impressions of the plate--whatever
 may chance  to be their money          
value--represent it to the least        
advantage4 ,it was  retouched and       
retouched1 and at length with more of   
reward for the  trouble than ,legros has
 generally been able to meet with when  
laboriously modifying his work in the   
attempt to realise his conception  more 
fully2 until at last the enterprising   
management of ,l',art was  enabled to   
offer its readers for about three       
shillings a work of art not  rare1      
indeed1 but of exquisite beauty4 ,the   
success of the first plate1  which the  

acid had covered in a moment of neglect1
 had been almost  refound4    ,a final  
word about the landscapes4 ,as a painter
 of landscape ,m4 ,legros  is little    
known1 but there exist1 ,i believe1 in  
,london one or two  considerable        
collections of water colours which      
exhibit almost  exclusively his art in  
landscape4 ,as far as the etchings show 
it at all1  it is of the most account   
when it is called in for the            
accompaniment of  one of those          
impressive and doleful ditties ,i have  
just been speaking  of4 ,sometimes1     
however1 it is good without this mission
 and  significance1 as in the ,pcheur1  
where a delicate effect of early        
morning is given with exquisite         
refinement4 ,but at other times1 in     
which  the artist is dealing with       
landscape charged for him with no       
especial  meaning1 his very observation 
of it seems to have been lacking in     
interest and acuteness1 as in the broad 
slope of grass by the  stream-side in   

his big print ,les ,bcherons--a whole   
surface of ground  that is treated      
mechanically and without any worthy     
apprehension4 ,and  yet this print1     
despite certain unpleasantness1 contains
 in the heads of  the woodcutters some  
of his finest work4 ,a much more sketchy
 subject1  ,paysage aux ,meules1 has    
greater unity of impression4 ,like a    
good deal  of ,legros's landscape1 it is
 distinctively ,french1 this particular 
glimpse of field and farm and rounded   
hill reminding one of the               
wide-stretching uplands of the ,haut    
,boulognais4 ,other landscapes are of   
,england4 ,others1 again1 are neither of
 ,england nor of ,france1 nor of any    
land which may be read of in the        
guide-book or visited by the            
enterprising tourist1 but of that land  
alone that rises in the  imagination of 
artistic men4                           
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,index4       ,,bracquemond4 ,his      

originality and limitation1 p4 iii4     
,,claude4 ,his ,bouvier and ,shepherd   
and ,shepherdess conversing1 p4 #d4     
,,crome4 ,his etchings1 p4 #i4          
,,earlom4 ,his flower-pieces in         
mezzotint1 p4 #be4       ,,gonse4 ,his  
catalogue of ,jacquemart's etchings1 p4 
#ah4       ,,haden4 ,his quality of     
vigour1 p4 #b2     his judgment of      
,mryon1 p4 #d2     his earliest         
etchings1 p4 #e2     ,mytton ,hall1 p4  
#g2     ,egham1 p4 #g2     ,water       
,meadow1 p4 #g2     ,calais ,pier1 p4   
#g2     ,penton ,hook1 p4 #h2           
,sunset on the ,thames1 p4 #i2          
,erith ,marshes1 p4 #i2     ,agamemnon1 
p4 #aj2     ,sawley ,abbey1 p4 #aj2     
,dusty ,millers1 p4 #aj2     his        
,dorsetshire etchings1 p4 #aa4          
,,hamerton1 p4 iii4 and p4 #ag4         
,,jacquemart4 ,his happy circumstances1 
p4 #ab2     he renders the soul of      
matter1 p4 #ad2     his etchings of     
,oriental and ,svres porcelain1 p4 #ae2 
,brocca ,italienne1 p4 #af2     ,vase de

 ,vieux ,vincennes1 p4 #ag2     ,miroir 
,franais1 p4 #bj2     ,vnus ,marine1 p4 
#ba2     ,salire de ,troyes1 p4 #ba2    
his etchings after pictures1 p4 #bc2    
his flower-pieces1 p4 #be2     his work 
in water colour1 p4 #be2     his concern
 with ,art1 not nature1 p4 #bg4         
,,legros4 ,essentially an etcher1 p4    
#da2     his ,procession dans les       
,caveaux de ,saint-,mdard1 p4 #db2      
,dalou1 p4 #db2     ,poynter1 p4 #db2   
,manning1 p4 #db2     ,rodin1 p4 #db2   
,les ,chantres ,espagnols1 p4 #dc2      
,le ,lutrin1 p4 #dc2     ,la ,mort du   
,vagabond1 p4 #dd2     ,la ,mort et le  
,bcheron1 p4 #dd2     his etched        
landscapes1 p4 #de4       ,,macbeth1 p4 
iii4     ,m,,ryon4 ,his method with     
architecture1 p4 #ce4       ,,rembrandt4
 ,his ,ephraim ,bonus and ,clment de    
,jonghe1 p4 #d2     his ,portrait of a  
woman lightly etched1 p4 #ae4           
,,thibaudeau4 ,his catalogue of         
,legros's etchings1 p4 #da4             
,,tissot1 p4 iii4       ,,vandyke4 ,a   

decisive sketcher1 p4 #c4               
,,whistler4 ,his quality of             
exquisiteness1 p4 #bh2     his          
decorative arrangements1 p4 #bi2        
painted portraits1 p4 #cj2     his      
etched portraits1 p4 #cb2     ,fanny    
,leyland1 p4 #cc2     ,the ,kitchen1 p4 
#cc2     ,la ,vieille aux ,loques1 p4   
#cd2     his ,venice series1 p4 #ce2    
,free ,trade ,wharf1 p4 #cg2            
,billingsgate1 p4 #cg2     ,hungerford  
,bridge1 p4 #ch2     ,thames ,police1 p4
 #ch2     ,tyzack ,whiteley1 p4 #ch2    
,black ,lion ,wharf1 p4 #ch4            
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,london                 ,,printed ,,by 
,j4 ,s4 ,,virtue ,,and ,,co41 ,,limited1
                                 ,,city 
,,road4                                 
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,other ,,works ,,by ,,mr4 ,,wedmore4   
#gs4 #f;d4 ,,each4                      
,,studies ,,in ,,english ,,art4         

,,gainsborough1 ,,morland1 ,,reynolds1  
,,flaxman1 ,,stothard1                  
,,crome1 ,,cotman1 ,,turner1            
,,constable1 ,,de ,,wint1 ,,david ,,cox1
                                        
,,cruikshank4                           
,two ,volumes4 ,,second ,,edition4      
,,the ,,masters ,,of ,,genre ,,painting4
              ,,rembrandt1 ,,de ,,hoogh1
 ,,nicholas ,,maes1 ,,metsu1 ,,terburg1 
,,jan ,,steen1 ,,watteau1 ,,lancret1    
,,pater1 ,,chardin1 ,,fragonard1        
,,hogarth1 and ,,wilkie4                
,with ,sixteen ,illustrations4          
,,pastorals ,,of ,,france4              
8,a ,,last ,,love ,,at ,,pornic10       
8,,yvonne ,,of ,,croisic10 8,,the ,,four
                            ,,bells ,,of
 ,,chartres40                           
,,second ,,edition4                     
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,etchings                        ,,on  
,,sale ,,by ,,the ,,fine ,,art          
,,society4                              

,,by ,,francis ,,seymour ,,haden4       
4   s4   d4            ,a ,by-road in   
,tipperary                      #f    #f
    #j            ,a ,water ,meadow     
#d    #d    #j            ,amalfi       
#a   #aa    #f            ,amstelodam   
#a   #aa    #f            ,a ,cottage   
,window                            #b   
#ab    #f            ,battersea         
#d    #d    #j            ,breaking up  
of the ,agamemnon4 ,first         #e    
#e    #j            ,state #g #g #j     
,second ,state            ,barque       
,refitting                            #a
    #a    #j            ,brentford      
,ferry                             #b   
#ab    #f            ,by ,inveraron     
#c    #c    #j            ,brig at      
,anchor                              #c 
#c    #j            ,cottages behind    
,horsley's ,house             #c    #c  
#j            ,cranbrook                
#c    #c    #j            ,cardigan     
,bridge                             #b  
#ab    #f            ,combe ,bottom     

#d    #d    #j            ,calais ,pier4
 ,second ,state                  #ba    
#j    #j            ,do4      ,small    
#a   #aa    #f            ,dusty        
,millers                                
#c    #c    #j            ,evening      
#a    #a    #j            ,early        
,morning--,richmond ,park               
#b   #ab    #f            ,egham        
#b    #b    #j            ,egham ,lock  
#b    #b    #j            ,erith        
,marshes                                
#d    #d    #j            ,fulham       
#b   #ab    #f            ,greenwich    
#h    #h    #j            ,grim         
,spain--,burgos                         
#c    #c    #j            ,house of the 
,smith                          #b   #ab
    #f            ,hic ,terminus ,hret  
#a   #aa    #f            ,horsley's    
,house at ,willesley                #d  
#d    #j            ,kensington         
,gardens4 ,the ,large ,plate #b      #c 
#c    #j            #ab #f              
,small ,plate            ,kew ,side     

#b   #ab    #f            ,kilgaren     
,castle                             #b  
#ab    #f            ,kenarth           
#b   #ab    #f            ,kidwelly     
,town                               #b  
#b    #j            ,mount's ,bay       
#c    #c    #j            ,newcastle in 
,emlyn                          #b   #ab
    #f            ,o ,laborum6          
#a   #aa    #f            ,out of ,study
 ,window                         #b     
#b    #j            ,on the ,test4      
,first ,state                    #e     
#e    #j            ,purfleet           
#c    #c    #j            ,penton ,hook 
#d    #d    #j            ,puff ,asleep 
--            ,railway ,encroachment    
#b    #b    #j            ,ruins in     
,wales                              #a  
#aa    #f            ,sub ,tegmine      
#c    #c    #j            ,sonning      
,almshouses                          #b 
#b    #j            ,shepperton         
#b    #b    #j            ,shere        
,millpond                               

#e    #e    #j            ,sunset on the
 ,thames4 ,first ,state #c #c #j    #c  
#c    #j                     ,second    
,state            ,sketch on ,back of   
,zinc ,plate                #a   #aa    
#f            ,sunset in ,ireland       
#d    #d    #j            ,sonning      
#c    #c    #j            ,study of     
,stems                              #a  
#aa    #f            ,twickenham ,bushes
                           #j   #aj     
#f            ,the ,mill-,wheel4 ,first 
,state #c #c #j          #c    #c    #j 
,second ,state            ,thomas ,haden
 of ,derby                       #b     
#b    #j            ,thames ,fishermen  
#d    #d    #j            ,the ,herd    
#d    #d    #j            ,the ,two     
,sheep                               #a 
#aa    #f            ,the ,holly ,field 
#a    #a    #j            ,twickenham   
,church                           #c    
#c    #j            ,towing-,path4      
,first ,state #d #d #j             #d   
#d    #j                     ,second    

,state            ,the ,three ,sisters  
#d    #d    #j            ,the ,inn at  
,sawley4 7,unfinished7             #d   
#d    #j            ,the ,grande        
,chartreuse4 7,from ,drawing by     #b  
#b    #j            ,turner7            
,the ,moat ,house                       
#c    #c    #j            ,the ,two     
,asses                               #a 
#aa    #f            ,the ,turkish      
,bath1 with ,one ,figure           #b   
#ab    #f            ,the ,turkish      
,bath1 with ,two ,figures          #c   
#c    #j            ,the ,assignation   
#c    #c    #j            ,thames       
,ditton                               #d
    #d    #j            ,willow ,bank   
#b    #b    #j            ,windmill     
,hill                               #c  
#c    #j            ,windsor            
#h    #h    #j            ,ye ,compleate
 ,angler                         #c     
#c    #j            ,yacht ,tavern1     
,erith                         #d    #d 
#j            ,,the ,,volume ,,of       

8,,tudes0                     #cf   #ae 
#j                                      
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,by ,j4 ,a4 ,,mcn4 ,,whistler4         
,,venice4 ,a ,,series ,,of ,,twelve     
,,etchings4      ,limited to #ajj ,sets1
 #ej ,guineas the ,set2 or separately as
 follows3--               ,the ,little  
,venice                     #d    #d    
#j             ,the ,two ,doorways      
#f    #f    #j             ,the ,beggars
                            #h    #h    
#j             ,the ,nocturne           
#e    #e    #j             ,the ,doorway
                            #h    #h    
#j             ,the ,river              
#e    #e    #j             ,the ,little 
,mast                        #e    #e   
#j             ,the ,little ,lagoon     
#d    #d    #j             ,the ,palaces
                            #h    #h    
#j             ,the ,mast               
#e    #e    #j             ,the         
,traghetto                          #h  

#h    #j             ,the ,piazzetta    
#d    #d    #j                          
-------      ,,sixteen ,,thames         
,,etchings4        ,price #ad ,guineas  
the ,set in ,portfolio2 or separately as
 follows--               #a4 ,black     
,lion ,wharf                   #a   #ae 
#j             #b4 ,wapping ,wharf      
#a   #aa    #f             #c4 ,the     
,forge                           #b     
#b    #j             #d4 ,old           
,westminster ,bridge              #a    
#e    #j             #e4 ,wapping       
#b   #ab    #f             #f4 ,old     
,hungerford                      #a     
#aa    #f             #g4 ,the ,pool    
#a   #aa    #f             #h4 ,the     
,fiddler                         #a     
#aa    #f             #i4 ,the          
,limeburners                     #b     
#b    #j             #aj4 ,the ,little  
,pool                    #a    #e    #j 
#aa4 ,eagle ,wharf                      
#a   #ae    #j             #ab4         
,limehouse                          #a  

#aa    #f             #ac4 ,thames      
,warehouses                  #a    #e   
#j             #ad4 ,millbank           
#a    #e    #j             #ae4 ,early  
,morning 7,battersea7          #a    #a 
#j             #af4 ,chelsea ,bridge and
 ,church          #j   #aj    #f        
-------                 ,,the ,,little  
,,limehouse4 ,one ,hundred   #a   #aa   
#f               ,proofs ,only          
,,hurlingham4 ,sixty ,artist's ,proofs  
#c    #c    #j                 ,,fulham4
 ,sixty ,artist's ,proofs       #c    #c
    #j                 ,,putney4 ,sixty 
,artist's ,proofs       #c    #c    #j  
,,putney ,,bridge4 ,proofs              
#f    #f    #j                          
,,battersea ,,bridge4 ,proofs           
#f    #f    #j                          
-------                                 
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,by ,,samuel ,,palmer4      ,,the      
,,lonely ,,tower4 ,from 8,il            
,penseroso40                            

-------    ,,the ,,herdsman',s ,,cottage
 7#ahej74 ,plate destroyed4             
-------    ,,the ,,bellman4 ,from 8,il  
,penseroso0 7#ahgi74 ,sixty ,remarque   
,proofs 7of      which few remain       
unsold7 #d #d #j            ,plain      
,impressions #b #b #j                   
-------    ,,the ,,skylark 7#ahej74     
,plate destroyed #d #d #j               
-------    ,,christmas2 or1 ,folding the
 ,last ,sheep4 ,from ,bampfylde's       
8,sonnet0      7#ahej74 ,a few ,fine    
,proofs #c #c #j                        
-------    ,,the ,,willow 7#ahej74 ,mr4 
,palmer's ,first ,etching #j #aj #f     
-------    ,,the ,,sleeping ,,shepherd4 
,plate destroyed #d #d #j               
-------    ,,early ,,morning--,opening  
the ,fold4 ,remarque ,proofs all sold4  
,artist's      ,proofs #b #b #j         
-------    ,,the ,,vine4 ,two ,subjects 
on one ,plate4 ,plate destroyed #e #e #j
                                        
-------    ,,the ,,early ,,ploughman #b 
#b #j                                   

-------    ,,the ,,herdsman4 ,plate     
destroyed #f #f #j                      
-------    ,,the ,,morning ,,of ,,life4 
,plate destroyed #e #e #j               
-------    ,,the ,,rising ,,moon4 ,plate
 destroyed #e #e #j                     
----------------------------------------
---        ,in addition to these1 a     
large number of examples of ,etchings by
 ,j4  ,c4 ,hook1 ,r4,a41 ,rajon1        
,flameng1 ,unger1 ,gaillard1 ,waltner1  
,brunet-,debaines1 ,f4 ,bracquemond1    
,jacquemart1 ,chifflart1 ,daubigny1 ,le 
,rat1 ,veyrassat1 ,appian1 ,tissot1     
,legros1 ,herkomer1 c41 c4              
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,art ,,books                           
,,published ,,by ,,the ,,fine ,,art     
,,society4                              
-------    ,,note4--,the rule of the    
,society in publishing ,books is to make
 an issue      sufficient only to meet  
the demand at the time of publication4  
,by so      doing they find the         

subscribers are materially benefited1 as
 their      books quickly increase in   
value4                                  
-------    ,mr4 ,ruskin's ,notes on his 
,turner ,drawings4 ,exhibited at ,the   
,fine ,art      ,society's ,galleries1  
#ahgh4 ,illustrated ,large-paper        
,edition1      consisting of #gej       
copies4 ,published #b #bs4 ,edition     
exhausted4 ,a copy      sold at         
,christie's1 in ,april1 #ahha1 for #d   
#ds4        ,the same1 small paper1     
unillustrated1 #bs4 #f;d4#b        ,the 
type of these editions has been         
distributed4                            
-------    ,mr4 ,ruskin's ,notes on     
,samuel ,prout and ,william ,hunt4 ,in  
illustration      of a ,loan ,collection
 of ,drawings exhibited at ,the ,fine   
,art ,society's      ,galleries in      
#ahgi4 ,edition nearly exhausted4 ,large
 ,paper1      ,illustrated ,edition1    
consisting of #ejj copies1 #b #bs4      
,the same1 small paper1 unillustrated1  
#bs4 #f;d4#b        ,the type of these  

editions has been distributed4          
-------    ,mr4 ,seymour ,haden's ,notes
 on ,etching4 ,in illustration of the   
,art1 and      of his ,collection of    
,etchings and ,engravings of the ,old   
,masters1      exhibited at ,the ,fine  
,art ,society's ,galleries1 #ahgi4      
,large ,paper1      ,illustrated        
,edition1 limited to #ejj copies1 #b    
#bs4        ,the same1 small paper1     
unillustrated1 #as4#b        ,the type  
of these editions has been distributed4 
-------    ,j4 ,f4 ,millet--,a          
,biography by ,w4 ,e4 ,henley4          
,illustrated with ,twenty      ,etchings
 and ,woodcuts1 reproduced in facsimile4
 ,large-paper ,edition1      limited to 
#ejj copies1 #a #as4                    
-------    ,samuel ,palmer3 ,a          
,biography by his ,son1 ,mr4 ,a4 ,h4    
,palmer4 ,illustrated      with an      
,original ,etching by ,samuel ,palmer1  
entitled 8,christmas10 and      several 
,autotypes and ,wood ,engravings4 ,the  
,edition will be limited      to #ejj   

copies4 ,price #cas4 #f;d4        ,in   
the ,press4                             
-------    ,the ,year's ,art1 #ahhb4 ,a 
concise ,epitome of all matters relating
 to      ,painting1 ,sculpture1 and     
,architecture1 which have occurred      
during      the year #ahha1 in the      
,united ,kingdom1 together with         
,information      respecting the events 
of #ahhb4 ,by ,,marcus ,b4 ,,huish4     
,price #bs4 #f;d4                       
-------    ,notes by ,mr4 ,f4 ,g4       
,stephens on a ,collection of ,drawings 
and ,woodcuts by      ,thomas ,bewick4  
,exhibited at the ,fine ,art ,society's 
,rooms1 #ahhj4      ,large ,paper1      
,illustrated ,edition1 limited to #cjj  
copies4 ,published      at #bas42 price 
#cas4 #f;d4 ,edition exhausted4         
,the same1 small paper1 unillustrated1  
#as4#b        ,the type of these        
editions has been distributed4          
-------    ,memoir and ,complete        
,descriptive ,catalogue of the ,works of
 ,charles      ,mryon4 ,by ,,philip     

,,burty and ,,marcus ,b4 ,,huish4 #ahgi4
 ,limited to #abe      copies2 type     
distributed4 ,published at #afs42 price 
#bas4                                   
-------          ,footnote #b3          
,these ,handbooks1 together with 8,john 
,everett ,millais1 ,r4,a410 by          
,andrew ,lang2 8,samuel ,palmer10 by ,f4
 ,g4 ,stephens2 and 8,the ,sea          
,painters10 are sold bound in half calf1
 complete in one ,volume1        price  
#ajs4 #f;d4                             
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,transcriber's ,notes3          ,missing
 or obscured punctuation was silently   
corrected4          ,typographical      
errors were silently corrected4         
,inconsistent spelling and hyphenation  
were made consistent only           when
 a predominant form was found in this   
book4          ,text that3           was
 in italics is enclosed by underscores  
7italics74