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"THE BLESSING," BY ADRIAN VAN OSTADE

way. Cameron and Bone have attained enviable and deserved reputation, with

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accompaniment of rising auction prices. Brangwyn has practised the art with the bold sweep of line of his paintings, producing large prints for wall decoration rather than for the portfolio. A group of younger men in England, among them McBey and Malcolm Osborn, includes some whose work is likely to live.

In France perhaps the strongest personality to-day is Auguste Lepère, originally a wood-engraver. His energetic line and freedom of vision are expressed with both firmness and deliсасу. His landscapes have charm as well as strength, and his figures are not mere staffage, but play their active part, as in that record of the Cathedral of Amiens, which he calls "L'Inventaire." Miss E. L. Cary has well said that he has a "vision singularly prompt and synthetic." He himself summed up his aim in the words:

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"Not to imitate. To express." Béjot, different in point of view, a tranquil, frank spirit, pictures a cheerful, sunny, happy Paris as he sees it.

You may turn to Sweden, where Zorn, a recorder of facts promptly seized and clearly presented, chants the praise of healthy beauty in his unabashed nudes. Or to Germany and the absolutely different, also absolutely local, art of Klinger. Or to Holland, and Bauer's visions of the Orient. Or to our own land. There one of the first to come to mind is Mary Cassatt. A remarkable insight into child nature is shown in her truthful, sympathetic presentations, in dry-point, of plain women and ordinary babies, without pose or the appeal of weak sentimentality, done with straightforward skill and summariness. Pennell, for years a Londoner, has sketched many scenes in many lands with unerring, rapid appreciation of picturesque qualities. In recent years he has been busied in drawing artistic effects from industrial constructions. Webster, Aid, and Hornby have found much inspiration in France, while C. A. Platt, Mielatz, Washburn, Hassam, Benson, Sloan, and others have sought subjects in our home-land. And from across Our Northern border came D. S. MacLaughlan.

So, then, the art is being practised today with dignity and capability in various instances worthy of attention and support. It is a question of wise choice.

The field is large, the product varied. And suppose the things we like are not always obtainable, too rare, or beyond our individual pocket-book? One need not possess everything one appreciates. However, moderate collecting is still possible for the person of moderate means.

As etching attracts to further study, fuller information will be wanted. There are many books and magazine articles. In recent years alone C. Holme issued three volumes of reproductions of etchings, and Sir Frederick Wedmore set down his dicta in a bulky book. In an article such as the present it is impossible to give more than a slight indication of the wealth of interest in etchings. But the purpose of this screed will be attained if it leads some to seek a better acquaintance with the art. Nor have enough names been mentioned here to preclude the pleasure of discovery on one's own account.

In the end," a mere bookish learning is a poor, paltry learning," as Montaigne has it. The thing to do is to see. Public print-rooms and dealers arrange exhibitions, and there are traveling shows.

The peculiar intimacy of enjoyment which the etching brings is emphasized also by the fact that it is not an art of broad effects, but must be studied close at hand. That intimacy is the beholder's as he responds to the artist's expression of mood, of himself, which Emerson, Delacroix, Corot, Millet, and many others have described, in widely different phrase, as the very essence of art. It is a bright French saying that the artist paints on any day, but etches only on his good days.

The point is to find and select those etchings which, as the outcome of an artistic and personal life worth while, offer us something worth admiring, and studying and feeling, something that enters into relation with our own life, something to live with. That is surely a good test for a work of art that it proves to be not a facile response to a whim or fancy or love of a joke, but can undergo daily contemplation and be worthy of it.

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