manipulation of mediums incident to one method of work always furnishes suggestions for management in another, which makes technique in either the readier servant of thought, and consequently more valuable than if it had gained in finish of workmanship.

This truth should not be lost sight of in estimating the true value of technique in painter-engraving, because an exhibition of the engraver's skill as a workman may rightly be subordinated to his desires as an artist, whenever, by so doing, a gain may be made of directness in expressing his thought. It is by reason of a gain in directness, which is the desideratum in all the arts, that painter-engravers find ground to stand on.

Engraving, in common with all branches of the art of picture-making, interposes so many obstacles between the thought and its ultimate expression that at best the thought itself is more or less warped, changed, and made to conform to the means of expression. But in original work the influence is as direct as it can ever be. The hand is controlled by the brain which originates the thought, and makes every touch under its influence; and such touches are more vital and have more value than any others can have.

Men who wish the encouragement of example in doing original work will find it in the careers of the few who have placed their names highest on the list of engravers during the past three centuries, for they were original workers, or painter-engravers. And while the circumstances which controlled them are very different from those which control engravers of the present day, it is worth while to study the men and their work, and, if possible, understand why it is better than that of other men; for it goes without saying, or ought to, that an artist has but one point to consider-always how to make his work better; because if it can only be good enough, all other problems solve themselves.

In the study of the abler painter-engravers it is very difficult to analyze and differentiate their work justly; that is, to know what portion of credit should be given to them as artists and what as engravers. To take an example: Dürer and Rembrandt-if, for the sake of study, Rembrandt may be classed with the engravers in his graphic work-represent very widely different extremes in mental habits and technical methods. Much credit is given Dürer as an engraver which should be given him as an artist. To do his engraving would be not at all a difficult task to a modern engraver, while no engraver of the present day, and perhaps no artist, could equal his sturdy drawing.

On the other hand, Rembrandt was inimitable in his touch and management of line as an engraver. His mastery of treatment was so VOL. XXXVIII.— 76.

great, that in considering his work it is impossible to separate the skill of the touch itself from the thought which inspired the picture, or to imagine what his work would be if divorced from the extreme mental control and skill of hand which enabled him to express his ideas so charmingly. No photographic, mechanical, or other reproductive work whatsoever could have reproduced his paintings and given them the same value, or anything like it, which his own graphic work has; and if Rembrandt is to be shown in graphic work at all, nothing could induce one to give up what Rembrandt did in it himself.

In their use of the graphic arts probably Rembrandt and Dürer were alike influenced by a desire to distribute their work more widely than they could do by painting; but their choice of methods of work was fixed by their mental characteristics and by the different possibilities in etching and relief engraving at that time.

Dürer understood the vigorous qualities of the wood or relief engraving, but had not compassed its possibilities of refinement; nor could they have been compassed until improvements in printing had made it possible to show slight differences of tone and texture. Rembrandt delighted in atmosphere and in strong light and shade, or full chiaroscuro, and could secure those qualities with the needle and plate, but the limitations of printing made it impossible to secure these in relief engraving in his day— if, indeed, it had been thought of. The method of printing from the etched plate remains much the same as in Rembrandt's time, but in the printing from the relief plate and in the consequent development and refinement in its engraving, there has been a vast change since his time or the time of Dürer. It is now quite possible to print relief engravings done in full chiaroscuro, to represent almost any conceivable texture, and with any degree of refinement reasonable for a picture in black and white.

If the possibilities of the art at the present day, or in the very near future, could have been developed in Rembrandt's time, they would have delighted him, and made engraving as available for his purposes as it was for Dürer's. These developments place relief engraving among the arts which can be used as a means of artistic expression by men of very varied temperaments, and opens for it, owing to its peculiar characteristics, a wide field not occupied by any other art.

In considering relief engraving as a means of artistic expression the science of the art becomes of great importance: wherein it differs from other methods of picture-making in this can, perhaps, best be ascertained by comparison.

the eye of multitudes of them combined, or in juxtaposition. In practice it is possible to modify effects by glazing, or superimposing films of color over previous painting, to mass painting over painting, or to scrape away first paintings and repaint entirely, so that, with these possibilities of change in mind, the painter in oil works freely and without trepidation.

In the graphic arts there is no method which makes use of granulations so minute as to be indistinguishable to the eye, excepting photogravure. The similarity in size of the particles of color and the granules of ink would make it seem possible that photogravure is akin to painting, but for this reason it is not multitudes of particles of varied and harmonious color have a charm for the eye which multitudes of granules of ink of one color have not; and where only one color is to be used some charm of treatment must be substituted for the lacking charm of color, if an equal degree of interest is maintained.

In relief engraving there are but two values to work with, absolute black and absolute white. A white touch remains always a white touch without modification, and all effects, textures, tones, and values are secured by shaping and arranging those white touches or lines and the black spaces between them. Every touch retains its shape as first made and its relation to every other touch with the utmost obstinacy, so that the engraver has but one shot; he must either by acquired knowledge or by intuition know what relation each touch made will bear to all of its fellows and what influence it will have on them, and secure his tones, values, and textures the first time, for no radical change can be made.

The engraver therefore works under much greater nervous strain than the painter, and it would at first seem that an art compelling such

precision could never respond readily to artistic impulses. Analogy will perhaps serve to show how it may. In music, where every note is an arbitrary quantity, it is possible so to combine and arrange them with regard to their relations and the influence of one note upon another as to delight the senses by endless variety and gradation of impression; just so it is possible to combine and arrange touches in white and black, understanding their relations and influences upon one another, as to represent all textures and gradations, and secure harmony and that variety in treatment which gives the charm of endless suggestion.

Owing to the long-continued use of relief engraving for the purposes of cheaper illustration, with all the concomitant unhappy influences of poor printing and of paper ill suited to the requirements of the plates, the public have fixed for it a standing lower than etching or than some of the other graphic arts. Even engravers themselves have been slow to take advantage of all possibilities of hand printing and to study the adaptability of various kinds. of papers for proofs of different subjects, as is done in the printing of etchings; but already this is changing. The importation of the peculiar and very beautiful Japanese papers which can be used in hand printing, made by hand from the fiber of the mulberry tree, gives the opportunity for new and very charming effects in proofs from relief plates. The value of these is beginning to be recognized, and the art dealers already have in their portfolios proofs from a few plates, done by American and French engravers. The qualities of these proofs. are being studied by connoisseurs; and when the possibilities of the art are recognized by the engravers and by the public, relief engraving will take its rightful place as one of the most comprehensive, vital, and interesting of the graphic arts.

W. B. Closson.

INGSLEY'S car, the center of so much that is promising in the future of wood-engraving in this country, is in Whately Glen, near the old mill, Kingsley and I having lingered on into October to catch some of the autumn glory.

It is inclement and cold. The wind has as much to do, perhaps, with our selection of subjects as good taste has. Yet, when the sun breaks through the clouds and warms awhile the steep hillside, there is a shrillness added to

the whistle of the wind very like the "frying" of the cicada-a very small fry, proportioned to the supply of heat; and, near by, three times to-day have I heard the tree-toad croak, blue-birds in abundance, and the goldfinch with her young "Che-dink, che-dink," all day long.

It is some compensation that we have acquired a sensuous liking for wetness and the feeling of cold. Then the Ss, who own the place, mother and sons, do what they can to make our lot endurable, and at the week's end the daughter of the house rides up from

We talk, in our little way, on lofty themes, and grow warm with the sense of nature's close and personal relationship to us. We open the door and look out into the night. The hoarfrost sparkles like diamonds on the tangle of brown weeds and the interlacing boughs, refracting the rays of the great, round moon we do not see. Far across the lake-like pond, the crystal clearness of whose waters we know, the maples burn in orange and crimson flame, and Indian Hill rounds his great bare bosom up against the sky. We nature-lovers of the block and burin resent the charge of being mere poachers in the domain of poetry and art.

It is nearly forty years since, with hopeful elation, I left scenes similar to these to go to the far-off town to learn the art of wood-engraving. I found, 't is true, little to encourage lofty aspirations in the work then given me to do. But there was a beacon star in the

and Child," after a cartoon by Raphael, and later "The Haunted House," hung in every engraving office in the land. Linton was the center and soul of whatever was progressive in wood-engraving then. He meant art to us, and the lines he cut were, in lieu of nature, our wonder and our study. Each newly landed English engraver was pestered with questions concerning the tools he used and his manner of working. According as rumor fixed either, we changed our own implements or methods.

But little was ascertained, however, until one of our own artists, who stood very high among the craft, visited England. Ón his return we were told many things of artists whose names were household words with us, but nothing so delightful and surprising as of Linton, who, he said, had been very courteous to him, and had shown him many helpful things about his drawing.

It cannot be realized now what an effect that candid admission, by one of the "superior beings" himself, had upon an engraver. The idea came naturally then that Linton's distinctive merit was not a matter of tools, but of art culture.

Soon after the great man himself came and made his home among us. We have seen his "Lake Country," the illustrations to Bryant's "Flood of Years," and his paintings at the Academy, of which institution he was made a member,—and we know he was an artist. He worked with his graver, using just the same kind of intelligence that he used when working with his brush. His bitterest opponent in

the so-called "new school of engravers " most heartily would desire, I know, that he were now a young man leading in the present advance of the art he has done so much to establish.

Those who have learned his lesson know that the study of drawing, painting, modeling, or whatever brings skill to the hand and quickness to the perception, is the best way to study engraving. Let art be your master. Then live by flowery banks of rivers, in the bowers of the wood-god, in the starry realm of poesy, or in this wheeled temple sacred to the woodpecker, and be sure even the engraver's work will show the world something of these blest abodes. John P. Davis.