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Nocturne Salute," by Whistler

There are very few lines, the effect being produced by manipulation of the ink on the surface of the plate

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the paper.

Whistler at the press

From a photograph taken about two years before his death

The ink thus lies on the surface of the paper in ridges that, where the lines have been very deeply bitten, -as in Haden's "Calais Pier" or in some plates of Turner's "Liber Studiorum," -are of a very appreciable thickness.

Now, in the process itself are to be found the reasons why etching has served preeminently as a means for original expression as a painter art. We speak of "painter" or "original" etching, the direct product of the artist's intent, as distinguished from reproductive etching, in which the works of other artists are reproduced by the etcher. The needle in

the hand of the etcher plays freely over the plate, and to the resultant freedom and spontaneity is added the effect of the irregular action of the acid, which adds a further quivering vivacity to the line. But the artist's possibilities extend even to the inking. Before attempting to print, the ink that has been applied to a plate must obviously be removed from the surface, leaving only that which has lodged in the bitten lines that form the printing medium. There is a difference, however, in the manner of removing the ink. It may be taken off cleanly, so that the lines print almost as sharply as those of a name

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"Old Mills, Coast of Virginia," soft-ground etching by James D. Smillie

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Between the first and the fifth states the herdsman has wandered about on the plate, and the sheep have been changed into cattle

etchers to be their own printers. Whistler was photographed at the press, and many of his prints bear in pencil, after the signature, the letters "imp."

The texture, quality, and color of the paper used are also factors in printing. Note, for example, the difference in effect

between an etching by Meryon printed on white paper and one on the greenish paper that he favored, or run through some portfolios of the work of Buhot and mark how he experimented with various kinds of paper. Happy is the etcher who lights on a supply of old hand-made paper, or

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