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 CHAPTER II

ETCHING

The technique of etching—Early Masters—Rembrandt—Hollar in England—Dutch seventeenth-century etchers—The revival of etching in the nineteenth century—Modern French etchers—Modern English etching.

At one time it was necessary to say in print that an etching was not a pen-and-ink drawing. But the student must be remarkably young nowadays who can be caught applying the term etching to a drawing made by the pen. And be it said that an etching need not be, though a great many modern specimens are, printed in brown ink. The ink used by the great masters has mellowed by time into a rich warm brown, but black was probably its original colour.

The Technique.—An etching is a print taken from a metal plate, usually copper, and printed by the method known as copper-plate printing, as one's visiting-card is printed. The work consists of lines etched, that is bitten, into the plate by means of acid.