Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/262

* ETCHING. 230 ETCHING. of water. The action of this acid is very rapid : it eats the copper away on either side of the line drawn through the ground by the needle, and even hollows out the metal below the surface, leaving sharp, thin edges which break down with great facility. To prevent this and to keep the lines of the width desired, what is called the Dutch mordant was introduced about 1870 and strongly advocated by Hamerton and others. This mordant is composed of chlorate of potash 20 grams, hydrochloric acid 100 grams, water 180 grams. The universal testimony of practitioners is that the bath should be large and deep, and contain a considerable quantity of the mordant. Before the plate is put into the mordant it should be brushed with a feather or something of the kind, to clear away from the lines little scraps of the varnish which may have collected there. When it has been laid in the bath it must still be watched, as bubbles arise that must be re- moved by a feather or similar means, because thej may prevent the free access of the acid to the metal. If. now, it is desired to have a line bitten much deeper than others, it must be ex- posed for a greater length of time to the acid. For this purpose, the process of stopping out is employed. The plate is withdrawn from the bath and washed. Varnish is then applied with a brush, filling up ('stopping') those lines which ■have been bitten sufficiently deep, while the others are once more exposed to the acid. In this way a single plate may be withdrawn several times, more and more of the lines stopped out, and those that remain bitten more deeply. It may also be necessary to rebite the whole plate, as when it is thought, or found on actual trial, that the plate is feeble in effect. For this purpose it is necessary to clean the plate thoroughly and then to put the resistant ground on the plate afresh. This must be done with great care, so as not to fill up the lines already cut by the etching, ami then careful examination must be made to see that those thin and shallow lines which have re- ceived some part of the ground are cleaned before the revarnished plate is put into the acid bath. Small parts of the plate may, however, be re- bitten by the simple means of covering the rest of the plate completely with the ground. It is not to be forgotten that the dry-point (q.v.) process affords a perfectly ready means of reinforcing the etching without the use of acid. The bur, which is thought to make the special charm of dry point, is nol essential, because it can be scraped away with a burnisher so that the lines cut or deepened by the dry point may pro- duce an effect exactly similar to the etched line, and a plate may have been worked all over with the drt point while yei the impressions taken from it 'In iK it betray i he fad When plates arc to be finished entirely with etching, or with etching and dry point together, the attention of the artist will be strongly fixed upon the necessity of deepening and strengthening certain parts of his composition. II is for this purpose that stopping out and rebiting and dry- poinf work are used. When, however, the line- etching merely as a lirsf prepara I ion I'd li I" lay in I he main masses ami leading lines of the composition, this etch ing is usually sliglil and thin, and as the li hi any published prints. Inn only iii p i taken for the engraver's use. they may be all ot uniform and verj slight depth and breadth. The use of etching as a part only of the complete design, the rest being done by the burin, leads to the singularly puzzling style of art which is best seen in the famous plates of Charles Meryon (died 1808) — plates which are usually classed as etchings, but where there are strong evidences of burin work. The recent en- gravings of the Chalcographie dn Louvre, repro- ducing important modern paintings, and such celebrated and admired work as that of Ferdinand Gaillard (died 1887), are instances of worK in which the tolerably well-practiced collector can hardly say how much burin work appears. The chief of etchers, so ranked by almost uni- versal admission of those modern artists who have given attention to the matter, is Rembrandt (q.v.). This position he gains not only by su- perior skill in the technicalities of the art, but even more by the greatness of his design — a de- sign which is, nevertheless, adapted to the medium employed. His works remain the most perfect example of all that the etcher's art can attain. In modern times, James McNeil Whistler (q.v.) approaches very nearly to Rembrandt's greatness on at least one side — as an artist in line he is said by excellent judges to be even the equal of Rembrandt. Of the older men, Vandyck (q.v.) is a great etcher of portrait heads. Wencesli - Hollar (q.v.) is one of the greatest masters in etching of the simplest form, with lines of nearly uniform thickness and laid in the simplest man nor, and with printing done without the least at- tempt at adding to the effect of the etched plate. (See Print.) There are a few admirable etchings by Claude Lorraine. A few of the art- ists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries used etching as an independent art; but during the eighteenth century and the early part, of the nineteenth it was neglected as an artistic proc- ess, and was used mainly for such slight and simply conceived compositions as those of the English humorists, George Cruikshank, John Leech, Richard Doyle, and H. K. Browne, and others like them. In this way, at least, the art was kept in hand : and when J. M. W. Turner (died 1851) began the publication of his famous Liber Studiorum (q.v.) he resorted to etching for the primary laying in of his plates as a mat- ter of course. A decided revival of the art began about 1860, Hamerton's books being at once an expression of fbis movement and an assistance to it. Modern artists in this line arc, in England, Whistler, above named, and Francis Seymour I laden, devoting himself almost exclusively to landscape: in France, a much larger number, such as Maxime Lalanne, Jules Jacquemart (died 1880), Adolphe Appian, Charles Francois Dau- bigny (died 1878), Paul Rajon, Felix Bracque- mond, and Martial (Adolphe-Martial Potemont). Of ol her moderns, two Dutchmen, Jongkind and Charles Storm Van 'sGravesande, devoting them selves to both landscape and figures, arc worthy In rank with any 1ml the very greatest of modern art ists. Bibliography. Hamerton. Etching mul Etch- ers (London, 1868), a costly work illustrated with etchings; republished with photogravure illustrations of great merit (London, 1880), and in a cheaper edition (London, 1875). Consult also: l.alannc '1'iniir de In nrnvurc i) Venn fi (I'aris. 1866); Hamerton, Etcher's Handbook ( London 1881) : linden, Vhoui Etching ( id., I ssl i ; Koehlcr. Etching: An Outline of Its I'roc-