Studio: international art (25.1902)

THE STUDIO

FRANK SHORT.-BY FREDERICK
WEDMORE, HONORARY FEL-
LOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
OF PAINTER-ETCHERS.

In my book on " Etching in England," in my
book called "Fine Prints," in at least one maga-
zine article, and often in the columns of the
Standard newspaper, it has been my privilege to
refer—and rarely in terms of disparagement—to
the work, upon copper, of Frank Short. Under
such circumstances there ought, it appears to me,
to be some sufficient reason for returning, so to
speak, to the charge. Had there not been—to my
own thinking—a sufficient reason, I confess I
should have remained inactive : I should not again

have expressed opinions which even those who
have schooled themselves to tolerate me may well
have sufficiently heard. The reason I again take
Frank Short for a subject — Short, the accom-
plished, many-sided engraver : not Short the artist
who overflows, so to say, from time to time into
water colour—is simply this one : that of late
years the increasing and justified popularity of his
work of interpretation, has, in the eyes of no small
portion of the public, been nearly the whole of his
achievement. As an interpreter of other men's
labours—a free, artistic interpreter—ample, though
by no means superabundant, recognition has been
accorded him. I welcome that recognition.
Absolutely nobody has worked as efficaciously
as Short has, in these latter days, to keep alive, by