International studio (18.1902/1903)

A MERICAN WOOD-ENGRAVING.
/ % The current exhibition at the Lenox
7 A.Library, New York, renews interest in a
branch of American art, now, aias ! practicaily su-
perseded by "modern improvements." It consists
of a collection of prints representative of American
wood-engraving, particularly of that phase of the
art which Aourished so briiliantly frorn i8yg.
There are examples of the work of Dr. Alexander
Anderson, who, influenced by the English Bewick,
made his hrst cut in 1793, when he was twenty-one,
and continued to practise engraving until his death
at the age of ninety-hve. One may see also speci-
mens of the art of Abel Bowen, J. H. Hall, J. A.
Adams (proprietor of the "IHuminated Bible,"
issued in 1846), S. P. Avery, A. V. S. Anthony,
and Henry Marsh ; while the Englishman, W. J.
Linton, who migrated to this country, is represented
by some of his excellent iliustrations to " Pict-
uresque America."
The inclusion of the work of these engravers
gives an historical completeness to the exhibition
and serves also to emphasize the marked departure
fropi older methods accomplished by the men of
1875. The older men maintained the tradition of
the black line and the white one, the black mass
and the white and black dotting. They clung also
to the intrinsic qualities of wood-engraving, and to
the value of the engraved line 7)^' Jt?/ while the
work of the younger group, largely interpretative,
devoted to the reproduction of works of art of other
mediums, lost sight of the distinctive characteristicsof
their craft in the emulation of those effects which
they were concerned in rendering. They no longer
translated the original into terms of wood-engrav-
ing, but compelled the latter to reproduce the par-
ticular qualities of the subject they were interpreting.
It was the invention of photographing the original
on to the wood block, which suggested the change
of purpose. Instead of having in front of them a
copy in line of the original, they were confronted
with a picture tliat reproduced the tones and values
in masses and planes. There was little to suggest
the cutting of the line, but much to stir the en-

graver to a closer and fulier study of the original.
So commenced the search for qualities that hitherto
had little concerned the engraver; a search which
met the requirements of the American magazines,
whose editors, in their cultivated zeal for what was
best, encouraged and hel'ped on the new move-
ment. The rest of the story is a tribute to the
genius of the group of engravers who seized the
new conditions and out of them produced a phase
of art that is as distinct as it is admirable. There
were not wanting doctrinaires who opposed it on
the score that it was no longer wood-engraving
because it had let go of the old traditions. Among
them was Philip Gilbert Hamerton, who, however,
modified his criticism and handsomely atoned for
it in his "American Art of Wood-Engraving,"
issued as a text to the portfolio of examples pub-
lished by the Scribners.
It is worth while to recall what Mr. Hamerton
says in his " Graphic Arts " regarding this new de-
velopment of wood-engraving : " It displeased all
severe judges at hrst, because they preferred the
genuine thing, — an honest piece of cutting in fac-
simile, like a Holbein, or an honest piece of true
white-Iine independent wood-engraving, quite differ-
ent from all other arts, like a Bewick. This was my
view when I hrst saw the productions of that imita-
tive wood-cutting which has sprung up in America
and been fostered there by successful magazines.
It seemed to me that here was a new device for
tickling the public taste by variety, when it so
grievously wanted educating into the appreciation
of the one or two simple styles which are eternally
right and ought to be permanently acceptable.
Since then my views on the subject have undergone
some modihcation. It seems to me now* that if
the situation of this imitative wood-cutting is
properly understood it may render very acceptable
services. For example, I once wrote an article for
' Scribner's Magazine' on Mr. Haden's etchings,
and the great skill of the American wood-engravers
permitted us to give reduced copies of many
etchings, copies which, without having all the
qualities of the originals (Hat printing can never

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