DOI issue:
No. 81 (November, 1903)
DOI article:The lay figure: on the art of colour reproduction
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26230#0107
777' 7,^n' 77^//
T
HE LAY FIGURE: ON THE ART
OE COLOUR REPRODUCTION.
' THERE are two ways of writing about
art," remarked the Reviewer, thoughtfully.
" A good way and a bad way, I suppose ? ' said
the Student, pertly.
"Just so," rephed the other, with coldness; "but
they may be dehned. The hrst way—and it is the
good way—forces a man to write from within his
subject. In other words, the writer is the Instru-
ment; he works under the guidance of his theme
and at its bidding; and when his task is done, he
recognises that his subject has worked itself out
within him, and written itseif. He is as obedient
to its needs as a musician is to a tune that chimes
to sudden birth within his mind. To anyone who
has written about art in this submissive manner,
aitogether forgetful of seif, I need not speak of the
pecuiiar pieasure which the experience brings with it.
Such criticism is an art, and not a It has
no reiation or sympathy at aii with practicai needs,
with its writer's weekly expenditure in board and
iodging, and hence most Professional writers turn
from it, and scamper through an artistic theme
from a spectator's point of view, and see no more
of that theme than is necessary to the making of a
iittie light ' copy.' This is the worldly way of
dealing with art. At times it is paid for at a con-
siderable rate, but the mischief that it does cannot
easily be overstated."
The Printer nodded, approvingly. " I am quite
of your opinion," said he ; " and I have at home a
little book of newspaper cuttings that give one a
good example of the mischief. Personally, I have
long been interested in the difhcult art of repro-
ducing coloured pictures in exact facsimile. It
must be clear to any thoughtful person that illus-
trations in black and white cannot possibly do
justice to any form of art having its base in the
sense of colour. By engraving or by half-tone you
may get the tone values of a painter's work, and in
the hands of such engravers (let us say) as Turner
trained, we may be charmed even in black-and-
white with many great attributes of style by which
the painter is made famous. But, naturally, we
gain no information about the painter's sense of
colour—the most important thing of all. Well,
it seems to me, that the encouragement of art
among the busy people of the present time, will
be best assisted by those who are giving their best
thoughts to the reproduction in colour of a painter's
work If the reproduction is fairly good, the
Painter himself cannot but be benefited; and it is
94
as good as an act of charity to bring such coloured
reproductions within reach of the general public.
Why, then, do so many who call themselves critics
speak with contempt of even the Hnest illustrations
of this sort ? '
"Upon my word!" answered the Critic, "I
have asked myself that question several times, and
always with a feeling of self-reproach. Why have
I condemned such work with faint praise and set
my readers against it by describing the difhcult
processes of colour-reproduction as merely
mechanical ? My error is due partly to careless-
ness, partly to ignorance, partly to a wish to exalt
the art of painting by insisting that its Snest effects
are inimitable, and partly, perhaps, to a dread of
the future supersession by colour wotk of black-
and-white illustration."
" One can't help admitting," said the Printer,
" that there are colour-harmonies in every picture
which defy imitation ; but this fact merely sets a
limitation to the Hdelity of a reproduction in colour.
All arts have their limitations, and this one of which
we speak has a right to be judged fairly despite its
lack of completeness. The aim of it is not to give
a facsimile beyond criticism, but an illustration
truer to the original than we can get in black-and-
white. And that is a thing very well wotth doing."
"But you will acknowledge," the Critic asked,
" that there are bad processes in vogue—the three-
colour process, for instance, with its tendency to
lose all the greys in a prevailing tone of puce. I
suppose you do not wish to defend the wretched
three-colour prints which dood the market at the
present time."
"Oh," said the Printer, " I am not entering into
detailed criticisms. The very defects of the three-
colour process have suggested improvements, and
to-day admirable work is done in four, 6ve, and
six printings. My contention is that such work is
not by any means mechanical, and that it ought
to be judged as an art. There is skilledlabourin the
making of the blocks, but the actual artistry does not
begin until the blocks are ' proved.' None but an
artist of education can carry out the ' proving' with
unquestionable success, for it is necessary to pene-
trate all the colour secrets of the picture in hand,
so that as many as possible of them may be revealed
in the reproduction. In a word, 'proving' takes
time and requires a right judgment of art. The
misfortune is that this fact is not recognised as it
deserves to be, and the 'proving' is often carried
out by some half-educated person in a hurry. It is
a thousand pities that this should be so."
THE LAY FlGURE.
T
HE LAY FIGURE: ON THE ART
OE COLOUR REPRODUCTION.
' THERE are two ways of writing about
art," remarked the Reviewer, thoughtfully.
" A good way and a bad way, I suppose ? ' said
the Student, pertly.
"Just so," rephed the other, with coldness; "but
they may be dehned. The hrst way—and it is the
good way—forces a man to write from within his
subject. In other words, the writer is the Instru-
ment; he works under the guidance of his theme
and at its bidding; and when his task is done, he
recognises that his subject has worked itself out
within him, and written itseif. He is as obedient
to its needs as a musician is to a tune that chimes
to sudden birth within his mind. To anyone who
has written about art in this submissive manner,
aitogether forgetful of seif, I need not speak of the
pecuiiar pieasure which the experience brings with it.
Such criticism is an art, and not a It has
no reiation or sympathy at aii with practicai needs,
with its writer's weekly expenditure in board and
iodging, and hence most Professional writers turn
from it, and scamper through an artistic theme
from a spectator's point of view, and see no more
of that theme than is necessary to the making of a
iittie light ' copy.' This is the worldly way of
dealing with art. At times it is paid for at a con-
siderable rate, but the mischief that it does cannot
easily be overstated."
The Printer nodded, approvingly. " I am quite
of your opinion," said he ; " and I have at home a
little book of newspaper cuttings that give one a
good example of the mischief. Personally, I have
long been interested in the difhcult art of repro-
ducing coloured pictures in exact facsimile. It
must be clear to any thoughtful person that illus-
trations in black and white cannot possibly do
justice to any form of art having its base in the
sense of colour. By engraving or by half-tone you
may get the tone values of a painter's work, and in
the hands of such engravers (let us say) as Turner
trained, we may be charmed even in black-and-
white with many great attributes of style by which
the painter is made famous. But, naturally, we
gain no information about the painter's sense of
colour—the most important thing of all. Well,
it seems to me, that the encouragement of art
among the busy people of the present time, will
be best assisted by those who are giving their best
thoughts to the reproduction in colour of a painter's
work If the reproduction is fairly good, the
Painter himself cannot but be benefited; and it is
94
as good as an act of charity to bring such coloured
reproductions within reach of the general public.
Why, then, do so many who call themselves critics
speak with contempt of even the Hnest illustrations
of this sort ? '
"Upon my word!" answered the Critic, "I
have asked myself that question several times, and
always with a feeling of self-reproach. Why have
I condemned such work with faint praise and set
my readers against it by describing the difhcult
processes of colour-reproduction as merely
mechanical ? My error is due partly to careless-
ness, partly to ignorance, partly to a wish to exalt
the art of painting by insisting that its Snest effects
are inimitable, and partly, perhaps, to a dread of
the future supersession by colour wotk of black-
and-white illustration."
" One can't help admitting," said the Printer,
" that there are colour-harmonies in every picture
which defy imitation ; but this fact merely sets a
limitation to the Hdelity of a reproduction in colour.
All arts have their limitations, and this one of which
we speak has a right to be judged fairly despite its
lack of completeness. The aim of it is not to give
a facsimile beyond criticism, but an illustration
truer to the original than we can get in black-and-
white. And that is a thing very well wotth doing."
"But you will acknowledge," the Critic asked,
" that there are bad processes in vogue—the three-
colour process, for instance, with its tendency to
lose all the greys in a prevailing tone of puce. I
suppose you do not wish to defend the wretched
three-colour prints which dood the market at the
present time."
"Oh," said the Printer, " I am not entering into
detailed criticisms. The very defects of the three-
colour process have suggested improvements, and
to-day admirable work is done in four, 6ve, and
six printings. My contention is that such work is
not by any means mechanical, and that it ought
to be judged as an art. There is skilledlabourin the
making of the blocks, but the actual artistry does not
begin until the blocks are ' proved.' None but an
artist of education can carry out the ' proving' with
unquestionable success, for it is necessary to pene-
trate all the colour secrets of the picture in hand,
so that as many as possible of them may be revealed
in the reproduction. In a word, 'proving' takes
time and requires a right judgment of art. The
misfortune is that this fact is not recognised as it
deserves to be, and the 'proving' is often carried
out by some half-educated person in a hurry. It is
a thousand pities that this should be so."
THE LAY FlGURE.