International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

The Etchings of Sir J. C. Robinson

all its various conditions, by purely lineal methods.
Rembrandt had just broached the problem in his
Three Trees and Church Tower in Trees, and some
convincing little studies of cloud have been left us
by Zeeman—the earliest idol of Meryon, be it
remarked—but these are solitary instances of a
study which practically forms a new element in
the modern revival of the art. In dealing with the
problem of light, most recent etchers have lea'ned
rather towards what we may call the negative
process : the rendering of tonic values by the
omission, and not the Commission, of line. This
method, which is fundamentally perhaps the most
original feature in the etching of the nineteenth
Century, very largely predominates with Whistler,
although here and there examples like the Storni
could of course be cited where the opposite, the
positive, process is brought into play. From the
positive side, in natural progress along the lines laid
down by the older etchers, atmospheric themes have
been approached more frequently by Legros and
Haden; and the latter’s From My Study Windoiv
is almost unequalled as a rendering of cloud in
etching. Sir Charles Robinson has not hesitated
to attempt even more difficult problems in this

direction than either Haden or Legros ; and if his
success has never been so brilliant as their
occasional achievements in the same field, the
consistency of his endeavour and the conviction
which it carries deserve the highest praise.
Three plates of the early series of 1872, two
near Ulwell Mill, Swanage, and another of
Hastings, are simple and direct studies of terrestrial
nature, not entirely free from the weakness of
mid - Century ideals. But in all the rest the
dominant note of his art is clearly sounded.
Among them the Swollen Bum at Shandon is an
admirable study of running water and the turbulent
elements of rain and wind. Here, as in a later
and even finer plate, rieh in dry-point, the Knitson
Farm, the trees are rendered by multifarious
hatchings of short, straight strokes. The result
achieved may lack significance in the expression
of actual form, but is most effective in exhibiting
the natural aspect of foliage in motion. More
definitely devoted to his leading motive is the
Space and Light, in the Sierra de Almaden,
Estremadura, another of the 1872 set, a study
representing the sun as it rises behind a mountain
ridge. After preparatory biting in clear line, the


“ corfe castle” from the etching ly sir j. c. robinson

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