DOI issue:
Nr. 108 (February, 1906)
DOI article:Hind, Arthur Mayger: The etchings of Sir John Charles Robinson
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26961#0407
The Etchings of Sir J. C. Robinson
“SANTA MARIA, MER1DA ” FROM THE ETCHING BY SIR J. C. ROBINSON
artist frequently has recourse to scraper and
burnisher to refine and etherealise his rays of
light; and he manages by this means to attain
something of the quivering quality of moist and
sunlit atmosphere.
He has several times repeated his studies of
open sunlight : most recently in the Apollo and
Python (1902), but more successfully in a large
plate of 1896, taking Swanage Doivn for back-
ground. We say “ background,” for whether
Sir J. C. Robinson finds the setting to his plates
in Dorsetshire or Spain matters little. To satisfy
our interest and his own ideals, Variation enough
and to spare is found in the ever-changing aspect
of the heavens. This Swanage Doivn is one of
his most remarkable plates for the concentration
of idea. In several of his compositions one must
confess to a lack of this quality, most evident in
his two etchings of Poole Harbour. His tendency
to lose the central lines and point of interest in
unfunctional shading, and a characteristic use of
short, curved strokes are not unreminiscent of
the style of Hercules Seghers. But if Seghers and
Sir Charles Robinson have like faults, they have
also a distinct charm in common. Both the plates
of Poole Harbour, more particularly the later
Version, with its dark mass of trees in the fore-
ground, shows to a considerable extent the influence
of Turner. It may be that to him also is due the
romantic sentiment which pervades his earliest
etching of Corfe Castle (the oblong print, 1878).
The sun breaking through the clouds which still
cling about the old towers, the trees still moist,
sparkling in its rays, and the drenched and patient
flock of sheep in the foreground are rendered with
a remarkable unity of feeling.
With his innate love for the changeful aspect of
ethereal nature, it is hardly to be expected that the
artist would be equally successful or unaffected in
dealing with architecture and the unbending lines
of stone. Still, his three plates of Corfe Castle have,
even in this respect, considerable charm. No
doubt there is something in these rounded and
crumbling towers, assimilated by time to the
3°3
“SANTA MARIA, MER1DA ” FROM THE ETCHING BY SIR J. C. ROBINSON
artist frequently has recourse to scraper and
burnisher to refine and etherealise his rays of
light; and he manages by this means to attain
something of the quivering quality of moist and
sunlit atmosphere.
He has several times repeated his studies of
open sunlight : most recently in the Apollo and
Python (1902), but more successfully in a large
plate of 1896, taking Swanage Doivn for back-
ground. We say “ background,” for whether
Sir J. C. Robinson finds the setting to his plates
in Dorsetshire or Spain matters little. To satisfy
our interest and his own ideals, Variation enough
and to spare is found in the ever-changing aspect
of the heavens. This Swanage Doivn is one of
his most remarkable plates for the concentration
of idea. In several of his compositions one must
confess to a lack of this quality, most evident in
his two etchings of Poole Harbour. His tendency
to lose the central lines and point of interest in
unfunctional shading, and a characteristic use of
short, curved strokes are not unreminiscent of
the style of Hercules Seghers. But if Seghers and
Sir Charles Robinson have like faults, they have
also a distinct charm in common. Both the plates
of Poole Harbour, more particularly the later
Version, with its dark mass of trees in the fore-
ground, shows to a considerable extent the influence
of Turner. It may be that to him also is due the
romantic sentiment which pervades his earliest
etching of Corfe Castle (the oblong print, 1878).
The sun breaking through the clouds which still
cling about the old towers, the trees still moist,
sparkling in its rays, and the drenched and patient
flock of sheep in the foreground are rendered with
a remarkable unity of feeling.
With his innate love for the changeful aspect of
ethereal nature, it is hardly to be expected that the
artist would be equally successful or unaffected in
dealing with architecture and the unbending lines
of stone. Still, his three plates of Corfe Castle have,
even in this respect, considerable charm. No
doubt there is something in these rounded and
crumbling towers, assimilated by time to the
3°3