International studio (40.1910)

Etchings of Herman A. Webster

rouse a still greater warmth
and feeling. His Rue Brise
Aliche found its way to the
Royal Academy, and was
also honored by publication
in the Gazette des Beaux-
Arts (July, 1907). , Very akin
to it in restful balance of
composition and in fine
shadow effect is the Rue de
la Parcheminerie—of special
value now, for the old street
has disappeared largely since
the making of the plate. La
Rue Cardinale has affinity of
general treatment, and is not
the least interesting for an
amazing tour de force in the
rendering of color and tex-
ture in the striped blind over
a shop front. A fourth plate,
perhaps even finer than any
of these in its force, direct-
ness and concentrated sim-
plicity, is the Rue Grenier sur
I'Eau. There is much of
Meryon in its clear, crisp
line work. The buildings
that Mr. Webster depicts are,
like Meryon's, far more than
a prosaic record of architec-
tural features. There is a
spiritual and human sugges-
tiveness behind the mortar
and bricks of his pictures;
as a poet of his own nation
has it, they are " latent with
unseen existences."

ANCIENT FACULTY BY HERMAN A. .1 , . c ^

Anotherplate of vcnsQuar-

OF MEDICINE. PARIS WEBSTER . . . . , ,

her Marais series is a noble
representation of Notre

and lighting the seamed interstices of plaster and Dame, showing the splendid mass of the cathedral
timber, has an indefinable charm that, for myself, rising above the irregular houses that face the Quar-
at any rate, makes it a high-water mark in Mr. tier Marais and the Quai aux Fleurs. There is
Webster's art. freedom and charm in the treatment of the fore-
It is but natural that an artist of Mr. Webster's ground, where a little tug puffs along the river
temperament, a devoted admirer of Meryon, and the big barges move cumbrously under the
should become absorbed in Paris herself and en- lee of the near bank, and in the middle distance
deavor to put upon copper plate the poesie pro- where the light plays pleasantly over the old
fonde and complique d'une vaste capitate. The houses; but the roof of the cathedral itself, put
Bruges and Rouen plates showed Mr. Webster to in with unpleasing rigidity of line, comes like
be keenly susceptible to the magnetism and charm cold fact in the middle of romance. It is as
of medieval tradition, but Paris, steeped in senti- though Meryon here had imposed his weakness as
ment even more than Rouen or Bruges, was to well as his strength upon Mr. Webster, for in the

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