International studio (42.1910)

The Late Sir Seymour Haden

open space and houses, hardly defined in its bright-
ness. And in the other, the trees to the right (under
one of which a seat is marked "Dasha," standing
for Deborah, his wife's name) emphasize by their
clean-cut sharpness the distance, in which all detail is
lost. Broken lines, dots produced by foul biting,
are combined into a wavering, shimmering effect
which well suggests that strange elation which
nature expresses and imparts in those early morning
hours which Corot painted and described. Again,
one may compare the stately beauty of the Shere
Mill Pond, so well-balanced in the classic repose of
its composition, and the charming freedom of The
Towing Path, with its be-crinolined lady and her
little dog. The juicy richness of the dry-point
work on the last-named plate recalls others executed
partly or altogether in the same medium with
equally happy results: Sunset in Ireland, for exam-
ple, or Mytton Hall, or Combe Bottom. Contrast-
ing the happy freedom in such plates with the firm
incisiveness in some of the etched ones referred to, it
becomes apparent that it is not only a question of a
union of mood and manner, but also of a judicious
choice of the proper medium and method for a par-
ticular purpose.

There is nothing involved in Haden's technique,
no multiplicity of means employed. He himself
once said: "All the great painter engravers . . .
worked simply and with the simplest tools." Oc-
casionally he will supplement the etched and dry-
pointed lines with a bit of foul biting by way of tint,
as in Early Morning in Richmond Park, but even
that not very often.

Haden himself has spoken of "the necessity for
rigid selection," and the phrase illustrates a marked
characteristic of his own work. His judgment in
the choice of essentials and the rejection of the un-
necessary was as notable as his tact in arrangement.
His earlier austerity of manner later gave way to an
increasing looseness in handling. This was empha-
sized, also, by his latest mezzotints, pure mezzo-
tints, no longer with the support of the etched lines
which we found in the second Agamemnon or
Egham Lock. In his last mezzotints misty effects of
night or early morning obscure outlines into vague-
ness and lay stress on tone and not on form.

Such comparisons and studies may be made easily
enough in New York City, for example, where the
Public Library, in its print room, possesses a re-
markable collection of the artist's plates, given by
the late Samuel P. Avery.

Haden's sympathetic understanding and mas-
terly delineation of trees has won appreciative ad-
miration ; similarly, a number of his plates may be

xxx

cited as models in the treatment of water. The
calm, clear repose of still water, partly expressed by
a central space of white, in Egham; the few long
swirls in the foreground of Egham Lock, which give
life to that plate; the stream placidly flowing through
A Water Meadow, with poplars and other trees and
sloping ground in the far distance to close in the flat
plain with suggestions of variety—these are interest-
ing evidences of a perfect union of eye and hand.
Moreover, they are delightful vistas of nature in her
more intimate aspects, in the land in which Sir Sey-
mour lived and died. His art glorified the home-
land scenes that inspired its finest fruits.

He found interest and beauty in the world imme-
diately about him, in the woods and streams, the
castles and inns, the marshes and downs of his land.
Animals play an interesting and not unimportant
part in his etchings. The Two Sheep are set off by
a big sweep of landscape, ducks paddle contentedly
in A Back Water, donkeys contemplatively regard
the spectator in Challow Farm, cows ford A River in
Lancashire, and Cowdray Castle has been pictured
once with geese in the foreground and once with
cows.

The stateliest subject and the humblest appealed
to him. He threw the glamor of his art about such
an occurrence as the Breaking Up of the Agamem-
non, with its note of historical significance. And he
also recorded the charming simplicity of the appeal
of Windmill Hill.

This preponderance of English landscape in the
work of Haden and the manner in which it is pre-
sented by him are factors of importance in any con-
sideration of his standing as an artist.

The love of the native soil, the play on the gamut
of emotions which are appealed to in its scenery,
even in its humblest aspects, are not insular traits.
They are national characteristics seen through a
personality that is worth while. Such a combina-
tion of local influences and the artist's own individ-
uality has marked the finest works of art. It is
characteristic of the best of Sir Seymour's etchings.

F. W.

The reproductions of Sir Seymour Haden's
etchings and dry points accompanying this article
have been made from specially fine impressions
through the courtesy of Frederick Keppel & Co.,
New York.

John LaFarge died in Providence, R. I., on
Monday night, November 14, after an illness of
several months, following a minor operation per-
formed in New York last Spring. He was born
in 1835.