DOI Heft:
No. 190 (December, 1912)
DOI Artikel:Noble, Alden: The Stevens series of college etchings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0407
The Stevens Series of College Etchings
Original etching by Thomas W. Stevens
Copyright, ipn, Brown-Robertson Company
THE ARCH BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY’OF
LARGE QUADRANGLE AND PENNSYLVANIA
THE TRIANGLE
THE STEVENS SERIES OF COL-
LEGE ETCHINGS
BY ALDEN NOBLE
Etching would seem the most dif-
ficult of mediums in which to force an inspiration.
One can paint almost anything; an etching ordin-
arily, and ideally, finds its subject more as a
matter of fore-ordination, of predestined harmony
between subject and method. One can hardly
conceive of a fine etching being made where the
artist did not feel that the thing ought to be etched.
When one considers that in the series here dis-
cussed the choice of subjects was in a measure
prescribed, the achievement becomes the more
significant. It is one thing to wander free till
your etching, in all its allurement of line or of
light and shade, bursts upon the retina; far
different, and far more difficult to find, in a re-
stricted territory, a scene which shall not only
reflect its own essential character but also be
susceptible of being made into a good etching.
This was the problem which Thomas Wood
Stevens and Helen B. Stevens approached, and
which in the main they have solved in a
thoroughly satisfactory manner.
There are in all twelve American colleges or
universities in the present series, and proofs of
all but a few of the etchings are here reproduced.
The entire list comprises Harvard, Wellesley,
Smith, Yale, Vassar, West Point, Columbia,
Princeton, Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Virginia
and Chicago. It does not lie within the scope of
this article to do more than touch lightly the
most interesting features of this unusual set of
prints, most of which have appeared in full in the
pages of the Century Magazine.
Nowhere perhaps is better found the wedding
of subject and essence than in the Yale plate,
which shows one of the old, characteristic build-
ings, “South Middle,” with an interesting
arrangement of overhanging foliage in the im-
mediate foreground, with a splendidly done sun-
lit tree standing forth against the old brick wall.
Aside from the technical interest this plate suc-
ceeds perhaps better than any of the others in
conveying atmosphere, the atmosphere of its
environment.
In the Harvard plate also the scene has been
chosen in such a way as to preserve the idea of the
campus in its most characteristic guise. Here
appear two of the things which must remain in
the memory of all who ever walked over these
grounds, the great tree in the foreground and, a
little farther back, a fair-scrolled iron gateway.
A very interesting plate, wherein however the
subject forced upon the artist an arrangement
which he would not otherwise have chosen, is
that showing the Library of the University of
Original etching by Thomas W. Stevens
Copyright, iqii, Brown-Robertson Company
BLAIR PRINCETON
ARCH UNIVERSITY
XLIII
Original etching by Thomas W. Stevens
Copyright, ipn, Brown-Robertson Company
THE ARCH BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY’OF
LARGE QUADRANGLE AND PENNSYLVANIA
THE TRIANGLE
THE STEVENS SERIES OF COL-
LEGE ETCHINGS
BY ALDEN NOBLE
Etching would seem the most dif-
ficult of mediums in which to force an inspiration.
One can paint almost anything; an etching ordin-
arily, and ideally, finds its subject more as a
matter of fore-ordination, of predestined harmony
between subject and method. One can hardly
conceive of a fine etching being made where the
artist did not feel that the thing ought to be etched.
When one considers that in the series here dis-
cussed the choice of subjects was in a measure
prescribed, the achievement becomes the more
significant. It is one thing to wander free till
your etching, in all its allurement of line or of
light and shade, bursts upon the retina; far
different, and far more difficult to find, in a re-
stricted territory, a scene which shall not only
reflect its own essential character but also be
susceptible of being made into a good etching.
This was the problem which Thomas Wood
Stevens and Helen B. Stevens approached, and
which in the main they have solved in a
thoroughly satisfactory manner.
There are in all twelve American colleges or
universities in the present series, and proofs of
all but a few of the etchings are here reproduced.
The entire list comprises Harvard, Wellesley,
Smith, Yale, Vassar, West Point, Columbia,
Princeton, Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Virginia
and Chicago. It does not lie within the scope of
this article to do more than touch lightly the
most interesting features of this unusual set of
prints, most of which have appeared in full in the
pages of the Century Magazine.
Nowhere perhaps is better found the wedding
of subject and essence than in the Yale plate,
which shows one of the old, characteristic build-
ings, “South Middle,” with an interesting
arrangement of overhanging foliage in the im-
mediate foreground, with a splendidly done sun-
lit tree standing forth against the old brick wall.
Aside from the technical interest this plate suc-
ceeds perhaps better than any of the others in
conveying atmosphere, the atmosphere of its
environment.
In the Harvard plate also the scene has been
chosen in such a way as to preserve the idea of the
campus in its most characteristic guise. Here
appear two of the things which must remain in
the memory of all who ever walked over these
grounds, the great tree in the foreground and, a
little farther back, a fair-scrolled iron gateway.
A very interesting plate, wherein however the
subject forced upon the artist an arrangement
which he would not otherwise have chosen, is
that showing the Library of the University of
Original etching by Thomas W. Stevens
Copyright, iqii, Brown-Robertson Company
BLAIR PRINCETON
ARCH UNIVERSITY
XLIII