DOI Artikel:
S., M. C.: The etchings of James McBey by Malcolm C. Salaman
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0046
The Etchings of James Me Bey
riot inevitably associate with immortal masters.
Such for instance, as the enchanting sunny little
Benachie, or the two lovely plates of Fifttray, or
Logie Buchan Ferry, or Catterline, full of the sense
of the sea, or the pretty Foveran Burn, or Old
Castile, with its mediaeval atmosphere, or the rainy
View in Wales, these two last being among our
illustrations.
Omval and Amsterdam from Runsdorp, shown
here, are thoroughly representative of that delightful
group of Dutch landscapes through which mainly
the connoisseurs recognised the young etcher’s true
artistic inheritance from the great master, a group
that includes those engaging plates Runsdorp,
Haarlem, Zaandijk and Enkhuisen. Dry-point is
the medium Mr. McBey has used with appealing
pictorial suggestiveness in the Sandwich series, of
which An April Day in Kent, given here, is a
characteristic example, while another which I greatly
admire among the six plates of the series is The
Skylark, a charming expression of the spirit of a
joyous Spring day over spacious English landscape.
Behind Mr. McBey’s pictorial vision, inspiring and
controlling it, is always a poetic temperament
influenced by the spirit of the scene, and it is,
therefore, his own mood reflected in the passing
expression of the scene that he gives us. The hills,
because they oppress him, come seldom, if ever,
into his prints; but the sunny plains inspire him
happily. The sea, almost, so to speak, his nativfe
element, is a strong and generally sad influence,
and in the very original 1588, the second state of
which, somewhat altered in composition from the
first, is reproduced here, we have a remarkably
suggestive impression of the bleak, rocky, un-
friendliness of the Aberdeen coast. And here the
artist’s imaginative vision is vividly expressed, for
on these very rocks of Collieston, close to Mr.
McBey’s birthplace, a Spanish Armada ship was
wrecked 325 years ago. This was the last etching Mr.
McBey did before starting for Morocco, a journey
which we may hope will result in many charac-
teristic etchings, and not a few pictures in oil and
water-colours, mediums through which this in-
teresting artist has yet to reveal himself to the
art-loving public. M. C. S.
“ OMVAL
34
ORIGINAL ETCHING BY JAMES MCBEY
riot inevitably associate with immortal masters.
Such for instance, as the enchanting sunny little
Benachie, or the two lovely plates of Fifttray, or
Logie Buchan Ferry, or Catterline, full of the sense
of the sea, or the pretty Foveran Burn, or Old
Castile, with its mediaeval atmosphere, or the rainy
View in Wales, these two last being among our
illustrations.
Omval and Amsterdam from Runsdorp, shown
here, are thoroughly representative of that delightful
group of Dutch landscapes through which mainly
the connoisseurs recognised the young etcher’s true
artistic inheritance from the great master, a group
that includes those engaging plates Runsdorp,
Haarlem, Zaandijk and Enkhuisen. Dry-point is
the medium Mr. McBey has used with appealing
pictorial suggestiveness in the Sandwich series, of
which An April Day in Kent, given here, is a
characteristic example, while another which I greatly
admire among the six plates of the series is The
Skylark, a charming expression of the spirit of a
joyous Spring day over spacious English landscape.
Behind Mr. McBey’s pictorial vision, inspiring and
controlling it, is always a poetic temperament
influenced by the spirit of the scene, and it is,
therefore, his own mood reflected in the passing
expression of the scene that he gives us. The hills,
because they oppress him, come seldom, if ever,
into his prints; but the sunny plains inspire him
happily. The sea, almost, so to speak, his nativfe
element, is a strong and generally sad influence,
and in the very original 1588, the second state of
which, somewhat altered in composition from the
first, is reproduced here, we have a remarkably
suggestive impression of the bleak, rocky, un-
friendliness of the Aberdeen coast. And here the
artist’s imaginative vision is vividly expressed, for
on these very rocks of Collieston, close to Mr.
McBey’s birthplace, a Spanish Armada ship was
wrecked 325 years ago. This was the last etching Mr.
McBey did before starting for Morocco, a journey
which we may hope will result in many charac-
teristic etchings, and not a few pictures in oil and
water-colours, mediums through which this in-
teresting artist has yet to reveal himself to the
art-loving public. M. C. S.
“ OMVAL
34
ORIGINAL ETCHING BY JAMES MCBEY