DOI article:
Salaman, Malcolm C.: Wood-engraving for colour in Great Britain
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0303
Wood-Engraving for Colour
colour-wash is carefully applied, the first is
already too dry for satisfactory printing, hence in
practice an extended number of printings is
adopted. It will be seen, therefore, that a
rhythmic order, ideal in theory, is of little
advantage, because undue attention given to one
colour-shape might leave insufficient time properly
to colour the others. It was to obviate these
difficulties, by a great saving of time, that Mr. Giles
made the interesting experiment with cameo zinc
plates, which resulted in the charming colour-print
reproduced in The Studio’s last Winter Number.
He has already proved that metal plates, printed in
the relief way of the wood-blocks, but without their
drawbacks of rapid drying, can give the pure
luminous colour one gets from the wood; but the
powdered colours must be mixed with rectified
petroleum in place of water, and one drop of poppy
oil instead of rice-paste for binding; then the
metal must be coated with shellac which shall
become perfectly hard, to prevent the chemical
action which would otherwise inevitably
soil the colours. But of this more another
to take bicycle and tent wheresoever the mood
directs them, in search of the pictorial subject.
For every print he makes many sketches from
nature, and his prints testify to camping days
and nights in Italy, Germany, Scandinavia. Let
us hope their recent adventuring in Corsica will
bear rich fruit. For the making of one splendid
print, Swan and Cygnets, Mr. and Mrs. Giles lived
six weeks in a covered punt on the Thames near
Windsor. To the intimacy that ensued between
the artist and the stately swan and her young ones
we owe the essential truth and vitality of this
glorious print. And the water is as much alive as
the birds. Relative truth and beauty of colour,
with artistic vitality of design, and the poetic ex-
pression of the subject, distinguish all Mr. Giles’s
prints, while the elusive quality of style hall-marks
them, J/r Lady’s Birds— I doubt if the colour-
glories of the peacock’s plumage has ever been
rendered with a richer and more exquisite sense of
harmony, or if the birds have lent themselves to
time, for I am convinced that the develop-
ment of this method will greatly influence
and extend the production of colour-prints.
For the moment, however, we are con-
cerned only with Mr. Giles’s work on the
wood.
September Moon, reproduced here in
colours, is one of the most beautiful and
poetic of Mr. Giles’s prints. It is, per-
haps, little to the purpose to tell that the
actual scene depicted may be found in the
Shinfield Woods of Berkshire, a fact that
the artist confided to me as reluctantly as
if he had been betraying some romantic
tryst, for, in truth, the picture is subjective
rather than objective. It is the romance
of moonlight that has inspired his pictorial
mood. Companioned by gracious trees,
he has seen the moon, in one of her
tenderest and sweetest moments, breaking
above the cloud-banks, and bathing the
landscape in a crystalline purity. The
Passing of the Crescent—Umbria, Italy,
shows another moonlight mood in fine
colour and impressive design. I imagine
the scene to be in the neighbourhood of
Spoleto, a favourite sketching-ground of
Mr. Giles.
It is his happy custom, in company
with his wife —herself a charming and
accomplished water-colour painter—
“gold cloud’’(from “the QUEEN OF THE FISHES ”). BY
LUCIEN PISSARRO
292
colour-wash is carefully applied, the first is
already too dry for satisfactory printing, hence in
practice an extended number of printings is
adopted. It will be seen, therefore, that a
rhythmic order, ideal in theory, is of little
advantage, because undue attention given to one
colour-shape might leave insufficient time properly
to colour the others. It was to obviate these
difficulties, by a great saving of time, that Mr. Giles
made the interesting experiment with cameo zinc
plates, which resulted in the charming colour-print
reproduced in The Studio’s last Winter Number.
He has already proved that metal plates, printed in
the relief way of the wood-blocks, but without their
drawbacks of rapid drying, can give the pure
luminous colour one gets from the wood; but the
powdered colours must be mixed with rectified
petroleum in place of water, and one drop of poppy
oil instead of rice-paste for binding; then the
metal must be coated with shellac which shall
become perfectly hard, to prevent the chemical
action which would otherwise inevitably
soil the colours. But of this more another
to take bicycle and tent wheresoever the mood
directs them, in search of the pictorial subject.
For every print he makes many sketches from
nature, and his prints testify to camping days
and nights in Italy, Germany, Scandinavia. Let
us hope their recent adventuring in Corsica will
bear rich fruit. For the making of one splendid
print, Swan and Cygnets, Mr. and Mrs. Giles lived
six weeks in a covered punt on the Thames near
Windsor. To the intimacy that ensued between
the artist and the stately swan and her young ones
we owe the essential truth and vitality of this
glorious print. And the water is as much alive as
the birds. Relative truth and beauty of colour,
with artistic vitality of design, and the poetic ex-
pression of the subject, distinguish all Mr. Giles’s
prints, while the elusive quality of style hall-marks
them, J/r Lady’s Birds— I doubt if the colour-
glories of the peacock’s plumage has ever been
rendered with a richer and more exquisite sense of
harmony, or if the birds have lent themselves to
time, for I am convinced that the develop-
ment of this method will greatly influence
and extend the production of colour-prints.
For the moment, however, we are con-
cerned only with Mr. Giles’s work on the
wood.
September Moon, reproduced here in
colours, is one of the most beautiful and
poetic of Mr. Giles’s prints. It is, per-
haps, little to the purpose to tell that the
actual scene depicted may be found in the
Shinfield Woods of Berkshire, a fact that
the artist confided to me as reluctantly as
if he had been betraying some romantic
tryst, for, in truth, the picture is subjective
rather than objective. It is the romance
of moonlight that has inspired his pictorial
mood. Companioned by gracious trees,
he has seen the moon, in one of her
tenderest and sweetest moments, breaking
above the cloud-banks, and bathing the
landscape in a crystalline purity. The
Passing of the Crescent—Umbria, Italy,
shows another moonlight mood in fine
colour and impressive design. I imagine
the scene to be in the neighbourhood of
Spoleto, a favourite sketching-ground of
Mr. Giles.
It is his happy custom, in company
with his wife —herself a charming and
accomplished water-colour painter—
“gold cloud’’(from “the QUEEN OF THE FISHES ”). BY
LUCIEN PISSARRO
292