DOI Heft:
Nr. 210 (August, 1914)
DOI Artikel:Salaman, Malcom C.: The colour-prints of Edward L. Lawrenson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43456#0125
The Colour-Prints of E. L. Lawrenson
“ COURTYARD OF THE CHATEAU OF BRIGUE ”
BY E. L. LAWRENSON
in the examples of his work given here, his choice
of subject is varied, and determined only by its
pictorial motive. In the sunlight’s effect upon the
impressive Courtyard of the Chateau of Brigue,
with its arches and pillars, and its sheltered trees,
he has found a capital subject. Here in mediaeval
times lived the guardian of the Simplon Pass,
whose duty it was to keep the Pass open, resisting any
invasion from the Italian side; but Mr. Lawrenson
has attempted no imaginative re-creation of old
turbulent times. The present peace of the place
has suggested his motive, and the woman carrying
her burden across the patch of sunlight is eloquent
of it. But the blue and green tones only were
added to the design by a second printing.
Not the least interesting of Mr. Lawrenson’s
recent prints is The Irish Kelp Burners, a subject
which he has also painted in oils. It is a charac-
teristic scene on the coast of Antrim, near
Cushendal, where the people will gather the sea-
weed on the shore and burn it in a stone circle,
throwing it on to the fire continuously for twelve
hours at a stretch, their long and arduous labour
producing kelp residue containing iodine perhaps
to the value of fifteen shillings. But it was, of
course, the pictorial rather than the economic
significance of the scene that engaged the artist’s
interest, and it was the colour-values of the
smoke from the burning kelp against the atmo-
spheric aspect of sea and sky that evidently
suggested it as a good motive for a colour-print.
Now that Mr. Lawrenson has gone to live in the
clear, dry air of the Sussex Downs, he will find much
less difficulty in working his spirit-grounds than is
inevitable in the dusty atmosphere of London ; and
after all, although the beautiful old French aquatints
of Janinet, Debucourt, Descourtis, and the rest,
were done almost entirely with dust-grounds, there
is no question that the spirit-ground, which was our
English Paul Sandby’s development of the French
invention, gives a much greater luminosity of tone.
But, when all is said for aquatint as a medium for
colour-printing, there remains always the disadvan-
tage of deterioration of colour through the chemical
action of the metal upon the pigment, which is in-
evitable in an intaglio process. The pure luminous
colour possible in prints from wood-blocks is quite
unattainable with aquatint, although it may be said
93
“ COURTYARD OF THE CHATEAU OF BRIGUE ”
BY E. L. LAWRENSON
in the examples of his work given here, his choice
of subject is varied, and determined only by its
pictorial motive. In the sunlight’s effect upon the
impressive Courtyard of the Chateau of Brigue,
with its arches and pillars, and its sheltered trees,
he has found a capital subject. Here in mediaeval
times lived the guardian of the Simplon Pass,
whose duty it was to keep the Pass open, resisting any
invasion from the Italian side; but Mr. Lawrenson
has attempted no imaginative re-creation of old
turbulent times. The present peace of the place
has suggested his motive, and the woman carrying
her burden across the patch of sunlight is eloquent
of it. But the blue and green tones only were
added to the design by a second printing.
Not the least interesting of Mr. Lawrenson’s
recent prints is The Irish Kelp Burners, a subject
which he has also painted in oils. It is a charac-
teristic scene on the coast of Antrim, near
Cushendal, where the people will gather the sea-
weed on the shore and burn it in a stone circle,
throwing it on to the fire continuously for twelve
hours at a stretch, their long and arduous labour
producing kelp residue containing iodine perhaps
to the value of fifteen shillings. But it was, of
course, the pictorial rather than the economic
significance of the scene that engaged the artist’s
interest, and it was the colour-values of the
smoke from the burning kelp against the atmo-
spheric aspect of sea and sky that evidently
suggested it as a good motive for a colour-print.
Now that Mr. Lawrenson has gone to live in the
clear, dry air of the Sussex Downs, he will find much
less difficulty in working his spirit-grounds than is
inevitable in the dusty atmosphere of London ; and
after all, although the beautiful old French aquatints
of Janinet, Debucourt, Descourtis, and the rest,
were done almost entirely with dust-grounds, there
is no question that the spirit-ground, which was our
English Paul Sandby’s development of the French
invention, gives a much greater luminosity of tone.
But, when all is said for aquatint as a medium for
colour-printing, there remains always the disadvan-
tage of deterioration of colour through the chemical
action of the metal upon the pigment, which is in-
evitable in an intaglio process. The pure luminous
colour possible in prints from wood-blocks is quite
unattainable with aquatint, although it may be said
93