DOI Artikel:
Madden, Edward: Some etchings by Ernest D. Roth
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0035
Etchings by Ernest D. Roth
SOME ETCHINGS BY ERNEST
D. ROTH.
The recent revival of the art of etching in
America is reflected in the prominence given to
the work of painter-etchers in New York art
exhibitions; and “one man” shows of etchings in
the print-shops and museumshave also encouraged
a significant group of artists to take up the art.
Prominent in the younger set is Ernest David
Roth, six of whose etchings are here reproduced.
Although born in Europe, Mr. Roth accounts
himself an American, his parents having emigrated
to New York when he was very young. His early
life was one of arduous study and toil such as
falls to the lot of the emigrant’s son. As a youth
he worked in a New York art establishment by
day and in the evening attended classes at the
Academy of Design, having as teacher in etching
the late James David Smillie, N.A. For seven
years Mr. Roth exhibited as a painter in oils at
this Academy’s exhibitions and in those of the
Pennsylvania Academy. One of his pictures now
hangs in the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington.
Returning later to Europe,
he made his headquarters
in Florence, and began
his career as an etcher.
In all weathers, for the
last few years, he has
haunted the Lung’ Arno
and the bridges, working
assiduously. Now and
then he has disappeared,
going to Venice, Constan-
tinople, or Germany, and
returning with an interest-
ing series of plates.
No artist, certainly no
etcher, has better caught
the spirit of Old Florence
than Mr. Roth in the
etchings of his Florence
set, a fact recognised by
the director of the Uffizi
Gallery, who recently
made a choice of twelve of
them for the Uffizi Print
Room. Some of the sub-
jects of these etchings,
such as the Ponte Vecchio,
the Arno and its bridges,
the palaces, the views from
the Franciscan church at
Fiesole, have become classic, not to say hackneyed.
It is no sentimentalist, however, who calls his fine
etching of the palaces washed by the Arno, Grim
Florence, but an artist, whose psychological insight
can bring home to us the fundamental austerity,
the almost sinister sternness which underlie all
things characteristically Florentine.
In developing his plates Mr. Roth does not
make use of the three baths in customary use
among etchers. His method is to apply the acid,
touch by touch, with a feather, blotting paper at
hand. By this method, involving almost infinite
labour, he is sometimes able to secure as many as
twelve values.
Mr. Roth’s work has been welcomed in America
as promising well for the future of the art.
His conscientious method of treating his plates,
his elevation of truthfulness to reality over mere
dexterity of needle, his marked individuality and
absolute sincerity, are emphasised as being a check
to the tendency, so alluring to young etchers,
towards those impressionistic and sketchy effects
which too often are but a showy disguise for
ignorance. E. Madden.
“FIESOLE FROM SAN FRANCESCO”
BY ERNEST D. ROTH
1.3
SOME ETCHINGS BY ERNEST
D. ROTH.
The recent revival of the art of etching in
America is reflected in the prominence given to
the work of painter-etchers in New York art
exhibitions; and “one man” shows of etchings in
the print-shops and museumshave also encouraged
a significant group of artists to take up the art.
Prominent in the younger set is Ernest David
Roth, six of whose etchings are here reproduced.
Although born in Europe, Mr. Roth accounts
himself an American, his parents having emigrated
to New York when he was very young. His early
life was one of arduous study and toil such as
falls to the lot of the emigrant’s son. As a youth
he worked in a New York art establishment by
day and in the evening attended classes at the
Academy of Design, having as teacher in etching
the late James David Smillie, N.A. For seven
years Mr. Roth exhibited as a painter in oils at
this Academy’s exhibitions and in those of the
Pennsylvania Academy. One of his pictures now
hangs in the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington.
Returning later to Europe,
he made his headquarters
in Florence, and began
his career as an etcher.
In all weathers, for the
last few years, he has
haunted the Lung’ Arno
and the bridges, working
assiduously. Now and
then he has disappeared,
going to Venice, Constan-
tinople, or Germany, and
returning with an interest-
ing series of plates.
No artist, certainly no
etcher, has better caught
the spirit of Old Florence
than Mr. Roth in the
etchings of his Florence
set, a fact recognised by
the director of the Uffizi
Gallery, who recently
made a choice of twelve of
them for the Uffizi Print
Room. Some of the sub-
jects of these etchings,
such as the Ponte Vecchio,
the Arno and its bridges,
the palaces, the views from
the Franciscan church at
Fiesole, have become classic, not to say hackneyed.
It is no sentimentalist, however, who calls his fine
etching of the palaces washed by the Arno, Grim
Florence, but an artist, whose psychological insight
can bring home to us the fundamental austerity,
the almost sinister sternness which underlie all
things characteristically Florentine.
In developing his plates Mr. Roth does not
make use of the three baths in customary use
among etchers. His method is to apply the acid,
touch by touch, with a feather, blotting paper at
hand. By this method, involving almost infinite
labour, he is sometimes able to secure as many as
twelve values.
Mr. Roth’s work has been welcomed in America
as promising well for the future of the art.
His conscientious method of treating his plates,
his elevation of truthfulness to reality over mere
dexterity of needle, his marked individuality and
absolute sincerity, are emphasised as being a check
to the tendency, so alluring to young etchers,
towards those impressionistic and sketchy effects
which too often are but a showy disguise for
ignorance. E. Madden.
“FIESOLE FROM SAN FRANCESCO”
BY ERNEST D. ROTH
1.3