DOI Artikel:
Salaman, Malcolm C.: The woodcuts of Mr. Sydney Lee, A.R.E.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0042
The Woodcuts of Sydney Lee, A.R.E.
separated. Mr. Lee’s practice is to settle carefully
the main lines of his design as to masses and
placing, and then to develop his picture in detail
as he works on the wood, inventing as he goes, tool
in hand, and adopting suggestions from the material
itself. Thus the result is in every sense an original
wood-engraving. The process, moreover, is one of
absolute black-and-white, with little or no variation
possible in the printing, as in an etched plate.
In The Limestone Rock Mr. Lee has made very
ample use of the white line usually associated with
the name of Thomas Bewick, but like Bewick him-
self, in the famous Chillingham Bull for instance,
he has used also the traditional black line, the
combination being brilliant in effect. The differen-
tiation of the texture of the rocks, the trees, the grassy
slopes, and the water is
particularly happy. In The
Barbican Gate — now, I
believe, but a memory in
Sandwich—Mr. Lee has, I
think, rather overdone the
white line, producing an
effect of hardness; but in
this, as in The Gabled
House—a characteristic bit
of old Canterbury — and
Spanish Mill, design ap¬
pears to be the dominant
feature, with loyalty to the
material evident in his
treatment of it.
Mr. Lee, in all his artistic
work, conscientiously
allows his subject to dictate
its own medium of expres¬
sion, and one never finds
him etching a subject that
by its essential character
calls for mezzotint. Nor
in his colour-prints does he
attempt the effects of the
painter. Being thus always
true to his medium, while
never allowing it to hamper
his individuality, it is good
to hear that Mr. Lee is
engaged on some new
woodcuts, that he has taken
up his graver again with
enthusiasm. He is always
an interesting artist. Even
when he has essayed a
method so unfamiliar to
him as colour-lithography he has managed to pro-
duce from four separate stones an impressive effect of
light—to wit, The Two Brewers, a very old country
inn at night, seen with the lamps burning inside.
But in lithography his work is experimental; in
wood-engraving it shows a mastery of craft at the
service of his pictorial vision, with a sympathetic
understanding of the capacities and limitations of
his medium. We may, therefore, look for more
woodcuts from his hand of the quality and im-
portance of The Limestone Rock. And I would
venture to suggest to Mr. Lee that London offers
rich pictorial material to the original wood-
engraver, and it might well be that he could do for
London on the wood-blocks what Auguste Lepere,
in his incomparable way, has done for Paris.
“the gabled house”
FROM AN ORIGINAL WOOD-ENGRAVING BY SYDNEY LEE, A.R.E.
20
separated. Mr. Lee’s practice is to settle carefully
the main lines of his design as to masses and
placing, and then to develop his picture in detail
as he works on the wood, inventing as he goes, tool
in hand, and adopting suggestions from the material
itself. Thus the result is in every sense an original
wood-engraving. The process, moreover, is one of
absolute black-and-white, with little or no variation
possible in the printing, as in an etched plate.
In The Limestone Rock Mr. Lee has made very
ample use of the white line usually associated with
the name of Thomas Bewick, but like Bewick him-
self, in the famous Chillingham Bull for instance,
he has used also the traditional black line, the
combination being brilliant in effect. The differen-
tiation of the texture of the rocks, the trees, the grassy
slopes, and the water is
particularly happy. In The
Barbican Gate — now, I
believe, but a memory in
Sandwich—Mr. Lee has, I
think, rather overdone the
white line, producing an
effect of hardness; but in
this, as in The Gabled
House—a characteristic bit
of old Canterbury — and
Spanish Mill, design ap¬
pears to be the dominant
feature, with loyalty to the
material evident in his
treatment of it.
Mr. Lee, in all his artistic
work, conscientiously
allows his subject to dictate
its own medium of expres¬
sion, and one never finds
him etching a subject that
by its essential character
calls for mezzotint. Nor
in his colour-prints does he
attempt the effects of the
painter. Being thus always
true to his medium, while
never allowing it to hamper
his individuality, it is good
to hear that Mr. Lee is
engaged on some new
woodcuts, that he has taken
up his graver again with
enthusiasm. He is always
an interesting artist. Even
when he has essayed a
method so unfamiliar to
him as colour-lithography he has managed to pro-
duce from four separate stones an impressive effect of
light—to wit, The Two Brewers, a very old country
inn at night, seen with the lamps burning inside.
But in lithography his work is experimental; in
wood-engraving it shows a mastery of craft at the
service of his pictorial vision, with a sympathetic
understanding of the capacities and limitations of
his medium. We may, therefore, look for more
woodcuts from his hand of the quality and im-
portance of The Limestone Rock. And I would
venture to suggest to Mr. Lee that London offers
rich pictorial material to the original wood-
engraver, and it might well be that he could do for
London on the wood-blocks what Auguste Lepere,
in his incomparable way, has done for Paris.
“the gabled house”
FROM AN ORIGINAL WOOD-ENGRAVING BY SYDNEY LEE, A.R.E.
20