tightly drawn, closely studied plates of several years ago
convincingly attest. While some of these early efforts, if
taken alone, might be regarded as love’s labor lost, when
considered as the ’prentice work of one who is in a fair
way to rank with the best of modern etchers, they be-
come significant stones in his edifice of art, and will, no
doubt, in time have their particular value in the port-
folio of the discerning collector. They furnish the best
possible proofs of the integrity of this artist who has
shirked no difficulties in his endeavor to master the
intricacies of his art.
In these early etchings you see him studying his sub-
ject with the most literal adherence to the facts of the
scene presented: one thing was as important as the
other, and nothing was too mean or trivial to be char-
acterized with the same loving care expended upon the
most important and interesting part of his composition.
While these plates are dry and matter-of-fact and con-
tribute little or nothing to his reputation as an etcher,
the arduous labor expended upon them has stood him
in good stead in his later work, in wliich there is a cer-
tainty and firmness of stroke that is undoubtedly the re-
sult of his persistent, patient study of form as well as of
the resources of his art. Since then he has become not
only a very excellent draughtsman, but has made not-
able progress in the knowledge of the possibilities of
etching. Being self-taught it is natural that he should
have been swayed by various influences. He has been
as close a Student of masterpieces as of nature, but it is
always the effect of the latter that predominates in his
work. Nowhere do you find him dominated by the Per-
sonality of one man, and though in his landscape etch-
ings there is a marked resemblance to Seymour Haden,

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