DOI issue:
Quarterly notes - Vol. xii, No. 1. February, 1925
DOI article:Lumsden, E. S.: The etchings of John Clerk of Elding
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51531#0066
he experimented from the beginning, but never with
success because he either did not know of, or failed to
apply, a suitable resin or asphaltum ground. Neither
were his two tentative essays in soft-ground more success-
ful : one, the Old, Tower, Leith (No. 77), being re-worked
in etching and drypoint.
For this reason I am inclined to doubt the authorship
of the one little plate (No. 38), which shows signs of
having been properly aquatinted. I have seen no proof
earlier than 1825, and as it was printed at the time of,
but not included in, the Bannatyne Club issue, it may
have been by Lord Eldin.
Historically, Clerk must take a definite and not un-
important place as a pioneer in this country. Aesthe-
tically he is entitled also to no mean position. He had
individuality, and the records of his own neighbourhood
unmistakably smack of‘the soil, a quality only arrived
at when the etcher really loves his subject, and is also a
genuine artist, though not necessarily a very accom-
plished one.
Unlike his contemporary, Lord Aylesford,1 whose
work was the outcome of a close study of Rembrandt,
Clerk always endeavoured to “ compose ” his subjects
after the Italian manner. In doing so he took con-
siderable liberties with topography and framed his castles,
etc., with trees which in all likelihood were never there.
By this means he often secured very happy results,
but if a number of such plates are seen together the
artifice becomes too apparent. On the other hand, his
appreciation of aerial perspective was remarkably keen.
The vessels, for instance, in the engagement off St.
Andrew’s (No. 53) are really distant. His knowledge of
i See Print Collector’s Quarterly, Vol. XI., No. 3, October, 1924.
26
success because he either did not know of, or failed to
apply, a suitable resin or asphaltum ground. Neither
were his two tentative essays in soft-ground more success-
ful : one, the Old, Tower, Leith (No. 77), being re-worked
in etching and drypoint.
For this reason I am inclined to doubt the authorship
of the one little plate (No. 38), which shows signs of
having been properly aquatinted. I have seen no proof
earlier than 1825, and as it was printed at the time of,
but not included in, the Bannatyne Club issue, it may
have been by Lord Eldin.
Historically, Clerk must take a definite and not un-
important place as a pioneer in this country. Aesthe-
tically he is entitled also to no mean position. He had
individuality, and the records of his own neighbourhood
unmistakably smack of‘the soil, a quality only arrived
at when the etcher really loves his subject, and is also a
genuine artist, though not necessarily a very accom-
plished one.
Unlike his contemporary, Lord Aylesford,1 whose
work was the outcome of a close study of Rembrandt,
Clerk always endeavoured to “ compose ” his subjects
after the Italian manner. In doing so he took con-
siderable liberties with topography and framed his castles,
etc., with trees which in all likelihood were never there.
By this means he often secured very happy results,
but if a number of such plates are seen together the
artifice becomes too apparent. On the other hand, his
appreciation of aerial perspective was remarkably keen.
The vessels, for instance, in the engagement off St.
Andrew’s (No. 53) are really distant. His knowledge of
i See Print Collector’s Quarterly, Vol. XI., No. 3, October, 1924.
26