DOI Heft:
No. 57 (December 1897)
DOI Artikel:Mourey, Gabriel: A French wood-engraver: Auguste Lepère
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0182
Auguste Lcpcrc
"that people arc losing interest in metal engraving, sense of ornament and line ; having concentrated
thai the eau:farte is taking the place of the graver, artistic interest on the literal realisation of certain
that lithography is dying out, that wood-engraving aspects of superficial tacts, and instantaneous im
is threatened, that ' process ' work is gradually pressions instead of ideas, and the abstract treat-
superseding the burin, the etching, the lithograph ment of form and line."
and the wood-engraving, and that the chief cause Doubtless all this is perfectly true, yet this
of all this revolutionary tendency, directly or in- curious fact remains to be stated—the success of
directly, is photography." photography, cheap and common success though it
Walter Crane, too, in his interesting work on be, has, by process of reaction, assisted in the
"Decorative Illustration," accuses photography of renaissance of this very art of drawing to which I
having corrupted the art of drawing in this year of am referring, a renaissance which is now being felt
grace 1897. "It has," he says, "confused and throughout France, where during the past ten years
deteriorated the faculty of inventive design, and the or so a constellation of remarkable draughtsmen
has appeared. The suc-
cess of these artists in
certain papers has assisted
and even been the cause
of the new popularity of
the engraving pure and
simple. Fifteen years ago
one could not have dis-
covered a dozen amateurs
capable of taking delight
in an original lithograph or
wood-engraving; whereas
now the numerous happy
experiments in this direc-
tion amply prove that the
taste for this kind of work
has increased a hundred-
fold. We may congratu-
late ourselves on the fact,
%:>\ TV*" ' tfw&~ tor the art of drawing
^.j^sr- x T %9sfS^ • ' ^N*. wood-engravings, which
^ ^\ ■ * nave Deen most cordially
^%f; welcomed by the intelli-
gent section of the public.
DANS LE RUISSEAU" FROM AN ETCHING BY AUGUSTE LEPERE A few particulars and
I44
"that people arc losing interest in metal engraving, sense of ornament and line ; having concentrated
thai the eau:farte is taking the place of the graver, artistic interest on the literal realisation of certain
that lithography is dying out, that wood-engraving aspects of superficial tacts, and instantaneous im
is threatened, that ' process ' work is gradually pressions instead of ideas, and the abstract treat-
superseding the burin, the etching, the lithograph ment of form and line."
and the wood-engraving, and that the chief cause Doubtless all this is perfectly true, yet this
of all this revolutionary tendency, directly or in- curious fact remains to be stated—the success of
directly, is photography." photography, cheap and common success though it
Walter Crane, too, in his interesting work on be, has, by process of reaction, assisted in the
"Decorative Illustration," accuses photography of renaissance of this very art of drawing to which I
having corrupted the art of drawing in this year of am referring, a renaissance which is now being felt
grace 1897. "It has," he says, "confused and throughout France, where during the past ten years
deteriorated the faculty of inventive design, and the or so a constellation of remarkable draughtsmen
has appeared. The suc-
cess of these artists in
certain papers has assisted
and even been the cause
of the new popularity of
the engraving pure and
simple. Fifteen years ago
one could not have dis-
covered a dozen amateurs
capable of taking delight
in an original lithograph or
wood-engraving; whereas
now the numerous happy
experiments in this direc-
tion amply prove that the
taste for this kind of work
has increased a hundred-
fold. We may congratu-
late ourselves on the fact,
%:>\ TV*" ' tfw&~ tor the art of drawing
^.j^sr- x T %9sfS^ • ' ^N*. wood-engravings, which
^ ^\ ■ * nave Deen most cordially
^%f; welcomed by the intelli-
gent section of the public.
DANS LE RUISSEAU" FROM AN ETCHING BY AUGUSTE LEPERE A few particulars and
I44