Studio: international art (14.1898)

The Future of Wood-Engraving

competition and the rapid march of events had not
made every moment of priceless value. Reproduc-
tive wood-engraving was indeed doomed directly
this bustling innovator, with no respect for estab-
lished traditions, entered the field against it.

And yet the judicious may well be justified in
grieving over the downfall of a great art. There is
something pitiable about the starving outcast which,
still clinging to the rags
of its former splendour,
is grateful for the crumbs
that fall from the table
of “ Process,” the par-
venu millionaire. Many
of us would be glad to
see something of the old
power of wood-engrav-
ing restored to it. The
lesson that it is fatal
to step from a secure
pedestal, and to sacri-
fice a position which
could not be taken
away, has been soundly
learned, and in a severe
school. There is little
fear now that the wood-
cut, once rehabilitated,
would again commit
the fault of attempting
merely reproductive
work. Its future pros-
perity—and we may not
unreasonably hope that
a fair measure of this
may be yet in store—
must be sought in a re-
version to the greater
dignity of its earlier
days. It cannot again
strive to be pictorial;
it must be decorative,
and must devote itself
to that branch of art practice in which its technical
distinction will add a touch of individuality to the
artist’s work. Of course this means that among
the artists themselves some must be prepared to
recognise that there are to be obtained by the use
of wood-blocks certain qualities which no other
printing medium will give; but artists of this type
are by no means so rare as might be imagined by
those observers who know the art world by exami-
nation of only those movements which happen at
the moment to be in dramatic evidence. The

dominion of the process block and the influence of
photography are not so universal as a moderately
careful examination of the current magazines would
seem to suggest; there are tendencies at work, at
present not conspicuous by extraordinary activity,
which promise to modify in an interesting manner
some of the dominant features of modern illustration.

We give in these pages some examples of wood-
cutting from the Bir-
mingham School of Art,
which have a rather
considerable interest as
suggestions of what
might yet be done with
an art that is too im-
portant, actually and
from association, to be
allowed to die out.
These illustrations have
been produced by the
students in a class which
has only been estab-
lished in that school
during the last few years.
They are in their manner
directly opposed to re-
productive engraving,
for they have been de-
signed specially with
the idea of turning to
account the peculiar
quality of line which
cannot be obtained by
any other tool than the
graver. The character
which distinguishes them
is that which can only
be given by exact agree-
ment between the origi-
nal design and the mode
of recording it; and the
principle that dominates
them is a recognition
of the necessity for making the finished work not
only fine in artistic intention, but also admir-
able as a piece of engraving. These are not ab-
stract artistic efforts that have chanced to occupy
the time of some worker on the wood-block;
they are evidences of the intention of the sin-
cere student to make an engraving which will
stand or fall by its merit as an example of
the craft. In this class the pupils are taught from
the beginning to accommodate their work to its
ultimate purpose. At first their training consists

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