Studio: international art (14.1898)

Letter to the Editor

PART OF PAINTED FRIEZE

BY ELLEN M. STEADMAN AND KATHERINE RAYMENT
(See London Studio-Talk)

been probably the greatest reason why the quality
of wood-engraving has dropped in the estimation
of the majority of people to the extent that to
know a reproduction is a print from a wood block
is to damn it at once.

The downfall came with a rush, soon after the
American style of wood-engraving was introduced
here—a style that insisted upon the result appear-
ing only as so much tone or colour, not a line being
prominent, a monotonously fine line over all, every-
thing being on one plane, possessing only the advan-
tage over photographic reproduction of getting
stronger contrasts in pure black and pure white,
which it has lost now that the half-tone plates are
engraved upon. T. Cole,
the American engraver,
has emerged triumphantly
from the slough of his
school, and he now uses
to the full the charm of
an expressive white line,
with which he also ex-
presses tone, and not in
a conventionalistic way.

But do not think I am
merely a worshipper of
this one engraver, for I
give place to no one in
my admiration of the
early masters of the art.

The thorough mastery
of the graver, and the
knowledge of its capabili-
ties, are not to be learned
in a few weeks, and the

more one gains of this mastery and knowledge,
the more one appreciates the quickly and easily
executed and simply decorative white line. The
charm of a sensitive white line is, that it can pro-
duce beauties of tone, colour, and technique that
no other form of engraving can attain, and this will
show that, while its simpler form is beautiful, in its
more elaborated form its beauties are extended
and increased, to the extent of the knowledge and
power of the artist of the graver.

Arthur Comfort,

Hon. Chairman, The International Society
of Wood-Engravers.