DOI issue:
No. 95 (February, 1901)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: Coloured etchings in France, [1]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19787#0017
Coloured Etchings in France
—or rather had—no scruple in expressing indigna- tears on what they consider the extinction of the
tion because M. Renoir and M. Claude Monet do eau-forte in monochrome. If it be extinction, it
not paint after the manner of Raphael, and because is only momentary, for a system so rich and so
M. Rodin's conception of form differs from that of complete, ono in which so many masterpieces have
Phidias. When will the eyes of the public, and been achieved, cannot disappear entirely. As
even of the artists themselves, be rid of these well might one say that pure lithography, mono-
standards of beauty ; and when will public and chrome lithography, is dead, owing to the success
artists alike—the latter often worse and less in- of lithography in colours.
telligent judges than the former—become con- Like coloured lithography, indeed, the coloured
vinced of this eternal fact: that in art the method etching answers to the special necessities of a
of expression matters nought; and that the great democratic and levelling age like ours. Should we
works, the only great works, are those which not, then, rejoice to see art, in all its forms, per-
manifest with utmost intensity and utmost sincerity meating the life of to-day ? The coloured print
the emotions of a man face to face with Nature has largely assisted in its diffusion. Many a
and life? humble home is to-day adorned by one of Henri
As the opening of an article on coloured Riviere's Aspects de la Nature or his Paysages
etchings—a new process, or, at any rate, it not Parisiens, or one of the polychrome engravings
entirely new, so renovated that it has all the charm illustrating this article, or a print of one of
of novelty in our eyes—thoughts such as these Nicholson's wood-blocks, so remarkable in their
may appear somewhat grave, to some, even beside mixed savour of the modern and the archaic. Is
the question. I, however, refuse to think so, con- not this a proof of progress ? Here we have real
vinced as I am that many people are under the works of art within the reach of all, some costing
impression that the coloured etching is a process no more than six or eight shillings apiece, and
indicative of decadence, and that they shed many others a sovereign or two. The day is rapidly
FROM A COLOURED ETCHING BY G. JEANNIOT
—or rather had—no scruple in expressing indigna- tears on what they consider the extinction of the
tion because M. Renoir and M. Claude Monet do eau-forte in monochrome. If it be extinction, it
not paint after the manner of Raphael, and because is only momentary, for a system so rich and so
M. Rodin's conception of form differs from that of complete, ono in which so many masterpieces have
Phidias. When will the eyes of the public, and been achieved, cannot disappear entirely. As
even of the artists themselves, be rid of these well might one say that pure lithography, mono-
standards of beauty ; and when will public and chrome lithography, is dead, owing to the success
artists alike—the latter often worse and less in- of lithography in colours.
telligent judges than the former—become con- Like coloured lithography, indeed, the coloured
vinced of this eternal fact: that in art the method etching answers to the special necessities of a
of expression matters nought; and that the great democratic and levelling age like ours. Should we
works, the only great works, are those which not, then, rejoice to see art, in all its forms, per-
manifest with utmost intensity and utmost sincerity meating the life of to-day ? The coloured print
the emotions of a man face to face with Nature has largely assisted in its diffusion. Many a
and life? humble home is to-day adorned by one of Henri
As the opening of an article on coloured Riviere's Aspects de la Nature or his Paysages
etchings—a new process, or, at any rate, it not Parisiens, or one of the polychrome engravings
entirely new, so renovated that it has all the charm illustrating this article, or a print of one of
of novelty in our eyes—thoughts such as these Nicholson's wood-blocks, so remarkable in their
may appear somewhat grave, to some, even beside mixed savour of the modern and the archaic. Is
the question. I, however, refuse to think so, con- not this a proof of progress ? Here we have real
vinced as I am that many people are under the works of art within the reach of all, some costing
impression that the coloured etching is a process no more than six or eight shillings apiece, and
indicative of decadence, and that they shed many others a sovereign or two. The day is rapidly
FROM A COLOURED ETCHING BY G. JEANNIOT