DOI Heft:
No. 107 (February, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Wedmore, Frederick: Frank Short
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19875#0025
Frank Short, R.E.
and—though drawing the figure very little—there Building the " Golden Bee,' that most frank and
crops out everywhere his ready sympathy with spirited, decisive etching, of which, through an
human fortunes. He loves the changes of atmo- accident also, the impressions are to be counted
sphere and climate, over an uneventful, long-stretch- on the fingers of one hand alone,
ing land. He loves not so much foliage as the The original mezzotints are but a small group,
banks of the tidal river. He loves boats, masts, Mezzotint has been used so seldom for original
cordage, the intricate lines of modern scaffolding, work; but Mr. Short, in the Weary Moon and in
the palings round the shipyard, the quaint town. the Lifting Cloud—this last a study of storm-tossed
So much for general characteristics. Were I sea and moving sky—has used it admirably. A
invited to particularise—to name certain etchings, Span of old Battersea Bridge is, I think, his best
certain dry-points, which I consider on his highest original aquatint—but eminently characteristic is
level—I should name, no doubt, Waiting for the the Curfew, which, an inscription on the plate
Flood (the first, may it not be recorded, that won shows, is connected in his own mind with the
the approval of Mr. Whistler) ; the Evening, most musical of all Miltonic verse. The Maxwell
Bosham ; The Deserter, with the rough old boat in Bank is his best soft-ground etching,
the foreground, and the bridge of boats and the Of the reproductive work—it is all in mezzotint
town itself in the not too remote background; the —I should like to say, first, that its notes are flexi-
Angler's Bridge on the Wandle, for pattern of line, bility and variety. Here, nothing that is good
eminently; and, for rhythm of line, the Quiet seems to come at all amiss to him. G. F. Watts—
Evening on the Ferry over the Blyth—a study of august and a Classic already—is the living man
" line within line," indeed : an old wooden pier— whom he has chiefly interpreted ; and most delicate
low, narrow, serpentining—and timbers to bank up as is the Hope, most refined the Endymion, I do
the river. Nor should I forget the velvety dry- not think he has got beyond—or that he can ever
point, Overijssel, of which, through an accident, reasonably hope to get beyond—the first great Watts
there were but very few good impressions, or the he ever interpreted—the Orpheus and Eurydice.
i:. 1 I
"A WINTRY BLAST ON THE STOURBRIDGE CANAL " FROM AN ETCHING BY FRANK SHORT, R.E.
I 2
and—though drawing the figure very little—there Building the " Golden Bee,' that most frank and
crops out everywhere his ready sympathy with spirited, decisive etching, of which, through an
human fortunes. He loves the changes of atmo- accident also, the impressions are to be counted
sphere and climate, over an uneventful, long-stretch- on the fingers of one hand alone,
ing land. He loves not so much foliage as the The original mezzotints are but a small group,
banks of the tidal river. He loves boats, masts, Mezzotint has been used so seldom for original
cordage, the intricate lines of modern scaffolding, work; but Mr. Short, in the Weary Moon and in
the palings round the shipyard, the quaint town. the Lifting Cloud—this last a study of storm-tossed
So much for general characteristics. Were I sea and moving sky—has used it admirably. A
invited to particularise—to name certain etchings, Span of old Battersea Bridge is, I think, his best
certain dry-points, which I consider on his highest original aquatint—but eminently characteristic is
level—I should name, no doubt, Waiting for the the Curfew, which, an inscription on the plate
Flood (the first, may it not be recorded, that won shows, is connected in his own mind with the
the approval of Mr. Whistler) ; the Evening, most musical of all Miltonic verse. The Maxwell
Bosham ; The Deserter, with the rough old boat in Bank is his best soft-ground etching,
the foreground, and the bridge of boats and the Of the reproductive work—it is all in mezzotint
town itself in the not too remote background; the —I should like to say, first, that its notes are flexi-
Angler's Bridge on the Wandle, for pattern of line, bility and variety. Here, nothing that is good
eminently; and, for rhythm of line, the Quiet seems to come at all amiss to him. G. F. Watts—
Evening on the Ferry over the Blyth—a study of august and a Classic already—is the living man
" line within line," indeed : an old wooden pier— whom he has chiefly interpreted ; and most delicate
low, narrow, serpentining—and timbers to bank up as is the Hope, most refined the Endymion, I do
the river. Nor should I forget the velvety dry- not think he has got beyond—or that he can ever
point, Overijssel, of which, through an accident, reasonably hope to get beyond—the first great Watts
there were but very few good impressions, or the he ever interpreted—the Orpheus and Eurydice.
i:. 1 I
"A WINTRY BLAST ON THE STOURBRIDGE CANAL " FROM AN ETCHING BY FRANK SHORT, R.E.
I 2