DOI issue:
No. 110 (May, 1902)
DOI article:Jenkins, Will: Illustration of the daily press in America
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19875#0271
American Press Illustrators
This is but an instance of an immense organised
system of acquiring and presenting pictorial news,
a system which has made it possible to show, as
never before, that artists may possess both artistic
ability and much executive capacity.
It has been said that " American artists do not
paint pictures as much as they serve on committees."
If this be true of American painters or not, their
black-and-white brethren have proven their abilities
as men of action.
They have had fierce battles to fight in this their
world of news-pictures, one of which is that old,
old question of the limitation of process, and many
have been the heartburnings and bitter disappoint-
ments in their struggles to reconcile good, artistic
penmanship with the trying difficulties of rapid print-
ing on cheap paper from shallow process blocks.
Much credit is due not only to the artist, who has
so carefully and conscientiously developed a suit-
able and effective group of methods conforming to
new conditions, but also to his brother workers, the
photo-engraver, stereotyper, and printer, who have
greatly assisted him by enlarging the possibilities
of their respective processes.
In this connection it may be interesting to state
that whereas not long ago the complete transition
from the drawing to the final blocks required a
time limit approaching hours, the facility with
which it can be done now resolves itself into a
question of minutes. The drawing from the artist's
hand passes through a wonderful time-saving system
of rapid plates for the photo process, rapid formulas
for developing and fixing, rapid-drying electric fans,
and, most marvellous of all, an " etching machine,"
whereby a system of sprays of acid is thrown upon
the zinc, which is eaten away in a few moments,
and the " cut " is then ready for the stereotyper,
who, again, has learned to do his work in a space
,of time which suggests something of " black art."
These talented American illustrators have fought
nobly for the recognition of " drawing "—drawing
in good terms, in chosen lines and logical compre-
hensive artistic statements, and for a more accom-
plished use of the language of line. They have now
reached an epoch in their history, a parting of the
ways, where they must either show their mettle
again and demonstrate their superiority, or join
hands more closely with science and their brother
the photographer.
It is most regrettable that publishers who possess
such a power of influencing public taste should find
reasons for abandoning any of the work of those
COURT SCENE
256
(From the "Boston Herald")
DRAWN BY W. THORNDIKE
This is but an instance of an immense organised
system of acquiring and presenting pictorial news,
a system which has made it possible to show, as
never before, that artists may possess both artistic
ability and much executive capacity.
It has been said that " American artists do not
paint pictures as much as they serve on committees."
If this be true of American painters or not, their
black-and-white brethren have proven their abilities
as men of action.
They have had fierce battles to fight in this their
world of news-pictures, one of which is that old,
old question of the limitation of process, and many
have been the heartburnings and bitter disappoint-
ments in their struggles to reconcile good, artistic
penmanship with the trying difficulties of rapid print-
ing on cheap paper from shallow process blocks.
Much credit is due not only to the artist, who has
so carefully and conscientiously developed a suit-
able and effective group of methods conforming to
new conditions, but also to his brother workers, the
photo-engraver, stereotyper, and printer, who have
greatly assisted him by enlarging the possibilities
of their respective processes.
In this connection it may be interesting to state
that whereas not long ago the complete transition
from the drawing to the final blocks required a
time limit approaching hours, the facility with
which it can be done now resolves itself into a
question of minutes. The drawing from the artist's
hand passes through a wonderful time-saving system
of rapid plates for the photo process, rapid formulas
for developing and fixing, rapid-drying electric fans,
and, most marvellous of all, an " etching machine,"
whereby a system of sprays of acid is thrown upon
the zinc, which is eaten away in a few moments,
and the " cut " is then ready for the stereotyper,
who, again, has learned to do his work in a space
,of time which suggests something of " black art."
These talented American illustrators have fought
nobly for the recognition of " drawing "—drawing
in good terms, in chosen lines and logical compre-
hensive artistic statements, and for a more accom-
plished use of the language of line. They have now
reached an epoch in their history, a parting of the
ways, where they must either show their mettle
again and demonstrate their superiority, or join
hands more closely with science and their brother
the photographer.
It is most regrettable that publishers who possess
such a power of influencing public taste should find
reasons for abandoning any of the work of those
COURT SCENE
256
(From the "Boston Herald")
DRAWN BY W. THORNDIKE