DOI Heft:
Nr. 144 (March 1905)
DOI Artikel:Newbolt, Frank: The etchings of Alfred East
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20711#0142
The Etchings of A If red East
the genius of the wood is manifested, and as we the attacking storm, and the sudden gleam of light
look at them the trees become indued in fancy with on the landscape from an unseen rift in the pall of
some of the splendid colouring and tender greys cloud, remind us entirely of the elemental struggle,
which in reality belong only to the great oil paint and not at all of the means which are at hand in
ings with which all are more familiar. If more makers the studio for making a picture. This is the great
of fine pictures like Mr. East, Mr. Brangwyn, Mr. change. The new etching is not the work of the
Macbeth, and Mr. Wyllie threw themselves with diligent manipulator of metal who spends laborious
equal fervour into etching, the development to days on " 60 bitings," and thinks that " one day
which I have alluded would be extended still fur- with the stopping-out brush is worth many with
ther, and the annual exhibitions in Pall Mall would the needle." Its object is not to reproduce, but to
be even more interesting than they are. create; and every proof of a limited edition must
In order to see the advance made in the art be printed under the direct control of the artist,
itself we have only to examine one proof, which I Etching was invented solely for purposes of
consider perhaps the best of those which I have reproduction, but by successive stages it has adapted
mentioned, A Storm in the Cotswolds. It is diffi- itself to original expression.
cult to believe that it was done in the open air on Mr. East's method is simple, and may be com-
such a day, in such blinding squalls as must have pared, by way of complete contrast, to that of the
continually passed over the etcher; but the spon- late Mr. David Law, whose water-colour sketches
taneity and realism of the treatment stamp it as a were faithfully and laboriously engraved by almost
direct study from nature of the most brilliant kind. mechanical means, though the process used was
The movement of the trees, their fierce battle with the one which may be made as free as pencil
"the valley road'1
126
from the etching by alfred east
the genius of the wood is manifested, and as we the attacking storm, and the sudden gleam of light
look at them the trees become indued in fancy with on the landscape from an unseen rift in the pall of
some of the splendid colouring and tender greys cloud, remind us entirely of the elemental struggle,
which in reality belong only to the great oil paint and not at all of the means which are at hand in
ings with which all are more familiar. If more makers the studio for making a picture. This is the great
of fine pictures like Mr. East, Mr. Brangwyn, Mr. change. The new etching is not the work of the
Macbeth, and Mr. Wyllie threw themselves with diligent manipulator of metal who spends laborious
equal fervour into etching, the development to days on " 60 bitings," and thinks that " one day
which I have alluded would be extended still fur- with the stopping-out brush is worth many with
ther, and the annual exhibitions in Pall Mall would the needle." Its object is not to reproduce, but to
be even more interesting than they are. create; and every proof of a limited edition must
In order to see the advance made in the art be printed under the direct control of the artist,
itself we have only to examine one proof, which I Etching was invented solely for purposes of
consider perhaps the best of those which I have reproduction, but by successive stages it has adapted
mentioned, A Storm in the Cotswolds. It is diffi- itself to original expression.
cult to believe that it was done in the open air on Mr. East's method is simple, and may be com-
such a day, in such blinding squalls as must have pared, by way of complete contrast, to that of the
continually passed over the etcher; but the spon- late Mr. David Law, whose water-colour sketches
taneity and realism of the treatment stamp it as a were faithfully and laboriously engraved by almost
direct study from nature of the most brilliant kind. mechanical means, though the process used was
The movement of the trees, their fierce battle with the one which may be made as free as pencil
"the valley road'1
126
from the etching by alfred east