Studio: international art (43.1908)

The Royal Society

reveals the extent of Meryon’s sway. It is only
right that the most undisguised admiration of this
master should come from a French contributor,
M. Eugene Bejot, who sets out Paris in clean
incisive line, depending for his effect more on a
well-ordered design and on the crispness of his
blacks as a foil to the brilliance of his whites, than
on any subtle manipulation of tone. Another
well-known supporter of the society, Mr. Charles J.
Watson, also places his chief trust in line of dainty
delicacy. He is nearer to Whistler than M£ryon,
and his Jour de Marche, St. Riquier is a good
example of his skilful treatment of light and just
observation of values, as well as of his personal
and sensitive drawing. Tone plays a larger part in
the work of Mr. Edward M. Synge, whose Gate of
Justice, Granada, has undeniable quality and great
merits, both in the composition and chiaroscuro.
Mr. Synge is apparently an
etcher who knows how to
print, or how to have his
plates printed to best effect,
and his care in this par-
ticular greatly helps to give
his contributions a distinc-
tion shared by compara-
tively few of the other ex-
hibits. A new associate, Mr.

E. Marsden Wilson, justifies
his election by his skilful
concentration of blacks in
The Market, Ossett; and two
other new recruits, M. Gus-
tave Leheutre and Mr. Her-
man A. Webster, of Chicago,
betray the Meryon influence,
though the work of both—
and especially of the former’s
Canal d’Eu—would be en-
hanced by more artistic
printing.

Despite his affection for
architectural motives, it
would be extravagant to find
Meryon in the work of Mr.

Sydney Lee. Perhaps he is
more of a painter than an
etcher—just as Mr. W. L.

Wyllie to the writer has
ever seemed an etcher more
than a painter. At all
events, Mr. Lee builds up
his effects, not so much
with line as with tone,

of Painter-Etchers

and the distribution of masses, as may clearly
be seen in his Ypres Tower, Rye, whose white
mass of masonry looms impressively on the be-
holder. Mr. Lee belongs to the group of deco-
rative romanticists in etching, a group whose pro-
tagonist is Mr. Alfred East. There was a time
when Mr. East’s almoSt forcible decoration
threatened to go beyond legitimate bounds, and
it is pleasant to record that he has regained com-
plete control of his undoubted power. The Edge
of a Coppice, A Spanish Garden, The Swollen
River and Evening are charming examples of his
decorative romanticism, and seem technically also
to be an advance on his exhibits of recent years.

Among these decorative etchers, Mr. Charles E.
Baskett earns a conspicuous place by his Barge on
the Thames, full of tonal beauties, remarkable in
its happy suggestion of movement, and redolent of

BY ALFRED EAST, A.R.A.