Studio: international art (46.1909)

T

The Royal Society of Painter-Etc hers

HE ROYAL SOCIETY OF
PAINTER-ETCHERS.

In reproducing on the following pages a
selection from the works exhibited at the recent
exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers
and Engravers, in Pall Mall, we have to con-
gratulate the Society on a most successful display.
We scarcely remember, indeed, a more interest-
ing exhibition than this one—the 27 th since the
foundation of the Society. Not only was there a
good representation of work by the Society’s lead-
ing members whose reputation as etchers was made
long ago, but among the plates contributed by the
younger men who have joined the Society as
associates during recent years we found not a few
of more than average merit. The liberal patronage
which the Society gives to rising talent is, in fact,
convincing evidence that its executive is keenly
alive to its responsibilities. And not only was the
average quality of the work exhibited on this
occasion good, but there was an abundance of
variety both of subject and treatment, proving that
individually the Fellows and Associates, while not
unmindful of the traditions of the art they practise,
are not fettered thereby.

Sir Charles Holroyd on this occasion contributed
seven capital plates, The Gateway of the Palazzo
and Belluno being especially fine examples of his
refined execution. Mr. Brangwyn was as impres-
sively original as he has ever been in those large
compositions in which he masses effects of dark
against extreme light and keeps in its place an
infinity of realistic detail sketched with freedom and
admirable fluency and vigour of line. Mr. East is
Mr. Brangwyn’s only rival in respect of size, but
the landscape painter’s effects are greyer and quieter.
Practically all the other plates were on the customary
small scale, the Whistlerian dictum touching the
matter of dimensions being evidently approved by
the bulk of those forming the Society. Sir J. C.
Robinson’s Corfe Village and Corfe Castle were both
of them beautiful etchings; and Mr. Mortimer
Menpes also showed to great advantage this year
in his eight plates. A successful example of Mr.
Fred Burridge’s sensitive needle was to be seen in
The Upland Farm, and particularly worthy of men-
tion are two plates sent by Mr. Percy Robertson—-
Hampton Court and The Favm Pool, and Mr.
Malcolm Osborne’s Santa Maria della Salute, after
Guardi. Of Col. Goff’s eight subjects we reproduce
one of The Grand Canal, Venice, which well repre-
sents his mature art. Mr. A. W. Bayes’ Haughmond
Abbey was another interesting achievement, albeit

the line work appeared a little monotonous.
Among other contributions by members which
attracted our notice were a Study of Trees, by
Mr. G. Gascoyne; Saint Paul—Saint Louis
[Paris), by M. Eugene Bejot; The Broken
Boat, by Mr. E. W. Charlton; A Flood, by Mr.
P. Thomas; Rye, by Mr. Robert Spence; and
The Stable Door, by Miss M. Bolingbroke.

Turning to the work by associates we note
first of all an admirable rendering of Schloss
Neuschwanstein, by Mr. Percival Gaskell, whose
mezzotint St. Albans, which we include with our
illustrations, is an excellent example of this
process. We should have liked to see moie
examples of mezzotint—there were only two or
three proofs representing this method of execution
out of over three hundred—as we certainly think
that among the members there are not a few
who are capable of achieving good results by
this process, which would amply repay the greater
expenditure of energy and care which it demands.
Mr. Sydney Lee’s The City Walls, Segovia, and
Mr. Sheppard Dale’s The Belona of Tromso'e were
both noteworthy for their individuality of style.
Other associates who contributed excellent plates
to this exhibition were Mr. A. Bentley, Mr. Herman
A. Webster, a talented American artist settled in
Paris, Miss Mabel Robinson, Mr. Waterson, Mr.
Lumsden, and Mr. John Wright.

The Society has suffered a serious loss by the
death of its official printer, Mr. Frederick Goulding,
which took place during the curn ncy of the
exhibition. We append on p. 292 a portrait of
Mr. Goulding from a dry-point executed by Mr. W.
Strang, A.R.A., and a brief notice of his career
from the pen of an Associate of the Society.

Until failing health prevented him from working
at his craft, Mr. Frederick Goulding was beyond
all rivalry the greatest printer of etched plates in
the world. Indeed, considering the improvements
which have been gradually introduced into print-
ing, it may be accepted as the fact that no one has
ever been so successful in producing with ink and
paper the best possible impressions from metal
plates. He was himself a teacher of etching
during one period of his career, and he produced
about forty original etchings, one of which was repro-
duced some time ago in The Studio in two states
of printing, but anonymously at Mr. Goulding’s
own request. He did not wish to be known as
an etcher, and although he exhibited half-a-dozen
proofs at the first exhibition of the Royal Society
of Painter-Etchers, when outsiders’ work was

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