Studio: international art (54.1912)

Dry-Points by IV. Lee Hankey

in his theory of style, but certainly in his choice of
subject, his interest in humanity—the pleasure in
the character that is shown in the human face
rather than in action—he would appear to be a
disciple of Rembrandt.

Mr Hankey took up etching as a means for direct
expression and has made himself acquainted with
the various branches of the art, though he prefers
working with the dry-point, finding this use of the
needle especially suited to his temperament,
allowing as it does of the deepest darks, and on
the other hand the most delicate lines. He has
also experimented in aquatint, and it is interesting
to note that in some of his plates he uses the
process of soft-ground etching as a preliminary to
working on the plate with the needle or graver,
and thus the outline showing here and there by this
means has a striking effect.

Mr. Lee Hankey's work as a graver-printer in
colour is well known—the description of this kind

of work as " coloured etching " we may remark
by the way is misleading, for the prints are
produced by a succession of separate plates, one
for each colour. Here, however, we are confining
ourselves to a portfolio of plates in monochrome
which he has recently executed, and which
must, we think, put him at once in rank with
the most interesting exponents of the dry-point
needle, for most of these plates, including those
of which reproductions are here given, are either
wholly or mainly executed by this method.

There is little in Mr. Lee Hankey's treatment ot
figure subjects with the needle to suggest what
kind of touch he would apply to landscapes.
And the plates Boulogne Harbour and Saint-
Valery-sur-Somme in their difference of character
reveal no narrow range. That he excels in direct
and understanding study of form is shown in his
plate of London Fields. But this variety does not
mean that he has not found himself yet in the

' LONDON FIELDS ':
28

BY W. LEE IIANKEV