DOI issue:
No. 226 (January 1912)
DOI article:Taylor, Ernest Archibald: Etchings by american artists in Paris, [2]: Lester G. Hornby
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21155#0310
line itself is its vitality. To add colour to a plate
possessing these qualifications is but an insult.
Unless the etching has been specially made for
the addition, any happy result from its application
will as often as not be due to uncontrolled acci-
dents, but will never be really successful where
violets and reds are much concerned.
That Mr. Hornby understands his craft is quite
evident by his means of procedure aind finished
work. Though he employs various methods, they
are all related to the etching family, and he never
oversteps the limitations of his medium to attain
his desired effect. To refer directly to his illus-
trations, the original print of the Cafe du Rond
Point, which loses little by reproduction, was
made from a line plate with spots of aquatint for
colour suggestions, the whole plate being first
inked in with a warm dominant monotone, into
which the brightest colours were blended with the
ink already on the plate, and so arranged as to
produce a simple colour harmony in one printing.
In Old Toledo and Eve?iing of the Bal Masque" a
similar treatment was used with the same singular
success. Entirely different methods have been
employed in Passage Arabe, Tunis, the sketch
being first etched with a soft ground, and the
288
values in aquatint, a bold retroussage after the
plate was inked giving the diffused effect of
silhouette.
In his pure line etchings few of the many
ingenious tricks so often practised by the modern
etcher are utilised, and no one can convict the
artist of mannerism. In his later work, La
Ja?-diniere—Matin and Dans le Jardin du Palais
Royal, a more spontaneous and less studied
simplicity as compared with his earlier plate,
Passage de la Petite Boucherie, is observable. His
composition, too, in all his later prints shows a
surer and more experienced knowledge. To say
that he has had no influences would be unfair, but
a careful study of his achievements in the plates here
reproduced will reveal his own capabilities and the
various subjects that attract and most inspire his
interpretation. But Mr. Hornby is not resting on
his oars. Laudatory recognition has in no wise
crippled his progress. At present he is sojourning
in London and Edinburgh, fulfilling commissions
for illustrations of the architecture and street
scenes of the two capitals. If they approach in
any way those already published of Paris and New
York they should attract to him a still wider
world of admirers. E. A. T.
possessing these qualifications is but an insult.
Unless the etching has been specially made for
the addition, any happy result from its application
will as often as not be due to uncontrolled acci-
dents, but will never be really successful where
violets and reds are much concerned.
That Mr. Hornby understands his craft is quite
evident by his means of procedure aind finished
work. Though he employs various methods, they
are all related to the etching family, and he never
oversteps the limitations of his medium to attain
his desired effect. To refer directly to his illus-
trations, the original print of the Cafe du Rond
Point, which loses little by reproduction, was
made from a line plate with spots of aquatint for
colour suggestions, the whole plate being first
inked in with a warm dominant monotone, into
which the brightest colours were blended with the
ink already on the plate, and so arranged as to
produce a simple colour harmony in one printing.
In Old Toledo and Eve?iing of the Bal Masque" a
similar treatment was used with the same singular
success. Entirely different methods have been
employed in Passage Arabe, Tunis, the sketch
being first etched with a soft ground, and the
288
values in aquatint, a bold retroussage after the
plate was inked giving the diffused effect of
silhouette.
In his pure line etchings few of the many
ingenious tricks so often practised by the modern
etcher are utilised, and no one can convict the
artist of mannerism. In his later work, La
Ja?-diniere—Matin and Dans le Jardin du Palais
Royal, a more spontaneous and less studied
simplicity as compared with his earlier plate,
Passage de la Petite Boucherie, is observable. His
composition, too, in all his later prints shows a
surer and more experienced knowledge. To say
that he has had no influences would be unfair, but
a careful study of his achievements in the plates here
reproduced will reveal his own capabilities and the
various subjects that attract and most inspire his
interpretation. But Mr. Hornby is not resting on
his oars. Laudatory recognition has in no wise
crippled his progress. At present he is sojourning
in London and Edinburgh, fulfilling commissions
for illustrations of the architecture and street
scenes of the two capitals. If they approach in
any way those already published of Paris and New
York they should attract to him a still wider
world of admirers. E. A. T.