DOI Heft:
No. 264 (1915)
DOI Artikel:Folliott Stokes, A. G.: Alfred Hartley, painter and etcher
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21212#0106
Alfred Hartley, Painter and Etcher
We will now briefly consider his black-and-white
work. On my asking him to give me a few par-
ticulars of his early struggles in this medium, he
smilingly assured me that nothing of the slightest
interest had ever happened to him, and that there
were no particulars worthy of notice. From my
knowledge of his diffident nature I had anticipated
trouble in getting him to talk about himself.
However, by sticking to my guns, and eventually
appealing to his good nature by assuring him that
he owed it to me as the writer of this article to
reveal a few glimpses of his personal methods and
mental standpoints, I literally squeezed out of him
the following jottings which I will give more or less
in his own words.
“ My first attempts with the needle were made
some little time before I began an art training.
And the first etching I did was achieved under
conditions which might well have excused failure.
Fired by a desire to try my hand, I decided to
copy an etching of a cavalier by, I think, W. J.
Horsley, R.A. one of a number gathered together
in a volume published by the Etching Club, if my
memory serves me aright. I resorted to an old
encyclopsedia and found out a description of
methods, and also the formulae for grounds, acids,
&c. Then I started a brew of wax, and the other
necessary ingredients for a ground, over the kitchen
fire inmyfather’s remote parsonage in Hertfordshire.
I stirred and stirred the compound and by a miracle
avoided burning it. Having procured a sheet of
copper three times thicker than was needful I pro-
ceeded to lay my ground and smoke it, luck at my
elbow ! It must have been all right for it took
the needle and resisted the acid. The drawing on
the metal, line by line after the original, took some
time but went without mishap. This was fortunate,
for such was my complete technical ignorance that
any alteration would have been impossible. Then
came the biting, which in the light of subsequent
experience, I must admit was attended by the same
strange good luck. How many times since has
that luck been wanting ! The bitten plate pre-
sented an appearance which to my ignorant eye
gave no clue to what it was going to yield as a
picture. However, it was sent to be printed by that
•■THE GARDEN OF THE GRAND TRIANON” FROM THE PAINTING BY ALFRED HARTLEY, R.B.A., R.E.
IOO
We will now briefly consider his black-and-white
work. On my asking him to give me a few par-
ticulars of his early struggles in this medium, he
smilingly assured me that nothing of the slightest
interest had ever happened to him, and that there
were no particulars worthy of notice. From my
knowledge of his diffident nature I had anticipated
trouble in getting him to talk about himself.
However, by sticking to my guns, and eventually
appealing to his good nature by assuring him that
he owed it to me as the writer of this article to
reveal a few glimpses of his personal methods and
mental standpoints, I literally squeezed out of him
the following jottings which I will give more or less
in his own words.
“ My first attempts with the needle were made
some little time before I began an art training.
And the first etching I did was achieved under
conditions which might well have excused failure.
Fired by a desire to try my hand, I decided to
copy an etching of a cavalier by, I think, W. J.
Horsley, R.A. one of a number gathered together
in a volume published by the Etching Club, if my
memory serves me aright. I resorted to an old
encyclopsedia and found out a description of
methods, and also the formulae for grounds, acids,
&c. Then I started a brew of wax, and the other
necessary ingredients for a ground, over the kitchen
fire inmyfather’s remote parsonage in Hertfordshire.
I stirred and stirred the compound and by a miracle
avoided burning it. Having procured a sheet of
copper three times thicker than was needful I pro-
ceeded to lay my ground and smoke it, luck at my
elbow ! It must have been all right for it took
the needle and resisted the acid. The drawing on
the metal, line by line after the original, took some
time but went without mishap. This was fortunate,
for such was my complete technical ignorance that
any alteration would have been impossible. Then
came the biting, which in the light of subsequent
experience, I must admit was attended by the same
strange good luck. How many times since has
that luck been wanting ! The bitten plate pre-
sented an appearance which to my ignorant eye
gave no clue to what it was going to yield as a
picture. However, it was sent to be printed by that
•■THE GARDEN OF THE GRAND TRIANON” FROM THE PAINTING BY ALFRED HARTLEY, R.B.A., R.E.
IOO