DOI Heft:
No. 267 (June 1915)
DOI Artikel:Salaman, Malcolm C.: Some new etchings by Mr. James McBey: A note
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21213#0038
New Etchings by Janies McBey
manner. In each of his new etchings reproduced
here, the pictorial motive is unfailingly the born
etcher’s selection, the effect is obtained purely by
the true etcher’s craft of bitten line. And at least two
of these plates, I say unhesitatingly, are masterpieces.
The Moray Firth is sheer delight. Along the top of
a cliff overlooking a little North-Scottish fishing-town
and harbour a group of children are sitting, flying
kites. It is a sunny day, and the calm sea is studded
with fishing-boats carrying the eye far out over the
watery expanse, while the flight of two kites gives
a sense of movement in aerial space. With vivid
draughtsmanship the interest of this movement is
concentrated chiefly on the tense figure of the boy,
sitting apart from the rest, tugging at the kite-line.
The children, all drawn with joyous and spontaneous
naturalness, are most felicitously placed in the
design. Gamrie is a no less engaging triumph
of this gifted young etcher’s art. Here is spacious-
ness of design, with the fine live draughtsmanship
of the fishing-boats in the harbour, and the happy
suggestion of the flutter of gulls, the splendid ex-
panse of sky with its glory of sunrise over the Firth,
and the full sense of light and atmosphere com-
passed by economy of vital line and unfilled space.
Mr. McBey, of course, draws these Scotch East
Coast scenes with the visual intimacy of the native.
In The Little Fishmarket, Stonehaven, with the
characteristic groups of local fisherfolk standing
stolidly on the wet quay, one sees that the artist
has been as keenly interested pictorially in these
folk as Ostade was in his seventeenth-century
Dutch peasants. Buchan is another plate of rare
charm. Newburgh, Mr. McBey’s native place,
has, of course, been lovingly seen and drawn,
but in his characteristic determination to avoid
any reliance on printing devices for atmospheric
tone he has somewhat overstrained his loyalty
to the etched line in his suggestion of cloudy
sky. This tendency to excessive and wayward
freedom of line one finds also in the attempt to
render wavy movements of light on the sea in the
fine Penza7ice, with its commanding sunset; and also
in the troubled waters of the remarkable little plate
Sea and Ram, a subject, or rather impression, that
few etchers would have the courage to essay.
“ SEA AND RAIN, MACDUFF
18
BY JAMES MCBEY
manner. In each of his new etchings reproduced
here, the pictorial motive is unfailingly the born
etcher’s selection, the effect is obtained purely by
the true etcher’s craft of bitten line. And at least two
of these plates, I say unhesitatingly, are masterpieces.
The Moray Firth is sheer delight. Along the top of
a cliff overlooking a little North-Scottish fishing-town
and harbour a group of children are sitting, flying
kites. It is a sunny day, and the calm sea is studded
with fishing-boats carrying the eye far out over the
watery expanse, while the flight of two kites gives
a sense of movement in aerial space. With vivid
draughtsmanship the interest of this movement is
concentrated chiefly on the tense figure of the boy,
sitting apart from the rest, tugging at the kite-line.
The children, all drawn with joyous and spontaneous
naturalness, are most felicitously placed in the
design. Gamrie is a no less engaging triumph
of this gifted young etcher’s art. Here is spacious-
ness of design, with the fine live draughtsmanship
of the fishing-boats in the harbour, and the happy
suggestion of the flutter of gulls, the splendid ex-
panse of sky with its glory of sunrise over the Firth,
and the full sense of light and atmosphere com-
passed by economy of vital line and unfilled space.
Mr. McBey, of course, draws these Scotch East
Coast scenes with the visual intimacy of the native.
In The Little Fishmarket, Stonehaven, with the
characteristic groups of local fisherfolk standing
stolidly on the wet quay, one sees that the artist
has been as keenly interested pictorially in these
folk as Ostade was in his seventeenth-century
Dutch peasants. Buchan is another plate of rare
charm. Newburgh, Mr. McBey’s native place,
has, of course, been lovingly seen and drawn,
but in his characteristic determination to avoid
any reliance on printing devices for atmospheric
tone he has somewhat overstrained his loyalty
to the etched line in his suggestion of cloudy
sky. This tendency to excessive and wayward
freedom of line one finds also in the attempt to
render wavy movements of light on the sea in the
fine Penza7ice, with its commanding sunset; and also
in the troubled waters of the remarkable little plate
Sea and Ram, a subject, or rather impression, that
few etchers would have the courage to essay.
“ SEA AND RAIN, MACDUFF
18
BY JAMES MCBEY