DOI issue:
No. 289 (April 1917)
DOI article:Salaman, Malcolm C.: The art of the colour-print
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24576#0114
The Art of the Colour-print
was unknown to those mysterious old Chinese.
Quite amazing is the freshness of their colours
after two and a half centuries.
The clever and artistic Japanese, of course,
developed in practice the principle of relief-
block cutting and printing according to the
demands of their own pictorial expression, but,
using flat tones up to at least 1765, it was not
till later in the eighteenth century that they
arrived at those exquisite colour-harmonies
which, in gracious and distinguished design,
have proved a source of inspiration to the
decorative art of modern Europe. Certainly
they have inspired the present British school of
wood-engravers for colour, of which Mr. Morley
Fletcher and Mr. J. D. Batten were the pioneers.
To Mr. Fletcher’s researches and teaching
all the artists who have attained distinction in
following the Japanese practice owed their
knowledge of the technique, each, however,
adapting it to his individual expression, accord-
ing to experience, as I have already told in
The Studio (see “ Wood-Engraving for Colour,”
May 1913). Mr. Fletcher’s influence on this
interesting graphic movement has been of the
most practical kind, but beyond his personal
teaching, and the example of his own charming
prints, so homogeneous in design and colour-
scheme, he has lately rendered further inesti-
mable service by the publication of his illumi-
nating handbook, “ Wood-Block Printing—A
Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and
Colour-Printing based on the Japanese Practice ”
(John Hogg). After digesting Mr. Fletcher’s
pithy pages, with their lucid descriptions of
every stage and detail of the making of a
colour-print from wood-blocks, no artist need
turn wistfully away from a Hiroshige or an
Utamaro without a hope of being able to go
and do likewise. For, with explicit word and
illustration, the author has given him a com-
plete working insight into the whole art and
craft, from planning the design to the final
printing. This little book should win many
recruits to the original colour-print movement.
Of all those who learnt the Japanese tech-
nique from Mr. Morley Fletcher none has gone
further in development of craftsmanship and
artistic achievement than Mr. William Giles.
An interesting colourist, his tone-schemes are
FROM A WOOD-BLOCK PRINT IN COLOUR BY WILLIAM GILES
was unknown to those mysterious old Chinese.
Quite amazing is the freshness of their colours
after two and a half centuries.
The clever and artistic Japanese, of course,
developed in practice the principle of relief-
block cutting and printing according to the
demands of their own pictorial expression, but,
using flat tones up to at least 1765, it was not
till later in the eighteenth century that they
arrived at those exquisite colour-harmonies
which, in gracious and distinguished design,
have proved a source of inspiration to the
decorative art of modern Europe. Certainly
they have inspired the present British school of
wood-engravers for colour, of which Mr. Morley
Fletcher and Mr. J. D. Batten were the pioneers.
To Mr. Fletcher’s researches and teaching
all the artists who have attained distinction in
following the Japanese practice owed their
knowledge of the technique, each, however,
adapting it to his individual expression, accord-
ing to experience, as I have already told in
The Studio (see “ Wood-Engraving for Colour,”
May 1913). Mr. Fletcher’s influence on this
interesting graphic movement has been of the
most practical kind, but beyond his personal
teaching, and the example of his own charming
prints, so homogeneous in design and colour-
scheme, he has lately rendered further inesti-
mable service by the publication of his illumi-
nating handbook, “ Wood-Block Printing—A
Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and
Colour-Printing based on the Japanese Practice ”
(John Hogg). After digesting Mr. Fletcher’s
pithy pages, with their lucid descriptions of
every stage and detail of the making of a
colour-print from wood-blocks, no artist need
turn wistfully away from a Hiroshige or an
Utamaro without a hope of being able to go
and do likewise. For, with explicit word and
illustration, the author has given him a com-
plete working insight into the whole art and
craft, from planning the design to the final
printing. This little book should win many
recruits to the original colour-print movement.
Of all those who learnt the Japanese tech-
nique from Mr. Morley Fletcher none has gone
further in development of craftsmanship and
artistic achievement than Mr. William Giles.
An interesting colourist, his tone-schemes are
FROM A WOOD-BLOCK PRINT IN COLOUR BY WILLIAM GILES