Studio: international art (85.1923)

WILLIAM WALCOT'S ETCHINGS

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AN EGYPTIAN PALACE.” DRY-POINT BY
WILLIAM WALCOT, R.E., HON. F.R.I.B.A.


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beings with all its solidity and completeness
of structure^ and its beauty of functional
fitness, be sure he has made an architect's
plan of that building. a a a
A few of these plans exist—those of the
Greek theatre and the Colosseum, for
instance, and to look at them together
with the etchings is to get a deeper insight
into the sincerity and thoroughness of
Walcot's art. Its expression on the copper-
plate, with its magic of pictorial suggestion,
makes no concession to any rigid ideas of
technique. Walcot in his “ Roman Com-
positions ft varies his technique with a
bold artistic independence, using any
resource of craftsmanship that will give
him the pictorial effect he aims at. With
the main lines of his design in dry-point,
perhaps, he may ground only portions of
his plate where he needs the emphasis of
bitten lines, or for tonal passages of
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aquatint, or he may use the roulette to
add even a kind of mezzotint ground. It
is not, therefore, so much for their
qualities as etchings, individually interest-
ing as is their manner of line and tone,
that one admires these great plates, as
for the pictorial vitality with which they
interpret the living spirit and aspect of
ancient Rome. Here, in two beautiful
plates reproduced, At the House of a
Patrician and The Atrium, we are able to
visualise those gracious amenities of Roman
civilisation that the younger Pliny pictures
for us in some of his delightful letters.
Then, in another of our reproductions.
The Caldarium of the Baths of Caracalla,
companion print to The Frigidarium, we
see how the artist has revivified and recon-
structed from the beautiful ruins that
inspired Shelley, those famous vast Thermae
which daily provided all the luxurious