The Portfolio. November. (Seeleys.)—The frontispiece to the number is an
etching by Mons. L. Gaucherel, after Sir A. W. Calcott's 8 Wooden Bridge." It is an attractive work, but it yields in charm to ", The Watering-Place," a " fac-simile engraving," after the French landscape painter, Mons. J. J. Voyrassat, of whose career we have an interesting little sketch. This fac-simile engraving, or photogravure process, it is clear, must be used with discretion. Some pictures it reproduces with an effect, as might be expected, anything but pleasing. In this instance it achieves a signal success. "A Sketch by Constable," etched by Mr. R. S. Chattock, is the third illustration. The editor continues his admirable memoir of Etty. The "Technical Notes" for the month relate to the practice of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Appropriately enough, for no painter has suffered more from the misuse of mediums, we have this emphatic remark from Mr. Worn= :—" Some English painters will soon exist only in prints after their works. Of course, in many cases this is no great calamity, but the catastrophe is, perhaps, rather the rale than the exception, and this shows a gross defect in education somewhere. No one can believe that a painter can be utterly indifferent to the duration of his works, unless he is ashamed of them, yet universally condemned methods are still persisted in."
Previous page
