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Show THE » ETCHING ~ OF » FIGURE f etching s nottodayregarded primarily asone o the figure arts, this is perhaps due less toany inherentdisabilityonitspart,tha tothe importan impulsion given to the revival of etching in th early nineteenth century by the double romanti passion for sentimental Jandscape and for medieva architecture. Jacque, father of modern French etching-and all modern etching that accepts the linea tradition restored by him isessentially French~is it leastromantic practitioner. Heis indeed, bucolic, pas toral: but his pastoralism is of that homely Dutc sort in which,as Mr.Laurence Binyon rightly says theinterestisshifted from man tohisanimalcharges from the shepherd to the sheep Daubigny, Appian, Corot, Rousseau were all practi cally purelandscapists. Lalanne makes sparing use o figures,whether town or country supply his subjec matter. Meryonaffectsdevils, gargoyles, and sinister circling birds, rather than human beings. But he in troduces these into at least two of his Faux-fortes su Paris-La Morgue and La Ministere de la Marine with brilliant success, which, on the whole, is mor thancan besaidfor eitherHaden or Whistler,thoug one was a disciple of Rembrandt the other of Canaletto who, like those other masters of architectura etching, Hollar and Piranesi, wasaccustomed to peo Digital image © 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah, All rights reserved |