CORRESP ONDEN CE. 



121 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



STEEL ENGRAVINGS AS WORKS 

 OF ART. 



Editor Pojmlar Science Monthly ; 



In the article on bank-note engraving, 

 published in your March issue, the writer 

 classes the engraving of bank notes among 

 the fine arts, and describes it as the last and 

 highest step in a long series, beginning with 

 the wood and metal engravings of Albrecht 

 Diirer. Just what analogy the writer finds 

 between the metal engraving of Diirer and 

 modern bank-note work is by no means ob- 

 vious, although his statements in regard to 

 this artist are doubtless authoritative, as they 

 are taken entire, with scarcely the change of 

 a word, from Philip Gilbert Hamerton's arti- 

 cle on Engraving in the eighth volume of 

 the Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 441. But, 

 as Diirer was an artist and not an animated 

 cycloidal lathe, he is scarcely to be com- 

 pared with the modern engraver of bank 

 notes. There is not even similarity between 

 the materials used, for Diirer's medium was 

 copper or wood, while the modern bank-note 

 plate is of steel. I can not forbear slight 

 criticism, because, in an article otherwise in- 

 structive and valuable, the writer manifests 

 a complete and utter misapprehension of the 

 meaning of art as such. Mr. Dickinson 

 hopelessly confounds steel engraving and 

 etching, and deplores the lack of "original 

 artists " in these lines of work, for, says he, 

 " steel engravings have found a place in the 

 hearts of the people of this country that no 

 other class of art can ever replace." It is 

 somewhat ludicrous to think of placing Sey- 

 mour Haden, Rajon, or the immortal Whis- 

 tler on the level of the producers of steel 

 engravings, which are, in general, the most 

 inartistic and lifeless things ever allowed to 

 masquerade under the name of art. Of cop- 

 perplate, the scroll and papyrus of our etch- 

 ers, Mr. Dickinson speaks disparagingly be- 

 cause it wears out " in one thousand impres- 

 sions, while ten or fifteen thousand can be 

 taken from steel." He generously adds that 

 it is " still used to a considerable extent for 

 visiting cards," and " in some cases for the 

 cheaper classes ..of picture work, such as 

 book- illustrations," evidently ignorant of the 

 fact that numbers of our greatest artists 

 Reinhardt, Gibson, Frederic Remington, Irv- 

 ing R. Wiles, and W. T. Smedley, among 

 others consider their art in no wise cheap- 

 ened or degraded when turned into the enor- 



mously profitable channel of " picture 

 work, such as book illustrations." 



Says Mr. Dickinson, " Here [in a bank- 

 note portrait] we have a beautiful specimen 

 of pure line engraving, much better than 

 most of that done by some of the old mas- 

 ters and now considered classic." Now, it is 

 not the fault of the bank-note portrait that 

 scarcely anything more mechanical, more un- 

 interesting from an artistic point of view, 

 has ever been produced, but it is doubtful if 

 ever before it has been looked upon as pos- 

 sessing genuinely artistic value. And this 

 difference between mechanism and art is just 

 what Mr. Dickinson has utterly failed to per- 

 ceive. A work of art lays claim to that title 

 only when the means of expression remain 

 subordinate to the thought which is ex- 

 pressed. Technique alone will not save any 

 work of art from more or less speedy obliv- 

 ion, while a serious thought, even though in- 

 adequately expressed, will remain a domi- 

 nant tone in the chord of the world's art for 

 all time. The technically faulty works of 

 the early Italian artists, and even of Diirer 

 himself, give ample proof of this. Then, 

 too, a work of art is never more than merely 

 suggestive never, as in the case of the 

 bank note, is it elaborated to painful com- 

 pleteness. A mechanical draughtsmanship, 

 such as is displayed in the bank note, crams 

 the same conclusion down the consciousness 

 of each and every onlooker. The genuine 

 work of art remains obstinately silent, or else 

 pours out its wealth of color and song lav- 

 ishly, according to whether the spectator be 

 a poet at heart or a dolt. 



In a bank-note engraving, on the other 

 hand, the sole interest aroused is in the pro- 

 cess, and this interest is heightened in pro- 

 portion as the process involves greater in- 

 tricacy of detail and more rigid and unvary- 

 ing evenness of line. Since that so-called 

 perfection is due chiefly to the accuracy of 

 machinery, " the ruling machine, and cycloid- 

 al and geometrical lathes," a bank note can 

 have no other than a purely mechanical in- 

 terest. The engraving of it is doubtless a 

 valuable factor in the commercial world, 

 but to compare it to the work of Diirer, 

 crown and flower of the German Renais- 

 sance, is quite like comparing a lathe-turned 

 table leg to the Moses of Michael Angelo. 

 Grace Green Bohn. 

 Chicago, March 2, 1895. 



VOL, XXVII. 



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