30 
House & Garden 
SOME AMERICAN WOOD BLOCK ENGRAVINGS 
The Product of the New School and Its Rightful Place in Room Decoration 
—Hand Work versus Printing Press Art 
PEYTON BOSWELL 
Though only three inches 
square, “The Strong,” a 
decorative black and white 
wood block by John J. A. 
Murphy, is full of contrasts 
and makes a distinct note 
on the wall 
“The Landmark” is by 
Gustave Baumann and is 
in colors. It is a fine ex¬ 
ample of decorative land¬ 
scape, especially suitable 
for the wall. Courtesy 
Ehrich Print Gallery 
W HEN it comes 
to decorating 
a room with prints, 
the owner has the choice 
of several kinds of 
them. There are, first 
of all, etchings, and more 
of them than of anything 
else. Then there are 
mezzotints and litho¬ 
graphs, to say nothing of 
monotypes, which are 
merely paintings done on 
a flat surface and trans¬ 
ferred in their entirety 
to paper. All of these 
are likely to be collectors’ 
pieces, and are apt to be 
placed on the wall be¬ 
cause they are things of 
beauty in themselves, 
rather than appropriate 
notes in the scheme of 
decoration. As a conse¬ 
quence, the visitor to the 
home, if he be at all an 
art lover, will probably lose sight of the fact 
that they are there for decorations, and will 
step up close and admire them purely for their 
esthetic quality. 
This is as it should be, of course. It is a 
pleasant thing to possess exquisite prints, to 
put them on our walls and to see our friends 
admire them. Even when they do not particu¬ 
larly help along a scheme of 
decoration, it is all right to 
have them there. Nobody 
will quarrel with the art lover 
who makes his home assume 
somewhat the aspect of a 
museum. He makes it all 
the more precious for himself 
by so doing, and that is all 
he could do if he laid stress 
K 
This glimpse of the 
New York waterfront 
in winter, by R. Ru- 
zicka, shows in black 
and green-brown tints 
how boldness and deli¬ 
cacy can be blended in 
a wood block 
on decoration instead of 
connoisseurship. 
But for the ordinary 
man or woman who has 
simply conceived the use 
of prints in the home to 
help along the scheme of 
beautification, the two¬ 
fold appeal of these 
prints, particularly of 
etchings, tends to make 
the task of selection more 
complex. The etching 
may be both a fine work 
of art and a nice decora¬ 
tion, or it may be simply 
a fine work of art that is 
pretty nearly valueless as 
a decorative note on the 
wall. And a cunning 
little joke, coming along 
as a corollary, is that the 
etching that is merely a 
fine work of art is likely 
to cost a great deal more 
than the one of much 
poorer esthetic quality, but of more positive 
appearance. A little Whistler etching, or a 
delicate lithograph by the same master, may be 
worth $1,000 to the connoisseur and still be 
absolutely without value to the person who 
wants a print solely to decorate a room. An 
etching or lithograph from the strong hand of 
Brangwyn may answer both purposes, but in 
this it will be rather the ex¬ 
ception than the rule. 
Now, the home builder is 
not apt to be both a connois¬ 
seur and a constructive 
decorator, and if he isn’t, he 
can take comfort in the fact 
that there is one kind of print 
that is almost proof against 
. (Continued on page 70) 
"Vignole—From a Gon¬ 
dola.” A wood block 
print in gay, light col¬ 
ors by Margaret Pat¬ 
terson. Done with 
water colors mixed with 
rice paste. Ehrich Print 
Gallery 
The use of strong masses, 
of black contrasting with 
white, is well shown in 
“Two Women,” a decora¬ 
tive wood block engraving 
done by JohnJ. A.Murphy 
