Size of the original dry-point, 13⅞ × 8⅜ inches
In the Collection of Howard Mansfield, Esq.
J. A. McN. WHISTLER. RIAULT, THE ENGRAVER
Size of the original dry-point, 8⅞ × 5⅞ inches
In the Collection of Howard Mansfield, Esq.
Hardly less beautiful are the portraits of Florence Leyland, standing, holding her hoop in her right hand, every line of the slender figure rhythmic and beautiful; or of Fanny Leyland, seated, the soft flounces of her white muslin dress indicated with the fewest and most delicate lines; or Weary, lying back in her chair, with hair outspread. Weary suggests the Jenny of Rossetti’s poem, but it is a portrait of “Jo”—Joanna Heffernan—whom Whistler painted as The White Girl and La Belle Irlandaise, and of whom, in 1861, two years previously, he had made a superb dry-point.
Of Whistler’s portraits of men, Riault is assuredly one of the finest, both in execution and in portrayal of character. The concentration of the wood-engraver on his task is expressed with convincing power, and those who mistakenly attribute to Whistler grace at the expense of strength could hardly do better than study this dry-point.
Could there be a greater contrast than the work of Whistler and Zorn? Could anything better illustrate the infinite possibilities of the art, the pliability of the medium to serve the needs of etchers as dissimilar in method as in point of attack? With the fewest possible lines (slashed, one might almost say, into the copper) Zorn evolves a portrait of compelling power, vibrant with life. Mere speed counts for little, and it is of small significance that a masterpiece such as Ernest Renan is the result of a single sitting of one hour only. It was done in Renan’s studio in Paris, in April, 1892. “His friends,” the artist relates, “came and asked me to make an etching of him. He arranged for a sitting. He was very ill, but I sat studying him for a little while, then took the plate and drew him. I asked him if it was a characteristic pose and he replied, ‘No, I very seldom sit like this.’ But his wife came in and said, ‘You have caught him to perfection, it is himself. When he is not watched he is always like that.’ She was really touched by it.” What is significant in the portrait of Renan, astounding, one might say, is that with lines so few Zorn has given us not only the outer man, but a character study of profound insight. Renan, sunk in his chair, the bulky body topped by the massive head, the hair suggested with a mere handful of lines, was like a bomb-shell to such print-collectors as previously were unacquainted with Zorn’s work. It was, however, only one of a group of masterpieces with which the artist made his début in America, in 1892: Zorn and His Wife, Faure, The Waltz, The Omnibus, Olga Bratt, with its elusive charm, and the piquant Girl with the Cigarette, and Madame Simon, which still remains one of his most powerful portraits.
ANDERS ZORN. ERNEST RENAN
Size of the original etching, 9¼ × 13⅜ inches
In the Collection of the Author
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