In Millet’s etchings the landscape and the figures are so inter-related as to make any separate study of them unavailing. They are models of significant draughtsmanship and profound feeling, in which nothing is introduced that does not bear directly upon the main theme. Shepherdess Knitting, Peasants Going to Work, Two Men Digging, and above all the Gleaners, have each their perfect setting. The wide-stretching plain, slightly undulating, shimmers in the hot summer sunshine, which bathes in a golden glow the three women gleaning, the harvesters gathering in the rich fruits of their toil, and the little village, snuggling amid its trees in the far distance to the right.
Etchers, like poets, are “born, not made.” But, as also in the case of poets, natural gifts will avail little if they are not reinforced by that capacity for taking infinite pains, through which alone a man may so master his medium as to shape it readily to his artistic needs. The etched work of Seymour Haden is no chance happening. It is the fruit of close and analytical study, by a man of forceful character and scientific attainments, of the best model of style, the etchings of Rembrandt; supplemented by a familiarity with the work of his contemporaries in France, the land of clear and logical thinking; and in no art is clarity and brevity of speech more essential than in etching. From the beginning, Seymour Haden was in possession of all his powers, both in etching and in dry-point. There is no uncertainty in that which he wishes to say, no fumbling in his manner of saying it. The reticences and half-hesitations of Daubigny are not for him; there is no place for Corot’s scribbled poetry. He will give us a strong man’s interpretation of the lovely English landscape, in which he takes a pride, as in any other personal possession—God’s visible and abounding bounty to a superior people. It is “the bones of things” (his own phrase) that he wishes, above all else, to give. At his best he succeeds magnificently, but in much of his work, structurally fine though it be, it is the frame rather than the spirit that he portrays.
SEYMOUR HADEN. CARDIGAN BRIDGE
Size of the original etching, 4½ × 5⅞ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
(If supported click figure to enlarge.)
SEYMOUR HADEN. BY-ROAD IN TIPPERARY
Size of the original etching, 7½ × 11¼ inches
(If supported click figure to enlarge.)
SEYMOUR HADEN. SUNSET IN IRELAND