XX.
MENPES.
THOUGH Mr. Mortimer Menpes had etched not a few coppers before he gave us the long series which recorded his impressions of Japan—and though, no doubt, he has etched from time to time since then—it is by the forty plates which constitute that Japanese set that he establishes his best claim to be regarded as an artist, serious and interesting. Traces of the Whistlerian vision, if not of the Whistlerian method, are perceptible in these memoranda of the people and the theatre, and of the long and low-built towns that stretch themselves sometimes along the edge of sleeping waters. But the art of Mr. Menpes is not all of it derivative. Something there is that is of himself alone, in the impression received and in the manner of its registration. He has economy of means, and yet abundance of resource. He is not merely a draughtsman
MORTIMER MENPES. “JAPANESE GIRLS.”
who has chosen to etch: he is an etcher whose feeling for the capacity of his particular medium has in it much that is instinctive.
XXI.
RAVEN-HILL.
MR. RAVEN-HILL—the artist who adds piquancy to comic newspapers—is little known as an etcher; but his work upon the copper is delicate, rightly precise and rightly free—it is in the best etche manner—and if it is as yet so little recognized, that is only because it is so scanty and has been so seldom exhibited. From several points of view the small array of Mr. Raven-Hil etched work is interesting and valuable; it is, almost invariably, observant record and admirable craftsmanship; and not the least legitimate of its sources of interest lies in the fact that in it the presence of the refined artist, as distinct from that of the smart comic illustrator, is markedly asserted. Hereafter it may be that Mr. Raven-Hill will choose to etch, and to etch ably, scenes from the life of which, in other mediums, he has been, deservedly, a popular exponent. Tom, Dick, and Harry—Harriet,
L. RAVEN-HILL. “THE WANDLE RIVER.”
too, by all means—will then have their day upon the copper, nor will clown and cabotin be left out of the account. But, hitherto, the best of Mr. Raven-Hil few etchings record scenes Whistler might have chosen, and do so with a touch and choice of line which, it may well be, that master might not desire to disown.