Haden. Dinkley Ferry
Size of the original water-color, 10¼ × 16½ inches
The origin of many of these drawings has been described by Sir Seymour himself in an article written some years ago in Harper’s Magazine, “On the Revival of Mezzotint as a Painter’s Art.” With the idea that he could use mezzotint as he had done etching, face to face with Nature, he had taken a previously grounded plate to the bank of the River Test and attempted to scrape upon it what he saw before him. The result was the plate numbered 234 in my catalogue (The Test at Longparish No. 3), interesting, but not wholly satisfactory and incomplete in intention. This proved that, unlike etching, mezzotint was too slow a process with which to work from nature at a single sitting, and a return on a later day only proved that the natural effect had changed, or that the artist was in a different phase of mind or not in the humor to complete the original impression. So instead of taking a grounded plate out with him he took a sheet of rough paper which had been rubbed all over with charcoal, this black surface corresponding to the mezzotint ground upon the copper plate, and on this prepared surface he scraped away the lights. As will be readily understood, this softer material could be much more rapidly manipulated than the harder copper, and so he found that in two or three hours the desired effect could be obtained. His intention was to reproduce in the studio and at his leisure the effects of these studies upon the copper plate. And so, with modifications, in several instances he did—I say with modifications, for it was almost impossible for him to closely copy even his own work. The Salmon Pool on the Spey provided the motif for the mezzotint plate with the same title (H. 250), and more closely of the little Salmon River, which served as a frontispiece to Dr. Hamilton’s book on “Fly Fishing.” The Encombe Woods supplied the subject for the two plates H. 218 and 219, which were intended to be a combination of etching and mezzotint, but the latter part of the project was never carried out. This too was the case with Early Morning (H. 244) and By the Waters of Babylon (H. 245), Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (H. 210) and A Study of Rocks (H. 211), all of which were etched or dry-pointed from charcoal drawings. The only important plates inspired by these drawings that were fully completed, were Evening Fishing, Longparish (H. 239), An Early Riser (H. 240), Grayling Fishing (H. 241), and The Pillar of Salt (H. 246); but they are sufficient to prove what a series of masterpieces we have lost through the dimming of the eye and the numbing of the hand by relentless Age.
Haden. Encombe Woods
Size of the original charcoal drawing, 14 × 20 inches
Haden. An Elderly Couple, Chatsworth Park
Size of the original charcoal drawing, 13½ × 19½ inches
However, we must be thankful for what we have, and the regret one has that these drawings should be scattered in different directions, is tempered by the hope that by one of the marvelous photographic processes of to-day this wonderful series of visions may be reproduced, and so again brought together for all of us who love beautiful things, and who reverence the master who produced them.