Charcoal

Charcoal. - With this method the scale is limited as the black is not so deep as many other blacks used in the arts, but by its means delicate tonality can be obtained, but not the most delicate. The values too in a charcoal drawing are not true for this reason, because the most delicate light greys are lost; neither do we like the texture it gives. It is not true; nevertheless the result is often very fine. We had quite lately the opportunity of comparing the charcoal drawing of a very fine subject with nature, and also with a very fine painting of the same subject, and our opinion is that the charcoal drawing suggested the scene better than any line method could have done, but the suggestion was very far off the suggestion offered by the painting.

Monochrome

Monochrome Painting. - A monochrome painting may be in any colour, but since the scale is so limited, say in red for example, and the effect, except for portraits, is so incongruous that no artist dares use it. Indian ink and sepia are the commonest colours used. Monochrome painting, did it portray the different colours, would follow the same laws as painting, and would have to be considered from the same stand-point. Therein then lies the difference, a good artist may express much in monochrome, and give the suggestion of nature to a very great extent, but he is limited by this method. Delicate tonality and modelling can be obtained, but there is an unnaturalness of the middle tints and an artificial look in the textures. Notwithstanding, very fine work is done in this way, especially by some of the modern French and Dutch painters.

Aquatint

Aquatint, as its name implies, is a form of engraving best suited to reproduce water-colours. The plate is prepared in much the same way as it is for photo-etching, the acid biting between the dots of resin. This method is now rarely used.

Mezzotint

Mezzotint. - In this process the plate is roughened all over by an instrument called a "cradle" or berceau. This is really a broad chisel with a cradle-shaped edge, on which are small rough edges. This is worked by the hand all over the plate until it is rough enough to hold ink. The scale in this method is wide, the blacks being very deep. The tones are formed by scraping away the ink by the engraver, the highest light being the deepest. It gives a very good tonality, and is really the only rival to photo-etching, but the plate will not last well, thirty good prints often being all that can be taken from a plate. The engraver, too, has not sufficient control over his work. As a rule it is only used for fac-simile work, and not for original work. It will in our opinion be the last form of engraving to succumb to photo-etching. It is better suited for portraiture than landscape work; the mezzotints from Constable's paintings are very feeble and untrue.

Photography

Photography. - Now we come to photography, which possesses a technique more perfect than any of the arts yet treated of. Photography, in fact, stands at the top of the tone class of methods of expression; so nearly perfect is its technique that in some respects it may be compared with the colour class. The scale here, too, is limited, but less so than that of any other black and white method. Its drawing is all but absolutely correct, that is if the lenses are properly used, as has been shown. It renders the values relatively correct if orthochromatic plates are used, and it renders texture perfectly. Its one limitation is that it must always be worked from models; but from what we have already said, we consider this no limit of consequence when the end in view is artistic expression. When, on the other hand, the end in view is utilitarian, this is, in certain cases, a limitation, but as we are considering it only as a method for artistic expression, we do not now consider that side of the question.

As a facsimile method, it is unrivalled, for some of the art-craftsmen who have worked in this direction have so perfected it that little now remains to be done so far as copperplate work goes, though much remains to be done in connection with delicate blocks for the printing-press. As a recorder of scientific facts and as an adjunct to the traveller, it has no equal, for nothing need be allowed for the personal equation of the individual. Its immense value in all the sciences and arts has been touched upon. Critics opposed to photography, and they are now-a-days the old and prejudiced, are fond of citing Mr. P. G, Hamerton's reasons for not considering photography one of the pictorial arts. Some of his arguments were perfectly admissible when he wrote them, but as he has not taken the trouble to correct them since, we suppose he still rests in the fancied security of having slain photography for ever. But photography was not killed by Mr. Hamerton. It could not resist him then, for it was but a little child, but now that it is well grown and can resist him it will do so through us here.

Mr. Hamerton Criticised

Mr. Hamerton says when any new art is under consideration, we must ask, "Can it interpret nature? Can it express emotions? Can it express fact and truth and poetry? Within what limit can it do these things? and finally has any one with it expressed human knowledge and feeling? Will it record the results of human observation? Has it ever been practised by great men, or do they pay much regard to it? "

Beginning, then, with question I.: -

Can it interpret nature? Yes, that at any rate is the opinion of more than one good sculptor, painter, and photographer, and plates can be produced which we challenge any one to prove are not interpretations of nature in the strictest sense of the word.

II. Can it express emotions? Yes, and so faithfully and subtilely that the late Charles Darwin used it to illustrate from nature, his work "On the Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals." Of these photographs taken by Rejlander, Mr. Darwin writes in the work mentioned, "Several of the figures in these seven heliotype plates have been reproduced from photographs, instead of from the original negatives; and they are in consequence somewhat indistinct; nevertheless, they are faithful copies, and are much superior for my purpose to any drawing, however carefully executed."

III. Can it express fact and truth? Yes, and there is no need to say any more on this head, except that it can express fact and truth more perfectly than any other black and white process. It is not absolutely perfect, but no art is.

IV. Within what limits can it do these things? The answer to this we have shown in this work.

V. Has it ever been practised by great men? Yes, and is practised now by many of our greatest living painters and sculptors, whose names we could give.