ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2103, 14 June 1894, Page 45

ART AND ARTISTS.

Mr Linley Sambourne, the famous Punch carcoonist, addresses his letters in a most artistic manner, spending a great deal of time over them. The initial letter of every word is carefully written in red ink, the balance of the word in black, so that the envelope presents a most artistic appearance.

The triumph of Art over Nature is illustrated by the fact that a well-known B.A. recently made a painting of some old beech trees iv a Kent pasture, which he has sold for £280. The owner of the pasture sold it, and the trees, in one lot all together for a modest £100, and called it a good sale at that.

Since resigning hia connection with Punch Mr Harry Furniss h^s been engaged in the preparation of a volume of a politico satirical character. The caricatures it contains will represent various oratorical attitudes of. the Grand Old Man, and the more striking characteristics of prominent Parliamentary celebrities.

Sir Frederick Leighton was only 11 years old when he was sent to Borne to study drawing, but although he exhibited extraordinary talent for a child o£ his age, his parents opposed his adopting the pursuit of . art as a profession, on account of its precarious nature. Successful as he was in Italy, he was comparativaly unknown in England when he first returned there.

In connection with the jubilee of Herr Joachim, his portrait by L. Alma Tadema, B.A. (or rather engraved reproductions of the portrait signed by both Tadema and Joachim), is being prepared for immediate issue as a memento of the occasion and a faithful likeness of the great maestro. The picture will be issued by Mr Branz Haufstaengl, fine art publisher, of London, Munich, and New York. ETCHING A FAMOUS PICTURE. Should any person be asked to name the most tedious labour in the world, artistic or otherwise,. he may reply without hesitation thatthat distinction belongs to the etching of a pig painting. As it has often puzzled people to know how such marvellously exact replicas of great pictures can be produced in black and white, the writer proposes to give a very brief description of the system adopted by Mr Robert Macbeth, A.8.A., our premier etcher.

Should the canvas be a large one, it is, of course, necessary to reproduce it very much smaller, yet exactly to scale. Ia the first place, the picture is taken from its frame and laid upon a table. Pins are then stuck all round the edge, half an inch or so apart, where, technically speaking, the subject is thickest, and 3in apart where the canvas is free from miuute detail.

Threads of cotton are then placed across and downwards so as to form square?, and each square is carefully measured. A sheet of paper the size of the plate required is then ruled in squares correspondingly reduced, and a careful drawing made of the respective contents of each square.

The copper plate ia then covered with transparent wax, upon which the pencil drawing is pressed, with the result that a faint bnt absolutely correct outline remains. The etcher then takes his needle and commences to Bcratch this outline on the copper through tbe wax, subsequently burning it in with repeated applications of nitrous acid (nitric acid is used on steel plates).

Such infinite paius have to bo taken ia first-rate work of this description that Mr Macbeth was once, engaged nearly 12 months on a plate measuring 12in by 4in. He has, however, frequently been paid 1500gs for etching a single picture.

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