Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/110

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and is happily producing, some masterpieces. His translations of the works of Turner and Constable and other masters are well known, but above all the poetic sense of stillness he weaves into his etchings of sand dunes and low-lying country is most profound. His Low Tide and the Evening Star is a fine example of his etching. M. Alphonse Legros, whose etchings have mainly been done in this country, is responsible for much of the impetus given to this art. Mr. R. S. Chattock in his Old Moat, etched in 1871, Mr. William Strang in his Prodigal Son, Mr. C. J. Watson in his Chelsea, Colonel Goff in his Pool, Aldrington, Mr. Frederick Slocombe in his Where Many Branches Meet, and Mr. Edward Slocombe in his Rouen Cathedral, Mr. Oliver Hall in his Showery Weather, and Mr. Frederick B. Burridge in his Wisht Weather, have all produced gems of etching worthy of the best traditions and worthy to uphold the dignity of English art.

It is the hope of the writer that this catalogue of fine and masterly work may induce the careless reader whose foot may stray into other paths to turn and carefully contemplate some of the work—great work and lasting work—that etchers have produced within the past twenty years.

The list is incomplete; there are many names crowded out for want of space, but the beginner will readily learn with the aid of these examples to discern what good work is like, and if these few sentences that have been written will induce one blade of grass to grow where none has grown before, the writer will not think his task barren of reward.