number of artists and amateurs gradually practised original etching with increasing success, notably Sir Seymour Haden, J. M. Whistler, Samuel Palmer and others in England, Felix Bracquemond, C. F. Daubigny, Charles Jacque, Adolphe Appian, Maxime Lalanne, Jules Jacquemart and others on the continent, besides that singular and remarkable genius, Charles Méryon. Etching clubs, or associations of artists for the publication of original etchings, were gradually founded in England, France, Germany and Belgium. Méryon and Whistler are two of the greatest modern etchers. Among earlier names mention may be made of Andrew Geddes (1783–1844) and of Sir David Wilkie (1785–1841). Geddes was the finer artist with the needle; he it was whom Rembrandt best inspired; his work was in the grand manner. Of the rich and rare dry-points “At Peckham Rye” and “At Halliford-on-Thames,” the deepest and most brilliant master of landscape would have no need to be ashamed. David Wilkie’s prints were, naturally, not less dramatic than his pictures, but the etcher’s particular gift was possessed by him more intermittently: it is shown best in “The Receipt,” a strong and vivid, dexterous sketch, quite full of character. J. S. Cotman’s (1782–1842) etchings are also historically interesting though they were “soft ground” for the most part. They show all his qualities of elegance and freedom as a draughtsman, and much of his large dignity in the distribution of light and shade. T. Girtin (1775–1802), in the preparations for his views of Paris, was notably happy. The work of Sir Francis Seymour Haden (b. 1818) had a powerful influence on the art in England. Between 1858 and 1879 Seymour Haden—the first president of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers—produced the vast majority of his plates, which have always good draughtsmanship, unity of effect and a personal impression. They show a strong feeling for nature. If, amongst some two hundred subjects, it were necessary to select one or two for peculiar praise, they might be the “Breaking up of the Agamemnon,” the almost perfect “Water Meadow,” the masterly presentment of “Erith Marshes,” and the later dry-point of “Windmill Hill.” Another great etcher—Frenchman by birth, but English by long residence—is Alphonse Legros (q.v.). Great in expression and suggestive draughtsmanship, austere and economical in line, Legros’s work is the grave record of the observation and the fancy of an imaginative mind. In poetic portraiture nothing can well exceed his etched vision of G. F. Watts; “La Mort du Vagabond” is noticeable for terror and homely pathos; “Communion dans l’Église St Médard” is perhaps the best instance of the dignity, vigour and grave sympathy with which he addresses himself to ecclesiastical themes. Something of these latter qualities, in dealing with similar themes, Legros passed on to his pupil, Sir Charles Holroyd (b. 1861)—an etcher in the true vein; whilst an earlier pupil, prolific as himself, as imaginative, and sometimes more deliberately uncouth—William Strang, A.R.A. (b. 1859)—carried on in his own way the tradition of that part of Legros’s practice, the preoccupation with the humble, for which Legros himself found certain warrant in a portion of the great œuvre of Rembrandt. Frank Short, A.R.A. (b. 1857), as with the very touch of Turner, carried to completion great designs that Turner left unfinished for the Liber studiorum. The delicacy of “Sleeping till the Flood,” the curiously suggestive realism of “Wrought Nails”—a scene in the Black Country—entitle him to a lasting place in the list of the fine wielders of the etching-needle. D. Y. Cameron (b. 1865) betrays the influence of Rembrandt in a noble etching, “Border Towers,” and the influence of Méryon in such a print as that of “The Palace, Stirling.” His “London Set” is particularly fine. The individuality of C. J. Watson is less marked, but his skill, chiefly in architectural work, is noticeable. Admirers of the studiously accurate portraiture of a great monument may be able to set Watson’s print of “St Étienne du Mont” by the side of Méryon’s august and mysterious and ever-memorable vision. Paul Helleu (b. 1859) in his brilliant sketches, particularly of women, has used the art of etching in a peculiarly individual and delightful way. Among the numerous other modern etchers only a bare mention can be made of Oliver Hall, Minna Bolingbroke and Elizabeth Armstrong (Mrs Watson and Mrs Stanhope Forbes), Alfred East, Robert Macbeth, Walter Sickert, Robert Goff, Mortimer Menpes, Percy Thomas, Raven Hill, and Prof. H. von Herkomer, in England; in France, Roussel, J. F. Raffaëlli (b. 1850), Besnard and J. J. J. Tissot (1836–1902).
The oldest treatise on etching is that of Abraham Bosse (1645). See also P. G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers (1868), and Etchers’ Handbook (1881); F. Wedmore, Etching in England (1895); Singer and Strang, Etching, Engraving, &c. (1897).
ETEOCLES, in Greek legend, king of Thebes, son of Oedipus
and Jocasta (Iocaste). After their father had been driven out
of the country, he and his brother Polyneices agreed to reign
alternately for a year. Eteocles, however, refused to keep the
agreement, and Polyneices fled to Adrastus, king of Argos,
whom he persuaded to undertake the famous expedition against
Thebes on his behalf. The two brothers met in single combat,
and both were slain. The Theban rulers decreed that only
Eteocles should receive the honour of burial, but the decree was
set at naught by Antigone (q.v.), the sister of Polyneices. The
fate of Eteocles and Polyneices forms the subject of the Seven
against Thebes of Aeschylus and the Phoenissae of Euripides.
ETESIAN WIND (Lat. etesius, annual; Gr. ἔτος, year), a
Mediterranean wind blowing from the north and west in summer
for about six weeks annually.
ÉTEX, ANTOINE (1808–1888), French sculptor, painter and
architect, was born in Paris on the 20th of March 1808. He first
exhibited in the salon of 1833, his work including a reproduction
in marble of his “Death of Hyacinthus,” and the plaster cast
of his “Cain and his race cursed by God.” Thiers, who was at
this time minister of public works, now commissioned him to
execute the two groups of “Peace” and “War,” placed at each
side of the Arc de Triomphe. This last, which established his
reputation, he reproduced in marble in the salon of 1839. The
French capital contains numerous examples of the sculptural
works of Étex, which included mythological and religious
subjects besides a great number of portraits. His paintings
include the subjects of Eurydice and the martyrdom of Saint
Sebastian, and among the best known of his architectural productions
are the tomb of Napoleon I. in the Invalides and a
monument of the revolution of 1848. Étex wrote a number of
essays on subjects connected with the arts. The last year of his
life was spent at Nice, and he died at Chaville (Seine-et-Oise)
on the 14th of July 1888.
See P. E. Mangeant, Antoine Étex, peintre, sculpteur et architecte, 1808–1888 (Paris, 1894).
ETHER, (C2H5)2O, the Aether of pharmacy, a colourless,
volatile, highly inflammable liquid, of specific gravity 0.736 at 0°,
boiling-point 35° C., and freezing-point −117°.4 C. (K. Olszewski).
It has a strong and characteristic odour, and a hot sweetish
taste, is soluble in ten parts of water, and in all proportions in
alcohol, and dissolves bromine, iodine, and, in small quantities,
sulphur and phosphorus, also the volatile oils, most fatty and
resinous substances, guncotton, caoutchouc and certain of the
vegetable alkaloids. The vapour mixed with oxygen or air is
violently explosive. The making of ether by the action of
sulphuric acid on alcohol was known in about the 13th century;
and later Basil Valentine and Valerius Cordus described its
preparation and properties. The name ether appears to have
been applied to the drug only since the times of Frobenius,
who in 1730 termed it spiritus aethereus or vini vitriolatus. It
was considered to be a sulphur compound, hence its name
sulphur ether; this idea was proved to be erroneous by Valentine
Rose in about 1800. Ether is manufactured by the distillation
of 5 parts of 90% alcohol with 9 parts of concentrated sulphuric
acid at a temperature of 140°-145° C., a constant stream of
alcohol being caused to flow into the mixture during the operation.
The distillate is purified by treatment with lime and
calcium chloride, and subsequent distillation. The mechanism
of this reaction was explained by A. Williamson in 1850. For
other methods of preparation see Ethers.[1]
- ↑ See also J. v. Liebig, Ann. Chem. Pharm., 1837, 23, p. 39; 1839, 30, p. 129; E. Mitscherlich, Pogg. Ann., 1836, 31, p. 273; 1841, 53, p. 95; A. W. Williamson, Phil. Mag., 1850 (3), 37, p. 350.
