together, is then lighted and passed repeatedly under the plate
in every direction, till the ground has incorporated enough
lampblack to blacken it. The third way of covering a plate for
etching is to apply the ground in solution as collodion is applied
by photographers. The ground may be dissolved in chloroform,
or in oil of lavender. The plate being grounded, its back and
edges are protected from the acid by Japan varnish, which soon
dries, and then the drawing is traced upon it. The best way of
tracing a drawing is to use sheet gelatine, which is employed as
follows. The gelatine is laid upon the drawing, which its transparence
allows you to see perfectly, and you trace the lines by
scratching the smooth surface with a sharp point. You then fill
these scratches with fine black-lead, in powder, rubbing it in
with the finger, turn the tracing with its face to the plate,
and rub the back of it with a burnisher. The black-lead from
the scratches adheres to the etching ground and shows upon
it as pale grey, much more visible than anything else you can
use for tracing. Then comes the work of the etching-needle,
which is merely a piece of steel sharpened more or less. J. M. W.
Turner used a prong of an old steel fork which did as well as
anything, but neater etching-needles are sold by artists’ colour-makers.
The needle removes the ground or cover and lays the
copper bare. Some artists sharpen their needles so as to present
a cutting edge which, when used sideways, scrapes away a broad
line; and many etchers use needles of various degrees of sharpness
to get thicker or thinner lines. It may be well to observe,
in connexion with this part of the subject, that whilst thick lines
agree perfectly well with the nature of woodcut, they are very
apt to give an unpleasant heaviness to plate engraving of all kinds,
whilst thin lines have generally a clear and agreeable appearance
in plate engraving. Nevertheless, lines of moderate thickness
are used effectively in etching when covered with finer shading,
and very thick lines indeed were employed with good results
by Turner when he intended to cover them with mezzotint (q.v.),
and to print in brown ink, because their thickness was essential
to prevent them from being overwhelmed by the mezzotint, and
the brown ink made them print less heavily than black. Etchers
differ in opinion as to whether the needle ought to scratch the
copper or simply to glide upon its surface. A gliding needle is
much more free, and therefore communicates a greater appearance
of freedom to the etching, but it has the inconvenience that
the etching-ground may not always be entirely removed, and
then the lines may be defective from insufficient biting. A
scratching needle, on the other hand, is free from this serious
inconvenience, but it must not scratch irregularly so as to engrave
lines of various depth. The biting in former times was generally
done with a mixture of nitric acid and water, in equal proportions;
but in the present day a Dutch mordant is a good deal used,
which is composed as follows: Hydrochloric acid, 100 grammes;
chlorate of potash, 20 grammes; water, 880 grammes. To make
it, heat the water, add the chlorate of potash, wait till it is
entirely dissolved, and then add the acid. The nitrous mordant
acts rapidly and causes ebullition; the Dutch mordant acts
slowly and causes no ebullition. The nitrous mordant widens
the lines; the Dutch mordant bites in depth, and does not widen
the lines to any perceptible degree. The time required for both
depends upon temperature. A mordant bites slowly when cold,
and more and more rapidly when heated. To obviate irregularity
caused by difference of temperature, it is a good plan to heat the
Dutch mordant artificially to 95° Fahr. by lamps under the bath
(for which a photographer’s porcelain tray is most convenient),
and keep it steadily to that temperature; the results may then be
counted upon; but whatever the temperature fixed upon, the
results will be regular if it is regular. To get different degrees of
biting on the same plate the lines which are to be pale are
“stopped out” by being painted over with Japan varnish or
with etching ground dissolved in oil of lavender, the darkest
lines being reserved to the last, as they have to bite longest. When
the acid has done its work properly the lines are bitten in such
various degrees of depth that they will print with the degree of
blackness required; but if some parts of the subject require
to be made paler, they can be lowered by rubbing them with
charcoal and olive oil, and if they have to be made deeper they
can be rebitten, or covered with added shading. Rebiting is
done with the roller above mentioned, which is now charged
very lightly with paste and rolled over the copper with no
pressure but its own weight, so as to cover the smooth surface
but not fill up any of the lines. The oil of lavender is then
expelled as before by gently heating the plate, but it is not
smoked. The lines which require rebiting may now be rebitten,
and the others preserved against the action of the acid by stopping
out. These are a few of the most essential technical points in
etching, but there are many matters of detail for which the reader
is referred to the special works on the subject.
There are many varieties in the processes of etching, and it is only necessary here to indicate the essential facts. A brief analysis of different styles may be given.
(1) Pure Line. As there is line engraving, so there is line etching; but as the etching-needle is a freer instrument than the burin, the line has qualities which differ widely from those of the burin line. Each of the two has its own charm and beauty; the liberty of the one is charming, and the restraint of the other is admirable also in its right place. In line etching, as in line engraving, the great masters purposely exhibit the line and do not hide it under too much shading. (2) Line and Shade. This answers exactly in etching to Mantegna’s work in engraving. The most important lines are drawn first throughout, and the shade thrown over them like a wash with the brush over a pen sketch in indelible ink. (3) Shade and Texture. This is used chiefly to imitate oil-painting. Here the line (properly so called) is entirely abandoned, and the attention of the etcher is given to texture and chiaroscuro. He uses lines, of course, to express these, but does not exhibit them for their own beauty; on the contrary, he conceals them.
Of these three styles of etching the first is technically the easiest, and being also the most rapid, is adopted for sketching on the copper from nature; the second is the next in difficulty; and the third the most difficult, on account of the biting, which is never easy to manage when it becomes elaborate. The etcher has, however, many resources; he can make passages paler by burnishing them, or by using charcoal, or he can efface them entirely with the scraper and charcoal; he can darken them by rebiting or by regrounding the plate and adding fresh work; and he need not run the risk of biting the very palest passages of all, because these can be easily done with the dry point, which is simply a well-sharpened stylus used directly on the copper without the help of acid. It is often asserted that any one can etch who can draw, but this is a mistaken assertion likely to mislead. Without requiring so long an apprenticeship as the burin, etching is a very difficult art indeed, the two main causes of its difficulty being that the artist does not see his work properly as he proceeds, and that mistakes or misfortunes in the biting, which are of frequent occurrence to the inexperienced, may destroy all the relations of tone.
Etching, like line engraving, owed much to the old masters, but whereas, with the exception of Albert Dürer, the painters were seldom practical line engravers, they advanced etching not only by advice given to others but by the work of their own hands. Rembrandt did as much for etching as either Raphael or Rubens for line engraving; and in landscape the etchings of Claude had an influence which still continues, both Rembrandt and Claude being practical workmen in etching, and very skilful workmen. Ostade, Ruysdael, Berghem, Paul Potter, Karl Dujardin, etched as they painted, and so did a greater than any of them, Vandyck. In the earlier part of the 19th century etching was almost a defunct art, except as it was employed by engravers as a help to get faster through their work, of which “engraving” got all the credit, the public being unable to distinguish between etched lines and lines cut with the burin. But from the middle of the century dates a great revival of etching as an independent art, a revival which has extended all over Europe.
Apart from the copying of pictures by etching—which was found commercially preferable to the use of line engraving—a
