Page 49 - Studio International - November 1972

Supplement autumn 1972 into the future until the Poe illustrations,
which are twenty years later than his tentative
New and recent books first etching, of Poe himself (1856). There are
indeed a number of cag-handed pages here
(Leymarie wouldn't agree). In most of them
one can isolate that they're a failure of this sort,
or that sort. The really worrying ones, though,
Bonjours Meanwhile, from a painterly view it seems are those where we have a familiar painting as
Gauguin and the Pont Aven School by natural that Monet, the central impressionist well, as in the Spanish Guitar Player, the
Wladyslawa Jaworska. 250 illustrations, 39 in painter, should not be represented : for he Buveur d' Absinthe (makes the heart grow
colour, 264 pp. Thames and Hudson. £12. produced no graphic work whatever. And fonder), the Gipsies, Lola de Valence, and most
Degas, the artist of the group whose work had of all in Olympia. How can they look as good ?
The Graphic Works of the Impressionists,
least to do with classic impressionist principles, Many of these were issued by Manet as a kind
introduction by Jean Leymarie, catalogue by is not represented either, but for a totally of announcement that he would be showing the
Michel Melot. 445 illustrations, 17 in colour, opposite reason; he did so much graphic work paintings. Leymarie says that 'in its own
352 pp. Thames and Hudson. £8.
that he needs a whole volume of this series to distinctive fashion, the engraving condenses and
Picasso: Birth of a Genius by Jean-Edouard himself. So what, one might ask, was in fact reinforces the message of the painting'. That is
Cirlot. 288 pp., illustrated. Elek. £Io, £12 in the role of drawing — and of etching, engraving surely special pleading. It's hard to get the
1973. and lithographing on top of that — within the etching and the painting going together as a
movement ? coherent experience, which is what one always
Most of our contemporary interest in The multiplicity of problems raised by such a tries to do. I find this less the case with the
Impressionism has concerned the mechanics question often leads only to imposed smoother and bolder works, where the bumps of
of its painterly qualities. We appreciate the way simplifications of what was going on, and not Manet's painting style are elided by floods and
it screened perception, decorporealized mass just because of the variousness of the artists washes of blacks and brilliant whites — a
and spread it atmospherically over that screen, concerned. At one grotesque extreme you can Spanish and specifically Goyaesque use of the
eliminated local in favour of related colour, have a teleological straitjacket (perhaps based medium which suited him better than the
introduced a wide and fair luminosity and a live on La Grenouillère) which would dominate an hatchings and crosses of the Northern and
mélange of stroke and hue as objects in depth are enquiry into the extent to which the 'style' Rembrandt-based engraving tradition. The
brushed in and brushed out, up to the surface. dispersed as it utilized media other than its concentrated essence of those vigorously
Since these qualities are most fully primary one of oil paint. On the other side flowing areas of black and white was the smudge,
characteristic of painting in oil on canvas we do (and this is what usually happens) there is the which was a good way of gunging some life
not particularly expect to find them elsewhere — simple possibility of a chapters-in-the-history- into the slightly aloof Japanesy planes of certain
except that from knowing the paintings we find of-taste review of the adherence to the subject of of the etchings. Manet used this to modern
hints of them, and often induce from modern bourgeois life — since that is the one advantage in the illustrations for Mallarmé's
impressionist drawings a kind of painting that non-painterly common factor in the translation of The Raven.
might have been. It is a teasing question impressionist group, and particularly This book has all the two hundred or so
whether this is more, or less, the case when emphasizable in graphics since they were graphic works by Pissarro. Regrettably, this
dealing with graphic works such as are presented considered a specifically contemporary medium makes him rather boring. One all too soon
in M. Leymarie's volume. He finds that 'the at the time. What grand fun art history is. starts to look for those plates, or those passages,
stylistic innovations of Impressionism, even the Manet, as has often been perceived, was the which might just have been done by someone
vibration of colour, are readily translated to the man who got it all going. But the style of the else, Gauguin, van Gogh, or — by stretching it a
sensitive register of the printed plate', but times, rather than the Style of Art, seems most very long way indeed (in a blow-up of an
noticeably refrains from any enquiry into the apparent in his graphic works, and even industrial scene across a river) — Seurat. That is,
nature of that translation, which would most beautiful etchings (like those of Berthe the graphic works manage to intensify the
certainly involve him in some tricky analyses. Morisot) don't really feel as if they're taking off sense of coexistent boredom and guilt (because

WILLIAM BLAKE'S

WATER-COLOUR DESIGNS

FOR THE POEMS OF

THOMAS GRAY

Edited with an These drawings—of immense significance to the
world of art and to the Blake canon — remained
introduction and virtually unknown until 1971. In this unique edition
16 of the drawings are reproduced in eight-colour
Commentary by offset and all the 116 drawings in monochrome.
EYRE METHUEN
Sir Geoffrey Keynes in association with £7.95
TRIANON PRESS

197