two brothers, Pierre or Jean-Baptiste. The large wood-cut of the "Shepherdess Seated," engraved by J. B. Millet, and the "Digger Leaning on his Spade" and the "Woman Filling Water Cans," engraved by Pierre Millet, are equally full of the spirit of their great brother. Fashions in art will change. Some living artists who have acquired great fame have perhaps already "outlived their immortality," while others to-day unheralded will some day be famous. But in the roll of honor of the nineteenth century there is no name more certain to go down to posterity as that of a master in art than the name of Jean-François Millet. MILLET AS AN ETCHER The distinguished American painter and etcher, Thomas Moran, once made to me the following pregnant comment on the works of Jean-François Millet: "I admire his etchings still more than I admire his paintings. When Millet was painting he was thinking of his color, but when he was etching he was thinking of his drawing.” Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer, one of the most sympathetic critics of Millet's etchings, writes: "A man who had given his whole life to painting and not to etching could not have been more truly and markedly a born etcher than Millet showed himself to be- few though were the plates and many though were the canvases he worked upon. To depend upon lines, not tones, for expression; THE SOWER Size of the original print, 7 by 6 inches. From the original lithograph by J. F. Millet. This lithograph, executed in 1851, was done for L'Artiste, but that journal never published it. This was a favorite subject with Millet, and one which he repeated, with variations, many times, but never more nobly than in this unpretentious lithograph. DIGGER LEANING ON HIS SPADE (WOODCUT) F 17 Millee THE SHEPHERDESS SEATED (WOODCUT) Size of the original print, 103 by 83 inches. From the woodcut, drawn by J. F. Millet, and cut on the block by his brother, Jean-Baptiste Millet. to make every line 'tell,' and to use no more lines than are absolutely needed to tell exactly what he wants to say; to speak strongly, concisely, and to the point; to tell us much while saying little; to suggest rather than to elaborate, but to suggest in such a way that the meaning shall be very clear and individual and impressive these are the things the true etcher tries to do. And these are the things that Millet did with a more magnificent power than any man, perhaps, since Rembrandt. Other modern etchings have more charm than his none have quite so much feeling. Others show more grace and delicacy of touch none show more force or certainty, and none a more artistic 'economy of means. 999 The king of all etchers, Rembrandt, seldom or never etched a design which he had painted, or painted one which he had etched; but Millet's method was the opposite. In several cases an etching by him was the earliest expression of his subject, but he often repeated the same artistic conception in a painting in oils, a watercolor drawing, a pastelor, on occasion, all three. Among his few lithographs is the characteristic and beautiful "Man Sowing Grain," and his finished wood-cuts- although actually engraved by one or other of his two brothers — are in the best spirit of wood-engraving as it was done nearly four centuries earlier by Albrecht Dürer. What may be called the personal history of Millet's etched plates is peculiarly interesting. The spirit of painter-etching was at its best about the year 1860-"there or thereabouts." Meryon, Whistler, Seymour Haden, and Millet were, at that time, producing their masterpieces. Millet could sell very few proofs, and so he printed very few although his plates were so strongly etched that they could have yielded a larger edition. When the master died, the French law required that the copper plates must be sequestered until the coming of age of one of the heirs who was then a minor. So the plates were enclosed in a strong box which was then officially sealed by a legal functionary. When the time arrived that the Millet family could enter into possession of them, I myself was present when the seals were broken and the plates taken out. I saw at once, by the unpolished surface of the coppers, that no proofs had been printed from them for many years, and also that they were entirely unworn from use. It was then arranged that I was to take the plates to London and entrust them to Mr. Frederick Goulding, who was the ablest plate-printer of his day. He knew how to get out of Millet's plates just what the master had put into them, and Goulding printed, with his own hands, a small edition from each of the plates. These plates were then destroyed. The destroyed copper-plates became the property of an eminent American collector who is an enthusiast in his love for Millet's work. These proofs printed by Goulding are unques |