PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON (1834—1894)
was an English artist and author. In 1866 he published his standard work
on Etching and Etchers. He was also an art critic to the Saturday
Review. In 1870 he established an art journal of his own, The Portfolio,
a monthly periodical, each number of which consisted of a monograph upon
some artist or a group of artists, frequently written and always edited
by him. A limited number of of prints
was printed.
BY the courtesy of John Hardcastle, Esq., the proprietor
of the original, we are able to give a reproduction of this sketch, or
page of sketches, by the very faithful process of photogravure, which we
have already employed this year for the reproduction of French pictures.
The only essential difference between the copy and the original is that
there were a few touches of sanguine, of little importance, which have
been rendered simply as gray pencil-marks, without loss either of form
or effect. The style of drawing is far from brilliant, but it is
a sound, honest work of its own simple kind, evidently done for earnest
study. The main proportions of the animals are truly given, though not
the fineness of their details. Animals seldom remain
long in the same position, and the sketcher can only get what seems to
him most important. The interest of the sketches from nature which
animal-painters make for their own use is, that they at once reveal what
the artist considered most essential.
[Source, The Portfolio for 1875, pp. 136]
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