Four masters of etching
Four Masters of Etching is a London art book of 1883 by the critic Frederick Wedmore, published by the Fine Art Society, presenting the etchings of Haden, Jacquemart, Whistler and Legros to a general art-collecting readership. The pictures are etched plates printed on cream paper within wide margins: one a three-quarter portrait of a bearded older man in fine hatched lines, the other a loose sketchy view of a leaning timber-framed building beside a large tree. A designer could take from them the economy of hatching, where tone comes from dense or sparse parallel strokes rather than solid shading.
