of drawing and painting. As an etcher he was entirely self-taught. At the age of sixteen, he borrowed a volume of an encyclopædia to learn the technical details of the etching process, and then at once proceeded to practise what he had learned. How well he succeeded may be judged from the famous example of his work, the "Birds Nailed on a Barn." In it we see, ignominiously nailed against a barn door, a hawk, a crow, and some other thieving birds (also a bat, which is not a bird!). This fine plate, etched in 1852, is the work of a boy of nineteen. Bracquemond sold the copper plate of this, along with three other capital plates, to Cadart, the Paris publisher, for the sum of - how much? -twenty-four francs! And this money was never paid to him. He told me this himself. And to-day a fine, early proof of this etching would sell in Paris for about thirty times the price for which he sold the original copper plate.

One very noticeable feature of Bracquemond's work is its apparently limitless variety. Some etchers have won a great name for landscape only, -others for portraits only; but Bracquemond can seemingly do anything and everything, and notwithstanding his abounding resources as an original designer, he is not above producing reproductive plates of the finest quality from the paintings of Millet, Meissonier, and other masters. His large plate of King David, after Gustave Moreau, won for him the medal of honor at the Paris Salon of 1884; and besides all this he

Size of the original print, 83 by 11 inches.

From the original etchings by Félix Bracquemond.

The etchings of Bracquemond are very like the man who made them. He is a great, strong, virile man, and his forceful personality is reflected in every picture that he has made.

From the etchings by Félix Bracquemond.

has done some very remarkable work in the decoration of art-porcelain for the American-French firm of Haviland & Co.

One of his etchings, "Sketches of Birds and Fishes," is an outline for the decoration of porcelain. The ink or color, from a freshly printed proof, is transferred to the unfinished porcelain, which is then finished in colors, and afterwards glazed. In this work Bracquemond may have taken a hint from Turner's plates of the Liber Studiorum: Turner having etched what may be called the bones and sinews of the composition, he then handed it over to the mezzotint engraver to be finished.

His "Margot le Critique" is a satire on the critic, whom Bracquemond represents as a magpie. His power in delineating birds- especially birds in action is really marvelous. I should not have known how remarkably true to nature this etching is, did I not happen to own a magpie myself. The artist's insight into the very nature - as well as the form - of this meddling, chattering, mischievous, and amusing bird is quite wonderful. But Bracquemond's sympathetic insight is not confined to birds. Pope tells us that "the proper study of mankind is man" — and why may not this include the features of a man, as well as his moral nature? Bracquemond's portrait of Monsieur Edmond de Goncourt is one drawn and etched from life, which I think must always rank as a masterpiece. The original drawing in black and white, of the same size as this etching, is in

the Luxembourg Gallery of Paris, and it well deserves the honor. Unlike Charles Jacque, Bracquemond, personally, is like his work. He is a great, strong, manly man: upright and downright in his character as in his art.

To illustrate his physical powers I may relate that when recently a guest at his table, I took occasion to congratulate him on his fine, vigorous appetite, to which he replied: "Oh, no; that is over with me long ago; but I assure you that up to the age of thirty years I seldom ate less for my dinner than either a leg of mutton, a turkey, or a pair of fowls!" and I can quite believe it.

In strong contrast with the vigorous and masculine Bracquemond is the graceful and elegant Maxime Lalanne. A glance at his portrait might satisfy any one of the innate delicacy and refinement of the man. Born at Bordeaux in 1827, he died at Paris in 1886. Not only his etchings, but his drawings in charcoal, are in great request, especially in Paris. In addition to his own works, so full of refinement and grace, Lalanne exerted vast influence through his book on the technical methods of the etcher. It was published in Paris in 1866, just two years before Mr. Hamerton issued his famous book - which was not addressed to the artists, but to the public. Lalanne's treatise still remains the standard text-book on the making of etchings. It was translated into English in 1886 by Mr. S. R. Koehler, late of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Personally Lalanne was greatly liked by all