Unprecedented and remarkably
unique collaborations between American artists and progressive independent publishers
during the last quarter of the 19th century—which featured original
art work—were the forerunners of magazines like Egmont Ahren’s early 20th century Playboy. The first of these
artist driven ventures to achieve widespread commercial success was Poets and Etchers.
The first edition of Poets and Etchers, copyrighted in 1881,
was released in early 1882. The publication, which incorporated original
etchings created by members of the New York Etching Club, was an instant success
and almost immediately went into a second printing, followed by a third and
possibly fourth edition. However, the genesis of this sensational project—organized
by America’s first artists etchers lay in inspiration from many years earlier.
In
1866 a young American artist named Henry Farrer saw an exhibition in New York
City of etchings by largely contemporary European artists. The show was produced
by a Frenchman named Cadart under the auspices of the French Etching Club. The
exhibition and a second mounted in 1868 were both presented in a gallery at 625
Broadway. Farrer was so inspired that he built his own etching press to begin printing
his first etched plates.
Following the 1868 exhibition
Cadart collaborated with publishing professionals Verlaine, Paul, and Lemerre in
Paris and helped produce Sonnets Et Eaux-Fortes (Poems and Etchings) in 1869. Printed in an exceptionally deluxe
edition of 350 copies this remarkable and popular project featured etchings by
Corot, Daubigny, Manet, Gerome and Dore, among many others.
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| Henry Farrer, Twilight—5" x 7" |
No doubt Henry Farrer soon knew of this publication and, in
my estimate, eventually had a chance to study one; for, about a decade after its
release, Farrer succeeded in enlisting the participation of four other early
members of the New York Etching Club in a similar project published by Osgood
& Co., of Boston, Massachusetts, not-coincidentally titled Poets and Etchers.
One of Farrer’s collaborators in
the publication was fellow artist-etcher James D. Smillie. Smillie, whose
diaries have been preserved by The Archives of American Art, kept detailed
records of many of his artistic endeavors. On November 3, 1880, Smillie noted that,“Farrer, Bellows & Colman called—much interested in etchings & proving
paper.” Each of these artists and a fourth, Robert Swain Gifford, were the
eventual artist-illustrators of Poets and Etchers. On
November 13 Smillie recorded that "Farrer brought his four
etchings for the Osgood book," and on November 29 he further noted:
"then to 51 W. 10'S"—with Farrer’s 'Poets & Etcher's' Jap. P.fs for his
autograph.” Henry Farrer must have had Smillie, who had his own etching press, proof
the above-referenced plates.
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| James D. Smillie, Nocturn—8" x 6" |
Between Henry Farrer and his
colleagues James D. Smillie, A. F. Bellows, Samuel Colman, and R. Swain Gifford
they produced twenty original etchings to accompany poetry by such
distinguished poets as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A later diary entry by Smillie suggested a high level of
satisfaction with the success and quality of this exquisitely executed and
seminal "artist’s book" project. This collaborative effort between
publisher, artist and poet in the publication of Poets and Etchers marks the first such successful commercial event
of this type—incorporating copies of original prints—in American history.
By today’s standards, some of the original prints in Poets and Etchers may appear a bit primitive to some, but in their day they were state-of-the-art artist etchings. Similarly, the subject material in a number of these Victorian era etchings, created to accompany period prose, may seem understandably remote, but they were all the rage 130 years ago. Had these artists not initiated this publication—and several similar projects that would soon follow—the shape of artist printmaking, fine art publishing for a mass market, and the greater art world at the turn of the 20th century would have been quite different. Today, intact copies of Poets and Etchers, while not commonly available, may be found on line at auction for as little as $60—a remarkably good buy and investment.
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| A. F. Bellows, Telling the Bee—7 1/4" x 5 1/4" |
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| Samuel Colman, The Belfry at Bruges—4 1/2" x 3 1/2" |
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| Robert Swain Gifford, Palestine—5 7/8" x 3 3/4" |
