sons, one would recognize not only the instructor but the
master. Hence, be without fear or hesitation; put forth confidently your
little book; it is just in time to help regenerate the art of etching,
and to direct its renaissance. For these reasons--mark my
prediction!--its success will be brilliant and lasting.

CHARLES BLANC.

INTRODUCTION.

Since the year 1866, when the first edition of this treatise appeared,
the art of etching, which was then in full course of regeneration, has
gained considerably in extent. The tendencies of modern art must
necessarily favor the soaring flight of this method of engraving, which
has been left in oblivion quite too long. It remained for our
contemporary school to accord to it those honors which the school of the
first empire had denied to it, and which that of 1830 had given but
timidly. At the period last named some of our illustrious masters, by
applying their talent to occasional essays in etching, set an example
which our own generation, expansive in its aspirations, and anxiously
desirous of guarding the rights of individuality, was quick to follow.

The _Gazette des Beaux Arts_ comprehended this movement, and contributed
to its extension by attracting to itself the artists who rendered
themselves illustrious by the work done for its pages, while, by a sort
of natural reciprocity, they shed around it the prestige of their
talents. The _Societe des Aqua-fortistes_ (Etching Club), founded in
1863 by Alfred Cadart, has also, by the united efforts of many eminent
etchers, done its share towards bringing the practice of this art into
notice, and has popularized it in the world of amateurs, whose numbers
it has been instrumental in augmenting; while at the same time, owing to
the nature of its constitution, it has given material support to the
artists. Private collections have been formed, and are growing in
richness from day to day. Two royal artists, King Ferdinand of Portugal
and King Charles XV. of Sweden, have, through their works, taken an
active part in the renewal of etching; they were the happy sponsors of a
publication which, under the name of _L'Illustration Nouvelle_, follows
in the footsteps, and continues the traditions, of the _Societe des
Aqua-fortistes_.

Similar societies, organized in England and in Belgium,[1] are
prospering. On the other hand, a great number of art journals, of books,
and of albums, owe their success to the use made in them of etch