Pencil Drawing

PENCIL DRAWING. A pencil drawing is one made by a piece of graphite sharpened into a fine point, and held in a porte crayon, and the term is usually applied to a drawing made with this material upon vellum or parchment. The greatest masters of this particular art were Dutchmen, and the best productions were those of the 17th century. In a great many instances it is quite certain that the extremely elaborate plumbago (graphite) draw ings done by Dutch artists were intended for the purpose of engravings, and of several of them, this can be proved by putting the finished engraving by the side of the elaborate plumbago draw ing. Considering the clumsiness of the material, it is amazing that the artists elaborated such exceedingly delicate and beautiful work as many of these plumbago drawings exhibit. It seems almost certain that they must have been drawn under a lens, and it is clear that the artist possessed a steady hand to a very unusual degree.

One of the earliest workers in plumbago was Simon van de Pass (1595?-1647) whose pencil drawings were almost certainly either for reproduction on silver tablets or counters or for en graved plates. Abraham Blooteling, the Dutch engraver, executed a very few portraits, but they appear to have been only first sketches, from which eventually he made larger ones, and from these engraved his plates. He was followed by the man who is perhaps the greatest exponent of the art of drawing in plumbago, David Loggan (1635-170o), a pupil of Van de Pass, and a man well known for his long series of engravings representing the col leges of Oxford and Cambridge. He executed portraits with the utmost dexterity, and with marvellous minuteness, the lines rep resenting the intricacies of a lace ruffle, or the curls of a wig, being unusually perfect. Better known is William Faithorne (q.v.). Next in eminence and skill comes Thomas Forster (f1. 1712). He was one of the greatest draughtsmen in this particular form of portraiture. Forster was responsible for a few prints, but examples of them are of the utmost rarity. His work can be studied with advantage in the Holburne Museum at Bath, at Welbeck Abbey, or at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

There are two other Englishmen who should be mentioned, Robert and George White, father and son. The former 1704) was a pupil of David Loggan (who originally came from Danzig) ; It was a prolific engraver, most of whose drawings in plumbago on vellum were evidently executed for the purpose of engraving. George White, his son (1684-1732) was taught by his father, and finished some of his father's plates.

Reference must also be made to the use of plumbago by

the painters of miniatures in colour. Hilliard used plumbago for pre paring designs for jewels and for seals, Isaac and Peter Oliver for sketches in portraiture. A draughtsman in plumbago whose works are exceedingly scarce was David Paton, who worked in 167o. Then there were early engravers, such as George Glover (d. 1618) and Thomas Cecill (ft 163o), who executed plumbago drawings, evidently studies for engravings. Of Glover's work the only known signed example is in the writer's collection. 'The work of Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) and also the work of his son must be alluded to, but it is believed that, by their time, the graphite had been enclosed in a wooden rod, and that therefore the drawings may more naturally be called pencil drawings.

Draughtsmen in Indian ink have prepared portraits on very much the same lines. Among them were the two Fabers (166o?-172I and 1695?-1756) in Holland, the elder having been born at The Hague, as he himself stated on his portrait which was in Vertue's collection. Of the two the son was the greater artist, although both of them were responsible for many very fine portraits drawn in Indian ink, as a rule circular, often set within lined borders and frequently adorned with coats of arms and in scriptions, equally minute and wonderful. Another able worker in Indian ink was a Swede, Charles Bancks (c. 1748), and another, a Swiss, Joseph Werner, born? 1637, who made his drawings upon brown paper, and in some cases heightened the work with touches of white paint. Amongst other exponents of this art are the following: Thomas Worlidge (17oo-1766), F. Steele (c. W. Robins (c. 173o), G. A. Wolfgang (1692-1775). (X.)