To the great English and American maga zines we owe the incentive and the opportunity for the development of the best wood engraving. Even before a way was discovered by which drawings might be photographed on the block, American engravers had begun to show their capacity for interpreting the lines and tones of drawings with exceptional accuracy and original ity. In some instances attempts were made to copy the qualities of brush marks and the textures of different mediums such as pencil and charcoal, etc., but this was only a passing phase of an attempt at superior cleverness. W. J. Linton who spent the later years of his life in America was a leader in the effort to make wood engraving more of an individual art and although he was not always in full sympathy with the tendency toward a greater refinement of line and an effort that seemed to him to be leading away from the legitimate purposes of wood engraving, he was a very great power for good, J. G. Smithwick, long identified with the art de partment of Harpers', and Alexander Wilson Drake, of Scribner's Monthly and the Cen tury, did their full share in the development of the art. Frederick Juengling, J. P. Davis, Frank French, F. S. King, Wm. B. Closson, Henry Wolf, Thomas Cole, Thomas Johnson, Elbridge Kingsley, Gustav Kruell, William Muller and others are names identified with the highest attainment of American wood engraving.
In other countries we find admirable ex position of wood engraving done by such artists as A. Brown and his school at The Hague and Antwerp, with Vermorken, Pannemaker (father) and Bosquet prominent; in Italy Fabris and Ratti must he mentioned.
With the advent of process work (see Primo ENGRAVING) the demand for wood engraving has greatly diminished and its employment as a reproductive art is constantly decreasing. It is a beautiful art as exemplified by the best practitioners, remarkable for its brilliancy of effect in pure black and white, requiring the most delicate skill in its manual execution and a feeling and invention with respect to the correct interpretation of values and textures of a very high order.
With the passing of the men of to-day who have given wood engraving a place among the fine arts, it is likely that it may cease to be a field for further endeavor. There are no longer incentives for its study and the time and artistic training necessary for any real accomplishment can be put to much better profit in other direc tions. Prints by famous wood engravers are already much sought by collectors and the future historian of the art will probably end his record with the close of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
More than to any other of the graphic arts are we indebted to wood engraving. It led the way to the invention of printing and has been the means of putting before the world a record of the progress of the greater arts of drawing and painting. See also ENGRAVINGS.
Stanley Elston, 'The History of Engraving from its Inception to the Time of Thomas Bewick' (London 1902) ; Baker, William Spohn, 'American Engravers and their Works> (Philadelphia 1875) ; Bartsch, Adam, 'Le Peintre-Graveur' (Vienna 1803-21) ; Berjeau, J. Ph., 'Biblia Pauperum. Reproduced in facsimile . . . with historical and biblio graphical introduction> (London 1859) ; id., 'Speculum Human Salvationis. . . produit en facsimile> (London 1861) ; Albert verein, (Bilder-Album zur neueren Gcschichte des Holzschnitts in Deutschland> (Leipzig 1877) ; Breviere, A., 'De la Xilographie ou Gravure sur Bois> (Rouen 1833) ; Chatto, W. A., 'A Treatise on Wood-engraving' (London 1839) ; Cundall, Joseph, 'A brief History of Wood-engraving from its Invention' (London 1895) ; Dibdin, T. F., 'Bibliotheca Spenceriana' (London 1814-15, 4 vols.) ; Didot, Ambroise Firmin, (Essai typographique et bibliographique sur I'Histoire de la Gravure sur Bois' (Paris 1863); Duplessis, G. G., 'Histoire de la Gravure' (Paris 1880) ; Emeric-David, T. B., (Discours historique sur la Gravure en Taille-Douce et la Gravure en Bois> (Paris 1809) ; Fournier, P. S., 'Dissertation sur l'Origine et les Progres de l'Art de graver en Bois > (Paris 1758) ; Grolier Club, 'Wood-engraving; three Essays by A. V. S. Anthony, Timothy Cole and Eldridge Kingsley' (New York 1916) ; Heineken, K. H., Baron von, 'Idee generale d'une Collection com plete d'Estampes> (Leipzig and Vienna 1771) ; Heller, Joseph, der Holzschneide kunst> (Bamberg 1823) ; Jansen, H., sur l'Origine de la Gravure en Bois et en Taille donee) (Paris 1808) ; Lippmenn, Friedrich, 'The Art of Wood-engraving in Italy in the XV Century' (London 1888) ; Linton, W. T.. 'The of Wood-Engraving in America' (Boston 1882) ; Osborn, Max, 'Der Holzschnitt> (Bielefeld 1905, in Sammlung illustrirter Mon ographen); Renouvier, Jules; 'Des Gravures en Bois dans les Livres d'Antoine Verard' (Paris 1859) ; id., 'Des Gravures sur Bois dans les Livres de Simon Vostre' (Paris 1862) ; Ruskin, John, (Ariadne Florentina. Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving' (Orpington, Kent, 1876); Sotheby, S. L., 'Principia Typographica.' The Block-books issued in Holland, Flanders, and Germany during the 15th Century' (Lon don 1858) ; Woodbcrry, G. E.,