0.3 Introduction: the birth of american artist printmaking  (Page 5/9)

It would have surprised no one then familiar with the prevailing art world that the New York Etching Club artists jumped at the chanceto exhibit in the Salmagundi Club exhibition rather than the American Water Color Society’s. The significance of this decision has been widely overlooked,however. Not only were the early Salmagundi Sketch Club exhibitions quite popular with both artists and the viewing public, but the New York Etching Clubmembers also wanted to be aligned with other active graphic artists, and have their new etchings seen alongside other widely practiced forms of graphic art.When their members were granted the autonomy they apparently sought, the New York Etching Club returned to the watercolorists’ fold in February 1882, The American Water Color Society had enormous influence on the development, support, and organizational structure of the New York Etching Club.James D. Smillie was the watercolor society’s president in 1877, the year he founded the etching club. Throughout the etching club’s active exhibiting years,their elected and appointed officers were often interchangeable, by name if not title, with those of the watercolorists’ society.At times the organizationalties between the New York Etching Club and the American Water Color Society made for a virtual identity crisis. For example, the February 11, 1881 minutes recordthe unanimous decision by members for a resolution “applying to The Water Color Society for space in their next exhibition.” The minutes also note that “thePresident [R. Swain Gifford] and Secretary [Henry Farrer]were directed to bring the matter before the Water Color Society at its next meeting.” The officers ofthe AWCS for the 1880/1881 season included Henry Farrer (Secretary), and a Board of Control made up of New York Etching Club members J. C. Nicoll, R. SwainGifford, and Frederick S. Church. with a triumphant showing of works by notable artists of the day, including Frederick S. Church, Samuel Colman,Stephen J. Ferris, Seymour Haden (founder of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers, London), Thomas Moran, Stephen Parrish (Maxfield’s father), JosephPennell, Charles A. Platt, R. Gifford Swain, J. A. McNeil Whistler, and James D. Smillie.

By the mid-1880s, members of the New York Etching Club could be forgiven for being a little heady about their success and thepopularity of their work. New books about etching and printmaking, including S. R. Koehler’s Etching: An Outline of its Technical Processes and its History (1885), and J. R. W. Hitchcock’s Etching in America ( 1886), were appearing with increasingly frequency. Commercial production of new print editions and group portfoliosabounded, and exhibition opportunities for artist printmakers were expanding exponentially. But just below the surface, subtle cracks in the club’sfoundation were beginning to appear.

In August 1886, two short, rather enthusiastic notices referencing the New York Etching Club appeared in Art Review Magazine . One noted the forthcoming auction of an important collection of paintings, the catalogue for which would be illustrated withreproductive etchings by several club members. The other cited club plans to exhibit the same prints during the annual show that would open to the public atthe end of January 1887. Later, reviews of the club’s important exhibition in publications, including The Critic on February 5, were less than flattering. Reviewers raised questions about the inclusion of large numbersof reproductive prints done by artists after other artists’ paintings, commercially commissioned and published prints, and excessively large plates.The criticism highlighted growing fissures in the club over divergent commercial ambitions and aesthetics among its membership.