Bertha E. Jaques and the Chicago Society of Etchers

Rating:
Summary: a fine book about an important topic in American prints
Review: This book is worthwhile for much more valuable information than its title may suggest. It's an excellent survey of the second American etching revival, which took place in printmaking during the early Twentieth Century. Well documented, easy to read, and chock full of fascinating information about the remarkable etching advocate Jaques, it also tells a great deal about the activities of a host of other printmakers. The volume's four appendices, copious notes, extensive bibliography, and index make this book a reference well worth the price to scholars of American printmaking history.

Rating:
Summary: a fine book about an important topic in American prints
Review: This book is worthwhile for much more valuable information than its title may suggest. It's an excellent survey of the second American etching revival, which took place in printmaking during the early Twentieth Century. Well documented, easy to read, and chock full of fascinating information about the remarkable etching advocate Jaques, it also tells a great deal about the activities of a host of other printmakers. The volume's four appendices, copious notes, extensive bibliography, and index make this book a reference well worth the price to scholars of American printmaking history.

Rating:
Summary: Bertha E. Jaques and the Chicago Society of Etchers
Review: This is the first full-length study, and likely to remain the definitive one, of the Chicago Society of Etchers, incorporated in l9l0 under its chief architect, Bertha E. Jaques (l863-l94l). Together they played a profound role in developing popular American artistic taste in the first half of the 20th century, both by inspiring other societies and by making the best prints available to a broad and receptive public. In its 47-year life the CSE would exhibit at least 40,000 prints across America, whose impact has been unevaluated and uninvestigated until Patterson's study.

Most interesting and admirable is the analysis of the CSE's unwavering resistance to modernism, despite expectable criticism and the formation of a rival, alternative group, the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. Supporters of the CSE could always rely on the Society to produce traditional, academic, and representational works--would that more artistic groups were unwilling to cave in to the ephemeral, the anarchic, and the chaotic in all areas of American life. This stance produced friction with the Chicago Art Institute, and its break with that facility in the early '30's was a serious setback, although the CSE continued to function as late as l956.

Two striking features of this work are the ninety-two black and white and eight color illustrations of beautifully reproduced etchings and prints, and the straightforward, expository prose of the text which integrates the history of the Society in the social and economic settings of the World War, the Twenties, and the Depression Era. The final chapter is devoted specifically to Bertha Evelyn Jaques, a talented artist in her own right, who was an inspiration to thousands.

The Appendices are invaluable, with complete lists of Presentation Prints of the CSE, Exhibiting Members, and the Years and Cities where their work appeared. The notes and bibliography will be the starting point for any researcher or devotee of the subject, reflecting the wide-ranging and exhaustive work which went into compiling this remarkable volume. A more complete review may be found in Bibliophilos, VIII, No. 2 (Summer 2003), l24-l26.

Rating:
Summary: Bertha E. Jaques and the Chicago Society of Etchers
Review: This is the first full-length study, and likely to remain the definitive one, of the Chicago Society of Etchers, incorporated in l9l0 under its chief architect, Bertha E. Jaques (l863-l94l). Together they played a profound role in developing popular American artistic taste in the first half of the 20th century, both by inspiring other societies and by making the best prints available to a broad and receptive public. In its 47-year life the CSE would exhibit at least 40,000 prints across America, whose impact has been unevaluated and uninvestigated until Patterson's study.

Most interesting and admirable is the analysis of the CSE's unwavering resistance to modernism, despite expectable criticism and the formation of a rival, alternative group, the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. Supporters of the CSE could always rely on the Society to produce traditional, academic, and representational works--would that more artistic groups were unwilling to cave in to the ephemeral, the anarchic, and the chaotic in all areas of American life. This stance produced friction with the Chicago Art Institute, and its break with that facility in the early '30's was a serious setback, although the CSE continued to function as late as l956.

Two striking features of this work are the ninety-two black and white and eight color illustrations of beautifully reproduced etchings and prints, and the straightforward, expository prose of the text which integrates the history of the Society in the social and economic settings of the World War, the Twenties, and the Depression Era. The final chapter is devoted specifically to Bertha Evelyn Jaques, a talented artist in her own right, who was an inspiration to thousands.

The Appendices are invaluable, with complete lists of Presentation Prints of the CSE, Exhibiting Members, and the Years and Cities where their work appeared. The notes and bibliography will be the starting point for any researcher or devotee of the subject, reflecting the wide-ranging and exhaustive work which went into compiling this remarkable volume. A more complete review may be found in Bibliophilos, VIII, No. 2 (Summer 2003), l24-l26.