Could there be a greater contrast than the work of Whistler and ZORN? Could anything better illustrate the infinite possibilities of the art, the pliability of the medium to serve the needs of etchers as dissimilar in method as in point of attack? With the fewest possible lines (_slashed_, one might almost say, into the copper) Zorn evolves a portrait of compelling power, vibrant with life. Mere speed counts for little, and it is of small significance that a masterpiece such as _Ernest Renan_ is the result of a single sitting of one hour only. It was done in Renan’s studio in Paris, in April, 1892. “His friends,” the artist relates, “came and asked me to make an etching of him. He arranged for a sitting. He was very ill, but I sat studying him for a little while, then took the plate and drew him. I asked him if it was a characteristic pose and he replied, ‘No, I very seldom sit like this.’ But his wife came in and said, ‘You have caught him to perfection, it is himself. When he is not watched he is always like that.’ She was really touched by it.” What is significant in the portrait of _Renan_, astounding, one might say, is that with lines so few Zorn has given us not only the outer man, but a character study of profound insight. Renan, sunk in his chair, the bulky body topped by the massive head, the hair suggested with a mere handful of lines, was like a bomb-shell to such print-collectors as previously were unacquainted with Zorn’s work. It was, however, only one of a group of masterpieces with which the artist made his début in America, in 1892: _Zorn and His Wife_, _Faure_, _The Waltz_, _The Omnibus_, _Olga Bratt_, with its elusive charm, and the piquant _Girl with the Cigarette_, and _Madame Simon_, which still remains one of his most powerful portraits. [Illustration: ANDERS ZORN. ERNEST RENAN Size of the original etching, 9¼ × 13⅜ inches In the Collection of the Author] [Illustration: ANDERS ZORN. THE TOAST Size of the original etching, 12⅝ × 10½ inches In the Collection of Albert W. Scholle, Esq.] [Illustration: ANDERS ZORN. MADAME SIMON Size of the original etching, 9⅜ × 6¼ inches In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] [Illustration: ANDERS ZORN. MISS EMMA RASSMUSSEN Size of the original etching, 7⅞ × 5⅞ inches In the Collection of the Author] _The Toast_ is etched from Zorn’s picture painted by him to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Society of the Idun, a scientific and artistic society in Stockholm. Wieselgren, the President of the Society, a Viking-like figure, is about to propose a toast; beyond him, characterized with the fewest lines, are seen Nordenskjöld, the Arctic explorer; Hildebrand, the archæologist; Axel Key, professor of medicine; and Woern, the Minister of Finance. The plate has all the freshness, all the spontaneity, of an etching done directly from life and at a white heat.