In the early sixteenth century we meet in Jean Duvet an engraver of original merit. He adopts in his work the style of certain early Italian engravers. In his compositions he harks back to Dürer’s imaginative genius. A little later Etienne Delaune appears, affecting the elongated figures of contemporary Italians, while in his graver-work one discerns a resemblance with the manner of the German “little masters.” In etching a vital impulse is given to French work about the middle of the sixteenth century. At that time Francis I called Italian artists to France for the decoration of his castle of Fontainebleau. Many of these Italian artists--Primaticcio, Fantuzzi, and others--made use of etching occasionally in a hasty, sketchy style. The sensuous charm of their lithe, long figures appealed to French taste, and elicited a response in the plates etched by Jean Cousin, for instance. In all this early production we feel the dominating influence of Italian art, with an occasional echo of German thought or German technique. France seeks her own language in the graphic arts, and timidly ventures forth in an original manner of expression. This diffidence is of brief duration, however, and by the end of the seventeenth century we find her a leader in engraving, and by no means in engraving only. As we enter upon this broad development, we must cast a glance on two personalities of distinct originality, namely, Jacques Callot and Claude Lorrain. Both are natives of Lorraine, both are schooled in the art centers of Italy. Callot, endowed with an impulsive, expressive style, full of personal qualities, vividly describes in his plates the habits, customs, pleasures, the life, in short, of France and Italy at his time. He peoples his plates with multitudes of minute figures, with well-accented gestures. These little figures are written down, as it were, with consummate skill; they are expressive in their concerted action; in their grouping, these peasants, soldiers, beggars, cripples, actors, courtiers, as they troop across the scene, unfold a bird’s-eye view of the world in the midst of which the artist lived. From the vast number of his prints, let us select for illustration one of his views of old Paris, with the Tour de Nesle prominent in the foreground. In his hundreds of plates we see the miseries of warfare described as well as the gayety of public festivities and the pomp of ceremonies of state which he witnessed in Florence. Claude Lorrain, an originator and gifted exponent of landscape, has occasionally taken up the etching-needle, largely in an experimental spirit, modifying his technique at different times, and showing himself, like other noted painters and occasional etchers, infinitely more clever in the design than in the actual etching. The plate chosen for illustration, called “Le Bouvier,” is the most famous of his prints; in it we perceive (provided we see a fine early impression) the rich tonal effect, the sense of airiness,