found in Versailles gardens; their prototypes are Jeanne Dubarry and her like, the ladies of the court, the beauties of the stage; and for this reason French art of the eighteenth century is genuine and true, because it does not seek its ideals in the dim past, but chooses them in contemporary life. As we follow engraving, it declines from a spontaneous exercise of the thinking, artistic mind into drudgery of systematized routine. Engraving becomes petrified into a thing of tradition, with elaborate systems of lines and dots, to be dutifully acquired during long years of apprenticeship. Originality is frowned down by rigid precept, selection is made subservient to accepted prescription. In this so-called “classical” style of engraving, Georg Wille moves at ease, among the most perplexing technical intricacies. A virtuoso, and a purist, Wille deems the burin the one and only admissible tool of an engraver. The careful detail, the minutely finished paintings of Gérard Dou, Mieris, or Netscher give play to his powers. The plate reproduced here is the famous “Satin Gown” after Terborch, so called because of the wonderful rendering of the girl’s dress, with its silvery sheen and glossy shadows. The lighting of the scene, the modeling of forms, the translation of color-values into terms of black and white, have all received careful consideration, nor do we feel in the work of this leader the cold metallic hardness and monotony which often wearies in the immense output of the classical engravers. The names of Bervic, excellent but slow and excessively systematic, Boucher Desnoyers, the brilliant technician, come to mind among Frenchmen. Italy, however, became the real home of classical engraving, and names such as Longhi, Raphael Morghen, Toschi, with their large plates, chiefly dealing with religious subjects, must be familiar to any amateur of prints. Their fame, the great favor which they enjoyed with the art-loving public for a while, brought pupils from all parts of Europe to these Italian leaders. [Illustration: INSTRUCTION PATERNELLE (The “Satin Gown”) Georg Wille]