The ones that got away: Eli Marsden Wilson at Scarborough

I was only told about the recent sale at Scarborough after it had taken place, but included was a mahogany artist's cabinet and contents (below) that once belonged to Eli Marsden Wilson (it went for £3,100) as well as a some very fine atmospheric mezzotints and very likeable bookplates by him. Wilson is not an obvious artist for Modern Printmakers and the name didn't really register when it was used, but my readers are a canny lot and one way or another, nothing much passes them by, so I decided to check Eli Marsden Wilson out.

Wilson trained at Wakefield School of Art where he won a place to the Royal College of Art and studied intalgio printmaking under Sir Frank Short (and was presumably a fellow student of William Giles and S.G. Boxsius). Short had revived the use of mezzotint at a time when many old techniques like enamelling and painting in tempera were being rediscovered and introduced the technique to Wilson. For many years, Wilson made etchings and mezzotints, but after the market for them collapsed, he turned his hand to other things, including painting, designing dioramas for the Natural History Museum (bottom) and designing stamps. This is what an art school training did for you. Walter Crane may have described the Royal College as a mill for teachers, but it provided Wilson with the means to make a living, even when the etching boom came to a sudden end.

I do not know when he was making mezzotints, but it was presumably prior to 1929. What I do know is it takes an artist of considerable dedication and skill to pull it off. Some of the best mezzotints were made in the c18th. I used to look at them when they were going for next-to-nothing in my local saleroom. The subtle effects it is capable of as a medium has also attracted contemporary Japanese printmakers, but like copper engraving, it may be too difficult for many artists. Wilson came right at the end of the reproductive tradition that had once had mezzotint and steel engraving as two of its mainstays and between them Short and Wilson helped reintroduce mezzotint as a way of making original prints.

You will find many artists using demanding techniques just as Wilson did on ebay in Austria and Germany. The format they use is often small and subtle, but many are worth buying simply because they are unfashionable. It is all very well going on about colour woodcuts, but quite often unfashionable artists were better trained and this can make their work particularly rewarding. Wilson is no exception and if you missed out on last week's sale (as I did), do not give in to despair. Modern Printmakers likes to keep its ear to the ground and I have it on good authority a few of those delightful Wilson mezzotints will soon be back on sale.