ng which
is so extraordinary, and so little understood (although it has been in
constant use for more than ten years), that it may be worth while to
explain, in a few words, the method as practised by Messrs. Boussod,
Valadon & Co., successors to Goupil, of Paris.

In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1882, Sir Frederick Leighton's
picture called "Wedded" will be remembered by many visitors. This
picture was purchased for Australia, and had to be sent from England
within a few weeks of the closing of the exhibition. There was no time
to make an engraving, or even an etching satisfactorily, and so the
picture was sent to Messrs. Goupil, who in a few weeks produced the
_photogravure_, as it is called, which we see in the printsellers'
windows to this day. The operation is roughly as follows:--First, a
photograph is taken direct from the picture; then a carbon print is
taken from the negative upon glass, which rests upon the surface in
delicate relief. From this print a cast is taken in reverse in copper,
by placing the glass in a galvanic bath, the deposit of copper upon the
glass taking the impression of the picture as certainly as snow takes
the pattern of the ground upon which it falls. Thus--omitting details,
and certain "secrets" of the process--it may be seen how modern science
has superseded much of the engraver's work, and how a mechanical process
can produce in a few days that which formerly took years.

What the permanent art-estimate of "photo-engraving" may be, as a
substitute for hand-work, is a question for the collectors of engravings
and etchings. In the meantime, it is well that the public should know
what a _photogravure_ is, as distinct from an engraving. The system of
mechanical engraving, in the reproduction of pictures, is spreading
rapidly over the world; but it should be observed that these
reproductions are not uniformly successful. One painter's method of
handling lends itself more readily than that of another to mechanical
engraving. Thus the work of the President of the Royal Academy would
reproduce better than that of Mr. G. F. Watts or Mr. Orchardson. That
the actual marks of the brush, the very texture of the painting, can be
transferred to copper and steel, and multiplied _ad infinitum_ by this
beautiful process, is a fact to which many English artists are keenly
alive. The process has its limits, of course, and _photogravure_ has at
present to be assisted to a considerable extent by the eng