''The Portfolio'' was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

monthly art magazine published in London from 1870 to 1893. It was founded by Philip Gilbert Hamerton and promoted contemporary

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

, especially

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

, and was important in the British Etching Revival. Early contributors included

Francis Turner Palgrave Francis Turner Palgrave (; 28 September 1824 – 24 October 1897) was a British critic, anthologist and poet. Life He was born at Great Yarmouth, the eldest son of Francis Palgrave, Sir Francis Palgrave, the (born Jewish) historian to his wife ...

(1824–1897) and Sidney Colvin (1845–1927).

History

The mid-nineteenth century in France and Britain saw a rise in the interest in etching. Hamerton had spent the 1860s in France with his French wife, Eugénie. The impetus for the launch of ''The Portfolio'' came in the wake of the foundation in Paris of the Société des aquafortistes in 1862, and to a lesser extent from the longer established Etching Club from 1838. Etchings by many French etchers such as Paul Rajon (1843–1888) and Alfred Brunet-Debaines (1845–1939) were a marked feature of the publication. Indeed, ''The Standard'' remarked in 1874 that the publication's "speciality, as probably most people know, is the etchings with which it is adorned." Rajon published twelve etchings in the periodical before his untimely death. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' lavished praise on the publication when, in 1875, it remarked that it could not "eulogize too highly the merits of this periodical in all its departments. It is, without question, the most beautiful in regard to illustration which emanates from the press." The late nineteenth-century British author

George Gissing George Robert Gissing ( ; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. In the 1890s he was considered one of the three greatest novelists in England, and by the 1940s he had been ...

wrote in his diary for December 1895 (sic.) that he took the magazine for his son, because of its good pictures. In a survey of the etching revival in 1878 the '' Magazine of Art'' highlighted the centrality of Hamerton and his monthly magazine which had "so ably and unceasingly pleaded the cause of etching" in Britain. Marcus Bourne Huish, 'Etching in England:

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

I', ''Magazine of Art'', 1878, pp.146–48 (148).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portfolio 1870 establishments in England Magazines established in 1870 Magazines disestablished in 1893 Visual arts magazines published in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines published in London