Leon R. Pescheret

LEON R. A Wanderer in

LEON R. PESCHERET is a nationally-known etcher who has wandered often through our West and has recorded in his color etchings ineffaceable impressions of some of the things he has seen and places he has been. His Arizona subjects are especially attractive and we are privileged to reproduce a few in these pages as well as some of his studies of Mexico and New Mexico.

Of the reproductions of Mr. Pescheret's work shown here all are color etchings with the exception of "Doña Berta's, Taxco," which is done in black and white. It should be pointed out that a color etching is not a colored etching. The difference is that a color etching is actually printed by hand, the artist applying the colors to the plate with the fingers with the use of colored ink. On the other hand a colored etching is simply a print that has been tinted after it has been printed. A color etching may gain a great deal of value as time goes on, for it is a genuine craft, whereas a colored etching will never be worth more than the paper on which it is printed. The late George Elbert Burr, of Arizona, one of the world's great etchers made a few color etchings

PESCHERET the Western Lands

that are extremely rare and valuable, and veritable treasures. Mr. Pescheret's color etchings are eleven inches by fourteen in size, of pleasing and delicate colors, conforming to the color of the theme. With realization of the care and painstaking effort put into them by the artist, the price he has put on them is exceptionally low.

"It should always be remembered," Mr. Pescheret says, "that prints are the average man's picture gallery, because oil paintings or water colors are more often than not priced beyond the means of many people. Because, once a copper plate is etched any number of prints can be pulled from the plate, which in turn should bring the purchase price within the reach of the multitude. It was Joseph Pennell, American etcher and great friend of Whistler, who said that in his opinion there was not a print made that when first issued should sell for more than ten dollars."

Mr. Pescheret was born of French parents in London in the last decade of last century and was educated at the Battersea Polytechnic. He came to America with his family in 1910 and while studying at the Chicago Art Institute worked at Marshall

Field's. Finishing his art studies in Chicago he took a position as architectural designer and draftsman, and specialized in interior designing until 1917 when he joined the army and served with the A. E. F. for 22 months in World War I.Returning from Europe he resumed his work as interior designer receiving many lucrative commissions. He made his first etching in 1926 and in 1930 decided to devote all of his time and attention to his art work. To perfect his technique in color etching he went abroad and studied in Belgium under Roger Hebbelinck, the color etcher to the crown of Belgium, and he also studied at the Royal College of Engraving in London under the guidance of Sir Malcolm Osborn and Robert Austin. Returning to the United States he settled at Whitewater, Wisconsin, where he now lives. He has won many prizes and his etchings are in a number of public and private collections both in this country and abroad.

From his home in Whitewater, Wisconsin, Mr. Pescheret has traveled throughout the United States and Mexico always sketching, always recording the impressions for his future work.

"I do a tremendous amount of sketching," he says, "rarely leaving the studio without my sketchbook. These sketches seldom bring forth the material for the finished picture, but give me an endless collection of documentarydata from which I draw upon to recreate the atmosphere of a particular scene or subject. This is particularly true of my etching of "Taxco, Old Mexico. Every individual building does exist but not in relation of one to the other as shown. Here I was aiming to give the feeling of the town and not an actual photo of it."

His journeys have often taken him into Arizona, and despite his wide knowledge of the most beautiful and picturesque places in this country, our land has effected him most of all. "Being European by birth and education," he explains, "I wish I could translate for you my first impression of Arizona. Not so much those sections of world renown, like the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert, but the general atmosphere of the entire country. Here was something new, yet so old that no one knows exactly when things came into being. I found a different way of life. Strange people whose way of life was different to any other anywhere else. Here was the pungent atmosphere of adventure for everyone. I was so consumed in looking and absorbing the effect of my new surroundings that I could hardly sketch on that first trip, everything appearing so heroic in proportion. Mr. Pescheret has succeeded in interpreting much of the beauty, the color and the "heroic" in our land. Arizona will continue to attract him as it does so many other artists for as he says there is so much more to be recorded.. R.C.