REGULATIONS
Darwin L. Sorensen
I. INTRODUCTION
A. THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
Environmental management is accomplished principally in response to requirements in environmental laws and regulations. In more recent years "surrogate regulators" and the emergence of the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) have become important in affecting environmental management approaches. However, federal, state, and local regulations remain the greatest overall influence on the practice of environmental science, engineering, and sociology. Both government and private funding for environmental management activities become available in response to requirements to comply with environmental laws. In this way, environmental regulations become the framework for environmental management.
Environmental management has as its objective the protection of human health and well being, and the protection (preservation and conservation) of life forms and their habitats. Environmental statutes at the federal and state levels, as well as ordinances at the local government level, have this same broad objective. Understanding specific environmental management objectives in each law is critical to effective environmental management practice. The solution to environmental problems typically involves the cooperation of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. Scientists, engineers, sociologists, and lawyers frequently work together to design and implement processes or procedures to solve or prevent a real or perceived environmental problem. Legal, economic, natural systems, and engineered systems components may need to be integrated to arrive at an appropriate solution. It is easy for scientists and engineers, who often are focused on applications of science and technology to prevent or remedy environmental damage, to forget that the practice of environmental protection and management draws its authority from the concerns and desires of a community of people. These individuals, for the most part, do not have technical backgrounds and look to their elected representatives and the legal system to protect them from environmental harm. Again, laws and regulations provide the framework in which environmental protection and management are accomplished.
B. THE REGULATION SYSTEM
Over the past two decades environmental regulation has become a system in which laws, regulations, and guidelines have become interrelated. Requirements and procedures developed under previously existing laws may be referenced to in more recent laws and regulations. The history and development of our regulatory system has led to laws that focus principally on only one environmental medium, i.e., air, water, or land. Some environmental managers feel that more needs to be done to manage all of the media simultaneously. Hopefully, the environmental regulatory system will evolve into a truly integrated, multimedia management framework.
Federal laws are the product of Congress. Regulations written to implement the law are promulgated by the Executive Branch of government, but until judicial decisions are made regarding the interpretations of the regulations, there may be uncertainty about what regulations mean in real situations. Until recently, environmental protection groups were most frequently the plaintiffs in cases brought to court seeking interpretation of the law. Today, industry has become more active in this role. Forum shopping, the process of finding a court that is more likely to be sympathetic to the plaintiffs' point of view, continues to be an important tool in this area of environmental regulation. Many environmental cases have been heard by the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. Enforcement approaches for environmental regulations are environmental management oriented in that they seek to remedy environmental harm, not simply a specific infraction of a given regulation. All laws in a legal system may be used in enforcement to prevent damage or threats of damage to the environment or human health and safety. Tax laws (e.g., tax incentives) and business regulatory laws (e.g., product claims, liability disclosure) are examples of laws not directly focused on environmental protection, but that may also be used to encourage compliance and discourage non-compliance with environmental regulations.
Common law also plays an important role in environmental management. Common law is the set of rules and principles relating to the government and security of persons and property. Common law authority is derived from the usages and customs that are recognized and enforced by the courts. In general, no infraction of the law is necessary when establishing a common law suit. Legal precedent often forms the foundation for common law court actions. A common law "civil wrong" (i.e., environmental pollution) that is brought to court is called a tort. Environmental torts may arise because of nuisance, trespass, or negligence.
Laws tend to be general and contain uncertainties relative to the implementation of principles and concepts they contain. Regulations derived from laws may be more specific, but are also frequently too broad to allow clear translation into environmental
technology practice. Permits may be used in the environmental regulation industry to bridge this gap and provide specific, technical requirements imposed on a facility by the regulatory agencies for the discharge of pollutants or on other activities carried out by the facility that may impact the environment. Most major federal environmental laws provide for citizen law suits . This empowers individuals to seek compliance or monetary penalties when these laws are violated and regulatory agencies do not take enforcement action against the violator.
C. ABOUT THE PROBLEMS IN THIS CHAPTER
The problems in this chapter emphasize regulatory response, but also include issues related to surrogate regulators and surrogate regulation. In addition, an overview of major federal environmental laws and an introduction to some more specific environmental regulatory issues (e.g., takings) are presented through the problems contained in this chapter
ll. PROBLEMS
1. Regulations Problem 1. (environmental laws, regulations). [sn]. Briefly describe the major laws that address the various environmental-related issues currently of concern in the U.S.
2 . Regulations Problem 2 . (environmental laws, guidelines, regulations). [dls] . How are the environmental laws, regulations, guidelines and case-specific interpretations by the courts becoming a "system" for managing the environment in the U .S.? Provide at least one example of such a "system" and include your source or reference for this example.
3. Regulations Problem 3. (environmental laws, Common Law). [dls]. What is the utility of Common Law in environmental management?
4. Regulations Problem 4. (environmental laws, environmental management, risk reduction). [dls]. Explain the relationships among federal environmental laws, environmental management and health risk reduction in the U.S.
5. Regulations Problem 5 . (environmental laws, environmental management). [dls]. Are U.S. environmental regulations a good initial model for environmental management elsewhere in the world? Provide specific explanations and comments.
6 . Regulations Problem 6 . (environmental laws, "takings"). [dls]. Describe the issue of "takings" under environmental laws . Which laws are most involved in this issue?
7. Regulations Problem 7. (environmental laws, ARARs, NCP). [dls]. What are ARARs under the National Contingency Plan? Give an example for a Superfund site.
8. Regulations Problem 8. (environmental laws, pollution prevention, Pollution Prevention Act). [dls] . Describe similar features and incentives between existing industrial pollution prevention programs (e.g., 3M's 3Ps) and implementation of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.
9. Regulations Problem 9. (enforcement, surrogate regulations). [hb]. One of the defining characteristics of the 1990s has been the movement of the federal government towards ever tighter and tighter budgets. This movement has persisted through both Republican and Democratic administrations. One consequence of the budget cuts has been to reduce the ability of the U.S . EPA to pursue enforcement of its regulations. The states also have limited resources for enforcement.
9. Regulations Problem 9. [hb] (continued)
Some experts, however, have claimed that certain market forces have served to pressure business to continue observing the regulations. These market forces are called "surrogate regulators." List six possible surrogate regulators and briefly explain how each works towards the enforcement of environmental regulations.
10. Regulations Problem 10. (OSHA, regulations, U.S. EPA). [mh]. In a short two paragraph essay describe what the acronym OSHA means and why this law and agency were established.
11. Regulations Problem 11. (criteria, hazardous waste, properties, RCRA). [dj]. List the general criteria that, under the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of 1984, are used to define the types of wastes that are hazardous.
12. Regulations Problem 12. (criteria, hazardous waste, properties, RCRA). [dj]. List and quantify the four chemical properties against which a non-specific waste is evaluated to determine if it is hazardous as defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976.
13. Regulations Problem 13. (CERCLA, legislation, Superfund). [dj].
a. Explain the words in the acronym CERCLA.
b. When and why was CERCLA enacted?
c. What was the purpose of the Superfund provision of CERCLA?
14. Regulations Problem 14. (CERCLA, Superfund, prosecution, liability). [mh]. With regard to CERCLA (Superfund), what are the three main powers that the U.S. EPA possesses in order to prosecute alleged offenders of the Superfund laws?
15. Regulations Problem 15. (hazardous waste, solid waste, waste management, waste laws, regulations). [wma]. You and your family have chosen to pursue a new lifestyle and purchased a small farm in the Midwest. While excavating the foundation for a new barn, you discover three buried drums. The drums are nearly full of a dark gray substance, but have no labels or other identifying marks to suggest origin or content.
a. What federal environmental law or laws may apply to this situation?
b. As a responsible citizen (but with limited finances), what steps should you take to assure proper disposal of this material?
16. Regulations Problem 16. (emergency planning and community right-to-know, EPCRA, SARA Title III, toxic release inventory, TRI). [hb]. One fundamental goal of any Environmental Management System is to prevent releases of harmful chemicals into the environment. Yet, in the past, it was difficult to know if this goal was being met across the nation. Partly as a means to remedy this problem, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) was passed in 1986. It was originally known as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986. One section of EPCRA establishes reporting requirements for the release of a number of chemicals. Chemicals subject to the law include Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) chemicals, hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), extremely hazardous substances under EPCRA Section 302, and the chemicals listed as toxic under EPCRA Section 313. The reported releases are compiled by the U.S. EPA into a Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) which is published annually and made available to the public in a computerized database.
a. Explain who is subject to the release reporting requirements under EPCRA.
b. What constitutes a reportable release?
17. Regulations Problem 17. (Superfund, budget). [mh]. Today, with so many concerns involving the federal budget, the CERCLA (Superfund) program has come under significant criticism. Since 1980 only approximately 400 of over 2,100 sites have been remediated and closed, while budget expenditures have reached more than $10 billion. Why have so few sites been cleaned?
18. Regulations Problem 18. (Clean Air Act, U.S. EPA, state and local agencies). [mh]. What should small businesses know about the 1990 Clean Air Act?
19. Regulations Problem 19. (air pollution, air quality standards, ozone). [wma]. A metropolitan area has recently measured elevated concentrations of ozone, and been declared "nonattainment" with respect to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for this pollutant. How are each of the following types of local industries likely to be affected by this designation? Be specific.
a. coal-fired power plant
b. petroleum refinery
c. sawmill
20. Regulations Problem 20. (air pollution, air pollution regulations, air pollution law). [wma]. Air pollution regulatory strategy may include the "bubble policy." Such a policy is likely to receive wide support from industrial air pollution sources. Explain what this policy is and why industry would support it.
21. Regulations Problem 21. (Clean Air Act, acronyms, MACT). [hb]. The Clean Air Act and the people who work with it use a large number of acronyms with dizzying frequency . Knowledge of these acronyms is an absolute necessity for communicating with professionals in the environmental management field. Provide the meaning of the following acronyms.
Each of your answers should be approximately one or two paragraphs long.
a. MACT. Explain how MACT applies to attainment areas, non-attainment areas, major stationary sources, hazardous air pollutants (Section 112 of Title Ill), consideration of cost, new sources, existing sources, and the issuing of permits.
b . RACT. Explain how RACT is used in an environmental management system. How does RACT apply to existing major stationary sources, National Ambient Air Quality Standards, process modifications, considerations of cost, social impacts, and alternate approaches to meeting Clean Air Act requirements.
c. .QN. Explain how CTGs apply to existing nonattainment area major stationary sources.
d. NSPS. Discuss how NSPSs are used in an environmental management system. Explain how NSPSs apply to attainment areas, nonattainment areas, major new stationary sources, modified stationary sources, specific pollutants, energy needs, consideration of costs, work practices, alternate ways of reducing regulated emissions, and the issuing of permits.
e. LAER. Describe under what circumstances LAER might be part of an environmental management system. Discuss how LAER applies to attainment areas, non-attainment areas, new major stationary sources, modified major stationary sources, specific pollutants, specific sources, categories of sources, considerations of cost, and the issuing of permits.
21. Regulations Problem 21. [hb] (continued)
f. £SD_. Discuss how PSD might be incorporated into an environmental management system. Explain how PSD applies to attainment areas, new stationary sources, the modification of stationary sources, specific sources, specific pollutants, hazardous air pollutants (Section 112 of Title III), specific categories of sources, quantities of pollutant(s) emitted , consideration of cost, considerations of energy use, economic considerations, and the issuing of permits. Indicate why the application of PSDs is controversial.
22. Regulations Problem 22 . (BACT, MACT, specific sources, source categories). [hb]. Environmental management systems must obviously take into account environmental laws and regulations. In some cases, the job is severely complicated by disputes over the meaning of the regulations. For example, the Clean Air Act of 1990 and the regulations issued by the U.S. EPA implementing the Act speak of the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) as well as of the Best Available Control Technology (BACT). These two terms appear to have the same meaning, i.e., the "Maximum" would also have to be the "Best," and if the technology is "Achievable," it would also have to be "Available."
Explain the difference between the terms MACT and BACT. How is each term defined and applied?
ill. SOLUTIONS
1. Regulations Solution 1. [sn].
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. Establishes a federal policy of environmental protection for and by all Americans. Requires the preparation of environmental impact statements for all federal actions. Establishes the Council on Environmental Quality.
• Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970; last amended in 1990. Seeks to protect the nation's air quality by imposing emission standards on stationary and mobile sources of air pollution.
• Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1971. Focused on work place safety and regulates safe use and disposal of chemicals. Information developed by the National Institutes of Occupational Health (NIOSH) under this law helps in assessing health risks of chemicals in the environment. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) produced as part of the "Worker-Right-To-Know" provisions of OSHA are used to comply with the "Community-RightTo-Know" requirements under CERCLA (see below).
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. (Name changed to the Clean Water Act (CWA) by 1977 amendments). Seeks to restore and maintain the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters by imposing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit system, setting in-stream water quality standards, and requiring clean up of oil spills.
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, commonly known as "Superfund." Attempts to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites that were in existence prior to the passage of RCRA (see below).
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) of 194 7. Seeks to ensure that society reaps the benefits of pesticide use, with minimum risk to human health and the environment.
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976. Requires "cradle to grave" management of hazardous waste including permitting of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. Also establishes rules governing the proper disposal of non-hazardous solid waste.
• Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of 1984. Broadens the scope of RCRA and includes provisions to protect the quality of groundwater.
• Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990. Mandates a national policy regarding a hierarchy of preferred waste management approaches: source reduction, recycle, treatment, and disposal, all to be conducted in an environ-
1. Regulations Solution 1. [sn] (continued)
mentally sound manner. The act also encourages industry to voluntarily reduce the amount of waste generated during the manufacturing process.
• Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974, last amended in 1996. Aims for the protection of "sole source" aquifers and other aquifers from contamination resulting from underground injection of waste.
• Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986. Addresses concepts regarding financial liability for hazardous waste. Established the "Community-Right-ToKnow" rules under Title III, requiring industrial disclosure of legal releases of hazardous substances to the environment, and the development of state and local planning committees organized to prepare for emergency responses to accidental chemical releases.
• Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) of 1976. Regulates the manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce, use, and disposal of certain chemical substances and mixtures.
2. Regulations Solution 2. [dis]. Some environmental laws make reference to other laws and recent regulations draw authority from more than one law to accomplish an environmental management goal. The courts use precedence from cases tried under one environmental law to support a decision under another law. In general, regulatory agencies and the courts tend to use their authority and the regulations from any source in their jurisdiction to protect human health and the environment. Even tax and business regulations may be used in enforcement actions, where appropriate, to force companies to do what is prudent in order to protect the environment.
A prominent example of this concept is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (40 CFR § 9 and 300) also known as the National Contingency Plan or NCP. This regulation, which was developed by U.S. EPA to establish a system for responding to oil and hazardous substances releases, draws its authority from both the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund). The NCP regulations are multimedia in scope, i.e., they deal with pollution of water, soil, and the atmosphere.
Another example lies within Superfund itself. This law requires that any substance listed as hazardous under any other environmental law (e.g., Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, etc.) is to be considered as hazardous under Superfund.
3. Regulations Solution 3. [dls]. Common Law represents the rules and principles relating to the government and security of
3 . Regulations Solution 3. [dls] (continued)
persons and property that is derived from natural reason, our innate sense of justice , and the dictates of conscience Its authority is derived from uses and customs recognized and enforced by the courts. Common Law deals with complaints brought to court because of negligence, trespass, or nuisance. In theory, any citizen with a legitimate complaint can sue another citizen or company who has wronged him or her in order to force them to change their behavior and pay for damages suffered because they were negligent, etc. There does not have to be any violation of law by the person or company being sued. This can be a powerful tool against polluters when their contamination of the air, surface water, groundwater, or soil environment impacts neighbors.
4. Regulations Solution 4 . [dls] . People in the western world began to recognize the role of a clean environment in protecting their health with the substantiation of the germ theory of disease in the latter half of the 19th century. The first federal environmental law (The River and Harbors Act) was passed in 1899. In 1912, the U S Public Health Service was established. From about this point in time, the incidence in the U .S. of many diseases has decreased and life expectancy has increased. Of course, major advances in food preservation and medical practice have also contributed substantially to improved health, but many of the improvements are due to a cleaner environment, including cleaner water and air. These improvements have paralleled the passage of federal environmental laws and the changes in environmental management that have come about because of the requirements of these laws.
5. Regulations Solution 5. [dls]. Possible Answer 1. Yes. The U.S . system of environmental management evolved in response to public perceptions of a need to provide a cleaner environment following the industrialization of this country. This system is, in general, able to protect public health in a complex, industrial society. Developed and developing nations of the world who choose to model their environmental management system after that of the U . S . take advantage of decades of experience in addressing environmental problems .
Possible Answer 2. No . While the U.S . has a highly developed and relatively effective system of managing the environment and protecting public health in an industrialized nation, its system is dependent on the prosperity and public service infrastructure that exists in this country . The costs of environmental protection in the U.S. have been excessive, i.e., the system has not been costeffective. For most of the world, neither the financial freedom, nor the public infrastructure exists to support an environmental
5. Regulations Solution 5. [dls] (continued)
management system like that currently used in the U.S. Other systems must be developed that may use basic ideas from the U.S. system, but which provide other incentives and recognize the customs and limited monetary resources of the nations where they will be applied.
6. Regulations Solution 6. [dls]. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution requires that citizens be compensated fairly for property taken by the government for the public good. It has been argued that environmental regulations that interfere with the use of property reduce the value of the property, effectively "taking" it from the owner. Wetlands protection provisions under the Clean Water Act and habitat protection requirements under the Endangered Species Act are the most common causes for this issue to arise.
7. Regulations Solution 7. [dls]. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan ( 40 CFR § 9 and 300), also known as the National Contingency Plan (NCP), has a requirement under CERCLA remediation rules to:
"Establish remedial action objectives specifying contaminants and media of concern, potential exposure pathways, and remediation goals. Initially, preliminary remediation goals are developed based on readily available information, such as chemical-specific ARARs "
ARARS are Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements and are defined as, "Those cleanup standards, standards of control, and other substantive requirements, criteria, or limitations promulgated under federal environmental or state environmental or facility siting laws that, while not 'applicable' to hazardous substance, pollutant, contaminant, remedial action, location, or other circumstances at a CERCLA site, address problems or situations sufficiently similar to those encountered at the CERCLA site that their use is well suited to the particular site. Only those state standards that are identified in a timely manner and are not more stringent than federal requirements may be relevant and appropriate."
8. Regulations Solution 8. [dls]. Many companies and government agencies had pollution prevention programs in operation prior to 1990. 3M calls their program Pollution Prevention Pays (3Ps). The 3Ps program contains provisions for recognizing 3M employees who suggest changes in operations that result in less pollution by the company. The Pollution Prevention Act requires U.S. EPA to establish an annual award program to
8. Regulations Solution 8. [dis] (continued)
recognize companies which operate outstanding or innovative source reduction programs. It also requires U.S. EPA to establish a system for sharing pollution prevention information and technology among U.S. companies.
9. Regulations Solution 9. [hb]. The six surrogate enforcers are:
a. banks
b. insurance companies
c. accounting firms
d. investors and shareholders
e. international standards
f. the public
a. Banks regularly lend large amounts of money to corporations to enable them to conduct business and to grow. Indeed, large corporations could not function in the modern economy without such loans. Even small companies routinely borrow money from banks. The banks hope, of course, to make a profit from the interest on the loans. Of vital concern to the bank, therefore, is the ability of the corporation or small business to repay the loans. Banks have become acutely aware that environmental liabilities could reduce a company's ability to repay a loan and even drive large corporations (such as Johns-Manville) into bankruptcy. Should a bank have to foreclose on a company, it might even inherit the company's environmental liabilities. Banks thus check into a company's environmental liabilities which has the indirect effect of enforcing environmental regulations.
b. Insurance companies provide many types of insurance policies to protect companies from a wide variety of risks. Among them are policies that insure against environmental risk and protect the officers of the company against direct liability claims. Insurance companies base premiums on their estimate of the risk of having to pay a benefit. To determine that premium, insurance companies investigate a company's environmental liabilities. Poor environmental management practices would result in high premiums or perhaps inability to get any insurance at all. Such an outcome would, at the least, reduce the profits of the company and could prevent it from getting the investments it needs to continue in business. The officers of the company would also feel directly and personally threatened if they could not get insurance to protect them from environmental liability generated law suits. The company is thus motivated by the insurance companies to adopt sound environmental management practices. Consequently, the insurance companies are indirectly enforcing environmental regulations.
9. Regulations Solution 9. [hb] (continued)
c. Recent actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have required accounting firms to clearly report a corporation's environmental liabilities on the balance sheet of the corporation's required audit. Poor environmental management practices leading to significant liabilities will now be very difficult to hide. The SEC has threatened to suspend trading in the stock of any corporation that does not comply with the new rules. Accounting firms that do not comply could risk their very existence. Thus, the SEC and accounting firms indirectly enforce environmental regulations
d. The actions of banks, insurance companies, and accounting firms based on a corporation's environmental management practices and consequent environmental liabilities are more visible than ever to investors and shareholders. Investors will avoid companies with such liabilities and shareholders might sell or, worse, sue the officers of the corporation. The threat of falling stock prices and law suits again result, indirectly, in enforcement of environmental regulations.
e. ISO 14000 is a voluntary Standard of Environmental Management Systems developed in Geneva, Switzerland by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It does not require compliance with the regulations of the country in which the company is located. If, as expected, many countries adopt laws that require imported products to have been produced by companies certified as adhering to ISO 14000, then environmental practices will almost certainly be improved. Although compliance with the regulations is not a requirement for ISO 14000 certification, good environmental management systems are. It seems likely that an increase in good environmental management systems would also result in increased compliance with the regulations. The voluntary ISO 14000 standard is thus indirectly resulting in enforcement of environmental regulations.
f. The public has demonstrated repeatedly that it supports good environmental management practices. The public is more aware than ever of environmental issues and of the companies that have a poor environmental image. A significant portion of the public is even willing to pay more for a product that is produced in an environmentally friendly way than a cheaper product from an environmentally unfriendly producer. Corporations listen closely to the desires of the buying public. The result is that the public is yet another indirect enforcer of environmental regulations.
10. Regulations Solution 10. [mh]. The acronym OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which was formed under the provisions of the Act. OSHA was created in 1970, the same year that the U.S. EPA was formed. OSHA was created to protect safety
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VIII.
SAMUEL PALMER.
SAMUEL PALMER—an English classic, by this time, as a painter of water-colours— made (from the year 1850, or thereabouts, onward to his old age in the seventies) a limited number of elaborate etchings in which the play of line is almost wholly lost: more lost, much more lost, than in the etchings of Méryon. But Samuel Palmer, like Méryon, was a great poetic artist. Slowly he built up his effects, his noble sunrise or sunset landscapes—the landscape of artistic convention and poetic vision. The unity and strength of his thought was never sacrificed or frittered by the elaboration of his labour. To condemn him then, because he was not a free sketcher, would be as pedantic as to condemn Méryon. Nay more, were any such pedantic condemnation meted out to him, it would have to be meted out to the author of the “Ephraim Bonus” in his turn; since it is a characteristic of Rembrandt that in
his engraved as in his painted work he allowed himself an amazing elasticity of method. Rembrandt, like every great man, is super grammaticam. He was a law unto himself. And so, in a measure, was Samuel Palmer, the creator of the solemn plates of “The Early Ploughman” and “The Herdsman,” and of certain hardly less admirable coppers which illustrate his own translation of the Eclogues of Virgil.
SAMUEL PALMER.
“THE HERDSMAN.”
WHISTLER.
IPASS from the brief mention of a dignified artist, high of soul—whose work is charged with reverie, grandeur, admonishment—to the consideration of an artist little concerned, in emotional or reflective or didactic way at least, with Humanit fortunes, but the most skilled wielder of the etching-needle whom the world has seen since Rembrandt.
Mr. Whistle scarcely sympathetic attitude towards his kind may be occasioned in part by the conviction that it is his kin most urgent business to be concerned with his prints, and his knowledge that this conviction of his own—if thus I dare to call it—has not, until the last few years, been largely shared by other people. Popular he could not be; or scarcely in his own time. A Sarasate, with his music, attracts the world; but in pictorial art of every sort the virtuoso appeals only to his brethren. His “brethren”—his real brethren—are quite as likely indeed to be connoisseurs as fellow-workmen. But “brethren” shall be the word. And it is such who—some of them for more than thirty years, and some of them since yesterday—have recognized the genius of Whistler.
Our admirable comedian, Mr Toole, is—if I may recall the saying of one of his fellow artists—commonly supposed to have been born in every town of the English provinces, in which the receipts, when he visits it, do their part to justify that town in claiming him as a native. Not quite for the same reason there are towns which dispute with Baltimore the honour of having given birth to the artist of the “French Set,” the “Thames Set,” and the “Twenty-Six Etchings.” Mr Whistler was born, anyhow, of American parents—I like Baltimore so much, that I hope it is only Baltimore that can fairly claim him—and it is stated to have been in July, 1834, that he came into the world.[2] American then by birth, or family association, he is to a great extent French by education, and his first dated etchings, of the year 1857, were wrought when he was a student in Paris. Along with a popular English draughtsman of Society, he was in the studio of Gleyre, and to Gleyre, for all that I know, he may owe something; but no debt is apparent in his work. A few etchings wrought in Paris, and a few during a journey in Alsace and Lorraine, and then in 1859 we find Whistler settled in London and busy with the laborious series of etchings of the Thames.
He was himself almost from the beginning, though it is possible to trace the influence of even minor Dutch etchers, or Dutch painters at all events, in such a tentative little work as “The Dutchman Holding the Glass,” and though in the nobler plates known as the “RagGatherers,” “La Vieille aux Loques,” “La Marchande de Moutarde,” and “The Kitchen,” it is clear that Whistler in his conception of a subject was scarcely without reverent thought of the great masters of pathetic suggestion and poetic chiaroscuro—Rembrandt, De Hooch, and Nicholas Maes. But by the time he executed the most justly famous etchings of the Thames set—the most famous of the “Sixteen Etchings,” such as “Black Lion Wharf,” “The Pool,” and “Thames Police”—he was himself, wholly. He was in full possession of what may be called his earlier manner. Nay, in December, 1859—not many months after
these things had been wrought with a minuteness of detail which the art of Van der Heyden or of Hollar could not have
J. McNEIL WHISTLER. “THAMES POLICE.”
excelled—we find in one unfinished plate of extreme interest and extraordinary rarity (“Paris: Isle de la Cité”) some union of his earlier realization with his later suggestiveness.
The early detail of Whistler, in the Thames etchings, is never for a moment dull. He puts down for us on the copper endless results of endless and interesting observation. The life of the River, “below bridge,” and the life of riverside London is all there—barge and bargee, crane and warehouse, wharf and chimney, clipper and wherry, and the sluggish stream, the flat horizon, the distant river-curve, the tower of Rotherhithe Church, rising perhaps from out of the remote and low-lying roofs. And, elaborate as the work is, it is never for a moment either fatigued or mechanical: it preserves inviolate the freshness and vivacity which it is the province of the etching to retain. Nor does the work of Whistler, either at this period or later, ever lose sight of that which, again, it is the etche special business to cultivate—the value of pure “line.” By “pure,” I do not mean Classic (Classic line has other functions): I mean the line that is expressive—that is set with a purpose; that, being laid, is not interfered with—the line that lives and that tells its story
By 1863—as is shown by the exquisite “Chelsea Wharf,” with its quiet of the suburban afternoon, and by the admirable “Amsterdam,” with its houses, its shipping, its thin line of long flat coast under a wildish sky[3]—Whistler had thoroughly entered upon the work of his middle period. A manner more suggestive to the expert, and more economical to the artist, though received less readily by the first-comer, was by this time clearly upon him; and, with certain modifications, it has continued to this day. Perhaps it is most distinctly marked in that Leyland period—a period of the rare dry-points of the Leyland family—
which, after a little interval, succeeded the period of the “Chelsea Wharf” and the “Amsterdam.” It is in its perfection in “The Model Resting” (1870), in “Fanny Leyland” (1873), and in “Dam Wood” (1875)—all of them rare, desirable, notable plates of the true Leyland period, in most of which, as in some of his later work, Mr Whistler would seem— if I may put it so—to have painted upon the plate as much as drawn: to have sought, that is, painte as well as draughtsma qualities.
I endeavour to note the distinctions, but after some fourteen years of close study of Mr. Whistle works—and of fruitful enjoyment of their possession—I must still guard myself against expressing any marked preference for one period over another The work of each period has its own qualities, and, since all Art is concession and compromise, the work of each period may have likewise its own deficiencies. Practically there has been no “bad time;” but at more times than one there have been—even from this gifted hand— unsatisfactory, unworthy prints.
In 1879, the great etcher went to Venice, at the instance of the Fine Art Society, and there, in line extraordinarily expressive and vivacious, he recorded, not so much the recognized beauties of the town, as the vividness and variety of his personal impressions. That was his true business. Some of these etchings were exhibited before they were properly finished—finer effects remained, I mean, to be obtained from the plates. Hence they were received, perhaps, with more than customary coldness, though the fairy-like “Little Venice,” nearly perfect to begin with, was always an exception to the rule. There is nothing of Rembrand, there is nothing of Méryo, besides which this diminutive masterpiece may not most fitly be placed. Power of selection, power of composition, delicacy of handling, all say their last word in the “Little Venice.” Art does not go any further.
Since 1880, when they were first exhibited, many of the plates done in Venice have been taken up and perfected. The “Piazzetta,” for instance—unattractive at first: a ragged thing, or a skeleton—has somewhat lately been brought to the highest level that is attained by any etche art. And, several years ago, Mr. Whistler perfected for the limited issue by the Messrs. Dowdeswell, the “Twenty-six” plates—most of them Venetian in theme—which had, fortunately, been bought by hardly anybody (I may suppose) until, in 1886, their excellence was achieved. In this set, the entrancing freedom and inexhaustible suggestiveness of “The Balcony” and “The Garden” demand note: the balcony that, with drapery flung upon it, hangs over and overlooks the Grand Canal: the garden which passing humanity peers into, and peering, perhaps reflects with the Greek poet whose youth was gone:
“Spring for the tree and herb; no spring for us ”
It was in 1886 that I published my “Whistle Etchings: a Study and a Catalogue.” About two hundred and fourteen etchings had then been executed; and these—the work of what must necessarily be the better part of Mr. Whistle lifetime—were carefully described as well as appreciated. I hope the book was not
without effect, in England and America, on the demand for Mr. Whistle prints, many of which, however, were already unobtainable, so narrowly limited had been their issue, and so various, during all those years, the fortunes of the plates. But if old etchings were difficult to get, new ones were not wanting. There cropped up, under my notice, ingenious but insignificant croquis, declared by dealers, interested in them, to be valuable, because they were “undescribed.” Why were they “undescribed?” Because, it seems, they had only at that moment been done. Plates with a few scratches on them—clever, since they were
J. McNEIL WHISTLER. “THE PIAZZETTA.”
Whistle, but each plate less important than the last—passed quickly into the hands of men who had, presumably, much money and only a little knowledge.
During the last five or six years, with a creditable and natural reaction from what would seem to have been a fever of immature fruitfulness—in the midst of which, after all, this exquisite and ever dainty artist did, of course, nothing ugly, though much that was rather provokingly thin—Mr. Whistler has, from time to time, produced a few new plates of serious interest and of finest accomplishment. The Brussels group belongs, in spirit, if not precisely in fact, to these latest years; and charming is the seeming intricacy, yet assured lightness, of the Whistlerian treatment of Flemish house-front. Again, there are delightful little things wrought in the country of the Loire: not solid records, but, as it were, fleeting visions of its architecture, and very fascinating. But the best of all the later work, and it is among the very latest that has yet been seen, is the quite admirable “Zandaam,” over whose stretched line the breeze from across dyke and fen and Zuyder Zee, stirs here, stirs there, stirs everywhere, the wings of the windmills of Holland.
SEYMOUR HADEN. “TREE STUDY.”
X.
SEYMOUR HADEN.
SEVERAL years before Mr. Whistler etched at all—in 1843 and 1844 indeed—a now veteran artist, President “de sa propre Académie,” who has been famous surgeon as well as famous etcher—founder of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, energetic advocate, by speech and writing, of the art he loves—drew delicately upon six tiny plates what were meant to be the beginnings of landscapes in mid-Italy. As rare as anything in Mr. Whistle long œuvre—though, as their author knows, in themselves far less desirable—are the impressions of those little plates, which few have seen, but which I beheld, perhaps ten or twelve years ago, strengthened here and there with pencil-work, yet even then only feebly holding their own, among the abundant treasures of an upper chamber in Hertford Street—the almost unknown initial chapter, they, in the sturdy and now celebrated volume of Seymour Hade etched work.
The days when they were executed were about the days of the Etching Club, a body which in its turn was followed by the Junior Etching Club. These clubs left us no legacy we care to inherit; their productions were for the most part fidgety, prim, at best desperately pretty and ridiculously elaborated, so that there was practically nothing in them of visible and expressive line. A little—just a little—of that visible line there was—there actually was, even in an unenlightened period—in those few trifling plates of Seymour Hade on which his first work was accomplished. He wrought nothing for many years afterwards. Then, in 1858, when Whistler, by this time his brother-in-law, was already busy, Seymour Haden—urged thereto by the knowledge of good work executed in France at that moment, and by a fitting reverence for the master etchings of Rembrandt—took up some coppers seriously; and he set down upon them, in this and the few following years, with an appreciation not less certain and immediate than Mr. Whistle of those laws to which etchings should conform, his powerful and personal impressions of English landscape, of the trout stream, and the stately river, of forest trees, a sunset over the Thames, of the yews and cedars of an English country-house (“Mytton Hall”), of the reflections, in some quiet
SEYMOUR HADEN.
“THOMAS HADEN, AFTER WRIGHT OF DERBY”
SEYMOUR HADEN.
“KIDWELLY TOWN.”
water, of the homely buildings of a little whitewashed town in Wales (“Kidwelly Town”).
A few years later, when the achievements of Haden had grown numerous, the intelligent French critic, Monsieur Philippe Burty (whom the revival of etching greatly interested), praised and chronicled them in the “Gazette des Beaux-Arts.” There were fifty or sixty prints by that time. This was in 1864. And in 1865 and 1866, about thirty of them —including the minor but still attractive plates used as “head” or “tail-pieces”—were formally published in Paris, with a French text which consisted in part of an excellent analytical and didactic letter, written in the foreign tongue, by the artist to Monsieur Burty 1864 and 1865 were years of great productiveness, and among educated lovers of Art, at home and in France, popularity, hitherto denied to the etcher—for Whistler was little appreciated and Méryon was starving—courted Haden with its blandishments, or threatened him with its dangers. Of the “Shere Mill Pond” Mr Hamerton spoke in “Etching and Etchers” in terms of what I cannot but think was somewhat exaggerated praise. In 1870, the large and impressive plate of “The Breaking up of the ‘Agamemnon’”—“large” I say; not “huge,” for “the huge plate is an offence”—put the coping-stone upon that edifice of Seymour Hade celebrity to which the writings of Mr. Hamerton (in the now standard volume I have already referred to) had contributed an important storey. Mr. Hamerton, at that period, there can be little question, did not fully appreciate Mr Whistler I am not certain that he ever did. He already wrote of him—need I say?—with intelligence and interest, but his enthusiasm was reserved, so far as the moderns are concerned, for Méryon and for Haden.
Save for an exceptional activity in the year 1877—the year of the Dorsetshire drypoints and of the Spanish etchings—the productiveness of Seymour Haden, since 1869, began visibly to slacken. In 1879 it stopped. The 185 etchings chronicled by Sir William Drake in “A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Francis Seymour Haden” had all been executed; and soon afterwards—either during Seymour Hade visit to America or during a visit of Mr. Keppe to these shores—the veteran artist said to the New York printdealer: “I shall etch no more.” I imagine Mr. Keppe countenance of surprise and regret, and Seymour Hade interested observation of it. But the incident was not over The artist brought out his etching-needle; looked at it; placed it gravely in
SEYMOUR HADEN. “THE WATER MEADOW.”
SEYMOUR HADEN. “WINDMILL HILL.”
Mr. Keppe hands. It was presented to him as a sign that that which had been spoken would surely be fulfilled, and the etcher would etch no more. Like Madame ArnouldPlessis, like Macready, too, but like how few of his fellows in any department of public effort, this artist withdrew himself from productiveness before ever the quality of his production had visibly failed.
Perhaps I shall do well, in one or two last paragraphs about him, to name, for convenience sake, a few of Sir Seymour Hade most excellent and most characteristic works —prints in which his vivid impression of the object or the scene before him has been most vividly or, it may be, subtly conveyed—prints, perhaps, which have his most distinguishing qualities of directness and vigour. The etchings of Seymour Haden are deliberately arrested at the stage of the frank sketch; but it is the sketch conceived nobly and executed with impulse. It is not the sketch upon the thumb-nail; it is not the memorandum that may be made upon a ma shirt-cuff at dinner-time, in the interval between the soup and the fish.
The tendency of his work, as time went on, was, as is usual, towards greater breadth; but, unless we are to compare only such a print as “Out of Study-Window,” say (done in 1859), with only the most admirable dry-point, “Windmill Hill” (done in 1877), there is no greatly-marked contrast, no surprise; there is but a steady and slow and apparently inevitable development. This I in part attribute to the fact that when Seymour Haden took up etching seriously in 1858, he was already middle-aged. He had lived for years in frequent intercourse with noble and accomplished Art; his view of Nature, and of the way of rendering her, or letting her inspire you, was large, and likely to be large, almost from the beginning. Yet, as time went on, there came, no doubt, an increasing love of the sense of spaciousness, of breadth, and of potent effect. The work was apt to become more dramatic and more moving. The hand asked the opportunity for the fuller exercise of its freedom.
“Sawley Abbey,” etched in 1873, is an instance of this, and I am glad to mention it, not alone for its merits, but because, like a certain number of its fellows among the later work, it is etched on zinc—a risky substance, which succeeds admirably when it succeeds, and when it fails, as Sir Seymour tells me, fails very much. “Windmill Hill,” “Nine-Barrow Down,” “Wareham Bridge,” and “The Little Boathouse,” and, again, that “Grim Spain” which illustrates my “Four Masters of Etching,” are the prints which I should most choose to possess
SEYMOUR HADEN. “SCOTCH FIRS.”
(The artis last etching.)
amongst those of Seymour Hade later time; whilst, going back to the period of 1864 and 1865, “Sunset on the Thames” is at the same time popular and strong, and “Penton Hook” remarkable for its draughtsmanship of tree-trunk and stump. Yet earlier—for they belong to 1860 and 1859—“Combe Bottom” is unsurpassed for sweetness and spontaneity, “Mytton Hall” for its full share of that element of Style which is never wholly absent from Seymour Hade work, and “The Water Meadow” is to be studied and enjoyed as an extraordinarily happy transcript of a sudden rain-storm in the Hampshire lowlands, where poplars flourish and grass grows rank.
ALPHONSE LEGROS.
MORE than one of the great etchers who must in fairness be treated with the British school are of foreign origin. Born at Dijon in 1837, and trained chiefly in Paris— painter, of course, as well as etcher—Alphonse Legros came to London when he was quite a young man. He has been amongst us since 1863. It was in Paris, about 1857, that he did his first etchings, and his surprising originality was declared from the beginning. The trivial, the accidental even, had no attractions for him. Even the quiet humour which one recognizes in his character, has no place in his work. Simple, serious, austere, highly refined, yet with curious tolerance of physical ugliness, and curious indifference to the beauty, at all events, of women, Monsieur Legros has conveyed to us, in his own leisurely and economical fashion, any time these thirty years, his vision of a world not ours, or
rather, very often, his vision of the deeper realities which underlie whatever may attract us on the surface.
LEGROS. “COMMUNION DANS GLISE ST. MÉDARD.
Legros has been concerned—and best of all concerned in etching—with many departments of Art. Like Mr. G. F. Watts, he has been fascinated, here and again, and very specially, by masculine intellect and character; masculine kindness, goodness, genius, energy Of Mr Watts himself—and fortunately in the medium of etching—he has made the happiest of all possible portraits, finding in the theme a gravity of manly beauty, a charm of approaching age, to which he has always been intensely sympathetic. Gambetta, too, and Sir Frederic Leighton, and Cardinal Manning—who, if he appealed to him at all, must have appealed to him on the side of austerity alone—have been the subjects of Legro etched portraiture. To each portrait he has given, though in very different measures, according as the subject wanted it, a nobility and dignity supplied by his own art and temperament, and by a sense of Style nourished upon the study of the Renaissance and of Rembrandt. And, on the other hand, upon each selected model whom he has treated in those other etchings which are not confessedly portraiture, he has bestowed the grave veracity, the verisimilitude of the portrait.
Hardly any of Legro work is dated, and, as time has passed, the changes in his method have not been very marked, though it is hardly to the earliest etching that we must go for his most trained draughtsmanship and most accomplished technique. On the other hand, the early work has about it a sometimes savage earnestness, a rapid and immediate expressiveness, a weirdness also, which are immensely impressive. Poetic and pathetic is it besides, sometimes to the last degree. “Les Chantres Espagnols,” for example, is the creation of a great artist: a most penetrating and pathetic study of physical and mental decay. It represents eight priestly singing men lifting up what hoarse and feeble voices they may be possessed of, in the hushed choir, by the uncertain light of torches, in the nigh most mysterious and most ominous hour.
Several among the more fascinating of these somewhat early etchings and dry-points record the life of the priesthood. In its visible dignity, its true but limited camaraderie, in its monotony and quietude, in its magnificence of service and symbol, the life of the priest, and of those who serve in a great church, has impressed Legros profoundly, and he has etched these men—one now reading a lesson, one waiting now with folded hands, one meditative, one observant, and now one offering up the
Host, and now another bending over the violoncello with slow movement of the hand that holds the bow Dignity and ignorance, pomp and power, weariness, senility, decay, and almost squalor—nothing has escaped him. In Literature, only a Balzac could have done equal justice to that which attracts, and to that which must needs repel.
LEGROS. “LA MORT ET LA BÛCHERON.”
Realist, but always poet, in his treatment of these themes—and in the treatment of such a dramatic plate as “ncendie,” such a nobly imaginative plate as “La Mort et le Bûcheron”—Legros, when he betakes himself to landscape, is realist no longer, or, rather, his realism here is shown only in his contentment with the homely scene, the most everyday material. Generally, on impression of his landscape is that it is built to some extent upon the memories of his youth; that, since then, a little observation has gone a long way—that he has cared to dream and fancy rather than to actually notice. Here and there, in his etchings, one maybe reminded of the uplands around Dijon, or of the chalk hills of the Boulognais, with its wide fields and haystacks, its gaunt outhouses—a land which rumours of “high farming” have never reached. As the railway train swept under the hillside, Legros, one thinks, may have profited by a glance from the windows. And out of the glance, and out of the memory, and out of the artis genuine sympathy with humble and monotonous days, there has grown a homely poem.
With Mr. Whistler, on the rare occasions on which he has treated it in his mature art (in the rare “Dam Wood” especially), Landscape becomes Decoration. With Sir Seymour Haden, landscape is a matter that must be energetically observed. Swift, skilful memoranda are taken of it—memoranda which are not the less scientific because they may be dramatic besides. With Legros, the landscape must submit to change, to simplification, to abstraction, generalization even, in the processes of his mind; and the picture which his hand fashions—the hand with reverie behind it—is one which travel will help no one to encounter, and experience help no one to realize. Yet it has its own value.
Before I leave this deeply interesting and so original artist, I will add that in the “Catalogue Raisonné de uvre gravé et lithographié lphonse Legros,” compiled by Messieurs Thibaudeau and Poulet-Malassis in 1877, there are chronicled 168 pieces, but that, writing to me ten years later, M. Thibaudeau was able to tell of nearly ninety additions to the list. Since then the number has been yet further extended, for Legros, to this day, has not ceased to etch.
XII.
WILLIAM STRANG.
PROFESSOR, during something like a score of years, at the Slade School in London, Legros had then a dominating influence upon many amiable followers who will hardly hereafter be heard of, and upon two or three clever people with a future in Art. Among these latter—if, for our present purpose, we disregard men who are painters exclusively, like Tuke and Gotch—the most conspicuous are William Strang and Charles Holroyd. Strang is the senior. He has thus far, naturally, been much the most prolific. He is also the most technically accomplished, and, more than any younger etcher of the day—almost as much, indeed, as Monsieur Legros—he has shown himself possessed of the vital gift of imagination. Like Legros, he has looked immensely at Old Masters—at the Italian Primitives and at Rembrandt—and has seen Nature in great measure through their eyes, and this as much when Humanity as when Landscape has been the object of his gaze. In Stran case, too, to these accepted and avowed Old Masters, there has come to be added another Old Master—I mean, Alphonse Legros.
Strang is a Scotsman. That devotion to the weirdness and the uncanny, which is a note of the full Celtic temperament, is shown amazingly in his selection of subject; he is, perhaps, most of all contented with himself when he sets himself to illustrate a ballad of the supernatural, written in a dialect into the last recesses of which I—who love best the English tongue—lack, I confess, the energy to penetrate. His imagination, however, is far from being exercised alone on these themes of the supernatural. It is occupied, not seldom, with as great a power, upon modern incidents treated with quaintness and intensity—the meditations of a jury, the expositions of a preacher, the rescue of the drowned from some dark river, the ill-bred hysteria of the Salvation Army. In portraiture, while it is yet visible, and even valuable, it is controlled sometimes by sense of Style, and then we have, as in the almost Vandyke-like portraits of Mr. Sichel, and of Jan Strang—the nearest approach which Mr. Strang suffers himself to make to the wide domain of beauty. His customary indifference to charm of form, to charm of
“THE POTATO BASKET”
STRANG.
