''The Portfolio''

The Portfolio was a British monthly art magazine published in London from 1870 to 1893.^[1] It was founded by Philip Gilbert Hamerton and promoted contemporary printmaking, especially etching. Early contributors included Joseph Beavington Atkinson (1822–1886), Francis Turner Palgrave (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 Benjamin Damman (1835–1921) were a marked feature of the publication. The New York Times 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".^[2]

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