International studio (14.1901)

Home Arts and Industries

In his pastels Mr. Pryde shows that he frankly
accepts the limitations of his medium, and while
he gets as much as possible out of that medium,
he never commits the crowning stupidity of
attempting effects in pastel which properly belong
to oil or water-colour painting. If the fantastic
nature of his pattern is open to criticism, his
colour can hardly fail to satisfy those who sincerely
appreciate the pictures of the great colourists of
old days. Mr. Pryde is in no sense an adroit
trickster who has become the slave of a single
happy arrangement; he has no pet scheme which
he repeats with tiny variations in every pastel
which comes from his hand. No reproductions
in black and -white, however carefully they are
made, can do more than hint at the harmony,
the richness, and the dignity of the effects which
he produces. He preserves these qualities as
conspicuously when he deals with glowing
crimsons and insistent blues as when he employs
silver greys, subtle browns, and exquisite ivories.
Perfect restraint, a total absence of garishness, lend
to all his designs a rare degree of distinction.
They are restful because they are never over-
elaborated; details are not introduced for their
own sake ; every line is a vital part of the whole.
Mr. Pryde’s art is very deliberate, and. proves con-
clusively that, before he takes up his brush or

PLAQUE IN REPOUSSE COPPER (YATTENDON CLASS)

106

pencil, he has fully made up his mind what he
is going to attempt. His work, therefore, is
marked by intellectual, as well as purely
technical, qualities.

It must not be thought that the subject of
this brief note devotes the whole of his time
to the production of work in one medium. As
I have already remarked, he was one of the
pioneers of the artistic poster movement in this
country, and his enthusiasm for this branch
of design has not waned since the time when
he and Mr. Nicholson produced their splendid
bills. As an illustrator Mr. Pryde has likewise
distinguished himself. Indeed, whatever he does
is unmistakably stamped with his own individuality,
and whether his work prove agreeable or the
reverse to those who see it, nobody can honestly
describe it as either commonplace or uninteresting.

OME ARTS AND INDUS-
TRIES EXHIBITION. BY
ESTHER WOOD.

The most pleasing feature of this year’s
exhibition of Home Arts and Industries, held at
the Albert Hall in May, was the improvement in
some of the “ developed ” sections ; that is, in the
productive and decorative handiwork which the
devotion of a good teacher has
rescued from amateur methods (or
lack of them), and brought suc-
cessfully into line with expert crafts-
manship. This result—to have
trained and organised a number
of unattached workers with real
aptitude for applied art, and en-
abled them to take their place in the
English market with wares of dis-
tinct and individual worth—is the
best justification of the Home Arts
and Industries classes, and the
reward (though far too scanty)
of classholders working under the
Association in obscure ®and un-
promising districts throughout the
kingdom.

The group of craftsmen led by
Mrs. G. F. Watts at Compton,
Surrey, were the only exhibitors
of architectural examples, and re-
peated their excellent work of last
year in terra-cotta sundials, carved
panels, vases, and structural orna-
ments. Mrs. Watts showed a very