DOI Heft:
No. 60 (March, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of T. C. Gotch
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18391#0089
The Work of T. C. Gotch
THE WORK OF T. C. GOTCH. skilful commonplace. Fanciful variety and poetic
BY A. L. BALDRY. suggestion are both neglected for the literal state-
ment of events that have only a momentary im-
Of all the phases of thought and portance, and do not really deserve the permanent
varieties of point of view by which the record which pictorial art can supply. The fashion
production of the modern school of painting in of the time is essentially a material one, making a
this country is distinguished, that of imaginative demand hardly at all upon the artist's ability to
symbolism is the rarest. Our younger artists have think, and exercising merely his faculty for obser-
long inclined rather towards the realisation of facts vation and his power to prove by manual dexterity
than towards the expression of abstractions. They that his eyesight is good and his memory receptive,
have shown, by a vast number of very well handled Certainly this is a side of art that has a full claim
canvases, that they are more concerned with what to recognition—that is, in point of fact, valuable
is obvious and apparent than with those intellec- because it affords a solid basis for better things;
tual subtleties which are capable of inspiring the but it cannot be regarded as the only one worthy
painter's art with noble individuality and definite of the attention of the sincere worker. The
distinction. A vehement faith in the beauties of thinker who has trained his eye and hand suffi-
accurate imitation, and a clear conviction that by ciently to reach the modern standard of craftsman-
the application of skilful technique to the repre- ship can go much farther, and, without losing his
sentation of every-day subjects the most interesting hold upon the public that craves for materialism,
results can be arrived at, have had the effect of can do something to please the few who enjoy the
leading the mass of painters into a convention of intellectual suggestion of his work.
XIII. No. 60.—March, 1898.
73
THE WORK OF T. C. GOTCH. skilful commonplace. Fanciful variety and poetic
BY A. L. BALDRY. suggestion are both neglected for the literal state-
ment of events that have only a momentary im-
Of all the phases of thought and portance, and do not really deserve the permanent
varieties of point of view by which the record which pictorial art can supply. The fashion
production of the modern school of painting in of the time is essentially a material one, making a
this country is distinguished, that of imaginative demand hardly at all upon the artist's ability to
symbolism is the rarest. Our younger artists have think, and exercising merely his faculty for obser-
long inclined rather towards the realisation of facts vation and his power to prove by manual dexterity
than towards the expression of abstractions. They that his eyesight is good and his memory receptive,
have shown, by a vast number of very well handled Certainly this is a side of art that has a full claim
canvases, that they are more concerned with what to recognition—that is, in point of fact, valuable
is obvious and apparent than with those intellec- because it affords a solid basis for better things;
tual subtleties which are capable of inspiring the but it cannot be regarded as the only one worthy
painter's art with noble individuality and definite of the attention of the sincere worker. The
distinction. A vehement faith in the beauties of thinker who has trained his eye and hand suffi-
accurate imitation, and a clear conviction that by ciently to reach the modern standard of craftsman-
the application of skilful technique to the repre- ship can go much farther, and, without losing his
sentation of every-day subjects the most interesting hold upon the public that craves for materialism,
results can be arrived at, have had the effect of can do something to please the few who enjoy the
leading the mass of painters into a convention of intellectual suggestion of his work.
XIII. No. 60.—March, 1898.
73