DOI Heft:
No. 199 (October, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Mr. Brangwyn's tempera frieze at the new London offices of the Grand Trunk Railway
DOI Artikel:Dawson, R. A.: An illustrator of Celtic romance: John P. Campbell
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0059
An Illustrator of Celtic Romance: John P. Campbell
decorative form the essential idea for which this
Company of men wrought whose achievement he
glorifies in this great colour-record of their en-
deavour and of their aim and of their triumph.
Here will be found no aping of the forms and
fictions of the old masters. The worker is no
Greek god set up as a symbol for toil, but the
navvy in all his rugged strength and with the
ordinary tools of his labour about him. In Mr.
Brangwyn's art it is' always the real man who
has won the victory whom he glorifies, clothed
in the habit in which he has won to victory. He
finds in the corduroy and fustian of the great-
shouldered worker of our day a romance as marked
as the would-be romancers try to set about
the buccaneer or warrior of the past. The Indian
is no fancy fellow out of a penny novelette, but
the rugged savage in all his bravery, and filled with
wonder at the great invasion. Sincerity breathes
throughout the whole length and breadth of the
design; and the art is wedded to a skill of
hand and a grip of craftsmanship all too rare in
our national utterance. Above all, the decora-
tive sense remains supreme.
AN ILLUSTRATOR OF CELTIC
ROMANCE: JOHN P. CAMP-
BELL. BY R. A. DAWSON,
A.R.C.A.
When we say that an illustration is decorative
we usually mean that in addition to its representa-
tion of the facts as stated in the text it produces,
apart from those facts, a feeling of pleasure brought
about by its arrangement, its harmony with the
juxtaposed type, its disposition of lines and masses
in a pleasurable rhythmic sequence. Such an
illustration frankly recognises the limitations of the
material in which it is expressed; it attempts, or
adapts itself to, what is possible for that material,
and, whilst carefully preserving the essentials of
the subject, eliminates what is more suited for
presentation through another medium. Again, it
is characterised by a mastery of technique, an
understanding of the methods and a command
over the tools legitimately available for its pro-
duction.
In this highest sense the illustrations now
introduced to a wider circle are strongly decora-
"mv singing bird" (illustration to "four irish songs")
by john p. campbell
37
decorative form the essential idea for which this
Company of men wrought whose achievement he
glorifies in this great colour-record of their en-
deavour and of their aim and of their triumph.
Here will be found no aping of the forms and
fictions of the old masters. The worker is no
Greek god set up as a symbol for toil, but the
navvy in all his rugged strength and with the
ordinary tools of his labour about him. In Mr.
Brangwyn's art it is' always the real man who
has won the victory whom he glorifies, clothed
in the habit in which he has won to victory. He
finds in the corduroy and fustian of the great-
shouldered worker of our day a romance as marked
as the would-be romancers try to set about
the buccaneer or warrior of the past. The Indian
is no fancy fellow out of a penny novelette, but
the rugged savage in all his bravery, and filled with
wonder at the great invasion. Sincerity breathes
throughout the whole length and breadth of the
design; and the art is wedded to a skill of
hand and a grip of craftsmanship all too rare in
our national utterance. Above all, the decora-
tive sense remains supreme.
AN ILLUSTRATOR OF CELTIC
ROMANCE: JOHN P. CAMP-
BELL. BY R. A. DAWSON,
A.R.C.A.
When we say that an illustration is decorative
we usually mean that in addition to its representa-
tion of the facts as stated in the text it produces,
apart from those facts, a feeling of pleasure brought
about by its arrangement, its harmony with the
juxtaposed type, its disposition of lines and masses
in a pleasurable rhythmic sequence. Such an
illustration frankly recognises the limitations of the
material in which it is expressed; it attempts, or
adapts itself to, what is possible for that material,
and, whilst carefully preserving the essentials of
the subject, eliminates what is more suited for
presentation through another medium. Again, it
is characterised by a mastery of technique, an
understanding of the methods and a command
over the tools legitimately available for its pro-
duction.
In this highest sense the illustrations now
introduced to a wider circle are strongly decora-
"mv singing bird" (illustration to "four irish songs")
by john p. campbell
37