Studio: international art (71.1917)

The Recent Work of Arnesby Brown, R.A.

summed up in the harmony of the spheres,
some hint of which alone distinguishes a work
of art from an imitation of nature. It follows
that the artistic duty of each, the designer and
the composer, as distinct from his natural
indulgence, is pretty clearly denned. The
designer must be constantly " touching earth " ;
the painter with a strong sense of character
must be always improving his composition.

This is exactly what we find in the progress
of Mr. Arnesby Brown, a progress which it is
the main object of this article to illustrate. His
general advance has been in breadth and
simplicity ; in relating his parts into a more
consistent and more impressive whole, and in
that organization of craftsmanship which is in
itself a part of composition since the design—
to waive a distinction that has served its
illustrative purpose—must be based upon the
character and handling of the medium as well
as upon the character of the objects represented.
One has only to compare these illustrations with

his earlier work, say Morning in the Tate
Gallery, or The River Bank at the Guildhall, to
recognize how rapid, sure, and steady the
advance has been. It is immediately obvious
that the later pictures contain fewer facts of
nature than the earlier, and that the facts are
better arranged for emphasis and more com-
pletely fused in the general impression of
the day. But these improvements in picture
making and meaning, though great, are less
remarkable than the progress in craftsmanship,
in the sheer handling of paint. The earlier
pictures, though still painter-like, are done in a
succession of comparatively small touches, each
of which begs any question beyond its own
immediate contribution of tone. In the later
works the brushwork has become boldly
synthetic. Every movement of the brush not
only fulfils several functions, defining structure,
settling tone, indicating texture, and modulating
colour, but in both scale and direction it bears
the strictest organic relationship to the general

" on the hill '
134

[National Gallerv of Canada, Ottawa) drawing by arnesby brown, r.a.