DOI Heft:
No. 307 (October 1918)
DOI Artikel:West, W. K.: The flower paintings of Herbert Davis Richter, R.O.I
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24600#0025
The Flower Paintings of Herbert Davis Rickter, R.O.I.
THE FLOWER PAINTINGS OF
HERBERT DAVIS RICHTER, R.O.I.
IT would scarcely be an exaggeration to say
that the love of flowers is a common
characteristic of the whole of humanity.
There is hardly any civilized people which
does not regard the flower garden as one of the
legitimate pleasures of life, and there is hardly
any man, whatever may be the place he occupies
in the community, who is not sensible in some
degree of the charm which flowers possess and
of the sentiment which they inspire. Some
nations-—like the Japanese—have developed the
love of flowers into an aesthetic tradition which
has a strong influence upon the character and
quality of their art, and which guides in a definite
way the practice of their artists. Even savage
races often use flowers for decorative purposes
and for personal adornment, with considerable
appreciation of their beauty and colour value.
So it is scarcely surprising that flower painting
should have been a recognized branch of art
practice in almost all schools, and in almost all
periods. Artists naturally are ready to respond
to the stimulus of colour in flowers, and they
perceive fully that there are in them subtleties
of form and varieties of surface texture which
demand the most studious observation, and need
for proper realization a large measure of technical
skill. The problems presented require, if they
are to be rightly solved, wholly serious con-
sideration ; they cannot be lightly handled nor
can they be treated as simple exercises in
executive method. Flower painting is a difficult
form of art and the man who would excel in it
must have the qualifications of a master—less
than mastery will not suffice to enable the artist
to deal with the complexities of his subjects or
to do adequate justice to his material.
There are two particular ways in which flower
painting can be practised, the realistic and the
decorative. The realistic painter approaches
his subjects with the artist's eye, no doubt, but
with something of the botanist's mind. He
concerns himself intimately with characteristics
of growth and details of structure, he expends
minute care upon the expression of complicated
k" HYDRANGEAS" OIL PAINTING BY H. DAVIS RICHTER, R.O.I.
19
THE FLOWER PAINTINGS OF
HERBERT DAVIS RICHTER, R.O.I.
IT would scarcely be an exaggeration to say
that the love of flowers is a common
characteristic of the whole of humanity.
There is hardly any civilized people which
does not regard the flower garden as one of the
legitimate pleasures of life, and there is hardly
any man, whatever may be the place he occupies
in the community, who is not sensible in some
degree of the charm which flowers possess and
of the sentiment which they inspire. Some
nations-—like the Japanese—have developed the
love of flowers into an aesthetic tradition which
has a strong influence upon the character and
quality of their art, and which guides in a definite
way the practice of their artists. Even savage
races often use flowers for decorative purposes
and for personal adornment, with considerable
appreciation of their beauty and colour value.
So it is scarcely surprising that flower painting
should have been a recognized branch of art
practice in almost all schools, and in almost all
periods. Artists naturally are ready to respond
to the stimulus of colour in flowers, and they
perceive fully that there are in them subtleties
of form and varieties of surface texture which
demand the most studious observation, and need
for proper realization a large measure of technical
skill. The problems presented require, if they
are to be rightly solved, wholly serious con-
sideration ; they cannot be lightly handled nor
can they be treated as simple exercises in
executive method. Flower painting is a difficult
form of art and the man who would excel in it
must have the qualifications of a master—less
than mastery will not suffice to enable the artist
to deal with the complexities of his subjects or
to do adequate justice to his material.
There are two particular ways in which flower
painting can be practised, the realistic and the
decorative. The realistic painter approaches
his subjects with the artist's eye, no doubt, but
with something of the botanist's mind. He
concerns himself intimately with characteristics
of growth and details of structure, he expends
minute care upon the expression of complicated
k" HYDRANGEAS" OIL PAINTING BY H. DAVIS RICHTER, R.O.I.
19