DOI Kapitel:
Chapter V: Our Friendship
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0151
OUR FRIENDSHIP 63
shall see you again soon.—Yours affectionately, Blanche
Clogstoun.”
It was during the early days of our friendship with Watts
that he showed an interest in my having a suitable studio,
and after he had discussed the matter with Mr. Barrington
it was decided that one should be built at the end of our
garden ; and to this he would send his pictures for me to
copy or enlarge, and here it was that he used to give me
invaluable lessons on them, or on any models who were
sitting to me. He would constantly insist on my doing my
own work and carrying out many designs which I had made
rather than that I should work on his. Before my studio
was built I used to work in the iron house in his garden
solely on his designs. He had asked us to have a gate
made in the paling between the two gardens in order that
he need not go out into the road to reach my studio. When
he was working at his sculpture he wore one or other of two
blouses I had given him, one a blue linen one brought from
Brittany, prettily embroidered in white cotton, the other a
genuine English peasant smock worked in a cottage in
Somerset. Neither seemed a costume to appear in even in
our semi-country roads in Kensington, and Watts had not
a moment to give to any unnecessary changing of garments.
I had had my studio walls lined with casts of the Parthenon
Frieze, and the figures from the Nike Athena Temple on
the Acropolis. Watts’ eye always lingered on these while
there, and he would point out the special character and
beauty of the form and compare it with any model who
might be sitting to me, to show how full of truth to nature
is this work of the Pheidian school, while at the same time
it was treated with such breadth and decorative feeling. I
cannot be too grateful to Watts for having taught me to
analyse the qualities in which lay the perfection of Greek
shall see you again soon.—Yours affectionately, Blanche
Clogstoun.”
It was during the early days of our friendship with Watts
that he showed an interest in my having a suitable studio,
and after he had discussed the matter with Mr. Barrington
it was decided that one should be built at the end of our
garden ; and to this he would send his pictures for me to
copy or enlarge, and here it was that he used to give me
invaluable lessons on them, or on any models who were
sitting to me. He would constantly insist on my doing my
own work and carrying out many designs which I had made
rather than that I should work on his. Before my studio
was built I used to work in the iron house in his garden
solely on his designs. He had asked us to have a gate
made in the paling between the two gardens in order that
he need not go out into the road to reach my studio. When
he was working at his sculpture he wore one or other of two
blouses I had given him, one a blue linen one brought from
Brittany, prettily embroidered in white cotton, the other a
genuine English peasant smock worked in a cottage in
Somerset. Neither seemed a costume to appear in even in
our semi-country roads in Kensington, and Watts had not
a moment to give to any unnecessary changing of garments.
I had had my studio walls lined with casts of the Parthenon
Frieze, and the figures from the Nike Athena Temple on
the Acropolis. Watts’ eye always lingered on these while
there, and he would point out the special character and
beauty of the form and compare it with any model who
might be sitting to me, to show how full of truth to nature
is this work of the Pheidian school, while at the same time
it was treated with such breadth and decorative feeling. I
cannot be too grateful to Watts for having taught me to
analyse the qualities in which lay the perfection of Greek