DOI issue:
No. 55 (September, 1901)
DOI article:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: Some drawings by Patten Wilson
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22775#0267
Patten IVilson
HEAD-PIECE
(By permission of Mr. Grant Richards)
BY PATTEN WILSON
made a serious attempt to illustrate a classic known
to all readers. The “ Swan ” edition of Shake-
speare being a school edition, Mr. Wilson, in his
illustrations for “ King John,” had every tempta-
tion to win an easy success by dealing with his
subject from the popular and theatrical point of
view. It says much for his self-restraint that he
did not turn his art into a sketching reporter of
stage traditions, traditions of business,” and of
types of character. Many an artist has deemed
that self-restraint quite unnecessary, as though a
great dramatist ought always to be represented
behind the footlights, playing to the pit and
gallery. Shakespeare—who detested the stage—
1 Alas ! ’lis true I have gone here and
there,
And made myself a motley to the view,
Gor’d my own thoughts, sold cheap
what is most dear,
Made old offences of affections new ”—
Shakespeare, no doubt, asks for a
different treatment from artists.
He claims from them, not scenic
gestures and scenic airs, but a quiet
reader’s poetic sympathy, like that
which reveals itself in Charles
Lamb’s essay on the harm done
by stage representation to the
mind’s free intercourse with Shake-
speare and his distinguished ex-
cellence.
Still, it is one thing to have a
good idea, and quite another thing
to realise it in art. Mr. Patten
Wilson, when illustrating “ King
John,” was certainly moved by an
excellent idea; and his effort not
to be theatrical was successful.
But—and this must be said—he
is uneasy in several drawings, as
in the one representing the Lady
Constance. Here, so it seems to
me, his power of originating images
and conceptions is fettered and
cramped by the size of the little
page which it has to illustrate. On
the other hand, the drawing of the
King is well conceived. In it there
is something more than a note of
sombre dignity. There is also a
ILLUSTRATION FOR “THE ANCIENT MARINER” BY PATTEN WILSON
“ THE HELMSMAN STEERED, THE SHIP MOVED ON ”
(By permission of Messrs. Longmans)
194
HEAD-PIECE
(By permission of Mr. Grant Richards)
BY PATTEN WILSON
made a serious attempt to illustrate a classic known
to all readers. The “ Swan ” edition of Shake-
speare being a school edition, Mr. Wilson, in his
illustrations for “ King John,” had every tempta-
tion to win an easy success by dealing with his
subject from the popular and theatrical point of
view. It says much for his self-restraint that he
did not turn his art into a sketching reporter of
stage traditions, traditions of business,” and of
types of character. Many an artist has deemed
that self-restraint quite unnecessary, as though a
great dramatist ought always to be represented
behind the footlights, playing to the pit and
gallery. Shakespeare—who detested the stage—
1 Alas ! ’lis true I have gone here and
there,
And made myself a motley to the view,
Gor’d my own thoughts, sold cheap
what is most dear,
Made old offences of affections new ”—
Shakespeare, no doubt, asks for a
different treatment from artists.
He claims from them, not scenic
gestures and scenic airs, but a quiet
reader’s poetic sympathy, like that
which reveals itself in Charles
Lamb’s essay on the harm done
by stage representation to the
mind’s free intercourse with Shake-
speare and his distinguished ex-
cellence.
Still, it is one thing to have a
good idea, and quite another thing
to realise it in art. Mr. Patten
Wilson, when illustrating “ King
John,” was certainly moved by an
excellent idea; and his effort not
to be theatrical was successful.
But—and this must be said—he
is uneasy in several drawings, as
in the one representing the Lady
Constance. Here, so it seems to
me, his power of originating images
and conceptions is fettered and
cramped by the size of the little
page which it has to illustrate. On
the other hand, the drawing of the
King is well conceived. In it there
is something more than a note of
sombre dignity. There is also a
ILLUSTRATION FOR “THE ANCIENT MARINER” BY PATTEN WILSON
“ THE HELMSMAN STEERED, THE SHIP MOVED ON ”
(By permission of Messrs. Longmans)
194