DOI Heft:
No. 58 (December, 1901)
DOI Artikel:Sickert, Oswald: The International Society
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22772#0158
The International Society
she chosen to stop? The sky, as everyone has ex-
perienced who has drawn the outline of a branch of
a tree with the background instead of upon it, is
apt to project in front of the leaves. Miss
MacNicol’s sky has not come out in spite of her
efforts, she likes it so; she has pulled it out between
the leaves in cakes. What matters, however,
about it, is not that the sky precedes the leaves—
that is a matter of taste—but that the way of
pushing the sky in and out among the leaves
makes for ugly quality. Subtlety is not possible
with such painting, and without an effort to reach
a greater subtlety it is not likely that the quality of
paint will grow finer. Miss MacNicol is still a
realist, and if she remains one, it seems hardly
necessary that just the fear of confessing anywhere
to a little weakness, or lack of capacity, should
keep her technique where
it now stands. It is
different with Mr. Hornel.
He has thrown over realistic
pre-occupations, and raised
the patchwork painting to
the pitch of an art by itself.
It says much for the power
of the decorative move-
ment in painting that Mr.
Hornel’s canvases do not
astonish us, do not seem
particularly extravagant.
One argues that, after all,
a patchwork quilt, such as
one used to find on country
beds, was often quite a
pretty and amusing thing,
and Mr. Hornel has kindly
added to the prettiness and
amusement by cleverly fit-
ting figures into his pieces,
figures of children that may
be made out quite easily.
Mr. Lavery does the art
which he professes the
honour of refusing to claim,
by the cultivation of any
trick, decorative or other-
wise, that clumsiness is a
merit, or can be petted into
a merit. There are those
who find Mr. Lavery’s paint-
ing “strong” and “honest,”
and they are not so wrong
as they might appear at first
sight to the more critical
mind. The epithets, indeed, are not properly
to be applied to his painting, but they would
both have a sense if they were used in praise of
his character as an artist.
Mr. J. W. Morrice is interesting as well as
pleasant, because his Pont-Royal, and even more
clearly his picture of the beach at St. Malo, give
the impression that the painter is at the point of
hesitating between two roads—the road that leads
to sophistication, and therewith also to the certainty
of being able to turn out any number of present-
able pictures, and the road that certainly does not
exclude the probability of many failures and con-
fessions of weakness, but meanwhile permits the
possibility of that cultivation which brings greater
skill to the hand. He has begun to say, “ It
is well ; it is what I meant,” with his brush ; he
BY JOHN LAVERY
123
PORTRAIT OF MRS. BROWN POTTER
she chosen to stop? The sky, as everyone has ex-
perienced who has drawn the outline of a branch of
a tree with the background instead of upon it, is
apt to project in front of the leaves. Miss
MacNicol’s sky has not come out in spite of her
efforts, she likes it so; she has pulled it out between
the leaves in cakes. What matters, however,
about it, is not that the sky precedes the leaves—
that is a matter of taste—but that the way of
pushing the sky in and out among the leaves
makes for ugly quality. Subtlety is not possible
with such painting, and without an effort to reach
a greater subtlety it is not likely that the quality of
paint will grow finer. Miss MacNicol is still a
realist, and if she remains one, it seems hardly
necessary that just the fear of confessing anywhere
to a little weakness, or lack of capacity, should
keep her technique where
it now stands. It is
different with Mr. Hornel.
He has thrown over realistic
pre-occupations, and raised
the patchwork painting to
the pitch of an art by itself.
It says much for the power
of the decorative move-
ment in painting that Mr.
Hornel’s canvases do not
astonish us, do not seem
particularly extravagant.
One argues that, after all,
a patchwork quilt, such as
one used to find on country
beds, was often quite a
pretty and amusing thing,
and Mr. Hornel has kindly
added to the prettiness and
amusement by cleverly fit-
ting figures into his pieces,
figures of children that may
be made out quite easily.
Mr. Lavery does the art
which he professes the
honour of refusing to claim,
by the cultivation of any
trick, decorative or other-
wise, that clumsiness is a
merit, or can be petted into
a merit. There are those
who find Mr. Lavery’s paint-
ing “strong” and “honest,”
and they are not so wrong
as they might appear at first
sight to the more critical
mind. The epithets, indeed, are not properly
to be applied to his painting, but they would
both have a sense if they were used in praise of
his character as an artist.
Mr. J. W. Morrice is interesting as well as
pleasant, because his Pont-Royal, and even more
clearly his picture of the beach at St. Malo, give
the impression that the painter is at the point of
hesitating between two roads—the road that leads
to sophistication, and therewith also to the certainty
of being able to turn out any number of present-
able pictures, and the road that certainly does not
exclude the probability of many failures and con-
fessions of weakness, but meanwhile permits the
possibility of that cultivation which brings greater
skill to the hand. He has begun to say, “ It
is well ; it is what I meant,” with his brush ; he
BY JOHN LAVERY
123
PORTRAIT OF MRS. BROWN POTTER