International studio (17.1902)

E. A. Walton

A SCOTTISH PAINTER: E. A.
WALTON, A.R.S.A. BY JAMES
L. CAW.

Just twenty years ago the work of a number of
young painters began to attract attention in the
Glasgow exhibitions by its difference from what was
current in Scotland at the time. Although many
good and some noble pictures were being produced
by Scottish painters, the great majority were con-
cerned with incident and fact for their own sake rather
than with their artistic possibilities and the problems
involved in their pictorial presentation. Sentimen-
tality was strong in the figure subjects, and, like most
of the landscapes, they were deficient in harmonious
design and unity. There were notable exceptions,
and in many cases a pleasant vein of feeling and
a genuine love of nature were evident; but diffuse-
ness, the elaboration of
parts without relation to
the whole, was in fashion;
and, for the most part,
the oil medium was used
with little sense of style
and less feeling for its
material beauty. It was
in re-action from these
that the new movement
(forit soon assumed such
proportions) originated
by these young men had
its beginnings; and, to
some extent, its mani-
festations were moulded
by a wider horizon than
most Scottish painters
had enjoyed. All of
them were familiar with
the pictures of the
French and Dutch Ro-
manticists, which were
favourites with Scottish
collectors, and were
often to be seen at the
Glasgow Institute ; a
few had received a Paris
training, and others had
been impressed by the
work of some of the
greatest moderns. Yet
there is no doubt that
the determining factor
was the association of the
men with one another.

This close companionship, augmented as it was
by study from the life in the studio of one of
their number, and by painting in the country
together, focussed the movement and gave it
special characteristics, without interfering with
the individuality of those concerned. Young and
enthusiastic, they were iconoclasts, of course, and
denied any merit to art not obviously in sym-
pathy with their own. Their ideals were narrow
and excluded much that is excellent and desirable,
but to them they were the only legitimate aims in
painting. Still, if they had the arrogance, they had
the earnestness of youth also ; and separation from
the older school only gave the coterie greater
cohesion and added to its belief in itself. Working
in this spirit and stimulated by friendly emulation,
in which there was no envy, their work was almost
certain to possess distinctive qualities. Briefly