DOI issue:
Werbung
DOI article:Jenkins, Will: A Canadian artist in the Azores: H. Sandham, R.C.A.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26228#0243
Cc.'<'77f//<^/7 v^7*//j/ /77 ^^<?^^
together with the beautiful blocks of coloured
marbie from the Continent. Here the Mass is
celebrated to the accompaniment of an excehent
military band, and the somewhat unique feature
may be witnessed of the troops attending, kneel-
ing at the word of command from their ofHcers.
The celebration of the many church festivals,
such as the yearly procession of the " Santo
Cristo," are most imposing spectacies of coiour
and costume. Survivals of the pageantry of the
middie ages, such occasions are fuii of interest
to the artist.
The " Santo Cristo " is a carved figure of wood,
richly dressed in robes studded with jewels of
great value. The figure holds a sceptre studded
with brilliants, and is surrounded in the procession
by ecclesiastical dignitaries in rich vestments and
civil and military ofhcers in gorgeous uniforms.
Further heightened by the wealth of colours of
the people's costumes and the soldiery, with
embroidered banners Hying, the whole set off by
the picturesque architecture and tropical sunlight,
the spectacle is one of gorgeous splendour.
At Ponta Delgada there is a good hbrary, excel-
lent museum, hospital, a clean, well-paved public
square, an interesting market, many picturesque
churches, and the crumbling ruins of a castle. Of
these paintable features of the Fortunate Islands,
Mr. Sandham has for many months been engaged
in making a sympathetic series of pictures, and has
again shown his masterly insight into the romance
and beauty of picturesque places.
These subjects have appealed to him perhaps
more strongly, and his feelings have, I believe,
been recorded with more convincing power in these
drawings than in those of the many picturesque,
out of-the-way places he has heretofore painted.
The furrowed lands, the straining hgures of plough-
men or rowers, the beauty of primitive agricultural
occupations, the Happing boat-sails, or vistas of
homely cottages, have touched his sympathies and
have been transferred to his drawings with more
vital force and keen appreciation of their poetic
beauty than he has before shown. He has se-
cured extremes of tropical light without hardness,
brilliant, pulsating colour, vigorous, and yet full of
purity and tenderness.
Of the man himself, no word of introduction is
necessary to Americans, nor in his native Canada,
where he has done his part in the noble hght of the
past quarter of a century to establish a living
existence of art in a young and growing country,
175
together with the beautiful blocks of coloured
marbie from the Continent. Here the Mass is
celebrated to the accompaniment of an excehent
military band, and the somewhat unique feature
may be witnessed of the troops attending, kneel-
ing at the word of command from their ofHcers.
The celebration of the many church festivals,
such as the yearly procession of the " Santo
Cristo," are most imposing spectacies of coiour
and costume. Survivals of the pageantry of the
middie ages, such occasions are fuii of interest
to the artist.
The " Santo Cristo " is a carved figure of wood,
richly dressed in robes studded with jewels of
great value. The figure holds a sceptre studded
with brilliants, and is surrounded in the procession
by ecclesiastical dignitaries in rich vestments and
civil and military ofhcers in gorgeous uniforms.
Further heightened by the wealth of colours of
the people's costumes and the soldiery, with
embroidered banners Hying, the whole set off by
the picturesque architecture and tropical sunlight,
the spectacle is one of gorgeous splendour.
At Ponta Delgada there is a good hbrary, excel-
lent museum, hospital, a clean, well-paved public
square, an interesting market, many picturesque
churches, and the crumbling ruins of a castle. Of
these paintable features of the Fortunate Islands,
Mr. Sandham has for many months been engaged
in making a sympathetic series of pictures, and has
again shown his masterly insight into the romance
and beauty of picturesque places.
These subjects have appealed to him perhaps
more strongly, and his feelings have, I believe,
been recorded with more convincing power in these
drawings than in those of the many picturesque,
out of-the-way places he has heretofore painted.
The furrowed lands, the straining hgures of plough-
men or rowers, the beauty of primitive agricultural
occupations, the Happing boat-sails, or vistas of
homely cottages, have touched his sympathies and
have been transferred to his drawings with more
vital force and keen appreciation of their poetic
beauty than he has before shown. He has se-
cured extremes of tropical light without hardness,
brilliant, pulsating colour, vigorous, and yet full of
purity and tenderness.
Of the man himself, no word of introduction is
necessary to Americans, nor in his native Canada,
where he has done his part in the noble hght of the
past quarter of a century to establish a living
existence of art in a young and growing country,
175