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International studio — 22.1904

DOI Heft:
No. 85 (March, 1904)
DOI Artikel:
Bate, Percy H.: The work of George Henry, R. S. A.: a review and an appreciation
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26964#0021

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A\S'.^.

are as perfect realisations
of childhood as they are
beautiful works of art.
Allusion has been made
to the Japanese subjects,
the delineation of which
affords Henry a relaxation
from the strain of his
other work. It is curious to
note how the influence of
Oriental art on different
Western temperaments
produces results quite
diverse. The result of
the visit of Henry and
Hornel to Japan was
to confirm and strengthen
the latter in the use
of a full palette of vivid
colours, used as a mosaic,
and to superimpose on
the Scottish painter quite
the Japanese outlook—
the conception of a picture
as a work on one plane,
perspective and atmo-
sphere being relegated to
the position of non-existent
pictorial qualities. With
Henry, as has been said,
the result has been quite
different. He found him-
self in sympathy with all
the delicacy of Japanese
art: all the charm of
tender colour that is to
be seen in the best of its
paintings; all the delight-
ful use of pattern, all the
wonderful simplicity of
motive : and these elements
became permanent constituents of his own art.
But he never ceased to look upon life with the
eyes of the Occidental; and when he paints Western
subjects he renders them (so far as their main
characteristics are concerned) as any other
European painter might do who was similarly
equipped. So, when Japanese subjects are the
motives of his drawings, he shows us Japan as he
himself saw it, not as the native artist convention-
alises it. To him it is a land where the people are
quaintly graceful, where they go clad in all the
bravery of sweet and delicately tinted fabrics,
where the culture of centuries has resulted in an

' THE SAMISEN FI.AYER

BY GEORGE HENRY, R.S.A.

artificial and symbolic ceremonial that pervades the
whole of life, and where refinement is the keynote
of the highest form of existence. This was Japan
when Henry was there—how long this will be
Japan, who can say? At any rate, tSinwA??;
and all the
other fine water-colours that owe their in-
spiration, their sober charm, and their delicate
execution, to Japan, are true records of a life
that is passing; and it may chance that in
years to come they will have, in addition
to their high artistic and aesthetic merits, the
 
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