International studio (23.1904)

Joseph Crawhall

living figure and costume have all contributed to
the result.
There is a window in Mr. Heaton’s atelier
which has all the quality of the deep waters of the
blue lake, at once simple and of endless variety,
executed in glass made on the spot for the
purpose of realising this idea. He has cartoons in
preparation with figures and ornament or plant
design to meet the requirements of new occasions.
In St. Aubin’s Church, near Neuchatel, he has lately
had the opportunity of showing on a limited scale
the beauty resulting from working in this branch of
art in a very simple way, but with full command
over the material, and he has now a scheme on
hand and specimen panels made which will enable
him to show it on a far more extensive scale.
Mr. Walter Crane says: “Apart from good
design, well-planned leading and colour scheme,
nearly everything depends upon the careful choice
of tint in the glass itself, and immense pains and
trouble are well spent in this way, since beauty of
total effect, as well as particular harmonies, depend
upon choice of the degree, depth, and quality of
the coloured glass.” No living designer has realised
this more fully than Mr.
Heaton, and in richness,
gradation, harmony, and
delicate mystery of colour
his work in stained glass
is a thing of beauty. In
handling this material he
has taken up the threads
of ancient tradition and
woven them into the tex-
ture of his own fresh
thought and practice.
In conclusion, on taking
a survey of what Mr. Hea-
ton has accomplished as
an artist and master crafts-
man, tit cannot be doubted
that we have here a strik-
ingly interesting manifesta-
tion of art on a large scale,
and in which the most deli-
cate ideal goes hand-in-hand
with solid and definite
means of expressing it. It
is the outcome of a thorough
knowledge of past tradition
and strong personal inde-
pendence and freshness of
invention, of a poetry of
ideal and practical means “the piebald

of execution, of suggestion from life expressed in
obedience to the laws of material. Although the
reproductions accompanying this article represent
for the most part small plaques, panels and vases,
the fact should not be lost sight of that the essential
element of Mr. Heaton’s work is architectural de-
coration ; but owing to the difficulty of obtaining
satisfactory photographs it was not found possible
to illustrate his principal achievements in this
direction. Robert Mobbs.
OSEPH CRAWHALL, MASTER
DRAUGHTSMAN. BY PERCY
BATE.
We have in Britain some few painters whose
reputations, great within their respective circles,
rest entirely on a comparatively slender output,
on works few in number and given to the public
at long intervals, but always esteemed by the true
connoisseur. Not to veterans of the brush is
allusion here intended, such artists as the late Mr.
Watts, who, after retiring from the activities of the
great arena after a fruitful career, still occasion-

BY JOSEPH CRAWHALL
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