DOI Heft:
No. 93 (November, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Bate, Percy H.: The late Frederick Sandys: a retrospect
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26963#0028
Frederick Sandys
of a brazier, and its radiance shines on her white
dress and on her pallid face and terrible eyes. She
clutches with one hand her necklet of coral and
turquoise, while from her anguished lips issue
irrevocable words of dreadful power. The ex-
quisite drawing of the hands, the lovely painting of
the pearly shells with which her dark hair is adorned,
and the masterly treatment of the other accessories
need not be enlarged on here, but it may be inter-
esting to note (as characteristic of the artist) that
though the subject is chosen from a classic myth,
the informing spirit is rather that of Gothic romance.
The picture is conceived as Cranach or as Van der
Goes might have conceived it; in treatment it is akin
to the work of the early painters of the Teutonic
schools, and the brooding intensity, the dark
overwhelming horror that characterise the work as
a whole inevitably recall the hopeless tragedy that
pervades the stern sagas of the
North. Altogether it is a mag -
nificent conception fitly ren-
dered, a work worthy to rank
amongst the finest imagina-
tive creations painted in Eng-
land in the nineteenth century.
It is always interesting to
discuss the differing ideals of
portraiture, to consider the
inspiration of Holbein as con-
trasted with that of Hals, of
Velasquez as compared with
Watts; and it would be far
from unprofitable to treat at
some length of Sandys’ unique
achievements in this field of
art, and to endeavour to see
(if space did but permit) just
where as a portrait painter he
must be placed. That he
painted some notable portraits
is well known, and it is equally
well known that the same
searching after definite truth
that we find in his other work
is to be found in these can-
vases, which are as far from
superficiality as from inac-
curacy, while they are as fresh,
as vivid, as individual and as
complete as are the portraits
of Holbein himself. Sandys
was not concerned to make a
portrait the likeness of a man’s
soul; he sought the likeness
of the physical man, deeming that the soul ex-
pressed itself in the countenance. Nor did he
treat his subjects as items in a decorative arrange-
ment ; he gave us his sitter clearly seen and
searchingly rendered, and not his ghost or his
shadow. This may not be the fashionable por-
traiture of to-day, but certainly some of the greatest
portraits of all time have been painted on this
basis.
Some of these portraits are oil - paintings, the
superb Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Anderson Rose among
them; others are chalk drawings, and with these
drawings we come to the third phase of Sandys’
art. But whether they are in oils or in chalks, they
are alike in their characteristics. The portraits of
men are virile and forceful and redolent of character,
the women serene, gracious and graceful, and the
children as delicious and lovable as any in the
12
study (By permission oj IV. Connal, Esq.)
BY FREDERICK SANDYS
of a brazier, and its radiance shines on her white
dress and on her pallid face and terrible eyes. She
clutches with one hand her necklet of coral and
turquoise, while from her anguished lips issue
irrevocable words of dreadful power. The ex-
quisite drawing of the hands, the lovely painting of
the pearly shells with which her dark hair is adorned,
and the masterly treatment of the other accessories
need not be enlarged on here, but it may be inter-
esting to note (as characteristic of the artist) that
though the subject is chosen from a classic myth,
the informing spirit is rather that of Gothic romance.
The picture is conceived as Cranach or as Van der
Goes might have conceived it; in treatment it is akin
to the work of the early painters of the Teutonic
schools, and the brooding intensity, the dark
overwhelming horror that characterise the work as
a whole inevitably recall the hopeless tragedy that
pervades the stern sagas of the
North. Altogether it is a mag -
nificent conception fitly ren-
dered, a work worthy to rank
amongst the finest imagina-
tive creations painted in Eng-
land in the nineteenth century.
It is always interesting to
discuss the differing ideals of
portraiture, to consider the
inspiration of Holbein as con-
trasted with that of Hals, of
Velasquez as compared with
Watts; and it would be far
from unprofitable to treat at
some length of Sandys’ unique
achievements in this field of
art, and to endeavour to see
(if space did but permit) just
where as a portrait painter he
must be placed. That he
painted some notable portraits
is well known, and it is equally
well known that the same
searching after definite truth
that we find in his other work
is to be found in these can-
vases, which are as far from
superficiality as from inac-
curacy, while they are as fresh,
as vivid, as individual and as
complete as are the portraits
of Holbein himself. Sandys
was not concerned to make a
portrait the likeness of a man’s
soul; he sought the likeness
of the physical man, deeming that the soul ex-
pressed itself in the countenance. Nor did he
treat his subjects as items in a decorative arrange-
ment ; he gave us his sitter clearly seen and
searchingly rendered, and not his ghost or his
shadow. This may not be the fashionable por-
traiture of to-day, but certainly some of the greatest
portraits of all time have been painted on this
basis.
Some of these portraits are oil - paintings, the
superb Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Anderson Rose among
them; others are chalk drawings, and with these
drawings we come to the third phase of Sandys’
art. But whether they are in oils or in chalks, they
are alike in their characteristics. The portraits of
men are virile and forceful and redolent of character,
the women serene, gracious and graceful, and the
children as delicious and lovable as any in the
12
study (By permission oj IV. Connal, Esq.)
BY FREDERICK SANDYS