DOI Heft:
No. 95 (January, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, J.: A Glasgow artist and designer: the work of E. A. Taylor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26963#0290
A Glasgow Designer: E. A. Taylor
was so powerfully to influence the artist’s life and
work.
From the school of nature to the school of art,—
where in spite of the damping effect of friendly
discouragement, the young student made rapid
progress, taking and passing examinations under
many difficulties—and from the school of art to
that of practical experience was but the common-
place round of the artist. Meantime ways and
means had to be considered, and the daily
life of the workshop and studio afforded little
leisure for a fuller study of nature, for which those
earlier opportunities had created a craving. Of a
strongly imaginative and poetic temperament, while
attracted by the genuine qualities of the work of
the old schools, he had little sympathy with slavish
modern imitation of the styles of a by-past age,—that
text-book of inspiration so necessary to the designer
of ten years ago, yet so fatal to his individuality.
Long before he came consciously within the
scope and influence of the modern movement, our
artist recognised the creative possibilities of a
decorative treatment based on rational form, natural
colour, and modern requirement; and he decided
to abandon a cherished ambition, that of a stage
or pulpit career,—attractive chiefly because of the
leisure this seemed to promise for the cultivation
of art,—and to devote his whole energies to
the work of rationalising and beautifying the
home.
With such a temperament this work becomes a
passion; no Whistler locked in a room with deco-
rative peacocks could be more absorbed than is a
true artist of the modem school in his work. It has
often been urged that the failures of the old school
were due chiefly to the fact that no efficient head
supervised the separate details of a scheme, but
that many inefficients frequently vied as to which
would be most successful in disturbing the
harmony of it. The success of the new school is
due in great measure to the fact that each scheme,
to the minutest detail, is carefully considered,
planned, and executed by and through a respon-
sible, intelligent, and sympathetic head, whereby it
ladies’ room
DESIGNED BY E. A. TAYLOR
EXECUTED BY MESSRS. WYLIE & LOCHHEAD
2lS
was so powerfully to influence the artist’s life and
work.
From the school of nature to the school of art,—
where in spite of the damping effect of friendly
discouragement, the young student made rapid
progress, taking and passing examinations under
many difficulties—and from the school of art to
that of practical experience was but the common-
place round of the artist. Meantime ways and
means had to be considered, and the daily
life of the workshop and studio afforded little
leisure for a fuller study of nature, for which those
earlier opportunities had created a craving. Of a
strongly imaginative and poetic temperament, while
attracted by the genuine qualities of the work of
the old schools, he had little sympathy with slavish
modern imitation of the styles of a by-past age,—that
text-book of inspiration so necessary to the designer
of ten years ago, yet so fatal to his individuality.
Long before he came consciously within the
scope and influence of the modern movement, our
artist recognised the creative possibilities of a
decorative treatment based on rational form, natural
colour, and modern requirement; and he decided
to abandon a cherished ambition, that of a stage
or pulpit career,—attractive chiefly because of the
leisure this seemed to promise for the cultivation
of art,—and to devote his whole energies to
the work of rationalising and beautifying the
home.
With such a temperament this work becomes a
passion; no Whistler locked in a room with deco-
rative peacocks could be more absorbed than is a
true artist of the modem school in his work. It has
often been urged that the failures of the old school
were due chiefly to the fact that no efficient head
supervised the separate details of a scheme, but
that many inefficients frequently vied as to which
would be most successful in disturbing the
harmony of it. The success of the new school is
due in great measure to the fact that each scheme,
to the minutest detail, is carefully considered,
planned, and executed by and through a respon-
sible, intelligent, and sympathetic head, whereby it
ladies’ room
DESIGNED BY E. A. TAYLOR
EXECUTED BY MESSRS. WYLIE & LOCHHEAD
2lS