DOI Heft:
Nr. 100 (June, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Leaves from the sketch book of A. Romilly Fedden
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26959#0398
LEAVES FROM THE SKETCH-
BOOK OF A. ROM!LLY FEDDEN
II **^ECAUSE the materials are so simple,
] drawing in pencil is still a partly ex-
i ] H ploited thing, and only partly appre-
^ ciated. The drawings by Mr. Romilly
Fedden — one of the most talented of the
younger water-colourists—which are here repro-
duced, represent the studies of a painter in this
medium ; and they show the whole course
of his experiments, from the somewhat hard
and matter-of-fact use of the medium in the
picture of a girl looking into the darkened
room to the atmospheric and sensitive drawing of
cottages by moonlight. This latter is most painter-
like ; it shows how mys-
terious and sympathetic
blacklead pencil drawing
can be made. Of course it
is nota new thing the use
of pencil in this manner ;
it has been used in this way
often before, but a certain
taint of the schools has
nearly always clung to the
work. It is from this that
Mr. Fedden is rapidly get-
ting away; and in the place
of matter - of - factness his
work is acquiring charm.
He has executed many
portraits — and here is an
open field. The time
and the money to be given
by a sitter for a portrait
in oils or water-colour is
nearly always inconveni-
ently too much. The camera
really offers no remedy.
Apart from the wish to have
the image of a friend's face,
so that we can hang it up
or move it from place to
place, portraiture gives us
the only approach to that
power to see ourselves as
others see us, for which
once Burns made a
prayer. The camera has
310
not answered this prayer. The impression which it
takes into its black box can betray no consciousness
of the intimate qualities in our friends that become
beautiful to us by our admiration, such as the
changeableness of their faces, the character and
texture of their complexion and their hair. Why
is it portraits in pencil are not enjoying a fashion
such as every worthy form of portraiture has at
some time enjoyed ? Our illustrations show
what charms the medium contains in right
hands—in the hands of an artist; and like every
other medium, it takes its beauty from successful
handling.
BOOK OF A. ROM!LLY FEDDEN
II **^ECAUSE the materials are so simple,
] drawing in pencil is still a partly ex-
i ] H ploited thing, and only partly appre-
^ ciated. The drawings by Mr. Romilly
Fedden — one of the most talented of the
younger water-colourists—which are here repro-
duced, represent the studies of a painter in this
medium ; and they show the whole course
of his experiments, from the somewhat hard
and matter-of-fact use of the medium in the
picture of a girl looking into the darkened
room to the atmospheric and sensitive drawing of
cottages by moonlight. This latter is most painter-
like ; it shows how mys-
terious and sympathetic
blacklead pencil drawing
can be made. Of course it
is nota new thing the use
of pencil in this manner ;
it has been used in this way
often before, but a certain
taint of the schools has
nearly always clung to the
work. It is from this that
Mr. Fedden is rapidly get-
ting away; and in the place
of matter - of - factness his
work is acquiring charm.
He has executed many
portraits — and here is an
open field. The time
and the money to be given
by a sitter for a portrait
in oils or water-colour is
nearly always inconveni-
ently too much. The camera
really offers no remedy.
Apart from the wish to have
the image of a friend's face,
so that we can hang it up
or move it from place to
place, portraiture gives us
the only approach to that
power to see ourselves as
others see us, for which
once Burns made a
prayer. The camera has
310
not answered this prayer. The impression which it
takes into its black box can betray no consciousness
of the intimate qualities in our friends that become
beautiful to us by our admiration, such as the
changeableness of their faces, the character and
texture of their complexion and their hair. Why
is it portraits in pencil are not enjoying a fashion
such as every worthy form of portraiture has at
some time enjoyed ? Our illustrations show
what charms the medium contains in right
hands—in the hands of an artist; and like every
other medium, it takes its beauty from successful
handling.