DOI issue:
Nr. 106 (December, 1905)
DOI article:Wood, T. Martin: The illustrated books and paintings of W. Graham Robertson
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26961#0149
IV. Graham Robertson
which we cannot escape, whether the artist him-
self was concerned with it or not. Such an idea
may be designated as the real meaning of the
word-subject in a picture. Futility in criticism
arises when it tries tolimit art or to limit ourselves.
If art is supplied with its every idea by the Sug-
gestion of nature, why restrict the supply only to
suggestions of colour and tone? Only those
things are not literary which we cannot think
about.
It is pretended that Whistler’s art was not lite-
rary, and yet a thousand books cannot teil us
rnore of the lamps that the riverside labourers
light in defiance
of the evening,
andof thebeauty
of man’s friend-
ship with the
night.
Mr. Robert-
son’s paintings
demänd atten-
tion in any ap-
preciation of his
work, for much
ofthesame spirit
that animates
from their mind what that thing Stands for in itself.
Whether we hold one artistic creed or the other,
everything we look at whether in art or nature brings
to our mind an idea beyond that of shape or colour,
BY w. GRAHAM ROBERTSON
BOOK ILLUSTRATION
BOOK ILLUSTRATION
“ DEAD DREAMS” BOOK ILLUSTRATION
BY W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON BY W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON
which we cannot escape, whether the artist him-
self was concerned with it or not. Such an idea
may be designated as the real meaning of the
word-subject in a picture. Futility in criticism
arises when it tries tolimit art or to limit ourselves.
If art is supplied with its every idea by the Sug-
gestion of nature, why restrict the supply only to
suggestions of colour and tone? Only those
things are not literary which we cannot think
about.
It is pretended that Whistler’s art was not lite-
rary, and yet a thousand books cannot teil us
rnore of the lamps that the riverside labourers
light in defiance
of the evening,
andof thebeauty
of man’s friend-
ship with the
night.
Mr. Robert-
son’s paintings
demänd atten-
tion in any ap-
preciation of his
work, for much
ofthesame spirit
that animates
from their mind what that thing Stands for in itself.
Whether we hold one artistic creed or the other,
everything we look at whether in art or nature brings
to our mind an idea beyond that of shape or colour,
BY w. GRAHAM ROBERTSON
BOOK ILLUSTRATION
BOOK ILLUSTRATION
“ DEAD DREAMS” BOOK ILLUSTRATION
BY W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON BY W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON