DOI Heft:
No. 121 (March, 1907)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: Professor Moira's recent mural decorations
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28251#0040
Professor Moira s Recent Mural Decorations
STUDY FOR MURAL PAINTING
BY GERALD MOIRA
active and highly-trained school of decorators, able
to deal efficiently with the most exacting problems
of design. We should not
be compelled to deplore
the many departures from
good taste which at the
present moment offend
people who have studied
properly the fundamental
principles of decoration,
and we should not so often
have occasion to resent the
misuse of opportunities
which under right condi-
tions could be utilised with
magnificent effect. The
men who by knowledge and
training are fitted for great
undertakings would have
the chance of doing them-
selves credit, and the in-
experienced worker would
not be permitted to make
himself ridiculous by at-
tempting things far beyond
his reach.
For it must not be
forgotten that, even as
matters stand, there are
possibilities of improve-
ment if only popular opinion
can be awakened to the
26
need for wiser dealings with the decorative
problems which every now and again present them-
selves for solution. We have artists on whom we
can rely, fine craftsmen whose efforts deserve the
sincerest approval and whose right to act as leaders
in a 'great decorative revival is beyond dispute.
With these men to show the way it would be easy
enough to start a movement which would bring us
before long into an honourable place among the
nations which treat art not as a mere fantasy to be
despised by practical men but as an important
factor in national progress and national well-being.
These artists, despite popular indifference and
official discouragement, have wrought loyally for
the advancement of the noblest form of design, and
for the destruction of that pernicious delusion that
decoration is a minor art which is beneath the
notice of the worker who has aspirations to be
counted among the masters. That they have had
even the barest justice done to them cannot be
said; their opportunities have been few and not
always of the best, but they have worked seriously
and with admirable consistency, and what they have
done is to be heartily welcomed as an instalment
STUDY FOR MURAL PAINTING
BY GERALD MOIRA
STUDY FOR MURAL PAINTING
BY GERALD MOIRA
active and highly-trained school of decorators, able
to deal efficiently with the most exacting problems
of design. We should not
be compelled to deplore
the many departures from
good taste which at the
present moment offend
people who have studied
properly the fundamental
principles of decoration,
and we should not so often
have occasion to resent the
misuse of opportunities
which under right condi-
tions could be utilised with
magnificent effect. The
men who by knowledge and
training are fitted for great
undertakings would have
the chance of doing them-
selves credit, and the in-
experienced worker would
not be permitted to make
himself ridiculous by at-
tempting things far beyond
his reach.
For it must not be
forgotten that, even as
matters stand, there are
possibilities of improve-
ment if only popular opinion
can be awakened to the
26
need for wiser dealings with the decorative
problems which every now and again present them-
selves for solution. We have artists on whom we
can rely, fine craftsmen whose efforts deserve the
sincerest approval and whose right to act as leaders
in a 'great decorative revival is beyond dispute.
With these men to show the way it would be easy
enough to start a movement which would bring us
before long into an honourable place among the
nations which treat art not as a mere fantasy to be
despised by practical men but as an important
factor in national progress and national well-being.
These artists, despite popular indifference and
official discouragement, have wrought loyally for
the advancement of the noblest form of design, and
for the destruction of that pernicious delusion that
decoration is a minor art which is beneath the
notice of the worker who has aspirations to be
counted among the masters. That they have had
even the barest justice done to them cannot be
said; their opportunities have been few and not
always of the best, but they have worked seriously
and with admirable consistency, and what they have
done is to be heartily welcomed as an instalment
STUDY FOR MURAL PAINTING
BY GERALD MOIRA