International studio (31.1907)

Professor Moira s Recent Mural Decorations


STAINED GLASS WINDOW, NEW CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
DESIGNED BY GERALD MOIRA

wall painting in a merely pictorial manner; his
instinct is too sound and his method too intelli-
gent to allow him to depart so injudiciously
from the legitimate direction of decorative art.
The better qualities of his work are displayed
to special advantage in the series of paintings
he has recently executed in the new Central
Criminal Court building which has been erected
on the site of Newgate Prison, in the Old Bailey.
In this building, with its many architectural
beauties and its richness of ornamentation, he
evidently found much to inspire him, and he has
entered thoroughly into the spirit of his sur-
roundings. The least touch of triviality in his
decorations, the least inclination towards pretti-
ness, would have put him out of relation with
the architect’s intentions, and any error in the
opposite direction towards sombre reticence or
ponderous simplicity would have made his paint-
ings unsuitable for an interior which, with all its
dignity, is yet light in effect and free from any
excess of severity. He has steered the appro-
priate middle course with the soundest discretion,
and has combined in his wall paintings breadth
of treatment and rhythmical distribution of lines
and masses with freshness of colour and delicacy
of tone. His work keeps its place in the build-
ing, and is neither effaced by the architectural
accessories nor is it forced into undue prominence

of the even greater achievement which is to be
expected of them in the future.
As one of the most active of these artists
who are crying in the wilderness of British bad
taste, a particular debt of gratitude is due to
Professor Gerald Moira. He has done much
during the last few years to prove what are the
possibilities of mural decoration in the hands of
a man who aims at refinement of style and sub-
tleties of imaginative expression. A firm and
decisive draughtsman and a resourceful designer,
he has a remarkable grasp of the greater essen-
tials of this form of practice. His work is always
large in manner, broad and dignified, and dis-
tinguished by that monumental quality which
is necessary in paintings destined to serve as
features in an architectural scheme. With excel-
lent judgment he avoids the pitfalls which are
apt to bring disaster to the unwary decorator;
he neither weakens the effect of his paintings by
insisting too much upon minor details, nor does
he lose significance by adopting too rigid and
formal conventions. He never commits that
commonest of all mistakes, the treatment of a


STUDY FOR MURAL PAINTING

BY GERALD MOIRA