DOI issue:
American section
DOI article:Glaenzer, Richard Butler: Walter Appleton Clark: an appreciation
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28251#0390
Walter Appleton Clark
■
■jL-.i: ~ -v
Copyright, 1898, by Longmans, Green &• Co.
“AND DRINK HER, YOU envious beggars!
DRINK HER!”
illustration for “the castle inn”
BY STANLEY J. WEYMAN, LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
A few of the more dramatic scenes in “ The
Awakening of Helena Richie ” and “ Legends of
the City of Mexico” seem to have afforded him his
only recent opportunities for self-expression. His
exquisite study for “Sister Esperance” (Scribner’s,
April, 1903) tends to prove this view.
Though best known for his work in black and
white, he has left many fine examples in colour.
His earlier manner of “ The Three Kings ” (Decem-
ber, 1899) and the October cover for Scribner'1 s,
1901, has perhaps more charm, but the August
cover for Scribner1 s, 1905, the processionals for
“ The Canterbury Tales ” and “ Saint Rose ” disclose
greater freedom in technique and
a more fully defined purpose. His
goal was mural decoration, and it
is in “Black Care and the Horse-
man” (Scribner's, December, 1905),
his last cover design for Collier's
(December 8, 1906), and similar
work, that we find the art which
Mr. Clark enjoyed and intended to
develop.
Great was his admiration for
Whistler and Puvis de Chavannes.
The first unquestionably influenced
his illustrations for “A Saga of the
Seas.” Before the masterpieces of
the second, he spent many hours
in Paris and Amiens. His indebt-
edness is revealed by the oil paint-
ings for “New England Fisher-
Folk,” “Honfleur the Sedate,” “A
Breton Shrine,” “ Chateau Gaillard ”
and “Christmas in Valois.”
A humourist from the first, he has
lately exhibited his powers in this
field in certain double-page cartoons
for Collier's. Here, also, political
articles of William Allen White have
given him the opportunity for grim
satire. It is the night, however,
which enthralled him to the last.
He has shown, enshrouded in its
gloom, the motor-car speeding along
a wintry highway; a slave-laden
canoe stealing through cypress
swamps beneath a checkered moon-
light; a lonely boy sitting on a
park-bench, “with the roar of a
great city in his ears”; a woman
huddled against a gate-post waiting;
or Vaillantcoeur and ’Toinette, lov-
ers, in the dusk. In the night he
found his truest expression; in situations, senti-
mental or dramatic, his chief inspiration. He has
endowed with life itself even the violin of the “ lover
of music.” Still, as a decorator pure and simple,
he showed much promise by his conscious omis-
sion of irrelevant detail and careful modification
of perspective in treating flat surfaces. Of colour
he had no fear; he understood colour values.
Mr. Clark not only illustrated but illuminated by
actual creation; for first of all, he was an artist.
As Mr. Robert Bridges put it several years ago,
“The critics have always found in his work three
things that go to the making of a real artist with
BY WALTER
APPLETON
CLARK
XL
■
■jL-.i: ~ -v
Copyright, 1898, by Longmans, Green &• Co.
“AND DRINK HER, YOU envious beggars!
DRINK HER!”
illustration for “the castle inn”
BY STANLEY J. WEYMAN, LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
A few of the more dramatic scenes in “ The
Awakening of Helena Richie ” and “ Legends of
the City of Mexico” seem to have afforded him his
only recent opportunities for self-expression. His
exquisite study for “Sister Esperance” (Scribner’s,
April, 1903) tends to prove this view.
Though best known for his work in black and
white, he has left many fine examples in colour.
His earlier manner of “ The Three Kings ” (Decem-
ber, 1899) and the October cover for Scribner'1 s,
1901, has perhaps more charm, but the August
cover for Scribner1 s, 1905, the processionals for
“ The Canterbury Tales ” and “ Saint Rose ” disclose
greater freedom in technique and
a more fully defined purpose. His
goal was mural decoration, and it
is in “Black Care and the Horse-
man” (Scribner's, December, 1905),
his last cover design for Collier's
(December 8, 1906), and similar
work, that we find the art which
Mr. Clark enjoyed and intended to
develop.
Great was his admiration for
Whistler and Puvis de Chavannes.
The first unquestionably influenced
his illustrations for “A Saga of the
Seas.” Before the masterpieces of
the second, he spent many hours
in Paris and Amiens. His indebt-
edness is revealed by the oil paint-
ings for “New England Fisher-
Folk,” “Honfleur the Sedate,” “A
Breton Shrine,” “ Chateau Gaillard ”
and “Christmas in Valois.”
A humourist from the first, he has
lately exhibited his powers in this
field in certain double-page cartoons
for Collier's. Here, also, political
articles of William Allen White have
given him the opportunity for grim
satire. It is the night, however,
which enthralled him to the last.
He has shown, enshrouded in its
gloom, the motor-car speeding along
a wintry highway; a slave-laden
canoe stealing through cypress
swamps beneath a checkered moon-
light; a lonely boy sitting on a
park-bench, “with the roar of a
great city in his ears”; a woman
huddled against a gate-post waiting;
or Vaillantcoeur and ’Toinette, lov-
ers, in the dusk. In the night he
found his truest expression; in situations, senti-
mental or dramatic, his chief inspiration. He has
endowed with life itself even the violin of the “ lover
of music.” Still, as a decorator pure and simple,
he showed much promise by his conscious omis-
sion of irrelevant detail and careful modification
of perspective in treating flat surfaces. Of colour
he had no fear; he understood colour values.
Mr. Clark not only illustrated but illuminated by
actual creation; for first of all, he was an artist.
As Mr. Robert Bridges put it several years ago,
“The critics have always found in his work three
things that go to the making of a real artist with
BY WALTER
APPLETON
CLARK
XL