International studio (31.1907)

Orlando Rouland


PORTRAIT OF JOHN BURROUGHS

BY ORLANDO ROULAND

and. independent study in the galleries of Europe,
furnished him his technical equipment. His draw-
ing, passing beyond the merely accurate, is singu-
larly true; penetrating the “inner relations” of the
object and faithful to this higher truth, it becomes
a powerful instrument of expression. Rouland
always gets a “likeness,” but his work is more than
an exact map of external aspect; he succeeds in
reaching to the essential character of the man, and
this he draws out and registers in terms at once con-
vincing and beautiful. For though the emphasis
falls upon the expression of character, the decora-

tive value of the portrait is not ignored. His com-
position is exceptionally felicitous; his figures, in
their placing on the canvas, have a way of coming
right; there they are, naturally and quite without
effort or studied arrangement. His work shows an
honest love of good colour, and he uses it fearlessly;
his blues are frankly blue, his greens are green.
His palette is not subtilised into various “greys
with predominant tendencies,” but it is none the
less refined. His harmonies are full-sounding, but
always nobly restrained and with never a false note.
In the whole decorative aspect of his work, his feel-

CXXVII