International studio (32.1907)

THE STUDIO

M

R. E. A. HORNEL’S PAINT-
INGS OF CHILDREN AND
t FLOWERS. BY E. RIMBAULT
DIBDIN.

Two or three years ago I had several discussions
with a well-known personage about two pictures—
very dissimilar in style—which happened to be
hanging in the same room at an exhibition. At
first he cared for neither, considering them
mannered and affected, which they were, if judged
by current academic standards. One day he
pointed to Mr. J. I). Batten’s exquisite Beauty
and the Beast, and! said
“ I can understand your
liking that, and begin to
agree with you; but I
can’t follow you in regard
to the other — how do
you explain it ? ” The
other was a little picture
by Mr. Hornel, one of the
most perfectly charming
of his inventions. My
explanation was that the
conventions and manner-
isms of Mr. Batten, though
perfectly individual and
novel in expression, were
of the school that had
been familiar to us from
childhood — which had
played a large part in
English Victorian art;
that, on the other hand,

Mr. Hornel’s ideals and
mannerisms were new
and strange their ex-
ternal influences chiefly
from that far Eastern art
which in our bo}hood
Was not clearly recognised
as art—or, at any rate,
as especially beautiful art.

1 he school from which
Mr. Batten derived pre-
pared us to understand the
tmportance of decorative ,

quality in art, and the

XXXII. No. 125.—July, 1Q07.

appeal of its medievalism to our hereditary instincts
helped it to succeed; while the strangely alien
beauty of Chinese and Japanese objects in our
drawing-rooms still spoke in vain, till stubborn
interpreters slowly forced us to attend.

I am glad to say that my sceptic afterwards
bought the Hornel, sorry that he did not further
enrich himself by securing the Batten.

There is so much that is unconventional in
Hornel’s art that what puzzles me most is its
success. It seems such a short time since Liver-
pool enjoyed one of its most exciting art battles,
over the purchase for the Corporation’s permanent

FAIR MAIDS OF FEBRUARY

( The -property of the Glasgow Corporation)

BY E. A. HORNEL

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