DOI issue:
No. 129 (November, 1907)
DOI article:Atkins, Henry: William Keith, landscape painter, of California
DOI article:Fedden, Romilly [Ill.]: Further leaves from the sketch book of A. Romilly Fedden
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28253#0058
A. Romilly Fedden s Drawings
fecund ; of waving harvests, bounded by low purple
ranges veiled in vibrant haze, the weird majesty of
sibyllic hemlocks and junipers in their Sierra fast-
nesses, and the perennial vigour of those mighty
evergreen oaks that were old in the years when art
was young.
The joy and rewards inherent in successful effort
are peculiarly Mr. Keith’s. The happiest hours of
life are those spent before his easel, and the waking
hours that do not find him there are few indeed.
His home studio in the quiet university town of
Berkeley adjoins the campus, with its famous
“ live oaks,” which, because they are the very type
of perennial strength and beauty, are oftenest on
Mr. Keith’s canvases. And as he walks beneath
the low boughs in the evening, he can say, “ If the
joy of this day’s work were all that life had to offer,
I should be satisfied.” Henry Atkins.
URTHER LEAVES
FROM THE SKETCH
BOOK OF A. RO-
MILLY FEDDEN.
We had occasion some two years
ago to notice and illustrate in our
columns the pencil work of Mr.
Romilly Fedden. By adding to the
work he had then achieved, not only
fresh drawings of interest, but evi-
dence of improved skill in dealing
with his chosen effects, a further
note is merited. The drawings which
we now reproduce are culled from a
collection which he recently exhibited
at the galleries of Messrs. Frost &
Reed in Bristol, and the improved
skill just alluded to will be manifest
if they are compared with the
examples we reproduced on the
occasion named. There is a quality
inthemoonlight subjects atPolperro,
which is becoming notably a feature
of the artist’s work, calling for appre-
ciation. Mr. Fedden keeps his hand
in practice with studies of heads,
and in the one entitled Fausline
the drawing speaks of more than
successful craftsmanship. This form
of pencil-work has always been the
achievement of a school of artists
who arose under Sir H. von Her-
komeds training at Bushey. Mr.
Fedden has practised drawing in
the manner of this tradition as successfully as
any of its exponents, using the pencil less as
a fine point than with the breadth of handling
which is characteristic of brush - work. The
artist’s application of his method to shadowy
moonlight effects has always been happy. In
more than one of his sketches, too, he has
caught the idyllic note of figures bathed in the
cold light. The fishing village of Cornwall—which,
with its white walls, is, perhaps above other English
villages, the one for providing beautiful moonlight
effects—has afforded him inspiration for many of his
drawings. There is often in an artist’s drawings
the suggestion for his larger pictures, and this gives
them another interest; but it is Mr. Fedden’s
habit to carry his sketches to a degree of finish
which warrants us in regarding them as in them-
selves complete pictures.
A Polperro Type” From a lead pencil draw mg
By A. Romilly Fedden
42
fecund ; of waving harvests, bounded by low purple
ranges veiled in vibrant haze, the weird majesty of
sibyllic hemlocks and junipers in their Sierra fast-
nesses, and the perennial vigour of those mighty
evergreen oaks that were old in the years when art
was young.
The joy and rewards inherent in successful effort
are peculiarly Mr. Keith’s. The happiest hours of
life are those spent before his easel, and the waking
hours that do not find him there are few indeed.
His home studio in the quiet university town of
Berkeley adjoins the campus, with its famous
“ live oaks,” which, because they are the very type
of perennial strength and beauty, are oftenest on
Mr. Keith’s canvases. And as he walks beneath
the low boughs in the evening, he can say, “ If the
joy of this day’s work were all that life had to offer,
I should be satisfied.” Henry Atkins.
URTHER LEAVES
FROM THE SKETCH
BOOK OF A. RO-
MILLY FEDDEN.
We had occasion some two years
ago to notice and illustrate in our
columns the pencil work of Mr.
Romilly Fedden. By adding to the
work he had then achieved, not only
fresh drawings of interest, but evi-
dence of improved skill in dealing
with his chosen effects, a further
note is merited. The drawings which
we now reproduce are culled from a
collection which he recently exhibited
at the galleries of Messrs. Frost &
Reed in Bristol, and the improved
skill just alluded to will be manifest
if they are compared with the
examples we reproduced on the
occasion named. There is a quality
inthemoonlight subjects atPolperro,
which is becoming notably a feature
of the artist’s work, calling for appre-
ciation. Mr. Fedden keeps his hand
in practice with studies of heads,
and in the one entitled Fausline
the drawing speaks of more than
successful craftsmanship. This form
of pencil-work has always been the
achievement of a school of artists
who arose under Sir H. von Her-
komeds training at Bushey. Mr.
Fedden has practised drawing in
the manner of this tradition as successfully as
any of its exponents, using the pencil less as
a fine point than with the breadth of handling
which is characteristic of brush - work. The
artist’s application of his method to shadowy
moonlight effects has always been happy. In
more than one of his sketches, too, he has
caught the idyllic note of figures bathed in the
cold light. The fishing village of Cornwall—which,
with its white walls, is, perhaps above other English
villages, the one for providing beautiful moonlight
effects—has afforded him inspiration for many of his
drawings. There is often in an artist’s drawings
the suggestion for his larger pictures, and this gives
them another interest; but it is Mr. Fedden’s
habit to carry his sketches to a degree of finish
which warrants us in regarding them as in them-
selves complete pictures.
A Polperro Type” From a lead pencil draw mg
By A. Romilly Fedden
42