International studio (35.1908)

Modern Miniature Painting

So the earlier miniaturists adopted in their work
a style which was as characteristic as it was
attractive, and which had about it little of the
matter-of-fact realism too often seen now in photo-
graphy. They aimed at portraiture, yet in giving
a likeness of the
person repre-
sented they kept
all details which
were not vitally
important in due
subordination,
and used the
sitter as a motive
for a decorative
scheme. That
this was frankly
acceptance of a
convention can
be admitted; the
convention, how-
ever, was so
pleasing, and in-
volved so little
departure from
needful actuality,
that it cannot be
condemned even
if it is judged
from the modern
standpoint. Its
justification is to
be found in the
fact that the old
miniatures per-
fectly f u 1 fi 11 e d
the purpose for which they were created; they
have a place of much distinction in the art of the
world, and their manner of expression is rightly
recognised as aesthetically sound.
In estimating the value of modern miniature
painting, the tests that must be applied are not
quite those which are appropriate to the older
work. For the miniature to day has lost much of
its decorative intention; the idea that it should be
an ornament has been to a great extent abandoned,
and the desire to make it a portrait pure and
simple has become almost universal. This change
is mainly due, there seems no reason to doubt, to
the introduction of photography. By photography
many people have been taught to expect a sort cf
obvious realism in portraiture, a plain statement
of facts rather than anything that is subtle or
ingenious in design. They are satisfied if the
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miniature rivals the photograph in literal likeness-
making, and they are as often as not quite as well
pleased with a coloured photograph as with the
best example of the modem miniaturist’s work.
If all the miniature painting of the present day
were on these
photographic
lines the disap-
pearance of the
art in a com-
paratively short
time might safely
be prophesied.
But fortunately
there are a good
many artists
who have not
forgotten the
older traditions,
though they have
adapted them-
selves sufficiently
to the modem
demand; and it
is from this band
of intelligent
workers that the
miniature paint-
ing most worthy
of attention is
coming now.
Their produc-
tions have a dis-
tinct character
— one which
results from
modernising of technical method as well as from
the necessary concessions to the fashion of the
present time—and this character, though it does
not destroy the artistic interest of the work itself,
necessitates the taking up of a new standpoint of
criticism. It would be easy to condemn the whole
of the miniatures which belong to the modern school
on the ground that they fail to reproduce the quali-
ties of taste and execution which the former masters
sought for and attained. But this would be to deny
that an art so personal as portraiture has any right
to change ; and it would mean that a convention
once established must be regarded as immutable
and as not to be departed from, no matter what
alterations there might be in the manners and
customs of the world in which this art was expected
to flourish. We may regret that the purity of
style, the technical subtlety, and the decorative


A BROWN STUDY BY WINIFRED NICOLSON