DOI Heft:
No. 140 (October, 1908)
DOI Artikel:West, W. K.: The sculpture of Bertram Mackennal
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28255#0285
Bertram Mackennal, Sculptor
attainment of an obvious likeness, there must
be composition as well in the lines and grace
in the pose of the head. The result must be, in
the best sense of a hackneyed word, artistic, and
must prove that he has given thought to matters
which lie outside the range of the ordinary realist.
If a series of his busts is examined, this pervad-
ing note of design becomes very significant. It
gives to them all a characteristic charm and an air
of distinction that is too often wanting in sculptured
portraiture. From it came the dignity and strength
which made his bust of Madame Melba, finished
some years ago, such an emphatic success ; and to
it is equally due the elegance and refinement of
many others which may fairly be taken as represent-
ing the later stages in his progress.
Indeed, it may truly be said of Mr. Mackennal
that his whole artistic life has been given up to
finding ways of expressing an aesthetic conviction
which is an inseparable part of his personality.
His audacity, his love of experiment, and his
fondness for striking departures in technical pro-
cesses have been kept under proper control by an
innate instinct for decoration. By virtue of the
possession of this instinct, he was saved in his
student days from falling unduly under the influence
of this or that master, and was enabled to select
from the methods of each one whom he admired
just what was wanted to amplify and perfect his
own equipment of knowledge. He was conscious
of a dominant intention by which his whole pro-
duction was to be governed, and to this intention
he has fitted every fresh suggestion which has
come to him in his contact with other earnest
workers.
Under the guidance of such a conviction, the
changes in style which can be perceived in the
series of his productions have been kept in a quite
consistent sequence. They have come one after
another in an orderly fashion, marking logically the
way in which his perceptions have kept pace with
his self-reliance. At first, with the natural incli-
nation of a vigorous man,
he worshipped strength
pure and simple, and sought
to make his work uncom-
promising in its audacious
protest against mere ele-
gance ; but later, as his
experience widened, he
came to see that grace and
power could exist side by
side, and so the intentional
angularities of his earlier
work have given way to
more suave and flowing
arrangements of line. The
more he matures the more
he appreciates the value of
beauty of contour and
modelling, and the more his
interest grows in those re
finements of manner which
stamp the artist as a man
of real taste. But in acquir-
ing delicacy he has not sac-
rificed his vigour; he has
merely rounded off and com-
pleted his sturdy personal-
ity. He is a man of singu-
larly well-balanced capacity,
and it is easy to understand
why there should have
fallen to him a more than
ordinary share of success.
267
attainment of an obvious likeness, there must
be composition as well in the lines and grace
in the pose of the head. The result must be, in
the best sense of a hackneyed word, artistic, and
must prove that he has given thought to matters
which lie outside the range of the ordinary realist.
If a series of his busts is examined, this pervad-
ing note of design becomes very significant. It
gives to them all a characteristic charm and an air
of distinction that is too often wanting in sculptured
portraiture. From it came the dignity and strength
which made his bust of Madame Melba, finished
some years ago, such an emphatic success ; and to
it is equally due the elegance and refinement of
many others which may fairly be taken as represent-
ing the later stages in his progress.
Indeed, it may truly be said of Mr. Mackennal
that his whole artistic life has been given up to
finding ways of expressing an aesthetic conviction
which is an inseparable part of his personality.
His audacity, his love of experiment, and his
fondness for striking departures in technical pro-
cesses have been kept under proper control by an
innate instinct for decoration. By virtue of the
possession of this instinct, he was saved in his
student days from falling unduly under the influence
of this or that master, and was enabled to select
from the methods of each one whom he admired
just what was wanted to amplify and perfect his
own equipment of knowledge. He was conscious
of a dominant intention by which his whole pro-
duction was to be governed, and to this intention
he has fitted every fresh suggestion which has
come to him in his contact with other earnest
workers.
Under the guidance of such a conviction, the
changes in style which can be perceived in the
series of his productions have been kept in a quite
consistent sequence. They have come one after
another in an orderly fashion, marking logically the
way in which his perceptions have kept pace with
his self-reliance. At first, with the natural incli-
nation of a vigorous man,
he worshipped strength
pure and simple, and sought
to make his work uncom-
promising in its audacious
protest against mere ele-
gance ; but later, as his
experience widened, he
came to see that grace and
power could exist side by
side, and so the intentional
angularities of his earlier
work have given way to
more suave and flowing
arrangements of line. The
more he matures the more
he appreciates the value of
beauty of contour and
modelling, and the more his
interest grows in those re
finements of manner which
stamp the artist as a man
of real taste. But in acquir-
ing delicacy he has not sac-
rificed his vigour; he has
merely rounded off and com-
pleted his sturdy personal-
ity. He is a man of singu-
larly well-balanced capacity,
and it is easy to understand
why there should have
fallen to him a more than
ordinary share of success.
267