DOI Heft:
Nr. 158 (April 1910)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of Mr. Albert Goodwin, R.W.S.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19866#0138
Albert Goodwin, R.W.S.
which he could expand and amplify, upon which
he could build a wonderful superstructure of
imaginative suggestion, and to which he could
give endless subtleties of interpretation ; that this
motive should be a paintable one in the way
required by the faithful realist was not in his view
essential, all he desired was that it should give him
scope for the exercise of his intelligence and his
taste, and that it should be capable of translation
into that personal idiom which he was accustomed
to use.
It is because he approaches his art from Turner's
standpoint and with much of that incomparable
master's sensitiveness that Mr. Albert Goodwin has
so high a place among the living painters of what
can be called imaginative landscape. A follower
of Turner he certainly is not, in the ordinary sense
of the word; he does not imitate the technical
devices of his great predecessor, and he does not
try to reproduce his characteristics of manner.
But Mr. Goodwin's attitude towards nature is, like
that of Turner, one of receptiveness to impres-
sions, and one of readiness to allow sentiment to
have its full effect in determining the direction of
his effort. Shrewd and close observer as he is, he
cannot by any means be called a realist, and he
does not lay himself open to the charge of
neglecting the larger essentials while he is worrying
himself over trivialities. He has acquired the
power to analyse and dissect his subject and study
it part by part, but yet in rendering it pictorially
to use this analysis and study only to give firmness
of construction and coherence to a delightful
fantasy. He does not obtrude his knowledge, but
to it are due, nevertheless, some of the finer
qualities of his accomplishment.
By the possession of this knowledge he is en-
abled to enter as closely as he desires into the
spirit of nature and to overcome her apparent
elusiveness without running any risk of losing
touch with the facts which must form the basis of
his work. There is no fear of his becoming vague
or uncertain in his expression when he gives free
rein to the promptings of his temperament; he
can allow himself full license to assert his indi-
viduality and to show just what is the impression
that nature has made upon him, because he has
fixed clearly the boundaries beyond which he
89
which he could expand and amplify, upon which
he could build a wonderful superstructure of
imaginative suggestion, and to which he could
give endless subtleties of interpretation ; that this
motive should be a paintable one in the way
required by the faithful realist was not in his view
essential, all he desired was that it should give him
scope for the exercise of his intelligence and his
taste, and that it should be capable of translation
into that personal idiom which he was accustomed
to use.
It is because he approaches his art from Turner's
standpoint and with much of that incomparable
master's sensitiveness that Mr. Albert Goodwin has
so high a place among the living painters of what
can be called imaginative landscape. A follower
of Turner he certainly is not, in the ordinary sense
of the word; he does not imitate the technical
devices of his great predecessor, and he does not
try to reproduce his characteristics of manner.
But Mr. Goodwin's attitude towards nature is, like
that of Turner, one of receptiveness to impres-
sions, and one of readiness to allow sentiment to
have its full effect in determining the direction of
his effort. Shrewd and close observer as he is, he
cannot by any means be called a realist, and he
does not lay himself open to the charge of
neglecting the larger essentials while he is worrying
himself over trivialities. He has acquired the
power to analyse and dissect his subject and study
it part by part, but yet in rendering it pictorially
to use this analysis and study only to give firmness
of construction and coherence to a delightful
fantasy. He does not obtrude his knowledge, but
to it are due, nevertheless, some of the finer
qualities of his accomplishment.
By the possession of this knowledge he is en-
abled to enter as closely as he desires into the
spirit of nature and to overcome her apparent
elusiveness without running any risk of losing
touch with the facts which must form the basis of
his work. There is no fear of his becoming vague
or uncertain in his expression when he gives free
rein to the promptings of his temperament; he
can allow himself full license to assert his indi-
viduality and to show just what is the impression
that nature has made upon him, because he has
fixed clearly the boundaries beyond which he
89