DOI Heft:
Nr. 159 (May 1910)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: Lionel P. Smythe, A.R.A., R.W.S.: an appreciation on his work and methods
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19866#0254
Lionel P. Smythe, A.R.A., R.JV.S.
is as free from conventions of observation as he is
from tricks of handling, and he allows no manner-
ism to cramp the freedom or to sap the vitality of
his art. Breadth and reticence are among the chief
characteristics of his work, but they come from
perfect adjustment of complex details, and from
singularly skilful use of the material which Nature
makes available, not from the exclusion from his
pictures of everything but a few large and impres-
sive facts. He sees things in a big way, but he is
fully conscious of the small matters as well, and
quite ready to give them the place that is due to
them in his painted records.
Concerning his powers as an executant there is
this to be said, that he has a thorough command
over both the oil and the water-colour mediums,
that he is an admirable draughtsman, and that he
possesses a colour-sense that is unusually charm-
ing. His use of his materials is always skilful and
always free from trickery ; he affects neither dash-
ing freedom nor minute precision of handling, but
paints broadly, simply and directly, with a touch
that is flexible and full of meaning. His work is
that of the craftsman who knows what he wants to
do and how it should be done, and who is so far
sure of himself that he has no desire to imitate the
executive devices of anyone else. He paints, in a
word, with an individuality that is much to be
commended in the present day, when artists are
far too apt to follow fashions in brushwork and to
lay on paint in the manner prescribed by this or
that school.
His draughtsmanship is both sturdy and elegant;
unacademic it certainly is, but it shows no evasion
of the little details which make for accuracy and
completeness. As an instance of the sensitiveness
of his drawing, the hands of the woman in The
Breeze's Kiss are well worth studying ; and as an
illustration of the way in which a figure can be
made to live and move by expressiveness of
draughtsmanship, the woman standing in the fore-
ground of A Sunny Shore is not less deserving of
consideration. These are notable examples of Mr.
Smythe's skill, but in all his pictures not only the
figures but also the landscape details are drawn
with a sincere appreciation of form and with a
feeling for graces of contour that can be admired
without reservation.
In his arrangement and treatment of colour
effects he is absolutely personal. No other artist
at the present time has his power of being at once
dainty and brilliant, and of dealing with harmonies
that are delicate but yet sumptuous. Mr. Smythe's
pictures are always full of colour pitched in a high
key and exceptionally luminous, but they never
show the smallest trace of garishness, and they
is as free from conventions of observation as he is
from tricks of handling, and he allows no manner-
ism to cramp the freedom or to sap the vitality of
his art. Breadth and reticence are among the chief
characteristics of his work, but they come from
perfect adjustment of complex details, and from
singularly skilful use of the material which Nature
makes available, not from the exclusion from his
pictures of everything but a few large and impres-
sive facts. He sees things in a big way, but he is
fully conscious of the small matters as well, and
quite ready to give them the place that is due to
them in his painted records.
Concerning his powers as an executant there is
this to be said, that he has a thorough command
over both the oil and the water-colour mediums,
that he is an admirable draughtsman, and that he
possesses a colour-sense that is unusually charm-
ing. His use of his materials is always skilful and
always free from trickery ; he affects neither dash-
ing freedom nor minute precision of handling, but
paints broadly, simply and directly, with a touch
that is flexible and full of meaning. His work is
that of the craftsman who knows what he wants to
do and how it should be done, and who is so far
sure of himself that he has no desire to imitate the
executive devices of anyone else. He paints, in a
word, with an individuality that is much to be
commended in the present day, when artists are
far too apt to follow fashions in brushwork and to
lay on paint in the manner prescribed by this or
that school.
His draughtsmanship is both sturdy and elegant;
unacademic it certainly is, but it shows no evasion
of the little details which make for accuracy and
completeness. As an instance of the sensitiveness
of his drawing, the hands of the woman in The
Breeze's Kiss are well worth studying ; and as an
illustration of the way in which a figure can be
made to live and move by expressiveness of
draughtsmanship, the woman standing in the fore-
ground of A Sunny Shore is not less deserving of
consideration. These are notable examples of Mr.
Smythe's skill, but in all his pictures not only the
figures but also the landscape details are drawn
with a sincere appreciation of form and with a
feeling for graces of contour that can be admired
without reservation.
In his arrangement and treatment of colour
effects he is absolutely personal. No other artist
at the present time has his power of being at once
dainty and brilliant, and of dealing with harmonies
that are delicate but yet sumptuous. Mr. Smythe's
pictures are always full of colour pitched in a high
key and exceptionally luminous, but they never
show the smallest trace of garishness, and they