DOI Heft:
Nr. 160 (June 1910)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: Mr. Robert Anning Bell's work as a painter
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19866#0355
Mr. Robert Anning Bell
sion behind an image of the Virgin. Almost like Diirer and Leonardo, both with the genius of
by accident we get here in miniature the science to embarrass their genius for art, attempted
issues of the Italian Renaissance ; and this is to explain, instead of going on with their work,
surely the gift of this age, its ability to revive We must admire the titles of some of the artist's
in art remote experiences which have passed pictures, such as The Banners, with its simple
into its veins. In these days art is as a clear invitation to the imagination. One sees nothing of
stream containing many reflections. It is the the procession, only the figures looking on from
scholarship, not pedantic but instinctive, in Mr. the balcony and the floating banners. This is not
Bell's art which makes it so interesting, that sort of a literary conception at all—though this is a subject
scholarship, about the appearance of another time, picture—but an artistic one, in which the sensation
in which nothing has remained to him but what of colour is imaginatively felt. Mr. Bell's pictures
has amused his imagination. Imaginative art is often seem to us impromptus. There is much to
unsuccessful—indeed it is not imaginative, though be said in favour of the impromptu in art, correc-
it deal with imaginative subjects—if it does not tion and revision often detracting from the interest
create a place apart, an expression of the artist's of the final result, instead of enhancing it—destroy-
inmost secret. If we are able to say that our own ing rather than building up. The best artists have
fancy is also at home there, and something of our always proceeded somewhat capriciously, respond-
own desires embodied, that is
the only appreciation of any
value to the artist. Without
Mr. Anning Bell's paintings on
the walls of the Old Water-
Colour Society, we should miss,
not only line and colour and
beautiful arrangement, but a
window through which we look
to another place, not a preten-
tious place or sombre, but
charming, suggesting a garden
and woman as the loveliest
flower in it, a quite unreal
place, perhaps, yet one where
the artist's real life is lived.
The Lives of the Painters have
often seemed to me superfluous
writings while their art remains.
Everyone has preferences among
an artist's subjects, and we par-
ticularly like Mockery, because
of its fantasy and unreality,
gestures brought into the scheme
of a pattern, the motif and
history of those gestures made
into the poetry of a title which
is a sort of after-thought; a
mockery which will not kill,
accompanied by action and
signs conveyed as musically as
in a dance. And dance and
design are seen to be closely
connected if we analyse them,
both having the mathematical
structure of music—the struc-
, A ~U„ H t "THE MANNERS" (WATER-COLOUR) BY ROBERT ANNING BELL,
ture which the unhappy artists, (The property of G G Gribb^ Esq )
256
sion behind an image of the Virgin. Almost like Diirer and Leonardo, both with the genius of
by accident we get here in miniature the science to embarrass their genius for art, attempted
issues of the Italian Renaissance ; and this is to explain, instead of going on with their work,
surely the gift of this age, its ability to revive We must admire the titles of some of the artist's
in art remote experiences which have passed pictures, such as The Banners, with its simple
into its veins. In these days art is as a clear invitation to the imagination. One sees nothing of
stream containing many reflections. It is the the procession, only the figures looking on from
scholarship, not pedantic but instinctive, in Mr. the balcony and the floating banners. This is not
Bell's art which makes it so interesting, that sort of a literary conception at all—though this is a subject
scholarship, about the appearance of another time, picture—but an artistic one, in which the sensation
in which nothing has remained to him but what of colour is imaginatively felt. Mr. Bell's pictures
has amused his imagination. Imaginative art is often seem to us impromptus. There is much to
unsuccessful—indeed it is not imaginative, though be said in favour of the impromptu in art, correc-
it deal with imaginative subjects—if it does not tion and revision often detracting from the interest
create a place apart, an expression of the artist's of the final result, instead of enhancing it—destroy-
inmost secret. If we are able to say that our own ing rather than building up. The best artists have
fancy is also at home there, and something of our always proceeded somewhat capriciously, respond-
own desires embodied, that is
the only appreciation of any
value to the artist. Without
Mr. Anning Bell's paintings on
the walls of the Old Water-
Colour Society, we should miss,
not only line and colour and
beautiful arrangement, but a
window through which we look
to another place, not a preten-
tious place or sombre, but
charming, suggesting a garden
and woman as the loveliest
flower in it, a quite unreal
place, perhaps, yet one where
the artist's real life is lived.
The Lives of the Painters have
often seemed to me superfluous
writings while their art remains.
Everyone has preferences among
an artist's subjects, and we par-
ticularly like Mockery, because
of its fantasy and unreality,
gestures brought into the scheme
of a pattern, the motif and
history of those gestures made
into the poetry of a title which
is a sort of after-thought; a
mockery which will not kill,
accompanied by action and
signs conveyed as musically as
in a dance. And dance and
design are seen to be closely
connected if we analyse them,
both having the mathematical
structure of music—the struc-
, A ~U„ H t "THE MANNERS" (WATER-COLOUR) BY ROBERT ANNING BELL,
ture which the unhappy artists, (The property of G G Gribb^ Esq )
256