International studio (43.1911)

Earl Stetson Crawford


OVERMANTEL, “A ROMAN GARDEN”

BY EARL STETSON CRAWFORD

emanates from the canvas a sublimated, elusive sug-
gestion of radiance, of such order as the etheric over-
tones of a stringed instrument that vibrate into si-
lence and touch the borderland of infinity—there is
such close alliance between sound and color.
In composition his theme is major, modulated
and phrased along the entire gamut of sentiment
and mood, infusing into it his vitality and cheer of
sane outlook by the presence of the human element
—all subordinated to the artistic development of the
picture and rendered in a minor key as to tone
quality.
Questioned as to his views concerning “style,” the
artist preferred to quote from a criticism of some
Japanese art: “In this respect certain of these
carved pieces were failures, for they were simply
copies of nature and nothing more.”
And as to “medium,” although Mr. Crawford
disclaims any special rank in the use of it—except as
the experience of an incessant student weighs in the
scale—his work shows equal facility in handling oil,
water color, sanguine or pen-and-ink; all, alike,
being the ready servants of his thought, consistent
with his theory that medium must be considered
only as a facile tool and that he, alone, who is able,
aside from the methods employed to bring about re-
sults, to speak through his work in a tongue intelligi-
ble to kindred humans, in some tangible form of ex-
pression—either literature, painting, sculpture or
music—has proven himself an artist in the truest

sense. Moreover, as he believes, in all painting the
desired aim should be to convey a sense of beauty of
arrangement, in which the model serves as an object
through which to attain this desire, the resemblance
to the sitter being projected on the canvas, not as a


SKETCH, MISS WINSTANLEY

BY E. S. CRAWFORD

XVII