International studio (43.1911)

F. H. S. Shepherd

The interior pictures and
LANDSCAPES OE F. H. S.
SHEPHERD.
Among the several artists who have of late
turned their attention to domestic interior genre, the
work of Mr. F. H. S. Shepherd has stood out from
the rest of the work that has represented the move-
ment, marked by some difference of aim and a
considerable difference of style.
The problem lately has been one of submitting
to the truths of impressionism—impressionism in
its widest sense—a class of subjects which the
Dutchmen, Hogarth, and again the mid-Victorians
had approached from a very different point of
view.
Without completely severing himself from the
old convention and the attention to detail that it
implied, Mr. Shepherd has tried to effect some of
those heightened and luminous values which seem

once and for all he must make up his mind what
truths it is on either side he is prepared to sac-
rifice that he may keep his midway path with the
consistency that leads to beauty.
Impressionism in the interpretation of interior
genre was bound to come with the large sash-
windows that now flood all our houses with light.
Before impressionism acknowledged the sunlight
with such Zoroastrian fervour, it was permissible to
dwell all day long upon the homely significance of
trifles. To be an artist is to have a taste for a
certain aspect of life, even for certain trifles : it is
to have the right to ignore progress or to welcome
only a convenient part of it; to ignore the delivered
gospel of impressionism and the two hundred and
one dissenting bodies with whom its interpretation
lies—to do, in fact, just what one likes.
Mr. Shepherd’s affection for qualities that the old
convention revealed gives his work its own attrac-
tiveness. His style carries with it a theory of colour

the prize of impressionism
alone. But whilst impression-
ism becomes almost uncon-
scious of objects in regarding
the mystery of light, the older
convention seemed to deal with
this or that object for its own
sake. The older convention
worked within a conventional
scale of light; impressionism
throws out a challenge to real
daylight—but only to be driven
into a formula of its own,
though one embracing more of
a certain kind of truth neces-
sary to our modern eyes.
To embrace a formula is to
embrace a code of truth. To
exchange one formula for
another is like passing from
one dogma to another, each
with a variation of the truth ;
but to disregard them alto-
gether is in many instances to
lose touch with all but super-
ficial truths — the not un-
common modern achievement,
accounting for no small part of
the vulgarities of modern exhi-
bitions. The painter of whom
we write is too much of an
artist not to feel that, even if
he sets himself a convention


which shall bridge two others,

“JUNE morning” (Oil.)

BY F. H. S. SHEPHERD