DOI Heft:
Nr. 171 (May, 1911)
DOI Artikel:Laurvik, J. Nilsen: The Art Students' League Summer School
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43446#0251
Art Students League Summer School
LANDSCAPE
BY WALTER GALTZ
circled mountains of the legendary country of Rip
Van Winkle. Abundant pictorial material is found
in the surrounding country upon which the embryo
artist may exercise his budding talents. In and
about the little village itself, which centers around
the old white Dutch church, there are countless
opportunities to put into practice the use of a pris-
matic palette in rendering the scintillating play of
light and color upon white surfaces.
It is hardly necessary to state that the work as
well as the actual instruction is all done out of
doors, usually under the direct supervision of one
of the assistant instructors, who enforces the ideas
and suggestions promulgated by Mr. Harrison in
his weekly lectures before the class. These weekly
criticisms occur every Saturday morning in the
permanent and commodious studio building, in
which the students assemble with the results of their
week’s work. The serious and careful attention
given to every exhibit, however slight, is indicative
of the whole conduct and spirit of this school, which
is no mere side issue with Mr. Harrison, but the
outcome of an earnest desire to impart to beginners
something of the knowledge which he himself had
to acquire so laboriously. I recall with pleasure
one of these weekly talks to his class, delivered last
summer when he had barely recovered from a severe
illness; the kindling enthusiasm, the shrewd, native
wit that exposed the faults with a kindly good
humour that left no sting, the ready and sympathetic
recognition of merits that spurred on to better
efforts, the clear exposition of technical or psycho-
logical points that opened up new vistas to the
student constituted something unique in my ex-
perience of the teaching of art. It was all so prac-
tical, so sound, so unacademic and unhackneyed
that it was hard to associate it with any established
institution wherein the academic formulas are
taught and practised.
It is not too much to say that with these methods
it is made possible for a student to advance as far
in a knowledge of the underlying principles of land-
scape painting in the five months extending from
June to November as in the same number of years
under the old regime. More than one of the juries
of our regular exhibitions has passed work executed
at the end of the season by students of this school
who in June came to it as absolute tyros in land-
LXIII
LANDSCAPE
BY WALTER GALTZ
circled mountains of the legendary country of Rip
Van Winkle. Abundant pictorial material is found
in the surrounding country upon which the embryo
artist may exercise his budding talents. In and
about the little village itself, which centers around
the old white Dutch church, there are countless
opportunities to put into practice the use of a pris-
matic palette in rendering the scintillating play of
light and color upon white surfaces.
It is hardly necessary to state that the work as
well as the actual instruction is all done out of
doors, usually under the direct supervision of one
of the assistant instructors, who enforces the ideas
and suggestions promulgated by Mr. Harrison in
his weekly lectures before the class. These weekly
criticisms occur every Saturday morning in the
permanent and commodious studio building, in
which the students assemble with the results of their
week’s work. The serious and careful attention
given to every exhibit, however slight, is indicative
of the whole conduct and spirit of this school, which
is no mere side issue with Mr. Harrison, but the
outcome of an earnest desire to impart to beginners
something of the knowledge which he himself had
to acquire so laboriously. I recall with pleasure
one of these weekly talks to his class, delivered last
summer when he had barely recovered from a severe
illness; the kindling enthusiasm, the shrewd, native
wit that exposed the faults with a kindly good
humour that left no sting, the ready and sympathetic
recognition of merits that spurred on to better
efforts, the clear exposition of technical or psycho-
logical points that opened up new vistas to the
student constituted something unique in my ex-
perience of the teaching of art. It was all so prac-
tical, so sound, so unacademic and unhackneyed
that it was hard to associate it with any established
institution wherein the academic formulas are
taught and practised.
It is not too much to say that with these methods
it is made possible for a student to advance as far
in a knowledge of the underlying principles of land-
scape painting in the five months extending from
June to November as in the same number of years
under the old regime. More than one of the juries
of our regular exhibitions has passed work executed
at the end of the season by students of this school
who in June came to it as absolute tyros in land-
LXIII