DOI issue:
Nr. 174 (August, 1911)
DOI article:Studio-Talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0213
Studio-Talk
“PIERROT AND COLUMBINE” BY JOSEF WACKERLE
(See Berlin Studio- Talk, p. 161)
a fine portrait by the little known Rev. Matthew
Peters. Though John Downman has no real
claim to the title of pastellist his portrait drawings
are of the greatest beauty. One other artist
certainly deserves more than a passing word—-
Francis Cotes, and when looking at his vivacious
portraits so fresh in colour, so modern in treat-
ment, it was almost a shock to suddenly realise
they were not portraits of living people but of some
who lived quite one hundred and fifty years ago.
Similarly there was one drawing by Catherine
Read which is eminently important because of its
bearing upon the medium itself.
The impression produced by this exhibition was
of satisfaction and pleasure in the drawings as a
certain quality of colour and light, and they were of
that refinement of conception common to the period
in which they were executed. This colour and light
constitute the peculiar charm of pastel, and it is only
when the mistaken modern pastellist tries to
imitate the modern oil portrait that the charm of
the medium vanishes. Very bad pastels may have
a charm solely due to the medium itself, a charm
extremely difficult to define, though the purity
of pastel may to a certain extent account for it.
158
There is, too, an additional quality in these
portraits now more than a century old—the quality
of freshness, and it was to this point that the
consideration of the drawings by Catherine Read
brought me. One of her drawings was a portrait of
Miss Elizabeth Gunning. It must have been done
before the year 1778, which is the date of the
artist’s death, and yet it would be impossible to say
from its appearance that it was not drawn yesterday.
It is a head with very little space round it. The
background is a delicate blue and the rose-coloured
velvet round the neck and the red of the mouth
complete the only strong colour of the study; all
this is delicately and exquisitely done, and it is as
beautiful to-day as it was when Catherine Read
drew it more than onejiundred and thirty years ago.
It is certainly a triumph for the medium.
The graceful drawing by Richard Cosway
reproduced here and the excellent companion
portrait by Peter Romney bring together two
artists whose lives gave little prospect of their
ever meeting on the footing of artistic equality.
“self portrait” (coloured drawing)
BY GERTRUD VON KUNOWSKI
( See p. 162)
“PIERROT AND COLUMBINE” BY JOSEF WACKERLE
(See Berlin Studio- Talk, p. 161)
a fine portrait by the little known Rev. Matthew
Peters. Though John Downman has no real
claim to the title of pastellist his portrait drawings
are of the greatest beauty. One other artist
certainly deserves more than a passing word—-
Francis Cotes, and when looking at his vivacious
portraits so fresh in colour, so modern in treat-
ment, it was almost a shock to suddenly realise
they were not portraits of living people but of some
who lived quite one hundred and fifty years ago.
Similarly there was one drawing by Catherine
Read which is eminently important because of its
bearing upon the medium itself.
The impression produced by this exhibition was
of satisfaction and pleasure in the drawings as a
certain quality of colour and light, and they were of
that refinement of conception common to the period
in which they were executed. This colour and light
constitute the peculiar charm of pastel, and it is only
when the mistaken modern pastellist tries to
imitate the modern oil portrait that the charm of
the medium vanishes. Very bad pastels may have
a charm solely due to the medium itself, a charm
extremely difficult to define, though the purity
of pastel may to a certain extent account for it.
158
There is, too, an additional quality in these
portraits now more than a century old—the quality
of freshness, and it was to this point that the
consideration of the drawings by Catherine Read
brought me. One of her drawings was a portrait of
Miss Elizabeth Gunning. It must have been done
before the year 1778, which is the date of the
artist’s death, and yet it would be impossible to say
from its appearance that it was not drawn yesterday.
It is a head with very little space round it. The
background is a delicate blue and the rose-coloured
velvet round the neck and the red of the mouth
complete the only strong colour of the study; all
this is delicately and exquisitely done, and it is as
beautiful to-day as it was when Catherine Read
drew it more than onejiundred and thirty years ago.
It is certainly a triumph for the medium.
The graceful drawing by Richard Cosway
reproduced here and the excellent companion
portrait by Peter Romney bring together two
artists whose lives gave little prospect of their
ever meeting on the footing of artistic equality.
“self portrait” (coloured drawing)
BY GERTRUD VON KUNOWSKI
( See p. 162)