DOI issue:
Nr. 176 (October, 1911)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: Some recent portraits by Philip A. László
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0356
Recent Portraits by P. A. LaszId
SOME RECENT PORTRAITS BY
PHILIP A. LASZLO.
There is always a certain difficulty in ac-
counting for the success which an artist makes in
his profession, a difficulty in explaining exactly why
he secures the degree of popularity he enjoys and
why he passes other men in the race for recognition.
If prominence in the art world were always the
reward of merit, if the man of distinguished
ability always secured attention as a matter of
course, and if popularity came to him invariably as
a direct consequence of his display of the powers
with which he was endowed, this difficulty would
not exist; it would be pleasantly obvious that he
had succeeded simply because with his natural
equipment of high capacities he could not do
anything else.
But, unfortunately, there is no such ideal con-
nection between merit and success ; the artist who
enjoys the largest measure of popularity is only too
often a man of but moderate powers, while the
genius who has every claim to attention is
frequently allowed to languish in obscurity.
The art world does not by any means
accord immediate recognition to its
greatest men, it forces them, indeed, in
far too many cases to serve an exacting
apprenticeship through a long term of
years and to struggle hopelessly against
chilling indifference which saps their
energies and dulls their enthusiasm.
Neglect, unluckily, is the commonest
reward of merit, the penalty which the
artist with great gifts has to pay for being
better than his fellows and for presuming
to rise above that level of mediocrity
which the general public admires.
Therefore a particular interest attaches
to an artist who has proved himself to be
a brilliant exception to a depressing rule,
and who has taken a specially prominent
place among the most popular painters of
our time although he is possessed of quite
exceptional command over the resources
of his craft. Mr. P. A. Laszlo has put
himself in the front rank without sacri-
ficing an atom of his individuality, without
surrendering anything of his personal
conviction, and without hiding the fact
that he is a superlatively skilful executant
who can, and does, disregard the stock
conventions of pictorial practice with a
serene confidence in the rightness of his
XL1V. No. 176.—October 1911.
own point of view. It would be difficult to find a
painter more definitely disinclined to accept the
popular standard of tame mediocrity or one with a
franker faith in the value of strenuous inde-
pendence, and yet he has gained the completest
acceptance from all types of art lovers.
Of course if his work is judged in a rational
manner—in the manner, that is to say, that an
artist’s work is hardly ever judged by the public—
it is easy enough to account for his success. He
is, to begin with, an exceedingly shrewd student of
character and a close observer of the many small
details by which differences of personality are
emphasised in the human subject, and therefore
his portraits possess in a very high degree that
quality of vitality which comes from correct
characterisation. Then again, he has a delightful
sense of style, a feeling for suavity of design and
grace of arrangement that guides him always in his
translation of nature into the terms of art; and in
his seeking for the actuality which is essential in all
sound portraiture he never allows himself to descend
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST BY P. ?. LASZLO
SOME RECENT PORTRAITS BY
PHILIP A. LASZLO.
There is always a certain difficulty in ac-
counting for the success which an artist makes in
his profession, a difficulty in explaining exactly why
he secures the degree of popularity he enjoys and
why he passes other men in the race for recognition.
If prominence in the art world were always the
reward of merit, if the man of distinguished
ability always secured attention as a matter of
course, and if popularity came to him invariably as
a direct consequence of his display of the powers
with which he was endowed, this difficulty would
not exist; it would be pleasantly obvious that he
had succeeded simply because with his natural
equipment of high capacities he could not do
anything else.
But, unfortunately, there is no such ideal con-
nection between merit and success ; the artist who
enjoys the largest measure of popularity is only too
often a man of but moderate powers, while the
genius who has every claim to attention is
frequently allowed to languish in obscurity.
The art world does not by any means
accord immediate recognition to its
greatest men, it forces them, indeed, in
far too many cases to serve an exacting
apprenticeship through a long term of
years and to struggle hopelessly against
chilling indifference which saps their
energies and dulls their enthusiasm.
Neglect, unluckily, is the commonest
reward of merit, the penalty which the
artist with great gifts has to pay for being
better than his fellows and for presuming
to rise above that level of mediocrity
which the general public admires.
Therefore a particular interest attaches
to an artist who has proved himself to be
a brilliant exception to a depressing rule,
and who has taken a specially prominent
place among the most popular painters of
our time although he is possessed of quite
exceptional command over the resources
of his craft. Mr. P. A. Laszlo has put
himself in the front rank without sacri-
ficing an atom of his individuality, without
surrendering anything of his personal
conviction, and without hiding the fact
that he is a superlatively skilful executant
who can, and does, disregard the stock
conventions of pictorial practice with a
serene confidence in the rightness of his
XL1V. No. 176.—October 1911.
own point of view. It would be difficult to find a
painter more definitely disinclined to accept the
popular standard of tame mediocrity or one with a
franker faith in the value of strenuous inde-
pendence, and yet he has gained the completest
acceptance from all types of art lovers.
Of course if his work is judged in a rational
manner—in the manner, that is to say, that an
artist’s work is hardly ever judged by the public—
it is easy enough to account for his success. He
is, to begin with, an exceedingly shrewd student of
character and a close observer of the many small
details by which differences of personality are
emphasised in the human subject, and therefore
his portraits possess in a very high degree that
quality of vitality which comes from correct
characterisation. Then again, he has a delightful
sense of style, a feeling for suavity of design and
grace of arrangement that guides him always in his
translation of nature into the terms of art; and in
his seeking for the actuality which is essential in all
sound portraiture he never allows himself to descend
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST BY P. ?. LASZLO