International studio (46.1912)

Mr. Spencer Pryse s Lithographs


FAYENCE FIGURE. DESIGNED BY
F. AND E. SCHLEISS, EXECUTED IN
THE GMUNDENER FAYENCE UND
KERAMIKEN WERKSTATTE
( See preceding article)

Mr. spencer pryse's
LITHOGRAPHS.
In introducing the work of
Mr. Spencer Pryse to readers of The
Studio, it is as a lithographer, for
although Mr. Pryse is a painter whose
work will be likely to attract attention in
the future, for the present he is chiefly a
lithographer, and one who has put
the medium to uses peculiarly his
own.

work its air of finish, its quality of technique quite free of
indecision and mischance.
So many of our present-day lithographers succeed in
virtuosity at the expense of so much else—at the expense
of a likeness to the sitter especially. To cover this defect
they tell us that such emphasis upon the individuality of
their sitter is something that can very well be left to
caricaturists. Therefore perhaps it is that in black-and-
white to-day the best portraiture is only seen in the art
of caricaturists, and there is a real place (now that Mr.
Sargent exhibits so few of his charcoal portraits) for an
artist who finds the character of his model an essential
part of his subject, if not indeed the most important
part.
Lithography is one of those mediums that exercise a
peculiar fascination over those who practise them ; and
it is just these fascinating mediums which prove them-
selves at once sympathetic and expressive, responding


PORCELAIN FIGURE. DESIGNED AND EXECUTED IN THE IMPERIAL
FACHSCHULE AT BECHYN
(See preceding article)

Perhaps first and foremost Mr. Pryse is
a portraitist. His groups seem to us composed of
people individually portrayed. Apart from his style,
which entitles him to so much praise, his prints show
considerable penetration in deciphering the ingre-
dients of human character as it is to be read in face
and bearing. It is this instinct for psychology, this
unusual gift for portraiture that seems first to claim
attention in his lithographs; after that there is the
suave, the so highly intelligent—or if the word is
preferred, sympathetic—touch which gives to his

in result most readily to the mood of the artist
and reflecting with the greatest clearness the
nature of his temperament. But it is mediums
of this kind that are recalcitrant and difficult to
obtain complete mastery over in the first instance-
And in the case of lithography there is almost as
little room for indecision and correction as in
etching. It is essentially a medium for artists
whose best work is of a spontaneous kind, whose
best effects are direct ones, and who would rather

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