International studio (47.1912)

Leandro Ramon Garrido

sheer force of will and an intense desire to live
he found strength for unceasing study and labour.
The casual observer might well be surprised to find
in this frail-looking man, of somewhat melancholy
expression, the painter of virile pictures, sometimes
almost brutal in their realism, sometimes aglow with
extraordinary vivacity. But upon closer study one
can trace the inevitable affinity that must exist
between all sincere and spontaneous art and the
personality of its creator. To represent life, to paint
life as he saw it, seems to have been Garrido’s chief
concern—no more and no less. He had the rare
power of giving life to his subjects, of rendering
subtle expressions that elude even the most able
painters. One wishes that he had taken Browning’s
poem “ The Flight of the Duchess ” and depicted
that vivid personality, active, stirring, all fire, as
the little duchess received the magnetic message
that was “ life’s pure fire ” from the gipsy crone’s
lips. Whether it is the province of paint to describe
what words have already invested with the breath

Another remarkable factor in Garrido’s art was
that of nationality. His father, Fernando Garrido,,
was a Spaniard—an artist and politician exiled
from Spain about 1874 on account of Republican
opinions. Leandro Garrido was born near Bayonne
in 1869. His mother was English, and he was
bred partly in England (he never revisited Spain
after early childhood, except for a brief time to study
Velasquez), but this country never inspired his art.
The Southern element in his blood made him long
for sunshine, for colour, for a fulness and withal a.
simplicity of life that seemed unattainable under
grey English skies and in conventional surroundings.
He studied for a time at South Kensington, and
owned indebtedness to the great English portrait-
painters as well as to Velasquez and Hals. From
modern art he borrowed nothing—consciously, that
is to say. English critics usually describe him as a.
follower of Velasquez or of Franz Hals, and the
public, content to have its opinions ready-made, is
apt to echo this definition. A thoughtful admirer of

of life is beside the question.
Our concern is with the
work done rather than with
that never attempted, but
one would fain have seen
Garrido’s generous and skil-
ful brush employed on
some such theme.
It is remarkable that the
work of so delicate a rfian
should have been invariably
sane and robust, but in
Garrido’s case physical
delicacy was treated as
something exterior, as a
weakness to be fought or
resolutely ignored. Hence
there is no trace in his art
of that physical malaise
which may so easily affect
the nervous quality of work.
In common with other
temperamentally shy and
retiring persons, he was
stubbornly courageous on
certain matters and convic-
tions, and his motto might
well have been “De
1’audace, encore de 1’audace
et toujours de 1’audace,” as
far as this was compatible
with absolute truth and


sincerity.

“OLD MAN WITH A PIPE”

FROM A CHALK DRAWING BY L. R. GARRIDO