DOI issue:
Nr. 193 (März 1913)
DOI article:Price, C. Matlack: American landscape painting and the art of Robert H. Nisbet
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0364
The Art of Robert H. Nisbet
“ragged clouds”
BY ROBERT H. NISBET
A MERIC AN LANDSCAPE PAINT-
/\ ING AND THE ART OF ROBERT
f—X H. NISBET
1 k BY C. MATLACK PRICE
The present aspect of landscape painting in
this country is a peculiar one, and may, per-
haps, be best considered a period of transition
from the work of the old school to a sort of
painting yet to be evolved. This transitional
period is of distinct interest if one stops to
study the varied methods of the more prominent
contemporary landscape painters, with retro-
spective commentary on the men of the old
school and a mental forecast of the ultimate
development of the art.
It can be shown that while our present era
is supposedly one of fad and impressionism,
it may be tending more nearly toward realism
than the work of many earlier landscape painters.
In the conception of landscape rendering held
by such men as Richards, Inness, and Wyant
there was a careful realism—an attention to detail
which led the first-named to be termed a “Pre-
Raphaelite.” There was, however, an element
of essential accuracy in the work of Richards
which placed it in a different category from that
of Wyant and Inness, and which made his painting
rather a transcript from nature than an inter-
pretation. Wyant was not so skilled a draughts-
man, nor was Inness, and both were governed
by a tendency to paint by formula, both in com-
position and in color.
Winslow Homer, in the later development of
his work, showed leanings toward the present
sort of painting as practised by Dougherty and
Waugh, while Tryon and Sword really belong to
the old school of landscape painters, and their
canvases in recent exhibitions seem like voices
from the preceding generation.
And now a score of painters are working in as
many different veins—all seemingly bent upon
evolving a means of expression which shall be at
once sincere and accurate, yet essentially pictures-
que—an aim which is as intangible by formula
as it is difficult of attainment in practice. Of the
names which come most readily into the mental
vision (after visiting several recent exhibitions)
XI
“ragged clouds”
BY ROBERT H. NISBET
A MERIC AN LANDSCAPE PAINT-
/\ ING AND THE ART OF ROBERT
f—X H. NISBET
1 k BY C. MATLACK PRICE
The present aspect of landscape painting in
this country is a peculiar one, and may, per-
haps, be best considered a period of transition
from the work of the old school to a sort of
painting yet to be evolved. This transitional
period is of distinct interest if one stops to
study the varied methods of the more prominent
contemporary landscape painters, with retro-
spective commentary on the men of the old
school and a mental forecast of the ultimate
development of the art.
It can be shown that while our present era
is supposedly one of fad and impressionism,
it may be tending more nearly toward realism
than the work of many earlier landscape painters.
In the conception of landscape rendering held
by such men as Richards, Inness, and Wyant
there was a careful realism—an attention to detail
which led the first-named to be termed a “Pre-
Raphaelite.” There was, however, an element
of essential accuracy in the work of Richards
which placed it in a different category from that
of Wyant and Inness, and which made his painting
rather a transcript from nature than an inter-
pretation. Wyant was not so skilled a draughts-
man, nor was Inness, and both were governed
by a tendency to paint by formula, both in com-
position and in color.
Winslow Homer, in the later development of
his work, showed leanings toward the present
sort of painting as practised by Dougherty and
Waugh, while Tryon and Sword really belong to
the old school of landscape painters, and their
canvases in recent exhibitions seem like voices
from the preceding generation.
And now a score of painters are working in as
many different veins—all seemingly bent upon
evolving a means of expression which shall be at
once sincere and accurate, yet essentially pictures-
que—an aim which is as intangible by formula
as it is difficult of attainment in practice. Of the
names which come most readily into the mental
vision (after visiting several recent exhibitions)
XI