International studio (50.1913)

Emile A. Verpilleux


“a windmill” (woodcut) by e. a.
One of the reasons for this lies in his preoccupa-
tion in seeking to obtain a particular quality of
texture of pigment. Instead of devoting himself
entirely to the realisation of colour analysis he is
mainly interested, at present, in the method of
using the paint.
The possibilities of oil-paint are by no means
limited. The qualities of life and nature which
can be realised by the medium are many-sided and
extensive. Skill in applying paint is an achieve-
ment of comparatively small importance. Its
quality of expression is chiefly bounded by the
limitations of the painter. The temptation to use
pigment for its own sake, for its qualities of texture,
is possibly a natural one, but such use is a mere
step in the development of its powers as a vehicle
of emotional expression of emotion in terms of
harmonious construction.
Mr. Verpilleux has not yet had full opportunity
to develop his gifts in this direction. He has a
fine sense of drawing and a sensitive feeling for
colour—rare qualities which should lead him a very
long way. His full-length life-sized portrait of Mr.
270

Temple Thurston standing in a
landscape shows great facility and
dexterity in the handling of pigment.
All his work in oil-paint reveals
a fine appreciation of tone. His
earlier work is more or less con-
ventional and brown in colour, but
it is invariably good in design,
robustly painted, tending freely to
impasto ; a later stage shows him
aiming at a fresher and more
naturalistic scale of colour, while
his paint has become fluid. He is
then somewhat consciously con-
cerned with the handling of his
pigment. The portrait of Mr.
Thurston represents a return to a
somewhat robuster and more
plastic quality of pigment while re-
taining the fresher and more
naturalistic colour development.
Exact as the values are in this
picture, they still remain values of
tone rather than pure colour values.
The picture of the shore and sea
near Felixstowe, with boats sailing
before the breeze, which represents
an experimental stage in Mr. Ver-
pilleux’ use of oil-paint, has that
VERPILLEUX r . 1
easy charm resulting from a fluid
and graceful manipulation of
material which is dear to the English painter.
That is not, of course, the most important aspect
of the art of painting. Ease of execution with its
fascinating graces should emerge (as it were) as
the result of constant practice in the reproduction
of the tone and colour of nature. It can never be
a compensation for deficiencies arising from in-
complete realisation of those qualities.
Mr. Verpilleux’ art is still in the making. Much
as he has already achieved, his personal qualities,
apart from his artistic constellation, should lead to
interesting development. He is not likely to be
led away by the modern notion that a perverse and
erratic point of view is a sign of originality.
Two important works by David Cox, a landscape
by E. M. Wimperis, and a street scene in Verona
by William Callow, in water-colour, together with a
painting of The Arch of Titus by W. L. Leitch,
have been added to the permanent collection of
the Corporation of Birmingham, these works having
been bequeathed to the collection by the late Mr-
J. T. Collins of Edgbaston.