DOI article:
Reddie, Arthur: A painter of out-door life: Frederic Whiting, R.B.A.
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0124
Frederic iFhi ting, R.B.A.
A PAINTER OF OUT-DOOR LIFE :
FREDERIC WHITING, R.B.A.
A love of out-door pursuits, of sport of
all kinds, has always been a characteristic of the
British race. This we may find exemplified in the
use of English words in sporting terms among
foreigners, to whom indeed the English “ sport-
man ” is, or at any rate used to be, proverbial.
It is this deep-rooted and characteristically
British devotion to all manner of sport that finds
its reflection in the striking and virile work of Mr.
Frederic Whiting. One is careful, however, not
to apply the epithet “sporting” to his art, for
such an appellation has, unfortunately, associations
which imply a confusion of ideals, and the sporting
picture, so called, is but rarely in the true sense
artistic. The reason for this is not far to seek, for
what the sportsman asks is the faithful, accurate
and uncompromisingly literal representation of the
pastime he loves ; and frequently we find his
sympathies alienated from the artist who is, as a
rule, compelled to select, arrange and discard some
of the natural and realistic, data when occupied in
the composition of his picture. Who does not
know the many careful and painstaking productions
depicting, it may be, an episode in a day’s shooting,
with birds in full flight drawn to show all the
feathers and markings with a care for detail ad-
mirably in keeping with the requirements of a work
on ornithology but from the artistic standpoint
wrong and absurd ? Were it not for the stigma
which, from this point of view, attaches to the
term, we should describe Mr. Whiting as a sporting
painter; for besides his devotion in his art to
subjects of this kind, we suspect he can cast a fly
with the best and is quite at home on a horse.
Certainly one feels his pictures evince complete
familiarity with his motifs, which, if one may describe
it, he sees as sportsman and depicts as artist.
After leaving school Mr. Whiting spent a short
time in the city, but the dull routine of office
life proved uncongenial and was abandoned for
art. He entered that famous nursery for artists,
the St. John’s Wood Art Schools, and duly passed
into the Royal Academy Schools, which were then
BY FREDERIC WHITING, R.B.A.
IO9
“march wind” (water-colour) fIn the possession of W. S. Argent, Esq.)
A PAINTER OF OUT-DOOR LIFE :
FREDERIC WHITING, R.B.A.
A love of out-door pursuits, of sport of
all kinds, has always been a characteristic of the
British race. This we may find exemplified in the
use of English words in sporting terms among
foreigners, to whom indeed the English “ sport-
man ” is, or at any rate used to be, proverbial.
It is this deep-rooted and characteristically
British devotion to all manner of sport that finds
its reflection in the striking and virile work of Mr.
Frederic Whiting. One is careful, however, not
to apply the epithet “sporting” to his art, for
such an appellation has, unfortunately, associations
which imply a confusion of ideals, and the sporting
picture, so called, is but rarely in the true sense
artistic. The reason for this is not far to seek, for
what the sportsman asks is the faithful, accurate
and uncompromisingly literal representation of the
pastime he loves ; and frequently we find his
sympathies alienated from the artist who is, as a
rule, compelled to select, arrange and discard some
of the natural and realistic, data when occupied in
the composition of his picture. Who does not
know the many careful and painstaking productions
depicting, it may be, an episode in a day’s shooting,
with birds in full flight drawn to show all the
feathers and markings with a care for detail ad-
mirably in keeping with the requirements of a work
on ornithology but from the artistic standpoint
wrong and absurd ? Were it not for the stigma
which, from this point of view, attaches to the
term, we should describe Mr. Whiting as a sporting
painter; for besides his devotion in his art to
subjects of this kind, we suspect he can cast a fly
with the best and is quite at home on a horse.
Certainly one feels his pictures evince complete
familiarity with his motifs, which, if one may describe
it, he sees as sportsman and depicts as artist.
After leaving school Mr. Whiting spent a short
time in the city, but the dull routine of office
life proved uncongenial and was abandoned for
art. He entered that famous nursery for artists,
the St. John’s Wood Art Schools, and duly passed
into the Royal Academy Schools, which were then
BY FREDERIC WHITING, R.B.A.
IO9
“march wind” (water-colour) fIn the possession of W. S. Argent, Esq.)