International studio (53.1914)

Studio- Talk


“ COSY CORNER.” FROM A WATER-COLOUR DRAWING BY H. WILLEBEEK LE MAIR
( Copyright Augener Ltd.)

qualities of draughtsmanship, her fertility in the
introduction of pattern and borders into her work,
her comprehension of draperies and materials which
she depicts so simply and yet so convincingly;
while from the supplemental plate in facsimile one
can appreciate her delicate and very harmonious
colouring.
In Miss Le Mair’s work a certain affinity can
be discerned with the art of Maurice Boutet de
Monvel, under whom, indeed, it was her earnest
desire to study. With much wisdom, however,
this great French artist urged her most strongly to
work alone, to study direct from nature and to
develop her own talent and personality untrammelled
by any outside teaching. She is therefore entirely
self-taught, and while unquestionably she must owe
an enormous debt to her fortuitous circumstances,
to the cultured and artistic milieu in which her lot
is cast, she is to be praised highly for the ability
she has evinced and sedulously cultivated to absorb
the beauty of her surroundings and to infuse it
with her own individuality in weaving these
delicate fancies of line and colour, about which one
cannot but write with enthusiasm.
One point in particular is with the artist of
paramount importance; she deplores the ugliness
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and the grotesqueness
which are often permitted to
invade children’s books.
She would have nothing
but what is of simple beauty
in her work as in her sur-
roundings, and while her
deep and sympathetic com-
prehension of children
makes her very keenly alive
also to their humour, which
is amply apparent through-
out her work, she introduces
nothing ugly or terrifying
to mar her drawings.
Finally, to sum up and
reiterate what it is that
pleases one most in this
delicate and graceful art;
it is the skill with which
these decorative composi-
tions are treated, the ac-
curacy of draughtsmanship,
the perfection of technique
evinced in the exceedingly
delicate and expressive line
and the simple and beauti-
ful application of the
harmonious colouring, and lastly—and this is
possibly the most outstanding feature of Miss Le
Mair’s art—the rare grace with which she captures
the beauty and fragrance of that tender blossom we
call childhood. Arthur Reddie.
STUDIO-TALK.
(From Our Own Correspondents.)
tONDON.—Few artists in our day have
realised so fully as Mr. Morton Nance
the picturesque charm of the wooden
—J battleships which guarded our native
shores in the days of old, and fewer still are entitled
to speak about their characteristic features with
the authority he has acquired by close study of the
material now available. In numerous pictures and
drawings of his, these forerunners of the men-o’-war
of later days figure as the central motive, and his
rare knowledge of constructional details has ensured
a veracious rendering. That knowledge has, how-
ever, been most effectually displayed in the various
models he has from time to time constructed. Three
of these are in the Science Museum atSouth Kensing-
ton, and are often consulted by artists and designers
in search of reliable guidance for their work. The