DOI issue:
Nr. 230 (April 1916)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The water-colours of Claude Hayes, R. I.
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43461#0135
Claude Hayes, R.I.
The water-colours of
CLAUDE HAYES, R.I.
The art of water-colour painting, as prac-
tised by artists of the British school, is subject to
certain traditions which are entitled to the fullest
respect because they have as their foundation a
correct appreciation of the qualities of the medium
and an intelligent sense of artistic fitness. These
traditions were established not much more than
a century ago by the earlier masters of the art, who
if they did not exactly create water-colour certainly
laid down the principles by which its practice is
directed to-day, and by which, as far as can be
foreseen, it will be guided for all time. It can,
indeed, be claimed that by these earlier masters—
who were leaders in the British school—almost all
the possibilities of water-colour painting have been
demonstrated and the standard has been fixed by
which the work of all their successors must be
measured.
In accepting a tradition there is always a danger
that it may become stereotyped and degenerate
into a mere convention, if it does not offer sufficient
scope for individual application—if, that is to say,
it is hedged round by too many rules and re-
strictions and is deficient in flexibility. In art a
convention which denies to those who adopt it the
opportunity to display their personal conviction is
a pernicious thing because it deadens initiative and
hampers progress. Under its shadow the mind
of the artist withers, under its influence he becomes
merely a copyist and an imitator; he ceases to
have any value, and the chance of real achievement
is lost to him.
But respect for the traditions of British water-
colour painting certainly does not involve any risk
of a lapse into conventionality, and only the artist
incapable of original effort would find in them any-
thing which could be formulated or made a matter
of rule. All that they really prescribe is regard
for the genius of the medium—recognition of the
manner in which it should be used and under-
standing of the qualities by which it is particularly
distinguished. They do not set a pattern in
picture-painting which all other water-colourists
must accept, they do not limit either the choice
or treatment of subject, and they do not regulate
the character of the work which is to be produced.
To the men who follow them faithfully the widest
“a mill in Wiltshire”
LVIII. No. 230.—April 1916
The water-colours of
CLAUDE HAYES, R.I.
The art of water-colour painting, as prac-
tised by artists of the British school, is subject to
certain traditions which are entitled to the fullest
respect because they have as their foundation a
correct appreciation of the qualities of the medium
and an intelligent sense of artistic fitness. These
traditions were established not much more than
a century ago by the earlier masters of the art, who
if they did not exactly create water-colour certainly
laid down the principles by which its practice is
directed to-day, and by which, as far as can be
foreseen, it will be guided for all time. It can,
indeed, be claimed that by these earlier masters—
who were leaders in the British school—almost all
the possibilities of water-colour painting have been
demonstrated and the standard has been fixed by
which the work of all their successors must be
measured.
In accepting a tradition there is always a danger
that it may become stereotyped and degenerate
into a mere convention, if it does not offer sufficient
scope for individual application—if, that is to say,
it is hedged round by too many rules and re-
strictions and is deficient in flexibility. In art a
convention which denies to those who adopt it the
opportunity to display their personal conviction is
a pernicious thing because it deadens initiative and
hampers progress. Under its shadow the mind
of the artist withers, under its influence he becomes
merely a copyist and an imitator; he ceases to
have any value, and the chance of real achievement
is lost to him.
But respect for the traditions of British water-
colour painting certainly does not involve any risk
of a lapse into conventionality, and only the artist
incapable of original effort would find in them any-
thing which could be formulated or made a matter
of rule. All that they really prescribe is regard
for the genius of the medium—recognition of the
manner in which it should be used and under-
standing of the qualities by which it is particularly
distinguished. They do not set a pattern in
picture-painting which all other water-colourists
must accept, they do not limit either the choice
or treatment of subject, and they do not regulate
the character of the work which is to be produced.
To the men who follow them faithfully the widest
“a mill in Wiltshire”
LVIII. No. 230.—April 1916