International studio (59.1916)

Some Pastels by George Sheringham

power, that is to say, which they have of stimu-
lating imagination and of rousing an aesthetic
emotion in the people who see them. To claim
attention on the ground that they give evidence
of laborious application, or that they are the out-
come of long and careful preparation, is not their
aim; they are the spontaneous revelations of the
artist’s ideas, impressions in which he has made
apparent his own personal sentiment, and it is
because they reveal how deeply this sentiment
is impressed upon his mind that they make so
convincing an appeal.
In recording such spontaneous ideas it is obvious
that spontaneity in the medium chosen is essential.
And it is just this spontaneity that is the distin-
guishing quality of pastel when it is used as Mr.
Sheringham uses it. There is in his touch a
freshness that is very acceptable, a promptness that
is extremely significant;
he neither fumbles
nor hesitates; what he
sets down has always
just its right place in the
scheme of his work and
makes just its correct
contribution to the final
result. There is nothing
superfluous, nothing that
could be taken away
without perceptibly de¬
creasing the meaning of
the design and diminish¬
ing the strength of the
testhetic message it is in¬
tended to convey; and yet
with all this economy of
statement the decorative
sufficiency of everything
he does is never to be
questioned.
Clearly, this complete¬
ness of result would be
impossible if the medium
did not respond fully to
the demand that he makes
upon it. It is difficult,
for instance, to imagine
how with any other paint¬
ing process he could have
made so persuasive a
fantasy like The Persian
Vase ; oil painting would
have been too ponderous
and too formal for so

delicate a motive and would have tempted him
to become unnecessarily sumptuous and forcible ;
water-colour would have been too elusive and too
difficult to keep under precise control—too acci-
dental in its behaviour to be entirely trustworthy.
But with pastel he can keep touch with every
detail from beginning to end ; he can define things
precisely or suggest them daintily, and he can
make his whole scheme of decoration intelligible
without having to commit himself too definitely to
assertions of actual fact. In handling such a
motive pedantic reality would be as much mis-
placed as the mere display of technical facility;
wisely he has chosen the medium which by its
subtlety and unobtrusiveness allows him to give
the full value to his artistic intentions without
itself insisting upon being noticed.
It is the same with his other pastel decorations ;


“at golder’s green ”

BY GEORGE SHERINGHAM

134