DOI Heft:
Nr. 235 (September, 1916)
DOI Artikel:West, W. K.: Some pastels by Mr. George Sheringham
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43462#0248
Some Pastels by George Sheringham
“THE pool” BY GEORGE SHERINGHAM
about them all there is an air of perfect agreement
between the idea by which they are inspired and
the means adopted to make the idea intelligible to
other people. Always it is the design itself that
first claims attention, not the cleverness of the
craftsman who has exercised his skill in carrying
out the design; always the immediate impression
one receives in looking at Mr. Sheringham’s work
is that he seems infallibly to arrive at perfect
achievement; it is only by later examination that
one realises how a masterly use of his medium
contributes to this perfection, and it is only after
much contemplation that one perceives what part
the medium itself plays in bringing about the
result. But then the artist has in this instance
purposely selected the medium because it lends
itself so well to his particular scheme of practice
and fits in so admirably with his temperamental
preferences — that is why this delightful atmo-
sphere of agreement between his mind and hand
pervades the whole of his work.
138
Certainly, in everything he does Mr. Shering-
ham proves that he has an absolute control over
all the essentials of the decorator’s art, and that
just as he knows by instinct what is the medium
best suited for the interpretation of a particular
kind of design, so he understands surely what kind
of treatment is most appropriate for each class of
his production. There is nothing stereotyped in
his art, no limitation of his energies to one type of
expression. It is interesting, as an illustration of
this, to compare the reticence and simplicity of
such things as The Flowered Shawl, The Reader,
and Le Petit Dejeuner, with the sumptuousness of
The Queen's Bedchamber and The Toilet, and with
the almost careless freedom of The Landscape
Time-sketch, or, again, to set the quiet breadth of
the study by the sea, Sand, against the more
fantastic richness of The Pond and The Pool. An
artist who can handle equally well motives so
markedly divergent in character, and can keep
consistently in each one such an admirable
“THE pool” BY GEORGE SHERINGHAM
about them all there is an air of perfect agreement
between the idea by which they are inspired and
the means adopted to make the idea intelligible to
other people. Always it is the design itself that
first claims attention, not the cleverness of the
craftsman who has exercised his skill in carrying
out the design; always the immediate impression
one receives in looking at Mr. Sheringham’s work
is that he seems infallibly to arrive at perfect
achievement; it is only by later examination that
one realises how a masterly use of his medium
contributes to this perfection, and it is only after
much contemplation that one perceives what part
the medium itself plays in bringing about the
result. But then the artist has in this instance
purposely selected the medium because it lends
itself so well to his particular scheme of practice
and fits in so admirably with his temperamental
preferences — that is why this delightful atmo-
sphere of agreement between his mind and hand
pervades the whole of his work.
138
Certainly, in everything he does Mr. Shering-
ham proves that he has an absolute control over
all the essentials of the decorator’s art, and that
just as he knows by instinct what is the medium
best suited for the interpretation of a particular
kind of design, so he understands surely what kind
of treatment is most appropriate for each class of
his production. There is nothing stereotyped in
his art, no limitation of his energies to one type of
expression. It is interesting, as an illustration of
this, to compare the reticence and simplicity of
such things as The Flowered Shawl, The Reader,
and Le Petit Dejeuner, with the sumptuousness of
The Queen's Bedchamber and The Toilet, and with
the almost careless freedom of The Landscape
Time-sketch, or, again, to set the quiet breadth of
the study by the sea, Sand, against the more
fantastic richness of The Pond and The Pool. An
artist who can handle equally well motives so
markedly divergent in character, and can keep
consistently in each one such an admirable