DOI issue:
No. 6 (September, 1893)
DOI article:An interview with Mr. Charles F. Annesley Voysey, architect and designer
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17188#0249
An Interview with Mr. C. F. A. Voysey
AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. for everYthing connected with it; yet even such
CHARLES F. ANNESLEY Partial recognition is so limited that it only serves
VOYSEY ARCHITECT AND to emphasise the general neglect of the individual
DESIGNER designer. Possibly this is not an unmixed evil.
At a meeting of the Japan Society lately, a young
So far as it concerns the general public, it is Japanese pointed out that where Japan was most
■curious to note how the mere accident of his artistic it was almost unconscious of the fact, and
material determines the popular recognition of an that then the work itself attracted more attention
artist. Oil paintings and pictures generally are than its maker. " Here," he said, " if you want a
signed, books and musical compositions are also new coinage your R.A.'s design it—it is illustrated
inseparably associated with their authors; but in the papers, and generally talked about; in Japan,
architectural works, and the whole mass of deco- even to-day, when we have a new coin, we look at
DESIGN FOR A WALL-TAPER FRIEZE, IN EIGHT COLOURS. BY C. F. A. VOYSEY
rative designs, whether in carving, furniture, wall- it and see it is' beautiful, but do not ask^who
papers, or the thousand and one applied arts, are made it." If therefore we need not censure the
entirely anonymous to the majority of people. habit of judging most decorative work on its own
True, a very important edifice is vaguely assigned to merits, rather than as a factor in the making of its
one architect, who is supposed to be responsible creator's fame, yet to those technically concerned
AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. for everYthing connected with it; yet even such
CHARLES F. ANNESLEY Partial recognition is so limited that it only serves
VOYSEY ARCHITECT AND to emphasise the general neglect of the individual
DESIGNER designer. Possibly this is not an unmixed evil.
At a meeting of the Japan Society lately, a young
So far as it concerns the general public, it is Japanese pointed out that where Japan was most
■curious to note how the mere accident of his artistic it was almost unconscious of the fact, and
material determines the popular recognition of an that then the work itself attracted more attention
artist. Oil paintings and pictures generally are than its maker. " Here," he said, " if you want a
signed, books and musical compositions are also new coinage your R.A.'s design it—it is illustrated
inseparably associated with their authors; but in the papers, and generally talked about; in Japan,
architectural works, and the whole mass of deco- even to-day, when we have a new coin, we look at
DESIGN FOR A WALL-TAPER FRIEZE, IN EIGHT COLOURS. BY C. F. A. VOYSEY
rative designs, whether in carving, furniture, wall- it and see it is' beautiful, but do not ask^who
papers, or the thousand and one applied arts, are made it." If therefore we need not censure the
entirely anonymous to the majority of people. habit of judging most decorative work on its own
True, a very important edifice is vaguely assigned to merits, rather than as a factor in the making of its
one architect, who is supposed to be responsible creator's fame, yet to those technically concerned