DOI Heft:
No. 13 (April, 1894)
DOI Artikel:Wedmore, Frederick: The responsibility of painting: an address to students of art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17190#0024
The Responsibility of Painting
not really every other morning that there rises a
new school of painting, which knows everything
that is important, and leaves all that is unimpor-
tant behind. Common sense must tell you so.
It has a message, no doubt—each new movement-
it has a message and you will welcome it, whether
its message be concerning "values," or "brush-
work," or " composition," or the " square touch."
But To-day's message, whatever it may be, To-day's
"fad" in Art, will be followed by another to-
morrow. " Values " will go the way of the Pre-
Raphaelite : even the " square touch" may pre-
sently follow. The new will have its charm. But
the approved, the classic, and the tested—that
older, tested art, of Holbein and of Rembrandt,
of Velasquez, Titian, Turner, Watteau—of Degas, by
all means, for he is a classic by this time—that
Art, ladies and gentlemen, whatever goes, that Art
has " come to stay."
Frederick Wedmore.
The drawing, A Study from a Railway Bridge,
which forms the frontispiece to the present number,
is reproduced by kind permission of Mr. Frederick
Evans, the owner of the original. Mr. Hyde, the
artist of this very beautiful rendering of an effect
that is familiar to true lovers of London, is working
at a series of these studies, which are intended to
represent not merely topographical features, but
the poetry and mystery of the great city which, if
less irresistible in its first effect than other old-
world centres of civilisation, has a way of becoming
more and more beautiful to those who study it. Of
late a well-known writer attacked London on aesthe-
tic grounds, and compared it unfavourably with
Paris, Vienna, and even, if memory serves, with
certain American towns. Yet foreigners are again
and again impressed by its marvellous aerial effects,
its sunsets and fogs ; and ready to own that within the
limits of the cab radius, you may find more subjects
which demand a great artist to express the magic of
their colour and form, than in any of the more
architecturally perfect cities of the old or new
worlds. We hope to have the pleasure of including
another study of the series, St. .Paul's from Waiting
Street, by Mr. Hyde, in a future issue.
For permission to reproduce the charming
The End of the Story, by Albert Moore, which
appears on this page, we are indebted to the kind-
ness of the owner, William Kenrick, Esq., M.P.
not really every other morning that there rises a
new school of painting, which knows everything
that is important, and leaves all that is unimpor-
tant behind. Common sense must tell you so.
It has a message, no doubt—each new movement-
it has a message and you will welcome it, whether
its message be concerning "values," or "brush-
work," or " composition," or the " square touch."
But To-day's message, whatever it may be, To-day's
"fad" in Art, will be followed by another to-
morrow. " Values " will go the way of the Pre-
Raphaelite : even the " square touch" may pre-
sently follow. The new will have its charm. But
the approved, the classic, and the tested—that
older, tested art, of Holbein and of Rembrandt,
of Velasquez, Titian, Turner, Watteau—of Degas, by
all means, for he is a classic by this time—that
Art, ladies and gentlemen, whatever goes, that Art
has " come to stay."
Frederick Wedmore.
The drawing, A Study from a Railway Bridge,
which forms the frontispiece to the present number,
is reproduced by kind permission of Mr. Frederick
Evans, the owner of the original. Mr. Hyde, the
artist of this very beautiful rendering of an effect
that is familiar to true lovers of London, is working
at a series of these studies, which are intended to
represent not merely topographical features, but
the poetry and mystery of the great city which, if
less irresistible in its first effect than other old-
world centres of civilisation, has a way of becoming
more and more beautiful to those who study it. Of
late a well-known writer attacked London on aesthe-
tic grounds, and compared it unfavourably with
Paris, Vienna, and even, if memory serves, with
certain American towns. Yet foreigners are again
and again impressed by its marvellous aerial effects,
its sunsets and fogs ; and ready to own that within the
limits of the cab radius, you may find more subjects
which demand a great artist to express the magic of
their colour and form, than in any of the more
architecturally perfect cities of the old or new
worlds. We hope to have the pleasure of including
another study of the series, St. .Paul's from Waiting
Street, by Mr. Hyde, in a future issue.
For permission to reproduce the charming
The End of the Story, by Albert Moore, which
appears on this page, we are indebted to the kind-
ness of the owner, William Kenrick, Esq., M.P.