DOI article:
The editor's room
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17294#0269
The Lay Figure at Home
THE LAY FIGURE AT HOME.
" It is a curious thing that an
Academy which has converted the sworn
foes of Burlington House to be its de-
fenders seems not to have pleased the general
public overmuch," said the Lay Figure.
" Yes; I notice that an ordinary visitor is as
severe this year as the new critic has hitherto
been," replied the man with a clay pipe. "Sar-
gent's portrait, Graham Robertson, Esq., he seems
to find peculiarly irritating."
" It is odd how instinctively mediocrity recog-
nises genius," said the journalist. " If it does not
bow down to it, it singles it out for coarse abuse."
" We are too hard on the average visitor," said
the Lay Figure, " and forget that there are some
achievements in the arts, addressed to experts
only; the uninformed may be told to admire, and
ultimately think they really do ; but in their heart
they naturally love what they understand."
" That is why I doubt your theory of a severely
classic style of house decoration returning," said
the journalist. " It needs an eye for fine colour, a
sympathetic appreciation of proportion, and the
value of reticence, to be satisfied with the least
amount of ornament. Besides, if you banish all
decoration, except that which is worthy to be called
1 Art' in the highest sense of the word, what be-
comes of your designers ?"
" Those who are genuine artists will find in
panels and other orthodox features of the general
scheme, quite ample spaces to fill. Only instead
of planning mechanical ornament by the yard, they
must prepare artistic embellishment by the inch/'
said the Lay Figure. "A fine bas-relief, a beauti-
fully designed frieze, with subtle and good propor-
tions in the mouldings and so on, will give them
plenty of opportunities."
"It will need very good furniture for such a
style," said the American.
"That is it," said the Lay Figure. " In such a
style everything must be very good, as simple as
you like, but well made and well designed ; then
if extraneous ornament comes in, it must needs be
really fine art of its class. In short, literature
against journalism, art against mere pattern-making,
will distinguish it."
" It would throw a lot of people out of employ-
ment," said the man with a clay pipe; "but," he
added, " it may bring back pictures to their proper
place, instead of degrading them to harmonise like
bric-a-brac and upholstery. Meanwhile, I think
that these French fellows may teach us a good
xxvi
deal; but do not let us make haste to say the only
English style which we have evolved is to be
banished for a pseudo-classic art, which may suit
warmer climates and more refined taste, but is a
little too stately for the domestic home-life of
Englishmen."
" Perhaps too much discussion on Art is re-
sponsible for the decay of humour," said the Lay
Figure, " How few of the younger men show a
trace of genuine caricature, or even of character, in
their work. One sees fashionable groups by the
dozen, excellently drawn, with more or less amusing
jokes printed beneath ; but the fun of a Caldecott,
limited as it was, or even the coarser horse-play of
a Baxter, can hardly be paralleled to-day."
"It is technique that has done it," said the
journalist. "Your comic critic is thinking of
Keene's handling, or Forain's line, and is too much
occupied with expressing his knowledge. When
he forgets this he can make you laugh, but his im-
pulse appears to be to make you astounded at his
superb mastery of his craft."
" Or more often," said the man with a clay pipe,
" at his painful efforts to be great, before he is even
mildly comic. I agree with you that humour is
the real antidote to the morbid, and the most true
enemy to the ultra-pessimistic influence that has
been taken so seriously lately."
" To be dull is more easy even than to be
decent," said the Lay Figure ; " and since a man
reveals himself in his jokes, we all pretend not to see
anything laughable in this pompous view of things.
So our satire is often spiteful, sometimes obscene,
but rarely provocative of a good laugh."
" You cannot become a Caran d'Ache, or a
Frost, a Busch, or a Phil May, by study," said the
journalist; " you may be made soulful and symbo-
lic, but the true comic artist is born, not made.
Still, I think we are in danger of asking too much
of one, and expect him to be not merely a mime,
but a great master as well, which is absurd."
" Still, the game is lucrative and not dishonour-
able," said the Lay Figure. " If I were a head-
master of an Art school, I would cultivate every
trace of native humour in a pupil, for thereto tends
fame and fortune."
"Yet at the New English," said the man with a
clay pipe, " they show much humour. Rothenstein
and-"
"Hush," said the journalist, "don't say so, or
they would suppress it at once; it is the youngest
who are serious now; only middle age dares to
take things lightly."
The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE AT HOME.
" It is a curious thing that an
Academy which has converted the sworn
foes of Burlington House to be its de-
fenders seems not to have pleased the general
public overmuch," said the Lay Figure.
" Yes; I notice that an ordinary visitor is as
severe this year as the new critic has hitherto
been," replied the man with a clay pipe. "Sar-
gent's portrait, Graham Robertson, Esq., he seems
to find peculiarly irritating."
" It is odd how instinctively mediocrity recog-
nises genius," said the journalist. " If it does not
bow down to it, it singles it out for coarse abuse."
" We are too hard on the average visitor," said
the Lay Figure, " and forget that there are some
achievements in the arts, addressed to experts
only; the uninformed may be told to admire, and
ultimately think they really do ; but in their heart
they naturally love what they understand."
" That is why I doubt your theory of a severely
classic style of house decoration returning," said
the journalist. " It needs an eye for fine colour, a
sympathetic appreciation of proportion, and the
value of reticence, to be satisfied with the least
amount of ornament. Besides, if you banish all
decoration, except that which is worthy to be called
1 Art' in the highest sense of the word, what be-
comes of your designers ?"
" Those who are genuine artists will find in
panels and other orthodox features of the general
scheme, quite ample spaces to fill. Only instead
of planning mechanical ornament by the yard, they
must prepare artistic embellishment by the inch/'
said the Lay Figure. "A fine bas-relief, a beauti-
fully designed frieze, with subtle and good propor-
tions in the mouldings and so on, will give them
plenty of opportunities."
"It will need very good furniture for such a
style," said the American.
"That is it," said the Lay Figure. " In such a
style everything must be very good, as simple as
you like, but well made and well designed ; then
if extraneous ornament comes in, it must needs be
really fine art of its class. In short, literature
against journalism, art against mere pattern-making,
will distinguish it."
" It would throw a lot of people out of employ-
ment," said the man with a clay pipe; "but," he
added, " it may bring back pictures to their proper
place, instead of degrading them to harmonise like
bric-a-brac and upholstery. Meanwhile, I think
that these French fellows may teach us a good
xxvi
deal; but do not let us make haste to say the only
English style which we have evolved is to be
banished for a pseudo-classic art, which may suit
warmer climates and more refined taste, but is a
little too stately for the domestic home-life of
Englishmen."
" Perhaps too much discussion on Art is re-
sponsible for the decay of humour," said the Lay
Figure, " How few of the younger men show a
trace of genuine caricature, or even of character, in
their work. One sees fashionable groups by the
dozen, excellently drawn, with more or less amusing
jokes printed beneath ; but the fun of a Caldecott,
limited as it was, or even the coarser horse-play of
a Baxter, can hardly be paralleled to-day."
"It is technique that has done it," said the
journalist. "Your comic critic is thinking of
Keene's handling, or Forain's line, and is too much
occupied with expressing his knowledge. When
he forgets this he can make you laugh, but his im-
pulse appears to be to make you astounded at his
superb mastery of his craft."
" Or more often," said the man with a clay pipe,
" at his painful efforts to be great, before he is even
mildly comic. I agree with you that humour is
the real antidote to the morbid, and the most true
enemy to the ultra-pessimistic influence that has
been taken so seriously lately."
" To be dull is more easy even than to be
decent," said the Lay Figure ; " and since a man
reveals himself in his jokes, we all pretend not to see
anything laughable in this pompous view of things.
So our satire is often spiteful, sometimes obscene,
but rarely provocative of a good laugh."
" You cannot become a Caran d'Ache, or a
Frost, a Busch, or a Phil May, by study," said the
journalist; " you may be made soulful and symbo-
lic, but the true comic artist is born, not made.
Still, I think we are in danger of asking too much
of one, and expect him to be not merely a mime,
but a great master as well, which is absurd."
" Still, the game is lucrative and not dishonour-
able," said the Lay Figure. " If I were a head-
master of an Art school, I would cultivate every
trace of native humour in a pupil, for thereto tends
fame and fortune."
"Yet at the New English," said the man with a
clay pipe, " they show much humour. Rothenstein
and-"
"Hush," said the journalist, "don't say so, or
they would suppress it at once; it is the youngest
who are serious now; only middle age dares to
take things lightly."
The Lay Figure.