DOI Heft:
No. 31 (October, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The Herkomer School
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0015
THE STUDIO
Ttttt rn;u v ami; t> crunni bewilderment to many minds by the quaint para-
HE HERKOMER SCHOOL. , , . , , f . .
LYS BALDRY X m some years ago he expressed his
views on the subject of the function which his then
It is something of a misnomer, or at recently founded art centre was to fulfil. He had
all events of a misuse of terms, to speak created, he declared, "an art school which has for
of the complicated educational system which has its mission the suppression of the art student." It
its headquarters at Bushey, and owes to Pro- was, indeed, a strange banner to hoist above a new
fessor Herkomer its origin and vitality, as if it stronghold of art; and he might well term a school
were a scholastic establishment ordered and ar- constructed on such principles an <! artistic experi-
ranged after the ordinary pattern. It was, perhaps, ment." Any one whose convictions about art
because a more explanatory title was not available training had been acquired by observation of
that the outward and visible sign of the scheme teaching places arranged on accepted lines, and
which this energetic artist had been for many years whose opinions had been formed in accordance
mentally perfecting was originally called the with principles that were correct because sanc-
" Herkomer School''; but this name which de- tioned by custom, must have felt comfortably con-
scribed well enough a block of class-rooms can vinced that such a wild experiment was a flying in
now hardly be taken accu-
rately to define an art
colony in which the school
building is little more than
an accessory. The ordin-
ary, every-day person, who
takes things literally, under-
stands the word " school "
to signify merely the space,
enclosed by walls, roof and
floor, within which the young
idea acquires somewhat
painfully a certain amount
of more or less useful know-
ledge. Therefore, when, as
at Bushey, a word which is
capable of such limitation is
used in a much larger sense
and is applied as a definition
of a new art movement, the
plain man may to some ex-
tent be excused for not
realising how the Herkomer
colony has generated an at-
mosphere which is congenial
to art, and in which artists
grow up with rapidity and
nourish with a vigour which
is only possible under
peculiarly favourable con-
ditions.
The Professor himself
must hare added further study of figures for "salvation army" by e. borough johnson
VI. No. 31.—October, 1895. 3
A,
Ttttt rn;u v ami; t> crunni bewilderment to many minds by the quaint para-
HE HERKOMER SCHOOL. , , . , , f . .
LYS BALDRY X m some years ago he expressed his
views on the subject of the function which his then
It is something of a misnomer, or at recently founded art centre was to fulfil. He had
all events of a misuse of terms, to speak created, he declared, "an art school which has for
of the complicated educational system which has its mission the suppression of the art student." It
its headquarters at Bushey, and owes to Pro- was, indeed, a strange banner to hoist above a new
fessor Herkomer its origin and vitality, as if it stronghold of art; and he might well term a school
were a scholastic establishment ordered and ar- constructed on such principles an <! artistic experi-
ranged after the ordinary pattern. It was, perhaps, ment." Any one whose convictions about art
because a more explanatory title was not available training had been acquired by observation of
that the outward and visible sign of the scheme teaching places arranged on accepted lines, and
which this energetic artist had been for many years whose opinions had been formed in accordance
mentally perfecting was originally called the with principles that were correct because sanc-
" Herkomer School''; but this name which de- tioned by custom, must have felt comfortably con-
scribed well enough a block of class-rooms can vinced that such a wild experiment was a flying in
now hardly be taken accu-
rately to define an art
colony in which the school
building is little more than
an accessory. The ordin-
ary, every-day person, who
takes things literally, under-
stands the word " school "
to signify merely the space,
enclosed by walls, roof and
floor, within which the young
idea acquires somewhat
painfully a certain amount
of more or less useful know-
ledge. Therefore, when, as
at Bushey, a word which is
capable of such limitation is
used in a much larger sense
and is applied as a definition
of a new art movement, the
plain man may to some ex-
tent be excused for not
realising how the Herkomer
colony has generated an at-
mosphere which is congenial
to art, and in which artists
grow up with rapidity and
nourish with a vigour which
is only possible under
peculiarly favourable con-
ditions.
The Professor himself
must hare added further study of figures for "salvation army" by e. borough johnson
VI. No. 31.—October, 1895. 3
A,