DOI issue:
No. 33 (December, 1895)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0197
being Luxor. There is undoubtedly an opening for
a limited number of clever students in this direction.
Professor Petrie, who is himself just off for the
Desert, is this year taking out three ladies who will
make drawings for him.
The material success of our city depends very
largely upon our manufactures in jewellery and all
manner of metals. It is, therefore, most satisfac-
tory to note that more attention is given every
year by our School of Art authorities to practical
designing. The other evening the Mayor presented
the prizes at the Vittoria Street School, which is a
branch of the Municipal School of Art in connec-
tion with the Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Associa-
tion. Here all the students work out their own
designs at the lathe. There are 322 students con-
nected with this one school, most, if not all, of
whom will eventually become working jewellers.
In the last examinations, 170 of them gained certi-
ficates as against 140 last year, and 74 obtained
first-class honours, as against 41 in 1894. This
speaks well for the future of our jewellery trade,
which depends as much on good design as fine
workmanship. The head-master of this school, Mr.
Seely, designed the silver casket which the Cor-
poration of Longton recently presented to the Duke
of Sutherland.
Birmingham has just been shaken to its very
depths by a startling discovery made by a local
tailor with respect to Mr. Bruce Joy's statue of
John Bright, which is in the Art Gallery. His
overcoat has been made to button on the wrong
side. The town is now divided as to whether the
sculptor made a mistake, or whether the statesman
was left-handed. What makes the matter more
complicated is the fact that the frock-coat under-
neath buttons in the usual way. The sartorial mind
is much agitated over this important question, and
some of our tailors have, inconsequence, developed
a fine contempt for high art.
ST. IVES.—Within a few miles of its
ultimate point the Great Western rail-
way offers the artist two alternatives—
he must be prompt in his decision,
this artist, but it is open to him to
continue his journey along the main line to
Mount's Bay and Newlyn, or to turn aside at St.
Erth and get himself conveyed by a friendly little
branch train that skirts the white curving sands of
Lelant and Carbis Bay, to land him presently in
182
that delightfully heterogeneous, perplexiug little
town of St. Ives.
The distance in mere miles between the two art
colonies is insignificant; a moderately good walker
finds it a pleasant afternoon's trudge over the
breezy moorland, bright with gorse and furze, and
ominously strewn with boulders and extinct mine
chimneys, while the sea stretches away behind and
before him.
It would be interesting, if one had time and
space, to follow the evolution, say, of a young artist
who at St. Erth made up his mind to keep to the
right or turn to the left. We are constantly being
moulded by our environment, and the wind, the
rain, and the sun help in the shaping of artists
as surely as they help in the shaping of mountains
and valleys. _
Newlyn looks east—there are no sands, the fringe
of the sea is not very alluring; and the sun soon
sinks behind the hill on which the village lies, but
this gives the figure-painter an admirable oppor-
tunity for placing his personages in shadow with
a grey or glowing background of sea, hence many
of the Newlyn motives.
St. Ives, on the northern coast, has a north-east
to a north-western aspect; the sun comes gleaming
over the water in the morning on the one hand
and sinks gleaming into it on the other hand in
the evening; big waves come tumbling over white
sands, and the foam is dyed in turns with all the
colours of the spectrum; out of the windows of
their foam-spattered studios the St. Ives artists can
watch the sea pranking itself in all the many tinted
garments of the day and evening, and so they
become impressionistic and sensuous in colour;
sea and sand are their chief concern, and the
transient aspects of nature their problem—and
really it seems hard to say anything more laudatory
of any band of workers. Of course " on a les
vices de ses qualites"; but it is none of my
business to point out the vices of my friends, it
is sufficient to congratulate oneself that they have
some. N. G.
LASGOW.—The one event of im-
portance in local art circles at pre-
sent, is the exhibition of works by
members of the Glasgow Art Club.
The collection embraces 280 works
in oil and water-colours, etching, sculpture, and
architecture, so that the exhibits are as varied in
a limited number of clever students in this direction.
Professor Petrie, who is himself just off for the
Desert, is this year taking out three ladies who will
make drawings for him.
The material success of our city depends very
largely upon our manufactures in jewellery and all
manner of metals. It is, therefore, most satisfac-
tory to note that more attention is given every
year by our School of Art authorities to practical
designing. The other evening the Mayor presented
the prizes at the Vittoria Street School, which is a
branch of the Municipal School of Art in connec-
tion with the Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Associa-
tion. Here all the students work out their own
designs at the lathe. There are 322 students con-
nected with this one school, most, if not all, of
whom will eventually become working jewellers.
In the last examinations, 170 of them gained certi-
ficates as against 140 last year, and 74 obtained
first-class honours, as against 41 in 1894. This
speaks well for the future of our jewellery trade,
which depends as much on good design as fine
workmanship. The head-master of this school, Mr.
Seely, designed the silver casket which the Cor-
poration of Longton recently presented to the Duke
of Sutherland.
Birmingham has just been shaken to its very
depths by a startling discovery made by a local
tailor with respect to Mr. Bruce Joy's statue of
John Bright, which is in the Art Gallery. His
overcoat has been made to button on the wrong
side. The town is now divided as to whether the
sculptor made a mistake, or whether the statesman
was left-handed. What makes the matter more
complicated is the fact that the frock-coat under-
neath buttons in the usual way. The sartorial mind
is much agitated over this important question, and
some of our tailors have, inconsequence, developed
a fine contempt for high art.
ST. IVES.—Within a few miles of its
ultimate point the Great Western rail-
way offers the artist two alternatives—
he must be prompt in his decision,
this artist, but it is open to him to
continue his journey along the main line to
Mount's Bay and Newlyn, or to turn aside at St.
Erth and get himself conveyed by a friendly little
branch train that skirts the white curving sands of
Lelant and Carbis Bay, to land him presently in
182
that delightfully heterogeneous, perplexiug little
town of St. Ives.
The distance in mere miles between the two art
colonies is insignificant; a moderately good walker
finds it a pleasant afternoon's trudge over the
breezy moorland, bright with gorse and furze, and
ominously strewn with boulders and extinct mine
chimneys, while the sea stretches away behind and
before him.
It would be interesting, if one had time and
space, to follow the evolution, say, of a young artist
who at St. Erth made up his mind to keep to the
right or turn to the left. We are constantly being
moulded by our environment, and the wind, the
rain, and the sun help in the shaping of artists
as surely as they help in the shaping of mountains
and valleys. _
Newlyn looks east—there are no sands, the fringe
of the sea is not very alluring; and the sun soon
sinks behind the hill on which the village lies, but
this gives the figure-painter an admirable oppor-
tunity for placing his personages in shadow with
a grey or glowing background of sea, hence many
of the Newlyn motives.
St. Ives, on the northern coast, has a north-east
to a north-western aspect; the sun comes gleaming
over the water in the morning on the one hand
and sinks gleaming into it on the other hand in
the evening; big waves come tumbling over white
sands, and the foam is dyed in turns with all the
colours of the spectrum; out of the windows of
their foam-spattered studios the St. Ives artists can
watch the sea pranking itself in all the many tinted
garments of the day and evening, and so they
become impressionistic and sensuous in colour;
sea and sand are their chief concern, and the
transient aspects of nature their problem—and
really it seems hard to say anything more laudatory
of any band of workers. Of course " on a les
vices de ses qualites"; but it is none of my
business to point out the vices of my friends, it
is sufficient to congratulate oneself that they have
some. N. G.
LASGOW.—The one event of im-
portance in local art circles at pre-
sent, is the exhibition of works by
members of the Glasgow Art Club.
The collection embraces 280 works
in oil and water-colours, etching, sculpture, and
architecture, so that the exhibits are as varied in