Studio: international art (7.1896)

The Work of E. J. Poynter, R.A.

Newman Street; and subsequently entered the ently in London, and worked at cartoons for
studio of Mr. W. C. T. Dobson, R.A., with whom stained glass and decorative panels for some fur-
he studied for the space of a year. In 1855, Mr. niture designed by Mr. Wm. Burges, architect,
Poynter paid a month's visit to Paris, and went to who possessed most pronounced tendencies towards
see the pictures in the Fine Arts section of the mediaeval subjects. Mr. Burges, being at this
Great Exhibition then being held. After noting time (1860-1) engaged upon the restoration ' of
the work of the French school, then about at its Waltham Abbey, Mr. Poynter made for him the
best, he was so impressed with its great superiority whole of the figure designs for the Abbey ceiling
in every respect over that of our own—at that time —The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, The Four
in a low state of progress—that he formed a desire Seasons, and The Four Elements—reproductions of
to study in Paris, and shortly afterwards gained his some of which are here given,
father's consent to the project. The Baron de Since 1862, the year in which Mr. Poynter

first exhibited at the Royal
Academy, there has ap-
peared on its walls an
almost uninterrupted flow
of work from his brush.
Exhibited pictures by him
worthy of note, produced
in the following four years,
are : On Guard in the Time
of the Pharaohs, The Siren,
Offerings to /sis, Faithful
unto Death, &c.

In the last-named pic-
ture, where the sentinel
bravely awaits a fiery death
rather than quit his post
without the necessary order,
Mr. Poynter has chosen a
good subject, and, in the
treatment of it, shows much
imaginative force, bringing
all the terror, confusion,
and other probabilities of
the scene strongly before
us. Besides his pictures at
study for a fresco in st. Stephen's church, dulwich tnjs time, Mr. Poynter also

by e. j. poynter, r.a. . , ' , ,

painted full-length cartoons
for the two figures, Phidias

Triqueti, a sculptor, and uncle by marriage to Mr. and Apelles, which, done in glass mosaic, fill the

Poynter, introduced him to Monsieur Gleyre, arched panelled spaces of one bay in the East Court

whose atelier he at once entered, working there for of the South Kensington Museum,

three years, paying occasional visits to England, For several years about this period Mr. Poynter

and finally taking a studio for himself in the Rue was partly occupied with work for book illustra-

Notre Dame des Champs. tion, among his more notable achievements in this

It was here that Mr. Poynter painted his first direction being all the etchings but two in Lady

picture, which he sent to the British Institution; Eastlake's book, " The History of Our Lord " ; a

but it was rejected. A second work commenced series which, in order to illustrate the author's idea,

there, and finished in London, met with a similar had necessarily to be compiled from examples by

fate when first sent to the Royal Academy, but many masters, early and late, and from such various

found a place there on being again offered in the sources as sarcophagi, ivories, book-covers, MSS.,

following year. &c. From the year 1863 to 1S65, Mr. Poynter

In i860, Mr. Poynter came to settle perman- drew a number of designs upon wood, as illustra-
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