DOI Heft:
No. 35 (February, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: Private schools of art, [1], The studios of Mr. W. J. Donne and Mrs. Jopling-Rowe
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0056
Private Schools of Art
and no scope for the exercise of its activity and structive forms of study which have resulted from
energy. the experience gained by our younger artists in the
And the practical details of the student's career Continental studios ; and we have, too, a very
have equally gained in the manner of their present- much more judicious appreciation of what young
ing. Draughtsmanship, brushwork, composition, artists really need for the laying of a proper founda-
design, and all the other matters which combine to tion of technical power.
make intelligible the artist's message to the world, One of the best characteristics of the newer system
are taught as parts of the living speech of art, not is the attention which is given now to study from
as idioms of a dead language of which the meaning life. In such a school as that which is conducted
by Mr. VV. J. Donne at the
Grosvenor Studio, Vauxhall
Bridge, the beginning and
ending of the course of
teaching is close observa-
tion of the living model,
and all the work of the
students is based upon this,
the essential groundwork
for all real proficiency.
By his knowledge of the
methods which are fol-
lowed in the Continental
studios, and by his experi-
ence of teaching from the
South Kensington point of
view, Mr. Donne was very
well qualified to devise an
educational scheme which
would avoid the faults of
the "payment by results"
device under which, to
quote his own words,
" students are persuaded to
do work often quite useless
except as a means of en-
riching the pocket of the
teacher." For this lack of
consideration for the pupils
he has substituted close
attention to the need for
building up by a regular
PORTRAIT OF MISS MARION TERRY BY MRS. JOPL1NG-ROWE . , .
progression of experience
their capacity to see things
can only be understood by the collating of re- in their own way. In this he has followed the
cognised and standard authorities. Technical vogue of the Paris studios, where studies made by
education in art is now conducted with infinitely the student are as mere steps in a ladder, each
more intelligence than it ever had given to it one to be knocked away as soon as the next one is
twenty, or even ten, years ago. The old-fashioned reached.
insistence upon the antique as a preparation for It follows from this that Mr. Donne's system
drawing from life, the obsolete modes of handling must be judged by the rapidity with which his
black and white materials, the curious conventions pupils advance rather than by the number of over-
with which painting was hedged round, have in the elaborated studies which they may turn out during
private schools ceased to be either preached or their time of training. Given the basis of correct
practised. In their place we have the more in- observation and accurate statement, it is obvious
43
and no scope for the exercise of its activity and structive forms of study which have resulted from
energy. the experience gained by our younger artists in the
And the practical details of the student's career Continental studios ; and we have, too, a very
have equally gained in the manner of their present- much more judicious appreciation of what young
ing. Draughtsmanship, brushwork, composition, artists really need for the laying of a proper founda-
design, and all the other matters which combine to tion of technical power.
make intelligible the artist's message to the world, One of the best characteristics of the newer system
are taught as parts of the living speech of art, not is the attention which is given now to study from
as idioms of a dead language of which the meaning life. In such a school as that which is conducted
by Mr. VV. J. Donne at the
Grosvenor Studio, Vauxhall
Bridge, the beginning and
ending of the course of
teaching is close observa-
tion of the living model,
and all the work of the
students is based upon this,
the essential groundwork
for all real proficiency.
By his knowledge of the
methods which are fol-
lowed in the Continental
studios, and by his experi-
ence of teaching from the
South Kensington point of
view, Mr. Donne was very
well qualified to devise an
educational scheme which
would avoid the faults of
the "payment by results"
device under which, to
quote his own words,
" students are persuaded to
do work often quite useless
except as a means of en-
riching the pocket of the
teacher." For this lack of
consideration for the pupils
he has substituted close
attention to the need for
building up by a regular
PORTRAIT OF MISS MARION TERRY BY MRS. JOPL1NG-ROWE . , .
progression of experience
their capacity to see things
can only be understood by the collating of re- in their own way. In this he has followed the
cognised and standard authorities. Technical vogue of the Paris studios, where studies made by
education in art is now conducted with infinitely the student are as mere steps in a ladder, each
more intelligence than it ever had given to it one to be knocked away as soon as the next one is
twenty, or even ten, years ago. The old-fashioned reached.
insistence upon the antique as a preparation for It follows from this that Mr. Donne's system
drawing from life, the obsolete modes of handling must be judged by the rapidity with which his
black and white materials, the curious conventions pupils advance rather than by the number of over-
with which painting was hedged round, have in the elaborated studies which they may turn out during
private schools ceased to be either preached or their time of training. Given the basis of correct
practised. In their place we have the more in- observation and accurate statement, it is obvious
43