DOI issue:
No. 37 (April, 1896)
DOI article:Wedmore, Frederick: The work of Alfred East
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0152
The IVork of Alfred East
or magical moonlight, or some hour of much denser
darkness, or an hour of storm, when the ash tree
in exposed places bends and sways with the wind,
and a hurrying rain-cloud, darkening the landscape
in its passage, scuds over the width and greatness
of the plain. See, for instance, Mr. Kenrick's
picture of much such a scene as I have just
described. There is a rain-cloud in the dis-
tance ; the wind-driven, wind-bent trees shake
themselves over the road. A figure at this
ant, and not least vivid and intense, is Gay
Morning—whose name has just been mentioned.
It is a vision of the world refreshed ; an ordi-
nary English land ; a small stream winding
round a tongue of meadow ground, and on it,
the chief object, one great tree, its leaves yellow-
green with the spring time, catching and spark-
ling in the delightful clearness of the morning
light. Gay Morning, I may say here in paren-
thesis, was at the New Gallery in 1889. The
" STREET IN KIOTO FROM A PAINTING 13Y ALFRED EAST, R.I.
(In the possession of F. C. Clayton, Esq., J-P )
moment passes under them, on his long march, Daphnis I have spoken of already—the Daphnis
with gusty weather for his foe. And the picture piping solitary—was in the same place in 1891,
called October Gloiv, of which the main idea is when I remember giving cordial welcome to every-
to get the same light over the different planes thing that it contained except the partial draping
of the wide landscape, is also, as the very name of the figure. Pure nakedness was wanted, as I
implies, not so much of form as of an effect and thought, and think to-day, for the sentiment of the
a peculiar hour. The last rays of light shine on thing, a Classic Pastoral. It was wanted, too, in
the scene without a shadow. The colouring is this particular case, that the flow and rhythm of
of yellow autumn tints and the greenish blue of a line might nowise be disturbed,
clear sky, with cirri flying over the front of it. And now, in a paragraph which will be almost
Again, Gentle Night is an impression: a boon of though not absolutely the final one, let the posi-
peace descending on fold and Held—Victor Hugo's tion of Alfred East, amongst the landscape painters
" immense bonte des Cieux." of his day, be made yet plainer by illustration : it
And an impression again, happiest, most radi- may be, even by repetition. Let us take some
138
or magical moonlight, or some hour of much denser
darkness, or an hour of storm, when the ash tree
in exposed places bends and sways with the wind,
and a hurrying rain-cloud, darkening the landscape
in its passage, scuds over the width and greatness
of the plain. See, for instance, Mr. Kenrick's
picture of much such a scene as I have just
described. There is a rain-cloud in the dis-
tance ; the wind-driven, wind-bent trees shake
themselves over the road. A figure at this
ant, and not least vivid and intense, is Gay
Morning—whose name has just been mentioned.
It is a vision of the world refreshed ; an ordi-
nary English land ; a small stream winding
round a tongue of meadow ground, and on it,
the chief object, one great tree, its leaves yellow-
green with the spring time, catching and spark-
ling in the delightful clearness of the morning
light. Gay Morning, I may say here in paren-
thesis, was at the New Gallery in 1889. The
" STREET IN KIOTO FROM A PAINTING 13Y ALFRED EAST, R.I.
(In the possession of F. C. Clayton, Esq., J-P )
moment passes under them, on his long march, Daphnis I have spoken of already—the Daphnis
with gusty weather for his foe. And the picture piping solitary—was in the same place in 1891,
called October Gloiv, of which the main idea is when I remember giving cordial welcome to every-
to get the same light over the different planes thing that it contained except the partial draping
of the wide landscape, is also, as the very name of the figure. Pure nakedness was wanted, as I
implies, not so much of form as of an effect and thought, and think to-day, for the sentiment of the
a peculiar hour. The last rays of light shine on thing, a Classic Pastoral. It was wanted, too, in
the scene without a shadow. The colouring is this particular case, that the flow and rhythm of
of yellow autumn tints and the greenish blue of a line might nowise be disturbed,
clear sky, with cirri flying over the front of it. And now, in a paragraph which will be almost
Again, Gentle Night is an impression: a boon of though not absolutely the final one, let the posi-
peace descending on fold and Held—Victor Hugo's tion of Alfred East, amongst the landscape painters
" immense bonte des Cieux." of his day, be made yet plainer by illustration : it
And an impression again, happiest, most radi- may be, even by repetition. Let us take some
138