DOI Heft:
No. 37 (April, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Royal Society of Painter-Etchers
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0181
Royal Society of Painter-Etchers
powerful without over insistence upon unnecessary skilful freedom, somehow fails to be either satisfy-
realism. Mr. Edward Slocombe also attempts the ing or expressive. There is much more real power
nude, but with less success, in On the Seashore. A in Mr. D. Y. Cameron's small Veronica, a pecu-
very different kind of view is that taken by M. liarly rich study of a female head, drawn with great
Paul Helleu, to whom femininity appeals as most decision and directness, and carried to a consider-
picturesque when able degree of elabo-
most disguised in the
devices of modern
fashion. His exqui-
site etchings, with
their singular beauty
of touch and ex-
treme refinement of
line, are at their best
when they are de-
voted to representa-
tions of the highly
civilised beauties
who prefer the arti-
ficialities of the pre-
sent day to the less
adorned perfection
of classic times. He
is emphatically a
worshipper of cur-
rent conventions,
but he makes his
profession with the
most irreproachable
good taste, and is
afflicted neither with
fanaticism nor with
irreverence. His
La Colonne is
characteristic of his
artistic methods at
their very best, and
La Dormeusc and
La Jolie Taille are
well worthy to rank
with it as instances
of consummate skill
in the management
of more or less in-
VE RONICA
A-i^AID OF' I TALY
ration without loss
of breadth or sim-
plicity. It presents,
too, a happy agree-
ment between the
mediaeval character
of its general ar-
rangement and the
unaffected manner
in which it is stated,
without any leaning
towards the conven-
tions of any of the
present day schools.
Among the land-
scape etchings there
is greater variety
than is discoverable
in the figure sub-
jects ; and to this
department is as-
signable some of the
ablest work in the
exhibition. Mr.
Oliver Hall, in
Grasshampton Park
and Stranded, to
mention two of the
best of his seven
contributions, shows
himself to be a
master of significant
line, an artist with
a very clear sense
of appropriateness in
design. In Stranded
especially he displays
thorough apprecia-
tractable technicali- 11 veronica " from an etching by d. y. cameron, r.e. tion of the manner
ties. Mr. Robert in which decorative
Macbeth, clever etcher as he usually is, hardly darks should be distributed and of the right way to
bears juxtaposition with M. Helleu. Cider Making, secure the effect aimed at without the expenditure
which is Mr. Macbeth's chief contribution to the of unnecessary labour in elaborating details that
exhibition, is, however, by no means his best are not helpful to the general scheme of his draw-
work ; it is curiously thin in quality and unsub- ing. Mr. A. H. Haig gains something of the same
stantial in construction. The figures hardly take quality in his aquatint, Evenmg "Motif" from
their place properly in the somewhat fussy scheme Leon, Spain, by well judged placing of the larger
of light and dark, and the point work, despite its masses ; and, by avoiding all exaggeration of
166
powerful without over insistence upon unnecessary skilful freedom, somehow fails to be either satisfy-
realism. Mr. Edward Slocombe also attempts the ing or expressive. There is much more real power
nude, but with less success, in On the Seashore. A in Mr. D. Y. Cameron's small Veronica, a pecu-
very different kind of view is that taken by M. liarly rich study of a female head, drawn with great
Paul Helleu, to whom femininity appeals as most decision and directness, and carried to a consider-
picturesque when able degree of elabo-
most disguised in the
devices of modern
fashion. His exqui-
site etchings, with
their singular beauty
of touch and ex-
treme refinement of
line, are at their best
when they are de-
voted to representa-
tions of the highly
civilised beauties
who prefer the arti-
ficialities of the pre-
sent day to the less
adorned perfection
of classic times. He
is emphatically a
worshipper of cur-
rent conventions,
but he makes his
profession with the
most irreproachable
good taste, and is
afflicted neither with
fanaticism nor with
irreverence. His
La Colonne is
characteristic of his
artistic methods at
their very best, and
La Dormeusc and
La Jolie Taille are
well worthy to rank
with it as instances
of consummate skill
in the management
of more or less in-
VE RONICA
A-i^AID OF' I TALY
ration without loss
of breadth or sim-
plicity. It presents,
too, a happy agree-
ment between the
mediaeval character
of its general ar-
rangement and the
unaffected manner
in which it is stated,
without any leaning
towards the conven-
tions of any of the
present day schools.
Among the land-
scape etchings there
is greater variety
than is discoverable
in the figure sub-
jects ; and to this
department is as-
signable some of the
ablest work in the
exhibition. Mr.
Oliver Hall, in
Grasshampton Park
and Stranded, to
mention two of the
best of his seven
contributions, shows
himself to be a
master of significant
line, an artist with
a very clear sense
of appropriateness in
design. In Stranded
especially he displays
thorough apprecia-
tractable technicali- 11 veronica " from an etching by d. y. cameron, r.e. tion of the manner
ties. Mr. Robert in which decorative
Macbeth, clever etcher as he usually is, hardly darks should be distributed and of the right way to
bears juxtaposition with M. Helleu. Cider Making, secure the effect aimed at without the expenditure
which is Mr. Macbeth's chief contribution to the of unnecessary labour in elaborating details that
exhibition, is, however, by no means his best are not helpful to the general scheme of his draw-
work ; it is curiously thin in quality and unsub- ing. Mr. A. H. Haig gains something of the same
stantial in construction. The figures hardly take quality in his aquatint, Evenmg "Motif" from
their place properly in the somewhat fussy scheme Leon, Spain, by well judged placing of the larger
of light and dark, and the point work, despite its masses ; and, by avoiding all exaggeration of
166