DOI issue:
No. 39 (June, 1896)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0056
Studio- Talk
subjects. They were not the result of any direct
study of Nature but rather the outcome of the
artist's general recollections of out-of-door effects.
The test which their production imposed was a
sufficiently severe one, for it implied rather unusual
preparation, and quite exceptional training of those
faculties of careful observation and accurate record
without which the landscape painter can scarcely
hope to be either persuasive or convincing. By
way too of adding to the severity of this test Mr.
Haite had in his drawings denied to himself any
opportunity of retouching, and exhibited them in
exactly the state to which each one was brought
in the limited time allowed for its production.
Despite these limitations the exhibition was by
no means lacking in variety. The work of which
it consisted was, on the contrary, notably free from
repetition either in motive or in manner, and showed
excellently with what vividness an artist who has
trained his memory thoroughly enough can profit
by Nature's lessons. Mr. Haite's drawings included
many recollections of places he has seen, of Venice
in his Sunny Bank, of Holland in On the Ice, of
London in Fog, of country-life in his flower show
Harmony in Pink and White, of marine effects in
Drifting, and of many spots dear to the landscape
painter in A Castle, A Tidal River, On the Canal,
at Brentford, A Wet Sky seen at Turnham Green
Railway Station, and Cast Shadows, a reminiscence
of Windsor. And these were in no sense merely
topogtaphical. Each was a distinct study of colour,
an exact record of an atmospheric effect, differing
one from the other as Nature herself varies, noted
and put down in a manner possible only to a
specially receptive mind.
There seems no diminution in the popularity ot
Japan as a sketching ground. The number of
exhibitions of pictures painted in that country has
been lately quite considerable, and there is at
present every sign that the additions to this
number will be plentiful enough before the popu-
larity of the subject is at all exhausted. The latest
display is at the Clifford Gallery, where Miss M.
R. Hill-Burton is for the second time showing a
collection of water-colour drawings illustrative of
Japanese life and scenery. Her keenness of colour
appreciation enables her to present one aspect of
that fascinating country in a very satisfactory
manner, and to this aspect she wisely limits herself.
Her drawings are chiefly studies of masses of
flowering vegetation, and of the quaint effects of
coloured light which are presented after sundown
subjects. They were not the result of any direct
study of Nature but rather the outcome of the
artist's general recollections of out-of-door effects.
The test which their production imposed was a
sufficiently severe one, for it implied rather unusual
preparation, and quite exceptional training of those
faculties of careful observation and accurate record
without which the landscape painter can scarcely
hope to be either persuasive or convincing. By
way too of adding to the severity of this test Mr.
Haite had in his drawings denied to himself any
opportunity of retouching, and exhibited them in
exactly the state to which each one was brought
in the limited time allowed for its production.
Despite these limitations the exhibition was by
no means lacking in variety. The work of which
it consisted was, on the contrary, notably free from
repetition either in motive or in manner, and showed
excellently with what vividness an artist who has
trained his memory thoroughly enough can profit
by Nature's lessons. Mr. Haite's drawings included
many recollections of places he has seen, of Venice
in his Sunny Bank, of Holland in On the Ice, of
London in Fog, of country-life in his flower show
Harmony in Pink and White, of marine effects in
Drifting, and of many spots dear to the landscape
painter in A Castle, A Tidal River, On the Canal,
at Brentford, A Wet Sky seen at Turnham Green
Railway Station, and Cast Shadows, a reminiscence
of Windsor. And these were in no sense merely
topogtaphical. Each was a distinct study of colour,
an exact record of an atmospheric effect, differing
one from the other as Nature herself varies, noted
and put down in a manner possible only to a
specially receptive mind.
There seems no diminution in the popularity ot
Japan as a sketching ground. The number of
exhibitions of pictures painted in that country has
been lately quite considerable, and there is at
present every sign that the additions to this
number will be plentiful enough before the popu-
larity of the subject is at all exhausted. The latest
display is at the Clifford Gallery, where Miss M.
R. Hill-Burton is for the second time showing a
collection of water-colour drawings illustrative of
Japanese life and scenery. Her keenness of colour
appreciation enables her to present one aspect of
that fascinating country in a very satisfactory
manner, and to this aspect she wisely limits herself.
Her drawings are chiefly studies of masses of
flowering vegetation, and of the quaint effects of
coloured light which are presented after sundown