DOI Heft:
No. 40 (July, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Hind, Charles Lewis: The work of J. J. Shannon
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0086
The Work of J. J. Shannon
talent who could satisfactorily carry out her wishes, his wife and little daughter, Mr. Shannon set him-
Mr. Shannon's name was submitted to her self, a year or so ago, to produce a series of sub-
Majesty, and the result was a portrait which was ject-pictures. These, the herald of his second
exhibited at the Royal Academy when the ajtist period, are now on view at the galleries of the
was nineteen. Another commission from the Fine Art Society. In these pictures he reveals a
Queen followed, and so it fell out that at the age of delicacy of sentiment and feeling which gives him
twenty Mr. Shannon was gaily launched on his a distinct position in the higher walks of Art. At
career as a fashionable portrait-painter. Commis- the same time he has surrendered nothing of his
sions flowed in upon him, and he accepted his technical achievement. To work on these lines—to
destiny, but not without some few regrets. I aim at perfection, in sentiment as well as dexterity
remember spending an afternoon in his studio, —what surer pillar of cloud and fire could an
about the period when his easel was crowded with artist follow in his march upward. The day of
portraits. He unearthed from a dark corner a cheap sentiment has long passed into the night;
subject-picture, which struck me as being eminently the sun of supreme cleverness is drawing near
promising, and complained that, in the present to its setting. Already there are signs that
demand for portraits from his brush, he saw no the pendulum of taste is swinging round to
chance of ever finishing it, or devoting himself to that finely-touched union of rare technique and
other motives which were already simmering in his rarer feeling which the men of old time took as
mind. their birthright, and which we in these later days
But chances come to all who will but wait; and are beginning to rediscover. Carolus Uuran's
encouraged by the praises of those friends who had young lions are too clever with their paws. They
seen the delightful picture-studies he has made of do not ponder over the question how they may
PORTRAIT OF JOSEF HOFFMANN
BY J. J SHANNON
71
talent who could satisfactorily carry out her wishes, his wife and little daughter, Mr. Shannon set him-
Mr. Shannon's name was submitted to her self, a year or so ago, to produce a series of sub-
Majesty, and the result was a portrait which was ject-pictures. These, the herald of his second
exhibited at the Royal Academy when the ajtist period, are now on view at the galleries of the
was nineteen. Another commission from the Fine Art Society. In these pictures he reveals a
Queen followed, and so it fell out that at the age of delicacy of sentiment and feeling which gives him
twenty Mr. Shannon was gaily launched on his a distinct position in the higher walks of Art. At
career as a fashionable portrait-painter. Commis- the same time he has surrendered nothing of his
sions flowed in upon him, and he accepted his technical achievement. To work on these lines—to
destiny, but not without some few regrets. I aim at perfection, in sentiment as well as dexterity
remember spending an afternoon in his studio, —what surer pillar of cloud and fire could an
about the period when his easel was crowded with artist follow in his march upward. The day of
portraits. He unearthed from a dark corner a cheap sentiment has long passed into the night;
subject-picture, which struck me as being eminently the sun of supreme cleverness is drawing near
promising, and complained that, in the present to its setting. Already there are signs that
demand for portraits from his brush, he saw no the pendulum of taste is swinging round to
chance of ever finishing it, or devoting himself to that finely-touched union of rare technique and
other motives which were already simmering in his rarer feeling which the men of old time took as
mind. their birthright, and which we in these later days
But chances come to all who will but wait; and are beginning to rediscover. Carolus Uuran's
encouraged by the praises of those friends who had young lions are too clever with their paws. They
seen the delightful picture-studies he has made of do not ponder over the question how they may
PORTRAIT OF JOSEF HOFFMANN
BY J. J SHANNON
71