Studio: international art (8.1896)

The Posters of Louis Rhead

as surely as does Mr. Abbey's " pic-
ture of the year " at the last Royal
Academy exhibition. Japan is sug-
gested by the colour, early Italy by
the plan. The up-to-date critic
cannot find adjectives sufficiently
corrosive to bestow upon them.
The man who has learnt to appre-
ciate Degas and Cheret, who thinks
modernity is the one valuable factor
in modern art, is furious if you
defend Mr. Rhead's ideal. But
contemporary art is by no means all
impressionism, nor all of the cock-
eyed primitive. There are many
moods to be considered in a world
of men, and he is most wise who
recognises that no one creed can
embrace all aspects of beauty. To
say " If you are not a bigot, you
should belong to the other side," is
a specious fallacy. The most sane
person is the one who can appreciate
a dozen conflicting results, so long
as each is inspired clearly by a
definite purpose. Now, the main
purpose of a poster is not to be col-
lected, hardly to be criticised; but
to arrest attention and bestow some
pleasant forms and colours upon a
placard when otherwise pure vul-
garity would reign supreme.

Owing to the kindness of the

artist we are able to reproduce design for a poster by louis rhead
some of his sketches, one showing
the conception of his idea in the

carefully finished study in black ink (page 162), and see a poster of Mr. Rhead's in the original, and

another from a sketch in colour (page 157). For the proof side by side with it, it is not easy at first

the finished drawing Mr. Rhead submits a full size sight to determine which is the autograph ; and this

cartoon most elaborately worked up—the pigment is at it should be, because it proves that the designer

opaque and equal, the lettering well drawn and has fully understood the limits of his material,

neatly painted. Too many English artists are con- Mr. Rhead is brother of the well-known English

tent to send in rough sketches and so encounter etcher, and was born in 1858 at Etruria. At thirteen

the invariable loss in their translation, besides he was sent to Paris to study under Boulanger.

giving the advertiser a problem which he is not He then won a National Scholarship at South

always able to solve. A rough sketch in trans- Kensington, and still later studied under Poynter,

parent washes of a set decorative pattern intended Leighton, Legros, and Dalou. For many years

to be worked in solid flat colour, much as it may past he has lived in America and become a citizen

appeal to a fellow artist, is apt to look merely un- of the United States. In his delightful studio at

tidy to the average man; and the juicy, broken Prospect Park, Brooklyn, are seen evidence of his

colour that is so attractive to painters not merely love of English art, especially of the School of

fails to charm him, but is positively misleading, Rossetti and Burne-Jones. But as the illustrations

since it really represents a quality that no chromo- which accompany this article, and the list of posters

lithograph can reproduce accurately. When you complete to the beginning of this year, occupy so

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