DOI issue:
Nr. 43 (October 1896)
DOI article:White, Gleeson: The work of Charles J. Watson
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17298#0023
The Work of C. J. Watson
Orirtithliu
"CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA ''
one may regret that any appreciation of one aspect uf
beauty can blind a man to another totally different.
Certainly Mr. Watson is not one of these—his
work shows a hundred varying sympathies. All, it is
true, expressed in his own distinctly individual way
(for bigotry is a virtue there), but not limited to
any one aspect of Nature or humanity. Look at
the Largo Del Duo/no, Taor//iina, and you see that
as the actuality of modern Paris fascinated him, so
does this old-world Sicilian town, with its exquisite
architecture and its more vivid, arrogant colour.
If the original were side by side with this attempt
to appreciate it, it would be well to devote some
space to considering the marvellous delineation of
the fountain itself, the rare modelling of its carved
details, which show wonderfully minute observa-
tion, that would have provoked Mr. Ruskin to pages
of eulogy, combined with breadth of handling which
would delight your most modern critic. It is not
a picture to be dismissed with a glance; and good
though the half-tone reproduction be, it has kept
scarcely a shadow of a shade of the elusive charm
of the original. It shows the charming composi-
tion of the whole, and suggests the colour and the
FROM AN ETCHING BY C. J. WATSON, R E.
precisely balanced tones ; but the sparkle in the
air, the cool surfaces of the moist stones contrasted
with the arid ground, and a thousand other things
are unly suggested to those who have studied the
original with—I had almost written—rapture.
When you turn from this to the crowd on the
beach in Fisher-folk, ATorlh Holland (page 3), the
contrast in colour is dramatic. In the first the golden
age is renewed, in the other the travail of dull work-
a-daylife is encountered. The heavy storm-cloud,
the huddled, sympathetic crowd, all bring to you
the stress of human enterprise. Before Taormina
one dreams of the past, and its happy sunshine ; in
this the burden of the North is felt. Here we find
the crowd which Mr. Watson has confessed to be
his favourite theme, is obviously enough the main
subject. Full of movement, individuality and
character, it is not a mere group of individuals,
but a genuine crowd, which seems to have an
entity of its own. Yet how lonely the picture is
—Taormina with half a dozen figures, looks far
more populous than this long beach, with its
hundred figures moved by some single purpose.
What the accident is that brought them together
11
Orirtithliu
"CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA ''
one may regret that any appreciation of one aspect uf
beauty can blind a man to another totally different.
Certainly Mr. Watson is not one of these—his
work shows a hundred varying sympathies. All, it is
true, expressed in his own distinctly individual way
(for bigotry is a virtue there), but not limited to
any one aspect of Nature or humanity. Look at
the Largo Del Duo/no, Taor//iina, and you see that
as the actuality of modern Paris fascinated him, so
does this old-world Sicilian town, with its exquisite
architecture and its more vivid, arrogant colour.
If the original were side by side with this attempt
to appreciate it, it would be well to devote some
space to considering the marvellous delineation of
the fountain itself, the rare modelling of its carved
details, which show wonderfully minute observa-
tion, that would have provoked Mr. Ruskin to pages
of eulogy, combined with breadth of handling which
would delight your most modern critic. It is not
a picture to be dismissed with a glance; and good
though the half-tone reproduction be, it has kept
scarcely a shadow of a shade of the elusive charm
of the original. It shows the charming composi-
tion of the whole, and suggests the colour and the
FROM AN ETCHING BY C. J. WATSON, R E.
precisely balanced tones ; but the sparkle in the
air, the cool surfaces of the moist stones contrasted
with the arid ground, and a thousand other things
are unly suggested to those who have studied the
original with—I had almost written—rapture.
When you turn from this to the crowd on the
beach in Fisher-folk, ATorlh Holland (page 3), the
contrast in colour is dramatic. In the first the golden
age is renewed, in the other the travail of dull work-
a-daylife is encountered. The heavy storm-cloud,
the huddled, sympathetic crowd, all bring to you
the stress of human enterprise. Before Taormina
one dreams of the past, and its happy sunshine ; in
this the burden of the North is felt. Here we find
the crowd which Mr. Watson has confessed to be
his favourite theme, is obviously enough the main
subject. Full of movement, individuality and
character, it is not a mere group of individuals,
but a genuine crowd, which seems to have an
entity of its own. Yet how lonely the picture is
—Taormina with half a dozen figures, looks far
more populous than this long beach, with its
hundred figures moved by some single purpose.
What the accident is that brought them together
11