DOI Heft:
Nr. 45 (December 1896)
DOI Artikel:Thomson, George: Henry Herbert La Thangue and his work
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17298#0180
H. H. La Thangue and his Work
haps, than a sympathy with the life of the toilers time, had become a much neglected quantity in
in the fields. In these matters none of M. English art.
Gerome's students were of hotter conviction Instead, therefore, of working out a classical
than young La Thangue, who, indeed, with Helleu, composition in his vacation time, La Thangue
William Stott of Oldham, and the elder Picard, essayed his earliest pictures from nature in
was among the most ardent followers of the various districts in France. The first place he
naturalistic movement. So that while La Thangue visited (in company with Mr. Stanhope Forbes)
made a most excellent student as regards the was Cancale, on the Brittany coast, and these
work of the atelier, I am not at all sure that two companions went to Quimperle the fol-
he ever cared to attempt a classical composition, lowing summer. During his third year in France
His training had, in fact, amounted to this, that he he was seized with a desire to paint sunlight,
had acquired great power in draughtsmanship, and and proceeded south in search of his effect,
had developed a sense of tonal values which, at the In due course he found himself at Donzere,
in the Rhone valley. But,
like many another artist
who proposes to himself
that he is going to do
such and such, La Thangue
found himself doing some-
thing entirely different.
The vehemence of his
desire to paint sunlight
was dissipated into nothing
before an enthusiasm to de-
pict the low-toned dwelling
room of a poor French fam-
ily. The blackest thing, as
he tells me, he ever painted.
During this time he was
forming his style and feeling
his way with established
confidence in his metier.
Some of the works of this
period were exhibited in
various galleries, and will
be remembered by readers
of The Studio. The poor
French Family, at the
Grosvenor, Poverty, at the
Institute, A Sketch of Toil
ing Peasants under a mid-
day sun, at the first exhibi-
tion of the new English Art
Club, impressed all be-
holders by their power and
abounding vitality. His
work, then, showed the firm
draughtsmanship, sobriety
of colour, strong personal
character with which we are
nowfamiliar. His technique
then, as now, was of the
THE WOODMAN" FROM A PAINTING BY H. H. LA THANGUE Order of SOHd painting, Well
(By {emission of Mrs. Alfred Bern.) considered and worked in
168
haps, than a sympathy with the life of the toilers time, had become a much neglected quantity in
in the fields. In these matters none of M. English art.
Gerome's students were of hotter conviction Instead, therefore, of working out a classical
than young La Thangue, who, indeed, with Helleu, composition in his vacation time, La Thangue
William Stott of Oldham, and the elder Picard, essayed his earliest pictures from nature in
was among the most ardent followers of the various districts in France. The first place he
naturalistic movement. So that while La Thangue visited (in company with Mr. Stanhope Forbes)
made a most excellent student as regards the was Cancale, on the Brittany coast, and these
work of the atelier, I am not at all sure that two companions went to Quimperle the fol-
he ever cared to attempt a classical composition, lowing summer. During his third year in France
His training had, in fact, amounted to this, that he he was seized with a desire to paint sunlight,
had acquired great power in draughtsmanship, and and proceeded south in search of his effect,
had developed a sense of tonal values which, at the In due course he found himself at Donzere,
in the Rhone valley. But,
like many another artist
who proposes to himself
that he is going to do
such and such, La Thangue
found himself doing some-
thing entirely different.
The vehemence of his
desire to paint sunlight
was dissipated into nothing
before an enthusiasm to de-
pict the low-toned dwelling
room of a poor French fam-
ily. The blackest thing, as
he tells me, he ever painted.
During this time he was
forming his style and feeling
his way with established
confidence in his metier.
Some of the works of this
period were exhibited in
various galleries, and will
be remembered by readers
of The Studio. The poor
French Family, at the
Grosvenor, Poverty, at the
Institute, A Sketch of Toil
ing Peasants under a mid-
day sun, at the first exhibi-
tion of the new English Art
Club, impressed all be-
holders by their power and
abounding vitality. His
work, then, showed the firm
draughtsmanship, sobriety
of colour, strong personal
character with which we are
nowfamiliar. His technique
then, as now, was of the
THE WOODMAN" FROM A PAINTING BY H. H. LA THANGUE Order of SOHd painting, Well
(By {emission of Mrs. Alfred Bern.) considered and worked in
168