Studio: international art (9.1897)

H. H. La Thangue and his JVork

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have to be allowed for and corrected. The diffi- convincing character of many pictures we see which
culty is enormous, and it is still further increased purport to deal with out-of-door subjects. I am not
by the need for keeping to a consistent technique, going to mention names in this connection, but I
The courage which Mr. La Thangue has displayed have in my mind several men whose artistic success
in all his undertakings has not failed him in this, has of late only been moderate, and not a few who
His success may be estimated when one considers have met with disaster, due largely, I fear, to the
what excellent exhibition pictures his works inva- use of temporising expedients,
riably make. His strength in this respect is, I In an article so fully illustrated as the present
think, not the least remarkable feature of his work, with reproductions of works extending over a con-
Except Mr. Sargent, I can hardly recall any painter siderable number of years, there is little need to
whose work looks so strong or so strikingly self- enter into description of particular pictures. The
contained as his does upon the walls of a gallery. illustrations are of well selected examples of the
I should not like to say, and I believe Mr. La painter's work which have not till now been ade-
Thangue would be the last to assert, that the quately rendered on printing paper. Most readers
naturalistic view is the only one which a painter of The Studio will be familiar with the colour
should take of his art, or that what can be done aspect of Mr. La Thangue's work, and that feature
within the limits which this view presupposes is the may be less missed from these reproductions than
only true art. But it is, I think it will be admitted, in the works of some other men. Firm draughts-
pre-eminently rational and possibly sufficient for manship, rather, and strong modelling have always
artists who are of the observant rather than the been the essential features of his work. Mr. La
imaginative type of mind. It is, I should say, the Thangue has presented us in his art with striking
view of such men as George
Clausen, James Charles, and
of Mark Fisher and Buxton
Knight, amongst the land-
scape painters. The work
of these artists is at least
consistent with this view.
In the case of Mr. La
Thangue, I think that the
well-continued progress
which he has made has in
large measure been due to
the admirable consistency
with which he has held to
his principles, in face of
difficulties which have dis-
couraged not a few—the
wind and the rain, the sun
and the wasps, an evil smell,
or other of the thousand
and one difficulties which
occur in painting out of
doors in picturesque places.
Sad to say, many of the men
who started with him have
temporised, some with pho-
tography, and some with
houses of glass. The former
expedient is not, I think,
now largely used, but the
glass studio of Newlyn and
other places is, I fear, res-
ponsible for the rather less " BY THE "UCK PON'D" from a painting bv h- h- la thangue

(By permission of J. W. Smith, Esq.)'.

J75