DOI Heft:
No. 49 (April, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Garstin, Norman: The work of T. Millie Dow
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0155
The Work of T. Mi/lie Dow
appositeness to the subject of this paper. Air. is hard to find any one whose work produces at
Dow, as a painter, is peculiarly difficult to present all the same effect as Mr. Dow's. William Stott
to the world in any terms other than his own art, of Oldham strikes, in his landscape, notes that
and this even he is not anxious to exhibit. have some of the same qualities of unexpected
There is a sedateness about his work that truth, as of nature caught in an aspect full of
refuses to consort with the swash-bucklers and tender associations, flooded with delectable colour,
roystering canvases that elbow themselves into the and yet withal novel, because no man has pre-
chief places of our commercially conducted Exhi- sented it to us thus before.
bitions. So that except in one or two northern Mr. Dow's distinction has no aid from eccen-
galleries where he is known, and in Munich with tricity; it is not the result of any artful caprice,
the Secessionists, he is rarely seen. It must not be but is due entirely to an absorbing passion for all
thought that this artistic reticence is due to any lack things beautiful and dainty and tender, for colours
of virility discoverable in Mr. Dow's work. It will that dwell together in harmony, for truths that are
be found that his pictures insist upon their individu- abiding and not transient, and, in a superlative
ality in any Exhibition, and that the eye hails with degree, for effects that have appealed to him
pleasure the relief to be
found in these restrained r ~-------:----~~—:-----y-——-~^r.—y-~—--i
creations of an artist whose ,
preoccupation is wholly with :
beauty.
Mr. Dow sets himself
problems in which clever-
ness has but little to do.
He feels too deeply the
decorative motive of his
work to care much about ■ v Jjp
the brilliancy of his tech- \B
nique; nevertheless, in his . * \ W*f
sketches he produces the i-
greatest effect with the least
apparent labour, and what
is this ? He finds surprises
for us, not so much how-
ever, in dexterous habile
touches as in unusual and
withal charming motives of
colour and design ; and
these harmonies of colour
remain with us, thrilling us
with that plaintive pleasure
which is the last gift of all
beauty. His pictures touch
us as a summer evening
touches us, as a melody
heard over still water.
It is a vice of human
nature that we continually
desire to classify ; we would
group geniuses in genuses,
and perhaps it is an artist's
strongest claim to merit that
his work should hold aloof
from such cataloguing, for
. .... -, T, STUDY OF WHITE LILIES BY T. MILLIE DOW
is not this distinction? It
149
appositeness to the subject of this paper. Air. is hard to find any one whose work produces at
Dow, as a painter, is peculiarly difficult to present all the same effect as Mr. Dow's. William Stott
to the world in any terms other than his own art, of Oldham strikes, in his landscape, notes that
and this even he is not anxious to exhibit. have some of the same qualities of unexpected
There is a sedateness about his work that truth, as of nature caught in an aspect full of
refuses to consort with the swash-bucklers and tender associations, flooded with delectable colour,
roystering canvases that elbow themselves into the and yet withal novel, because no man has pre-
chief places of our commercially conducted Exhi- sented it to us thus before.
bitions. So that except in one or two northern Mr. Dow's distinction has no aid from eccen-
galleries where he is known, and in Munich with tricity; it is not the result of any artful caprice,
the Secessionists, he is rarely seen. It must not be but is due entirely to an absorbing passion for all
thought that this artistic reticence is due to any lack things beautiful and dainty and tender, for colours
of virility discoverable in Mr. Dow's work. It will that dwell together in harmony, for truths that are
be found that his pictures insist upon their individu- abiding and not transient, and, in a superlative
ality in any Exhibition, and that the eye hails with degree, for effects that have appealed to him
pleasure the relief to be
found in these restrained r ~-------:----~~—:-----y-——-~^r.—y-~—--i
creations of an artist whose ,
preoccupation is wholly with :
beauty.
Mr. Dow sets himself
problems in which clever-
ness has but little to do.
He feels too deeply the
decorative motive of his
work to care much about ■ v Jjp
the brilliancy of his tech- \B
nique; nevertheless, in his . * \ W*f
sketches he produces the i-
greatest effect with the least
apparent labour, and what
is this ? He finds surprises
for us, not so much how-
ever, in dexterous habile
touches as in unusual and
withal charming motives of
colour and design ; and
these harmonies of colour
remain with us, thrilling us
with that plaintive pleasure
which is the last gift of all
beauty. His pictures touch
us as a summer evening
touches us, as a melody
heard over still water.
It is a vice of human
nature that we continually
desire to classify ; we would
group geniuses in genuses,
and perhaps it is an artist's
strongest claim to merit that
his work should hold aloof
from such cataloguing, for
. .... -, T, STUDY OF WHITE LILIES BY T. MILLIE DOW
is not this distinction? It
149