DOI Heft:
No. 50 (May, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Mr. J. W. Waterhouse's painting "Hylas and the Nymphs"
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0253
"Hylas and the Nymphs"
canvases can be said to give, as this one does, clear classic idea, and has shown us the moment when,
evidence of an intention on the part of the artist to as the lad stoops with his pitcher from the bank,
put into pictorial shape an entirely poetical motive, the maidens rise up through the dark water to in-
which is at the same time absolutely free from any vite him to join them. No hint of strong emotion,
taint of that sentimentality which is too often sub- no suggestion of strife or violent action, mars the
stituted by modern workers for deeper intellectual classic repose of the picture. It is, perhaps, one of
qualities. Mr. Waterhouse's composition is dra- its greatest charms that the incident depicted is so
matic, but its drama is a matter of subtle touches free from anything which reminds us of the quite
rather than an obvious and exact setting forth of a commonplace tragedy that ended the life of the
STUDY FOR THE PAINTING HYLAS AND THE NYMPHS BY J. W. WATERHOUSE, K.A.
story. What tale he has to tell is derived from youthful hero. The artist has felt the romantic
Greek mythology. Hylas, according to the ancients, possibilities of the subject, and has regarded it in
was the son of the King of Mysia, and was carried the right spirit. He has seen it with the eyes of a
off by Hercules to join the body of adventurers Greek; and, though he has avoided the danger of
who had assembled on the ship Argo. By an affecting his interpretation by any pretence of
accident he was drowned in a river to which he classicism in manner, he has gained what is far
had gone to draw fresh water for his companions more important, the exquisite purity and dignity of
on board ship. Round this simple story the expression which distinguished the greatest art that
Greeks, as was their wont, built up a fanciful the world has yet seen.
romance. The death of Hylas became, when And this valuable reticence is by no means to be
overlaid with poetry, no ordinary misadventure. noted only in the mental attitude of the painter to
He was seized, they asserted, by the nymphs of his subject. It is equally evident in details of tech-
the stream to the banks of which he had strayed ; nical execution. The colour scheme of the pic •
and was lost to human haunts because these water ture, rich and full though it is, is absolutely in har-
goddesses, enamoured of his beauty, kept him a mony. Nothing jars, nothing obtrudes as out of
prisoner beneath the waters. Mr. Waterhouse in keeping or over insistent. The deep greys, greens,
his sympathy for poetic suggestion has adopted the and browns, against which the fair flesh of the
244
canvases can be said to give, as this one does, clear classic idea, and has shown us the moment when,
evidence of an intention on the part of the artist to as the lad stoops with his pitcher from the bank,
put into pictorial shape an entirely poetical motive, the maidens rise up through the dark water to in-
which is at the same time absolutely free from any vite him to join them. No hint of strong emotion,
taint of that sentimentality which is too often sub- no suggestion of strife or violent action, mars the
stituted by modern workers for deeper intellectual classic repose of the picture. It is, perhaps, one of
qualities. Mr. Waterhouse's composition is dra- its greatest charms that the incident depicted is so
matic, but its drama is a matter of subtle touches free from anything which reminds us of the quite
rather than an obvious and exact setting forth of a commonplace tragedy that ended the life of the
STUDY FOR THE PAINTING HYLAS AND THE NYMPHS BY J. W. WATERHOUSE, K.A.
story. What tale he has to tell is derived from youthful hero. The artist has felt the romantic
Greek mythology. Hylas, according to the ancients, possibilities of the subject, and has regarded it in
was the son of the King of Mysia, and was carried the right spirit. He has seen it with the eyes of a
off by Hercules to join the body of adventurers Greek; and, though he has avoided the danger of
who had assembled on the ship Argo. By an affecting his interpretation by any pretence of
accident he was drowned in a river to which he classicism in manner, he has gained what is far
had gone to draw fresh water for his companions more important, the exquisite purity and dignity of
on board ship. Round this simple story the expression which distinguished the greatest art that
Greeks, as was their wont, built up a fanciful the world has yet seen.
romance. The death of Hylas became, when And this valuable reticence is by no means to be
overlaid with poetry, no ordinary misadventure. noted only in the mental attitude of the painter to
He was seized, they asserted, by the nymphs of his subject. It is equally evident in details of tech-
the stream to the banks of which he had strayed ; nical execution. The colour scheme of the pic •
and was lost to human haunts because these water ture, rich and full though it is, is absolutely in har-
goddesses, enamoured of his beauty, kept him a mony. Nothing jars, nothing obtrudes as out of
prisoner beneath the waters. Mr. Waterhouse in keeping or over insistent. The deep greys, greens,
his sympathy for poetic suggestion has adopted the and browns, against which the fair flesh of the
244