Studio: international art (11.1897)

Revival of English Domestic Architecture

THE GARDEN FRONT, WALNUT TREE FARM C. F. A. VOYSEY, ARCHITECT

and silver speech his designs will show. For if
silence is the most precious, yet speech is not des-
picable. Indeed, many of us are bi-metallists in
this sense. One form of speech is unluckily pro-
hibited in writing of contemporaries, and that is a
description of the personality of the artist. It is
true that by his works ye shall know him ; yet if a
hint of their author's real self could be conveyed at
the same time, how much fuller and quicker would
they be comprehended. Good taste forbids even
the hint, and a dozen anecdotes, a score of sayings
uttered unguardedly in private conversation must
not be repeated here. But without breaking into the
privacy of his life in any way, it is only bare justice
to record the fact that Mr. Voysey's simplicity of
manner, his aim to use honest materials in a straight-
forward way, his occasional touches of humour,
such as appear even in his most important works—
all these are the open expression of the man as well
as of the architect. Some natures are dual, and with
no conscious hypocrisy a man holds quite different
creeds for his professional duties and his personal
habits. We have known people austere and ascetic,
who were prodigals and incontinent in their art, also
people who preferred rigid simplicity for their own
surroundings, and yet delighted in making those of
other people gorgeous, if not absolutely vulgar ;
others with a professed hatred of shams, who were so
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bewildered by some ingenious expedient to gain a
splendid effect by means of imitative substitutes for
the more costly material, that all their theories were
forgotten. But search through Mr. Voysey's work as
you may, you will find no attempt to produce any
effect by imitative means. One other thing may be
put on record—namely, his habit of referring directly
to Nature for inspiration, and his indifference to
precedent; not in any contemptuous attitude of
superiority, but in a real feeling of humility which
believes Nature to be the source of all, and so pre-
fers to seek the fountain-head direct. One may
misunderstand his rigid suppression of ornament
so-called, his avoidance of carving and stained
glass, and the pretty trifles which the builder of the
modern house delights in. Yet to comprehend his
attitude towards the orthodox enrichments of the
house it is well to remember that when pattern is
required for textiles, papers, or what not, the same
artist who is unflinching in repressing it when he
believes it will be superfluous, revels in the beauty
of intricate line and complex colour when the
occasion justifies it. We have, as I said before,
many examples of Mr. Voysey's economic work,
yet we may be sure that if a palace came from
his hands it would be distinguished by the larger
beauty which makes a Greek temple memorable
rather than by the petty ornamentation that has