DOI Heft:
No. 54 (September, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: Drawings by Mr. J. M. Swan, A.R.A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18389#0264
Drawings by J. M. Swan
subject of study, no one would in popular opinion could put these travesties into pictorial form, that
be able to dispute with Sir Edwin Landseer the his manner of painting animal life was not only
absolutely leading position. His right to rank as accepted as correct, but, as well, set a fashion
an infallible interpreter of animal characteristics is which has since been followed by a huge array
one of those traditions which people have accus- of painters in search of the same sort of popu-
tomed themselves to regard as unquestionable; larity. What has resulted is a lamentable con-
and yet his position is in a sense a false one, and vention, a foolish custom in painting which, while
hardly to be justified on real aesthetic grounds. it detracted seriously from the merit of even
That he drew animals with sound knowledge, and such a capable workman as Landseer, has simply
with intelligent apprecia-
tion of their anatomical
peculiarities; that he
painted skilfully the texture
of fur and feathers; that
he had a judicious power
of noting and expressing
their graces of attitude
and the varieties of their
posing and action, cannot
most certainly be denied;
but it is equally indisput-
able that his capacity for
suggesting the mental
character of the beasts he
painted was by no means
perfect. In his pictures it
is useless to seek for natural
and unconventional animal
life, or even for a hint of
true animal emotion. In-
stead he has given us a
series of purely human
dramas in which the actors
masquerade in borrowed
disguises, and incongru-
ously show human convic-
tions through a furry make-
up. The whole principle
of his art was a mistaken
idea to establish a kind of
parallelism between the
feelings of man and
animals, and to prove a
similarity which has no
actual existence. At best
his models grimace, and
attitudinise, in an unnatural
fashion, and at their worst
they simply forget to be
animals at all. But such
was Landseer's extraordi-
nary popularity, and so
great was the technical
■cleverness with which he study ov a lioness by j. m. swan, a.r.a.
237
subject of study, no one would in popular opinion could put these travesties into pictorial form, that
be able to dispute with Sir Edwin Landseer the his manner of painting animal life was not only
absolutely leading position. His right to rank as accepted as correct, but, as well, set a fashion
an infallible interpreter of animal characteristics is which has since been followed by a huge array
one of those traditions which people have accus- of painters in search of the same sort of popu-
tomed themselves to regard as unquestionable; larity. What has resulted is a lamentable con-
and yet his position is in a sense a false one, and vention, a foolish custom in painting which, while
hardly to be justified on real aesthetic grounds. it detracted seriously from the merit of even
That he drew animals with sound knowledge, and such a capable workman as Landseer, has simply
with intelligent apprecia-
tion of their anatomical
peculiarities; that he
painted skilfully the texture
of fur and feathers; that
he had a judicious power
of noting and expressing
their graces of attitude
and the varieties of their
posing and action, cannot
most certainly be denied;
but it is equally indisput-
able that his capacity for
suggesting the mental
character of the beasts he
painted was by no means
perfect. In his pictures it
is useless to seek for natural
and unconventional animal
life, or even for a hint of
true animal emotion. In-
stead he has given us a
series of purely human
dramas in which the actors
masquerade in borrowed
disguises, and incongru-
ously show human convic-
tions through a furry make-
up. The whole principle
of his art was a mistaken
idea to establish a kind of
parallelism between the
feelings of man and
animals, and to prove a
similarity which has no
actual existence. At best
his models grimace, and
attitudinise, in an unnatural
fashion, and at their worst
they simply forget to be
animals at all. But such
was Landseer's extraordi-
nary popularity, and so
great was the technical
■cleverness with which he study ov a lioness by j. m. swan, a.r.a.
237