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#0265
Drawings by J. M. Swan
destroyed the vitality of the art practised by his the head of the small group of workers who under-
weaker successors. stand that animals must, if they are to be painted
Fortunately there is no rule without an excep- properly, be studied with the same close attention
tion; and there is no convention however domi- to individuality, and with the same earnest regard
nating against which some strong men will not be for purely personal points of difference, as should
found ready to protest. Of late a few painters, be bestowed upon anything else in animate nature,
influenced by the saner principles of the Conti- There is in his view of art no concession to the
nental schools, have shown themselves impatient idea that the animals he paints should be used as
of these popular restrictions upon the right repre- puppets to make intelligible some pretty little
sentation of animals in art, and have set to work to domestic drama, or to explain the point of a
observe and treat subjects of this class by those harmless joke; he has discovered no particular
judicious laws of naturalism which have of late merit in dissociating the beasts themselves from
years strongly influenced in the right way all their ordinary everyday habits, and in making them
branches of aesthetic effort. We have in this do on their hind legs things they would very much
country no artist who can be compared with Mr. rather do on all fours. The performing animal is
J. M. Swan as an exponent of what is correct and something with which he distinctly does not sym-
appropriate in the representation of animal types pathise; and he is much more interested in the
and characteristics. He stands, that is to say, at unsociable angularities of the frank barbarian than
in the airs and graces of
the miserable hybrid which
is one of the least tolerable
products of civilisation.
What he wants to stud}-, in
fact, is the natural beast,
the savage, untamed crea-
ture upon which man has
imposed none of his own
mannerisms, and he values
much more the dangerous
independence of the wild
animal than the spiritless
condition which results
from human training.
It is obvious that any
artist who regards animal
painting from the natural-
istic point of view, and
washes to carry naturalism
in his work to its logical
limit, must certainly ap-
proach his subjects in a
way very unlike that pre-
ferred by Landseer and his
followers. From first to
last he must look to nature
for his suggestions, and
he must work out ideas
which lit in with the facts
she supplies, not with some
abstract preconception of
his own. He must be pre-
pared to follow faithfully
the impressions he receives,
head ok a lioness by j. m. swax, a. k.a. an(j to work them out con
238
destroyed the vitality of the art practised by his the head of the small group of workers who under-
weaker successors. stand that animals must, if they are to be painted
Fortunately there is no rule without an excep- properly, be studied with the same close attention
tion; and there is no convention however domi- to individuality, and with the same earnest regard
nating against which some strong men will not be for purely personal points of difference, as should
found ready to protest. Of late a few painters, be bestowed upon anything else in animate nature,
influenced by the saner principles of the Conti- There is in his view of art no concession to the
nental schools, have shown themselves impatient idea that the animals he paints should be used as
of these popular restrictions upon the right repre- puppets to make intelligible some pretty little
sentation of animals in art, and have set to work to domestic drama, or to explain the point of a
observe and treat subjects of this class by those harmless joke; he has discovered no particular
judicious laws of naturalism which have of late merit in dissociating the beasts themselves from
years strongly influenced in the right way all their ordinary everyday habits, and in making them
branches of aesthetic effort. We have in this do on their hind legs things they would very much
country no artist who can be compared with Mr. rather do on all fours. The performing animal is
J. M. Swan as an exponent of what is correct and something with which he distinctly does not sym-
appropriate in the representation of animal types pathise; and he is much more interested in the
and characteristics. He stands, that is to say, at unsociable angularities of the frank barbarian than
in the airs and graces of
the miserable hybrid which
is one of the least tolerable
products of civilisation.
What he wants to stud}-, in
fact, is the natural beast,
the savage, untamed crea-
ture upon which man has
imposed none of his own
mannerisms, and he values
much more the dangerous
independence of the wild
animal than the spiritless
condition which results
from human training.
It is obvious that any
artist who regards animal
painting from the natural-
istic point of view, and
washes to carry naturalism
in his work to its logical
limit, must certainly ap-
proach his subjects in a
way very unlike that pre-
ferred by Landseer and his
followers. From first to
last he must look to nature
for his suggestions, and
he must work out ideas
which lit in with the facts
she supplies, not with some
abstract preconception of
his own. He must be pre-
pared to follow faithfully
the impressions he receives,
head ok a lioness by j. m. swax, a. k.a. an(j to work them out con
238