Studio: international art (13.1898)

The Work of E. Borough Johnson

judgment, and carried out with a thoroughly details which he needed for the perfecting of his
earnest intention to gain a telling effect by legitimate knowledge. He found there was too much dis-
means. He is now, at the age of thirty, well estab- turbance, too many interruptions and distrac-
lished as an artist from whom much may be ex- tions, for him to be able to devote himself to
pected : and he has shown in the first decade of the quiet life for which he felt himself best
his working life so much both of promise and adapted. So, in search of opportunity to work
performance that we have every reason to regard out in his own way the ideas that were in his
him as a painter certain to rank among the best of mind, he returned to England, and established
those that the latter part of this century has pro- himself in a studio of his own at Bushey. He
duced. was there among surroundings that suited him,

His experience as a student has been of a kind and was able to lead the existence that was in
to give him a more than ordinary breadth of view, accordance with his inclinations. He busied him-
Ilis resolve to be an artist was formed early in life, self with genre subjects, figure compositions of a
but his first acquaintance with art-school methods realistic type in which there was always a dominant
was not gained until he was about eighteen years pathetic or dramatic note ; and he met with a
old. In T885 lie joined the Slade School, which distinctly encouraging amount of success. Popular
was then under the direction of Professor Legros, approval was freely bestowed upon his pictures,
hut migrated thence, after
only two terms1 work, to
Bushey, to put himself
under the tuition of Pro-
fessor Herkomer. At
Bushey he found ap-
parently a more congenial
atmosphere, for he re-
mained there for nearly
three years, working as a
student in the school, and
making from time to time
successful efforts to em-
body in pictorial efforts the
results of his study. The
first picture which he ex-
hibited at the Royal Aca-
demy, Her Daily Bread,
was painted during this
period. He was not more
than nineteen when it ap-
peared, but the fact that it

found an immediate pur- j
chaser proved that even
then he had the power of
arresting popular attention.
At the end of his three

years' work at Bushey he • Xs-;.' f^; ;%>

paid a visit to Paris with

■1 i

the idea of painting for a f Jk ^

while in a studio there. *'&rx
But a very brief experience
convinced him that the
conditions of study in the
French capital were hardly
such as would assist him
to learn those artistic study in lead pencil bv e. borough johnson

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