Studio: international art (14.1898)

Studies by Sir E. Burne-Jones

claim to rank among the best of living artists.
These drawings have a particular value because
they mark certain convictions which dominate the
painter’s practice and certain views which control
him in his choice of material for adaptation to
pictorial purposes. They make plain the strenuous
endeavour to be accurate and exact, which is the
secret of his completeness, the constant observation
of details and accessories which gives him the
command of his subject, and the selective instinct
which leads him to choose exactly what is most
likely to help him in the development of his idea.
They show, too, what are the workings of his mind
while the scheme of his picture is in process of
formation, defining step by step the gradual evolu-
tion of his intention. In a succession of them

may be traced the conflict of opinion by which the
ultimate statement on canvas is made convincing.
Some are clearly tentative—first intentions which
have never gone beyond the experimental stage ;
others are the result of close reasoning and deep
analysis, carefully thought out expressions of a
final conviction; and others again are working
drawings intended simply to guide him in perfect-
ing every part of a picture, the form of which is
fixed immutably. But every one of them has a
value that cannot be exaggerated, because each is
unaffectedly an illustration of the artist’s creed,
and reveals those secrets of his method which
concern most deeply every student of technical
devices.

Even to the general public there is a significance
in such studies as these.
There has rightly grown
up of late years a very
keen interest in the man-
ner of working character-
istic of different artists.
The position which any
man can take as a crafts-
man has become a matter
of almost as great con-
sideration as the place
which is to be assigned to
him as a producer of pic-
tures which illustrate im-
portant ideas. His skill
of hand and knowledge
of methods are taken very
much into account in
estimating the amount of
approval which is due to
him. The possession of
a certain stock-in-trade of
happy ideas, or the power
to select from the world
around him attractive
material for his pictures,
are not enough to estab-
lish him as an artist of
note. He must have
something more than this,
for he must be able to
prove himself as efficient
in the handling of his work
as he is intelligent in
deciding what it is that
he wishes to work upon.
No concealment of inef-
ficiency under a plausible
4i

BY SIR E. BURNE-JONES

{From a Photograph by F. Hollyer)