DOI Heft:
No. 64 (July, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of Bertram Priestman
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21969#0106
Bertram Priestman
robust method and sturdy directness were well
calculated to influence beneficially a young painter
aiming at great things. This influence is, perhaps,
seen in the force of brushwork and fearless use of
masses of rich colour which are now characteristic
of Mr. Priestman’s pictures. There is certainly a
distinct kinship between what he has done in the
last half dozen years and the later performances of
the painter whose recent death deprived the
British school of one of its most able members.
As often happens, the growth in Mr. Priestman’s
power was not marked by the same successes
which attended his earlier effort. Until 1896 he
did not again secure acceptance at the Academy,
and had to content himself with exhibiting at
other shows. But he was by no means idle, and
relaxed nothing of his striving after what seemed
to him to be the right kind of expression. His
Breezy Upland and a large river subject which
appeared at the Suffolk Street Galleries and at
Manchester and Leeds, were painted in 1892; his
Hazy Day on the Rochester River in 1893 ; various
pictures of cattle in 1894; and Swollen Waters
and Under a Thundercloud in 1895. In this last
year he sold his Hazy Day on the Rochester River
to the Bradford Corporation. About the same
date he was elected a member of the New English
Art Club, and paid his first visit to Holland, two
events which are oi
moment in the history ol
his progress. By the first
his position among the
younger artists of the
present day was clearly
defined, and by the second
certain tendencies which
had always been observ-
able in his art were made
more active and more
plainly perceptible.
His next appearance at
the Academy was in 1896,
when he exhibited Swollen
Waters, which was, though
badly hung, bought by
Mr. William Harvey and
presented to the Leeds
Corporation; but in the
following year he showed
two canvases there, An
Upland Wood and A Mile
from the Sea, and he has
two hung this spring,
Grazing and Ebb Tide.
Since 1896 he has been
well represented at other
galleries also, by Under
the Chest/iuts, Captured,
A Following Sea, Sheep
Salving, and several more
canvases at the New Eng-
lish Art Club; by The
Mist Bank and A Shore
Wave at the New Gallery ;
and, most recently, by
Meadowlands and An
Autumn Afternoon, at the
New International Exhi-
85
“CAPTURED” BY BERTRAM PRIESTMAN
robust method and sturdy directness were well
calculated to influence beneficially a young painter
aiming at great things. This influence is, perhaps,
seen in the force of brushwork and fearless use of
masses of rich colour which are now characteristic
of Mr. Priestman’s pictures. There is certainly a
distinct kinship between what he has done in the
last half dozen years and the later performances of
the painter whose recent death deprived the
British school of one of its most able members.
As often happens, the growth in Mr. Priestman’s
power was not marked by the same successes
which attended his earlier effort. Until 1896 he
did not again secure acceptance at the Academy,
and had to content himself with exhibiting at
other shows. But he was by no means idle, and
relaxed nothing of his striving after what seemed
to him to be the right kind of expression. His
Breezy Upland and a large river subject which
appeared at the Suffolk Street Galleries and at
Manchester and Leeds, were painted in 1892; his
Hazy Day on the Rochester River in 1893 ; various
pictures of cattle in 1894; and Swollen Waters
and Under a Thundercloud in 1895. In this last
year he sold his Hazy Day on the Rochester River
to the Bradford Corporation. About the same
date he was elected a member of the New English
Art Club, and paid his first visit to Holland, two
events which are oi
moment in the history ol
his progress. By the first
his position among the
younger artists of the
present day was clearly
defined, and by the second
certain tendencies which
had always been observ-
able in his art were made
more active and more
plainly perceptible.
His next appearance at
the Academy was in 1896,
when he exhibited Swollen
Waters, which was, though
badly hung, bought by
Mr. William Harvey and
presented to the Leeds
Corporation; but in the
following year he showed
two canvases there, An
Upland Wood and A Mile
from the Sea, and he has
two hung this spring,
Grazing and Ebb Tide.
Since 1896 he has been
well represented at other
galleries also, by Under
the Chest/iuts, Captured,
A Following Sea, Sheep
Salving, and several more
canvases at the New Eng-
lish Art Club; by The
Mist Bank and A Shore
Wave at the New Gallery ;
and, most recently, by
Meadowlands and An
Autumn Afternoon, at the
New International Exhi-
85
“CAPTURED” BY BERTRAM PRIESTMAN