DOI issue:
No. 65 (August, 1898)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of James Clark
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21969#0179
James Clark
“THE TEN VIRGINS”
HE WORK OF JAMES CLARK.
BY A. L. BALDRY.
There is nothing which can be called
sensational in the manner of Mr. James
Clark’s artistic development. Nothing in the way
of quaint eccentricity, or of astonishing departure
from the accepted habits of his profession, can be
set down to his account. He has attached himself
to no band of free-lances, and has exhausted none
of his energies in demonstrating his fitness to lead
an assault upon the recognised authorities of the
art world. His reputation has been made, in what
is just now considered a rather commonplace
fashion, by continued and consistent hard work,
and by steady attention to the business of his life.
Perhaps, for this very reason, his position is the
more unique. Devotion to art for art’s sake is
always comparatively rare, and few men have the
courage to shape their own professional destinies
without reference to the passing fancies by which
their contemporaries are beguiled. The inclina-
tion to join a particular brotherhood of workers,
and to establish a kind of common stock of aesthetic
conviction upon which all the members of the
coterie draw impartially, seems to many minds to
be irresistible. They bind themselves apparently
by a vow to observe certain rules and to respect
definite regulations ; and by doing so they destroy
all chance of proving themselves to be possessed
of true individuality. It is because Mr. Clark has
XIV. No. 65.—August, 1898.
FROM A PAINTING UY JAMES CLARK
never limited his range in this way that he ranks
among the soundest and most sincere of our younger
painters; as an artist who has the courage of his
own opinions, and the discretion to prefer plain
speaking to shibboleths full of mysterious and often
incomprehensible significance. It may be that his
independence has lost him a following among the
lovers of sensational eccentricity, but it has certainly
added to the modern school an original and attrac-
tive personality worthy of the respect of every one
who values technical honesty and aesthetic intelli-
gence.
His student life was marked by the same fixity
of purpose which has characterised his later career.
The foundations of his experience were laid at West
Hartlepool by a period of study in the local school
of art, and by four years’ work in an architect’s
office; but his real education as an artist began in
1877, when, as a lad of nineteen, he left the country
to commence a three years’ course at the South
Kensington School. For two out of these three
years he was a member of the training class there,
and occupied himself with the subjects required in
the examinations for the art master’s certificates.
At this time he gave a great deal of attention to
the study of decoration, making many drawings
from examples in the Museum, and gaining finally
so thorough an acquaintance with this branch of
art practice that not only was he awarded a gold
medal for his knowledge of historic ornament,
but he was also selected to execute ninety
*53
“THE TEN VIRGINS”
HE WORK OF JAMES CLARK.
BY A. L. BALDRY.
There is nothing which can be called
sensational in the manner of Mr. James
Clark’s artistic development. Nothing in the way
of quaint eccentricity, or of astonishing departure
from the accepted habits of his profession, can be
set down to his account. He has attached himself
to no band of free-lances, and has exhausted none
of his energies in demonstrating his fitness to lead
an assault upon the recognised authorities of the
art world. His reputation has been made, in what
is just now considered a rather commonplace
fashion, by continued and consistent hard work,
and by steady attention to the business of his life.
Perhaps, for this very reason, his position is the
more unique. Devotion to art for art’s sake is
always comparatively rare, and few men have the
courage to shape their own professional destinies
without reference to the passing fancies by which
their contemporaries are beguiled. The inclina-
tion to join a particular brotherhood of workers,
and to establish a kind of common stock of aesthetic
conviction upon which all the members of the
coterie draw impartially, seems to many minds to
be irresistible. They bind themselves apparently
by a vow to observe certain rules and to respect
definite regulations ; and by doing so they destroy
all chance of proving themselves to be possessed
of true individuality. It is because Mr. Clark has
XIV. No. 65.—August, 1898.
FROM A PAINTING UY JAMES CLARK
never limited his range in this way that he ranks
among the soundest and most sincere of our younger
painters; as an artist who has the courage of his
own opinions, and the discretion to prefer plain
speaking to shibboleths full of mysterious and often
incomprehensible significance. It may be that his
independence has lost him a following among the
lovers of sensational eccentricity, but it has certainly
added to the modern school an original and attrac-
tive personality worthy of the respect of every one
who values technical honesty and aesthetic intelli-
gence.
His student life was marked by the same fixity
of purpose which has characterised his later career.
The foundations of his experience were laid at West
Hartlepool by a period of study in the local school
of art, and by four years’ work in an architect’s
office; but his real education as an artist began in
1877, when, as a lad of nineteen, he left the country
to commence a three years’ course at the South
Kensington School. For two out of these three
years he was a member of the training class there,
and occupied himself with the subjects required in
the examinations for the art master’s certificates.
At this time he gave a great deal of attention to
the study of decoration, making many drawings
from examples in the Museum, and gaining finally
so thorough an acquaintance with this branch of
art practice that not only was he awarded a gold
medal for his knowledge of historic ornament,
but he was also selected to execute ninety
*53