DOI Heft:
No. 65 (August, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of James Clark
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21969#0180
Janies Clark
illustrations for the series of books of drawing
copies which were being issued under the super-
vision of Sir E. J. Poynter, then principal of the
school.
These South Kensington experiences ended in
1880, when Mr. Clark, feeling the need for wider
opportunities, betook himself to Paris, where for
another three years he worked, first in the atelier of
M. Bonnat, and afterwards in the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts, under M. Gerome. On his return to England
he spent a short time at West Hartlepool portrait-
painting, but finally settled in London, resolved to
carry out his artistic destiny in the fashion that
“a nazarene mother
[By permission of Colonel J. H. Wilkinson)
suited him best. After a while he renewed his con-
nection with South Kensington, not as a student,
but in the capacity of an examiner for the Science
and Art Department, a post for which his acquaint-
ance with the methods of the Government schools
and his careful study of Continental practices fitted
him most thoroughly.
It was, however, while he was still a student in
Paris that he felt first the influence which has
since strongly directed his own production in art.
In i88r he painted a picture of Hagar andIshmael,
which was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and a
couple of years later he produced another Biblical
subject ■—- David. His
choice of these motives
from sacred history was
not so much determined
by the idea that in them
he would find the most
appropriate field for labour
as by the opportunities
which they afforded him
for painting the nude
figure; but his success
with these preliminary
efforts induced him to
attempt a third composi-
tion of the same class.
While at work on this—
The Magnificat—the con-
viction was forced upon
him that something more
than a merely abstract
suggestion of the Eastern
character and atmosphere
was necessary to make the
symbolism of the Biblical
picture acceptable to the
modern public that craves
for realism and direct
statement of fact. He
saw that there were many
considerations of history,
archaeology, and topo-
graphy that the artist
would have to take into
account, and that to paint
these Eastern motives
vividly enough to satisfy
the present-day demand
he would have to make
himself thoroughly ac-
quainted with the aspect
of the country in which
FROM A PAINTING BY JAMES CLARK
*54
illustrations for the series of books of drawing
copies which were being issued under the super-
vision of Sir E. J. Poynter, then principal of the
school.
These South Kensington experiences ended in
1880, when Mr. Clark, feeling the need for wider
opportunities, betook himself to Paris, where for
another three years he worked, first in the atelier of
M. Bonnat, and afterwards in the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts, under M. Gerome. On his return to England
he spent a short time at West Hartlepool portrait-
painting, but finally settled in London, resolved to
carry out his artistic destiny in the fashion that
“a nazarene mother
[By permission of Colonel J. H. Wilkinson)
suited him best. After a while he renewed his con-
nection with South Kensington, not as a student,
but in the capacity of an examiner for the Science
and Art Department, a post for which his acquaint-
ance with the methods of the Government schools
and his careful study of Continental practices fitted
him most thoroughly.
It was, however, while he was still a student in
Paris that he felt first the influence which has
since strongly directed his own production in art.
In i88r he painted a picture of Hagar andIshmael,
which was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and a
couple of years later he produced another Biblical
subject ■—- David. His
choice of these motives
from sacred history was
not so much determined
by the idea that in them
he would find the most
appropriate field for labour
as by the opportunities
which they afforded him
for painting the nude
figure; but his success
with these preliminary
efforts induced him to
attempt a third composi-
tion of the same class.
While at work on this—
The Magnificat—the con-
viction was forced upon
him that something more
than a merely abstract
suggestion of the Eastern
character and atmosphere
was necessary to make the
symbolism of the Biblical
picture acceptable to the
modern public that craves
for realism and direct
statement of fact. He
saw that there were many
considerations of history,
archaeology, and topo-
graphy that the artist
would have to take into
account, and that to paint
these Eastern motives
vividly enough to satisfy
the present-day demand
he would have to make
himself thoroughly ac-
quainted with the aspect
of the country in which
FROM A PAINTING BY JAMES CLARK
*54