DOI Heft:
No. 69 (December 1898)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of Harold Speed
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19230#0174
Harold Speed
THE WORK OF HAROLD ment is Proved; and his record of regular pro-
SPEED. BY A. L. BALDRY. £ress m tne one branch of knowledge for which
his aptitude is unquestionable has been continuous
Although there has been of late from his childhood to the present day. When
years a very considerable change in the he was not more than five years old the idea that
popular estimate of the practicability of the artistic he should become an artist, which was already
professions, and a quite perceptible weakening is formed in his own mind, was readily accepted by
to be noted in the prejudices entertained by parents his parents, and during the course of his school
and guardians against the choice by the youngsters training in the general details of his education his
for whom they are responsible of an occupation tra- ultimate destiny was never forgotten. As seems
ditionally supposed to be precarious, it is unusual, so often to have been the case with men of the
even now, to come across an artist whose aesthetic artistic temperament, he had a great aptitude for
inclinations have been allowed to influence from mathematical study, and distinguished himself
his earliest years the nature and direction of his while at school by his fondness for geometry and
education. As a rule the men who have become other branches of the science of mathematics ; but
eminent in art have had to struggle against opposi- in the intervals of his regular work he was always
tion and discouragement, against the well-inten- busy with efforts to express his fast-forming convic-
tioned efforts of their elders to divert them from tions on aesthetic questions. At this time he was
courses that seemed to carefully minded people to having no regular training in art, none, at least,
promise nothing but dis-
appointment, and have
gained a grudging permis-
sion to follow their natural
bent only after the waste
of valuable time in pur-
suits for which they had
neither aptitude nor lik-
ing. By sheer rebellion
against the arrangements
made for them, and by
the assertion of a convic-
tion strong enough to
overcome even the most
active opposition, many
of the most noted figures
in the art world have
made a way for them-
selves, earning recogni-
tion by the vehemence of
their protests, and shap-
ing a career more often
than not without assist-
ance of any kind.
A particular interest
attaches to the position
which Mr. Harold Speed
occupies among' our
younger artists, because
he had the good fortune
to be untroubled by any
opposition to his artistic
intentions. He is the
exception by which the
general rule of discourage- " close of an autumn day " by harold speed
XV. No. 69.—December, 1898. iji
THE WORK OF HAROLD ment is Proved; and his record of regular pro-
SPEED. BY A. L. BALDRY. £ress m tne one branch of knowledge for which
his aptitude is unquestionable has been continuous
Although there has been of late from his childhood to the present day. When
years a very considerable change in the he was not more than five years old the idea that
popular estimate of the practicability of the artistic he should become an artist, which was already
professions, and a quite perceptible weakening is formed in his own mind, was readily accepted by
to be noted in the prejudices entertained by parents his parents, and during the course of his school
and guardians against the choice by the youngsters training in the general details of his education his
for whom they are responsible of an occupation tra- ultimate destiny was never forgotten. As seems
ditionally supposed to be precarious, it is unusual, so often to have been the case with men of the
even now, to come across an artist whose aesthetic artistic temperament, he had a great aptitude for
inclinations have been allowed to influence from mathematical study, and distinguished himself
his earliest years the nature and direction of his while at school by his fondness for geometry and
education. As a rule the men who have become other branches of the science of mathematics ; but
eminent in art have had to struggle against opposi- in the intervals of his regular work he was always
tion and discouragement, against the well-inten- busy with efforts to express his fast-forming convic-
tioned efforts of their elders to divert them from tions on aesthetic questions. At this time he was
courses that seemed to carefully minded people to having no regular training in art, none, at least,
promise nothing but dis-
appointment, and have
gained a grudging permis-
sion to follow their natural
bent only after the waste
of valuable time in pur-
suits for which they had
neither aptitude nor lik-
ing. By sheer rebellion
against the arrangements
made for them, and by
the assertion of a convic-
tion strong enough to
overcome even the most
active opposition, many
of the most noted figures
in the art world have
made a way for them-
selves, earning recogni-
tion by the vehemence of
their protests, and shap-
ing a career more often
than not without assist-
ance of any kind.
A particular interest
attaches to the position
which Mr. Harold Speed
occupies among' our
younger artists, because
he had the good fortune
to be untroubled by any
opposition to his artistic
intentions. He is the
exception by which the
general rule of discourage- " close of an autumn day " by harold speed
XV. No. 69.—December, 1898. iji