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#0175
Harold Speed
beyond what was open to him at the ordinary
drawing class which he attended with the other
pupils at the school; but a certain amount of extra
practice was made possible to him by the fact that
his particular gifts were recognised and encouraged
by the masters under whom he studied. He was,
for instance, called upon, when he was about ten
years of age, to prepare the diagrams required for
the scientific demonstrations, and for the lectures
on botany and natural history given by the head
master, a quite significant acknowledgment of his
early skill, and a duty that must have been by no
means unpleasant to a schoolboy of his exceptional
capacities. During this period he also worked at
many of the subjects set by the Science and Art
Department, and passed the various second grade
examinations and some of those of the third grade.
All this was by way of preliminary to the
real preparation for his future profession, which
commenced when he was in his fifteenth year.
He was sent then as a student to the South Ken-
sington School, with a more or less indefinite idea
that architecture was to be the branch of practice
which he was eventually to follow. A very brief
experience sufficed, however, to bring about in his
mind a clear conviction that his capacities fitted
him to be a painter rather than an architect, and
thenceforward his efforts were directed steadily in
the one direction which he felt himself impelled to
follow. He worked hard and with healthy enthu-
siasm, going through the various stages of the
training provided by the school, and making such
sure and rapid progress that he was able when not
more than eighteen to secure one of the highest
prizes which the Department offers to its students,
the gold medal for painting from life. The ques-
tion then arose whether he should be an artist
pure and simple or whether he should, by way. of
ensuring a reasonable provision for his future,
prefer the less speculative career of an Art teacher
and take a mastership in one of the Government
schools. From this latter course he was, however,
dissuaded by Mr. Sparkes, the Principal at South
Kensington, who, with commendable foresight,
"THE MEDUSA HEAD"
152
BY HAROLD SPEED
beyond what was open to him at the ordinary
drawing class which he attended with the other
pupils at the school; but a certain amount of extra
practice was made possible to him by the fact that
his particular gifts were recognised and encouraged
by the masters under whom he studied. He was,
for instance, called upon, when he was about ten
years of age, to prepare the diagrams required for
the scientific demonstrations, and for the lectures
on botany and natural history given by the head
master, a quite significant acknowledgment of his
early skill, and a duty that must have been by no
means unpleasant to a schoolboy of his exceptional
capacities. During this period he also worked at
many of the subjects set by the Science and Art
Department, and passed the various second grade
examinations and some of those of the third grade.
All this was by way of preliminary to the
real preparation for his future profession, which
commenced when he was in his fifteenth year.
He was sent then as a student to the South Ken-
sington School, with a more or less indefinite idea
that architecture was to be the branch of practice
which he was eventually to follow. A very brief
experience sufficed, however, to bring about in his
mind a clear conviction that his capacities fitted
him to be a painter rather than an architect, and
thenceforward his efforts were directed steadily in
the one direction which he felt himself impelled to
follow. He worked hard and with healthy enthu-
siasm, going through the various stages of the
training provided by the school, and making such
sure and rapid progress that he was able when not
more than eighteen to secure one of the highest
prizes which the Department offers to its students,
the gold medal for painting from life. The ques-
tion then arose whether he should be an artist
pure and simple or whether he should, by way. of
ensuring a reasonable provision for his future,
prefer the less speculative career of an Art teacher
and take a mastership in one of the Government
schools. From this latter course he was, however,
dissuaded by Mr. Sparkes, the Principal at South
Kensington, who, with commendable foresight,
"THE MEDUSA HEAD"
152
BY HAROLD SPEED