DOI Heft:
No. 69 (December 1898)
DOI Artikel:Mr. James Allan Duncan, designer and illustrator
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19230#0215
Studio- Talk
and others less well known. From his hand are
two beautiful alphabets of initial letters, designed
specially for the use of the Chiswick Press. These
display the strong fat " line" which goes so well
with the printed page. Indeed, it is the mastering
of this simple line which entitles Mr. Duncan's
work to praise. Dozens employ it tentatively and
hesitatingly ; he uses it firmly and with vital force
in its curves and volutes ; above all, he often carries
it consistently through to the end, and does not
shirk the difficulty which it imposes by resorting
to thin and fragile lines for the sake of expressing
minute detail more realistically.
The merits and limitations of his work are so
openly expressed in the examples here reproduced,
that it seems superfluous to have written even these
few words about them; but two or three important
points are involved, some wherein he is notably
successful, and others of which (after the fashion
of many fellow-designers) one doubts the abiding
charm when the novelty has grown stale. It is a
matter of little moment whether a convention be
as o.ld as that of Diirer or as new as that of
Aubrey Beardsley; but having chosen it the crafts-
man must abide by its demands; and Mr. Duncan
is so evidently convinced of this fact that it seemed
worth while to make the question the central argu-
ment of a desultory comment upon his work.
STUDIO-TALK.
(From our own Correspondents)
LONDON.—We have received the follow-
ing communication from Mr. H. R.
Hope-Pinker, the Honorary Secretary
and Treasurer of the " Gleeson-White
Memorial Fund":—"The late Mr.
Gleeson White, Member of the Art Workers' Guild,
&c, was widely known as a writer and lecturer on
art, as a practical designer of much skill, and as
editor of art books and magazines. He had a great
influence at home and abroad in all branches of de-
sign and applied art, and helped, more almost than
any man of our times, to encourage and further the
interests of decorative art in this country. His un-
expected death, on October 19, at the early age of
forty-six, precluded the making of any adequate pro-
vision for his wife and two children. At a meeting
PORTRAIT OF THE LATE MR. GLEESON WHITE FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MR. F. HOLLYER
189
and others less well known. From his hand are
two beautiful alphabets of initial letters, designed
specially for the use of the Chiswick Press. These
display the strong fat " line" which goes so well
with the printed page. Indeed, it is the mastering
of this simple line which entitles Mr. Duncan's
work to praise. Dozens employ it tentatively and
hesitatingly ; he uses it firmly and with vital force
in its curves and volutes ; above all, he often carries
it consistently through to the end, and does not
shirk the difficulty which it imposes by resorting
to thin and fragile lines for the sake of expressing
minute detail more realistically.
The merits and limitations of his work are so
openly expressed in the examples here reproduced,
that it seems superfluous to have written even these
few words about them; but two or three important
points are involved, some wherein he is notably
successful, and others of which (after the fashion
of many fellow-designers) one doubts the abiding
charm when the novelty has grown stale. It is a
matter of little moment whether a convention be
as o.ld as that of Diirer or as new as that of
Aubrey Beardsley; but having chosen it the crafts-
man must abide by its demands; and Mr. Duncan
is so evidently convinced of this fact that it seemed
worth while to make the question the central argu-
ment of a desultory comment upon his work.
STUDIO-TALK.
(From our own Correspondents)
LONDON.—We have received the follow-
ing communication from Mr. H. R.
Hope-Pinker, the Honorary Secretary
and Treasurer of the " Gleeson-White
Memorial Fund":—"The late Mr.
Gleeson White, Member of the Art Workers' Guild,
&c, was widely known as a writer and lecturer on
art, as a practical designer of much skill, and as
editor of art books and magazines. He had a great
influence at home and abroad in all branches of de-
sign and applied art, and helped, more almost than
any man of our times, to encourage and further the
interests of decorative art in this country. His un-
expected death, on October 19, at the early age of
forty-six, precluded the making of any adequate pro-
vision for his wife and two children. At a meeting
PORTRAIT OF THE LATE MR. GLEESON WHITE FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MR. F. HOLLYER
189