DOI Heft:
No. 71 (february 1899)
DOI Artikel:Wilfrid Ball, etcher and water-colour painter
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19231#0015
Wilfrid Ball
aspirations after originality without disregard for sound because it is thoughtful and well balanced,
accepted tradition. the natural manner of a man who knows his sub-
To this class belongs the art of Mr. Wilfrid ject by heart, but has built up convictions of his
Ball, who has the happy faculty of choosing own on a safe foundation of experience,
material that is fresh and attractive, and the Something of this individuality is doubtless the
capacity to treat it properly. His style is outcome of an instinct for independence, but,
thoroughly individual, distinguished by absolute partly at least, it is due to the circumstances of
straightforwardness of expression, and free from his training in art matters. His history is, like that
those affectations which are so apt to result in of so many men who have come to the front in
unintelligent mannerism. He is a sincere student the painter's profession, a record of industrious
of Nature, with a cultivated taste in selection that effort carried on under unpromising conditions,
guides him very securely, and enables him to draw The pursuit of art was by no means the one
the right distinction between subjects that are originally mapped out for him, nor did it, indeed,
paintable on account of their inherent charm and become possible to him until after he had spent
those that claim notice merely because they are some time in an occupation of a very different
abnormal or startling. It is not at all his aim to kind. His earlier years were given up to work in
surprise the mass of the public by any appeal to the City, where he was engaged in an accountant's
their curiosity, or to get himself talked about office, a curiously inappropriate place for a youth
because he wilfully elects to pose as a strange who felt inclinations towards practical sestheticism.
departure from the beaten track. He is far more But he had the courage to try, in the intervals of
anxious to convince the few who have the judg- his City drudgery, to acquire a certain amount of
ment to appreciate the earnestness of an artistic knowledge of art matters, and night after night,
intention that is based upon a careful comparison after he left the office, he betook himself to
of the facts of Nature with the fancies of the Heatherley's School of Art to draw from life and
masters of his craft. But he is by no means an the antique. In this way he received the only art
imitator, nor does he merely repeat what his pre- instruction that was ever possible for him to get;
decessors have already stated quite explicitly, and all the rest of his experience he had to make for
expect consideration on account of his fidelity to himself when and how he could. At least he had
accepted authorities. The style that he has is no school traditions worth considering to alter the
' NORFOLK UPLANDS BY WILFRID BALL
7
aspirations after originality without disregard for sound because it is thoughtful and well balanced,
accepted tradition. the natural manner of a man who knows his sub-
To this class belongs the art of Mr. Wilfrid ject by heart, but has built up convictions of his
Ball, who has the happy faculty of choosing own on a safe foundation of experience,
material that is fresh and attractive, and the Something of this individuality is doubtless the
capacity to treat it properly. His style is outcome of an instinct for independence, but,
thoroughly individual, distinguished by absolute partly at least, it is due to the circumstances of
straightforwardness of expression, and free from his training in art matters. His history is, like that
those affectations which are so apt to result in of so many men who have come to the front in
unintelligent mannerism. He is a sincere student the painter's profession, a record of industrious
of Nature, with a cultivated taste in selection that effort carried on under unpromising conditions,
guides him very securely, and enables him to draw The pursuit of art was by no means the one
the right distinction between subjects that are originally mapped out for him, nor did it, indeed,
paintable on account of their inherent charm and become possible to him until after he had spent
those that claim notice merely because they are some time in an occupation of a very different
abnormal or startling. It is not at all his aim to kind. His earlier years were given up to work in
surprise the mass of the public by any appeal to the City, where he was engaged in an accountant's
their curiosity, or to get himself talked about office, a curiously inappropriate place for a youth
because he wilfully elects to pose as a strange who felt inclinations towards practical sestheticism.
departure from the beaten track. He is far more But he had the courage to try, in the intervals of
anxious to convince the few who have the judg- his City drudgery, to acquire a certain amount of
ment to appreciate the earnestness of an artistic knowledge of art matters, and night after night,
intention that is based upon a careful comparison after he left the office, he betook himself to
of the facts of Nature with the fancies of the Heatherley's School of Art to draw from life and
masters of his craft. But he is by no means an the antique. In this way he received the only art
imitator, nor does he merely repeat what his pre- instruction that was ever possible for him to get;
decessors have already stated quite explicitly, and all the rest of his experience he had to make for
expect consideration on account of his fidelity to himself when and how he could. At least he had
accepted authorities. The style that he has is no school traditions worth considering to alter the
' NORFOLK UPLANDS BY WILFRID BALL
7