Studio: international art (16.1899)

IV. Goscombe John, A.R.A'.

unhesitating grasp of technical methods. When
the time arrived for mental expansion he had at
his fingers' ends the devices by which his thoughts
could be made credible ; he knew not only what he
wanted to do but how he had to do it, and there
was in his case no need for that painful struggle
between mind and hand which so often makes in-
effectual the happiest intentions of an artist who
launches out upon the troubled sea of production
imperfectly prepared to grapple with the material
difficulties that lie in wait for him in every direction.
The father of Mr. Goscombe John was a wood-

" GRIEF." PART OF A MEMORIAL IN MARBLE

BY W. GOSCOMBE JOHN, A.R.A.

116

carver living at Cardiff, where for a large part of
his life he was engaged upon the decorative wood-
work which was being lavishly used in the restora-
tion of Cardiff Castle, the seat of the Marquis of
Bute. This restoration was planned by that curi-
ously original master of Gothic architecture, William
Burges, and the designs which he provided de-
manded from the craftsmen employed to give them
form a high degree of practical efficiency. As an
assistant to his father the young artist had many
chances of acquiring experience that has been of
infinite value to him since in his profession. He
quickly became proficient as a carver both in
wood and stone, and skilful in his treatment
of architectural details; he fell under influ-
ences that shaped his mind and showed him
the wider possibilities of his work; and he
made friends whose interest has been of
benefit to him in the building up of the
reputation he now enjoys.

To his contact with William Burges is,
indeed, due a very perceptible tendency in
his present-day production. He is emphati-
cally a lover of the Gothic spirit, and aims at
expressing it in his work. The severity and
dignity of the style appeal to him most
strongly, and, despite his occasional digres-
sions into the methods of other schools, he
seems most at home when he can occupy
himself with the particular characteristics that
assort best with his sympathies. He contends
that to the dweller in Northern Europe Gothic
ruggedness has a truer meaning than the
sensuousness of the Italian School or the
sublime realism of the Greeks. But in this
logical conviction he has certainly been con-
firmed by circumstances which determined the
more or less unconscious bent of his mind,
and converted a kind of general belief, spring-
ing from early associations, into the clear
preference which governs him now. The
seeds of this preference were sown in his
childhood, when as a choir boy in Llandaff
Cathedral he was surrounded daily with object
lessons very well calculated to bring home to
him the exquisite charm of Gothic art in its
purest form ; and as he grew up he yielded
the more readily to the persuasive influence of
the one master who could rival the great archi-
tects of the past in artistic adaptability and
inventiveness.

In quite another way this acquaintanceship
had indirectly some consequences of much
importance to him, for it led to that move from