DOI Heft:
No. 72 (March 1899)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: A new asocciate of the Royal Academy: W. Goscombe John
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19231#0130
W. Goscombe John, A.R.A.
of the City Guilds, where
he had the inestimable
advantage of supervision
and tuition from M.
Dalou, who may fairly be
said to have founded,
during the few years of
his residence in this
country, that younger
school of British sculp-
ture which is to-day giving
such remarkable proofs of
vitality.
After this course of
practice under M. Dalou,
and Mr. Frith, the master
of the modelling class at
Lambeth, Mr. Goscombe
John passed into the
Academy Schools, but
for some years after his
admission he followed the
same routine of daily work
as a carver and nightly
attendance at the Academy
modelling class. In 1888,
however, he made a useful
addition to his experi-
ences, for he spent a holi-
A STUDY BY W. GOSCOMBE JOHN, A.R.A. day ^ ^
some fellow-students, as a
passenger in a collier
Cardiff to London by which the development of his bound for Naples. Early in the following year he
power as a sculptor was made practicable. He had undertook another excursion abroad, and by the
met, while he was engaged at Cardiff Castle, the head advice of Lord Leighton he arranged his journey
of an architectural carving firm to which Burges was so as to give himself as ample a chance as possible
accustomed to entrust the execution of such de- of seeing people of different types, and ancient
tails of his designs as need not necessarily be carried art examples of the finest kind. Under this inspi-
out on the spot, and from this employer of artistic ration he began in Greece, visiting Athens and
labour he had received a promise of work when the Olympia, and then passing through Constantinople
time came for him to seek wider opportunities than and Smyrna to Cairo, and back home by way of
were open to him in his native place. He was able Athens again, and Italy. To the comprehensive-
to claim the fulfilment of this promise at the be- ness of this trip, and to the facility it afforded him
ginning of 1882, when he felt justified in tempting for the comparison of the noble works of the classic
fortune in London, and was at once engaged as one sculptors which are preserved in towns to which he
of the staff of carvers in the workshops of this firm, went, was doubtless due a measure of the inspira-
But although he was in this way established in a tion that distinguished the group with which in the
position that brought him in the wherewithal to same year he took the gold medal and travelling
exist, he had aspirations beyond supplying the scholarship offered by the Academy for competitors
mere needs of the moment, and set himself to among students in sculpture.
strive with all his energies to prove that he had This award made necessary another period of
qualifications for the higher walks of art. Day by foreign travel, and on this occasion he sought the
day he laboured in the workshop; but eaph. night advice of Sir Edward Burne-Jones as to the places
saw him diligent in study at the Lambeth School he might most profitably see. The route that was
118 '
of the City Guilds, where
he had the inestimable
advantage of supervision
and tuition from M.
Dalou, who may fairly be
said to have founded,
during the few years of
his residence in this
country, that younger
school of British sculp-
ture which is to-day giving
such remarkable proofs of
vitality.
After this course of
practice under M. Dalou,
and Mr. Frith, the master
of the modelling class at
Lambeth, Mr. Goscombe
John passed into the
Academy Schools, but
for some years after his
admission he followed the
same routine of daily work
as a carver and nightly
attendance at the Academy
modelling class. In 1888,
however, he made a useful
addition to his experi-
ences, for he spent a holi-
A STUDY BY W. GOSCOMBE JOHN, A.R.A. day ^ ^
some fellow-students, as a
passenger in a collier
Cardiff to London by which the development of his bound for Naples. Early in the following year he
power as a sculptor was made practicable. He had undertook another excursion abroad, and by the
met, while he was engaged at Cardiff Castle, the head advice of Lord Leighton he arranged his journey
of an architectural carving firm to which Burges was so as to give himself as ample a chance as possible
accustomed to entrust the execution of such de- of seeing people of different types, and ancient
tails of his designs as need not necessarily be carried art examples of the finest kind. Under this inspi-
out on the spot, and from this employer of artistic ration he began in Greece, visiting Athens and
labour he had received a promise of work when the Olympia, and then passing through Constantinople
time came for him to seek wider opportunities than and Smyrna to Cairo, and back home by way of
were open to him in his native place. He was able Athens again, and Italy. To the comprehensive-
to claim the fulfilment of this promise at the be- ness of this trip, and to the facility it afforded him
ginning of 1882, when he felt justified in tempting for the comparison of the noble works of the classic
fortune in London, and was at once engaged as one sculptors which are preserved in towns to which he
of the staff of carvers in the workshops of this firm, went, was doubtless due a measure of the inspira-
But although he was in this way established in a tion that distinguished the group with which in the
position that brought him in the wherewithal to same year he took the gold medal and travelling
exist, he had aspirations beyond supplying the scholarship offered by the Academy for competitors
mere needs of the moment, and set himself to among students in sculpture.
strive with all his energies to prove that he had This award made necessary another period of
qualifications for the higher walks of art. Day by foreign travel, and on this occasion he sought the
day he laboured in the workshop; but eaph. night advice of Sir Edward Burne-Jones as to the places
saw him diligent in study at the Lambeth School he might most profitably see. The route that was
118 '