Studio: international art (16.1899)

Some Sketches by Alfred Parsons, A.R.A.

direction in which he prefers to seek for the satis-
faction of his aesthetic instincts is always plainly
asserted in every picture he puts before the public.

This confidence in himself, one of the best
qualities which an artist can possess, comes cer-
tainly from his manner of training. It has grown
up steadily through years of careful self-discipline,
helped in its development by circumstances which
imposed upon him the obligation to search out
unassisted the details of knowledge that his pro-
fession demands. He owes little to any of the
formal systems of art teaching by which the modern
painter is prepared for the work he has to do. The
regular school course plays a very small part in his
personal history, and its influence upon him can
hardly be taken into account as having aided per-
ceptibly in making him what he is now. But for

PORTRAIT SKETCH IN LEAD PENCIL

BY ALFRED PARSONS, A.R.A.

his own resolution, his invincible determination to
become an artist, he would have been permanently
bound down to follow a very different walk in
life, and his natural abilities would have been
stunted and finally destroyed by utterly uncon-
genial surroundings. Fortunately he could, and
did, fight against the fates which at one time
threatened to force him to do what was absolutely
contrary to his inclinations ; he had the courage to
abandon a career that promised him a competence,
and to take the chances of making his way un-
assisted in the world of art. The result has plainly
justified his belief in himself. Spurred on by the
ambition to prove himself correct in his estimate
of his own capacity, and anxious to excel in a
profession that he regarded as the only one which
would give him the opportunities in life that he
desired, he threw himself heart and soul
into the work of training his mind and hand
to understand and express whatever he felt
to be essential for the maturing of the
highest type of artistic conviction.

To the fact that he was country born and
bred is doubtless to be ascribed his intense
and unwavering love of nature. He grew
up amid the surroundings that best habi-
tuate the painter's instinct to the apprecia-
tion of what is fittest for pictorial treatment.
The open air attracted him as a vast store-
house of artistic material, and the country-
side inspired him with the keenest desire
to study and record those beauties of colour,
form, and atmosphere which were presented
to him in endless profusion. When after
a boyhood spent in direct contact with
Nature in her most persuasive aspects he
had to begin the battle of life in London,
and to confine his aspiration within the
narrow limits of a Post Office clerkship, it
is quite understandable that he should have
found the contrast altogether unendurable.
But even during this period of wearying
misapplication of his abilities, he did not
forget the intention that was taking form
in his mind, to turn to art practice at the
earliest possible moment. He seized the
opportunity afforded by this stay in London
to secure the only systematic teaching in
the rudiments of his chosen profession that
he ever obtained; and in the evenings,
when his Post Office labours were over, he
worked as a student in the art school at
South Kensington. A couple of years,
however, sufficed to satisfy him as to the

!53