DOI Heft:
Nr. 78 (Septembre 1899)
DOI Artikel:Wood, Esther: The national competition at South Kensington, 1899
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19232#0290
The National
spirit quite alien from the sensuous mysticism of
France, which has never quite shaken off the high-
relief habit of the Renaissance. Of this spirit
Mr. Strutt's dainty little panel may serve as a happy
instance.
Annie Stock, of Taunton, and Thomas Cox, of
Macclesfield, show very good designs for a mosaic
pavement and frieze, in which the limitations of
the method have been well considered. It is
satisfactory to see these students bringing a some-
what discredited decoration to something approach-
ing perfection in an unpretentious geometric style.
Without going so far as to say that English art is
incapable of any serious and noble treatment of
pictorial subjects in mosaic,
we may safely say that it
looks towards a younger
generation to redeem the
ancient glory of the handi-
craft.
Stained glass does not
present any work of origi-
nal merit, but the designs
of Leonard Timson, Bat-
tersea, Effie Ward, Bir-
mingham, Charles W.
Kelsey, Heywood, William
Stott, Royal College, and
Dorothy Hilton, Birming-
ham, may be noticed.
The designs for stencil
treatment, though plenti-
ful, are hardly up to the
level which might be
looked for in this so
simple, useful, and yet
distinctive method of work.
None of the exhibitors
have fully realised its pos-
sibilities in decoration, but
there are some fairly satis-
factory friezes, and a
specially good design by
Agnes R. Phillipson, South
Kensington, whose adapt-
ation of water-lilies is very
ingenious ; the lines of the
stencil suggesting the play
of light on the water in
which the blossoms float.
A stencilled cover-design
by Robert A. Dawson, of
the same school, is also
very effective. The Chelsea
256
Competition
students, among others, have especially applied their
stencilling to textiles, giving preference to velvet. It
may be questioned whether velvet is a proper mate-
rial for this treatment. The slight and facile nature
of stencilling, as being always a suggestion rather
than a finished ornament, seems to lend itself
rather to occasions and materials where a rough
and rapid decoration may be acceptable, and not
necessarily permanent. A handsome, costly, and
durable stuff will obviously bear more elaborate
and delicate treatment than one light and perish-
able ; moreover one instinctively recoils from
applying pressure, or even paint, to a velvet
surface: printed velvet is an essentially inartistic
BY GRACE BOSTON (Battersea)
spirit quite alien from the sensuous mysticism of
France, which has never quite shaken off the high-
relief habit of the Renaissance. Of this spirit
Mr. Strutt's dainty little panel may serve as a happy
instance.
Annie Stock, of Taunton, and Thomas Cox, of
Macclesfield, show very good designs for a mosaic
pavement and frieze, in which the limitations of
the method have been well considered. It is
satisfactory to see these students bringing a some-
what discredited decoration to something approach-
ing perfection in an unpretentious geometric style.
Without going so far as to say that English art is
incapable of any serious and noble treatment of
pictorial subjects in mosaic,
we may safely say that it
looks towards a younger
generation to redeem the
ancient glory of the handi-
craft.
Stained glass does not
present any work of origi-
nal merit, but the designs
of Leonard Timson, Bat-
tersea, Effie Ward, Bir-
mingham, Charles W.
Kelsey, Heywood, William
Stott, Royal College, and
Dorothy Hilton, Birming-
ham, may be noticed.
The designs for stencil
treatment, though plenti-
ful, are hardly up to the
level which might be
looked for in this so
simple, useful, and yet
distinctive method of work.
None of the exhibitors
have fully realised its pos-
sibilities in decoration, but
there are some fairly satis-
factory friezes, and a
specially good design by
Agnes R. Phillipson, South
Kensington, whose adapt-
ation of water-lilies is very
ingenious ; the lines of the
stencil suggesting the play
of light on the water in
which the blossoms float.
A stencilled cover-design
by Robert A. Dawson, of
the same school, is also
very effective. The Chelsea
256
Competition
students, among others, have especially applied their
stencilling to textiles, giving preference to velvet. It
may be questioned whether velvet is a proper mate-
rial for this treatment. The slight and facile nature
of stencilling, as being always a suggestion rather
than a finished ornament, seems to lend itself
rather to occasions and materials where a rough
and rapid decoration may be acceptable, and not
necessarily permanent. A handsome, costly, and
durable stuff will obviously bear more elaborate
and delicate treatment than one light and perish-
able ; moreover one instinctively recoils from
applying pressure, or even paint, to a velvet
surface: printed velvet is an essentially inartistic
BY GRACE BOSTON (Battersea)