Studio: international art (18.1900)

Arts and Crafts

"the battle of the kings " gesso panel by a. j. gaskin

Mr. ^ Arthur Gaskin is unquestionably the first rately finished design previously on paper tends to
in attainment among former members of the Bir- hamper rather than help the executant. Another
mingham school, which now benefits from his work of Mr. Gaskin's is an uncoloured gesso panel
tuition two days in the week. Although a painter for the front of a chest. Its title, The Battle of the

Kings, explains the roman-
tic nature of the subject,
but affords only a slight idea
of the ingenuity exercised
in the successful manipula-
tion in low-relief of a melee
of mounted combatants,
crowding far back into the
distance, yet without dis-
tressful confusion to the
eye.

Mrs. Gaskin's speciality
is a wonderful gift for the

jewellery by a. j. and mrs. gaskin delineation of child form

of pictures, Mr. Gaskin happily has not forsworn
black-and-white work, in which he excels. He has
on hand a series of designs for the illustration of
Grimm's "Household Stories." These drawings
are in pencil, a medium which Mr. Gaskin prefers
as being the most direct. Accustomed as he is to
set down his conceptions first in pencil, he finds it
best as a rule not to risk weakening their original
freshness by transforming them into ink drawings.
How capable, however, he is of handling the latter
medium the book illustration of " St. Christopher,"
exhibited at the Arts and Crafts, testifies. Pen-
and-ink drawings, such as this one, Mr. Gaskin
intends for reproduction by mechanical process.
Whereas in the progress of engraving by hand the
development, through the aid of the material, takes
place spontaneously, the preparation of an elabo-
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jewellery dy a j. and mrs gaskin