Studio: international art (19.1900)

John S. Sargent, R.A.

fresh surroundings and in the atmosphere of a new intention helped out by every touch. His attention
world. never seems to stray when he is at work, and

To quote other instances of the complex vitality nothing is allowed to divert him from his initial
that makes his whole connection with the artist's purpose into side issues or minor matters. Finish,
profession so much more worthy of analysis than in the sense of surface elaboration, does not appeal
that of other men would be easy enough. He has to him as worthy of the toil it involves, and does
many new readings to give of old truths, because not commend itself as a necessary part of execu-
he has a faculty for looking at things in his own tive practice, but for completeness he strives with
way, and trusts his own judgment to guide him in an absolute devotion that counts no effort as too
all his efforts to arrive at results which are worth exhausting.

the labour of production. His enthusiasm is A comparison of some of his slighter works will,
always an appreciable quantity, always an influence perhaps, show more exactly than an examination of
that is powerful to guard him against relapse into his pictures what it is that he understands by corn-
commonplace methods and uninspired expression. pleteness. In one he has been concerned with the
Nothing that he ever does is wanting in appropriate refinements of line and the subtleties of contour of
thought, or lacks that rightness of intention which a feminine profile, and he has studied these details
comes from a judicious estimate of the manner in with the most searching observation of every curve
which his craft should be applied. In his drawings, and modelling; in another he has dealt with an effect
even where they record nothing more than a of light and shade, an arrangement of tone masses ;
momentary impression, there is invariably a clear but in neither has he attempted any filling up of

space or elaboration of acces-
sories for the sake of making
the final result attractive to
the ordinary inexpert observer.
The study of a nude figure
presents quite another aspect
of his manner. It is closely
handled, carried to the highest
pitch of surface finish, and
with all the little varieties of
form, colour, and texture
stated at their fullest value ;
but then it has been painted,
as a kind of exercise in art
gymnastics, to train hand and
eye by a struggle with one of
the most exacting feats that
the artist can accomplish. In
this case the problem was to
overcome not one difficulty
but many, to summarise the
whole range of technical per-
formance in a single canvas ;
and necessarily every part had
to be finished with the greatest
care. But this elaborate study
and the slightest of the outline
sketches owe their existence
to exactly the same motive,
and express just the same idea
of aesthetic obligations. Each
one is in its own way perfectly
complete, and finished just as

STUDY IN OILS FOR "CARNATION, LILY, LILY, ROSE" BY J. S. SARGENT, R.A. far as it need be.

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