DOI Heft:
No. 87 (June, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of 1900
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0034
The Art of 1900
In painting, sculpture and design alike
there is sounding clearly a common note
of originality. Every worker who is
honestly conscious of his responsibilities
is not only trying to find something
fresh to say, but is seeking for phrases
that will give shades of expression
unlike any that have been known before.
If, for example, we turn to men of
recent repute like Mr. Brangwyn, Mr.
Byam Shaw, Mr. Harold Speed, or
Mr. Bertram Priestman, we find them
inspired by the same craving for inde
pendence that has through longer years
of working guided such modern masters
as Mr. J. S. Sargent, Mr. Orchardson,
Mr. La Thangue, Mr. Clausen, or Mr.
Boughton; but we can perceive in
none of them any trace of that uni
formity which would imply that they
had sunk their respective individualities
in an effort to keep within the limits of
a prescribed fashion. On the contrary,
\ each one to all appearance is in absolute
opposition to all his fellows, speaking
a language with different idioms, and
it is only by close analysis that the
bond of serious intention by which they
are linked together can be detected.
This diversity of expression makes cer-
tainly for development, for it provides
a standing proof that there are many
directions in which the evolution of
\ '\ I our school can go on without being
^H^^H^^^R^ttflHf.'; \ \ ;] on the one hand narrowed between
hard and fast bounds, and on the
other hand without being launched
* vaguely into space to drift uncontrolled
study for " the gates of dawn ' by h. j. draper an<i l°se itself in empty uncertainty.
It is more than ever difficult this
year to choose for comment those
is very evenly held, Many points of difference pictures which can be said to mark definitely
between the representatives of past and present the highest levels of achievement. There are,
creeds have vanished outright, and there has been it is true, a few works which are so obviously
a fusing together of yesterday and to-day that has great that no hesitation is possible in assigning
obliterated distinctions which seemed at one time to to them their place of pre-eminence; but
be fixed beyond possibility of change. The vitality there are besides many splendid productions
of our schools must, indeed, be great if it can whose merits are so evenly balanced that to make
produce such results and can so unite in one distinctions between them is an altogether puzzling
strong movement the most diverse types of inten- task. Among the canvases which can easily be
tion. singled out, the most remarkable are Mr. J. S.
A review of the galleries and studios gives at Sargent's superbly handled group of the three
this moment an admirable insight into the process daughters of Mrs. Percy Wyndham and his vividly
of revolution that is in progress in British art. living portraits of the Lord Chief Justice; Mr.
18
In painting, sculpture and design alike
there is sounding clearly a common note
of originality. Every worker who is
honestly conscious of his responsibilities
is not only trying to find something
fresh to say, but is seeking for phrases
that will give shades of expression
unlike any that have been known before.
If, for example, we turn to men of
recent repute like Mr. Brangwyn, Mr.
Byam Shaw, Mr. Harold Speed, or
Mr. Bertram Priestman, we find them
inspired by the same craving for inde
pendence that has through longer years
of working guided such modern masters
as Mr. J. S. Sargent, Mr. Orchardson,
Mr. La Thangue, Mr. Clausen, or Mr.
Boughton; but we can perceive in
none of them any trace of that uni
formity which would imply that they
had sunk their respective individualities
in an effort to keep within the limits of
a prescribed fashion. On the contrary,
\ each one to all appearance is in absolute
opposition to all his fellows, speaking
a language with different idioms, and
it is only by close analysis that the
bond of serious intention by which they
are linked together can be detected.
This diversity of expression makes cer-
tainly for development, for it provides
a standing proof that there are many
directions in which the evolution of
\ '\ I our school can go on without being
^H^^H^^^R^ttflHf.'; \ \ ;] on the one hand narrowed between
hard and fast bounds, and on the
other hand without being launched
* vaguely into space to drift uncontrolled
study for " the gates of dawn ' by h. j. draper an<i l°se itself in empty uncertainty.
It is more than ever difficult this
year to choose for comment those
is very evenly held, Many points of difference pictures which can be said to mark definitely
between the representatives of past and present the highest levels of achievement. There are,
creeds have vanished outright, and there has been it is true, a few works which are so obviously
a fusing together of yesterday and to-day that has great that no hesitation is possible in assigning
obliterated distinctions which seemed at one time to to them their place of pre-eminence; but
be fixed beyond possibility of change. The vitality there are besides many splendid productions
of our schools must, indeed, be great if it can whose merits are so evenly balanced that to make
produce such results and can so unite in one distinctions between them is an altogether puzzling
strong movement the most diverse types of inten- task. Among the canvases which can easily be
tion. singled out, the most remarkable are Mr. J. S.
A review of the galleries and studios gives at Sargent's superbly handled group of the three
this moment an admirable insight into the process daughters of Mrs. Percy Wyndham and his vividly
of revolution that is in progress in British art. living portraits of the Lord Chief Justice; Mr.
18