DOI Heft:
No. 89 (Aug. 1900)
DOI Artikel:D'Anvers, N.: James Aumonier and his work
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0172
James A umonier
Farmstead, shown at the Royal Institute in 1895;
the Old Chalk Pit, exhibited at the same gallery in
1896 ; and In the Fen Country, at the Academy
of 1898, and it will be recognised readily that few
modern landscapists have excelled the delicate
realism of these works, or their truth, alike in
feeling, in colour, and in atmospheric effect.
James Aumonier's landscapes are seen to the best
advantage not so much in mixed collections, where
their quiet harmony of tone is too often nullified
by the works in proximity to them, as in private
houses, especially when their owners have the good
taste to hang them in fitting surroundings. Then
they can, unhindered, speak for Nature herself to
those cut off from direct communion with her, for
so skilful an interpreter is their author that no trace
of the translator's own personality destroys the
unity and harmony of their effect.
Mr. Aumonier paints with equal skill in oil or in
water-colour, and he has also achieved considerable
success in pastel. He was elected in 1876 an
Associate of the Royal Institute of Painters in
Water-Colours; he was also one of the original
members of the Institute of Painters in Oil-
Colours, and was a member of the British Society
of Pastellists for the three years of its existence.
He received in 1889 the Gold Medal for Water-
Colour and the Bronze Medal for Oil-Painting in
Paris; and he has also been the receiver of awards
at Berlin, Melbourne, Manchester, and Cardiff. He
has pictures in the permanent galleries of the
Chantrey Bequest Collection, the Manchester,
Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and
Oldham Municipal Galleries; and even the
newly-formed Perth Collection of Western Aus-
tralia owns a fine landscape by him.
Unfortunately much of the ethereal and delicate
charm of Mr. Aumonier's landscapes evaporates
during the process of reproduction, but the various
renderings of his pictures given here may serve
to show how free from mannerism is his work,
how varied is his skill, and how needless to the
true artist is any dragging in of extraneous elements
to give interest and pathos to scenes instinct with
the very spirit of Nature. A painting entitled
The Old Chalk Pit is one of the artist's happiest
renderings of the tender tones and shadows of a
summer's evening, when the setting sun mingles
its light with that of the moon, each giving to
the other something of its own peculiar charm.
There is no monotony in this delicate rendering
of a poetic scene, the keynote of which is intense
peacefulness. Though in itself not exactly an
interesting subject according to the ordinary
observer's classification, it is relieved from the
commonplace by the wonderful skill with which
"ON THE SOUTHDOWNS" FROM A PAINTING BY JAMES AUMONIER
146
Farmstead, shown at the Royal Institute in 1895;
the Old Chalk Pit, exhibited at the same gallery in
1896 ; and In the Fen Country, at the Academy
of 1898, and it will be recognised readily that few
modern landscapists have excelled the delicate
realism of these works, or their truth, alike in
feeling, in colour, and in atmospheric effect.
James Aumonier's landscapes are seen to the best
advantage not so much in mixed collections, where
their quiet harmony of tone is too often nullified
by the works in proximity to them, as in private
houses, especially when their owners have the good
taste to hang them in fitting surroundings. Then
they can, unhindered, speak for Nature herself to
those cut off from direct communion with her, for
so skilful an interpreter is their author that no trace
of the translator's own personality destroys the
unity and harmony of their effect.
Mr. Aumonier paints with equal skill in oil or in
water-colour, and he has also achieved considerable
success in pastel. He was elected in 1876 an
Associate of the Royal Institute of Painters in
Water-Colours; he was also one of the original
members of the Institute of Painters in Oil-
Colours, and was a member of the British Society
of Pastellists for the three years of its existence.
He received in 1889 the Gold Medal for Water-
Colour and the Bronze Medal for Oil-Painting in
Paris; and he has also been the receiver of awards
at Berlin, Melbourne, Manchester, and Cardiff. He
has pictures in the permanent galleries of the
Chantrey Bequest Collection, the Manchester,
Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and
Oldham Municipal Galleries; and even the
newly-formed Perth Collection of Western Aus-
tralia owns a fine landscape by him.
Unfortunately much of the ethereal and delicate
charm of Mr. Aumonier's landscapes evaporates
during the process of reproduction, but the various
renderings of his pictures given here may serve
to show how free from mannerism is his work,
how varied is his skill, and how needless to the
true artist is any dragging in of extraneous elements
to give interest and pathos to scenes instinct with
the very spirit of Nature. A painting entitled
The Old Chalk Pit is one of the artist's happiest
renderings of the tender tones and shadows of a
summer's evening, when the setting sun mingles
its light with that of the moon, each giving to
the other something of its own peculiar charm.
There is no monotony in this delicate rendering
of a poetic scene, the keynote of which is intense
peacefulness. Though in itself not exactly an
interesting subject according to the ordinary
observer's classification, it is relieved from the
commonplace by the wonderful skill with which
"ON THE SOUTHDOWNS" FROM A PAINTING BY JAMES AUMONIER
146