DOI Heft:
No. 90 (September, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Wood, Esther: The national competition, 1900
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0285
The National Competition, 1900
aparl from the South Kensington students,
Battersea and New Cross may be said to share
the honours of the year, the former receiving two
gold medals and showing a high average of work
in textile design. New Cross again takes the lead
in decorative designs for metal, and the adven-
turous little group of draughtswomen at Lambeth
well sustain the distinctive traditions of that school
in colour-prints and black-and-white illustrations.
The provincial students are more and more
scattered in area—an encouraging sign of the
spread of good teaching in the smaller towns ; and
it is pleasant to find much excellent work coming
from new and obscure quarters. Sheffield and
the midland centres are notably fertile in design,
especially in architectural decoration. The
Royal College students and exhibitioners seem
to be more rewarded for conventional exercises
than for original invention, though their work on
individual lines is often thoughtful and interesting.
There is an inevitable sameness about the
rooms devoted to copies of the antique and
studies of historic ornament, and neither the design based on a by james a. hancox
quality of the subjects nor the conscientious flowering plant
labour lavished on them kindles our interest
short of that point at which they are brought
into lively relation with
modern feeling and de-
sign. One or two
students succeed in doing
this, notably W. A.
Buckingham (Worcester)
in his spirited painting
of a floral ornament
suited for a border or
frieze. The life-studies
bring us nearer to the
exercise of selection and
interpretation in art, and
through these the student
is often able to shake off
that sense of finality
which settles upon the
copyist, and to infuse
that spirit of adventure
into his work which
presses it ever forward
into the creative field.
The model of a girl's
head by Fanny E. Brown
(Heywood) is an instance
of a simple subject, full
of character, handled
design for a damask serviette by alice g. lock with dignity and re-
aparl from the South Kensington students,
Battersea and New Cross may be said to share
the honours of the year, the former receiving two
gold medals and showing a high average of work
in textile design. New Cross again takes the lead
in decorative designs for metal, and the adven-
turous little group of draughtswomen at Lambeth
well sustain the distinctive traditions of that school
in colour-prints and black-and-white illustrations.
The provincial students are more and more
scattered in area—an encouraging sign of the
spread of good teaching in the smaller towns ; and
it is pleasant to find much excellent work coming
from new and obscure quarters. Sheffield and
the midland centres are notably fertile in design,
especially in architectural decoration. The
Royal College students and exhibitioners seem
to be more rewarded for conventional exercises
than for original invention, though their work on
individual lines is often thoughtful and interesting.
There is an inevitable sameness about the
rooms devoted to copies of the antique and
studies of historic ornament, and neither the design based on a by james a. hancox
quality of the subjects nor the conscientious flowering plant
labour lavished on them kindles our interest
short of that point at which they are brought
into lively relation with
modern feeling and de-
sign. One or two
students succeed in doing
this, notably W. A.
Buckingham (Worcester)
in his spirited painting
of a floral ornament
suited for a border or
frieze. The life-studies
bring us nearer to the
exercise of selection and
interpretation in art, and
through these the student
is often able to shake off
that sense of finality
which settles upon the
copyist, and to infuse
that spirit of adventure
into his work which
presses it ever forward
into the creative field.
The model of a girl's
head by Fanny E. Brown
(Heywood) is an instance
of a simple subject, full
of character, handled
design for a damask serviette by alice g. lock with dignity and re-