Studio: international art (21.1901)

THE STUDIO

RALPH PEACOCK AND HIS
WORK.

Nine years have passed since Mr.
Ralph Peacock made his first appearance before the
critical tribunals, public and private, recognised or
irresponsible, and he has never yet failed to win
from them year by year a just meed of hearty
encouragement. It falls to the lot of few to gain
thus at once a well-merited success, without the
least help from the discipline of failure; and it is
interesting to note that Mr. Peacock owes much of
his good fortune to his temperamental endowment,
which differs considerably from that of most artists.
He is placid as well as ardent, he is patient as well
as ambitious; he knows when to stop, and is quite

content to advance slowly. It is not his fretful
habit to waste time by striving to make more pro-
gress in one piece of work than he can reasonably
expect to achieve in it. This is why his pictures
have always the charm of freshness, are always
unfatigued and spontaneous; they never bear
witness to the fact, so often illustrated by the efforts
of young artists, that the surest way to fail is to
endeavour to succeed too well.

And there is more in this than lies visible on the
surface. As a rule, the aesthetic temperament is so
restless, and so self-critical, that those who are
endowed with it have rarely patience enough, when
young, to leave well alone. They seldom remember
that faults due to inexperience are inevitable, and
that a genuine talent for art prospers best when it

" don quixote and sancho panza':

XXI. No. 0,1.—Oct, 1900.

by ralph peacock

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