DOI Heft:
No. 91 (Oct., 1900)
DOI Artikel:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: Ralph Peacock and his work
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19786#0018
Ralph Peacock and his Work
ments can help them to achieve. To this
rule, fortunately, Mr. Peacock has ever been
an exception. His wise moderation has doubt-
less been easy to him, because of the even
temperament of his mind, but it is still noteworthy
as an example that most young painters could
follow if they took pains to cultivate self-restraint.
Mr. Peacock was born at Wood Green, London,
in 1868. On his father's side he is of English
descent, on his mother's, Scotch; but of the
true Scot he has little except the vigilant, cool
reasonableness that enables him to succeed where
so many boggle and fail. In 1882, at the age of
fourteen, he joined the South Lambeth Art
Schools, and for some years he worked there
twice a week in the evening. His father
encouraged him by studying in the same
class. Meantime, during the day, he was
being prepared for the Civil Service, and no
serious thought of following art as a profes-
sion came to him till he was eighteen. It
was then that the late John Pettie, the well-
known Scotch painter, after seeing a portrait
study, not only encouraged him to persevere,
but spoke to his father in such a hopeful
manner that a career in art seemed to offer
at least as many chances ot success as a
berth in the Civil Service. So it was decided
that Mr. Peacock should take up painting
seriously.
As a means to this end he went first of
all to the Art School at St. John's Wood,
where he worked diligently for a year ; then,
in 1887, he became a student in the Royal
Academy Schools. It has long been a
custom to speak disparagingly of these
schools, and hence it is worth noting that
Mr. Peacock is not one of their adverse
critics. He thinks of them always in
much the same way as most University men
look back to their old colleges; he retains
pleasant memories of his Alma Mater; and
whatever may be said about the system of
training, he found in the schools abundant
opportunities of working among students
whose methods were unlike his own and
whose competitive aspirations turned the
painting of life-studies into a sport. Quite
apart from this, the remarkable progress
made both by Mr. Peacock and by several
among his fellow students, as, for instance,
by Mr. Gerald Moira, certainly proved that
the Academy was then efficient as a scholastic
institution.
In 1890 Mr. Peacock ceased to attend the day
class, and partly by illustrating books, partly by
teaching three days a week in a school at St.
John's Wood, he managed to keep himself whilst
he took part in the biennial competition for the
Gold Medal and the Travelling Studentship in
Historical Painting. The subject chosen was
"Victory." Each competitor was left free to deal
with it from the historic or imaginative point of
view that appealed to him most strongly, and a
contest unusually keen and close was expected.
Mr. Peacock, it is interesting to note, hesitated for
some time in his choice of motif. He first attempted
" GEORGETTE, DAUGHTER OF BY RALPH PEACOCK
GEORGE MOSENTHAL, ESQ."
ments can help them to achieve. To this
rule, fortunately, Mr. Peacock has ever been
an exception. His wise moderation has doubt-
less been easy to him, because of the even
temperament of his mind, but it is still noteworthy
as an example that most young painters could
follow if they took pains to cultivate self-restraint.
Mr. Peacock was born at Wood Green, London,
in 1868. On his father's side he is of English
descent, on his mother's, Scotch; but of the
true Scot he has little except the vigilant, cool
reasonableness that enables him to succeed where
so many boggle and fail. In 1882, at the age of
fourteen, he joined the South Lambeth Art
Schools, and for some years he worked there
twice a week in the evening. His father
encouraged him by studying in the same
class. Meantime, during the day, he was
being prepared for the Civil Service, and no
serious thought of following art as a profes-
sion came to him till he was eighteen. It
was then that the late John Pettie, the well-
known Scotch painter, after seeing a portrait
study, not only encouraged him to persevere,
but spoke to his father in such a hopeful
manner that a career in art seemed to offer
at least as many chances ot success as a
berth in the Civil Service. So it was decided
that Mr. Peacock should take up painting
seriously.
As a means to this end he went first of
all to the Art School at St. John's Wood,
where he worked diligently for a year ; then,
in 1887, he became a student in the Royal
Academy Schools. It has long been a
custom to speak disparagingly of these
schools, and hence it is worth noting that
Mr. Peacock is not one of their adverse
critics. He thinks of them always in
much the same way as most University men
look back to their old colleges; he retains
pleasant memories of his Alma Mater; and
whatever may be said about the system of
training, he found in the schools abundant
opportunities of working among students
whose methods were unlike his own and
whose competitive aspirations turned the
painting of life-studies into a sport. Quite
apart from this, the remarkable progress
made both by Mr. Peacock and by several
among his fellow students, as, for instance,
by Mr. Gerald Moira, certainly proved that
the Academy was then efficient as a scholastic
institution.
In 1890 Mr. Peacock ceased to attend the day
class, and partly by illustrating books, partly by
teaching three days a week in a school at St.
John's Wood, he managed to keep himself whilst
he took part in the biennial competition for the
Gold Medal and the Travelling Studentship in
Historical Painting. The subject chosen was
"Victory." Each competitor was left free to deal
with it from the historic or imaginative point of
view that appealed to him most strongly, and a
contest unusually keen and close was expected.
Mr. Peacock, it is interesting to note, hesitated for
some time in his choice of motif. He first attempted
" GEORGETTE, DAUGHTER OF BY RALPH PEACOCK
GEORGE MOSENTHAL, ESQ."