DOI issue:
No. 97 (April, 1901)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of J. M. Swan, A.R.A., [2]
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19787#0184
/. M. Swan, A.R.A.
by technical method. Nor is it in any way a result
of labour. It is just as evident in his slightest note
in pastel or black chalk as it is in a picture or
statue on which he has expended months of
strenuous effort. Presumably it comes from the
rarest agreement between eye and hand, and grows
out of a perfect understanding of the connection
between observation and exact craftsmanship. He
appears never to be in doubt concerning the facts
that have to be selected for treatment, and he is so
sure of what he has to do that he wastes none of his
energies in groping after the direct way of recording
what is befare him. Moreover, his perception of
minute variations of light and shade is acute enough
to allow him to estimate the exact value of the
smallest surface modellings and to suggest them
correctly in his work. To hit the happy medium
between exaggeration of relief and flatness, to draw
with precision apparently indefinite markings, and
to use an inexhaustible store of knowledge in his
investigation of the little things that need almost
microscopic analysis, are all characteristics of his
method, and to them he probably owes that perfec-
tion of true finish by which everything he does is
habitually distinguished.
Certainly, his knowledge of what things mean
serves him in this matter of surface expression
fully as much as it does in his dealing with
questions of construction and design. Only
knowledge well tested and fully digested would
make possible the marvellous truth with which he
realises, even with a few lines, the complete aspect
of his subjects. In his animal drawings especially
he never leaves us in doubt as to the significance
of the touches that he sets down upon his paper.
Bone, muscle, folds of skin, the sheen of the fur
are all accounted for and explained, each in its
right way, and with an easy readiness that declares
his insight into anatomical structure as thoroughly
as his appreciation of the tone relations by which
the modulations of the outside form are defined.
Science in this forms the complement to art, and
memory of earlier study helps to guide aright his
observation of what is actually before him.
'WOUNDED LEOPARD" BY J. M. SWAN, A.R.A.
( By fcrmission of G. J. Gould, Esq., New York. J
158
by technical method. Nor is it in any way a result
of labour. It is just as evident in his slightest note
in pastel or black chalk as it is in a picture or
statue on which he has expended months of
strenuous effort. Presumably it comes from the
rarest agreement between eye and hand, and grows
out of a perfect understanding of the connection
between observation and exact craftsmanship. He
appears never to be in doubt concerning the facts
that have to be selected for treatment, and he is so
sure of what he has to do that he wastes none of his
energies in groping after the direct way of recording
what is befare him. Moreover, his perception of
minute variations of light and shade is acute enough
to allow him to estimate the exact value of the
smallest surface modellings and to suggest them
correctly in his work. To hit the happy medium
between exaggeration of relief and flatness, to draw
with precision apparently indefinite markings, and
to use an inexhaustible store of knowledge in his
investigation of the little things that need almost
microscopic analysis, are all characteristics of his
method, and to them he probably owes that perfec-
tion of true finish by which everything he does is
habitually distinguished.
Certainly, his knowledge of what things mean
serves him in this matter of surface expression
fully as much as it does in his dealing with
questions of construction and design. Only
knowledge well tested and fully digested would
make possible the marvellous truth with which he
realises, even with a few lines, the complete aspect
of his subjects. In his animal drawings especially
he never leaves us in doubt as to the significance
of the touches that he sets down upon his paper.
Bone, muscle, folds of skin, the sheen of the fur
are all accounted for and explained, each in its
right way, and with an easy readiness that declares
his insight into anatomical structure as thoroughly
as his appreciation of the tone relations by which
the modulations of the outside form are defined.
Science in this forms the complement to art, and
memory of earlier study helps to guide aright his
observation of what is actually before him.
'WOUNDED LEOPARD" BY J. M. SWAN, A.R.A.
( By fcrmission of G. J. Gould, Esq., New York. J
158