Studio: international art (23.1901)

R. IV. Allan

family, simple in their habits, avoided display. . . .
Two or three carriages were waiting, belonging to
gentlemen in the neighbourhood. Mr. James
Carlyle and his sisters were there with their
children, in carriages also, and there was a carriage
for us. The hearse was set in movement, and we
followed slowly down the half-mile of road which
divides the station from the village. A crowd had
gathered at the churchyard, not disorderly, but
seemingly with no feeling but curiosity. There
were boys and girls, bright with ribbons and
coloured dresses, climbing upon the kirkyard
walls. There was no minister, or, at least, no
ceremony which implied the presence of a
minister."

Robert Allan's picture well embodied the deep
solemnity, characterising Carlyle's funeral, which
was indeed in better keeping with the character
of the hero than would have been the pomp and
circumstance of the public interment in West-
minster Abbey, which had been offered by the
nation through Dean Stanley.

It was in water-colour that Robert Allan
first achieved success, winning immediate and
cordial recognition. The drawings sent by him
to the old Dudley Society placed him at once in
the ranks of coming men. The breadth of treat-
ment, sober colouring, and atmospheric unity of
these beautiful landscapes were indeed something
of a revelation at a time when minute finish had
so long been looked upon as a requisite quality.
Moreover, the water-colours of Robert Allan soon
began to exercise an influence, still maintained,
over other workers in the same medium ; he
inaugurated, in fact, something of a new style,
and has made an indelible impression on the
water-colour art of Scotland. It is well for an
outsider to insist on this, for those who follow
the lead of an original genius are often slow to
acknowledge the source of their inspiration ;
indeed, many are often quite unconscious of the
strength of the influence upon them.

Of late years Robert Allan's oil pictures have
been quite as strong and beautiful as his water-
colour work. They are full alike of freshness and
of virile force, and their style, both of composi-
tion and of colouring, is marked by decision
and brilliancy of effect. The sea-scapes especially
are instinct with the salt atmosphere of the ocean,
and it is Robert Allan's works of this description
perhaps which have done more than any others to
win him the place he holds amongst the artists of
the present day.

To give anything like a summary of the work of
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this most prolific of hard-working Scottish artists
would, of course, be beyond the scope of a
magazine article, but the pictures here repro-
duced have been chosen by Mr. Allan himself
as especially characteristic of his style. Whilst
remaining true to his first love, Scotland, and
giving to her the greater portion of his work-
ing time, he has not fallen into the mistake of
studying too continuously one type of scenery, but
has sought his subjects far and wide—in France,
Spain, Italy, and Holland; and even further afield
in India, where he travelled for some months a few
years ago. Amongst Mr. Allan's earlier pictures
may be specially noticed the Haven under the Hill,
the Scotch Shepherds Waiting for the Steamer, and
the Queen's Jubilee Procession of 1887, all of which,
especially the last-named, illustrate well the artist's
bold brush-work, skill in massing somewhat un-
manageable elements, and mastery of atmospheric
effect. From his brilliant later work it is extremely
difficult to make a selection, but his Chateau
d'Amboise, his Market Place, Poitiers, his French
Peasants arriving for the Vintage, Making for
Home, All Hands on Deck ! Fresh from the Sea,
When the Harbour Bar is Moaning, After the
Boats Come In, and his various Dutch scenes,
notably his Lowlands of Holland, are perhaps
especially remarkable for increased freedom of
handling, and for the nearest approach made by
their gifted author to what may be called the
earlier phase of Impressionism,

Mr. Allan's Indian work stands somewhat apart
from anything else produced by him, the result of
the total difference in the character of the subjects
from those which had before come under his obser-
vation. His simple, earnest nature is more akin
with the stern and mysterious pathos of the storm-
swept Northern scenery, wrapt about in an ever
varying atmosphere, than with the gorgeous and
glaring beauty of the sunlit East; yet such is the
master's knowledge of technique that even the
most hostile critic was compelled to admiration of
the wonderful and life-like series of studies shown
at the Piccadilly Institute at the reception given
on his return to England. Excellent in colour,
spirited in drawing, and admirably balanced in
composition, such scenes as the Service in a Sikh
Temple, the Street in Delhi, the Water Carriers of
Givalior, and the Oudeypore proved that Mr. Allan
could successfully grapple even with that most
difficult of tasks, the painting of brilliant sunlight.
In spite of this success in an altogether new de-
parture, no one can regret that Mr. Allan did not
linger too long in India, but returned to the North