DOI Heft:
No. 114 (September, 1902)
DOI Artikel:The international exhibition of modern decorative art at Turin: the English section
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19876#0264
Turin Exhibition
THE PANCAKE FROM THE PAINTING BY JOSEF ISRAELS
(By permission of Alexander Young, Esq.)
exhibitor of the English section. As, however, in-
vitations were practically restricted to members of
the Society and to exhibitors who had shown in
the Arts and Crafts, the term "English" acquires
a certain qualification.
Until this tale of work by Mr. Crane is seen and
comprehended, one has no idea of his versatility;
of his charming and poetical efforts as a book illus-
trator; of his power of expression in many mediums ;
and, above all, of his untiring and ceaseless industry.
Here is a man who was a pioneer in England
thirty years ago, and, in his own line of work,
is as alive to-day as ever he was; his thoughts
just as quick to act and his actions as expres-
sive as ever, in that language where line and
colour speak the literature of art. But, with all
this, there comes the impression that the Crane
of twenty years ago is the Crane of to-day, and
though he was a pioneer few workers have
followed in his steps; nor is there, either in
England or elsewhere, any widely spread move-
ment which owes either its birth or growth to his
252
influence. And this is not from any question of
workmanship. To Walter Crane methods and
mediums offer neither let nor hindrance, either in
the choice of his subjects or the manner of their
expression. The hand obeys the thought in that
wonderfully unconscious way that is the gift of the
few; and the worker, though critical of the process,
is always confident as to the consummation.
But herein lie the methods of mannerism and
the fear for the hieroglyphic ; and, although it is
quite possible that mannerism may become a
precious quality, there is, wherever natural form
is employed, an appeal back to Nature itself.
And there is in Crane's work a certain want
of conviction and a lack of relation to Nature,
which appear to have arrested all progress above
a certain plane. The convincing realism of
Aubrey Beardsley, linked with an expression
in line and value, as personal as it was precious,
revolutionised in a few years all our pre-
conceived notions of the possibilities of black-
and-white drawing; and Laurence Housman
THE PANCAKE FROM THE PAINTING BY JOSEF ISRAELS
(By permission of Alexander Young, Esq.)
exhibitor of the English section. As, however, in-
vitations were practically restricted to members of
the Society and to exhibitors who had shown in
the Arts and Crafts, the term "English" acquires
a certain qualification.
Until this tale of work by Mr. Crane is seen and
comprehended, one has no idea of his versatility;
of his charming and poetical efforts as a book illus-
trator; of his power of expression in many mediums ;
and, above all, of his untiring and ceaseless industry.
Here is a man who was a pioneer in England
thirty years ago, and, in his own line of work,
is as alive to-day as ever he was; his thoughts
just as quick to act and his actions as expres-
sive as ever, in that language where line and
colour speak the literature of art. But, with all
this, there comes the impression that the Crane
of twenty years ago is the Crane of to-day, and
though he was a pioneer few workers have
followed in his steps; nor is there, either in
England or elsewhere, any widely spread move-
ment which owes either its birth or growth to his
252
influence. And this is not from any question of
workmanship. To Walter Crane methods and
mediums offer neither let nor hindrance, either in
the choice of his subjects or the manner of their
expression. The hand obeys the thought in that
wonderfully unconscious way that is the gift of the
few; and the worker, though critical of the process,
is always confident as to the consummation.
But herein lie the methods of mannerism and
the fear for the hieroglyphic ; and, although it is
quite possible that mannerism may become a
precious quality, there is, wherever natural form
is employed, an appeal back to Nature itself.
And there is in Crane's work a certain want
of conviction and a lack of relation to Nature,
which appear to have arrested all progress above
a certain plane. The convincing realism of
Aubrey Beardsley, linked with an expression
in line and value, as personal as it was precious,
revolutionised in a few years all our pre-
conceived notions of the possibilities of black-
and-white drawing; and Laurence Housman