DOI Heft:
Nr. 115 (October 1902)
DOI Artikel:Little, James Stanley: A cosmopolitan painter: John Lavery, [1]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0015
THE STUDIO
ACOSMOPOLITAN PAINTER: which enables him to hunt out works of real
JOHN LAVERY. BY JAMES artistic excellence and to recognise his quarry
STANLEY LITTLE.—PART I. the moment he gets on the scent of it. Of course,
this inborn faculty needs to be sharpened by train-
It may be asserted with confidence, that the ing and steadied by experience. Possibly, seeing
professional critic who wraps up his appreciation of that in his case the commercial instinct is allied
an artist or his admiration of a work of art in a with it, the faculty reaches its highest development
mass of words has no special or exclusive right to in the much-despised dealer, though obviously this
pass judgment on the one or the other. Divine very instinct prevents the dealer—save, perhaps the
right, an almost played-out trick of the monarchical few of great faith ; the few who, having the courage
trade, is becoming day by day a more and more of their opinions, plus perhaps some little of the
discredited pretence in
the domain of art and
literary criticism. Many
an amateur and con-
noisseur who would be
at a loss to set forth in
the language of the
schools the faith that is in
him is, nevertheless, better
qualified than any mere
art critic to pronounce,
definitively and authorita-
tively, on artistic produc-
tion. The connoisseur—
by which term, of course,
the real connoisseur is
intended, not that spu-
rious brand of art patron
who buys at the dicta-
tion or direction of the
dealers, or because a
picture or other artistic
product enjoys recognition
at the hands of power-
ful cliques and mono-
polies—backs his judg-
ment with his money. In
any case the true art critic,
in common with the true
amateur or connoisseur,
is endowed by nature
with that peculiar innate
faculty, a rare enough
gift, which, for lack of
a better name, may be
called instinct; a faculty "a lady in black"
' ' by john lavery
XXVII. No. iic. — octobkr, iq02.
3
ACOSMOPOLITAN PAINTER: which enables him to hunt out works of real
JOHN LAVERY. BY JAMES artistic excellence and to recognise his quarry
STANLEY LITTLE.—PART I. the moment he gets on the scent of it. Of course,
this inborn faculty needs to be sharpened by train-
It may be asserted with confidence, that the ing and steadied by experience. Possibly, seeing
professional critic who wraps up his appreciation of that in his case the commercial instinct is allied
an artist or his admiration of a work of art in a with it, the faculty reaches its highest development
mass of words has no special or exclusive right to in the much-despised dealer, though obviously this
pass judgment on the one or the other. Divine very instinct prevents the dealer—save, perhaps the
right, an almost played-out trick of the monarchical few of great faith ; the few who, having the courage
trade, is becoming day by day a more and more of their opinions, plus perhaps some little of the
discredited pretence in
the domain of art and
literary criticism. Many
an amateur and con-
noisseur who would be
at a loss to set forth in
the language of the
schools the faith that is in
him is, nevertheless, better
qualified than any mere
art critic to pronounce,
definitively and authorita-
tively, on artistic produc-
tion. The connoisseur—
by which term, of course,
the real connoisseur is
intended, not that spu-
rious brand of art patron
who buys at the dicta-
tion or direction of the
dealers, or because a
picture or other artistic
product enjoys recognition
at the hands of power-
ful cliques and mono-
polies—backs his judg-
ment with his money. In
any case the true art critic,
in common with the true
amateur or connoisseur,
is endowed by nature
with that peculiar innate
faculty, a rare enough
gift, which, for lack of
a better name, may be
called instinct; a faculty "a lady in black"
' ' by john lavery
XXVII. No. iic. — octobkr, iq02.
3