DOI Heft:
Nr. 119 (February 1903)
DOI Artikel:Image, Selwyn: Mr. Frank Brangwyn's landscapes and still-life
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0016
Frank Brangwyris Landscapes and Still-Life
To have known an artist long, to have known him
on more sides than his artistic side, to have been
attracted to him by more qualities than his artistic
qualities, these are not necessarily in themselves
disqualifications in a critic save in the eyes of a
pseudo-critic.
It must be getting on for twenty years now since
first I met Mr. Brangwyn in the studio of a
mutual friend ; and twenty years ago Mr,
Brangwyn was a young lad. To-day he has
risen to eminence, not only at home, but on
the Continent; he has done work which has set
him high alike in the estimation of the public and
in that of his brother artists. In writing about him
one is not parading some new talent, but one is
paying tribute to a talent widely acknowledged and
established. That this virile and original artist
should have attained his admirable position is
a matter for congratulation, but assuredly it is no
matter for surprise to those of us who knew him as
a boy. I remember, in those early days, with what
astonishment I used to watch him covering large
canvases with bold and deftly-painted designs, drawn
mostly from his intimate acquaintance with sea-
faring and river life. His natural facility with the
brush, his natural instinct for handling pigment,
seemed to me in those days for a student the most
remarkable I knew of. Do not let me be mis-
understood. I am speaking of Mr. Brangwyn's
natural instinct for laying on pigment with a brush,
and I would set emphasis on the epithet "natural."
If his studies and pictures in this boyish stage had
many remarkable qualities to commend them, it
would be preposterous to deny that they also had
many faults. The natural instinct and facility I am
insisting upon was itself responsible for at least
some of these faults. It made him too little
careful of drawing, too little careful of delicacy
in handling, too little careful of purity in colour.
But to be able to lay on oil colours as he, a
' 1 'ifflBffllijfflWMMiB
CHARCOAL SKETCH BY FRANK BRANGWYN
4
To have known an artist long, to have known him
on more sides than his artistic side, to have been
attracted to him by more qualities than his artistic
qualities, these are not necessarily in themselves
disqualifications in a critic save in the eyes of a
pseudo-critic.
It must be getting on for twenty years now since
first I met Mr. Brangwyn in the studio of a
mutual friend ; and twenty years ago Mr,
Brangwyn was a young lad. To-day he has
risen to eminence, not only at home, but on
the Continent; he has done work which has set
him high alike in the estimation of the public and
in that of his brother artists. In writing about him
one is not parading some new talent, but one is
paying tribute to a talent widely acknowledged and
established. That this virile and original artist
should have attained his admirable position is
a matter for congratulation, but assuredly it is no
matter for surprise to those of us who knew him as
a boy. I remember, in those early days, with what
astonishment I used to watch him covering large
canvases with bold and deftly-painted designs, drawn
mostly from his intimate acquaintance with sea-
faring and river life. His natural facility with the
brush, his natural instinct for handling pigment,
seemed to me in those days for a student the most
remarkable I knew of. Do not let me be mis-
understood. I am speaking of Mr. Brangwyn's
natural instinct for laying on pigment with a brush,
and I would set emphasis on the epithet "natural."
If his studies and pictures in this boyish stage had
many remarkable qualities to commend them, it
would be preposterous to deny that they also had
many faults. The natural instinct and facility I am
insisting upon was itself responsible for at least
some of these faults. It made him too little
careful of drawing, too little careful of delicacy
in handling, too little careful of purity in colour.
But to be able to lay on oil colours as he, a
' 1 'ifflBffllijfflWMMiB
CHARCOAL SKETCH BY FRANK BRANGWYN
4