DOI Heft:
Nr. 119 (February 1903)
DOI Artikel:A young sculptor: Mr. Reginald F. Wells and his rustic art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0031
A Young Sculptor
lionise any new-comer from the schools who has a
dangerous ease in the handling of his materials.
They have given praise even to lads of talent who
r
L
"A PEASANT MADONNA" BY REGINALD F. WELLS
(By permission of Mr. E. Van Wisselingh)
have swaggered boldly in the style of Daumier,
as though anyone's personality could assert itself
within Daumier's wonderful masquerade of satire,
of grotesque humour, of enchanted ugliness! And
other styles of a pre-eminently singular type have
made victims of the unwary, and in every case the
victims have been petted by artistic cliques. This
is why we cannot but rejoice at the happier
fortune which has fallen to the lot of Mr. Wells,
who enjoys in his Kentish village a simple and
quiet life in keeping with his rustic art. Nor
does his good fortune end here. Among those
who follow his work with interest there are men
of note who will never fail to blend searching
criticism with their encouragement, so that his
statuettes may mark steps of progressive effort, and
not be repetitions of early successes. Both Mr.
Legros and Professor Lanteri are in complete sym-
pathy with his aims; he owes much to them, and
he cannot seek their advice too often.
It is a pleasure to note that Mr. Wells, at the
very outset of his career, recognises two important
things which many an artist of long practice has
failed to perceive. He recognises that the life of
the present-day arts is to be found, not in the
representation of conventional types, but in the
realisation of individual character; and it is clear
to him also that there is a difference between
the forms of individual character suitable for
various kinds of sculpture. There are sculptors
who think that a good statuette may be easily
"THE BLIND GIRL " BY REGINALD F. WELLS
(By permission of Gerald Moira, Esq.)
*9
lionise any new-comer from the schools who has a
dangerous ease in the handling of his materials.
They have given praise even to lads of talent who
r
L
"A PEASANT MADONNA" BY REGINALD F. WELLS
(By permission of Mr. E. Van Wisselingh)
have swaggered boldly in the style of Daumier,
as though anyone's personality could assert itself
within Daumier's wonderful masquerade of satire,
of grotesque humour, of enchanted ugliness! And
other styles of a pre-eminently singular type have
made victims of the unwary, and in every case the
victims have been petted by artistic cliques. This
is why we cannot but rejoice at the happier
fortune which has fallen to the lot of Mr. Wells,
who enjoys in his Kentish village a simple and
quiet life in keeping with his rustic art. Nor
does his good fortune end here. Among those
who follow his work with interest there are men
of note who will never fail to blend searching
criticism with their encouragement, so that his
statuettes may mark steps of progressive effort, and
not be repetitions of early successes. Both Mr.
Legros and Professor Lanteri are in complete sym-
pathy with his aims; he owes much to them, and
he cannot seek their advice too often.
It is a pleasure to note that Mr. Wells, at the
very outset of his career, recognises two important
things which many an artist of long practice has
failed to perceive. He recognises that the life of
the present-day arts is to be found, not in the
representation of conventional types, but in the
realisation of individual character; and it is clear
to him also that there is a difference between
the forms of individual character suitable for
various kinds of sculpture. There are sculptors
who think that a good statuette may be easily
"THE BLIND GIRL " BY REGINALD F. WELLS
(By permission of Gerald Moira, Esq.)
*9