DOI Heft:
Nr. 122 (May 1903)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of Mr. and Mrs. J. Young Hunter
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0284
Mr. & Mrs. J. Young Htmter
end of the seventies there was a prevailing idea convention, and destroy all his hopes of future
that the only mission of the artist was to record eminence by losing the power of receiving impres-
with absolute fidelity the facts of Nature. He was sions at first hand.
told that only in strict realism could he hope to find To-day the fallacy of this creed is properly recog-
salvation, and that any modification of the actuali- nised, and the artists on whom we have to depend
ties of the life around him was contrary to correct in the immediate future for memorable works have
principles. To attempt to build upon Nature substituted for it something much more reasonable,
fanciful inventions, to seek for suggestions which They have found that proper respect for Nature
would give him scope for the exercise of his is not incompatible with the expression of an
imaginative faculties, even to select from the mass imaginative intention, and that the man who
of available material what he thought most suitable wishes to use his capacities as a designer of pictorial
for the illustration of a preconceived idea, was, fancies need not necessarily commit himself to
according to the dogma of his teachers, to depart a convention, or lose touch with actuality. There
from the lines which alone could lead him to the runs through this new school a vein of romantic
highest type of achievement. If he was not a fantasy which all thinking people can appreciate,
realist, an unselective and uncompromising student because it leads to the production of pictures that
of everyday commonplaces, he was told that he appeal, not only to the eye by their attractiveness
must inevitably sink into a follower of some formal of aspect, but also to the mind by their charm of
sentiment. The artists who
have consumed their influence
do not state things that are
obvious to every ordinarily
observant person, and they do
not waste their time on re-
presenting baldly episodes in
the somewhat sordid struggle
of modern life; they start with
an idea which is inherently
dramatic, and they embroider
it with a variety of details, all
of which help to make it more
convincing and to increase its
persuasiveness. What results
from this method of working
is a picture which, with all the
heedful accuracy of detail paint-
ing, possesses an abstract atmo-
sphere full of impressive sug-
gestion, and distinguished by
an eminently acceptable quality
of personal conviction. It gives
an insight into the artist's mind,
and reveals quite as much of
his intellectual power as of his
command over essentials of
craftsmanship.
It is because Mr. Young
Hunter and his wife have
carried out consistently the best
principles of this school, that
they have, in a career of only
some half-dozen years, estab-
lished themselves as painters of
idle hands and stumbling feet " by j. young huntkr, noteworthy prominence. Their
end of the seventies there was a prevailing idea convention, and destroy all his hopes of future
that the only mission of the artist was to record eminence by losing the power of receiving impres-
with absolute fidelity the facts of Nature. He was sions at first hand.
told that only in strict realism could he hope to find To-day the fallacy of this creed is properly recog-
salvation, and that any modification of the actuali- nised, and the artists on whom we have to depend
ties of the life around him was contrary to correct in the immediate future for memorable works have
principles. To attempt to build upon Nature substituted for it something much more reasonable,
fanciful inventions, to seek for suggestions which They have found that proper respect for Nature
would give him scope for the exercise of his is not incompatible with the expression of an
imaginative faculties, even to select from the mass imaginative intention, and that the man who
of available material what he thought most suitable wishes to use his capacities as a designer of pictorial
for the illustration of a preconceived idea, was, fancies need not necessarily commit himself to
according to the dogma of his teachers, to depart a convention, or lose touch with actuality. There
from the lines which alone could lead him to the runs through this new school a vein of romantic
highest type of achievement. If he was not a fantasy which all thinking people can appreciate,
realist, an unselective and uncompromising student because it leads to the production of pictures that
of everyday commonplaces, he was told that he appeal, not only to the eye by their attractiveness
must inevitably sink into a follower of some formal of aspect, but also to the mind by their charm of
sentiment. The artists who
have consumed their influence
do not state things that are
obvious to every ordinarily
observant person, and they do
not waste their time on re-
presenting baldly episodes in
the somewhat sordid struggle
of modern life; they start with
an idea which is inherently
dramatic, and they embroider
it with a variety of details, all
of which help to make it more
convincing and to increase its
persuasiveness. What results
from this method of working
is a picture which, with all the
heedful accuracy of detail paint-
ing, possesses an abstract atmo-
sphere full of impressive sug-
gestion, and distinguished by
an eminently acceptable quality
of personal conviction. It gives
an insight into the artist's mind,
and reveals quite as much of
his intellectual power as of his
command over essentials of
craftsmanship.
It is because Mr. Young
Hunter and his wife have
carried out consistently the best
principles of this school, that
they have, in a career of only
some half-dozen years, estab-
lished themselves as painters of
idle hands and stumbling feet " by j. young huntkr, noteworthy prominence. Their