DOI Heft:
No. 128 (November, 1903)
DOI Artikel:Van der Veer, Lenore: The work of the late George Wilson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19880#0157
George Wilson
strength. Thus it was that he gave so rare a Some of his figure studies show strange faults of
sense of delicate feeling to everything he did, and drawing, especially those in which too great attention
that his pictures possess a poetic quality quite to detail called for an apparent over-working, when
individualised and apart; poetic in subject, in the artist seems to have lost control over his draw-
sentiment, and in handling, to such a degree that ing in his effort to make the sentiment embodied
perhaps to this attribute, more than to any other, in the picture altogether clear, through the gesture
his real distinction responds. or attitude as expressed by the figure. This is not
Wilson's boyhood was spent on a large farm near often a noticeable defect, however, and most of his
the royal borough of Cullen, on the Banffshire coast, figure studies are altogether admirable and satis-
An early evidence of talent for painting caused fying. Wilson's best picture is Asia, a large oil
him to come, at the age of eighteen, to London, painting from Shelley's " Prometheus Unbound," a
where he began his art studies at the Heatherly veiy strong piece of work, and one which grasped
School. Subsequently he spent a few months at one's attention immediately on entering the gallery,
the Royal Academy classes, which he left for the The figure is powerfully drawn, the expression
Slade School, under Poynter. From this time on rapt and sorrowful. Alaston, the only picture
he made London his home, though every year he of Wilson's hung at the Royal Academy, re-
took sketching trips to Scotland or the South of presents the poet of Shelley's poem as he comes
England, and several times to Italy, the country he, to the lonely spot in the wood where he is to die at
perhaps, loved best of all, and once he visited moonrise. Wild-eyed with terror and apprehension,
Algiers. he draws aside the branches of the thicket and
Seldom were his pictures sent to an exhibition ; peers out on the fast-dying sunlight, the glow
occasionally one was to be seen in the Dudley of which is breaking in rich splendour above
Gallery and sometimes at the Institute, and once his head, touching into mellow beauty the bright-
he was hung at the Academy. He
seemed to care nothing whatever for the
world's attention, and what pictures he
sold were to personal friends. Although
he was always poor he was never in
actual want, and considering the tem-
perament of the man and the joy imbued
in his pictures, one feels sure he must
have known a very happy life.
Rarely does one come upon work
which shows such an essentially emo-
tional conception of nature's best
thoughts as one sees in Wilson's land-
scapes—so tender in their instinctive
idealism, so exquisitely refined in their
masterly colouring. It is said that he
dearly loved trees, and one can readily
see this in his work, for it would be
difficult to find more perfect examples
of the drawing of stems and branches.
He loved, too, the play of sunlight on
the leaves of autumn hillsides, the
lengthening shadows of closing day,
the tender mystery of fading light,
the restful melody of rippling waves,
and he transposed them to his canvas
without losing any of their idyllic quality
and charm. He painted poems because
he lived in them, and could not do other-
wise. His pictures may not be trulv ™, „ ,>
V. 3 J STUDY FOR ASIA BY GEORGE WILSON
great, but they are certainly exquisite. permission o* Dr. J. Todhuntcr)
140
strength. Thus it was that he gave so rare a Some of his figure studies show strange faults of
sense of delicate feeling to everything he did, and drawing, especially those in which too great attention
that his pictures possess a poetic quality quite to detail called for an apparent over-working, when
individualised and apart; poetic in subject, in the artist seems to have lost control over his draw-
sentiment, and in handling, to such a degree that ing in his effort to make the sentiment embodied
perhaps to this attribute, more than to any other, in the picture altogether clear, through the gesture
his real distinction responds. or attitude as expressed by the figure. This is not
Wilson's boyhood was spent on a large farm near often a noticeable defect, however, and most of his
the royal borough of Cullen, on the Banffshire coast, figure studies are altogether admirable and satis-
An early evidence of talent for painting caused fying. Wilson's best picture is Asia, a large oil
him to come, at the age of eighteen, to London, painting from Shelley's " Prometheus Unbound," a
where he began his art studies at the Heatherly veiy strong piece of work, and one which grasped
School. Subsequently he spent a few months at one's attention immediately on entering the gallery,
the Royal Academy classes, which he left for the The figure is powerfully drawn, the expression
Slade School, under Poynter. From this time on rapt and sorrowful. Alaston, the only picture
he made London his home, though every year he of Wilson's hung at the Royal Academy, re-
took sketching trips to Scotland or the South of presents the poet of Shelley's poem as he comes
England, and several times to Italy, the country he, to the lonely spot in the wood where he is to die at
perhaps, loved best of all, and once he visited moonrise. Wild-eyed with terror and apprehension,
Algiers. he draws aside the branches of the thicket and
Seldom were his pictures sent to an exhibition ; peers out on the fast-dying sunlight, the glow
occasionally one was to be seen in the Dudley of which is breaking in rich splendour above
Gallery and sometimes at the Institute, and once his head, touching into mellow beauty the bright-
he was hung at the Academy. He
seemed to care nothing whatever for the
world's attention, and what pictures he
sold were to personal friends. Although
he was always poor he was never in
actual want, and considering the tem-
perament of the man and the joy imbued
in his pictures, one feels sure he must
have known a very happy life.
Rarely does one come upon work
which shows such an essentially emo-
tional conception of nature's best
thoughts as one sees in Wilson's land-
scapes—so tender in their instinctive
idealism, so exquisitely refined in their
masterly colouring. It is said that he
dearly loved trees, and one can readily
see this in his work, for it would be
difficult to find more perfect examples
of the drawing of stems and branches.
He loved, too, the play of sunlight on
the leaves of autumn hillsides, the
lengthening shadows of closing day,
the tender mystery of fading light,
the restful melody of rippling waves,
and he transposed them to his canvas
without losing any of their idyllic quality
and charm. He painted poems because
he lived in them, and could not do other-
wise. His pictures may not be trulv ™, „ ,>
V. 3 J STUDY FOR ASIA BY GEORGE WILSON
great, but they are certainly exquisite. permission o* Dr. J. Todhuntcr)
140