DOI Artikel:
Bate, Percy H.: The late Frederick Sandys: a retrospect
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20710#0029
Frederick Sandys
of a brazier, and its radiance shines on her white of the physical man, deeming that the soul ex-
dress and on her pallid face and terrible eyes. She pressed itself in the countenance. Nor did he
clutches with one hand her necklet of coral and treat his subjects as items in a decorative arrange-
turquoise, while from her anguished lips issue ment; he gave us his sitter clearly seen and
irrevocable words of dreadful power. The ex- searchingly rendered, and not his ghost or his
quisite drawing of the hands, the lovely painting of shadow. This may not be the fashionable por-
the pearly shells with which her dark hair is adorned, traiture of to-day, but certainly some of the greatest
and the masterly treatment of the other accessories portraits of all time have been painted on this
need not be enlarged on here, but it may be inter- basis.
esting to note (as characteristic of the artist) that Some of these portraits are oil - paintings, the
though the subject is chosen from a classic myth, superb Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Anderson Rose among
the informing spirit is rather that of Gothic romance. them; others are chalk drawings, and with these
The picture is conceived as Cranach or as Van der drawings we come to the third phase of Sandys'
Goes might have conceived it; in treatment it is akin art. But whether they are in oils or in chalks, they
to the work of the early painters of the Teutonic are alike in their characteristics. The portraits of
schools, and the brooding intensity, the dark men are virile and forceful and redolent of character,
overwhelming horror that characterise the work as the women serene, gracious and graceful, and the
a whole inevitably recall the hopeless tragedy that children as delicious and lovable as any in the
pervades the stern sagas of the
North. Altogether it is a mag-
nificent conception fitly ren- ppfiaWPWli" " \^mm*wwmmmg^m^m^mm^mr^^^^^^
dered, a work worthy to rank
amongst the finest imagina-
tive creations painted in Eng-
land in the nineteenth century.
It is always interesting to
discuss the differing ideals of
portraiture, to consider the ^K£ls%JL
inspiration of Holbein as con-
trasted with that of Hals, of
Velasquez as compared with
Watts; and it would be far
from unprofitable to treat at
some length of Sandys' unique
achievements in this field of
art, and to endeavour to see
(if space did but permit) just
where as a portrait painter he
must be placed. That he
painted some notable portraits
is well known, and it is equally
well known that the same
searching after definite truth
that we find in his other work
is to be found in these can-
vases, which are as far from I ' . ' *
superficiality as from inac-
curacy, while they are as fresh,
as vivid, as individual and as
complete as are the portraits HNdtf *
of Holbein himself. Sandys
was not concerned to make a
portrait the likeness of a man's
SOUl; he sought the likeness STUDY (By permission of W. Connal, Esq.) BY FREDERICK SANDYS
of a brazier, and its radiance shines on her white of the physical man, deeming that the soul ex-
dress and on her pallid face and terrible eyes. She pressed itself in the countenance. Nor did he
clutches with one hand her necklet of coral and treat his subjects as items in a decorative arrange-
turquoise, while from her anguished lips issue ment; he gave us his sitter clearly seen and
irrevocable words of dreadful power. The ex- searchingly rendered, and not his ghost or his
quisite drawing of the hands, the lovely painting of shadow. This may not be the fashionable por-
the pearly shells with which her dark hair is adorned, traiture of to-day, but certainly some of the greatest
and the masterly treatment of the other accessories portraits of all time have been painted on this
need not be enlarged on here, but it may be inter- basis.
esting to note (as characteristic of the artist) that Some of these portraits are oil - paintings, the
though the subject is chosen from a classic myth, superb Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Anderson Rose among
the informing spirit is rather that of Gothic romance. them; others are chalk drawings, and with these
The picture is conceived as Cranach or as Van der drawings we come to the third phase of Sandys'
Goes might have conceived it; in treatment it is akin art. But whether they are in oils or in chalks, they
to the work of the early painters of the Teutonic are alike in their characteristics. The portraits of
schools, and the brooding intensity, the dark men are virile and forceful and redolent of character,
overwhelming horror that characterise the work as the women serene, gracious and graceful, and the
a whole inevitably recall the hopeless tragedy that children as delicious and lovable as any in the
pervades the stern sagas of the
North. Altogether it is a mag-
nificent conception fitly ren- ppfiaWPWli" " \^mm*wwmmmg^m^m^mm^mr^^^^^^
dered, a work worthy to rank
amongst the finest imagina-
tive creations painted in Eng-
land in the nineteenth century.
It is always interesting to
discuss the differing ideals of
portraiture, to consider the ^K£ls%JL
inspiration of Holbein as con-
trasted with that of Hals, of
Velasquez as compared with
Watts; and it would be far
from unprofitable to treat at
some length of Sandys' unique
achievements in this field of
art, and to endeavour to see
(if space did but permit) just
where as a portrait painter he
must be placed. That he
painted some notable portraits
is well known, and it is equally
well known that the same
searching after definite truth
that we find in his other work
is to be found in these can-
vases, which are as far from I ' . ' *
superficiality as from inac-
curacy, while they are as fresh,
as vivid, as individual and as
complete as are the portraits HNdtf *
of Holbein himself. Sandys
was not concerned to make a
portrait the likeness of a man's
SOUl; he sought the likeness STUDY (By permission of W. Connal, Esq.) BY FREDERICK SANDYS