DOI Artikel:
Bate, Percy H.: The late Frederick Sandys: a retrospect
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20710#0033
Frederick Sandys
4
sense of tears, so often does
the artist seem to have felt the
emotion voiced by Browning,
to have echoed the sigh which
haunts the poet's question :
" Dear, dead women, with
such hair, too—what's
become of all the gold
Used to fall and brush their
bosoms ? "
and echoing it, to have caught
and immortalised the vision
vouchsafed to him of all the
lovely phantoms of the bygone
years, so that again they live
for our wonder and delight.
It is needless here to ex-
patiate on the intrinsic beauty
of these drawings, or on the
fact that the same qualities are
to be found in the very
earliest as in those of his
maturity. It has recently
been my privilege to see in
thehouse of a friend a simple
black-and-white by Sandys, an
early drawing of Dtvoiioti,
**" which is entirely beautiful in
its rendering of the exquisitely
slender hands, charmingly
tender in its whole motif; and
. , in this, as in the latest of all,
he shows himself the thorough
"Winifred" (By permission of Harold Hartley, Esq.) by Frederick sandys artist that he was. All through
the long series of them we can-
not but recognise the power
placed the many elaborate imaginative subjects and with which the artist deals subtly with the transitory
ideal heads that Sandys executed in the same and evanescent expressions of lovely faces—the
medium. Once more let us turn the portfolio, and perfect draughtsmanship of eyes and lips, the Un-
as the pageant of fair women passes before us what faltering surety and vigour of the touch, the de-
loveliness is there, and what power and what variety licate treatment of the hair, so lovingly lingered
in its presentation ! Here is the petulant beauty over, so beautifully drawn in its curves and waves,
of Proud Maisie, and the mystic radiance of Selene; and withal so finely treated as a mass, despite the
anon we see the exquisite contours of Tears and absolute rendering of every strand and coil,
the glorious cascade of the tresses that adorn And it would be futile to insist again upon the
Miranda; while the pallid, voiceless agony of the lofty inspiration of these imaginative works, in
Mater Dolorosa is followed by the terror-stricken which majestic beauty alternates with tender grace,
Cassandra, crying strident prophecies of woe, and tragic power with poetic charm, and emotional
the lonely Persephone is succeeded by another intensity with monumental repose. Suffice it to
drawing as complete and as important, another say that in these drawings, as in the woodcuts and
dream as stately and as perfect, the exquisite Lethe, the oil-paintings, Frederick Sandys reached a level
And so the tale of them grows, and Cleopatra and of sustained and perfect achievement such as few
The Fayre Mayde of Avenel, Portia, and Perdita, (and those only of the greatest) of his compeers
and many another one, bring to us beauty and the have ^attained to, and showed himself possessed of a
16
4
sense of tears, so often does
the artist seem to have felt the
emotion voiced by Browning,
to have echoed the sigh which
haunts the poet's question :
" Dear, dead women, with
such hair, too—what's
become of all the gold
Used to fall and brush their
bosoms ? "
and echoing it, to have caught
and immortalised the vision
vouchsafed to him of all the
lovely phantoms of the bygone
years, so that again they live
for our wonder and delight.
It is needless here to ex-
patiate on the intrinsic beauty
of these drawings, or on the
fact that the same qualities are
to be found in the very
earliest as in those of his
maturity. It has recently
been my privilege to see in
thehouse of a friend a simple
black-and-white by Sandys, an
early drawing of Dtvoiioti,
**" which is entirely beautiful in
its rendering of the exquisitely
slender hands, charmingly
tender in its whole motif; and
. , in this, as in the latest of all,
he shows himself the thorough
"Winifred" (By permission of Harold Hartley, Esq.) by Frederick sandys artist that he was. All through
the long series of them we can-
not but recognise the power
placed the many elaborate imaginative subjects and with which the artist deals subtly with the transitory
ideal heads that Sandys executed in the same and evanescent expressions of lovely faces—the
medium. Once more let us turn the portfolio, and perfect draughtsmanship of eyes and lips, the Un-
as the pageant of fair women passes before us what faltering surety and vigour of the touch, the de-
loveliness is there, and what power and what variety licate treatment of the hair, so lovingly lingered
in its presentation ! Here is the petulant beauty over, so beautifully drawn in its curves and waves,
of Proud Maisie, and the mystic radiance of Selene; and withal so finely treated as a mass, despite the
anon we see the exquisite contours of Tears and absolute rendering of every strand and coil,
the glorious cascade of the tresses that adorn And it would be futile to insist again upon the
Miranda; while the pallid, voiceless agony of the lofty inspiration of these imaginative works, in
Mater Dolorosa is followed by the terror-stricken which majestic beauty alternates with tender grace,
Cassandra, crying strident prophecies of woe, and tragic power with poetic charm, and emotional
the lonely Persephone is succeeded by another intensity with monumental repose. Suffice it to
drawing as complete and as important, another say that in these drawings, as in the woodcuts and
dream as stately and as perfect, the exquisite Lethe, the oil-paintings, Frederick Sandys reached a level
And so the tale of them grows, and Cleopatra and of sustained and perfect achievement such as few
The Fayre Mayde of Avenel, Portia, and Perdita, (and those only of the greatest) of his compeers
and many another one, bring to us beauty and the have ^attained to, and showed himself possessed of a
16