DOI Artikel:
Macfall, Haldane: Joseph Simpson: Caricaturist
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0042
A Caricaturist
CAFE DU LAPIN AGILE, RUE ST. VINCENT
AND RUE DES SAULES
been cheered by the praise of fellow-artists, and,
above all, by the encouragement of D. Y. Cameron,
the well-known etcher and painter. But his day is
coming. He can touch nothing without bringing
to it beauty and distinction, whether it be the
designing the cover of a book or the arranging of
its very type, as more than one Edinburgh publisher
knows to his advantage; whether it be the making
of a trade poster, or even the designing of a whiskey
label or the cover for the
lid of a box; for he has
had to win to artistry
at such levels as these,
beautifying even such
things in the doing.
What this man may do
when he is free to give full
scope to the powers that lie
latent within him —hidden,
mayhap, even from himself
—it is difficult to foretell;
but what he can do in the
realm of caricature, you
may even now judge from
the superb character-draw-
ing in the Alaxim Gorky,
which is the finest portrait
of the Russian upon which
I have so far set eyes. The
artist seems to have fore-
seen, with the uncanny
24
vision that is called second-
sight, the wild tangle and
the violent adventure which
have suddenly spun their
dangerous web about this
leonine personality — dan-
gers which make him stand
out one of the strongest
men in Russia at this
hour of Russia’s mighty
travail. It were as
though some seer of old
spake prophecy. To such
a work of art as this it is
almost an irreverence to
tie the tag of caricature.
And if you shall turn from
this to the so-different
personality of Max Beer-
bohvt, you may see with
what facility the artist’s skill
of statement skips to the
dainty and whimsical por-
trayal of the exquisite and elegant dandy—to
whose witty accomplishment his own hand
owes so much. Surely as deft and charming
a statement of his subject as one could well
desire ! To “ Max ” and James Pryde and
Beardsley and the Japanese the artist frankly owes
his schooling and his mastery in no small degree.
But whether we turn from the dandified line of his
Max to the aggressiveness of his G. B. S., or the
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY CLIVE HOLLAND
INTERIOR OF CABARET
DES QUATZ’ ARTS
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
BY CLIVE HOLLAND
CAFE DU LAPIN AGILE, RUE ST. VINCENT
AND RUE DES SAULES
been cheered by the praise of fellow-artists, and,
above all, by the encouragement of D. Y. Cameron,
the well-known etcher and painter. But his day is
coming. He can touch nothing without bringing
to it beauty and distinction, whether it be the
designing the cover of a book or the arranging of
its very type, as more than one Edinburgh publisher
knows to his advantage; whether it be the making
of a trade poster, or even the designing of a whiskey
label or the cover for the
lid of a box; for he has
had to win to artistry
at such levels as these,
beautifying even such
things in the doing.
What this man may do
when he is free to give full
scope to the powers that lie
latent within him —hidden,
mayhap, even from himself
—it is difficult to foretell;
but what he can do in the
realm of caricature, you
may even now judge from
the superb character-draw-
ing in the Alaxim Gorky,
which is the finest portrait
of the Russian upon which
I have so far set eyes. The
artist seems to have fore-
seen, with the uncanny
24
vision that is called second-
sight, the wild tangle and
the violent adventure which
have suddenly spun their
dangerous web about this
leonine personality — dan-
gers which make him stand
out one of the strongest
men in Russia at this
hour of Russia’s mighty
travail. It were as
though some seer of old
spake prophecy. To such
a work of art as this it is
almost an irreverence to
tie the tag of caricature.
And if you shall turn from
this to the so-different
personality of Max Beer-
bohvt, you may see with
what facility the artist’s skill
of statement skips to the
dainty and whimsical por-
trayal of the exquisite and elegant dandy—to
whose witty accomplishment his own hand
owes so much. Surely as deft and charming
a statement of his subject as one could well
desire ! To “ Max ” and James Pryde and
Beardsley and the Japanese the artist frankly owes
his schooling and his mastery in no small degree.
But whether we turn from the dandified line of his
Max to the aggressiveness of his G. B. S., or the
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY CLIVE HOLLAND
INTERIOR OF CABARET
DES QUATZ’ ARTS
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
BY CLIVE HOLLAND