Studio: international art (37.1906)

Alfred Drury, A.R.A.

scale like the Leeds lamp standards, and vast
groups of sculpture destined to occupy prominent
positions in buildings the architectural importance
of which has made necessary the provision of
special ornamental features. In the decorative
direction he has found ample occupation for his
rare faculties as a designer and for his exceptional
skill in dealing with sculptured ornament that has
to take its right place in association with architec-
ture. He has an admirably correct instinct for
what is needed to make the alliance between the
sculptor and the architect of advantage to both,
and to the recognition of this instinct has been due
the steady and still increasing demand for his
services. Moreover, he is known to have an expert
knowledge of the way in which different materials
should be handled—his early insight into the
somewhat complicated technicalities of terra-cotta
modelling, for instance, has been of great value to
him—and the architect naturally feels confidence
in the sculptor who can vary his methods to meet
particular exigencies.

Quite a long time has elapsed since he produced
his first notable effort in architectural sculpture, a
set of terra-cotta spandrils with figures in high relief
for the front of a coach-builder's establishment in
the Hammersmith Road, and it is some eight years
since he executed the much-praised series of
allegorical terminal figures, representing The
Months, for the terrace of a garden in the West
of England. More recently he has done much
more work of the same type, and always with the
happiest combination of sterling originality and
dignified taste. Ferfunctoriness or careless con-
cession to stock conventions have never marred his
achievement; there is nothing in the series of his
decorative essays which his admirers could regret
or condemn as unworthy of him. Even when the
work in hand may have seemed comparatively
unimportant he has kept consistently to a really
high standard, and has done his best with what
other men, less capable or less conscientious, might
have despised as indifferent opportunities. Now
he is reaping his reward for all his devotion to the
higher principles of his art, for he has gained a real
mastery over the vital essentials of the branch of
decoration in which he finds his best chances, and
when he is confronted with a great possibility he
does not fail to profit by it to the utmost.

Nothing shows this better than the series of
colossal groups of figures which he has just com-
pleted for the new War Office building in Whitehall.
Here, indeed, he has had an opportunity that
would have been hailed with enthusiasm by one of

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the great mediaeval sculptors, an opportunity which
would induce the man with a high sense of respon-
sibility to put forth his fullest energies to attain a
monumental result that future generations would
acclaim as the achievement of a master. Mr. Drury,
as might have been expected, has risen to the
occasion and has gone further than he ever has
before both in thought and practice. He has,
with a discretion that cannot be too heartily com-
mended, avoided the merely obvious without falling
into the mistake of being too abstruse in his
symbolism. The figures tell their story frankly

STUDY FOR HEAD OF ]iV ALFRED DRURY

ST. GEORGE (WAR MEMORIAL,
CLIFTON COLLEGE)