DOI issue:
No. 157 (April, 1906)
DOI article:Macfall, Haldane: The art of Alexander Roche, R.S.A.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20714#0228
Alexander Roche, R.S.A.
its artistic achievement. To Macgregor is due the
vigorous effort which was the breath of the move-
ment—the striving for new and individual expres-
sion. The movement passed through the stage of
bitter assault and clumsy battery, and came out
triumphant; and to Alexander Roche is due no
small part of that triumph.
The young men of the eighties strove hard to
win their battle. And with them Alexander Roche
won success after success. Gradually the old
school of " niggle" and elaborate detail fell to
pieces, and the younger men opened the eyes of
picture-lovers to their finer performance.
From the new aims Alexander Roche never
turned back. His first large picture on his return
from Paris—a group of children learning their
lessons on a bench outside the school — was
painted thoroughly and well; and his Tete-a-tete,
painted at the end of the eighties, was awarded the
gold medal at Munich.
Then came a yachting cruise along the west
coast of Scotland, which drew Roche's eyes to
those fine paintings of the sea and of life upon
the sea that have done almost as much to bring
him fame and distinction as his portraits of young
womanhood. He has a very rare power of painting
salt-water and the lights that play upon the shifting
ocean; of stating the character of the sea, the motion
and swing of the waters, the heaving movement of
the craft that ride upon the billows, and the sug-
gestion of wind.
His marine piece, The Clyde or The Squall on
the Clyde, opened the nineties well for him with
an honourable mention at the Paris Salon, and,
what must have been a particular pleasure to him,
its purchase by Gaston La Touche, the eminent
French artist.
The fascination of Italy next called to him, and
he settled for awhile amongst the Sabine Hills, and
painted Italian peasants. The vivid colour of Italy
and of her people found hot response in Roche's
colour faculty, and tested it to its utmost pitch.
On his return from Italy he painted that twilight
picture of A Scottish Town which was bought by
the great German painter Liebermann; then came
the strong work known as A Landscape, and his
'the sailing of the boat"
208
( Copyright reserved)
by alexander roche
its artistic achievement. To Macgregor is due the
vigorous effort which was the breath of the move-
ment—the striving for new and individual expres-
sion. The movement passed through the stage of
bitter assault and clumsy battery, and came out
triumphant; and to Alexander Roche is due no
small part of that triumph.
The young men of the eighties strove hard to
win their battle. And with them Alexander Roche
won success after success. Gradually the old
school of " niggle" and elaborate detail fell to
pieces, and the younger men opened the eyes of
picture-lovers to their finer performance.
From the new aims Alexander Roche never
turned back. His first large picture on his return
from Paris—a group of children learning their
lessons on a bench outside the school — was
painted thoroughly and well; and his Tete-a-tete,
painted at the end of the eighties, was awarded the
gold medal at Munich.
Then came a yachting cruise along the west
coast of Scotland, which drew Roche's eyes to
those fine paintings of the sea and of life upon
the sea that have done almost as much to bring
him fame and distinction as his portraits of young
womanhood. He has a very rare power of painting
salt-water and the lights that play upon the shifting
ocean; of stating the character of the sea, the motion
and swing of the waters, the heaving movement of
the craft that ride upon the billows, and the sug-
gestion of wind.
His marine piece, The Clyde or The Squall on
the Clyde, opened the nineties well for him with
an honourable mention at the Paris Salon, and,
what must have been a particular pleasure to him,
its purchase by Gaston La Touche, the eminent
French artist.
The fascination of Italy next called to him, and
he settled for awhile amongst the Sabine Hills, and
painted Italian peasants. The vivid colour of Italy
and of her people found hot response in Roche's
colour faculty, and tested it to its utmost pitch.
On his return from Italy he painted that twilight
picture of A Scottish Town which was bought by
the great German painter Liebermann; then came
the strong work known as A Landscape, and his
'the sailing of the boat"
208
( Copyright reserved)
by alexander roche