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#0230
Alexander Roche, R.S.A.
equally well-known Idyll of the Grafton Gallery
of 1892, which was bought by Sir George Reid,
P.R.S.A., for the collection of the permanent
gallery at Adelaide, New South Wales.
The year 1892 called him back to the sea, and
gave us his Fishers, bought by Dr. Bode for the
National Gallery at Berlin.
An event of high significance to his art was his
journey to Madrid, where he steeped himself in
the atmosphere of Velasquez ; and his study of the
master was not only of benefit to his own crafts-
manship, but has made Alexander Roche one of
the highest living authorities upon the works of the
great Spaniard.
In 1894, the artist's thirty-first year, Alexander
Roche had established his reputation. His painting,
The Clyde, went by special invitation to the important
exhibition of 1894 at Boston, to hang side by side
with the foremost Frenchmen of the great era —
Corot, Millet, and Daubigny; whilst, of the living
men, only Whistler and Sargent were of the com-
pany.
He now settled to that painting of the portraits
of ladies which has shown him to be such a master
of his craft. To 1896 belongs his famous Lady
Reid, the following year seeing him awarded the
gold medal at Dresden for his La?idscape. In 1898
he painted his charming Peggy, bought for the per-
manent gallery at Pittsburg: the United States
thus taking from us the first of those fine pictures
of young womanhood which have shown Roche's
mastery in the painting of the exquisite bloom
that so enhances the beauty of that alluring age
of womanhood which holds what the French call
" the devil's beauty." Olivia followed, with The
Looking Glass and Chioe; whilst The Windmv
Seat, that charming picture of girls seated in a
riverside window, painted in 1895, won the medal
at Pittsburg in 1899—an honour that rewarded a
work in which the great freedom and mastery of
FRAGMENT OF FRESCO: "THE FINDING OF THE RING"
(Copyright owned by the Glasgow Corporation)
BY ALEXANDER ROCHE
equally well-known Idyll of the Grafton Gallery
of 1892, which was bought by Sir George Reid,
P.R.S.A., for the collection of the permanent
gallery at Adelaide, New South Wales.
The year 1892 called him back to the sea, and
gave us his Fishers, bought by Dr. Bode for the
National Gallery at Berlin.
An event of high significance to his art was his
journey to Madrid, where he steeped himself in
the atmosphere of Velasquez ; and his study of the
master was not only of benefit to his own crafts-
manship, but has made Alexander Roche one of
the highest living authorities upon the works of the
great Spaniard.
In 1894, the artist's thirty-first year, Alexander
Roche had established his reputation. His painting,
The Clyde, went by special invitation to the important
exhibition of 1894 at Boston, to hang side by side
with the foremost Frenchmen of the great era —
Corot, Millet, and Daubigny; whilst, of the living
men, only Whistler and Sargent were of the com-
pany.
He now settled to that painting of the portraits
of ladies which has shown him to be such a master
of his craft. To 1896 belongs his famous Lady
Reid, the following year seeing him awarded the
gold medal at Dresden for his La?idscape. In 1898
he painted his charming Peggy, bought for the per-
manent gallery at Pittsburg: the United States
thus taking from us the first of those fine pictures
of young womanhood which have shown Roche's
mastery in the painting of the exquisite bloom
that so enhances the beauty of that alluring age
of womanhood which holds what the French call
" the devil's beauty." Olivia followed, with The
Looking Glass and Chioe; whilst The Windmv
Seat, that charming picture of girls seated in a
riverside window, painted in 1895, won the medal
at Pittsburg in 1899—an honour that rewarded a
work in which the great freedom and mastery of
FRAGMENT OF FRESCO: "THE FINDING OF THE RING"
(Copyright owned by the Glasgow Corporation)
BY ALEXANDER ROCHE