DOI issue:
No. 160 (July, 1906)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: A romanticist painter: J. L. Pickering
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0119
/. L. Pickering, Painter
is determined absolutely by the degree of recep-
tivity and imaginative capacity with which he is
endowed.
It is because it shows throughout the influence
of a strong and well defined individuality both in
selection and treatment of subject that the work
of Mr. J. L. Pickering claims more than ordinary
consideration. Not many modern artists prove so
definitely how much temperament has to do with
the quality of a picture, and how intimately con-
nected are the mental tendencies of the painter
with the practical side of his art. In everything
Mr. Pickering does there is evident a very clear
intention to realise those aspects of nature that
satisfy best his personal preferences ; and there is
equally evident a desire to give to his landscapes
an atmosphere which will suggest the way in which
these preferences have guided him in his choice of
material. What impresses him most strongly is
the more rugged type of picturesqueness in which
there is a note of natural tragedy. He seeks it in
places where nature makes no attempt to veil her
sternness and primitive ferocity, and he regards it
in a spirit of romanticism that is wholly appro-
priate. One of the greatest merits of his art is its
entire absence of affectation; romantic as it is it
never becomes either theatrical or artificial and it
never goes beyond the limits which are prescribed
by sound and scholarly taste.
Herein can be found the secret of the impres-
siveness of Mr. Pickering’s canvases. With the
imaginative inclinations of the romanticist and the
sensitiveness of the poet he combines a certain
analytical capacity which is strong enough to
restrain him from giving way to the bombastic
exaggeration that has been the fault of many other
painters of such subjects as he affects. This
analytical capacity is not so fully developed that
it causes him to suppress his emotions, and it is
certainly not so active an ingredient in his
character as his love of sentiment. But it serves
admirably to keep him from straying in directions
where there would be a danger of his doing a
little more than would be necessary to express his
convictions adequately. After his emotions have
been deeply stirred, after nature has made upon the
poetic side of him a vivid and startling impression
his calmer judgment comes into play and helps him
to choose just what is most convincing in his sub-
ject and best fitted to convey its real meaning.
is determined absolutely by the degree of recep-
tivity and imaginative capacity with which he is
endowed.
It is because it shows throughout the influence
of a strong and well defined individuality both in
selection and treatment of subject that the work
of Mr. J. L. Pickering claims more than ordinary
consideration. Not many modern artists prove so
definitely how much temperament has to do with
the quality of a picture, and how intimately con-
nected are the mental tendencies of the painter
with the practical side of his art. In everything
Mr. Pickering does there is evident a very clear
intention to realise those aspects of nature that
satisfy best his personal preferences ; and there is
equally evident a desire to give to his landscapes
an atmosphere which will suggest the way in which
these preferences have guided him in his choice of
material. What impresses him most strongly is
the more rugged type of picturesqueness in which
there is a note of natural tragedy. He seeks it in
places where nature makes no attempt to veil her
sternness and primitive ferocity, and he regards it
in a spirit of romanticism that is wholly appro-
priate. One of the greatest merits of his art is its
entire absence of affectation; romantic as it is it
never becomes either theatrical or artificial and it
never goes beyond the limits which are prescribed
by sound and scholarly taste.
Herein can be found the secret of the impres-
siveness of Mr. Pickering’s canvases. With the
imaginative inclinations of the romanticist and the
sensitiveness of the poet he combines a certain
analytical capacity which is strong enough to
restrain him from giving way to the bombastic
exaggeration that has been the fault of many other
painters of such subjects as he affects. This
analytical capacity is not so fully developed that
it causes him to suppress his emotions, and it is
certainly not so active an ingredient in his
character as his love of sentiment. But it serves
admirably to keep him from straying in directions
where there would be a danger of his doing a
little more than would be necessary to express his
convictions adequately. After his emotions have
been deeply stirred, after nature has made upon the
poetic side of him a vivid and startling impression
his calmer judgment comes into play and helps him
to choose just what is most convincing in his sub-
ject and best fitted to convey its real meaning.