Studio: international art (39.1907)

English Drawing

for us much which emotion-
ally and visually we know to
be our own. The visual
side of our inheritance is
extended and enriched by
his experience with the
simultaneous quickening of
our natural emotion. One
of the strongest traits of
the English character is a
deep-seated responsiveness
to nature, and from this
there arose in England
the greatest of landscape
schools. The true land-
scape art of England is
homely, emotional; loving
the village and the way to
it by the open plain. And

pencil sketch by john constable, r. a. the English painter has been

(By permission of C. Fairfax Murray, Esq.) ^ surrounded with

the scenes he loves, he has

synthetic and rapid drawing by a master is as always been so fond of the things at his very door,
much the ripe fruit of artistic experience as a that his insularity has formed his genius. He has
finished painting by their author. What an created an art in praise of the country-side which
unconfused and individual view of

nature these masters had arrived at, HHBIHHHIKHHflHHHHHHHHHHMHHHI
even their least important studies show. ;
Almost every day, year after year, the ' "

difficult lessons had been learnt which ' .. V;

result in this perfection. And it is these , „v-'\>.;

difficult days of which the collector is '• > j

sub-consciously aware when he is build- 1 . ' ; v ■<,<

ing his collection. He is reaping a ~"

harvest which he has not sowed, that s., ' >■' • A .*

is, if he collects out of a love for the *V-' *'■ \ ,• *

perfect craft these things exhibit. For,

without a doubt, no one who has had \ v > ''~\ ,!

companionship with the scholarship of

these things can henceforward view ij. - T. ' '~£"'.sC-'

nature in quite the same untrained way ' , -* ' ? CT*-*^ ^ ™ ~ rmjfc .-■T>^,mHH

as previously, though nothing of the "^Cs^ ' $0

great artists' power may pass to them i. v . m^,^:^ Y%f. ' $

as regards the superlative difficulties 'fSr'L ^V^jSraJra*' , Mj f ' -'mm

of actual creation. #^r:-'BmKp'{' :' ■'' ""• -_ .kj

There can be no doubt that familiarity - -'>'. '

with the way of viewing nature, which lllfv^f'
we find brought to several varieties
of perfection in the work of different i

masters, does contribute greatly to our ..; \f» . ■

own delight when we are left with nature, . . , -

and this is especially so when some one • ''' V '<■-, if ' 11 1

master, by virtue of a certain affinity of . »

j pencil sketch by john constable, r a.

temperament, can express eloquently (By permission of C. Fairfax Murray, Esq.)

120