DOI Heft:
No. 166 (January, 1907)
DOI Artikel:Singer, Hans Wolfgang: On some of Mr. Joseph Pennell's recent etchings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20716#0337
Mr. Joseph PenneWs Recent Etchings
comer of New York, has an artistic truth to tell:
and every time the point of view is chosen so as to
bring this artistic raison d'etre to the fore with
happy emphasis. Perhaps the best of all, in this
respect, is The Four-Storey House; whether con-
sciously or by artistic instinct, the little house
has been placed upon the plate in a most won-
derful manner, so as to make the impressiveness
of its surroundings appear. It looks to be as well
thought out as a composition of Fra Bartolommeo's ;
and if it is not, this would only prove that the
artist's talent allows him to hit upon things which
other people have to ponder over.
Another feature, which is little less than over-
whelming, is Mr. Pennell's sheer inexhaustiveness
in the matter of formal inventiveness. Imagine
that you were told to draw a building with rows
and rows of windows, one as like the others as
one egg is to another. It seems an impossible
task, and see what Mr. Pennell has made of it:
there is no repetition, no wearisome formula, which
is made to serve for the multitude of cases. In
each instance some new form is invented; a few
scratches of the point, always novel, though the
thing to be suggested in every case is the same
sort of rectangular opening in the wall.
The same splendid characteristics seem to me
to distinguish the newest London set, which, in
addition, is most delightfully variegated as to
subjects. Many a beholder, who passes day after
day at these identical corners and streets, will
have never thought of the possibility of turning
such commonplace subjects into pictures. Over
and above the surprise he will feel at this having
been done after all, he will soon experience delight
at the way how it has been done ; and he cannot
help admiring how the artist not only saw some-
thing worth commemorating in these prima vistas,
most unpromising themes, but also found at a
glance the characteristic feature which allowed
of artistic amplification. Look, for instance, at
the Hampton Court from the Park; the charac-
teristic note of this bit of nature lies in the strong
contrast between the dark, heavy foliage of the
trees and the lightness of the architecture;
thrown in a flood of light, as it is, the building
appears like filigree work. All this is accentuated,
as it were, in the etching, and thus, here again,
" HAMPTON COURT FROM THE PARK "
FROM AN ORIGINAL ETCHING BY JOSEPH PENNELL
317
comer of New York, has an artistic truth to tell:
and every time the point of view is chosen so as to
bring this artistic raison d'etre to the fore with
happy emphasis. Perhaps the best of all, in this
respect, is The Four-Storey House; whether con-
sciously or by artistic instinct, the little house
has been placed upon the plate in a most won-
derful manner, so as to make the impressiveness
of its surroundings appear. It looks to be as well
thought out as a composition of Fra Bartolommeo's ;
and if it is not, this would only prove that the
artist's talent allows him to hit upon things which
other people have to ponder over.
Another feature, which is little less than over-
whelming, is Mr. Pennell's sheer inexhaustiveness
in the matter of formal inventiveness. Imagine
that you were told to draw a building with rows
and rows of windows, one as like the others as
one egg is to another. It seems an impossible
task, and see what Mr. Pennell has made of it:
there is no repetition, no wearisome formula, which
is made to serve for the multitude of cases. In
each instance some new form is invented; a few
scratches of the point, always novel, though the
thing to be suggested in every case is the same
sort of rectangular opening in the wall.
The same splendid characteristics seem to me
to distinguish the newest London set, which, in
addition, is most delightfully variegated as to
subjects. Many a beholder, who passes day after
day at these identical corners and streets, will
have never thought of the possibility of turning
such commonplace subjects into pictures. Over
and above the surprise he will feel at this having
been done after all, he will soon experience delight
at the way how it has been done ; and he cannot
help admiring how the artist not only saw some-
thing worth commemorating in these prima vistas,
most unpromising themes, but also found at a
glance the characteristic feature which allowed
of artistic amplification. Look, for instance, at
the Hampton Court from the Park; the charac-
teristic note of this bit of nature lies in the strong
contrast between the dark, heavy foliage of the
trees and the lightness of the architecture;
thrown in a flood of light, as it is, the building
appears like filigree work. All this is accentuated,
as it were, in the etching, and thus, here again,
" HAMPTON COURT FROM THE PARK "
FROM AN ORIGINAL ETCHING BY JOSEPH PENNELL
317