DOI issue:
No. 166 (January, 1907)
DOI article:Wood, T. Martin: Drawings and sketches by modern masters
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20716#0359
Drawings and Sketches by Moaern Masters
from the exaggerations of a later period. The Whistler's art, for Leighton was one of those
drawing of the head and the head-dress, the mass- designers who arrange a tableau couiting a sub-
ing of the hair, all display that sense of beauty jective beauty. Whistler, for his subject, looked
and feeling for balance and proportion which were out of the window or into the room. Leighton
instinctive with him. The face is a portrait of his arranged something. Modern English art owes
wife. The hands hold one of those curious instru- much to Prof. Legros, who has guarded, as far as
ments which Rossetti delighted to invent. in him lay, the traditions of the scholarship of
It is strange to contrast this artist's indwelling drawing; his work forms a link with the purer
mind with that of Whistler, his contemporary and aims of earlier art. In this mission he has several
friend. The little drawings which we give by disciples, amongst them Mr. C. H. Shannon,
Whistler are typical of his butterfly manner of though that artist in his lithographs and drawings
approaching Art, of moving in it lightly from one sometimes seems to waver between enjoyment of
flower to another, arrested here and there by a Nature and the pedantry of conscious Art. What
revelation of beauty—of a mind finding rest in pur- at first seems like affectation in his work, proves
suit, and escaping from one mood to another with in the end not to be so. We can detect many
ease. And this is more apparent in his drawings influences without finding the insincerity of imita-
and lithographs perhaps than in his paintings, tion. The past of Art is a stimulant to him, for
where he returns so often to the motif of the river. its influence upon him is imaginative, affecting
Rossetti rarely drew with any seriousness the life him only less than Nature.
and people that accident arranged around him; the Our illustrations include a profile study by Mr.
notable exception to this is his famous sketch of L. Alma-Tadema, R.A., of purity and delicacy of
Tennyson reading "Maud." But Whistler
always desired to give expression to his
subtly observant mind. It is said that a
sheet of white paper could not be left
beside him but his fingers longed to
decorate it with pictures of people and
things in the room. Excepting the pastel
supplement, the drawings of his which
we reproduce came into existence on
a sheet of note paper in this sponta-
neous way. The direction which his
work took in his drawings, his etchings,
and lithographs, this responsiveness to
the outward and changing aspect of
things, foreshadowed itself early in the
sketches with which as a military pupil
he embroidered maps and plans before
he entered that antagonistic world of art
with battle plans of a more recondite
kind than those required in any army.
In the drawing by M. Rodin which
we reproduce, the objectiveness, the
roundness of the human form, as we
should expect in the drawings of a sculp-
tor, are keenly felt. Rodin's drawing
suggests something which is tangibly
present, not, as in Whistler's case, some-
thing which for the moment's enjoyment
he let his eyes rest upon. The trace of
classicism in the Rodin drawing serves
to introduce too the name of Leighton,
whose work may indeed serve as a symbol
, . . PORTRAIT STUDY BY PROFESSOR A. LEGROS
Of all that IS the very antithesis of (By permission of Hugh Lane, Esq.)
339
from the exaggerations of a later period. The Whistler's art, for Leighton was one of those
drawing of the head and the head-dress, the mass- designers who arrange a tableau couiting a sub-
ing of the hair, all display that sense of beauty jective beauty. Whistler, for his subject, looked
and feeling for balance and proportion which were out of the window or into the room. Leighton
instinctive with him. The face is a portrait of his arranged something. Modern English art owes
wife. The hands hold one of those curious instru- much to Prof. Legros, who has guarded, as far as
ments which Rossetti delighted to invent. in him lay, the traditions of the scholarship of
It is strange to contrast this artist's indwelling drawing; his work forms a link with the purer
mind with that of Whistler, his contemporary and aims of earlier art. In this mission he has several
friend. The little drawings which we give by disciples, amongst them Mr. C. H. Shannon,
Whistler are typical of his butterfly manner of though that artist in his lithographs and drawings
approaching Art, of moving in it lightly from one sometimes seems to waver between enjoyment of
flower to another, arrested here and there by a Nature and the pedantry of conscious Art. What
revelation of beauty—of a mind finding rest in pur- at first seems like affectation in his work, proves
suit, and escaping from one mood to another with in the end not to be so. We can detect many
ease. And this is more apparent in his drawings influences without finding the insincerity of imita-
and lithographs perhaps than in his paintings, tion. The past of Art is a stimulant to him, for
where he returns so often to the motif of the river. its influence upon him is imaginative, affecting
Rossetti rarely drew with any seriousness the life him only less than Nature.
and people that accident arranged around him; the Our illustrations include a profile study by Mr.
notable exception to this is his famous sketch of L. Alma-Tadema, R.A., of purity and delicacy of
Tennyson reading "Maud." But Whistler
always desired to give expression to his
subtly observant mind. It is said that a
sheet of white paper could not be left
beside him but his fingers longed to
decorate it with pictures of people and
things in the room. Excepting the pastel
supplement, the drawings of his which
we reproduce came into existence on
a sheet of note paper in this sponta-
neous way. The direction which his
work took in his drawings, his etchings,
and lithographs, this responsiveness to
the outward and changing aspect of
things, foreshadowed itself early in the
sketches with which as a military pupil
he embroidered maps and plans before
he entered that antagonistic world of art
with battle plans of a more recondite
kind than those required in any army.
In the drawing by M. Rodin which
we reproduce, the objectiveness, the
roundness of the human form, as we
should expect in the drawings of a sculp-
tor, are keenly felt. Rodin's drawing
suggests something which is tangibly
present, not, as in Whistler's case, some-
thing which for the moment's enjoyment
he let his eyes rest upon. The trace of
classicism in the Rodin drawing serves
to introduce too the name of Leighton,
whose work may indeed serve as a symbol
, . . PORTRAIT STUDY BY PROFESSOR A. LEGROS
Of all that IS the very antithesis of (By permission of Hugh Lane, Esq.)
339