DOI Heft:
Nr. 167 (February 1907)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: The paintings of James Charles
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20774#0066
James Charles
little hope of a satisfactory result in the matter of
its reproduction by any black-and-white process.
The artist who is the subject of this article had
a genius for this form of landscape-painting—not
the old-fashioned landscape decoration, but the
modern landscape science, the art of a scientific
age. For is not the vision of the modern artist
tuned to the perception of subtleties, the presence
of which have partly been revealed to him by
science ? But the artist is in pursuit of beauty, as
of old. The record of this pursuit—how well it
is written in the art of James Charles !
The name of James Charles has had ascendency
with artists, and for some while this has been
so : they were quick to recognise how easily
he could do the difficult things. It is unhappy
that death should have removed this remark-
able painter before the public were quite ready
with their homage. For if ever a contemporary
has really found his way into the charmed circle of
art it was he. Wrapped up in his work, struggling
with its problems, he followed mysterious foot-
steps, always watching for beauty’s elusive shape.
An art flowing over from one canvas to another
-— how different from the annual, the profes-
sional effort to make a few pictures as
plausible as their frames ! A certain carelessness
about frames, a dislike of the interruption of
the sending-in day, was natural in the case of
an artist so wholly concerned with Art. One
gets to dislike the frequent use of that word
with the capital A, but the mention of Charles’s
work gives back to it some of its prestige. In
attempting so close an approach to nature as his
work shows, he was bound to lose much of the
surface attractiveness of the very professionally
executed picture with its neat and suave conceits.
The closer intimacy with nature which was
attempted was not endearing him to a public
educated to the preferment of less serious aims.
But it gave him the friendship of the best of his
contemporaries in painting; a friendship which
sustained him when the pursuit of beauty had
carried him beyond the voices of all but the
most discriminating picture-buyers.
The value of Mr. Charles’s work lies in subtle
perception of values and the accompanying mastery
of craft. Such art as this educates the vision.
It is in advance of its time. To-morrow, with
eyes that know more, we shall prize this painting
more than ever. We shall finally abandon our old
ideas. Very beautiful some of our old ideas of land-
scape painting have been ; but Art cannot decline to
use the knowledge which it now has, difficult though
it is at present to find for it the charm of decorative
shape. It is now some time since we were able to
derive complete satisfaction from the old formula
of landscape—so many opaque objects, trees and
cattle, dotted about, interfering with the light of
the sun. We know that the modern landscape-
44
little hope of a satisfactory result in the matter of
its reproduction by any black-and-white process.
The artist who is the subject of this article had
a genius for this form of landscape-painting—not
the old-fashioned landscape decoration, but the
modern landscape science, the art of a scientific
age. For is not the vision of the modern artist
tuned to the perception of subtleties, the presence
of which have partly been revealed to him by
science ? But the artist is in pursuit of beauty, as
of old. The record of this pursuit—how well it
is written in the art of James Charles !
The name of James Charles has had ascendency
with artists, and for some while this has been
so : they were quick to recognise how easily
he could do the difficult things. It is unhappy
that death should have removed this remark-
able painter before the public were quite ready
with their homage. For if ever a contemporary
has really found his way into the charmed circle of
art it was he. Wrapped up in his work, struggling
with its problems, he followed mysterious foot-
steps, always watching for beauty’s elusive shape.
An art flowing over from one canvas to another
-— how different from the annual, the profes-
sional effort to make a few pictures as
plausible as their frames ! A certain carelessness
about frames, a dislike of the interruption of
the sending-in day, was natural in the case of
an artist so wholly concerned with Art. One
gets to dislike the frequent use of that word
with the capital A, but the mention of Charles’s
work gives back to it some of its prestige. In
attempting so close an approach to nature as his
work shows, he was bound to lose much of the
surface attractiveness of the very professionally
executed picture with its neat and suave conceits.
The closer intimacy with nature which was
attempted was not endearing him to a public
educated to the preferment of less serious aims.
But it gave him the friendship of the best of his
contemporaries in painting; a friendship which
sustained him when the pursuit of beauty had
carried him beyond the voices of all but the
most discriminating picture-buyers.
The value of Mr. Charles’s work lies in subtle
perception of values and the accompanying mastery
of craft. Such art as this educates the vision.
It is in advance of its time. To-morrow, with
eyes that know more, we shall prize this painting
more than ever. We shall finally abandon our old
ideas. Very beautiful some of our old ideas of land-
scape painting have been ; but Art cannot decline to
use the knowledge which it now has, difficult though
it is at present to find for it the charm of decorative
shape. It is now some time since we were able to
derive complete satisfaction from the old formula
of landscape—so many opaque objects, trees and
cattle, dotted about, interfering with the light of
the sun. We know that the modern landscape-
44