DOI Heft:
Nr. 188 (November 1908)
DOI Artikel:Bate, Percy H.: The paintings of William Mouncey, of Kirkcudbright
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20965#0122
William Mouncey of Kirkcudbright
accepted with modesty the reputation which came
to him—a reputation that accrued to him as the
result of good work done, and not as the con-
sequence of the enthusiasm of indiscriminating
patrons or the subtle machinations of the log-
roller.
It has been said that Mouncey was self-taught.
It should also be added that he was quite impatient
of the irksomeness of routine teaching ; and that it
was as a matter of preference that he chose to experi-
ment, to develop along the lines he found possible to
himself, and to evolve, as far as he could, the methods
necessary for the attainment he desired. Whether,
if he had pursued a regular course of study in his
earlier years, he might have succeeded in doing more
than he did, is, of course, an insoluble question.
Certainly the handling that he adopted was large
and free—the rich impasto of brush work, the
use of the palette knife to place pigment on canvas,
even a squirt of pure colour from the tube, any-
thing was legitimate in his eyes so long as the
result he sought was obtained. But sometimes his
handling became meaningless, and smudge and
splash were more evident than skilled use of pig-
ment ; sometimes his inspiration failed him, and
then, ever a severe critic of his own work, he
would sacrifice the whole or any portion of a picture
that failed to please him, saving may be but a half
of the original work. And his massive use of paint,
effective and legitimate on large canvases, was out
of scale in his smaller works ; which, considered
simply as sketches, are fine and free, but which fail
to satisfy when criticised as completed pictures,
because the subject is overwhelmed by a dispropor-
tionate and insistent use of pigment.
The keynotes of Mouncey’s colour were mellow-
ness, sobriety and harmony. For a time the
brilliancy of tint that marked one phase of the art
of his fellow-townsman, Mr. Hornel, appealed to
him ; but this was really alien to his own ideals,
and he reverted to a palette that, while limited,
was both rich and delicate — a palette in
which golden and tawny hues were predominant.
Towards the end of his life, he used a fuller range
“landscape near tongueland”
BY WILLIAM MOUNCEY
TOO
accepted with modesty the reputation which came
to him—a reputation that accrued to him as the
result of good work done, and not as the con-
sequence of the enthusiasm of indiscriminating
patrons or the subtle machinations of the log-
roller.
It has been said that Mouncey was self-taught.
It should also be added that he was quite impatient
of the irksomeness of routine teaching ; and that it
was as a matter of preference that he chose to experi-
ment, to develop along the lines he found possible to
himself, and to evolve, as far as he could, the methods
necessary for the attainment he desired. Whether,
if he had pursued a regular course of study in his
earlier years, he might have succeeded in doing more
than he did, is, of course, an insoluble question.
Certainly the handling that he adopted was large
and free—the rich impasto of brush work, the
use of the palette knife to place pigment on canvas,
even a squirt of pure colour from the tube, any-
thing was legitimate in his eyes so long as the
result he sought was obtained. But sometimes his
handling became meaningless, and smudge and
splash were more evident than skilled use of pig-
ment ; sometimes his inspiration failed him, and
then, ever a severe critic of his own work, he
would sacrifice the whole or any portion of a picture
that failed to please him, saving may be but a half
of the original work. And his massive use of paint,
effective and legitimate on large canvases, was out
of scale in his smaller works ; which, considered
simply as sketches, are fine and free, but which fail
to satisfy when criticised as completed pictures,
because the subject is overwhelmed by a dispropor-
tionate and insistent use of pigment.
The keynotes of Mouncey’s colour were mellow-
ness, sobriety and harmony. For a time the
brilliancy of tint that marked one phase of the art
of his fellow-townsman, Mr. Hornel, appealed to
him ; but this was really alien to his own ideals,
and he reverted to a palette that, while limited,
was both rich and delicate — a palette in
which golden and tawny hues were predominant.
Towards the end of his life, he used a fuller range
“landscape near tongueland”
BY WILLIAM MOUNCEY
TOO