DOI Heft:
Nr. 191 (February 1909)
DOI Artikel:Folliott Stokes, A. G.: Mr. Algernon Talmage's London pictures
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20966#0046
Mr. Algernon Talmage s London Pictures
found by those who have eyes to see the pathos
of St. Petersburg, the gaiety of Paris, the solid
splendour of Berlin, the graceful aloofness of
Vienna, and even the radiant raggedness of Naples
in the soft rays of the electric light. Is any city
more beautiful than London at night, when the
wet streets and pavements are reflecting a thousand
rainbow hues ? or on a fine Spring morning, when
the parks are in their fresh green robes, and great
cumulus clouds rise like guardian angels above its
domes and towers ? Both these moods are favourite
ones with our artist.
It was about eighteen months ago that Mr. Tal-
mage first came to London to work. He had been
painting a picture in Picardy of an avenue near the
sleepy Somme that was on the line in the Academy
during the following Spring. On his way to the
west of England he stayed for a few days near
Trafalgar Square, The appeal of his country’s
capital was irresistible. He left Cornwall and came
to London. The few pictures here reproduced
represent but a small portion of the result of these
eighteen months’ continual labour. This can be
seen at the Goupil Gallery, where Mr. Talmage is
having a “one man’s show.” The exhibition is
well called “ London from dawn to midnight,” for
almost every hour of the twenty-four has been
rendered. The colour schemes are very varied.
Mr. Talmage feels that a transcript, however faithful,
in which everything is not made to contribute to a
definite colour scheme, is apt to lack distinction.
It was a big undertaking, this sudden tackling of
the turmoil of the Metropolis after the quiet beauty
and comparatively unchanging features of the
country. Especially, as from the first he avoided
those quiet corners and deserted streets which can
be interpreted in almost the same spirit and by
much the same methods as a pastoral landscape,
in which direction he had already achieved con-
siderable success. It was the great soul of
London, as I have already indicated, that he
wanted to capture—the teeming life of her streets
with all its confused colour and movement, the
dignity of her buildings, the subtle effects of her
atmosphere, the silent glory of her dawns, the vivid
beauty of her nights. Fleeting moments every one
of them, punctuated by some happy combination of
effect and incident. A ray of sunshine, the open-
ing of a theatre’s doors, the smoky turmoil of a great
terminus, or the dignified fapade of some ancient
fane touched to glory by a regnant moon, or a
beam from a setting sun. And always there is the
kaleidoscopic pageant of form and colour, the
ceaseless traffic of the street. Motor omnibuses,
“the hero’s guards’ (Copyright of the Fine Arts Publishing Co., Ltd.) BY ALGERNON TALMAGE
24
found by those who have eyes to see the pathos
of St. Petersburg, the gaiety of Paris, the solid
splendour of Berlin, the graceful aloofness of
Vienna, and even the radiant raggedness of Naples
in the soft rays of the electric light. Is any city
more beautiful than London at night, when the
wet streets and pavements are reflecting a thousand
rainbow hues ? or on a fine Spring morning, when
the parks are in their fresh green robes, and great
cumulus clouds rise like guardian angels above its
domes and towers ? Both these moods are favourite
ones with our artist.
It was about eighteen months ago that Mr. Tal-
mage first came to London to work. He had been
painting a picture in Picardy of an avenue near the
sleepy Somme that was on the line in the Academy
during the following Spring. On his way to the
west of England he stayed for a few days near
Trafalgar Square, The appeal of his country’s
capital was irresistible. He left Cornwall and came
to London. The few pictures here reproduced
represent but a small portion of the result of these
eighteen months’ continual labour. This can be
seen at the Goupil Gallery, where Mr. Talmage is
having a “one man’s show.” The exhibition is
well called “ London from dawn to midnight,” for
almost every hour of the twenty-four has been
rendered. The colour schemes are very varied.
Mr. Talmage feels that a transcript, however faithful,
in which everything is not made to contribute to a
definite colour scheme, is apt to lack distinction.
It was a big undertaking, this sudden tackling of
the turmoil of the Metropolis after the quiet beauty
and comparatively unchanging features of the
country. Especially, as from the first he avoided
those quiet corners and deserted streets which can
be interpreted in almost the same spirit and by
much the same methods as a pastoral landscape,
in which direction he had already achieved con-
siderable success. It was the great soul of
London, as I have already indicated, that he
wanted to capture—the teeming life of her streets
with all its confused colour and movement, the
dignity of her buildings, the subtle effects of her
atmosphere, the silent glory of her dawns, the vivid
beauty of her nights. Fleeting moments every one
of them, punctuated by some happy combination of
effect and incident. A ray of sunshine, the open-
ing of a theatre’s doors, the smoky turmoil of a great
terminus, or the dignified fapade of some ancient
fane touched to glory by a regnant moon, or a
beam from a setting sun. And always there is the
kaleidoscopic pageant of form and colour, the
ceaseless traffic of the street. Motor omnibuses,
“the hero’s guards’ (Copyright of the Fine Arts Publishing Co., Ltd.) BY ALGERNON TALMAGE
24