DOI Heft:
Nr. 192 (March 1909)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: Robert W. Allan's recent paintings and drawings
DOI Artikel:Some new sculpture by Alfred Drury, A. R. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20966#0122
New Sculpture by Alfred Drury, A R. A,
“seaward bound” (oil) ( The property of the Liverpool Corporation) BY Robert w. Allan, r. w.s.
unusual alertness of vision. It is the vision which
accounts for successful colour, it is the vision that
accounts for everything in the canvas; but how
many painters fight against the restraining in-
fluence of things seen just as they are, and push
their art ever further and further towards mere
effectiveness of handling, effectiveness in its
cheaper sense, the sense in which it is theatrical,
the arrangement and invention of one who in his
canvas has lost touch with the element of truth
from which he started, who has gone beyond the
close knowledge of nature without which all inven-
tion of colour and composition is but an unreal
display !
I was greatly impressed by a picture of Mr.
Allan’s early days which I lately saw—The Funeral
of Carlyle. This impressive canvas should surely
find its way to the national collection. Something
of the solitariness of Carlyle’s spirit is conveyed in
this picture of the humble procession, and the
painter who painted it showed how well he could
experience the atmosphere of solemnity and sorrow
pervading the scene. Other atmospheres he has
entered with the same susceptibility in his art. Is
it not the same sense in him which has enabled
him to convey the emotional element in the return
to port of some lonely fishing boats leaving behind
them long stretches of grey sea? T. M. W.
OME NEW SCULPTURE BY
ALFRED DRURY, A.R.A.
The improvement which has become
evident during recent years in the quality of
architectural sculpture can certainly be counted
as due in some measure to an advance in the
public taste. People are not so easily satisfied
as they were not much more than a quarter of a
century ago with the common-places of the stone-
mason, with mere journeyman work neither decora-
tively interesting nor architecturally significant;
they want something now which has an appreciable
degree of artistic importance to justify its existence.
It is recognised that the ornamental features of a
building of any pretensions must be made the
subject of special study, and must be dealt with
seriously by an artist who is capable of treating
them wflth judicious originality and correct under-
standing of the purpose which these adornments
have to fulfil. There is growing up a healthy
tendency to ridicule ornament that is bad in
itself or misplaced on the building to which it
is supposed to give the finishing touches; and
this tendency is to be welcomed, because it
helps on the development of a sound style in
decorative sculpture and encourages the more
efficient artists to make the most of the oppor-
ioo
“seaward bound” (oil) ( The property of the Liverpool Corporation) BY Robert w. Allan, r. w.s.
unusual alertness of vision. It is the vision which
accounts for successful colour, it is the vision that
accounts for everything in the canvas; but how
many painters fight against the restraining in-
fluence of things seen just as they are, and push
their art ever further and further towards mere
effectiveness of handling, effectiveness in its
cheaper sense, the sense in which it is theatrical,
the arrangement and invention of one who in his
canvas has lost touch with the element of truth
from which he started, who has gone beyond the
close knowledge of nature without which all inven-
tion of colour and composition is but an unreal
display !
I was greatly impressed by a picture of Mr.
Allan’s early days which I lately saw—The Funeral
of Carlyle. This impressive canvas should surely
find its way to the national collection. Something
of the solitariness of Carlyle’s spirit is conveyed in
this picture of the humble procession, and the
painter who painted it showed how well he could
experience the atmosphere of solemnity and sorrow
pervading the scene. Other atmospheres he has
entered with the same susceptibility in his art. Is
it not the same sense in him which has enabled
him to convey the emotional element in the return
to port of some lonely fishing boats leaving behind
them long stretches of grey sea? T. M. W.
OME NEW SCULPTURE BY
ALFRED DRURY, A.R.A.
The improvement which has become
evident during recent years in the quality of
architectural sculpture can certainly be counted
as due in some measure to an advance in the
public taste. People are not so easily satisfied
as they were not much more than a quarter of a
century ago with the common-places of the stone-
mason, with mere journeyman work neither decora-
tively interesting nor architecturally significant;
they want something now which has an appreciable
degree of artistic importance to justify its existence.
It is recognised that the ornamental features of a
building of any pretensions must be made the
subject of special study, and must be dealt with
seriously by an artist who is capable of treating
them wflth judicious originality and correct under-
standing of the purpose which these adornments
have to fulfil. There is growing up a healthy
tendency to ridicule ornament that is bad in
itself or misplaced on the building to which it
is supposed to give the finishing touches; and
this tendency is to be welcomed, because it
helps on the development of a sound style in
decorative sculpture and encourages the more
efficient artists to make the most of the oppor-
ioo