DOI Heft:
Nr. 192 (March 1909)
DOI Artikel:Some new sculpture by Alfred Drury, A. R. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20966#0127
ATew Sculpture by Alfred Drury, A.R.A.
SCULPTURED PANELS OVER MAIN ENTRANCE TO VICTORIA
of form and the importance of avoiding that rigidity
of composition and excessive formality of arrange-
ment which can be reckoned among the chief
faults of the sculpture which was a few years back
commonly associated with architecture; and he
has an infallible instinct for choosing the right
middle course between too severe reticence and
over-emphatic assertion. Restraint there is, un-
doubtedly, in everything he does, but it is the
restraint of an artist who knows exactly how to
keep his work in right relation to its surroundings
without stripping it of its individuality.
In these panels he had to deal with a problem
of some complexity. Their object is to be not
only decorative but in some sort didactic as well
■—to set forth with due insistence a saying of
Sir Joshua Reynolds which has been appro-
priately chosen as the motto to be inscribed over
the doors of the museum—and in treating them
he was necessarily obliged to make the words of
this motto definitely prominent in the design. He
had, too, to keep a strict congruity between the
successive panels, but at the same time to avoid
monotonous repetition of forms; and always he
had to remember the architectural aim of his
reliefs and to resist every temptation to make them
pictorially effective. That he has overcome these
difficulties, and that in overcoming them he has
shown himself to be possessed of notable discre-
AND ALBERT MUSEUM BY ALFRED DRURY, A.R.A.
tion and sound taste, cannot be questioned; but
he can also be said to have found in this com-
mission an opportunity for the display of artistic
intelligence of the highest order. The occasion
was one which might well inspire an artist to make
a special effort—he was required to put himself per-
manently in evidence at the very entrance to a
national institution in which the best examples of
the art of the world are gathered together—but all
men do not possess the power to rise to a great
occasion. That Mr. Drury, having his opportunity,
has turned it to such admirable account, and has
justified so decisively his reputation as a sculptor
of brilliant ability, is clear proof of his tempera-
mental qualifications for the exacting profession in
which he has made such marked success. He is
a thinker as well as a worker, a man who can
respond to the inspiration of the right moment,
and who can by the manner of his response
impress others with the strengih of his conviction.
Mr. W. Goscombe John, A.R.A., sculptor, and
Mr. John Belcher, A.R.A., architect, were last
month elected full members of the Royal Academy,
in succession to Mr. Alfred Gilbert, resigned, and
Mr. R. W. Macbeth, retired. On the same occa-
sion Mr. Bertram Mackennal, sculptor, was elected
Associate, and M. J. P. Laurens, the distinguished
French painter, was made Honorary R.A.
105
SCULPTURED PANELS OVER MAIN ENTRANCE TO VICTORIA
of form and the importance of avoiding that rigidity
of composition and excessive formality of arrange-
ment which can be reckoned among the chief
faults of the sculpture which was a few years back
commonly associated with architecture; and he
has an infallible instinct for choosing the right
middle course between too severe reticence and
over-emphatic assertion. Restraint there is, un-
doubtedly, in everything he does, but it is the
restraint of an artist who knows exactly how to
keep his work in right relation to its surroundings
without stripping it of its individuality.
In these panels he had to deal with a problem
of some complexity. Their object is to be not
only decorative but in some sort didactic as well
■—to set forth with due insistence a saying of
Sir Joshua Reynolds which has been appro-
priately chosen as the motto to be inscribed over
the doors of the museum—and in treating them
he was necessarily obliged to make the words of
this motto definitely prominent in the design. He
had, too, to keep a strict congruity between the
successive panels, but at the same time to avoid
monotonous repetition of forms; and always he
had to remember the architectural aim of his
reliefs and to resist every temptation to make them
pictorially effective. That he has overcome these
difficulties, and that in overcoming them he has
shown himself to be possessed of notable discre-
AND ALBERT MUSEUM BY ALFRED DRURY, A.R.A.
tion and sound taste, cannot be questioned; but
he can also be said to have found in this com-
mission an opportunity for the display of artistic
intelligence of the highest order. The occasion
was one which might well inspire an artist to make
a special effort—he was required to put himself per-
manently in evidence at the very entrance to a
national institution in which the best examples of
the art of the world are gathered together—but all
men do not possess the power to rise to a great
occasion. That Mr. Drury, having his opportunity,
has turned it to such admirable account, and has
justified so decisively his reputation as a sculptor
of brilliant ability, is clear proof of his tempera-
mental qualifications for the exacting profession in
which he has made such marked success. He is
a thinker as well as a worker, a man who can
respond to the inspiration of the right moment,
and who can by the manner of his response
impress others with the strengih of his conviction.
Mr. W. Goscombe John, A.R.A., sculptor, and
Mr. John Belcher, A.R.A., architect, were last
month elected full members of the Royal Academy,
in succession to Mr. Alfred Gilbert, resigned, and
Mr. R. W. Macbeth, retired. On the same occa-
sion Mr. Bertram Mackennal, sculptor, was elected
Associate, and M. J. P. Laurens, the distinguished
French painter, was made Honorary R.A.
105