DOI Heft:
No. 196 (July, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Eddington, A.: William McTaggart, R. S. A., painter of sea and land
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: ''Chosen pictures'' at the Grafton Gallery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0119
“ Chosen Pictures ’’ at the Grafton Gallery
colour. Figures in his landscape are notes in the
colour scheme and are frequently introduced for
no other purpose. In his finest and most impres-
sive work they lack definiteness of form, but it is
rare to see a figure that is out of relation to its
surroundings. They blend with and form an
integral part of the landscape. In many cases one
receives but a suggestion of their presence They
are merely human casuals. A great lover of
McTaggart’s work, who is a well-known Scottish
art connoisseur, was expatiating one day on the
beauties of a McTaggart picture to a friend of mine,
and pausing in his remarks, he stepped nearer to the
canvas and, looking critically at one part,
he said, “ I used to have a wee lassie here,
but I’ve lost her ! ” This observation
characterises in a sentence the elusiveness
of these child figures. They have often
to be searched for, they do not obtrude.
And yet sometimes a foreground will be
seen to be full of them peeping from behind
some boulder or tree stem, and frolic-
some as elves in the sheer joy of living.
How realistically, too, does Mr. McTag-
gart convey the sense of motion, whether
it be that of the clouds scudding across
the sky, the fishing-boat dancing on the
sunlit waves, trees bending to the blast,
the storm-tossed billows of an angry ocean,
the rippling arpeggios on the shore, or
the merry gambols of children at play.
In Consider the Lilies how beautifully the
rhythmic motion of the dancing children
is expressed. One even feels that the
lilies sway their graceful stems in sym-
pathy. In such circumstances to attempt
precise definition would be to portray
the false and produce the petrified results
of a snapshot camera. It is not on such
an artificial basis that Mr. McTaggart has
worked. Nature with him is ever-living,
untrammelled, free. In his desire to be
true to this great conception of nature it
must be admitted that sometimes in later
years Mr. McTaggart has paid too little
regard to form. But to no artist has the
power been given to express himself
fully in all directions, and where Mr.
McTaggart has failed it has been in that
which was of least importance to his art.
Truly may it be said that his motto is
“ Apprenons a subordonner les petits
interets aux grands.”
A. Eddington.
CHOSEN PICTURES” AT THE
GRAFTON GALLERY.
If we had been wishing for an exhi-
bition that would have given us just now the utmost
satisfaction, it would have been of the character of
the “ Chosen Pictures ” recently brought together
at the Grafton Gallery, and our wish would not only
have coincided with its gratification, but with the
peculiar moment for such an exhibition. For
there is a tendency now for the various movements
to draw together, and a burying of hatchets seems
to be in progress on every hand. During the last
PORTRAIT OF MRS. HOWARD BY FRANCIS HOWARD
93
colour. Figures in his landscape are notes in the
colour scheme and are frequently introduced for
no other purpose. In his finest and most impres-
sive work they lack definiteness of form, but it is
rare to see a figure that is out of relation to its
surroundings. They blend with and form an
integral part of the landscape. In many cases one
receives but a suggestion of their presence They
are merely human casuals. A great lover of
McTaggart’s work, who is a well-known Scottish
art connoisseur, was expatiating one day on the
beauties of a McTaggart picture to a friend of mine,
and pausing in his remarks, he stepped nearer to the
canvas and, looking critically at one part,
he said, “ I used to have a wee lassie here,
but I’ve lost her ! ” This observation
characterises in a sentence the elusiveness
of these child figures. They have often
to be searched for, they do not obtrude.
And yet sometimes a foreground will be
seen to be full of them peeping from behind
some boulder or tree stem, and frolic-
some as elves in the sheer joy of living.
How realistically, too, does Mr. McTag-
gart convey the sense of motion, whether
it be that of the clouds scudding across
the sky, the fishing-boat dancing on the
sunlit waves, trees bending to the blast,
the storm-tossed billows of an angry ocean,
the rippling arpeggios on the shore, or
the merry gambols of children at play.
In Consider the Lilies how beautifully the
rhythmic motion of the dancing children
is expressed. One even feels that the
lilies sway their graceful stems in sym-
pathy. In such circumstances to attempt
precise definition would be to portray
the false and produce the petrified results
of a snapshot camera. It is not on such
an artificial basis that Mr. McTaggart has
worked. Nature with him is ever-living,
untrammelled, free. In his desire to be
true to this great conception of nature it
must be admitted that sometimes in later
years Mr. McTaggart has paid too little
regard to form. But to no artist has the
power been given to express himself
fully in all directions, and where Mr.
McTaggart has failed it has been in that
which was of least importance to his art.
Truly may it be said that his motto is
“ Apprenons a subordonner les petits
interets aux grands.”
A. Eddington.
CHOSEN PICTURES” AT THE
GRAFTON GALLERY.
If we had been wishing for an exhi-
bition that would have given us just now the utmost
satisfaction, it would have been of the character of
the “ Chosen Pictures ” recently brought together
at the Grafton Gallery, and our wish would not only
have coincided with its gratification, but with the
peculiar moment for such an exhibition. For
there is a tendency now for the various movements
to draw together, and a burying of hatchets seems
to be in progress on every hand. During the last
PORTRAIT OF MRS. HOWARD BY FRANCIS HOWARD
93