DOI Heft:
No. 200 (November, 200)
DOI Artikel:Macklin, Alys Eyre: Alfred Gilbert at Bruges: by Alys Eyre Macklin
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0128
A If red Gilbert
FONT IN MEMORY OF THE
MARQUIS OF BATH'S SONS
BY ALFRED GILBERT
{Photo: Hollyer)
every handful of clay or plaster, so
that when finished, the great figure,
conceived in his brain, built up with
the sweat of his body, informed
with the mysterious living Some-
thing which every inspired artist in-
corporates in his work, is as much
his production as the new-born
child is flesh of its mother's flesh.
It has been regretted by art
lovers who know these character-
istics, and know also that com-
paratively little of importance has
106
left his hands these last few years, that some of his discarded
beginnings cannot be handed on and completed by other artists.
Looking round the studio—the sculptor momentarily oblivious
of you as he tenderly folds the cloths round a statuette—this
regret becomes intelligible, and knowing the chances are that, for
one reason or another, some of the beautiful studies, and much
more advanced work too, will never see completion, you are
tempted to echo it. But, to return to the simile already used,
as well ask the mother to bring forth her offspring before it is
ready to face the world as Gilbert to part with what does not
in some degree satisfy him. In him you have the highest ex-
pression of the artist for whom his work stands first and alone,
and no consideration of any description, moral or material, can
interfere with what he believes to be his " duty to art," or touch
his obstinate will to achieve. For though in the forehead and
upper part of the head much resembling Beethoven, and the
piercing blue eyes are those of one whose chief vision, keen as the
outer is, remains the inner one of the seer of visions, the dreamer
of dreams, the man has the jaw of the pugilist. If this unusual
complexity blends into a whole that suggests the naval man
PART OF SCREEN ROUND THE CLARENCE TOMB AT WINDSOR
{Photo: Hollyer) BY ALFRED GILBERT
FONT IN MEMORY OF THE
MARQUIS OF BATH'S SONS
BY ALFRED GILBERT
{Photo: Hollyer)
every handful of clay or plaster, so
that when finished, the great figure,
conceived in his brain, built up with
the sweat of his body, informed
with the mysterious living Some-
thing which every inspired artist in-
corporates in his work, is as much
his production as the new-born
child is flesh of its mother's flesh.
It has been regretted by art
lovers who know these character-
istics, and know also that com-
paratively little of importance has
106
left his hands these last few years, that some of his discarded
beginnings cannot be handed on and completed by other artists.
Looking round the studio—the sculptor momentarily oblivious
of you as he tenderly folds the cloths round a statuette—this
regret becomes intelligible, and knowing the chances are that, for
one reason or another, some of the beautiful studies, and much
more advanced work too, will never see completion, you are
tempted to echo it. But, to return to the simile already used,
as well ask the mother to bring forth her offspring before it is
ready to face the world as Gilbert to part with what does not
in some degree satisfy him. In him you have the highest ex-
pression of the artist for whom his work stands first and alone,
and no consideration of any description, moral or material, can
interfere with what he believes to be his " duty to art," or touch
his obstinate will to achieve. For though in the forehead and
upper part of the head much resembling Beethoven, and the
piercing blue eyes are those of one whose chief vision, keen as the
outer is, remains the inner one of the seer of visions, the dreamer
of dreams, the man has the jaw of the pugilist. If this unusual
complexity blends into a whole that suggests the naval man
PART OF SCREEN ROUND THE CLARENCE TOMB AT WINDSOR
{Photo: Hollyer) BY ALFRED GILBERT