DOI Heft:
No. 201 (December, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Bayes, Walter: The landscape paintings of James Aumonier, R. I.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0197
James Aumonier, R.I.
HE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS
OF JAMES AUMONIER, R.I.
BY WALTER BAYES.
A friendship between two families persisting
now into the second generation makes it so
■difficult to assume the position of complete
impartiality proper to a critic that I propose in
writing of Mr. Aumonier to discuss not so much
the stature as the build of the man, and to give
within a necessarily narrow compass some idea of
the qualities I find in his work. And this not
of course for the benefit of painters, for each of
the several factions which respectively claim at
the present day a monopoly of artistic merit will
be found to have a certain respect for his work,
but as a hint for the conscientious layman
for whom painting, and landscape painting in
particular, is often a sore puzzle.
Mr. Aumonier's development would seem to
have run on somewhat traditional lines. That is
to say, he passed through a period of careful
study, from which he emerged gradually into a
freer manner. His first attempts at painting were
self-taught. I have seen actually the first picture
he ever did—an oil-painting of primitive character,
done from an engraving with paints supplied by
the village carriage painter, and it has consider-
able decorative quality, and is in admirable con-
dition in spite of the fact that more than one of
the pigments used are such as chemists frown
upon. His earlier manhood was spent in doing
designs for calico-printing, his spare time only
being available for painting, and this continued
to be the case until the American War, by
its bad effect on the cotton industry, made it
possible for the wily designer to offer (apparently
as a kindness to his employer) to put himself on
''half-time." The offer was gratefully accepted,
and the designer never went back, for, in the
first place, he had acquired great facility in
producing the realistic floral designs (then the
sole fashion in cotton printing), and could turn
out as many as were wanted in a short space of
time ; and, in the second place, he had even while
at work as a designer begun to establish for himself
a position as a painter. Without friends among
London artists, he went, as everyone did in those
days, to " Heatherley's" to study, and it was a
landscape shown there which brought him an
invitation from Mr. Wyllie (the father of Mr. W. L.
Wyllie and Mr. Charles Wyllie) to bring round to
HE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS
OF JAMES AUMONIER, R.I.
BY WALTER BAYES.
A friendship between two families persisting
now into the second generation makes it so
■difficult to assume the position of complete
impartiality proper to a critic that I propose in
writing of Mr. Aumonier to discuss not so much
the stature as the build of the man, and to give
within a necessarily narrow compass some idea of
the qualities I find in his work. And this not
of course for the benefit of painters, for each of
the several factions which respectively claim at
the present day a monopoly of artistic merit will
be found to have a certain respect for his work,
but as a hint for the conscientious layman
for whom painting, and landscape painting in
particular, is often a sore puzzle.
Mr. Aumonier's development would seem to
have run on somewhat traditional lines. That is
to say, he passed through a period of careful
study, from which he emerged gradually into a
freer manner. His first attempts at painting were
self-taught. I have seen actually the first picture
he ever did—an oil-painting of primitive character,
done from an engraving with paints supplied by
the village carriage painter, and it has consider-
able decorative quality, and is in admirable con-
dition in spite of the fact that more than one of
the pigments used are such as chemists frown
upon. His earlier manhood was spent in doing
designs for calico-printing, his spare time only
being available for painting, and this continued
to be the case until the American War, by
its bad effect on the cotton industry, made it
possible for the wily designer to offer (apparently
as a kindness to his employer) to put himself on
''half-time." The offer was gratefully accepted,
and the designer never went back, for, in the
first place, he had acquired great facility in
producing the realistic floral designs (then the
sole fashion in cotton printing), and could turn
out as many as were wanted in a short space of
time ; and, in the second place, he had even while
at work as a designer begun to establish for himself
a position as a painter. Without friends among
London artists, he went, as everyone did in those
days, to " Heatherley's" to study, and it was a
landscape shown there which brought him an
invitation from Mr. Wyllie (the father of Mr. W. L.
Wyllie and Mr. Charles Wyllie) to bring round to