Studio: international art (48.1910)

Sketch Book of Norman I. Black

LEAVES FROM THE SKETCH During a subsequent sojourn in Paris he studied
BOOK OF NORMAN IRVING under such eminent masters as Lefebvre, J. P.
BLACK Laurens and Robert Fleury.

The sketches selected for reproduction are but a
It is always a pleasure to us to bring to the few from a large number executed by Mr. Black
notice of our readers the work of talented young during his tours in Europe, but they are sufficient
artists, especially if that work carries with it to show that besides being a facile and sensitive
evidence of an individual outlook and promise of draughtsman, he has a good grasp of the funda-
future progress. The art school is too often the mental principles which govern the medium he
beginning and ending of a youthful artist's ambi- works in. In his pen drawings especially he has
tions, and many a time the triumph of the class- been careful to avoid those extremes of over-
room, the gaining of a medal, a diploma, or perhaps elaboration and understatement which differentiate
a studentship, has turned out to be the prelude to the efforts of the inexperienced from the productions
a career barren of anything beyond common-place of the draughtsman who has mastered the secrets
achievement. We should be sorry to think this of successful line work ; and what he has done
is the rule, but if it is, there are fortunately so far augurs well for his future achievements,
many exceptions, and not a
few artists could be named in
whose careers the honours

gained at school have been . j

no more than stepping-stones ^ J

to far greater successes earned

in later life. .

The young draughtsman of J
whose work with the lead . p,

pencil and pen we give some a ml\

examples in the sketches re- fBHU
produced on this and the
succeeding pages can look

back Upon a particularly bril- ■ kfflmimli*?.

liant school career. Entering ■■fer/MFf
the Eric Pape School at fc» |

Boston, Massachusetts, in jmB^T'ull ".i^bII^I

1903, at the age of twenty, he tSr^W/Sttft--^BKr

quickly distinguished himself, flK ' '^'/Mjp. l\rBplsf

and by the time his training Wfc i|E ? ?lr jfli

at that institution came to an Bil'ts^ iff

end, in 1906, he had received, JhBmk£*$ '

in addition to various minor B^Rr Wir'i'" "^JUw

prizes, a silver medal and a wtlilfc^r^f' ^ -*f! 1

bronze medal, the one for 1; 1|as^ W,j//-<5|"j**r k§ jja';/

drawing from the life, and ) ■ ^^^^K^^K^^''^^ 1 ^ "V

the other for lead pencil draw- - ^"■'*^flHjH»if'~j^3lmWrtsSf7' ^pBffg^ 1 . Mfe^N^ ™':.
ing. Wisely recognising that ■ :^^r^^j^^^^^V^^»^b^^'t %y ]| Av „.

the artist's education is never l^m'/jmmi ~ "^^P^^HliB^fflP if wv-/l^~*'~
ended, he set off to Europe, J -j^tjys. /j

making first of all a tour of " ,„, l^^-*^^ [IflMlBfcL

Great Britain, in the course "" "!^*^-^^i^^^Kr^^^5!L*f'^*'-:<''-*:"''

of which he executed a series ^ yf^S«t/1'\

of drawings of the Oxford *— ~ *" «M«ijS^-*Tg?>;

colleges, and then proceeding -—v. *"^*- ^S-^p^x-

to Paris, where he joined the _

Julian Academy, and qualified

for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. " dutch children " (lead-pencil drawing), by norman irving black
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