DOI Heft:
No. 202 (January, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Hind, Charles Lewis: Charles Ricketts: a commentary on his activities
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0282
Charles
Ricketts
from the moment he sat down to dinner to the his fingers, turning it, fondling it, examining it in
moment he settled himself at his writing-desk at different lights, one of the small bronzes he
eleven p.m. Indeed, so good and copious and delights to make — the Salome in the lap oj
suggestive is Mr. Ricketts' talk, that I proposed to Herodias. "Ha!" I cried, "so modelling is the
cast this essay in the form of a " real conversa- favourite child—eh ? If you were cast upon a
tion." I tried to memorise a recent conversation desert island, you would seek not gold or
—a conversation do I call it ? Conversation it diamonds, but clay !"
was, if it be conversation for one of the parties to Here, it would be proper to interpolate three or
deliver a monologue, rapid, gesticulatory, discur- four pages of his answer, but if talks are long,
sive, and the other to fire in an occasional question magazine space is short. I gathered that in the
artfully designed to elicit opinions. But I do not hierarchy of the arts he places design first from
feel equal to reporting that conversation, which which all the others should spring—design that
began with doubts about the new Delacroix at the was the root of the knowledge of Michelangelo
National Gallery and ended with dithyrambs about as of Donatello, of Giotto, of Mantegna : design,
music; there were too many "mind this is between whether it be the vault of the Sistine Chapel or
ourselves," too many flights of eloquence, that the a chair for a dining-room in a " little place at
pedestrian pen cannot attempt to overtake. One Tooting."
must be outrageously personal in talking to a man I have spoken of Mr. Ricketts as modeller, not
with a view to gathering material for an article as sculptor, for sculpture seems to denote some-
upon him. Naturally I used the expression "your thing larger than the little bronzes which it is his
diabolical versatility," and naturally he objected to delight to fashion. The penalty of producing
the phrase vehemently.
I mentioned that in the
great days of the Renais-
sance, the artist was an
all-round man, and that
painting was but one, and
not always the most im-
portant, of his methods of
self-expression. " If you
are versatile, you are ver-
satile," I said, "why con-
ceal it? I have known
you for some years, and
I have encountered you
as painter, modeller, illus-
trator, designer of stage
scenery, writer, editor,
connoisseur and collector
—now if you were cast
upon a desert island or
ordered to take a rest
cure for six months in the
Chiltern Hills, upon which
of your present pursuits
would your mind most
fondly dwell?" He
answered the question
promptly. Mr. Ricketts
always has an answer, but
there was no need to
make this answer in words,
for he held on his knee,
caressing the surface with "christ before the people" by charles ricketts
260
Ricketts
from the moment he sat down to dinner to the his fingers, turning it, fondling it, examining it in
moment he settled himself at his writing-desk at different lights, one of the small bronzes he
eleven p.m. Indeed, so good and copious and delights to make — the Salome in the lap oj
suggestive is Mr. Ricketts' talk, that I proposed to Herodias. "Ha!" I cried, "so modelling is the
cast this essay in the form of a " real conversa- favourite child—eh ? If you were cast upon a
tion." I tried to memorise a recent conversation desert island, you would seek not gold or
—a conversation do I call it ? Conversation it diamonds, but clay !"
was, if it be conversation for one of the parties to Here, it would be proper to interpolate three or
deliver a monologue, rapid, gesticulatory, discur- four pages of his answer, but if talks are long,
sive, and the other to fire in an occasional question magazine space is short. I gathered that in the
artfully designed to elicit opinions. But I do not hierarchy of the arts he places design first from
feel equal to reporting that conversation, which which all the others should spring—design that
began with doubts about the new Delacroix at the was the root of the knowledge of Michelangelo
National Gallery and ended with dithyrambs about as of Donatello, of Giotto, of Mantegna : design,
music; there were too many "mind this is between whether it be the vault of the Sistine Chapel or
ourselves," too many flights of eloquence, that the a chair for a dining-room in a " little place at
pedestrian pen cannot attempt to overtake. One Tooting."
must be outrageously personal in talking to a man I have spoken of Mr. Ricketts as modeller, not
with a view to gathering material for an article as sculptor, for sculpture seems to denote some-
upon him. Naturally I used the expression "your thing larger than the little bronzes which it is his
diabolical versatility," and naturally he objected to delight to fashion. The penalty of producing
the phrase vehemently.
I mentioned that in the
great days of the Renais-
sance, the artist was an
all-round man, and that
painting was but one, and
not always the most im-
portant, of his methods of
self-expression. " If you
are versatile, you are ver-
satile," I said, "why con-
ceal it? I have known
you for some years, and
I have encountered you
as painter, modeller, illus-
trator, designer of stage
scenery, writer, editor,
connoisseur and collector
—now if you were cast
upon a desert island or
ordered to take a rest
cure for six months in the
Chiltern Hills, upon which
of your present pursuits
would your mind most
fondly dwell?" He
answered the question
promptly. Mr. Ricketts
always has an answer, but
there was no need to
make this answer in words,
for he held on his knee,
caressing the surface with "christ before the people" by charles ricketts
260