Studio: international art (48.1910)

Country Cottages and their Gardens

beauty. The sun has gone, and with him the S—OUNTRY COTTAGES AND
pomp and splendour of the day: and Nature with f THEIR GARDENS. ILLUS-

a sigh of regret is turning her chastened gaze y j TRATED BY C. E. MALLOWS,
towards the milder splendours of the queen of
night. Everything is enveloped in a tender after- There is a small village in the West of England
glow : there are no strong contrasts of tone. The where the old indigenous cottage building has
mystery and charm is one of colour only : hence almost entirely disappeared. It has been replaced
its attraction for our artist. at different times by types varying in interest from

In the treatment of foam, Mr. Olsson holds, as I those of later Georgian days to those bearing the
have already indicated, a foremost place. Many Victorian stamp. Though little of the earlier
men have given us truthful renderings of breaking work remains to leaven the uninteresting and often
waves, but few have had the courage or the know- offensive accretions of later times, the loss in this
ledge to treat, except as a mere sketch, that respect has in large measure been compensated for
fretwork of wrinkled foam, into which the churned- by the cottage gardens, so thoughtfully and plea-
up water has been lashed by the force of the santly have they been planned and tended. Even
advancing and receding waves, as they hurl them- the village inn, an uninteresting building in itself,
selves on sand and shingle, or chase each other is made quite attractive by its long straight stone-
over the harbour bar. The endless forms of the flagged approach, bordered on each side with broad
multitudinous ripples and eddies, the endless curves bands of high old-fashioned flowers. This fore-
with their endless intersections, overlappings, rushes ground is so pleasant, that the dull building at the
and rebounds, must of necessity baffle all but the
keenest and most ardent of observers. For although
by certain tricks and dexterity of handling some
resemblance may be obtained, the most accurate
drawing is necessary to give the sense of power
and ceaseless motion which we find in all Mr.
Olsson's seascapes. And this ability has been
acquired by him through many years of constant
and loving observation and study.

The sea cannot be painted as can the com-
ponent parts of a landscape. It is impossible to
set up a canvas and imitate bit by bit. Not for
one single second does any portion of the sea
remain in the same position, or under the same
effect of light. It is therefore only by an infinite
number of mental and sketch-book notes that an
accurate knowledge is obtained. For twenty years
Mr. Olsson has been taking these notes and storing
them in his mind; not only from the rocky shores
of Cornwall where he lives, and where the Atlantic
rollers come thundering after their three thousand
miles of unimpeded progress from distant Labrador,
but also from the deck of his yacht, in which he
has been in the habit of cruising summer after
summer. He knows the coast from the Scillies to
the Isle of Wight as well as most men know their
way to the nearest railway station. It is this
consuming passion that has made him what he is—
in many ways our greatest sea-painter. He thinks

in waves and storm-clouds, in rainbows and driving ' *-.t^^tf j3PC?£fi&'

mist. He knows where the wind is, what the tide * . ' ^*^t>~^j ';

is doing and the age of the moon as well as any
pilot, and he uses this knowledge as only a great
artist can. A. G. F. S.

A HOLIDAY COTTAGE IN MONMOUTHSHIRE, ADAPTED FROM
AN OLD CIDER MILL BY C. E. MALLOWS, F.R.I.B.A.

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