DOI Heft:
No. 203 (February, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Baker, C. H. Collins: The paintings of Prof. Henry Tonks
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20969#0027
Henry Tonks
promise. For all the while in secret he had
fostered an ambition to become a painter, and as
a means of fostering it had put in his evenings at
Westminster School of Art. No method, as it
happened, could have been so successful, since
thus he came under Professor Brown’s notice.
From 1887 Mr. Tonks studied under him, at
night, till 1893, when Professor Brown, becoming
Principal at the Slade School, invited him to come
there too as his assistant. In this way, then,
our artist finally cut himself clear of his medical
attainments and their prospects.
For some sixteen years Mr. Tonks has been at
the Slade, and it would be difficult to exaggerate
the influence he has exercised. His especial gift,
I think, was an impetuous enthusiasm for a beauti-
ful ideal. With it he could make, as he would say,
a student see—see, that is, not only the surface
facts and accidents, or the
incidental ugliness of any
given model, but rather the
high potentialities of every
form, bringing home to the
student not so much how
bad his drawing was as
how much more a Watteau
or a Holbein had seen in
the particular given case.
In short he could pass on
his own zest for the fine
interpretation, and some-
thing of his scientific appre-
ciation of bone-form and
structure. Above all he
did not leave the student
quite discouraged on his
“donkey,” since he man-
aged to leave with him an
ideal. Realising that the
great thing is to fan intelli-
gent enthusiasm, he spared
no trouble to raise a tone
of taste and aspirations.
Guided in all this by the
Principal, whose impec-
cable science and justice
were to the students the
background for his own
impetuous, and sometimes,
I daresay, rapid advances
to new points of view, Mr.
Tonks must have part re-
sponsibility for the striking
record of the Slade.
From 1891 he became an exhibitor in the “New
English ” shows. His first oil, a little and charming
piece full of Walker’s and Millais’delicate refinement,
was hung in 1894. The following year, with The
Chestnut Roasters, he began upon the problem that
still engages him, of painting the effects of firelight.
In those two pictures are the principal motifs ot
all his work in oils : the interpretation of young
womanhood, surprised by us in some wistful
reverie; the intricate subtleties of tone and atmos-
pheric light in interiors; and the mass and texture
and iridescences of silks and stuffs suffused by the
full vibrant light of day, or smouldering in the
shadows of a firelit room. While in the main
finding new inspiration from similar themes, his
colour scheme, execution and tonality have passed
through marked phases.
What is, I think, the most personal and valuable
‘the bird cage”
{In the Collection of His Honour fudge Evans)
BY HENRY TONKS
4
promise. For all the while in secret he had
fostered an ambition to become a painter, and as
a means of fostering it had put in his evenings at
Westminster School of Art. No method, as it
happened, could have been so successful, since
thus he came under Professor Brown’s notice.
From 1887 Mr. Tonks studied under him, at
night, till 1893, when Professor Brown, becoming
Principal at the Slade School, invited him to come
there too as his assistant. In this way, then,
our artist finally cut himself clear of his medical
attainments and their prospects.
For some sixteen years Mr. Tonks has been at
the Slade, and it would be difficult to exaggerate
the influence he has exercised. His especial gift,
I think, was an impetuous enthusiasm for a beauti-
ful ideal. With it he could make, as he would say,
a student see—see, that is, not only the surface
facts and accidents, or the
incidental ugliness of any
given model, but rather the
high potentialities of every
form, bringing home to the
student not so much how
bad his drawing was as
how much more a Watteau
or a Holbein had seen in
the particular given case.
In short he could pass on
his own zest for the fine
interpretation, and some-
thing of his scientific appre-
ciation of bone-form and
structure. Above all he
did not leave the student
quite discouraged on his
“donkey,” since he man-
aged to leave with him an
ideal. Realising that the
great thing is to fan intelli-
gent enthusiasm, he spared
no trouble to raise a tone
of taste and aspirations.
Guided in all this by the
Principal, whose impec-
cable science and justice
were to the students the
background for his own
impetuous, and sometimes,
I daresay, rapid advances
to new points of view, Mr.
Tonks must have part re-
sponsibility for the striking
record of the Slade.
From 1891 he became an exhibitor in the “New
English ” shows. His first oil, a little and charming
piece full of Walker’s and Millais’delicate refinement,
was hung in 1894. The following year, with The
Chestnut Roasters, he began upon the problem that
still engages him, of painting the effects of firelight.
In those two pictures are the principal motifs ot
all his work in oils : the interpretation of young
womanhood, surprised by us in some wistful
reverie; the intricate subtleties of tone and atmos-
pheric light in interiors; and the mass and texture
and iridescences of silks and stuffs suffused by the
full vibrant light of day, or smouldering in the
shadows of a firelit room. While in the main
finding new inspiration from similar themes, his
colour scheme, execution and tonality have passed
through marked phases.
What is, I think, the most personal and valuable
‘the bird cage”
{In the Collection of His Honour fudge Evans)
BY HENRY TONKS
4