DOI Heft:
No. 204 (March, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of Mr. Albert Goodwin, R. W. S.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20969#0109
Albert Goodwin, R.JV.S.
work from beginning to end; it affects him in
his choice of motives, it affects him equally in his
manner of dealing with them. It makes him
respond to suggestions which impress him rather
by their possibilities of transcription than by their
fitness for exact representation, and it induces him
to colour all his transcriptions of nature with that
particular sentiment to which he is instinctively
inclined.
This sentiment may be simple or complex, it
may be dramatic, decorative, delicately poetic or
vigorously romantic, it may be gentle or robust, it
may vary greatly with the variation in the artist’s
moods, and it may change in character under the
influence of new impressions. But in all its
phases, if it is the product of a temperament that
is strong and independent, it will be definitely
personal and always to be recognised as part of
the character of the man who is making assertion
of his artistic convictions. At its worst, this sen-
timent may lapse into a convention, into the
repetition of certain tricks of expression, and into
a monotonous harping upon a few notes; at its
best, however, it will become a great guiding
principle in an art that iscommandingly persuasive
and unfailingly convincing because it is strong,
certain, and, above all, original both in conception
and execution.
Of all the painters who have worked consistently
under the domination of a sentiment the greatest
beyond doubt is Turner. No other man ever had
his power of exact vision, his capacity to represent
nature exactly as she is ; and yet no other man
ever approached him in the ability to translate
what he saw into something entirely personal.
Whatever he touched he glorified by investing it
with a sentiment nobly dignified and exquisitely
refined, and by transmuting things obvious and
commonplace into jewels of inestimable value. In
everything he painted he seized unhesitatingly upon
the opportunities which the subject afforded for
the expression of his own aesthetic feeling, and he
used its possibilities with infinite resource. Selec-
tion in his case meant the choice of a motive
“BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE” (WATER-COLOUR)
{In the possession of Miss McGhee)
BY ALBERT GOODWIN, R.W.S.
86
work from beginning to end; it affects him in
his choice of motives, it affects him equally in his
manner of dealing with them. It makes him
respond to suggestions which impress him rather
by their possibilities of transcription than by their
fitness for exact representation, and it induces him
to colour all his transcriptions of nature with that
particular sentiment to which he is instinctively
inclined.
This sentiment may be simple or complex, it
may be dramatic, decorative, delicately poetic or
vigorously romantic, it may be gentle or robust, it
may vary greatly with the variation in the artist’s
moods, and it may change in character under the
influence of new impressions. But in all its
phases, if it is the product of a temperament that
is strong and independent, it will be definitely
personal and always to be recognised as part of
the character of the man who is making assertion
of his artistic convictions. At its worst, this sen-
timent may lapse into a convention, into the
repetition of certain tricks of expression, and into
a monotonous harping upon a few notes; at its
best, however, it will become a great guiding
principle in an art that iscommandingly persuasive
and unfailingly convincing because it is strong,
certain, and, above all, original both in conception
and execution.
Of all the painters who have worked consistently
under the domination of a sentiment the greatest
beyond doubt is Turner. No other man ever had
his power of exact vision, his capacity to represent
nature exactly as she is ; and yet no other man
ever approached him in the ability to translate
what he saw into something entirely personal.
Whatever he touched he glorified by investing it
with a sentiment nobly dignified and exquisitely
refined, and by transmuting things obvious and
commonplace into jewels of inestimable value. In
everything he painted he seized unhesitatingly upon
the opportunities which the subject afforded for
the expression of his own aesthetic feeling, and he
used its possibilities with infinite resource. Selec-
tion in his case meant the choice of a motive
“BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE” (WATER-COLOUR)
{In the possession of Miss McGhee)
BY ALBERT GOODWIN, R.W.S.
86