DOI issue:
No. 204 (March, 1910)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of Mr. Albert Goodwin, R. W. S.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20969#0117
Albert Goodwin, R.IV.S.
ingenuity of design and no deliberate assertion of
a dramatic purpose, but it has amply the charm of
nature’s restfulness and peace. In each of these
it is her mood and her sentiment that the artist has
felt and adopted, and it is the influence she has
exercised over his temperament that gives character
and significance to his work.
So with all the other paintings which have been
selected for reproduction, each one has its plain
intention and its evident sentiment, quite apart
from any interest it may possess as a study of a
locality. The Tower of London, Motit St. Michel,
Boston, Lincobishire, and Venice—a Sunset, are
merely the unnecessary names—or, at all events,
necessary only for purposes of identification—
given to translations of nature which owe the whole
of their importance to the use the artist has made
of the suggestions she has laid before
him. The Torre dell’ Annunziata,
Ccistellammare, Appledore and Thu?i
are fascinating essentially because
their motives have been susceptible
of decorative adaptation and have
impressed the artist by their possi-
bilities of conversion into rhythmical
designs. Even the Canterbury, with
its greater need of topographical
exactness, has not been denied its
due measure of personal interpreta-
tion. In them all, indeed, it is not
the subject that has dominated
Mr. Goodwin, but Mr. Goodwin
who has controlled the subject, and
has made it temperamentally and
artistically what he pleased — or
rather what he, as a lover and
student of nature, believed to be
most surely in keeping with her
spirit and most strictly in con-
formity to her intention.
There is the whole secret of his
great success as an artist—he loves
nature and studies her unceasingly.
He sees that to be a servile copyist
of concrete facts would be actually
disrespectful to her, because it
would signify a feeble understand-
ing of her ways and at best a half-
hearted appreciation of her teaching.
She shows him how the literal reali-
ties can be changed in aspect by
the witchery of atmosphere, the illu-
sion of lighting, and the tenderness
or the majesty of aerial colour; she
lets him see how she can vary inimitably her own
creations, and present them to him under ever-
changing conditions. To remain blind to such
lessons would imply on his part a strange want
of sensitiveness or a quite indefensible belief that
he knew better than his teacher, and certainly
he neither lacks the power to respond to inspiring
impressions nor is he oppressed by any conceit
about his capacity to do without nature’s guidance.
He can be exact enough when the occasion arises,
as his beautifully precise and careful pencil draw-
ings prove, but he can at the right moment be as
elusive as nature herself and as adaptable to the
demands made upon him. Therefore, amazingly
prolific artist as he is and markedly individual as
his technical methods always are, he has been able
to avoid entirely that tendency to get stereotyped
A PAGE FROM MR. ALBERT GOODWIN’S SKETCH-BOOK
(By permission of the Fine Art Society)
94
ingenuity of design and no deliberate assertion of
a dramatic purpose, but it has amply the charm of
nature’s restfulness and peace. In each of these
it is her mood and her sentiment that the artist has
felt and adopted, and it is the influence she has
exercised over his temperament that gives character
and significance to his work.
So with all the other paintings which have been
selected for reproduction, each one has its plain
intention and its evident sentiment, quite apart
from any interest it may possess as a study of a
locality. The Tower of London, Motit St. Michel,
Boston, Lincobishire, and Venice—a Sunset, are
merely the unnecessary names—or, at all events,
necessary only for purposes of identification—
given to translations of nature which owe the whole
of their importance to the use the artist has made
of the suggestions she has laid before
him. The Torre dell’ Annunziata,
Ccistellammare, Appledore and Thu?i
are fascinating essentially because
their motives have been susceptible
of decorative adaptation and have
impressed the artist by their possi-
bilities of conversion into rhythmical
designs. Even the Canterbury, with
its greater need of topographical
exactness, has not been denied its
due measure of personal interpreta-
tion. In them all, indeed, it is not
the subject that has dominated
Mr. Goodwin, but Mr. Goodwin
who has controlled the subject, and
has made it temperamentally and
artistically what he pleased — or
rather what he, as a lover and
student of nature, believed to be
most surely in keeping with her
spirit and most strictly in con-
formity to her intention.
There is the whole secret of his
great success as an artist—he loves
nature and studies her unceasingly.
He sees that to be a servile copyist
of concrete facts would be actually
disrespectful to her, because it
would signify a feeble understand-
ing of her ways and at best a half-
hearted appreciation of her teaching.
She shows him how the literal reali-
ties can be changed in aspect by
the witchery of atmosphere, the illu-
sion of lighting, and the tenderness
or the majesty of aerial colour; she
lets him see how she can vary inimitably her own
creations, and present them to him under ever-
changing conditions. To remain blind to such
lessons would imply on his part a strange want
of sensitiveness or a quite indefensible belief that
he knew better than his teacher, and certainly
he neither lacks the power to respond to inspiring
impressions nor is he oppressed by any conceit
about his capacity to do without nature’s guidance.
He can be exact enough when the occasion arises,
as his beautifully precise and careful pencil draw-
ings prove, but he can at the right moment be as
elusive as nature herself and as adaptable to the
demands made upon him. Therefore, amazingly
prolific artist as he is and markedly individual as
his technical methods always are, he has been able
to avoid entirely that tendency to get stereotyped
A PAGE FROM MR. ALBERT GOODWIN’S SKETCH-BOOK
(By permission of the Fine Art Society)
94