Studio: international art (49.1910)

Lady Waterford's Drawings

The drawings of lady

WATERFORD. BY MRS.

STEUART ERSKINE.

The late Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford,
a collection of whose water-colours was exhibited
last month at the resi-
dence of Countess
Brownlow in Carlton
House Terrace, occupies
a unique position
amongst amateur artists.

Gifted far above the
average, qualified by her
imaginative powers, her
fine sense of composi-
tion and her eye for
colour, to occupy a high
position among contem-
porary artists, she yet
lacked the training
which would have en-
titled her to such a
claim. She herself was
very far from putting it
fonvard; she recognised
the difference which
must always exist be-
tween the work of amateur and artist, and pro-
tested strongly against any comparison being made.

It was in this, as in many other things, that she
showed her strength. She was essentially modest
about her work, and although she devoted the
greater part of her life to her favourite pursuit,
she was always keenly alive to her shortcomings.

“I went to the Grosvenor (gallery) yesterday,”
she writes in 1879, “I
was curious to see how
my drawings looked. I
can only say these exhi-
bitions are the best
levellers I know; one
has no more illusions
about oneself and no
flatterers are of avail. I
see myself just an ama-
teur and no more, not
altogether bad, but not
good, no, not good at
all; and it is the same
with all amateurs—there
is the difference.”

So much for her own
opinion of her technique.
With regard to the in-
tention of her work, she
takes higher ground.
She admits that “she
had made an attempt in the right direction,” and
here we touch on the secret spring of her ambition

LOUISA, MARCHIONESS OF WATERFORD