Studio: international art (50.1910)

William Wells, R.B.A.

triumphs upon the master who thus revealed
himself. And assuredly each new step was an
evidence and new manifestation of his will which
has formed his character as a man and made of
him a great artist. Leopold HonorE

P.S.—Since the above lines were written M. Roll
has been commissioned by the Administration
des Beaux-Arts to desigA the cartoon for a piece
of tapestry to be woven by the Manufacture
des Gobelins and presented to the Argentine
Republic by the French Government as a souvenir
of the inauguration of the monument erected to
General San-Martin at Boulogne-sur-Mer. L. H.

A GLASGOW PAINTER : WIL-

LIAM WELLS, R.B.A. BY J.
TAYLOR.

The Modern Impressionist School of Paint-
ing has no more ardent disciples than those at
Glasgow, where tradition-
alism in Art was first
rudely shaken by Arthur
Melville’s Audrey and
her Goats. Continental
and home opinions were
startled, and in a mea-
sure convinced that a
new school had arisen.

The time and place to
estimate the position
and achievements of the
Glasgow School of
Painters are not now
and here, but it may be
affirmed that the action
and accomplishment of
the daring group of indi-
vidualists who, coming
under the influence of
French and Dutch con-
temporary Art, led a
revolt against the con-
ventions, hastened, if
they did not altogether
bring about, the Modern
Scottish Renaissance
which has extended to
all the ramifications and
developments of Art.

But the group is by
no means all-embracing;
outside the charmed
sphere of influence there
266

are to be found painters of equally strong indivi-
duality, working out art theories and problems
on dissimilar lines, and arriving at conclusions no
less interesting and striking.

Notable amongst these stands William Wells, an
artist claiming attention from every point of view,
whether we take his past with its struggles, his
present with its brilliant achievements, or his
future with its promise of even greater things. By
birth, rather than by training, Wells is a Scot,
unless the rough-and-tumble beginnings of an
industrial career count much in the determination
of an artist’s nationality. Hume, the composer
of the music associated with Burns’ “Afton
Water,” was wont to jot down musical bars
on the back of discarded sheets of sandpaper,
while working at the carver’s bench. Wells may
have made his first artistic jottings during the
Glasgow decorator’s dinner hour.

His first serious study in art was at the Slade

“ THE PIGEON TOWER, KENTRAUGH, ISLE OF MAN” (WATER-COLOUR)

(In the collection oj Art fair Kay, Esq.) BY WILLIAM WELLS