DOI Heft:
Nr. 213 (December 1910)
DOI Artikel:Dixon, Marion Hepworth: James Paterson, R.S.A., R. W. S.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20971#0214
James Paterson, R.S.A., R.JV.S.
“hermitage” (water-colour) (In the possession of E. J. Horniman, Esq.) by James paterson
our kinsmen across the Border, the artist has not
only a fine sense of line and a nervous grip of his
tools but a critical taste which leaves little room for
sentimentality. Observation (used in the technical
French sense) he has in plenty. Nor could he have
put himself to school in a Parisian atelier without
being something of a realist. But in saying all these
things we have to confess that the artist’s secret still
eludes us. We have still to pluck out the heart
of his mystery. For if Mr. James Paterson has
one quality more developed than another it is his
poetic sense. In him it may be truly said that
imagination is master. Thus his feeling is more
accentuated than in the majority of his contem-
poraries who have gone to Paris for their technical
training. It is this quality, so rarely found in the
audacious canvases which scream from the walls
of the more progressive of our exhibitions, which
marks out Mr. Paterson’s work. On mere bravura
and cleverness of handling he does not insist at all.
A modern of moderns and in the dangerous
possession of a style, Mr. Paterson may at one
moment have been in peril of losing his rare
personal note in the posture of a mere technician
or adroit mannerist. But it is safe to say that his
mentality was too strong for him. Thoughtful
by nature and a student by habit, his pictures have
a congruity which comes of their being not only
wholly digested but of being actual live creations
—part and parcel, that is to say, of the painter’s
outlook on life. It is well-nigh impossible to study
Mr. Paterson’s drawings of Edinburgh without
being struck by the passion and poetry under-
lying an extremely modern manner. To the artist
indeed Edinburgh is a city apart, for who else has
felt and understood the glamour of her moods
or interpreted the charm which lies under her
brooding austerity ?
James Paterson, the third son of Andrew
Paterson, was born at Hillhead, Glasgow, on the
21 st of August, 1854. His father, a manufacturer,
was able to give his boys a good education. James
was sent to the Western Academy, whence he pro-
ceeded to the University of Glasgow. But the trend
of the lad’s whole training was mercantile. His
upbringing was with the view of his entering on
a business career. Hence, like Holman Hunt and
another Lowlander—David Murray, Mr. James
Paterson languished for four years in a Glasgow
office. Struggling against the dreary routine and
193
“hermitage” (water-colour) (In the possession of E. J. Horniman, Esq.) by James paterson
our kinsmen across the Border, the artist has not
only a fine sense of line and a nervous grip of his
tools but a critical taste which leaves little room for
sentimentality. Observation (used in the technical
French sense) he has in plenty. Nor could he have
put himself to school in a Parisian atelier without
being something of a realist. But in saying all these
things we have to confess that the artist’s secret still
eludes us. We have still to pluck out the heart
of his mystery. For if Mr. James Paterson has
one quality more developed than another it is his
poetic sense. In him it may be truly said that
imagination is master. Thus his feeling is more
accentuated than in the majority of his contem-
poraries who have gone to Paris for their technical
training. It is this quality, so rarely found in the
audacious canvases which scream from the walls
of the more progressive of our exhibitions, which
marks out Mr. Paterson’s work. On mere bravura
and cleverness of handling he does not insist at all.
A modern of moderns and in the dangerous
possession of a style, Mr. Paterson may at one
moment have been in peril of losing his rare
personal note in the posture of a mere technician
or adroit mannerist. But it is safe to say that his
mentality was too strong for him. Thoughtful
by nature and a student by habit, his pictures have
a congruity which comes of their being not only
wholly digested but of being actual live creations
—part and parcel, that is to say, of the painter’s
outlook on life. It is well-nigh impossible to study
Mr. Paterson’s drawings of Edinburgh without
being struck by the passion and poetry under-
lying an extremely modern manner. To the artist
indeed Edinburgh is a city apart, for who else has
felt and understood the glamour of her moods
or interpreted the charm which lies under her
brooding austerity ?
James Paterson, the third son of Andrew
Paterson, was born at Hillhead, Glasgow, on the
21 st of August, 1854. His father, a manufacturer,
was able to give his boys a good education. James
was sent to the Western Academy, whence he pro-
ceeded to the University of Glasgow. But the trend
of the lad’s whole training was mercantile. His
upbringing was with the view of his entering on
a business career. Hence, like Holman Hunt and
another Lowlander—David Murray, Mr. James
Paterson languished for four years in a Glasgow
office. Struggling against the dreary routine and
193