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#0215
James Paterson, PS.A., PSPS.
“ KYLE ” (OIL TAINTING) BY JAMES PATERSON
longing for some adequate means of expressing
himself in artistic channels, it was not till he was
actually twenty-three years of age that the young
man escaped from bondage. But in 1877 he
achieved his object. To a Scotsman it was
natural that he should turn his face in the direction
of Paris, while once in the city of the Seine it
was equally conceivable that he should gravitate to
the studio of so famous a painter as Jean Paul
Laurens. It was here, under the direction of
M. Jacquesson de la Chevreuse, that Mr. Paterson
began his serious training. Coming some six years
later in life to his task than the majority of students,
the young Scot was soon seen to make up for lost
time. He had powers of concentration and methods
of assimilating new ideas seldom possessed by the
raw student. Travelling and painting in the com-
pany of Mr. Tuke (a fellow-student at Jean Paul
Laurens’), Mr. Paterson only returned to the atelier
to again pack his valise for Germany. The artist,
in sooth, has always been something of a wanderer.
A member of the Munich Secessionists Society,
and spending part of every year in Mecklenburg,
Mr. Paterson is as well known on the Continent as
he is in England. Nor did his marriage in 1884 in
any way retard his progress. A two years’ sojourn
in the Canary Islands—undertaken principally for
his wife’s health—found the artist busily painting
not only at Teneriffe, but at Oratava and Santa
Cruz besides. Acclimatised in many countries the
painter exhibits in Munich, Paris, Edinburgh, and
London, while his recent series of lectures on
“ Aspects of Applied ^Esthetics ” at the Royal
Institution showed with what precision and acumen
he can express his views on contemporary art.
That Mr. Paterson has decided opinions goes
without saying. Thus the artist insists on the
necessity of training the eye “ that it may see
truly,” while he further points out that sin
cerity and simplicity are the two chief attributes
necessary to the student. Characteristic also were
Mr. Paterson’s strictures on a public notoriously
slow to appreciate originality. His aphorism, that
“acquiescence in the opinions of others is a poor
194
“ KYLE ” (OIL TAINTING) BY JAMES PATERSON
longing for some adequate means of expressing
himself in artistic channels, it was not till he was
actually twenty-three years of age that the young
man escaped from bondage. But in 1877 he
achieved his object. To a Scotsman it was
natural that he should turn his face in the direction
of Paris, while once in the city of the Seine it
was equally conceivable that he should gravitate to
the studio of so famous a painter as Jean Paul
Laurens. It was here, under the direction of
M. Jacquesson de la Chevreuse, that Mr. Paterson
began his serious training. Coming some six years
later in life to his task than the majority of students,
the young Scot was soon seen to make up for lost
time. He had powers of concentration and methods
of assimilating new ideas seldom possessed by the
raw student. Travelling and painting in the com-
pany of Mr. Tuke (a fellow-student at Jean Paul
Laurens’), Mr. Paterson only returned to the atelier
to again pack his valise for Germany. The artist,
in sooth, has always been something of a wanderer.
A member of the Munich Secessionists Society,
and spending part of every year in Mecklenburg,
Mr. Paterson is as well known on the Continent as
he is in England. Nor did his marriage in 1884 in
any way retard his progress. A two years’ sojourn
in the Canary Islands—undertaken principally for
his wife’s health—found the artist busily painting
not only at Teneriffe, but at Oratava and Santa
Cruz besides. Acclimatised in many countries the
painter exhibits in Munich, Paris, Edinburgh, and
London, while his recent series of lectures on
“ Aspects of Applied ^Esthetics ” at the Royal
Institution showed with what precision and acumen
he can express his views on contemporary art.
That Mr. Paterson has decided opinions goes
without saying. Thus the artist insists on the
necessity of training the eye “ that it may see
truly,” while he further points out that sin
cerity and simplicity are the two chief attributes
necessary to the student. Characteristic also were
Mr. Paterson’s strictures on a public notoriously
slow to appreciate originality. His aphorism, that
“acquiescence in the opinions of others is a poor
194