Studio: international art (52.1911)

F. H. S. Shepherd

on an artist's part that he
can succeed, even in his-
own mind, in separating,
appearances from their
"associations" and ob-
tain for vision a divorce
from feeling : and always
at the cost of all that is
most vital in a picture.

In such a picture as the
artist's The Death of the
Virgin we touch other
problems. It is obvious-
that there can be no hold
here upon the actual cir-
cumstances of the event,
and that the artist deals-
only with what might be
probable. And as a rule
in this kind of picture it
is the work that clings

"THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN " (OIL) BY F. H. S. SHEPHERD tOO closely tO probabili-

ties that fails ; so slight is-

admits the improbable into a composition. How- our hold on probabilities in such a matter. Some-
ever delightful in appearance such a costume, it where the logic of what is probable breaks, and
is only by a sort of dextrous trick of the brain there begins the purely creative element of the

"THE COUNTRY HOUSE " (WATER-COLOUR)

(By permission of the Chenil Gailery)

34

BY F. H. S. SHEPHERD-