DOI issue:
No. 215 (February, 1911)
DOI article:The interior pictures and landscapes of F. H. S. Shepherd
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20972#0059
F. H. S. Shepherd
"the Severn" (oil) (The property ofHenry C. Haldane, Esq.) by f. h. s. shepherd
imagination. It would be more logical if the a personal interpretation to some very interesting
picture were entirely compounded of this element, problems, and has been willing to encounter the
The logic of an imaginative appeal breaks down difficulties of an unusual compromise. In his
only in contact with the logic of another plane; landscapes, he slightly shifts his point of view;
one kind of reality coming to an end in collision things there are seen a little less objectively,
with the other. It is difficult enough for the a little more in relation to the light problem. He
imagination to effect a compromise with studio- seems to join issue with his more impressionistic
properties without loss of fervour. The shape in contemporaries; he even chooses stretches of
which an imaginative subject is conceived is the country where "effect" is everything. Bumper-
shape in which it should come to life—even with haps, even this is the interior-painter's sense of
all its anachronisms. And there is the highest distances; as of one that has seen the effects over
artistic sincerity in the refusal to tamper with the country framed by the window panels. His
inner vision in favour of claims—often dubious— landscapes may be, after all, the most logical out-
of outside logic. come of his interior work ; for to one who glances
We should be ignoring one side of Mr. Shepherd's out of the window landscape can never be other
talent if we passed over his landscapes, of which than an impression.
two examples are given in the accompanying illus- Born at a small village called Stoke-under-Ham,
trations, although it must be confessed he has near Yeovil, in 1877,theartist is now at the beginning
brought us to look upon himself as a painter of of his career. There are no early artistic struggles
" Interior" genre : and in this article we have to record; after a public-school education he
preferred to dwell more particularly on this side proceeded to the Slade School in 1898—thus over-
of his work. It is there, we think, that up to the lapping Mr. Orpen—and left there in 1902. The
present his chief achievement lies. He has given rest is continued in his art. T. Field.
37
"the Severn" (oil) (The property ofHenry C. Haldane, Esq.) by f. h. s. shepherd
imagination. It would be more logical if the a personal interpretation to some very interesting
picture were entirely compounded of this element, problems, and has been willing to encounter the
The logic of an imaginative appeal breaks down difficulties of an unusual compromise. In his
only in contact with the logic of another plane; landscapes, he slightly shifts his point of view;
one kind of reality coming to an end in collision things there are seen a little less objectively,
with the other. It is difficult enough for the a little more in relation to the light problem. He
imagination to effect a compromise with studio- seems to join issue with his more impressionistic
properties without loss of fervour. The shape in contemporaries; he even chooses stretches of
which an imaginative subject is conceived is the country where "effect" is everything. Bumper-
shape in which it should come to life—even with haps, even this is the interior-painter's sense of
all its anachronisms. And there is the highest distances; as of one that has seen the effects over
artistic sincerity in the refusal to tamper with the country framed by the window panels. His
inner vision in favour of claims—often dubious— landscapes may be, after all, the most logical out-
of outside logic. come of his interior work ; for to one who glances
We should be ignoring one side of Mr. Shepherd's out of the window landscape can never be other
talent if we passed over his landscapes, of which than an impression.
two examples are given in the accompanying illus- Born at a small village called Stoke-under-Ham,
trations, although it must be confessed he has near Yeovil, in 1877,theartist is now at the beginning
brought us to look upon himself as a painter of of his career. There are no early artistic struggles
" Interior" genre : and in this article we have to record; after a public-school education he
preferred to dwell more particularly on this side proceeded to the Slade School in 1898—thus over-
of his work. It is there, we think, that up to the lapping Mr. Orpen—and left there in 1902. The
present his chief achievement lies. He has given rest is continued in his art. T. Field.
37