Studio: international art (52.1911)

Drawings ana Studies of George Belcher

able pluck in finding humour in most situa-
tions of life. There is a cheerful humanity and
feeling of fellowship at the bottom of their
relationship with one another. They are most
gloriously optimistic. Like Douglas Jerrold's
vagabond, they are " the arabesque of life."

George Belcher's drawings are never mere
illustrations to humorous tales ; their humour is
intrinsic ; it is part of the essential character of
his people. His work exists entirely on its own
basis and tells its own story—a story in which
humour and pathos are irresistibly commingled.
This is out of the usual order, for most drawings
of humorous intent are called into being for the
express and only purpose of illustrating a pre-
conceived joke or story, and have no life apart
from it.

That George Belcher does not depend for
success on any particular type of character is
amply proved by his realisations of the lively and
vivacious French fishermen of Etaples. These
are fully as vivid and characteristic as are his
essays in English bourgeois life. It may be said
that he depicts, or has the power of depicting, ab-
stract character whenever or wherever he meets
it—in a London lodging-house, in the studio, in
the purlieus of Chelsea, or on the quay-side of a
Normandy fishing-village. His most notable
possession, apart from his gifts of expression, is
his quite profound insight into human nature.
He discards the trivial and lays bare what is
most significant and essential ; hence his cha-
racters appear so much more forcible and vivid
in his work than in real life. He simplifies the
character of his people, he constantly insists on
their vital characteristics only, that one realises
them with something of that consciousness of
inevitability that one experiences in contempla-
tion of the activity of natural forces. In this
power of realisation of complete, definite'and
racial character he sometimes reminds one of
Balzac. I have felt on occasion similar emotions
on regarding certain of his drawings as I have
experienced on making the acquaintance of a
creation of the great French novelist. The
infinite suggestiveness, the knowledge of latent
Possibilities, the feeling that his characters are
Quite inevitable, is quite Balzacian.

In the early days of his career George
Belcher does not appear to have experienced
the difficulties which so many artists encounter.
His work, besides being first-class, was of the
kind for which there was a more or less ready
market. For some six years he has drawn for
The Tatler," the distinguished editor of that

paper having had the acumen to seize an early
opportunity of securing his services.

I suppose that to some extent a comparison
is inevitable between his work and that of Phil
May. This is chiefly because both drew in-
spiration from the same source. But their
execution is entirely different, and if Phil May's
line may appear to be finer, George Belcher's
grasp of, and insight into, character is far
subtler and more profound than that of his
illustrious compeer.

It is rather surprising that Belcher's work is
only seen occasionally in the pages of ' Punch."
In its way a national institution, " Punch"
should surely have on its staff the best black-
and-white artists in the country, and George
Belcher's claim to being one of the finest of
these is surely indisputable.

STUDY AT ETAPLES BY GEORGE BELCHER

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