DOI Heft:
Nr. 219 (June 1911)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The paintings of William Nicholson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20973#0030
William Nicholson
justify his treating it with all the sincerity and all appeal, and this proves, perhaps, best of all how
the concentration of mind that he can bring to bear completely he has mastered the principles which
upon it. underlie all great achievement. The man who
Of his gifts as a colourist it would be difficult to has learned what are the elemental things in art has
speak too highly, for he has in this direction faculties advanced very far in the practice of his profession,
that are quite unusual. It is not so much that he A. L. Baldry.
is a colourist in the popular application of the term [Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. VV.
—that is, a lover of gorgeous chromatic effects and Marchant and Co. of the Goupil Gallery, 5 Regent
a man who revels in sumptuous arrangements—as Street, and the proprietors of the Stafford Gallery
that he appreciates exquisitely how colour should for giving facilities for the reproduction of Mr.
be combined and how its values should be related Nicholson's pictures. Mr. Nicholson's colour-
in even the most reticent and subdued harmonies, prints were the subject of an illustrated article by
The spacing of the colour areas on his canvas, the the late Mr. Gleeson White in an early number ot
adjustment of light tones to dark, the balance of this magazine (December 1897), and among other
one tint with another, are all matters for the most works of his which have already been reproduced in
careful consideration in his pictures, and the science The Studio are the Portrait of James Pryde (July
of colour distribution is one which he admirably 1901), La Belle Chauffeuse (March 1905), Portrait
understands. of Mrs Curie and The Jewelled Bandalore (March
If it were possible to sum up the distinctive 1906), The Morris (July 1909), and Whiteways,
qualities of Mr. Nicholson's art in a single phrase, Rottingdean (August 1910).—The Editor.]
it would probably be nearest
the mark to describe him as
a decorator who had never
allowed himself to become a
slave to convention. His
feeling for design and his
instinct for style give a
decorative character to all
his paintings, and his manage-
ment of colour helps to make
this character more definite,
but it shows, perhaps, most
of all in his love of simplifi-
cation. In his pictures he
eliminates everything that is
not essential to explain his
intention — all unimportant
details, all useless acces-
sories, all the small matters
which do not serve some
plain purpose in his scheme
of composition—and he re-
duces the complexities of
nature to a kind of monu-
mental simplicity which is
the more impressive because
it recognises as significant
only the really vital elements
of the subject. But he has
the art of making his work
simple in effect without
taking away any part of its
legitimate interest and with- „
0..... MASTER ANTHONY BACON BY WILLIAM NICHOLSON
out diminishing its power of (By special permission)
justify his treating it with all the sincerity and all appeal, and this proves, perhaps, best of all how
the concentration of mind that he can bring to bear completely he has mastered the principles which
upon it. underlie all great achievement. The man who
Of his gifts as a colourist it would be difficult to has learned what are the elemental things in art has
speak too highly, for he has in this direction faculties advanced very far in the practice of his profession,
that are quite unusual. It is not so much that he A. L. Baldry.
is a colourist in the popular application of the term [Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. VV.
—that is, a lover of gorgeous chromatic effects and Marchant and Co. of the Goupil Gallery, 5 Regent
a man who revels in sumptuous arrangements—as Street, and the proprietors of the Stafford Gallery
that he appreciates exquisitely how colour should for giving facilities for the reproduction of Mr.
be combined and how its values should be related Nicholson's pictures. Mr. Nicholson's colour-
in even the most reticent and subdued harmonies, prints were the subject of an illustrated article by
The spacing of the colour areas on his canvas, the the late Mr. Gleeson White in an early number ot
adjustment of light tones to dark, the balance of this magazine (December 1897), and among other
one tint with another, are all matters for the most works of his which have already been reproduced in
careful consideration in his pictures, and the science The Studio are the Portrait of James Pryde (July
of colour distribution is one which he admirably 1901), La Belle Chauffeuse (March 1905), Portrait
understands. of Mrs Curie and The Jewelled Bandalore (March
If it were possible to sum up the distinctive 1906), The Morris (July 1909), and Whiteways,
qualities of Mr. Nicholson's art in a single phrase, Rottingdean (August 1910).—The Editor.]
it would probably be nearest
the mark to describe him as
a decorator who had never
allowed himself to become a
slave to convention. His
feeling for design and his
instinct for style give a
decorative character to all
his paintings, and his manage-
ment of colour helps to make
this character more definite,
but it shows, perhaps, most
of all in his love of simplifi-
cation. In his pictures he
eliminates everything that is
not essential to explain his
intention — all unimportant
details, all useless acces-
sories, all the small matters
which do not serve some
plain purpose in his scheme
of composition—and he re-
duces the complexities of
nature to a kind of monu-
mental simplicity which is
the more impressive because
it recognises as significant
only the really vital elements
of the subject. But he has
the art of making his work
simple in effect without
taking away any part of its
legitimate interest and with- „
0..... MASTER ANTHONY BACON BY WILLIAM NICHOLSON
out diminishing its power of (By special permission)