Studio: international art (53.1911)

E. L. Laurenson

effects, Stopham Bridge—
Sussex, for instance. There
is a suggestion of mediaeval
romance about the old stone
bridge by moonlight, with
the shadows over the river,
and here the blue and green
tones have been very im-
pressively managed. A
pleasantly decorative effect
has been obtained in The
Serpentine—the subject also
of the water-colour repro-
duced here — showing the
Kensington Gardens end,
with the fountains and the
stone balustrades, and a
swan floating serenely below
these, and in the background
the houses of the Bayswater
Road seen through the trees

in the park by e. l. laurenson

of conventional browns and greens. Then,
there is Chelsea Reach, with the sunset
through the twilight on the river, and the
barges and the water very much alive,
while, in the background, " the poor
buildings lose themselves in the dim sky."
Millbank, too, and Pont Alexandre Trois,
are pure spirit-ground aquatints, but in
The Sand Pits—a very large and effective
plate — Mr. Laurenson has used line-
etching for accentuating form. The effect
of the warm sunlight which floods the pit,
casting some fine shadows, is admirable,
and, but for some unfortunate over-biting
in the trees above, the whole plate would
be a complete success. A proof of it has
been purchased for the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Mr. Laurenson may
be encouraged to persevere with his ex-
periments, for I believe aquatint is the
only copper-plate process that lends
itself at all satisfactorily to printing in
coloured inks. But, after all, perhaps
he will find his pictorial expression on
the copper-plate more artistically through
black and white, while for colour he
is equally happy in at least four other
mediums. At present he is an artist
still in the making, but his possi-
bilities would seem to be rich.
"dreaming" (pastel) by e. l. laurenson M. C. S.

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