Studio: international art (54.1912)

Sir James Guthrie, P.R.S.A.

SIR JAMES GUTHRIE, P.RS.A.
BY A. STODART WALKER.

To the English public, outside that small
circle which takes a real interest in art and not
merely in popular exhibitions of pictures, the*
name of the most distinguished of modern Scottish
painters is one of the least familiar. There are
several reasons to account for this anomaly. The
President of the Royal Scottish Academy is neither
a voluminous producer, nor is he a man who seeks
the publicity of heterogeneous exhibitions. He
never " sends " to Burlington House : very seldom
was his work seen at the New Gallery, which died
in the cause of art, and was resurrected in the
interests of food; literally selling its birthright for
a mess of pottage. Guthrie's appearances at the
" International" have been rare, in fact there is
no gallery in London where we can be assured of
his presence. The result is that for every fifty
southerners who may be familiar with Scottish
portraiture as represented by Sir George Reid, Mr.
John Lavery, Mr. E. A. Walton, Mr. George
Henry, Mr. J. H. Lorimer, Mr. Harrington Mann,
and Mr. Fiddes Watt, only one has had the
privilege of an adequate study of the masterly work
of Sir James Guthrie. Yet on those rare occasions
when a Guthrie portrait finds a place in a London
exhibition there is no doubting the significance.
There is another reason why the name of the
Scottish President is not familiar in the public
mouth as a household word. Sir James Guthrie,
though making no virtue of his diffidence, has
always shrunk from the publicity which the pen of
the critic can offer.

He is not a man who cares to build by the
wayside, not from fear of " the many masters"
which the old proverb promises to those so
occupied, but from an instinctive feeling that the
artist speaks most clearly in the language of his
own craft and that the literary editor is more likely
to confuse or complicate the issue than assist or
simplify it. Besides, Guthrie, despite the height to
which he has reached, is convinced of the fact
that he remains in a state of growth and is
still asking, as Goethe was on his death-bed, for
"light, more light." It was characteristic of the
man that when the present writer approached him
with the suggestion that he might use his pen,
not for his service, but for that of the public,
he was met with the expression: " Give me
time—give me time. Some day I may do some-
thing worthy of your consideration." Yet the
study of a portrait by Sir James Guthrie gives
iS

the forcible impression of genius at its highest
expression.

But though so comparatively unknown to the
lay public south of the Tweed, in Scotland, amidst
a school of distinguished and world-renowned
craftsmen. Sir James Guthrie is something of a
national institution—a seer, a prophet—part of its
artistic religion. In more ways than one his
position is an isolated one, not from want of
influence, which is profound, or from absence ot
camaraderie, which is faithful and generous, but
from the very uniqueness of his qualifications.
For besides being a great painter, Guthrie has
most of the qualities of a great public servant.
His eloquent speech is a ready servant of his
gifted intellect. He would have made a brilliant
advocate, an astute Parliamentarian, a distinguished
diplomat. A man of strong convictions, the out-
come of catholic knowledge and acute discernment,
he possesses the graces of unerring tact and kindly
speech; combining a noble self-respect with a
nice and delicate regard for the feelings of others.
His work on behalf of the politics of Scottish Art
has earned for him a recognition that has no
parallel in the history of the country, work which,
however exacting and prescriptive, has done little
to interfere with his evolution as the greatest
portrait painter in Scotland since Raeburn, and, in
certain aspects of his craft, even more convincing
than the man who is regarded as the pride of
Scottish portraiture.

But it is with the man as painter and not as
publicist that we must concern ourselves here. As
is well known to all those who have studied the art
movements of the immediate past, James Guthrie
first came into note as the leading spirit in that
movement which is now known as " The Glasgow
School." Along with Lavery, Walton, Hamilton
Paterson, D. Y. Cameron, Macgregor, and the
rest, Guthrie strove to give to the expression of
painting a distinctive style. As Mr. Caw in his
masterly " Scottish Painting, Past and Present," suc-
cintly remarks : " Broadly considered the ' Glasgow
School' was an outcome of the Impressionist move-
ment, initiated by Manet, Whistler, and Monet, of
which the work of Sargent and his following, and
of the New English Art Club group, are English
phases. . . . The formative influences were com-
plex, and included the examples of one or two of
their own countrymen; but perhaps the most
operative were Whistler's exquisite art, in which
the great traditions of the past are blended with
the charms of the decorative arts of the Far
East : the wider horizon opened up through