DOI issue:
No. 224 (November 1911)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21155#0166
Shidio- Talk
"SYMBOL OF ST. MASK." ONE OF FOUR MEDALLIONS
PAINTED BY FREDERIC J. SHIELDS FOR THE CHAPEL
OF THE ASCENSION, BAYSWATER ROAD
a genuine and unfaded impression. This in itself
contributes not a little to the poetry of her style in
the interpretation of a great poem.
At the same galleries Mr. Arthur Rackham's
illustrations to Wagnei's "Ring of the Nibelung "
have been on view. We have so often dealt with
the exquisite qualities of Mr. Rackham's art that
his name in itself must count to our readers for the
promise of something unrivalled.
At the St. George's Gallery, in Bond Street, Mr.
Maxwell Arm field shows the
field in which his gifts find
a natural and fascinating
outlet—the illustration of
children's books. The Town
Clock, Button Town, Travel-
lers at Rabbit Inn, and
drawings in this strain are
to be welcomed for their
delicate fancy.
The Exhibition of Paint-
ings and Drawings by the
Modern Society of Portrait
Painters at the Fine Ait
Society was a stimulating
one, the work of Messrs.
Alfred llayward, John da
Costa, W. B. Ranken,
Alexander Jamieson, C. L.
Colyn Thomson, G. Giusti,
144
G. W. Lambert, and Glyn W. Philpot being ot
particular interest.
The Exhibition of Old Masters in aid of the
National Art Collections Fund, open until Decem-
ber 28, has been.lavishly patronised by the general
public. These exhibitions are educative in the
highest sense. From familiarity with the old
masters the eye acquires a culture friendly to the
recognition of what is of the best in painting
modern and ultra-modern. This good service is
to be added to that of acquainting the nation with
its own treasures, and the acquisition of a fund
for their protection.
An artist who was undoubtedly meant by nature
to be a genius at illustration was the late Frederic
J. Shields, if we are to judge by such a marvellous
drawing as the one for "Vanity Fair" in Pilgrim's
Progress in the Memorial Exhibition of Mr.
Shields' works recently held at the Alpine Club.
However, another side of his nature drew him into
the field of church decoration, and sustained by
religious enthusiasm he undertook the gigantic task
of decorating with figure designs the interior of the
Chapel of the Ascension in the Bayswater Road.
He was a Pre-Raphaelite of the Pre-Raphaelite
group, an intimate of Rossetti and Madox Brown.
The artist was born in 1833, his father being a
bookbinder's finisher, and during his early youth
endured many years of privation. Of some of his
illustrations Ruskin said to him : " Even should you
never be able to colour, you may perhaps be more
"SYMBOL OF ST. MASK." ONE OF FOUR MEDALLIONS
PAINTED BY FREDERIC J. SHIELDS FOR THE CHAPEL
OF THE ASCENSION, BAYSWATER ROAD
a genuine and unfaded impression. This in itself
contributes not a little to the poetry of her style in
the interpretation of a great poem.
At the same galleries Mr. Arthur Rackham's
illustrations to Wagnei's "Ring of the Nibelung "
have been on view. We have so often dealt with
the exquisite qualities of Mr. Rackham's art that
his name in itself must count to our readers for the
promise of something unrivalled.
At the St. George's Gallery, in Bond Street, Mr.
Maxwell Arm field shows the
field in which his gifts find
a natural and fascinating
outlet—the illustration of
children's books. The Town
Clock, Button Town, Travel-
lers at Rabbit Inn, and
drawings in this strain are
to be welcomed for their
delicate fancy.
The Exhibition of Paint-
ings and Drawings by the
Modern Society of Portrait
Painters at the Fine Ait
Society was a stimulating
one, the work of Messrs.
Alfred llayward, John da
Costa, W. B. Ranken,
Alexander Jamieson, C. L.
Colyn Thomson, G. Giusti,
144
G. W. Lambert, and Glyn W. Philpot being ot
particular interest.
The Exhibition of Old Masters in aid of the
National Art Collections Fund, open until Decem-
ber 28, has been.lavishly patronised by the general
public. These exhibitions are educative in the
highest sense. From familiarity with the old
masters the eye acquires a culture friendly to the
recognition of what is of the best in painting
modern and ultra-modern. This good service is
to be added to that of acquainting the nation with
its own treasures, and the acquisition of a fund
for their protection.
An artist who was undoubtedly meant by nature
to be a genius at illustration was the late Frederic
J. Shields, if we are to judge by such a marvellous
drawing as the one for "Vanity Fair" in Pilgrim's
Progress in the Memorial Exhibition of Mr.
Shields' works recently held at the Alpine Club.
However, another side of his nature drew him into
the field of church decoration, and sustained by
religious enthusiasm he undertook the gigantic task
of decorating with figure designs the interior of the
Chapel of the Ascension in the Bayswater Road.
He was a Pre-Raphaelite of the Pre-Raphaelite
group, an intimate of Rossetti and Madox Brown.
The artist was born in 1833, his father being a
bookbinder's finisher, and during his early youth
endured many years of privation. Of some of his
illustrations Ruskin said to him : " Even should you
never be able to colour, you may perhaps be more