DOI Heft:
No. 226 (January 1912)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure: on the position of the follower
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21155#0364
The Lay Figure
HE LAY FIGURE : ON THE
POSITION OF THE FOL-
LOWER.
" The'trick of imitation ! What a curious thing
it is," said the Art Critic. " I cannot understand
the type of mind that is content always with
second-hand ideas, and able only to work along
lines already laid down."
"Yet that type of mind is common enough,"
replied the Man with the Red Tie. "All through
the history of Art you will find that the imitator
has been very plainly in evidence. The great
leaders have always been attended by groups of
followers ; the prominent artists have always been
surrounded by a horde of copyists. The inde-
pendent thinker is the exception, not the rule."
" Quite so, that is beyond dispute," agreed the
Critic; "but, as I say, it seems to me strange that
so many people who are endowed with the artistic
faculty should be willing to subordinate themselves
to a leader and to be followers all their lives.
The essential of all art is creation, and the
imitator can never be creative, for he only repro-
duces what some one else has done already."
"Well, it is not given to us all to be creators,"
returned the Man with the Red Tie ; " and the man
who is conscious of his incapacity for independent
thought is probably wiser in depending upon
another and greater mind than in attempting to
struggle with his own disabilities."
" It would be wiser, I think, if he chose some
other profession," protested the Critic ; "he is only
overcrowding ground already well filled and he is
only diminishing the strength of the impression
made by the masters themselves. What use is he
in the art world ? He adds nothing to the store
of great art, he awakens no new emotions, he
satisfies no real demand. He is only in the way."
" Wait a minute !" broke in the Plain Man.
" You say that the imitator satisfies no demand.
I take it that you mean by the imitator the man
who works in the manner of some well-known and
popular master, and uses that master's ideas and
methods. Well, there is a demand for the work of
a man of that type and he has a definite value."
" How can he have ?" asked the Critic.
" Who wants his productions ? "
"I do, for one," asserted the Plain Man. " He
gives me a good deal of pleasure. You see, there
are not enough works by the great masters to go
round, and the competition for them is conse-
quently excessively keen. Competition for things
that are scarce raises prices, and puts those things
342
beyond the reach of men of moderate means.
That is where the imitator comes in ; his pro-
ductions give you the same emotions as those of
the master, and they are cheap."
"They are cheap!" cried the Critic. "You
tempt me to add, they are nasty also. You say
that they give you the same emotions as those of
the master—what an admission! Are you in-
capable of realising the difference between art that
is original, and art that is purely second-hand ? "
" I do realise the difference when I come to pay
for it," laughed the Plain Man. "Otherwise I do
not mind whether I have the original or a good
copy. One is as good as the other."
" Oh ! The strange workings of the commercial
mind ! " sighed the Man with the Red Tie.
" One is as good as the other, indeed!" com-
mented the Critic. " How can that be ? Yet I
suppose to the ordinary person art only seems to
be a sort of amusement, something that it would
be rather ridiculous to take seriously. Now, to me
it is a very vital expression of the highest human
emotions, and directly it is tainted by expediency
or commercialism I feel that it is degraded."
" There is nothing degrading in doing good,
marketable work," said the Plain Man; "and of
that the follower is quite as capable as the master.
Indeed, I think that the man who borrows a good
idea from some one else and works it out with
reasonable skill is much more worthy of considera-
tion than the one who labours to express crude
notions of his own. The first man has learnt
something worth knowing, the other is a bungler
who refuses to be taught. And I am sure that
some of the artists you call imitators are quite as
important as the masters they follow."
"No! that can never be," declared the Critic.
"The follower can never rank with his master.
He is a follower, therefore he must always be
behind. And because he is always behind it is im-
possible that he can ever realise what that master
is actually like. Even his imitations must fail for
this very reason—how can he properly reproduce
something that he has at no time examined from
all points of view and all the possibilities of which
he has not discovered ? The independent man,
even if his notions are crude, is always a possible
master because he has in him the possibilities of
indefinite development; the follower can only
develop to a point that must be inevitably a little
short, at the best, of that reached by his master
No, no ! It is the original man that you ought
to encourage; the imitator does not count."
The Lay Figure.
HE LAY FIGURE : ON THE
POSITION OF THE FOL-
LOWER.
" The'trick of imitation ! What a curious thing
it is," said the Art Critic. " I cannot understand
the type of mind that is content always with
second-hand ideas, and able only to work along
lines already laid down."
"Yet that type of mind is common enough,"
replied the Man with the Red Tie. "All through
the history of Art you will find that the imitator
has been very plainly in evidence. The great
leaders have always been attended by groups of
followers ; the prominent artists have always been
surrounded by a horde of copyists. The inde-
pendent thinker is the exception, not the rule."
" Quite so, that is beyond dispute," agreed the
Critic; "but, as I say, it seems to me strange that
so many people who are endowed with the artistic
faculty should be willing to subordinate themselves
to a leader and to be followers all their lives.
The essential of all art is creation, and the
imitator can never be creative, for he only repro-
duces what some one else has done already."
"Well, it is not given to us all to be creators,"
returned the Man with the Red Tie ; " and the man
who is conscious of his incapacity for independent
thought is probably wiser in depending upon
another and greater mind than in attempting to
struggle with his own disabilities."
" It would be wiser, I think, if he chose some
other profession," protested the Critic ; "he is only
overcrowding ground already well filled and he is
only diminishing the strength of the impression
made by the masters themselves. What use is he
in the art world ? He adds nothing to the store
of great art, he awakens no new emotions, he
satisfies no real demand. He is only in the way."
" Wait a minute !" broke in the Plain Man.
" You say that the imitator satisfies no demand.
I take it that you mean by the imitator the man
who works in the manner of some well-known and
popular master, and uses that master's ideas and
methods. Well, there is a demand for the work of
a man of that type and he has a definite value."
" How can he have ?" asked the Critic.
" Who wants his productions ? "
"I do, for one," asserted the Plain Man. " He
gives me a good deal of pleasure. You see, there
are not enough works by the great masters to go
round, and the competition for them is conse-
quently excessively keen. Competition for things
that are scarce raises prices, and puts those things
342
beyond the reach of men of moderate means.
That is where the imitator comes in ; his pro-
ductions give you the same emotions as those of
the master, and they are cheap."
"They are cheap!" cried the Critic. "You
tempt me to add, they are nasty also. You say
that they give you the same emotions as those of
the master—what an admission! Are you in-
capable of realising the difference between art that
is original, and art that is purely second-hand ? "
" I do realise the difference when I come to pay
for it," laughed the Plain Man. "Otherwise I do
not mind whether I have the original or a good
copy. One is as good as the other."
" Oh ! The strange workings of the commercial
mind ! " sighed the Man with the Red Tie.
" One is as good as the other, indeed!" com-
mented the Critic. " How can that be ? Yet I
suppose to the ordinary person art only seems to
be a sort of amusement, something that it would
be rather ridiculous to take seriously. Now, to me
it is a very vital expression of the highest human
emotions, and directly it is tainted by expediency
or commercialism I feel that it is degraded."
" There is nothing degrading in doing good,
marketable work," said the Plain Man; "and of
that the follower is quite as capable as the master.
Indeed, I think that the man who borrows a good
idea from some one else and works it out with
reasonable skill is much more worthy of considera-
tion than the one who labours to express crude
notions of his own. The first man has learnt
something worth knowing, the other is a bungler
who refuses to be taught. And I am sure that
some of the artists you call imitators are quite as
important as the masters they follow."
"No! that can never be," declared the Critic.
"The follower can never rank with his master.
He is a follower, therefore he must always be
behind. And because he is always behind it is im-
possible that he can ever realise what that master
is actually like. Even his imitations must fail for
this very reason—how can he properly reproduce
something that he has at no time examined from
all points of view and all the possibilities of which
he has not discovered ? The independent man,
even if his notions are crude, is always a possible
master because he has in him the possibilities of
indefinite development; the follower can only
develop to a point that must be inevitably a little
short, at the best, of that reached by his master
No, no ! It is the original man that you ought
to encourage; the imitator does not count."
The Lay Figure.