Studio: international art (57.1913)

George Sheringham

of earnest application which had a most helpful
influence in the formation of his character as an
artist.

When he left Mr. Becker he went straight to
Paris, where he took a studio and began to work
out for himself the various art problems in which
he was interested. He did not put himself under
any master, but spent most of his time sketching
out of doors and drawing from life at the “ Croquis.”
In these new surroundings he found himself very
definitely diverted from the line of thought he had
hitherto followed. He came under fresh influences,
and he started a kind of self-examination with the
idea of finding out what was the real direction
which by nature and temperament he was intended

to take. This, as might have been expected, put
him for a while entirely adrift, for having shed the
convictions he brought with him from England
and not having as yet settled definitely on any
other he spent some months in a search for the
new road which he felt that he was destined to
follow.

It was by the study of Oriental art in the Paris
museums that he was led first to believe that his
destiny lay in decoration. This study opened up
to him the possibilities of this branch of practice,
and as time went on he began to realise that he
was to find there the direction for which he was
seeking. He did not enter upon it all at once,
however, for he worked for a while at poster-

“THE SPRING FAN ”

PAINTED ON SII.K BY GEORGE SHERINGHAM
(In the possession oj Mrs. de R. Walker j

io