DOI Heft:
No. 235 (October 1912)
DOI Artikel:McAllister, Isabel G.: Edward Lanteri: sculptor and professor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21158#0052
Edward Lanteri
and, above all, the human
form. Here are found all
the laws of beauty in com-
position, and the student
who copies them sincerely
assimilates these laws with
his temperament and per-
sonality, and creates for
himself an ideal which later
on he applies to his own
compositions.”
One of his most success-
ful students gives an in-
sight into the early days of
the college, which is in-
teresting. Under Prof.
Lanteri the constructional
side was very much insisted
upon, but he always made
it clear that technique was
only a means to an end.
He opened the students’
eyes daily to the beauties
of nature and the glories
of the Old Masters, show-
ing how the works of the
latter implied an intimate
study of the former. His
enthusiasm extended from
Phidias to examples of
the modern school. To
students of design he used
to say the source of all
design was in nature, and
a knowledge of it was only to be obtained through
much earnest study of nature. When his students
showed dullness or depression he would strike
sparks all round by his enthusiasm, and leave the
little circle freshly inspired and ready to fight on.
To those who were striving to do their best with-
out, perhaps, much good result, he would say:
“ Courage, on arrive peu a peu,” leaving them with
a gleam of hope rather than in absolute despair.
But the most laboured model ran a risk of being
torn down, and the dismayed student would find
that it had to be begun again from the beginning.
One of the most dreaded phrases was : “You have
tried to finish before you have begun.” To all,
however, he invariably showed the greatest personal
kindness, and his courtesy acted like magic, meeting
with an almost immediate response.
A well-known sculptor who studied under Prof.
Lanteri says: “ Within the modern school of
sculpture there has been one master only whom
30
• PAYSAN
BY EDWARD I.ANTERI
(In the Luxembourg, Paris, and Tate Gallery, London)
those who know and understand Lanteri’s work
and power would admit as his superior in the craft
as such, and that master is the giant Dalou. Like
Dalou, and like Sargent in painting, M. Lanteri
combines swift and true vision with the utmost of
rapid technical power. . . . He instantly per-
ceives and sums up the vital essentials of the
moment, and whilst his astonishingly rapid render-
ing of these gives a vivid and sympathetic appre-
ciation of the finer and subtler phases of external
nature, he yet ensures the presence in all his work
of the deeper, the more abiding, and essential
character of his subject. There can be no doubt
that had the exigencies of life led to Lanteri
devoting himself to the production of works of
sculpture, his name would have stood high amongst
the greatest men of his generation in art. But no
one who understands the inner nature of things
will regret his not having become a purely indi-
vidual practitioner. All over the land former pupils
and, above all, the human
form. Here are found all
the laws of beauty in com-
position, and the student
who copies them sincerely
assimilates these laws with
his temperament and per-
sonality, and creates for
himself an ideal which later
on he applies to his own
compositions.”
One of his most success-
ful students gives an in-
sight into the early days of
the college, which is in-
teresting. Under Prof.
Lanteri the constructional
side was very much insisted
upon, but he always made
it clear that technique was
only a means to an end.
He opened the students’
eyes daily to the beauties
of nature and the glories
of the Old Masters, show-
ing how the works of the
latter implied an intimate
study of the former. His
enthusiasm extended from
Phidias to examples of
the modern school. To
students of design he used
to say the source of all
design was in nature, and
a knowledge of it was only to be obtained through
much earnest study of nature. When his students
showed dullness or depression he would strike
sparks all round by his enthusiasm, and leave the
little circle freshly inspired and ready to fight on.
To those who were striving to do their best with-
out, perhaps, much good result, he would say:
“ Courage, on arrive peu a peu,” leaving them with
a gleam of hope rather than in absolute despair.
But the most laboured model ran a risk of being
torn down, and the dismayed student would find
that it had to be begun again from the beginning.
One of the most dreaded phrases was : “You have
tried to finish before you have begun.” To all,
however, he invariably showed the greatest personal
kindness, and his courtesy acted like magic, meeting
with an almost immediate response.
A well-known sculptor who studied under Prof.
Lanteri says: “ Within the modern school of
sculpture there has been one master only whom
30
• PAYSAN
BY EDWARD I.ANTERI
(In the Luxembourg, Paris, and Tate Gallery, London)
those who know and understand Lanteri’s work
and power would admit as his superior in the craft
as such, and that master is the giant Dalou. Like
Dalou, and like Sargent in painting, M. Lanteri
combines swift and true vision with the utmost of
rapid technical power. . . . He instantly per-
ceives and sums up the vital essentials of the
moment, and whilst his astonishingly rapid render-
ing of these gives a vivid and sympathetic appre-
ciation of the finer and subtler phases of external
nature, he yet ensures the presence in all his work
of the deeper, the more abiding, and essential
character of his subject. There can be no doubt
that had the exigencies of life led to Lanteri
devoting himself to the production of works of
sculpture, his name would have stood high amongst
the greatest men of his generation in art. But no
one who understands the inner nature of things
will regret his not having become a purely indi-
vidual practitioner. All over the land former pupils