DOI Heft:
No. 239 (February 1913)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The paintings and drawings of Frank Mura
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21160#0034
Frank Mura
landscape it is distinguished by a vivacious variety
of tint within tint which can be unreservedly
commended. He has, too, the colourist's sense of
balance and colour distribution, and he treats
difficult transitions with a sensitiveness that shows
the closeness and subtlety of his observation. By
virtue of this sensitiveness, indeed, he is entitled
to rank among the most sympathetic of_the present-
day exponents of open-air nature.
It is because he has this subtlety of colour sense
that he has been able to give to his work in black
and white a variety of tone and a depth of sug-
gestion far beyond what is in the ordinary way at-
tained by painters in monochrome. To black and
white work he has devoted himself with a wholly
admirable assiduity, and he has chosen as his
medium one which has hitherto been far too little
considered by artists in this country—charcoal, the
most adaptable and responsive of all the materials
at the disposal of the black and white draughts-
man. His charcoal drawings—or, as they can be
far more approximately called, paintings, so full are
they of painterlike richness of texture and expres-
siveness of touch—have made him famous and
have gained for him unquestioned recognition as one
of the greater masters of black and white.
He understands extraordinarily well iust what
charcoal will do in the rendering of the tenderest
gradations of tone and in the realisation of the
most delicate relations of light and shade; he
knows exactly how it will serve him in the sugges-
tion of colour and how it will give him the trans-
parency and elusiveness of atmospheric effects.
Indeed, so much has he achieved in this branch
of his practice that had he never shown to us his
gifts as a painter in colour we could have accepted
him unhesitatingly as an artist of rare distinction on
the strength of his charcoal paintings alone.
His oil paintings and his works in charcoal are
not his only contributions to modern art. His
pencil drawings, done with the softest of leads,
and his etchings, must be reckoned as equally en-
titled to attention in any review of his accomplish-
ment. But whatever the medium with which he
happens at the moment to be occupied, there is
never lacking that sedulous effort to reach the highest
at which he can grasp which has been characteristic
of his whole career. A. L. Baldry.
[For permission to reproduce the various paint-
ings and drawings by Mr. Mura which illustrate
the foregoing article we are indebted to Messrs.
P. and D. Colnaghi and Obach, of New Bond
Street, London.—The Editor.]
9h> . -ismm
trap
" THE POND"
12
FROM A CHARCOAL DRAWING BY FRANK MURA
landscape it is distinguished by a vivacious variety
of tint within tint which can be unreservedly
commended. He has, too, the colourist's sense of
balance and colour distribution, and he treats
difficult transitions with a sensitiveness that shows
the closeness and subtlety of his observation. By
virtue of this sensitiveness, indeed, he is entitled
to rank among the most sympathetic of_the present-
day exponents of open-air nature.
It is because he has this subtlety of colour sense
that he has been able to give to his work in black
and white a variety of tone and a depth of sug-
gestion far beyond what is in the ordinary way at-
tained by painters in monochrome. To black and
white work he has devoted himself with a wholly
admirable assiduity, and he has chosen as his
medium one which has hitherto been far too little
considered by artists in this country—charcoal, the
most adaptable and responsive of all the materials
at the disposal of the black and white draughts-
man. His charcoal drawings—or, as they can be
far more approximately called, paintings, so full are
they of painterlike richness of texture and expres-
siveness of touch—have made him famous and
have gained for him unquestioned recognition as one
of the greater masters of black and white.
He understands extraordinarily well iust what
charcoal will do in the rendering of the tenderest
gradations of tone and in the realisation of the
most delicate relations of light and shade; he
knows exactly how it will serve him in the sugges-
tion of colour and how it will give him the trans-
parency and elusiveness of atmospheric effects.
Indeed, so much has he achieved in this branch
of his practice that had he never shown to us his
gifts as a painter in colour we could have accepted
him unhesitatingly as an artist of rare distinction on
the strength of his charcoal paintings alone.
His oil paintings and his works in charcoal are
not his only contributions to modern art. His
pencil drawings, done with the softest of leads,
and his etchings, must be reckoned as equally en-
titled to attention in any review of his accomplish-
ment. But whatever the medium with which he
happens at the moment to be occupied, there is
never lacking that sedulous effort to reach the highest
at which he can grasp which has been characteristic
of his whole career. A. L. Baldry.
[For permission to reproduce the various paint-
ings and drawings by Mr. Mura which illustrate
the foregoing article we are indebted to Messrs.
P. and D. Colnaghi and Obach, of New Bond
Street, London.—The Editor.]
9h> . -ismm
trap
" THE POND"
12
FROM A CHARCOAL DRAWING BY FRANK MURA