DOI Heft:
No. 241 (April 1913)
DOI Artikel:Finberg, Alexander Joseph: Mr. J. Walter West's landscapes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21160#0200
Mr. Walter West's Landscapes
from a lead-pencil drawing by j. walter west, r.w.s.
MR. J. WALTER WEST'S LAND- only one lower step of degradation. The biggest
SCAPES BY ALEXANDER T duffers ar"d tne most unfortunate had to go into
■FINBERG.
business or turn art critics.
These ideas, I say, were rife among the art
It is customary, I believe, among tutors at the students of my time. We have most of us, I
universities to advise their students whose intellec- think, by this time seen good cause to revise and
tual faculties appear to be of a second-rate order alter them. No doubt a good many artists think,
not to attempt to take their degrees in classical or as Sir William Richmond does, that those critics
philosophical subjects, but to devote themselves to who do not agree with them ought to be tortured
historical research. When I was a student at the and hanged ; but the common sense of the com-
art schools in London and Paris I remember that munity has come to perceive that critics have
we used to look upon landscape painting very a certain definite, if restricted, sphere of usefulness
much in the same way as the university dons regard in the intellectual life of the times. There is
the study of history. It appeared to us as a safe something more to be said for them beyond the
kind of refuge for those students whose natural obvious fact that they are not great artists,
powers did not permit them to hope to succeed But it is not with the status of the critic that I am
in the higher ranks of art. It was a matter of immediately concerned in this article. What I
common observation that students who could only wish to draw attention to is the landscape work of
turn out very weak and wooden drawings and an artist who has already achieved a great reputa-
paintings from the life were
able. to produce quite re-
spectable representations of
landscapes and buildings.
The intimate knowledge of
anatomy, and the subtle,
delicate, and accurate per-
ception of form necessary
for the figure-painter seemed
hardly required for land-
scape painting. So we came
to look upon landscape
painting as a kind of half-
way house between artistic
glory and success, and
ignominy and failure. The
happy and gifted student
naturally became a great '^&k%>- """'^^
figure-painter; the less *g$K f
gifted and fortunate had to . ' " ' ■
fall back on landscape and „ qld th0rns; beverley west wood." from a lead-pencil drawing
animal painting. There was by j. Walter west, r.w.s.
LVIII. No. 241.—April 1913 177
from a lead-pencil drawing by j. walter west, r.w.s.
MR. J. WALTER WEST'S LAND- only one lower step of degradation. The biggest
SCAPES BY ALEXANDER T duffers ar"d tne most unfortunate had to go into
■FINBERG.
business or turn art critics.
These ideas, I say, were rife among the art
It is customary, I believe, among tutors at the students of my time. We have most of us, I
universities to advise their students whose intellec- think, by this time seen good cause to revise and
tual faculties appear to be of a second-rate order alter them. No doubt a good many artists think,
not to attempt to take their degrees in classical or as Sir William Richmond does, that those critics
philosophical subjects, but to devote themselves to who do not agree with them ought to be tortured
historical research. When I was a student at the and hanged ; but the common sense of the com-
art schools in London and Paris I remember that munity has come to perceive that critics have
we used to look upon landscape painting very a certain definite, if restricted, sphere of usefulness
much in the same way as the university dons regard in the intellectual life of the times. There is
the study of history. It appeared to us as a safe something more to be said for them beyond the
kind of refuge for those students whose natural obvious fact that they are not great artists,
powers did not permit them to hope to succeed But it is not with the status of the critic that I am
in the higher ranks of art. It was a matter of immediately concerned in this article. What I
common observation that students who could only wish to draw attention to is the landscape work of
turn out very weak and wooden drawings and an artist who has already achieved a great reputa-
paintings from the life were
able. to produce quite re-
spectable representations of
landscapes and buildings.
The intimate knowledge of
anatomy, and the subtle,
delicate, and accurate per-
ception of form necessary
for the figure-painter seemed
hardly required for land-
scape painting. So we came
to look upon landscape
painting as a kind of half-
way house between artistic
glory and success, and
ignominy and failure. The
happy and gifted student
naturally became a great '^&k%>- """'^^
figure-painter; the less *g$K f
gifted and fortunate had to . ' " ' ■
fall back on landscape and „ qld th0rns; beverley west wood." from a lead-pencil drawing
animal painting. There was by j. Walter west, r.w.s.
LVIII. No. 241.—April 1913 177