DOI Heft:
No. 254 (June 1914)
DOI Artikel:Stodart-Walker, Archibald: The art of John Lavery, R.S.A., A.R.A., etc.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21210#0032
John Lavery, R.S.A., A.R.A.
which some critics consider Mr. Lavery's greatest canvas prevents the "rough" observer from ade-
achievement. His landscapes, like his sitters, quately appreciating.
bring their own message and Lavery gives the Mr. Lavery's output has been so generous that
answer on the spot. His power of grasping a this summary of his achievement may seem
passing mood of nature is little short of astounding, inadequate and cursory. It cannot profess to be
In his Skating, where the first breath of the anything else. One would like to dwell on well-
coming snow wraps a delicate envelope of grey remembered canvases, such as his study in the
white on the landscape, he not only captures nude from Mr. Robert Strathern's collection and
the moment and gives it its true values, but he is able called Ariadne, a delicately treated study of a
to translate the change in the values of snow, ice and female facing the waves on a wind-swept shore,
hillside in the terms of the metamorphosis. All this Primarily a painter of women, one cannot forget
is placed on the canvas without hesitation and with some of his male portraits, of which Mr. P. J.
a knowledge of the capacities of paint, which in Mr. Ford as a Royal Archer is a notable example, while
Lavery's case never fails. Like all artists he is quite recently he has given us his friend and
selective, but not in the sense of avoiding an essential admirer, Auguste Rodin; but of all his portraits of
which presents an intricate problem. Carrying his men none can compare with his superb R. B.
own artistic distance with him, the problems of Cunningham* Graham, which is one of the
perspective present no
dilemma. Nature may
weave a tangled web—but
he is quick to unravel it.
And in blending figure
studies into landscape he
homologates his distin-
guished powers, and pro-
duces such a thing of
charm as Japa?iese Switzer-
land, one of the most
poetically conceived things
that modern art has pro-
duced.
Of other aspects of the
painter's genius we may
make a passing note of his
effective interiors such as
The Grey Draining-Roam
and The Greyhound. Apart
from all other qualities
fit for our admiration the
great Royal group brings
out the painter's greatness
as an interior painter. Note
the subtle blending ol
colour in the atmosphere,
the full grasp of the per
spective values, the un-
erring chiaroscuro. The
same is seen in his great
studio group now on exhi-
bition at the Royal
Academy, which only the
ineffectiveness of Burling-
ton House to display to
advantage such a large " lady diana manners" (1913) by john lavery, r.s.a., a.r.a.
12
which some critics consider Mr. Lavery's greatest canvas prevents the "rough" observer from ade-
achievement. His landscapes, like his sitters, quately appreciating.
bring their own message and Lavery gives the Mr. Lavery's output has been so generous that
answer on the spot. His power of grasping a this summary of his achievement may seem
passing mood of nature is little short of astounding, inadequate and cursory. It cannot profess to be
In his Skating, where the first breath of the anything else. One would like to dwell on well-
coming snow wraps a delicate envelope of grey remembered canvases, such as his study in the
white on the landscape, he not only captures nude from Mr. Robert Strathern's collection and
the moment and gives it its true values, but he is able called Ariadne, a delicately treated study of a
to translate the change in the values of snow, ice and female facing the waves on a wind-swept shore,
hillside in the terms of the metamorphosis. All this Primarily a painter of women, one cannot forget
is placed on the canvas without hesitation and with some of his male portraits, of which Mr. P. J.
a knowledge of the capacities of paint, which in Mr. Ford as a Royal Archer is a notable example, while
Lavery's case never fails. Like all artists he is quite recently he has given us his friend and
selective, but not in the sense of avoiding an essential admirer, Auguste Rodin; but of all his portraits of
which presents an intricate problem. Carrying his men none can compare with his superb R. B.
own artistic distance with him, the problems of Cunningham* Graham, which is one of the
perspective present no
dilemma. Nature may
weave a tangled web—but
he is quick to unravel it.
And in blending figure
studies into landscape he
homologates his distin-
guished powers, and pro-
duces such a thing of
charm as Japa?iese Switzer-
land, one of the most
poetically conceived things
that modern art has pro-
duced.
Of other aspects of the
painter's genius we may
make a passing note of his
effective interiors such as
The Grey Draining-Roam
and The Greyhound. Apart
from all other qualities
fit for our admiration the
great Royal group brings
out the painter's greatness
as an interior painter. Note
the subtle blending ol
colour in the atmosphere,
the full grasp of the per
spective values, the un-
erring chiaroscuro. The
same is seen in his great
studio group now on exhi-
bition at the Royal
Academy, which only the
ineffectiveness of Burling-
ton House to display to
advantage such a large " lady diana manners" (1913) by john lavery, r.s.a., a.r.a.
12