DOI Heft:
No. 264 (1915)
DOI Artikel:Folliott Stokes, A. G.: Alfred Hartley, painter and etcher
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21212#0105
Alfred Hartley, Painter and Etcher
ALFRED HARTLEY, PAINTER
Z\ AND ETCHER. BY A. G.
/v FOLLIOTT STOKES.
It is not often that men look as we expect them to
look, judging from the works they have produced
and the deeds they have done. There is a spirit
of contrariety that seems to govern these matters.
Thus artists do not generally conform in their
outward appearance to the ideal figure the world
has by universal consent decided that they should
possess : and prizefighters have before now been
mistaken for bishops.
Alfred Hartley, whose work this article is about
to discuss, is, however, an exception to the above
rule. For no man could be more artistic than he
looks. There is a glint of joyful alertness in his
keen grey eyes which, combined with the delicate
contours of his face and figure, would at once
suggest the artist to the least observant. And this
look of happy alertness is more mental than
physical. In early manhood Hartley met with
a severe accident that lamed him for life. This
abrupt termination to an unusually athletic youth
was powerless to curb his spirit, though it exercised
a cruel control over his physical activities. This
control, as every landscape painter will realise,
must have seriously handicapped him in his work.
But landscape has only been one of the channels
through which his artistic personality has en-
deavoured to express itself. Symphonies in colour,
in line, and in mass have appealed to him with
equal insistence. Few men have been more
versatile. His landscapes have many admirers
among the cognoscenti. His etchings, both in
line and aquatint, together with his colour-prints,
have achieved European recognition; while as a
portrait painter he has had considerable success.
It is hot proposed to deal with his portrait work in
this article, but I may be permitted to mention that
between 1889 and 1899, amongst the many notable
people painted and drawn by him, were the late
Lord Randolph Churchill, the late Lord Russell of
Ivillowen, and the present Prime Minister.
“the estuary”
ALFRED HARTLEY, PAINTER
Z\ AND ETCHER. BY A. G.
/v FOLLIOTT STOKES.
It is not often that men look as we expect them to
look, judging from the works they have produced
and the deeds they have done. There is a spirit
of contrariety that seems to govern these matters.
Thus artists do not generally conform in their
outward appearance to the ideal figure the world
has by universal consent decided that they should
possess : and prizefighters have before now been
mistaken for bishops.
Alfred Hartley, whose work this article is about
to discuss, is, however, an exception to the above
rule. For no man could be more artistic than he
looks. There is a glint of joyful alertness in his
keen grey eyes which, combined with the delicate
contours of his face and figure, would at once
suggest the artist to the least observant. And this
look of happy alertness is more mental than
physical. In early manhood Hartley met with
a severe accident that lamed him for life. This
abrupt termination to an unusually athletic youth
was powerless to curb his spirit, though it exercised
a cruel control over his physical activities. This
control, as every landscape painter will realise,
must have seriously handicapped him in his work.
But landscape has only been one of the channels
through which his artistic personality has en-
deavoured to express itself. Symphonies in colour,
in line, and in mass have appealed to him with
equal insistence. Few men have been more
versatile. His landscapes have many admirers
among the cognoscenti. His etchings, both in
line and aquatint, together with his colour-prints,
have achieved European recognition; while as a
portrait painter he has had considerable success.
It is hot proposed to deal with his portrait work in
this article, but I may be permitted to mention that
between 1889 and 1899, amongst the many notable
people painted and drawn by him, were the late
Lord Randolph Churchill, the late Lord Russell of
Ivillowen, and the present Prime Minister.
“the estuary”