DOI Heft:
No. 265 (April 1915)
DOI Artikel:Reddie, Arthur: Water-colours and oil paintings by S. J. Lamorna Birch, R.W.S.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21212#0176
IVater-Colours and Paintings by S. J. Lamorna Birch
any clear message, any real emotion underlying
their oft-times technically capable work, the walls
of our exhibitions afford us sufficient proof; but
we have also, fortunately, a number of land-
scapists who take the highest view of their responsi-
bilities and whose admirable works are enriching
the art of our generation. Among these must
be counted some who have made their home in
Cornwall—Newlyn, Penzance, and St. Ives in
particular—where living and working in close com-
munion with nature they are producing works
which, by their truth, their unaffectedness, their
freedom from pose and extravagance, make a
distinct claim upon our attention; and in the
warm and generous meed of praise rightly due to
these painters, whose sincerity and love of nature
burn so brightly in their art, we must not forget
to eulogise one whose share in that praise deserves
to be no small one.
Although from time to time reproductions of
Mr. Lamorna Birch’s pictures have appeared in
these pages, this is the first occasion upon which
an article has been devoted to his work ; and it
comes now appropriately following close upon his
election to full membership of the Royal Society
of Painters in Water Colours. In 1912 he became
an associate, and his promotion in November last
was well deserved. Born at Egremont, Cheshire,
in 1869, Mr. Birch, while at first following an un-
congenial career, used to spend all his spare time in
sketching out-of-doors, and in fishing, for which he
confesses he would sell his soul! And as we look
at his work in general, and at certain of the repro-
ductions here given of his pictures, can we not
recognise, in the skill with which he gives the
impression of running water, that knowledge which
no one but a fisherman could have so fully, of all
the impetuosity of a rippling stream and all the
hidden and unsuspected strength of the swiftly and
silently gliding river up which the angler wades
waist-high with rod and line in search of his quarry ?
Save for a few months spent in Paris in 1906 (the
any clear message, any real emotion underlying
their oft-times technically capable work, the walls
of our exhibitions afford us sufficient proof; but
we have also, fortunately, a number of land-
scapists who take the highest view of their responsi-
bilities and whose admirable works are enriching
the art of our generation. Among these must
be counted some who have made their home in
Cornwall—Newlyn, Penzance, and St. Ives in
particular—where living and working in close com-
munion with nature they are producing works
which, by their truth, their unaffectedness, their
freedom from pose and extravagance, make a
distinct claim upon our attention; and in the
warm and generous meed of praise rightly due to
these painters, whose sincerity and love of nature
burn so brightly in their art, we must not forget
to eulogise one whose share in that praise deserves
to be no small one.
Although from time to time reproductions of
Mr. Lamorna Birch’s pictures have appeared in
these pages, this is the first occasion upon which
an article has been devoted to his work ; and it
comes now appropriately following close upon his
election to full membership of the Royal Society
of Painters in Water Colours. In 1912 he became
an associate, and his promotion in November last
was well deserved. Born at Egremont, Cheshire,
in 1869, Mr. Birch, while at first following an un-
congenial career, used to spend all his spare time in
sketching out-of-doors, and in fishing, for which he
confesses he would sell his soul! And as we look
at his work in general, and at certain of the repro-
ductions here given of his pictures, can we not
recognise, in the skill with which he gives the
impression of running water, that knowledge which
no one but a fisherman could have so fully, of all
the impetuosity of a rippling stream and all the
hidden and unsuspected strength of the swiftly and
silently gliding river up which the angler wades
waist-high with rod and line in search of his quarry ?
Save for a few months spent in Paris in 1906 (the