DOI Heft:
No. 268 (July 1915)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21213#0166
The Lay Figure
THE LAY FIGURE: ON VISUAL-
ISED EMOTIONS.
“ Are we beginning to forget what drawing
means ? ” asked the Art Critic. “ The modern
school, as it seems to me, is abandoning all idea of
fine draughtsmanship as it used to be understood
and practised. I must confess that a great many
of the drawings I come across nowadays are diffi-
cult to understand; often, in fact, they are quite
incomprehensible.”
“ That is because you are not properly attuned
to the modern point of view,” laughed the Man
with the Red Tie. “Clearly, the right revelation
has not been vouchsafed to you; the great light
has not illumined your mental darkness—you are
behind the times.”
“ I daresay that has something to do with it,”
agreed the Critic. “ I suppose I am a bit old-
fashioned and find some difficulty in getting used
to the newest notions. But still I should have
thought that the principles of good draughtsman-
ship were fairly well fixed and that no change in
fashion would be likely to alter them to any ap-
preciable extent.”
“You are old-fashioned indeed,” broke in the
Zigzaggist; “if you can still talk about the prin-
ciples of drawing ! Why, the very term sounds
like the title of some ancient text-book. Prin-
ciples, forsooth! Who cares about principles in
drawing ? ”
“Gently, my friend, gently! You take my
breath away,” pleaded the Critic. “There are
principles in most things ; why should there not be
principles in drawing ? ”
“ Because the draughtsman draws to express his
emotions, not to prove his subservience to rules,”
declared the Zigzaggist. “ His drawings are visual-
isations of his mental visions ; do you expect him
to think by rule ? ”
“ Now, I should have thought that a drawing
was an expression of something the draughtsman
had seen,” interrupted the Man with the Red Tie;
“ and that it was a statement of fact rather than a
visualisation of a mental vision. Surely facts and
the methods of stating them are subject to some
sort of rule ? ”
“You people bore me inexpressibly,” sighed the
Zigzaggist. “ How hopeless it is to try to make you
understand ! We modern thinkers in art are not
slaves to fact; we are interpreters of subtle feeling ;
we deal with emotional impressions. What are
dull, dry facts to us who are preaching the gospel
of sensations ? ”
146
“And if there are queer twists in your emotions
we must, I suppose, expect queer twists in your
drawings,” laughed the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Well, I must give you full credit for the way in
which you come up to our expectations. Judging
by the work you do there must be some quaint
surprises in this gospel of sensations which you
profess to preach.”
“ I wonder at your want of perception,” declared
the Zigzaggist; “ but I am unmoved by your sense-
less scoffing. It is the fate of the apostle of every
new creed to be misunderstood and misrepresented
by the vulgar herd. Every great Truth has been
decried at the beginning and its advocates ridiculed,
and yet it has won its way in the end. You laugh
at me now but the day will come when you will
think with me.”
“ Heaven save me from that! ” cried the Critic.
“ If your drawings represent your emotions, I can
only say that I am sorry for you, because I think
that you must suffer from a permanent mental
discomfort. I am not anxious to catch the
complaint.”
“ Is it a complaint or is it merely a pose ? ” asked
the Man with the Red Tie. “ It is so much easier
to draw badly than to draw well that I am always
inclined to regard with suspicion the bad draughts-
man who gives high-flown reasons for his incom-
petence.”
“ There, I think, you have hit on a real truth,”
assented the Critic. “ I feel, with you, that gospels
of sensations and all those kinds of clap-trap are
often invented as evasions of the difficulties of art.
In this matter of drawing I believe the men who
talk about visualised emotions and so on are as
often as not idlers who will not take the trouble to
learn their trade. They follow the line of least
resistance, and it leads them into absurdities.”
“You hopeless barbarian !” exclaimed the Zig-
zaggist. “ I do not believe you know what drawing
means.”
“ Oh, yes I do,” replied the Critic. “ It means
the realisation of something you have seen, the
statement of facts sensitively studied and thought-
fully recorded. The more subtle truth and delicate
actuality there is in it the better it is and the more
worthy to rank as art. A fine drawing is one in
which an infinity of observation is expressed with
perfect manual dexterity. You have only to look
at the drawings of the great masters, no matter to
what school they belong, to be convinced of this ;
fine draughtsmanship was sedulously cultivated by
them, and modern artists would do well to follow
their example.” The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE: ON VISUAL-
ISED EMOTIONS.
“ Are we beginning to forget what drawing
means ? ” asked the Art Critic. “ The modern
school, as it seems to me, is abandoning all idea of
fine draughtsmanship as it used to be understood
and practised. I must confess that a great many
of the drawings I come across nowadays are diffi-
cult to understand; often, in fact, they are quite
incomprehensible.”
“ That is because you are not properly attuned
to the modern point of view,” laughed the Man
with the Red Tie. “Clearly, the right revelation
has not been vouchsafed to you; the great light
has not illumined your mental darkness—you are
behind the times.”
“ I daresay that has something to do with it,”
agreed the Critic. “ I suppose I am a bit old-
fashioned and find some difficulty in getting used
to the newest notions. But still I should have
thought that the principles of good draughtsman-
ship were fairly well fixed and that no change in
fashion would be likely to alter them to any ap-
preciable extent.”
“You are old-fashioned indeed,” broke in the
Zigzaggist; “if you can still talk about the prin-
ciples of drawing ! Why, the very term sounds
like the title of some ancient text-book. Prin-
ciples, forsooth! Who cares about principles in
drawing ? ”
“Gently, my friend, gently! You take my
breath away,” pleaded the Critic. “There are
principles in most things ; why should there not be
principles in drawing ? ”
“ Because the draughtsman draws to express his
emotions, not to prove his subservience to rules,”
declared the Zigzaggist. “ His drawings are visual-
isations of his mental visions ; do you expect him
to think by rule ? ”
“ Now, I should have thought that a drawing
was an expression of something the draughtsman
had seen,” interrupted the Man with the Red Tie;
“ and that it was a statement of fact rather than a
visualisation of a mental vision. Surely facts and
the methods of stating them are subject to some
sort of rule ? ”
“You people bore me inexpressibly,” sighed the
Zigzaggist. “ How hopeless it is to try to make you
understand ! We modern thinkers in art are not
slaves to fact; we are interpreters of subtle feeling ;
we deal with emotional impressions. What are
dull, dry facts to us who are preaching the gospel
of sensations ? ”
146
“And if there are queer twists in your emotions
we must, I suppose, expect queer twists in your
drawings,” laughed the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Well, I must give you full credit for the way in
which you come up to our expectations. Judging
by the work you do there must be some quaint
surprises in this gospel of sensations which you
profess to preach.”
“ I wonder at your want of perception,” declared
the Zigzaggist; “ but I am unmoved by your sense-
less scoffing. It is the fate of the apostle of every
new creed to be misunderstood and misrepresented
by the vulgar herd. Every great Truth has been
decried at the beginning and its advocates ridiculed,
and yet it has won its way in the end. You laugh
at me now but the day will come when you will
think with me.”
“ Heaven save me from that! ” cried the Critic.
“ If your drawings represent your emotions, I can
only say that I am sorry for you, because I think
that you must suffer from a permanent mental
discomfort. I am not anxious to catch the
complaint.”
“ Is it a complaint or is it merely a pose ? ” asked
the Man with the Red Tie. “ It is so much easier
to draw badly than to draw well that I am always
inclined to regard with suspicion the bad draughts-
man who gives high-flown reasons for his incom-
petence.”
“ There, I think, you have hit on a real truth,”
assented the Critic. “ I feel, with you, that gospels
of sensations and all those kinds of clap-trap are
often invented as evasions of the difficulties of art.
In this matter of drawing I believe the men who
talk about visualised emotions and so on are as
often as not idlers who will not take the trouble to
learn their trade. They follow the line of least
resistance, and it leads them into absurdities.”
“You hopeless barbarian !” exclaimed the Zig-
zaggist. “ I do not believe you know what drawing
means.”
“ Oh, yes I do,” replied the Critic. “ It means
the realisation of something you have seen, the
statement of facts sensitively studied and thought-
fully recorded. The more subtle truth and delicate
actuality there is in it the better it is and the more
worthy to rank as art. A fine drawing is one in
which an infinity of observation is expressed with
perfect manual dexterity. You have only to look
at the drawings of the great masters, no matter to
what school they belong, to be convinced of this ;
fine draughtsmanship was sedulously cultivated by
them, and modern artists would do well to follow
their example.” The Lay Figure.