DOI Artikel:
Finberg, Alexander Joseph: The wood-cuts of T. Sturge Moore
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21214#0035
The Wood-Cuts of T. Sturge Moore
most of our life-studies by the blackest black
which charcoal was capable. Imagine, then the
mingled feelings of horror, shame and mdignatio
with which Sparkes,
when he dropped in
on one of his very
rare visits of inspec-
tion, would con-
template a roomful
of about forty draw-
ings all blacker than
ink, with jagged con-
tours as though the
forms had been
hastily chopped out
of wood ! Imagine
the expression on his
handsome face as
he compared our ,
sombre and hideous representations "it 1
gleaming white forms of the pretty model w
posed on the “ throne ” in the centre of the room.
He seldom stayed long with us. He couldn t,
our uncouth
drawings evi-
dently got on
his nerves.
Sometimes he
would try the
effect of gentle
suasion on one
of the more
harmless-look-
ing students,
patiently argu-
ing that the
contour of
a rounded
shoulder was
actually a
series of deli-
cate curves,
and not a lot of
jerky straight
jabs. He
also pointed
out that our
models were
white men and
women, and
not negroes and negresses. But all his entreaties
and arguments were lost on us, for none o us
liked the man, and I really think we took malicious
pleasure in exaggerating Smith s manneris
because we enjoyed Sparkes’s disapproval. On
one occasion, when all our drawings were even
blacker and smudgier than usual, I remember that
Sparkes, after a brief,
hurried look round,
had fled incon-
tinently from the
room, murmuring
under his breath,
“ If only charcoal
were a guinea a
stick ! ” That night
we all went home to
our suppers in a
state of hilarious
happiness.
But if we generally
worked according
to Smith’s precepts,
chiefly because it “riled Sparkes,” .we also some-
times worked against them, expressly to annoy
Smith. Some dainty Mulready-cum-Raphaelesque
drawings done in this way by one of the most bril-
liant students
so delighted
Sparkes that
they brought
a just punish-
ment on the
head of their
clever perpe-
trator. He
was awarded a
silver or gold
medal—I for-
get which—at
the next Na-
tional Compe-
tition at South
Kensington, a
tribunal for
whose judg-
ments this par-
ticular student
had always
expressed the
most withering
contempt. He
really regarded
the intended
honour as an insult, and felt heartily ashamed of
his joke. His fellow-students made the most of
their opportunity and subjected him to a merciless
stream of chaff.
T. STURGE MOORE
passions.” book-plate designed and
diligence taming the .passions
ENGRAVED BY T. STURGE MOORE
. .r Dnd.o^nn. Rs(l. )
29
most of our life-studies by the blackest black
which charcoal was capable. Imagine, then the
mingled feelings of horror, shame and mdignatio
with which Sparkes,
when he dropped in
on one of his very
rare visits of inspec-
tion, would con-
template a roomful
of about forty draw-
ings all blacker than
ink, with jagged con-
tours as though the
forms had been
hastily chopped out
of wood ! Imagine
the expression on his
handsome face as
he compared our ,
sombre and hideous representations "it 1
gleaming white forms of the pretty model w
posed on the “ throne ” in the centre of the room.
He seldom stayed long with us. He couldn t,
our uncouth
drawings evi-
dently got on
his nerves.
Sometimes he
would try the
effect of gentle
suasion on one
of the more
harmless-look-
ing students,
patiently argu-
ing that the
contour of
a rounded
shoulder was
actually a
series of deli-
cate curves,
and not a lot of
jerky straight
jabs. He
also pointed
out that our
models were
white men and
women, and
not negroes and negresses. But all his entreaties
and arguments were lost on us, for none o us
liked the man, and I really think we took malicious
pleasure in exaggerating Smith s manneris
because we enjoyed Sparkes’s disapproval. On
one occasion, when all our drawings were even
blacker and smudgier than usual, I remember that
Sparkes, after a brief,
hurried look round,
had fled incon-
tinently from the
room, murmuring
under his breath,
“ If only charcoal
were a guinea a
stick ! ” That night
we all went home to
our suppers in a
state of hilarious
happiness.
But if we generally
worked according
to Smith’s precepts,
chiefly because it “riled Sparkes,” .we also some-
times worked against them, expressly to annoy
Smith. Some dainty Mulready-cum-Raphaelesque
drawings done in this way by one of the most bril-
liant students
so delighted
Sparkes that
they brought
a just punish-
ment on the
head of their
clever perpe-
trator. He
was awarded a
silver or gold
medal—I for-
get which—at
the next Na-
tional Compe-
tition at South
Kensington, a
tribunal for
whose judg-
ments this par-
ticular student
had always
expressed the
most withering
contempt. He
really regarded
the intended
honour as an insult, and felt heartily ashamed of
his joke. His fellow-students made the most of
their opportunity and subjected him to a merciless
stream of chaff.
T. STURGE MOORE
passions.” book-plate designed and
diligence taming the .passions
ENGRAVED BY T. STURGE MOORE
. .r Dnd.o^nn. Rs(l. )
29