Studio: international art (66.1915)

Wall Tablets and Memorials

MEMORIAL TO A HEADMASTER IN THE HALL OF A SCHOOL AT WEST BROM-
WICH. MEDALLION IS OXYDISED SILVER, PANELS IN COPPER. BY STANLEY
M. FOSTER, A.R.C.A. LOND.

be regarded lightly or dis-
missed casually as a mere
journeyman’s concern.

Certainly such perform-
ances as the wall memorials
to Sir W. S. Gilbert by Sir
George Frampton, to Cap-
tain Scott by Mr. Nicholson
Babb, to Coquelin by Mr.
Gilbert Bayes, and to
Andrew Lang by Mr. Percy
Portsmouth rise monu-
mentally above the level
of the stonemason’s craft,
and cannot be dismissed
by even the most captious
of critics as unworthy to
rank among the more
memorable examples of
modern art. And certainly
the work of the other sculp-
tors represented in these
illustrations, the work of

to the occasion and that
which misses its opportuni-
ties by pursuing unworthy
ideals.

So, of the smaller memo-
rials which have been exe-
cuted during recent years a
remarkably large proportion
can be accepted as entirely
adequate in their fulfilment
of the purpose which they
were required to serve.
Many of them are works of
unquestionable power and of
undeniable charm, and there
are few which do not show a
real measure of artistic merit.
Sculptors of distinction have
produced them and have
laboured sincerely to give
them the right spirit and to
keep alive in them the tra-
ditions which were followed
by the great masters in times
gone by—and these sculptors
have proved by the manner
of their working that in their
eyes the small memorial does
not, because it is small, seem
to be a thing which should
194

MEMORIAL TO ANDREW LANG AT SELKIRK. BY PERCY PORTSMOUTH, A.R.S.A.