DOI Heft:
No. 277 (April 1916)
DOI Artikel:Reddie, Arthur: The work of Hugh Bellingham Smith: An appreciation by Arthur Reddie
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21261#0180
Hugh Bellingham Smith
One can find no suggestion of plagiarism in
work so personal and sincere as that with which
we are dealing, but yet there is the same spirit,
the same poetic feeling, animating these modern
works as that which compels our admiration of the
productions of the masters just named. But of
all, in a certain purity, in a certain classic restraint,
it seems to me that it is with Claude that Belling-
ham Smith shows the closest artistic affinity.
Claude has been described as “an admirable and
impeccable master, who more than any other land-
scape painter puts us out of conceit with our cities,
and makes us forget the country can be graceless and
dull and tiresome. That he should ever have been
compared unfavourably with Turner—the Wiertz
of landscape-painting — seems almost incredible.
Corot is Claude’s only worthy rival, but he does
not eclipse or supplant the earlier master. A
painting of Corot’s is like an exquisite lyric poem,
full of love and truth; whilst one of Claude’s
recalls some noble eclogue glowing with rich con-
centrated thought.” The quotation is from a foot-
note in Beardsley’s “ Under the Hill,” and, though
perhaps a little wide of the matter in hand, is
amusing for its hot-headed injustice to Turner;
but the comparison between Corot and Claude is
surely admirable in its lucid perception of the
characteristics of the two masters.
It is in the fusion of intellectual with emotional
qualities in the work of the artist wTe are discussing
that one finds his kinship with the earlier French
master to be apparent; in a certain clarity of
statement, in the simplicity of his harmonies, in
a purity of expression emphasised in the purity of
technique. Beauty of form and beauty of colour
go hand in hand in Bellingham Smith’s work, and
always with a quietness and restraint which seems
content to await rather than actively to court
appreciation. His landscape and figure subjects
alike are instinct with charming poetic feeling, the
more rare and pleasing because of its entire un-
affectedness. The artist might desire us to spare
his blushes, but one must write enthusiastically
where one feels enthusiastically, and this article is
concerned with an appreciation of his work, leaving
it to those who have taken no pleasure in it to
pick holes in it wherever they can.
Just a few words about the man before we come
teesdale
OIL PAINTING BY HUGH BELLINGHAM SMITH
One can find no suggestion of plagiarism in
work so personal and sincere as that with which
we are dealing, but yet there is the same spirit,
the same poetic feeling, animating these modern
works as that which compels our admiration of the
productions of the masters just named. But of
all, in a certain purity, in a certain classic restraint,
it seems to me that it is with Claude that Belling-
ham Smith shows the closest artistic affinity.
Claude has been described as “an admirable and
impeccable master, who more than any other land-
scape painter puts us out of conceit with our cities,
and makes us forget the country can be graceless and
dull and tiresome. That he should ever have been
compared unfavourably with Turner—the Wiertz
of landscape-painting — seems almost incredible.
Corot is Claude’s only worthy rival, but he does
not eclipse or supplant the earlier master. A
painting of Corot’s is like an exquisite lyric poem,
full of love and truth; whilst one of Claude’s
recalls some noble eclogue glowing with rich con-
centrated thought.” The quotation is from a foot-
note in Beardsley’s “ Under the Hill,” and, though
perhaps a little wide of the matter in hand, is
amusing for its hot-headed injustice to Turner;
but the comparison between Corot and Claude is
surely admirable in its lucid perception of the
characteristics of the two masters.
It is in the fusion of intellectual with emotional
qualities in the work of the artist wTe are discussing
that one finds his kinship with the earlier French
master to be apparent; in a certain clarity of
statement, in the simplicity of his harmonies, in
a purity of expression emphasised in the purity of
technique. Beauty of form and beauty of colour
go hand in hand in Bellingham Smith’s work, and
always with a quietness and restraint which seems
content to await rather than actively to court
appreciation. His landscape and figure subjects
alike are instinct with charming poetic feeling, the
more rare and pleasing because of its entire un-
affectedness. The artist might desire us to spare
his blushes, but one must write enthusiastically
where one feels enthusiastically, and this article is
concerned with an appreciation of his work, leaving
it to those who have taken no pleasure in it to
pick holes in it wherever they can.
Just a few words about the man before we come
teesdale
OIL PAINTING BY HUGH BELLINGHAM SMITH