DOI Heft:
No. 280 (July 1916)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, J.: Some water-colour drawings by George Henry, A.R.A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21262#0094
Wafer-Colours by George Henry, A.R.A.
making excursion into the realm of oil, for experi-
mental or recreative purposes only ? It was an
idle reflection ! Our artist has too big a mind,
too comprehensive a grasp, to be bound by the
limitations and restrictions of any particular
medium; and as if to emphasise this, there was
introduced one big picture in oil, side by side with
the finished water-colour study of the subject, and
would it be believed—the extreme sensitiveness,
the rare subtlety, the tender delicacy, belonged
to the oil ?
Whistler is said to have loitered half a day over
his mixing-slab in quest of a particular but elusive
colour. Henry seems to have the most magically
appealing tints within easy call. There is nothing
more luminously harmonious in art to-day than
a finished Henry canvas : it is a tonal messenger,
sent into a world of drabbiness, fit to dispel the
doubt and gloom in danger of settling on men's
minds, because of the contradiction of most firmly
established traditions. It would not be too much
to say that the sparkling purity of the artist's
palette is a national as well as an individual asset;
in the days of ancient Greece it would have been
a dedication to the State.
No less exhilarating and delightful are the
water-colours dealing with Japanese life, charac-
ter, incident, custom, costume, and colour—on
the promenade, by the lake, at home, and at the
theatre; and those which deal with Western sub-
jects of landscape, sunlight, and figure. The
actual and potential value of all such as this is
beyond computation, for choice colour exercises
an influence on temperament, aye and on charac-
ter, quite incalculable. Have not French scientists
demonstrated conclusively that colour cures are
effectual in cases of temperamental disorder ?
And if colour has a curative faculty, what a world
of mitigation must lurk in its charm when it is
under the control of an artist so richly endowed
with a sense of its pictorial value ? It would
require no undue flight of fancy to imagine a
choice selection of Henry's water-colours placed
in a sympathetically decorated breakfast-room
and creating an atmosphere, an environment
that would induce imperturbable good humour,
making excursion into the realm of oil, for experi-
mental or recreative purposes only ? It was an
idle reflection ! Our artist has too big a mind,
too comprehensive a grasp, to be bound by the
limitations and restrictions of any particular
medium; and as if to emphasise this, there was
introduced one big picture in oil, side by side with
the finished water-colour study of the subject, and
would it be believed—the extreme sensitiveness,
the rare subtlety, the tender delicacy, belonged
to the oil ?
Whistler is said to have loitered half a day over
his mixing-slab in quest of a particular but elusive
colour. Henry seems to have the most magically
appealing tints within easy call. There is nothing
more luminously harmonious in art to-day than
a finished Henry canvas : it is a tonal messenger,
sent into a world of drabbiness, fit to dispel the
doubt and gloom in danger of settling on men's
minds, because of the contradiction of most firmly
established traditions. It would not be too much
to say that the sparkling purity of the artist's
palette is a national as well as an individual asset;
in the days of ancient Greece it would have been
a dedication to the State.
No less exhilarating and delightful are the
water-colours dealing with Japanese life, charac-
ter, incident, custom, costume, and colour—on
the promenade, by the lake, at home, and at the
theatre; and those which deal with Western sub-
jects of landscape, sunlight, and figure. The
actual and potential value of all such as this is
beyond computation, for choice colour exercises
an influence on temperament, aye and on charac-
ter, quite incalculable. Have not French scientists
demonstrated conclusively that colour cures are
effectual in cases of temperamental disorder ?
And if colour has a curative faculty, what a world
of mitigation must lurk in its charm when it is
under the control of an artist so richly endowed
with a sense of its pictorial value ? It would
require no undue flight of fancy to imagine a
choice selection of Henry's water-colours placed
in a sympathetically decorated breakfast-room
and creating an atmosphere, an environment
that would induce imperturbable good humour,