Studio: international art (69.1916)

The Lay Figure

THE LAY FIGURE: ON THE
ART OF CALLIGRAPHY.

" I often wonder whether there is any con-
nection between the present-day slovenliness in
drawing and the illegibility of modern handwriting,"
said the Art Critic. " It is rather curious that the
two things should co-exist if they have nothing to
do with one another."

" Is it so curious ?" asked the Man with the
Red Tie. " Are not both these things merely
symptomatic of the general slovenliness which has
grown into all our doings during the last few years ?
We do not take the trouble to do our work
properly; that is what seems to me to be the
matter."

"But surely you do not think that modern draw-
ing has degenerated," cried the Young Painter.
" It has freed itself from the academic tradition—
that I will thankfully admit—but I cannot see that
it has become slovenly."

" Perhaps the academic tradition was not such
a bad thing after all," remarked the Critic. " It
lapsed into a convention, no doubt; but when it
was intelligently applied it encouraged a certain
thoroughness of accomplishment which was worth
cultivating, and it developed valuable precision of
statement and a desirable quality of style. What
have we got in its place ? "

" Why, we have more freedom, more indi-
viduality, more flexibility, and more vitality,"
declared the Young Painter; "and our drawings
now express our convictions. We draw as we feel,
not as obsolete rules and prescriptions tell us we
ought to draw."

" And we write as we feel, I suppose, not as the
rules of calligraphy tell us we ought to write,"
laughed the Man with the Red Tie. " There may
be a definite connection between the two things
after all."

" I believe there is," agreed the Critic. " I am
sure that the man who writes a hopeless hand
would argue about it just as our friend here does
about his drawing. He would say that his untidy
scrawl had more individuality and more vitality
than the fluent, delicate handwriting of the older
exponents of penmanship. He would declare that
he writes as he feels—he would hardly have the
impudence to suggest that he had been taught
to write in that way."

"Are you applying the term ' untidy scrawl'
to modern drawing as well as modern writing ? "
demanded the Young Painter. " If so, I consider
you are speaking very offensively. And I cannot

54

admit for a moment that there is any relation
between the two."

"The relation, I fancy, is closer than you
think," replied the Critic. "You know of course
that in Greek the same word is used to express
writing and drawing, and in fact writing is a species
of drawing, so that when a child is learning to
write it is also learning to draw. Good handwriting
has, indeed, many claims to be counted among
the arts, and it is, I believe, the foundation upon
which fine draughtsmanship is based. This is fully
recognised in Eastern countries, where very great
stress is laid upon the value of handwriting in
the general scheme of education and especially
as a means of training the hand and of giving
that delicacy and flexibility of touch which above
all the draughtsman requires if he is to do his
work properly. If you write carelessly or clumsily
your drawing is very likely to be careless and
clumsy too."

" I suppose you would like me to buy a copy-
book and start on pothooks and hangers once
again," sneered the Young Painter.

" Your letters would be a great deal easier to
read if you did, I am quite sure," chuckled the
Man with the Red Tie.

" And your drawings would gain something
which, to speak quite frankly, I feel they often
lack—precision and significance of form," said the
Critic. " The man who had learned to write
beautifully would have acquired a command of
line which would be of infinite value to him as a
draughtsman, he would have cultivated a decorative
sense which would be immensely helpful to him as
a designer, and he would have developed a taste
which would improve the quality of his art. His
copy-book would do a very great deal to eradicate
any tendency to slovenliness that there might be.
in him."

" But at that rate, if we all learned to write alike
we should all learn to draw alike, and what would
then become of the artist's personality ? " protested
the Young Painter.

" No,' that is a fallacy," asserted the Critic.
" In striving for the aesthetic quality of good hand-
writing there need be no surrender of individuality
of treatment, and in considering the utilitarian
necessity of legibility grace of arrangement should
not be overlooked. I do not want everyone to
write alike, but I want everyone to write as beauti-
fully as he can, whether he means to follow the
profession of art or not. Is there anything
unreasonable in that ? "

The Lav Figure.