DOI Heft:
No. 292 (July 1917)
DOI Artikel:Finch, Arthur: The paintings of Joseph Southall
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21263#0060
The Paintings of Joseph Southall
more successfully ; for, whilst Watts could not marked in the Pre-Raphaelite decorative group's
persuade the unimaginative directors of the work. The absence of chiaroscuro is compen-
London and North Western Railway to decorate sated for in the deep tonal effects and mass-
Euston Station, Joseph Southall managed to ing of contrasts. Unfortunately, the beauty
prevail upon the hard-headed Birmingham of the bright earth colours and the golden
business man to allow him to paint a fresco lights of the hair reacting against the blacks
depicting, as a Florentine would have done, and whites of the furs are lost in the re-
a scene in the city's life—Corporation Street, production. In this composition, as also in
occupying a commanding position at the head the Southwold Beach fresco, the artist's main
of the public entrance to the Corporation's Art concern is to embody the artistry of the hobble
Gallery. skirt as an aid to beautiful outline. To study
It was his dream of public decoration that the drawings for this design, in the Birmingham
led Joseph Southall to abandon the profession Art Gallery, is to obtain no little insight into
of architecture, which he had entered upon with the artist's careful preliminary work. Sir
no little credit to himself, considering that Whitworth Wallis, the Keeper of the Gallery,
Ruskin commissioned him to design a museum. is the figure in the background. Like Watts,
How much of his success as an artist
is due to his architectural training
may be answered by comparing his
careful and masterly rendering of de-
tail in the architectural backgrounds
to so many of his compositions, the
fine balancing and arrangement of his
decorative designs, and the successful •
grouping of so many figures on the
panel, with the weakness displayed in
all these matters not only by modern
artists, but also by Gozzoli. Recall
his pastel of The Old Portico of the
Birmingham Royal Society of Artists
(reproduced in The Studio for May
1914). What a graceful arrangement
of architectural lines. Again, in his
water-colour exhibit of the Pont Royal,
Paris, at the New English Art Club
in 1914, there is evidently the same
sense and reverence for detail, the
laws of perspective, and fine propor-
tion, unified by a harmonious colour-
scheme.
His fresco of Corporation Street, Bir-
mingham, is of special significance; for
not only in its execution does it em-
body his individuality and acute obser-
vation, but also it establishes fresco
as a successful medium wherein the
modern mural painter can work.
There is a combination of Florentine
realism with the simplicity in the
delineation of the human figure cha-
racteristic of Fra Angelico, Lippi, and
the other Primitives, together with a
°. . a bucket of salt water. tempera painting on silk
rendering of facial spirituality so by joseph e. southall
44
more successfully ; for, whilst Watts could not marked in the Pre-Raphaelite decorative group's
persuade the unimaginative directors of the work. The absence of chiaroscuro is compen-
London and North Western Railway to decorate sated for in the deep tonal effects and mass-
Euston Station, Joseph Southall managed to ing of contrasts. Unfortunately, the beauty
prevail upon the hard-headed Birmingham of the bright earth colours and the golden
business man to allow him to paint a fresco lights of the hair reacting against the blacks
depicting, as a Florentine would have done, and whites of the furs are lost in the re-
a scene in the city's life—Corporation Street, production. In this composition, as also in
occupying a commanding position at the head the Southwold Beach fresco, the artist's main
of the public entrance to the Corporation's Art concern is to embody the artistry of the hobble
Gallery. skirt as an aid to beautiful outline. To study
It was his dream of public decoration that the drawings for this design, in the Birmingham
led Joseph Southall to abandon the profession Art Gallery, is to obtain no little insight into
of architecture, which he had entered upon with the artist's careful preliminary work. Sir
no little credit to himself, considering that Whitworth Wallis, the Keeper of the Gallery,
Ruskin commissioned him to design a museum. is the figure in the background. Like Watts,
How much of his success as an artist
is due to his architectural training
may be answered by comparing his
careful and masterly rendering of de-
tail in the architectural backgrounds
to so many of his compositions, the
fine balancing and arrangement of his
decorative designs, and the successful •
grouping of so many figures on the
panel, with the weakness displayed in
all these matters not only by modern
artists, but also by Gozzoli. Recall
his pastel of The Old Portico of the
Birmingham Royal Society of Artists
(reproduced in The Studio for May
1914). What a graceful arrangement
of architectural lines. Again, in his
water-colour exhibit of the Pont Royal,
Paris, at the New English Art Club
in 1914, there is evidently the same
sense and reverence for detail, the
laws of perspective, and fine propor-
tion, unified by a harmonious colour-
scheme.
His fresco of Corporation Street, Bir-
mingham, is of special significance; for
not only in its execution does it em-
body his individuality and acute obser-
vation, but also it establishes fresco
as a successful medium wherein the
modern mural painter can work.
There is a combination of Florentine
realism with the simplicity in the
delineation of the human figure cha-
racteristic of Fra Angelico, Lippi, and
the other Primitives, together with a
°. . a bucket of salt water. tempera painting on silk
rendering of facial spirituality so by joseph e. southall
44