Studio: international art (72.1918)

Water-Colour Paintings by

SOME WATER-COLOUR PAINTINGS
BY SIR EDWARD POYNTER, P.R.A.

IN approaching the pleasurable task of
writing about such an eminent man as
the President of the Royal Academy,
the chronicler cannot fail to recognize
the difficulty of doing it justice in a few pages.
Sir Edward Poynter may be said to have been
marked out by destiny to occupy the highest
positions England has to offer to artists, and
from those early days of great promise, when he
met Frederick Leighton in Rome, to the time
when his famous picture Israel in Egypt appeared
on the R.A. walls, his career has been one con-
tinuous march onwards to the appointments
that followed, as Slade Professor of Fine Arts,
National Director at South Kensington, Director
of the National Gallery, and finally the Presi-
dential Chair at Burlington House. Yet those
who know him are agreed that he never sought
fame, preferring to work along quietly and
sincerely for art’s sake. Of a deeply reserved
and retiring disposition, he is temperamentally
opposed to notoriety of any kind. Fame and
honours have come to him abundantly because
of certain conspicuous qualities, exceptional
ability, and untiring industry. He has never
evaded responsibility, and though it has been
his lot to succeed men of the highest qualifica-
tions, he has not only proved his capacity as
their successor, but has also amply justified
the confidence reposed in him. Notwithstand-
ing the urgent claims of public duties, few
painters have produced so many and varied
works as he has, and in the evening of life he is
still painting pictures, when it is interesting to
note that he has reverted more and more to his
favourite early medium, that of water-colour,
also, that though primarily an historical figure-
painter, he yet has a strong leaning to landscape
work ; many a leisure hour during the past
summer has been spent immortalizing the end-
less subjects to be found in his old-world
garden in Kensington, two of which are to be
seen in the illustrations.

Sir Edward Poynter inherits his artistic gifts
from both sides of his family. His father,
Ambrose Poynter, was an architect, and his
mother was the granddaughter of Thomas
Banks, R.A., the sculptor. Those who are
interested in heredity can find a confirmation
of their theories in Sir Edward Poynter, for his
LXXII. No. 297.—December 1917

Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A.

art shows a distinct leaning to these two branches
of the Fine Arts, his feeling for design being
both monumental and sculpturesque.

Sir Edward was born in Paris in 1836, and
spent his childhood in a house at Poets’ Corner,
Westminster. He entered Westminster School,
but on account of extremely delicate health
was removed to Brighton College. For the
same reason he had to forgo a University career
later, and at sixteen was ordered to winter in
Madeira, where he was under a tutor. It was
here that he formed his taste for water-colour
sketching under Mr. Thomas Shotter Boys. The
following year was one of the most eventful in
his life, when, at the age of seventeen, he met
Frederick Leighton in Rome, and a lasting
friendship was formed between the two future
Presidents. During those halcyon days, as they
worked together in Leighton’s studio, Poynter
was not long in deciding to specialize in figure-
painting. His first studies towards this end
were pursued at Leigh’s Academy in Newman
Street, whence he migrated to Dobson’s Studio,
and afterwards to Paris. Here he worked at
Gleyre’s Studio for three years, having amongst
his fellow - students George du Maurier and
Whistler.

On leaving Gleyre’s, he started a studio of
his own, with Du Maurier, Lamont, and Thomas
Armstrong. In later years Du Maurier made
this studio the scene of " Trilby,” Lamont
being “ the Laird,” but whilst Sir Edward says
it was a faithful picture of student life in Paris,

“ Trilby ” was solely a creature of the imagina-
tion. He did not exhibit in London till later,
and then (let the unsuccessful aspirant for
Academy honours note this) his first picture,
called Heaven’s Messenger, was rejected, though
two years later it was accepted and hung, as
was also a study called A Bunch of Blue
Ribbons.

It would be beyond the scope of this article
to trace Sir Edward Poynter’s subsequent career
as a painter through all its stages. Perhaps no
contemporary painter’s works are so widely
known to the public as Sir Edward Poynter’s.
His art has found its way all over the world
into public galleries and private collections, and
no pictures have been more often reproduced
in photography than his oil paintings. This
remark, however, does not apply to his land-
scapes in water-colour, with which we are here
more particularly concerned.

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