Studio: international art (73.1918)

W. Eyre Walker, R.W.S.

other things that developed in him from this tions let me call attention to at least two things

study of Turner was his interest in the sky. It which are sufficiently emphatic : first, the

has remained with him a dominant interest. In importance in these designs of the skies ;

the drawings I have just referred to it will be secondly, their luminosity. It is characteristic

noted how large a portion of each design is of Mr. Walker's work that very largely do they

occupied by the sky. It goes without saying, dominate each entire drawing, alike in their

however, that of all elements in a painting this place as part of its decorative composition and

it is, unfortunately, which can be reproduced as affecting the colour and chiaroscuro of the

by any mechanical process with least satisfac- landscape stretched beneath them,
tory result. It cannot be otherwise. To appre- The drawings to which I have hitherto
date an artist's rendering of the sky's infinitely ' referred are in the best sense of the term what

subtle gradations and delicate beauty one simply we may call Naturalistic. Though, as in any

must have his original drawings before one. I genuine work of art, there is clear evidence in

have just been turning over a number of Mr. them of artistic selection and arrangement—

Walker's direct studies of sky-effects, and often, no doubt, only partially conscieus—still

specially have been struck by his treatment of on the whole their main object has been to set

large masses of cumulus-cloud piled up against, before us with faithful straightforwardness and

or moving rapidly across, the blue heaven, and careful craftsmanship the immediate appearance

all illuminated by the sun's rays. In drawing of this or that scene upon which the artist

and in colour alike they are singularly fine chances to have come and been captivated by.

things. But even in coloured reproductions, no But in the drawing Afternoon Sunshine on the

matter how excellent, and stiU more of course Galloway Hills, and even further in that entitled

in black and white, the subtlety of the drawing Night, a more personal, intimate, and deeper

as well as that of the tones and colours tends note than this is assuredly struck. " Tardily,"

towards an unsympathetic hardness, or vanishes says Mr. W^ker, " I became conscious of the

altogether. Yet in each of the present illustra- strong difference of sentiment in different places.

" NEAR WOODBRIDGE "

WATER-COLOUR BY W. EYRE WALKER, R.W.S.

HQ.