DOI issue:
No. 306 (September 1918)
DOI article:Wedmore, Frederick: The water-colours of Horace Mann Livens
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21265#0112
The IVater-Colours of Horace Mann Livens
attracted him,—their decisiveness of movement, in some measure to confirm. It is this : " If
their jerky quickness, I expect. For these beings you must have him in one medium only,
are not given to suppress themselves. They have him in more than one of his great v. ater-
are in evidence. They would live in the limelight, colours." I use the word "great" not at all
But after an interval—a passage of time at least unadvisedly—I use it to indicate quality as well
—in which he had succumbed to their fascina- as scale. As regards scale there is indeed
tion, Mr. Livens (who I am sure has something nothing exceptional—nothing in the least exag-
of the explorer in him : who is curious, who is an gerated. The paper is " largeish " if you like
inquirer) turned naturally to the beauty of —it is certainly not unwieldy. The style, the
Flowers ; and the painter who might have been conception, the handling of the water-colours—
considered as the successor of Hondecoerter they are "large" or "great," as you please,
made signs that he might yet be a rival of And—dealing not seldom with subjects which
Fantin's or of Vollon's. to the unobservant eye or uncreative mind are
" Vollon " do I say ?—and shift my ground a commonplace—it is remarkable that in their
little in saying it. Yes; because there came, in treatment no suggestion of the commonplace is
the fullness of time, in Mr. Livens' practice, the for the moment proffered. Plain features are,
treatment of great Still Life pieces, noble fruits, as it were, pressed into the service of a refined
I fancy, that Vollon would have loved. And, and ordered and sometimes even subtle com-
again, because I have seen
Mr. Livens, in the presence
of the great Still Life of
Theodule Ribot, become an
enthusiast in the matter
of Ribot's tomatoes, or as
to Ribot's great gold and
green keeping pears of
Anjou. Even more of an
enthusiast perhaps than
he might have been had
he been in presence of one
of Ribot's Brestoises—in
presence, that is, of the
pieces in which the master
records the stern solici-
tude of the aged, or the
flower-like charm of the
young.
The range of Mr. Livens'
practice having by this
time been, I hope, a little
more than roughly indi-
cated, it is time to answer
a quite legitimate ques-
tion, What is the work in
which this artist is apt to
be most of all successful ?
Where most frequently
does he touch high-water
mark ? And the answer to
the would-be collector is
one which the very evi-
dence of the illustrations
to this article will be able "bow street" water-colour by h. mann livens
106
attracted him,—their decisiveness of movement, in some measure to confirm. It is this : " If
their jerky quickness, I expect. For these beings you must have him in one medium only,
are not given to suppress themselves. They have him in more than one of his great v. ater-
are in evidence. They would live in the limelight, colours." I use the word "great" not at all
But after an interval—a passage of time at least unadvisedly—I use it to indicate quality as well
—in which he had succumbed to their fascina- as scale. As regards scale there is indeed
tion, Mr. Livens (who I am sure has something nothing exceptional—nothing in the least exag-
of the explorer in him : who is curious, who is an gerated. The paper is " largeish " if you like
inquirer) turned naturally to the beauty of —it is certainly not unwieldy. The style, the
Flowers ; and the painter who might have been conception, the handling of the water-colours—
considered as the successor of Hondecoerter they are "large" or "great," as you please,
made signs that he might yet be a rival of And—dealing not seldom with subjects which
Fantin's or of Vollon's. to the unobservant eye or uncreative mind are
" Vollon " do I say ?—and shift my ground a commonplace—it is remarkable that in their
little in saying it. Yes; because there came, in treatment no suggestion of the commonplace is
the fullness of time, in Mr. Livens' practice, the for the moment proffered. Plain features are,
treatment of great Still Life pieces, noble fruits, as it were, pressed into the service of a refined
I fancy, that Vollon would have loved. And, and ordered and sometimes even subtle com-
again, because I have seen
Mr. Livens, in the presence
of the great Still Life of
Theodule Ribot, become an
enthusiast in the matter
of Ribot's tomatoes, or as
to Ribot's great gold and
green keeping pears of
Anjou. Even more of an
enthusiast perhaps than
he might have been had
he been in presence of one
of Ribot's Brestoises—in
presence, that is, of the
pieces in which the master
records the stern solici-
tude of the aged, or the
flower-like charm of the
young.
The range of Mr. Livens'
practice having by this
time been, I hope, a little
more than roughly indi-
cated, it is time to answer
a quite legitimate ques-
tion, What is the work in
which this artist is apt to
be most of all successful ?
Where most frequently
does he touch high-water
mark ? And the answer to
the would-be collector is
one which the very evi-
dence of the illustrations
to this article will be able "bow street" water-colour by h. mann livens
106