Studio: international art (74.1918)

The Goldsmiths College School oj Art

" SATURDAY NIGHT." ETCHING BY WINIFRED DANIELS

man, Mr. Edmund J. Sullivan. The student
who intends to devote him or herself (at the
present moment, of course, the male student is
obviously very much in the minority) to book
illustration is expected to acquire a full equip-
ment for expression by attending, besides the
illustration class, those of life drawing, design,
lithography, and etching. With this wise under-
standing, the student is allowed to follow his or
her own bent, and so develop individuality on
the way. Unlike so many masters, Mr. Sullivan
discourages any tendency to imitate his own
style and methods, endeavouring to stimulate
the expression of the student's personality by
sympathetic guidance. " What would you like
to do ? " and " How do you feel you would like
to do this ? " he says, rather than, " I want you
to do this," and " You must do it in this way."
By urging the students continually to draw the
things and people they see in the class-room in
true relation to their actual environment, he
helps them to cultivate an habitual alertness,
freshness, and relative truthfulness of pictorial
vision. This, of course, is of the greatest value,
even when their temperaments may lead them
to see with a tendency to caricature. At the

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same time, Mr. Sullivan keeps before his pupils
the best traditions of English illustration by
showing them the finest examples, and assisting
them to realize the qualities of expression and
composition that make these fine. The illus-
trators of the sixties are exemplified for them
in the masterpieces of Millais, Rossetti, Sandys,
Boyd Houghton, Pinwell, Charles Keene, and
other splendid artists of that wonderfully
productive period. But Mr. Sullivan does not
confine his classic examples to the men of the
sixties ; he wisely shows his pupils also the
art of Phil May and Aubrey Beardsley at
their best.

The war has unhappily cut off two of the
most promising young draughtsmen, Mr. Gabriel
Dadd and Mr. Howe ; but the pen-and-ink work
recently done in the class is represented by
Miss Katharine Nelson's dainty illustration to
" Little Women," and Mr. W. H. Birch's
cleverly expressive and decorative design for a
Dramatic Authors' Club, in which it will be seen
that both have learnt the value of line and
significant spacing. Mr. Birch's design for a
show-card in two colours also shows vivacity of
design, as well as a just appreciation of his

BOOK ILLUSTRATION ("LITTLE WOMEN")

BY KATHARINE B. NELSON