DOI issue:
No. 314 (May 1919)
DOI article:Salaman, Malcolm C.: The art of Claude A. Shepperson
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21357#0130
The Art of Claude A. Skefifterson
' THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS " WATER-COLOUR BY CLAUDE A. SHEPPERSON, A.R.W.S.
of romantic fancy, or, as in his "Punch" ment or of pictorial tact. The delicate touch of
drawings, in amusing phases and milieus of Shepperson's pen and ink, with its almost
our present social life, Shepperson's graphic magical suggestion of light and air and colour,
expression is always distinguished by artistic the vitality of expression, the beauty of composi-
vivacity of draughtsmanship, elegance and tion, with the pictorial eloquence of the empty
originality of design, and a grace of style that is space so unerringly understood, these would not
essentially personal. account altogether for the charm. We must
His " Punch " drawings, for instance; how look for its spirit in the sincerity and alertness
inevitably those tall, comely young women, of the artist's attitude towards his material,
those deliciously ingenuous children, and those Through these, the very essence of his personality
just-so men belong to those lofty, roomy finds fresh expression that is never mannered,
interiors, well-ordered gardens or terraces, and but always adroit, always distinguished, always
spacious stretches of country or sea-front in charming.
which they happen to present some mo- The fact is that Claude Shepperson is much
mentarily engaging aspect of their lives ! To more than a very clever illustrator ; he is a
analyse the charm of these drawings is not less complete and happily gifted artist, with an
difficult than analysing the charm of the French exquisite instinct for the pictorial, a tempera-
estampes galantes of the eighteenth century, ment wittily sensitive to the more elegant and
with the artistic graces, refinement, and gaiety gracious aspects of life, and an artistic conscience
of which they have a certain affinity. It is that could not tolerate banality in any form,
not merely a question of technical accomplish- even if his grace of imagination and humour did
114
' THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS " WATER-COLOUR BY CLAUDE A. SHEPPERSON, A.R.W.S.
of romantic fancy, or, as in his "Punch" ment or of pictorial tact. The delicate touch of
drawings, in amusing phases and milieus of Shepperson's pen and ink, with its almost
our present social life, Shepperson's graphic magical suggestion of light and air and colour,
expression is always distinguished by artistic the vitality of expression, the beauty of composi-
vivacity of draughtsmanship, elegance and tion, with the pictorial eloquence of the empty
originality of design, and a grace of style that is space so unerringly understood, these would not
essentially personal. account altogether for the charm. We must
His " Punch " drawings, for instance; how look for its spirit in the sincerity and alertness
inevitably those tall, comely young women, of the artist's attitude towards his material,
those deliciously ingenuous children, and those Through these, the very essence of his personality
just-so men belong to those lofty, roomy finds fresh expression that is never mannered,
interiors, well-ordered gardens or terraces, and but always adroit, always distinguished, always
spacious stretches of country or sea-front in charming.
which they happen to present some mo- The fact is that Claude Shepperson is much
mentarily engaging aspect of their lives ! To more than a very clever illustrator ; he is a
analyse the charm of these drawings is not less complete and happily gifted artist, with an
difficult than analysing the charm of the French exquisite instinct for the pictorial, a tempera-
estampes galantes of the eighteenth century, ment wittily sensitive to the more elegant and
with the artistic graces, refinement, and gaiety gracious aspects of life, and an artistic conscience
of which they have a certain affinity. It is that could not tolerate banality in any form,
not merely a question of technical accomplish- even if his grace of imagination and humour did
114