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#0132
The Art of Claude A. Shepperson
tls an ill wind, etc. by claude a. shepperson, a.r.w.s.
Doctor's Wife. "So glad to see you out again. The doctor and I had no idea
you'd been so ill till we came to make up the books "
{By permission of the Proprietors of " Punch ")
not save him from it. How easily might some
of his " Punch " subjects have tempted him to
commonplace, yet one might as easily imagine
Fragonard, or the elegant Augustin de Saint-
Aubin, or the impeccable Moreau le jeune being
tempted to artistic solecism. Look, among our
half-tone illustrations, at that delightful drawing
The ArcJuBologists, with its delicate washes of
water-colour ; see with what pictorial distinc-
tion Mr. Shepperson has placed, amid the
solemn dignity of the Glastonbury ruins, those
quizzically differentiated groups of fatuously
curious sightseers hanging on to the pedantries
of the pompous bishop, and how serenely the
irony of the graphic expression is controlled
by an infallible charm of design. You will
find the same qualities exemplified, with char-
acteristic freshness, in that delicious expression
116
of small-boy cynicism, " I'm sick to death of
women." But this may be said of so many of
Mr. Shepperson's drawings, paintings, and
prints. Whatever the subject-matter that offers
him an artistic motive, while his vision is of a
gracious veracity and his imagination on the
side of the romantic, his pictorial invention will
take the matter in hand and fuse the two with
resultant beauty. This too, whichever par-
ticular medium he may employ, for he is as
happy with oil, water-colour, or pastel as with
pencil or pen and ink; with lithography and
etching also, only he woos these less ardently
than he might. Both mediums respond sym-
pathetically to the elusive charm of his style,
and some day, I feel, Shepperson may be an
etcher whom collectors will pursue and treasure.
In our coloured reproductions it will be seen
tls an ill wind, etc. by claude a. shepperson, a.r.w.s.
Doctor's Wife. "So glad to see you out again. The doctor and I had no idea
you'd been so ill till we came to make up the books "
{By permission of the Proprietors of " Punch ")
not save him from it. How easily might some
of his " Punch " subjects have tempted him to
commonplace, yet one might as easily imagine
Fragonard, or the elegant Augustin de Saint-
Aubin, or the impeccable Moreau le jeune being
tempted to artistic solecism. Look, among our
half-tone illustrations, at that delightful drawing
The ArcJuBologists, with its delicate washes of
water-colour ; see with what pictorial distinc-
tion Mr. Shepperson has placed, amid the
solemn dignity of the Glastonbury ruins, those
quizzically differentiated groups of fatuously
curious sightseers hanging on to the pedantries
of the pompous bishop, and how serenely the
irony of the graphic expression is controlled
by an infallible charm of design. You will
find the same qualities exemplified, with char-
acteristic freshness, in that delicious expression
116
of small-boy cynicism, " I'm sick to death of
women." But this may be said of so many of
Mr. Shepperson's drawings, paintings, and
prints. Whatever the subject-matter that offers
him an artistic motive, while his vision is of a
gracious veracity and his imagination on the
side of the romantic, his pictorial invention will
take the matter in hand and fuse the two with
resultant beauty. This too, whichever par-
ticular medium he may employ, for he is as
happy with oil, water-colour, or pastel as with
pencil or pen and ink; with lithography and
etching also, only he woos these less ardently
than he might. Both mediums respond sym-
pathetically to the elusive charm of his style,
and some day, I feel, Shepperson may be an
etcher whom collectors will pursue and treasure.
In our coloured reproductions it will be seen