DOI Heft:
No. 318 (September 1919)
DOI Artikel:Manson, James Bolivar: Notes on some drawings by Edmund Kapp
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21358#0152
NOTES ON SOME DRAWINGS BY EDMUND KAPP
“VAUGHAN WILLIAMS LISTEN-
ING TO HIS OWN MUSIC”
BY EDMUND X. KAPP
the first he is nervously alert, passively, as
it were, receiving impressions of person-
alities and expressing the essentials of
them with direct vividness ; in the second,
an individual suggests an idea to him, and
in the expression becomes subservient to
the idea; or else the artist has his fantasy
and makes his victim fit into it. Mr.
Kapp’s work in the first class is finer, being
purer art. 00000
Some physiognomies are naturally both
individual and typical, and occasionally
Mr. Kapp loses something of the individual
flavour by emphasizing the aspect of type.
Expression is simply an inseparable part
of intuition; where the one varies the other
must vary. An artist equipped with a cast-
iron technique—such as they serve out in
schools of art—is sadly hampered. In his
case the means has become the end; he
paints because he has learnt to paint, and
not because he feels something so intensely
that he must express it. He is like an
instrument capable of sounding only one
note. Mr. Kapp is remarkably free in
this respect. He draweth as he listeth.
The nature and character of his subject
136
suggest the means of expression; they
express themselves, as it were, through
him. His treatment of subject is always
admirably appropriate. His realization of
character is so in tune with his means of
expression that the deterioration of one
necessarily affects the other. His best
work, such as the drawings of Yone
Noguchi and The Bishop, have a delicacy
of touch and a subtlety of values which are
difficult to reproduce. His wit and humour
are probably more easily appreciated than
his grasp of character and his remarkable
power of realizing the atmosphere of an
individual. 00000
The portrait of Viscount Morley is an
interesting example of Mr. Kapp’s power
of expressing the totality of a personality
by very simple means. The line is simple
and supple; it expresses so much, for
everything that is superfluous is discarded,
and expression is reduced to its lowest terms.
The features are full of character, and are
drawn apparently without an effort. Note
how the form and minute modelling of the
chin are suggested by the very simplest
means. 00000
“VAUGHAN WILLIAMS LISTEN-
ING TO HIS OWN MUSIC”
BY EDMUND X. KAPP
the first he is nervously alert, passively, as
it were, receiving impressions of person-
alities and expressing the essentials of
them with direct vividness ; in the second,
an individual suggests an idea to him, and
in the expression becomes subservient to
the idea; or else the artist has his fantasy
and makes his victim fit into it. Mr.
Kapp’s work in the first class is finer, being
purer art. 00000
Some physiognomies are naturally both
individual and typical, and occasionally
Mr. Kapp loses something of the individual
flavour by emphasizing the aspect of type.
Expression is simply an inseparable part
of intuition; where the one varies the other
must vary. An artist equipped with a cast-
iron technique—such as they serve out in
schools of art—is sadly hampered. In his
case the means has become the end; he
paints because he has learnt to paint, and
not because he feels something so intensely
that he must express it. He is like an
instrument capable of sounding only one
note. Mr. Kapp is remarkably free in
this respect. He draweth as he listeth.
The nature and character of his subject
136
suggest the means of expression; they
express themselves, as it were, through
him. His treatment of subject is always
admirably appropriate. His realization of
character is so in tune with his means of
expression that the deterioration of one
necessarily affects the other. His best
work, such as the drawings of Yone
Noguchi and The Bishop, have a delicacy
of touch and a subtlety of values which are
difficult to reproduce. His wit and humour
are probably more easily appreciated than
his grasp of character and his remarkable
power of realizing the atmosphere of an
individual. 00000
The portrait of Viscount Morley is an
interesting example of Mr. Kapp’s power
of expressing the totality of a personality
by very simple means. The line is simple
and supple; it expresses so much, for
everything that is superfluous is discarded,
and expression is reduced to its lowest terms.
The features are full of character, and are
drawn apparently without an effort. Note
how the form and minute modelling of the
chin are suggested by the very simplest
means. 00000