DOI issue:
No. 322 (January 1920)
DOI article:Salaman, Malcolm C.: The sculpture of Ernest Cole
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21359#0148
THE SCULPTURE OF ERNEST COLE
POSTHUMOUS PORTRAIT OF MISS
ELIZABETH POWELL (MARBLE
RELIEF, 1909). BY ERNEST COLE
(In the possession of Laurence Bin-
yon, Esq.)
block, working, as did the sculptors of old,
without the guidance of any preliminary
clay model. Nor living model had he
other than himself, the proportions of his
statue being those of his own body. This
is a fact that should be noted, for when it
is objected that the head of the Baptist
seems unduly large for the slim young
body, Mr. Cole has only to reply, u Then
my own head and body must be out of
proportion, for my personal measurements
are exactly those of my statue ; yet if I have
somewhat over-emphasized the height of
the cranium, that may be counted against
me as a fault.” 0000
But, after all, fault or no fault, this is a
detail; the great thing is the beauty of the
whole. This, for me, is unquestionable.
No mere studio figure is this St. John
Baptist, modelled by academic rule, but
one feels that the impulse of genuine
artistic emotion, becoming creative with
true sculptural imagination, went to this
live, serene conception of the preacher in
the wilderness, a serenity achieved by the
142
purity and fineness of the design, and the
modelling inspired with vitality by a keen
sensibility for the artistic truth of nature.
The modelling of the limbs and the torso
is indeed masterly, the marble suggesting,
in the sensitiveness of its treatment, the
tender suppleness of living, youthful flesh,
while solemn thought is expressive in the
character of the Baptist's face. As one
sees the figure standing in solitary beauty
amid its harmonious Jacobean environ-
ment, one does not think, to the detriment
of the living young sculptor's ambition,
that here is mere repetition of a subject
which has immortally engaged the genius
of Donatello and of Rodin, but that here
is a beautiful new conception of a man
whose story will ever touch the world's
imagination. No rugged ascetic wanderer
is this St. John Baptist, but the sculptural
imagination of Ernest Cole gives us instead
an ideal of youthful purity and beauty
expressed in its purest form. 0 0
Rodin I have just named. In Mr.
Edmund Davis's house the master is repre-
POSTHUMOUS PORTRAIT OF MISS
ELIZABETH POWELL (MARBLE
RELIEF, 1909). BY ERNEST COLE
(In the possession of Laurence Bin-
yon, Esq.)
block, working, as did the sculptors of old,
without the guidance of any preliminary
clay model. Nor living model had he
other than himself, the proportions of his
statue being those of his own body. This
is a fact that should be noted, for when it
is objected that the head of the Baptist
seems unduly large for the slim young
body, Mr. Cole has only to reply, u Then
my own head and body must be out of
proportion, for my personal measurements
are exactly those of my statue ; yet if I have
somewhat over-emphasized the height of
the cranium, that may be counted against
me as a fault.” 0000
But, after all, fault or no fault, this is a
detail; the great thing is the beauty of the
whole. This, for me, is unquestionable.
No mere studio figure is this St. John
Baptist, modelled by academic rule, but
one feels that the impulse of genuine
artistic emotion, becoming creative with
true sculptural imagination, went to this
live, serene conception of the preacher in
the wilderness, a serenity achieved by the
142
purity and fineness of the design, and the
modelling inspired with vitality by a keen
sensibility for the artistic truth of nature.
The modelling of the limbs and the torso
is indeed masterly, the marble suggesting,
in the sensitiveness of its treatment, the
tender suppleness of living, youthful flesh,
while solemn thought is expressive in the
character of the Baptist's face. As one
sees the figure standing in solitary beauty
amid its harmonious Jacobean environ-
ment, one does not think, to the detriment
of the living young sculptor's ambition,
that here is mere repetition of a subject
which has immortally engaged the genius
of Donatello and of Rodin, but that here
is a beautiful new conception of a man
whose story will ever touch the world's
imagination. No rugged ascetic wanderer
is this St. John Baptist, but the sculptural
imagination of Ernest Cole gives us instead
an ideal of youthful purity and beauty
expressed in its purest form. 0 0
Rodin I have just named. In Mr.
Edmund Davis's house the master is repre-