DOI Heft:
No. 332 (November 1920)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, Ernest Archibald: Some pictures by John Duncan, A. R. S. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21401#0160
SOME PICTURES BY JOHN DUNCAN, A.R.S.A.
DEIDIEE." BY JOHN
DUNCAN, A.R.S.A.
is his loving, thoughtful life of Deidire,
founded on oral tradition patiently re-
corded, that has often held Mr. Duncan
enthralled in the far away dreamland days,
in the land of Lome, which is lovelier
because she lived there, though her name
is hardly known to the stranger, a 0
From the " Myths of Greece and Rome,"
the story of Alcestis has also a heroic
charm, which has certainly not failed to
appeal to Mr. Duncan. In his Christ
Walking on the Sea, too, he has depicted
Christ as a type of energy of will control
and fixed purpose. Similar characteristics
distinguish his creation of Fionn (Ossian's
father), a fine old Highland chieftain of
whom much praise is bestowed in " The
Book of Lismore." Then we have
Ossian himself, the greatest poet of the
Gael, whose poems James Macpherson
has sympathetically translated, and de-
spite the opinion that they are not genuine
renderings of the ancient originals, one
cannot help quoting from his " Fingal " :
" Pleasant are the words of the song . . .
lovely the tales of other times I" a a
Having but slightly touched upon the
themes of Mr. Duncan's pictures and the
sources from which they came, of their
art in construction and colour I have said
145
DEIDIEE." BY JOHN
DUNCAN, A.R.S.A.
is his loving, thoughtful life of Deidire,
founded on oral tradition patiently re-
corded, that has often held Mr. Duncan
enthralled in the far away dreamland days,
in the land of Lome, which is lovelier
because she lived there, though her name
is hardly known to the stranger, a 0
From the " Myths of Greece and Rome,"
the story of Alcestis has also a heroic
charm, which has certainly not failed to
appeal to Mr. Duncan. In his Christ
Walking on the Sea, too, he has depicted
Christ as a type of energy of will control
and fixed purpose. Similar characteristics
distinguish his creation of Fionn (Ossian's
father), a fine old Highland chieftain of
whom much praise is bestowed in " The
Book of Lismore." Then we have
Ossian himself, the greatest poet of the
Gael, whose poems James Macpherson
has sympathetically translated, and de-
spite the opinion that they are not genuine
renderings of the ancient originals, one
cannot help quoting from his " Fingal " :
" Pleasant are the words of the song . . .
lovely the tales of other times I" a a
Having but slightly touched upon the
themes of Mr. Duncan's pictures and the
sources from which they came, of their
art in construction and colour I have said
145