DOI issue:
No. 336 (March 1921)
DOI article:Chesson, W. H.: Leonard Richmond, R.B.A., R.O.I., landscape painter
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21392#0116
LEONARD RICHMOND, R.B.A., R.O.L
"DREAMLAND." PASTEL BY
LEONARD RICHMOND, R.B.A., R.O.I.
interflow, as it were. A skilful draughts-
man, he can draw just what he chooses,
and his trees, so extraordinarily different
from those by typical English artists
(e.g., Constable) are, nevertheless, the ex-
pression of a sincere vision. Studied
sympathetically they will convey ideas
of trees which the mere sight of familiar
externals fails to lodge in the mind. It
is not necessary to say what these ideas
are. They may not be definable as in-
formation and yet they may re-open the
lidded eyes of wonder. 0 0 0
No psychic study of Mr. Richmond's
art must neglect music. He dreamed
once that there were pictures on the
piano, and that he was playing them.
The trees at the right of The Sower are
to him like sinister music soaring : what
100
ironic significance this fancy gives to
the plodding rustic at the left! 0 a
He has been known to work with such
self-obliviousness that the picture was
practically " news " to him when he became
normal again. This was the case with
Dreamland ; only the human figures were
put in with conscious intellectuality : the
rest was like the deed of a somnambulist.
His art is, happily, in no danger of
making a mannerism of mystery. It
never wearies of reference to the realities
which it interprets. The tearing of
vapours to reveal the sky, the creation
of solitude to reveal the companionable-
ness of hill and heather, tree and cloud,
the revelation of distance' as beckoning
Romance—these are a few of its typical
feats. 0 0 a 0 a a
"DREAMLAND." PASTEL BY
LEONARD RICHMOND, R.B.A., R.O.I.
interflow, as it were. A skilful draughts-
man, he can draw just what he chooses,
and his trees, so extraordinarily different
from those by typical English artists
(e.g., Constable) are, nevertheless, the ex-
pression of a sincere vision. Studied
sympathetically they will convey ideas
of trees which the mere sight of familiar
externals fails to lodge in the mind. It
is not necessary to say what these ideas
are. They may not be definable as in-
formation and yet they may re-open the
lidded eyes of wonder. 0 0 0
No psychic study of Mr. Richmond's
art must neglect music. He dreamed
once that there were pictures on the
piano, and that he was playing them.
The trees at the right of The Sower are
to him like sinister music soaring : what
100
ironic significance this fancy gives to
the plodding rustic at the left! 0 a
He has been known to work with such
self-obliviousness that the picture was
practically " news " to him when he became
normal again. This was the case with
Dreamland ; only the human figures were
put in with conscious intellectuality : the
rest was like the deed of a somnambulist.
His art is, happily, in no danger of
making a mannerism of mystery. It
never wearies of reference to the realities
which it interprets. The tearing of
vapours to reveal the sky, the creation
of solitude to reveal the companionable-
ness of hill and heather, tree and cloud,
the revelation of distance' as beckoning
Romance—these are a few of its typical
feats. 0 0 a 0 a a