DOI Heft:
No. 338 (May 1921)
DOI Artikel:Furst, Herbert E.: The paintings of William Strang, R.A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21392#0188
THE PAINTINGS OF WILLIAM STRANG, RA.
' THE PAINTER. BY
WILLIAM STRANG, R.A.
Strang's etched work now embraces
about seven hundred plates ; how many
hundred drawings he has made, so far,
I cannot say, but their number must be
very great,, thanks to his tremendous
energy for work. So for example he went
to America for two months, intending to
execute a commission of twelve portrait-
drawings : he did, in fact, finish forty in
that time. How many paintings he has
to his credit he himself cannot say, but
judging alone by the work he has done
in this his sixty-second year his output
must be prodigious. 0000
Such are the principal data and demon-
strable facts of his life ; it is when we come
172
to the consideration of his art, the sub-
limation of his thought on copper, canvas
and paper, it is then that the difficulty
arises. 000000
A constant change of treatment, a
variation in style, with elements re-
miniscent now of this, anon of that
" master " or " movement," is character-
istic of Strang's whole life-work ; and it
is precisely this apparent fickleness, this
inconstancy that annoys his critics, the
more so because everything he touches
shows the perfect sureness of the master
draughtsman, the deliberateness of the
craftsman. It is never a question of a
" pale copy " or " feeble imitation," even
' THE PAINTER. BY
WILLIAM STRANG, R.A.
Strang's etched work now embraces
about seven hundred plates ; how many
hundred drawings he has made, so far,
I cannot say, but their number must be
very great,, thanks to his tremendous
energy for work. So for example he went
to America for two months, intending to
execute a commission of twelve portrait-
drawings : he did, in fact, finish forty in
that time. How many paintings he has
to his credit he himself cannot say, but
judging alone by the work he has done
in this his sixty-second year his output
must be prodigious. 0000
Such are the principal data and demon-
strable facts of his life ; it is when we come
172
to the consideration of his art, the sub-
limation of his thought on copper, canvas
and paper, it is then that the difficulty
arises. 000000
A constant change of treatment, a
variation in style, with elements re-
miniscent now of this, anon of that
" master " or " movement," is character-
istic of Strang's whole life-work ; and it
is precisely this apparent fickleness, this
inconstancy that annoys his critics, the
more so because everything he touches
shows the perfect sureness of the master
draughtsman, the deliberateness of the
craftsman. It is never a question of a
" pale copy " or " feeble imitation," even