DOI issue:
No. 340 (July 1921)
DOI article:Eddington, A.: The paintings and lithographs of Stanley Cursiter
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21393#0038
PAINTINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS OF STANLEY CURSITER
of his sketching had previously been in
the Orkney and Shetland Islands, his
homeland, whose grey skies and rock-
bound shores had given him ample
opportunity for the study of atmospheric
effects such as those indicated in one of
the lithographs reproduced. 0 0
The two water-colours, A Mediterranean
Port and The Terrace, Monte Carlo, ate.
symptomatic of his open-air work. He
is no believer in the synthetic method of
landscape painting. So strong is his fidelity
to nature that where a landscape, as he sees
it, does not appeal to him he passes it by.
He is no believer in the sketch that has to
be supplemented in the studio, and con-
sequently he escapes the pitfalls into
which so many artists fall by the intro-
duction of false colour notes and alterations
of design that do not conform to the
essentials of the actual scene. Thus his
view of Cassis, a small port near Marseilles,
with its limestone cliffs surmounted by
22
an old fort and the high bluffs behind,
mostly of limestone with intrusive eruptions
of a volcanic nature, is a faithful repro-
duction of the place, without, as a matter
of course, any distracting detail. He
achieves his result by a very rapid style
of work which bears every evidence of
surety of touch. There is no indecision,
no reaching after bizarre effects, no over
emphasis and equally no falling into the
commonplace. One instinctively feels that
whether or not in all its details his work
may at times not entirely satisfy, it is
manifestly sincere and personal, and that
what it may lack in subtlety, or in the
production of those seductive aspects
of nature that appeal perhaps more strongly
to the southern temperament, it is in-
contestably vital and free from trivialities.
He has not fallen into a groove by the per-
sistent following of one type of subject,
his temperament is too sensitive to in-
fluences for that, and his energy too
of his sketching had previously been in
the Orkney and Shetland Islands, his
homeland, whose grey skies and rock-
bound shores had given him ample
opportunity for the study of atmospheric
effects such as those indicated in one of
the lithographs reproduced. 0 0
The two water-colours, A Mediterranean
Port and The Terrace, Monte Carlo, ate.
symptomatic of his open-air work. He
is no believer in the synthetic method of
landscape painting. So strong is his fidelity
to nature that where a landscape, as he sees
it, does not appeal to him he passes it by.
He is no believer in the sketch that has to
be supplemented in the studio, and con-
sequently he escapes the pitfalls into
which so many artists fall by the intro-
duction of false colour notes and alterations
of design that do not conform to the
essentials of the actual scene. Thus his
view of Cassis, a small port near Marseilles,
with its limestone cliffs surmounted by
22
an old fort and the high bluffs behind,
mostly of limestone with intrusive eruptions
of a volcanic nature, is a faithful repro-
duction of the place, without, as a matter
of course, any distracting detail. He
achieves his result by a very rapid style
of work which bears every evidence of
surety of touch. There is no indecision,
no reaching after bizarre effects, no over
emphasis and equally no falling into the
commonplace. One instinctively feels that
whether or not in all its details his work
may at times not entirely satisfy, it is
manifestly sincere and personal, and that
what it may lack in subtlety, or in the
production of those seductive aspects
of nature that appeal perhaps more strongly
to the southern temperament, it is in-
contestably vital and free from trivialities.
He has not fallen into a groove by the per-
sistent following of one type of subject,
his temperament is too sensitive to in-
fluences for that, and his energy too