DOI issue:
No. 360 (March 1923)
DOI article:Stephens, Jessica Walker: The landscape paintings of S. J. Lamorna Birch, R.W.S.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21397#0146
LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS OF S. J. LAMORNA BIRCH, R.W.S
physical senses had been alive and attuned
to the highest degree, the higher inner
function of aesthetic—the spirit's eye—
had been well open too. Sunlight on wood
and stream had passed through the
painter's temperament, and reached the
canvas charged with his spirit. This is
probably the only way in which any suc-
cessful work in art can be done. It is a
process which no amount of tuition in the
correct can impart—poeta nascitur—and
the painter who is not also a poet is as a
steamer without a propeller : he is un-
conscious of his destination, although in
the process of perambulation. The man
who has not poetry in his soul can never
paint landscape, for landscape, whether
in England or elsewhere is poetry all the
time, and demands complete fusion be-
126
u SPRING MORNING AT LAMORNA ”
WATER-COLOUR BY S. J. LAMORNA
BIRCH, R.W.S.
tween the artist's mood and hers. It was
this fusion that the exhibition exemplified.
The works of this artist have found
homes in public collections far and wide.
Manchester is rich, having three. Liver-
pool, Preston, Oldham, Rochdale, Birken-
head in Lancashire, as well as South
Shields, Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow,
Toronto, Wellington, New Zealand, Ply-
mouth and numerous other collections have
paid tribute to his gifts. a a 0
England has reason to be proud of her
landscapists—to whom she offers great
material. Where natural love and sym-
pathy with her has been added to dogged
determination and sane realisation of the
governing principles of art, as in the
present instance, she has won her finest
possessions. Jessica Walker Stephens.
physical senses had been alive and attuned
to the highest degree, the higher inner
function of aesthetic—the spirit's eye—
had been well open too. Sunlight on wood
and stream had passed through the
painter's temperament, and reached the
canvas charged with his spirit. This is
probably the only way in which any suc-
cessful work in art can be done. It is a
process which no amount of tuition in the
correct can impart—poeta nascitur—and
the painter who is not also a poet is as a
steamer without a propeller : he is un-
conscious of his destination, although in
the process of perambulation. The man
who has not poetry in his soul can never
paint landscape, for landscape, whether
in England or elsewhere is poetry all the
time, and demands complete fusion be-
126
u SPRING MORNING AT LAMORNA ”
WATER-COLOUR BY S. J. LAMORNA
BIRCH, R.W.S.
tween the artist's mood and hers. It was
this fusion that the exhibition exemplified.
The works of this artist have found
homes in public collections far and wide.
Manchester is rich, having three. Liver-
pool, Preston, Oldham, Rochdale, Birken-
head in Lancashire, as well as South
Shields, Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow,
Toronto, Wellington, New Zealand, Ply-
mouth and numerous other collections have
paid tribute to his gifts. a a 0
England has reason to be proud of her
landscapists—to whom she offers great
material. Where natural love and sym-
pathy with her has been added to dogged
determination and sane realisation of the
governing principles of art, as in the
present instance, she has won her finest
possessions. Jessica Walker Stephens.