DOI issue:
No. 365 (August 1923)
DOI article:Cornwell-Clyne, Adrian: Two Lancashire painters
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21398#0107
TWO LANCASHIRE PAINTERS
“ A MANCHESTER BRICK WORKS ”
WATER-COLOUR BY FRED COUPE
calm, sweet paintings are the outcome of
the grace of race unchecked by
scholasticism. 0000
They are “ modern/' nevertheless, what-
ever “ modern ” means. But I have heard
a painter call Chinese pottery 2,000 years
old “ very modern, you know.” Perhaps
anything which possesses simple and im-
pressive design is “ modern.” Coupe and
Lee produce sound and simple paintings,
and they like factories, so they are
“ modern.” 00000
Their colour is based on a limited
range of long wave-length and short wave-
length, somewhat desaturated tones, very
similar to those of the early water-colourists.
I should say their palette was orange
chrome, indigo, Prussian blue, raw sienna,
Payne's grey and light red, with occasional
use of Alizarin. With this restricted group
of pigments they get a solemn effect which
approaches austerity. 000
Coupe is an extremely deliberate de-
signer. One notes in his Barney’s Brick
Croft the admirable use of Turner's lazy
“ hammock line,” and the wilful emphasis
of the height of the spires. A Manchester
Brick Works has the charm of a Hokusai
and the recession of a Wilson. Recession,
aerial perspective, is a rare quality in
contemporary work and it is one of the
most precious. In the Near Ribchester
the cool transparency of space is exquisitely
suggested, an appearance which depends
upon an infinite modulation of closely
related tones. 0000
In A Yorkshire Coast Farm George Lee
has painted with extreme simplicity that
delicious moment in the late afternoon
when the sun gives forth his radiant
energy in a sweeping golden burst as if
apprehensive of his impending obscuration.
His Hope Valley is perhaps a little too
classical, but it is a masterly exercise in the
traditional manner; while Prestatyn Station
and Ramsbottom, Lancashire, are examples
of his splendid treatment of mere indus-
trial motifs. 00000
87
“ A MANCHESTER BRICK WORKS ”
WATER-COLOUR BY FRED COUPE
calm, sweet paintings are the outcome of
the grace of race unchecked by
scholasticism. 0000
They are “ modern/' nevertheless, what-
ever “ modern ” means. But I have heard
a painter call Chinese pottery 2,000 years
old “ very modern, you know.” Perhaps
anything which possesses simple and im-
pressive design is “ modern.” Coupe and
Lee produce sound and simple paintings,
and they like factories, so they are
“ modern.” 00000
Their colour is based on a limited
range of long wave-length and short wave-
length, somewhat desaturated tones, very
similar to those of the early water-colourists.
I should say their palette was orange
chrome, indigo, Prussian blue, raw sienna,
Payne's grey and light red, with occasional
use of Alizarin. With this restricted group
of pigments they get a solemn effect which
approaches austerity. 000
Coupe is an extremely deliberate de-
signer. One notes in his Barney’s Brick
Croft the admirable use of Turner's lazy
“ hammock line,” and the wilful emphasis
of the height of the spires. A Manchester
Brick Works has the charm of a Hokusai
and the recession of a Wilson. Recession,
aerial perspective, is a rare quality in
contemporary work and it is one of the
most precious. In the Near Ribchester
the cool transparency of space is exquisitely
suggested, an appearance which depends
upon an infinite modulation of closely
related tones. 0000
In A Yorkshire Coast Farm George Lee
has painted with extreme simplicity that
delicious moment in the late afternoon
when the sun gives forth his radiant
energy in a sweeping golden burst as if
apprehensive of his impending obscuration.
His Hope Valley is perhaps a little too
classical, but it is a masterly exercise in the
traditional manner; while Prestatyn Station
and Ramsbottom, Lancashire, are examples
of his splendid treatment of mere indus-
trial motifs. 00000
87