MR. JOB NIXON'S ETCHINGS
'PICCADILLY CIRCUS AT NIGHT
ETCHING BY JOB NIXON
in the most decorous fashion, in the fore- at the London office of the British School,
ground and in the distance, where the and several trial proofs are in the British
same picturesque hill-town is partly masked Museum, to which the artist has generously
by the tall cypresses that so effectively presented a selection of his other etchings,
divide the composition into several spaces, The Market at Siena, a later plate, is
arrest and fascinate the attention. Big an attractive Italian subject of a more
figures, little figures, near and distant, popular kind, and the Italian Flour Mill,
they are drawn with a naivete and dis- of which the original drawing belongs to
regard for convention that are more in the Contemporary Art Society, is also one
the spirit of an old Flemish kermesse of the best works of this period. But for
than in the usual sober style of the Eng- the present Mr. Nixon seems to have
lish. A bit rough in its technique— settled down to the British genre subjects,
I saw Sir Frank Short looking at it rather the nature of which I have already indi-
dubiously—it is so full of life and com- cated, and of which a good specimen is
municates so well to the beholder the among the illustrations of this article,
interest that its creator must have felt Quite recently he has been appointed assis-
in every detail, that any petty faults in tant teacher of etching at South Kensington
such a capolavoro may well be overlooked, under Mr. Malcolm Osborne, A.R.A., who
And what courage was needed to attack succeeds Sir Frank Short on his retire-
so big a subject and carry it through to ment from the directorship of the School
completion! The original drawing in of Engraving at the Royal College of
pencil and pale tints of water-colour is Art. a a a a a a
191
'PICCADILLY CIRCUS AT NIGHT
ETCHING BY JOB NIXON
in the most decorous fashion, in the fore- at the London office of the British School,
ground and in the distance, where the and several trial proofs are in the British
same picturesque hill-town is partly masked Museum, to which the artist has generously
by the tall cypresses that so effectively presented a selection of his other etchings,
divide the composition into several spaces, The Market at Siena, a later plate, is
arrest and fascinate the attention. Big an attractive Italian subject of a more
figures, little figures, near and distant, popular kind, and the Italian Flour Mill,
they are drawn with a naivete and dis- of which the original drawing belongs to
regard for convention that are more in the Contemporary Art Society, is also one
the spirit of an old Flemish kermesse of the best works of this period. But for
than in the usual sober style of the Eng- the present Mr. Nixon seems to have
lish. A bit rough in its technique— settled down to the British genre subjects,
I saw Sir Frank Short looking at it rather the nature of which I have already indi-
dubiously—it is so full of life and com- cated, and of which a good specimen is
municates so well to the beholder the among the illustrations of this article,
interest that its creator must have felt Quite recently he has been appointed assis-
in every detail, that any petty faults in tant teacher of etching at South Kensington
such a capolavoro may well be overlooked, under Mr. Malcolm Osborne, A.R.A., who
And what courage was needed to attack succeeds Sir Frank Short on his retire-
so big a subject and carry it through to ment from the directorship of the School
completion! The original drawing in of Engraving at the Royal College of
pencil and pale tints of water-colour is Art. a a a a a a
191