DOI issue:
No. 182 (January 1925)
DOI article:Hind, Arthur Mayger: Some remarks on recent English painting
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21402#0012
SOME REMARKS ON RECENT ENGLISH PAINTING
of his Mother, exhibited at the same
place, is a work of great charm, with the
freshness of treatment which the more
specialist portrait-painters often miss. I
would refer to Mr. Steer's Mrs. Lowinsky
(New English Art Club, 1924), and Mr.
Clausen's i?. W. S. Weir (Royal Academy,
1924) as further examples of the happy
results of the more occasional practice
of portraiture. A younger artist of
equally varied gift in landscape and
figure, a painter of great ability, is Mr.
John Wheatley, of whom I illustrate a
recent oil study of His Daughter. His
etching is equally admirable, and its very
occasional nature by no means to be re-
gretted, for nothing keeps such a craft
from sterilisation better than regular
practice in another mode of expression.
Mr. Sargent himself has undoubtedly kept
his magic power of portraiture from the
dangers which beset Van Dyck by a con-
sistent refusal to become a slave to his
popularity. Instead,hehas givenusconstant
joy in his freshly seen landscapes and archi-
tectural studies, and retained the ability
to produce such a masterpiece of reticent
portraiture as his Sir Philip Sassoon in
the Academy of 1924. And the year that
has produced John's wonderful portrait
of Mme. Suggia cannot be regarded as
barren of achievement. a a a
The band of artists who keep up the
great tradition of historical painting is
notably small; a matter, however, for
little surprise, for no other branch of
painting demands so comprehensive a
genius in the creator. Reynolds was
right in recognising his own limitations
and keeping chiefly to portraiture; he
may have been wrong (as Barry bitterly
complained) in encouraging his contem-
poraries towards a form of art that few of
them had the power to make alive. Fore-
most to-day among the few who possess
this power is Mr. Charles Ricketts. Formed
in the school of the pre-Raphaelites, a
descendant, too, of the great Venetians, he
yet has a real individual fire, as is nobly
evidenced in the richly coloured and finely
poised group of Jephthah's Daughter in last
year's Academy. Both he and Mr.
Shannon are owed much for keeping alive
the sense of joy in material and physical
beauty that characterised the Renaissance.
Among younger artists Mr. Colin Gill
is remarkable for promise of similar
mastery in the classic field, his Venus and
Cupid in the 1924 Academy being a
beautiful composition of subtle harmony
of colour, though still manifestly deriva-
tive in its Florentine suggestions. Another
historical painter whose thoughtful labour
has begun to bear fruit is Mr. Eric George,
who has recently exhibited a most arrest-
ing treatment of the Martyrdom of St.
Sebastian, and an equally original picture,
Before Calvary, which is here reproduced.
Strangely contrasted in aim is Mr. W. P.
Roberts, whose grotesque subjects from
daily life were exhibited at the Chenil
Gallery last year. He would have done
better to have kept his human Robots
to the studio, but that he has the making
of a true artist is proved, I think, by so
fine a study as the example reproduced.
I have made no attempt in these random
remarks to estimate the greatest achieve-
ments of the year, much less to mention
many artists of note or promise, but I
would not omit congratulating Mr. Walter
Sickert on his recent recognition by the
Royal Academy. Though appreciated for
years by all his brother artists, both as
creator and inspirer, I am convinced that
he now enters a wider sphere of immediate
influence than could possibly have been
his through other channels of exhibi-
tion, a 0 a a a a
There is one other matter which I would
emphasise in conclusion, i.e., the renewed
interest in poster work and mural decora-
tion. In this respect the record of the
Underground Railways Company has been
far better than that of" the London County
Council, whose rejection of excellent
lunette paintings done at its own sugges-
tion by pupils of London schools for the
decoration of part of the County Hall
buildings was a regrettable example of
unwise and ungracious behaviour. That
such commissions should be given to
artists of established reputation was
raised in its defence. Unfortunately it is
seldom that committees can command
either the money or the solid loyalty that
is needed to support an artist through a
great public undertaking, and the oppor-
tunity of obtaining a uniform series simply
and fittingly carried out by apprentices
of his Mother, exhibited at the same
place, is a work of great charm, with the
freshness of treatment which the more
specialist portrait-painters often miss. I
would refer to Mr. Steer's Mrs. Lowinsky
(New English Art Club, 1924), and Mr.
Clausen's i?. W. S. Weir (Royal Academy,
1924) as further examples of the happy
results of the more occasional practice
of portraiture. A younger artist of
equally varied gift in landscape and
figure, a painter of great ability, is Mr.
John Wheatley, of whom I illustrate a
recent oil study of His Daughter. His
etching is equally admirable, and its very
occasional nature by no means to be re-
gretted, for nothing keeps such a craft
from sterilisation better than regular
practice in another mode of expression.
Mr. Sargent himself has undoubtedly kept
his magic power of portraiture from the
dangers which beset Van Dyck by a con-
sistent refusal to become a slave to his
popularity. Instead,hehas givenusconstant
joy in his freshly seen landscapes and archi-
tectural studies, and retained the ability
to produce such a masterpiece of reticent
portraiture as his Sir Philip Sassoon in
the Academy of 1924. And the year that
has produced John's wonderful portrait
of Mme. Suggia cannot be regarded as
barren of achievement. a a a
The band of artists who keep up the
great tradition of historical painting is
notably small; a matter, however, for
little surprise, for no other branch of
painting demands so comprehensive a
genius in the creator. Reynolds was
right in recognising his own limitations
and keeping chiefly to portraiture; he
may have been wrong (as Barry bitterly
complained) in encouraging his contem-
poraries towards a form of art that few of
them had the power to make alive. Fore-
most to-day among the few who possess
this power is Mr. Charles Ricketts. Formed
in the school of the pre-Raphaelites, a
descendant, too, of the great Venetians, he
yet has a real individual fire, as is nobly
evidenced in the richly coloured and finely
poised group of Jephthah's Daughter in last
year's Academy. Both he and Mr.
Shannon are owed much for keeping alive
the sense of joy in material and physical
beauty that characterised the Renaissance.
Among younger artists Mr. Colin Gill
is remarkable for promise of similar
mastery in the classic field, his Venus and
Cupid in the 1924 Academy being a
beautiful composition of subtle harmony
of colour, though still manifestly deriva-
tive in its Florentine suggestions. Another
historical painter whose thoughtful labour
has begun to bear fruit is Mr. Eric George,
who has recently exhibited a most arrest-
ing treatment of the Martyrdom of St.
Sebastian, and an equally original picture,
Before Calvary, which is here reproduced.
Strangely contrasted in aim is Mr. W. P.
Roberts, whose grotesque subjects from
daily life were exhibited at the Chenil
Gallery last year. He would have done
better to have kept his human Robots
to the studio, but that he has the making
of a true artist is proved, I think, by so
fine a study as the example reproduced.
I have made no attempt in these random
remarks to estimate the greatest achieve-
ments of the year, much less to mention
many artists of note or promise, but I
would not omit congratulating Mr. Walter
Sickert on his recent recognition by the
Royal Academy. Though appreciated for
years by all his brother artists, both as
creator and inspirer, I am convinced that
he now enters a wider sphere of immediate
influence than could possibly have been
his through other channels of exhibi-
tion, a 0 a a a a
There is one other matter which I would
emphasise in conclusion, i.e., the renewed
interest in poster work and mural decora-
tion. In this respect the record of the
Underground Railways Company has been
far better than that of" the London County
Council, whose rejection of excellent
lunette paintings done at its own sugges-
tion by pupils of London schools for the
decoration of part of the County Hall
buildings was a regrettable example of
unwise and ungracious behaviour. That
such commissions should be given to
artists of established reputation was
raised in its defence. Unfortunately it is
seldom that committees can command
either the money or the solid loyalty that
is needed to support an artist through a
great public undertaking, and the oppor-
tunity of obtaining a uniform series simply
and fittingly carried out by apprentices