Studio: international art (90.1925)

THE WORK OF JOHN PLATT. BY
FRANK MORLEY FLETCHER. a

(Followed by Notes on Woodblock Colour
Printing by the Artist.)

AMONG the small group of artists
who have devoted themselves to the
making of prints from wood blocks in
the manner of the Japanese none has
reached the point of extreme skill and
meticulous care so necessary to that
delicate craft as John Piatt. 0 a
InAhis pencil and wash drawings one
feels the extreme topographical fidelity
to be at times excessive, yet in his recent
colour prints that quality of searching
accuracy is so mellowed and enriched by
the kind influence of the craft itself and
by its lovely surface of printed colour that
Mr. Piatt's work gains a poetic quality
of a high order. His two prints The Port
of St. Tropez and Entering the Port have
this quality of sincerity rendered charming

by the delicate tones that are the especial
beauty of water-colour printed from wood.

Mr. Piatt's work is especially remarkable
from the fact that for years his main energy
and nearly all his daylight have been taken
by the arduous duties of a teacher and
Head of important provincial schools of
art. That he should have had energy and
persistence in the scraps of time that such
duties leave and, to my knowledge, in
late hours of the night, to follow ardently
a difficult and exacting craft to such a
point of excellence as he has done is a
very remarkable achievement. 0 &

His drawing of Brixham, Devon, is
amazing in its precision and fidelity, yet
these are combined with a sense of design
and a delicacy of craftsmanship which
are of an uncommon mastery. This same
element distinguished the drawing of
Boats in St. Tropez Harbour, which was
recently purchased for the National Collec-
tion at the Tate Gallery. His prints have

Vol. XC. No. 392.—November 1925.

" the irish lady, land's end "
colour woodcut by john platt

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