DOI Heft:
No. 393 (December 1925)
DOI Artikel:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: Christopher Whall and his influence
DOI Artikel:[Studio-talk]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21403#0374
CHRISTOPHER WHALL—LONDON
information that he gives in his treatise,
where we feel from page to page that no
craftsman has ever had a keener love for
the limitations pressed upon him by his
materials. a a 0 a a
His life-long hobby was natural history,
and he united it variously to his practice
as a designer. It helped to educate his
fondness for colour, and influenced his
admirable choice of glass from his pot-
metal. There are persons who believe that
windows of pot-metal, a mosaic of
variously coloured glass held together by
grooved leaded " canes/' and supported
by horizontal iron bars, should be al-
together free from painted work, but they
are mistaken. Mediaeval windows of the
best pot-metal have fine lines, hatchings,
stippling and glazings freely painted on
them in monochrome. To this extent
they are enamelled. a a a
Recent critics have drawn attention to
some defects of design in Whall's School,
notably an occasional excess of feminine
qualities. Yes, but windows must be
judged in situ, not from monochromic
illustrations, particularly when their maker
is a master of beautiful varied colour, like
Christopher Whall. And let us all re-
member that, but for Whall and his few
colleagues, the art of stained glass in our
country could not have been raised into
good craftsmanship from its debasement
in Victorian commercialism. Assuredly he
was a master craftsman ; and that is what
he wished his after-comers to be, each
with an educated freedom free from
imitation. 0 0 0 a a
Walter Shaw Sparrow.
LONDON.—The winter exhibition of
the Royal Society of Painters in
Water Colours is definitely attractive as a
gathering of sound work which represents
adequately most of the more rational
phases of modern water-colour painting.
Among the best things in it must be
counted the contributions of Mr. Russell
Flint—his Sloping Sands, Dinard, and La
368
"M. LOUIS BARTHOU." PEN-
CIL DRAWING BY OSCAR LA2AR
information that he gives in his treatise,
where we feel from page to page that no
craftsman has ever had a keener love for
the limitations pressed upon him by his
materials. a a 0 a a
His life-long hobby was natural history,
and he united it variously to his practice
as a designer. It helped to educate his
fondness for colour, and influenced his
admirable choice of glass from his pot-
metal. There are persons who believe that
windows of pot-metal, a mosaic of
variously coloured glass held together by
grooved leaded " canes/' and supported
by horizontal iron bars, should be al-
together free from painted work, but they
are mistaken. Mediaeval windows of the
best pot-metal have fine lines, hatchings,
stippling and glazings freely painted on
them in monochrome. To this extent
they are enamelled. a a a
Recent critics have drawn attention to
some defects of design in Whall's School,
notably an occasional excess of feminine
qualities. Yes, but windows must be
judged in situ, not from monochromic
illustrations, particularly when their maker
is a master of beautiful varied colour, like
Christopher Whall. And let us all re-
member that, but for Whall and his few
colleagues, the art of stained glass in our
country could not have been raised into
good craftsmanship from its debasement
in Victorian commercialism. Assuredly he
was a master craftsman ; and that is what
he wished his after-comers to be, each
with an educated freedom free from
imitation. 0 0 0 a a
Walter Shaw Sparrow.
LONDON.—The winter exhibition of
the Royal Society of Painters in
Water Colours is definitely attractive as a
gathering of sound work which represents
adequately most of the more rational
phases of modern water-colour painting.
Among the best things in it must be
counted the contributions of Mr. Russell
Flint—his Sloping Sands, Dinard, and La
368
"M. LOUIS BARTHOU." PEN-
CIL DRAWING BY OSCAR LA2AR