DOI article:
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert: The Yellow Book: a criticism of volume I
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21215#0192
i88
The Yellow Book
mous. The rarity of beauty in his faces seems in contradiction
with his exquisite sense of beauty in curving lines, and the
singular grace as well as rieh invention of his Ornaments. He
can, however, refuse himself the pleasure of such invention when
he wants to produce a discouraging effect upon the mind. See,
for instance, the oppressive plainness of the architecture in the
background to the dismal " Night Piece."
It is well known that the President of the Royal Academy,
unlike most English painters, is in the habit of making studies.
In his case these studies are uniformly in black and white chalk on
brown paper. Two of them are reproduced in The Yellow
Book, one being for drapery, and the other for the nude form
moving in a joyous dance with a light indication of drapery that
conceals nothing. The latter is a rapid sketch of an intention and
is füll of life both in attitude and execution, the other is still and
statuesque. Sir Frederic is a model to all artists in one very rare
virtue, that of submitting himself patiently, in his age3to the same
diseipline which strengthened him in youth.
I find a curious and remarkable drawing by Mr. Pennell of that
strangely romantic place Le Puy en Velay, whose rocks are crowned
with towers or colossal statues, whilst houses cluster at their feet.
The subject is dealt with rather in the spirit of Dürer, but with a
more supple and more modern kind of skill. It is topography,
though probably with considerable artistic liberty. I notice one
of Dürer's licences in tonic relations. The sky, though the sun is
setting (or rising) is made darker than the hüls against it, and
darker even than the two remoter masses of rock which come
between us and the distance. The trees, too, are shaded capri-
ciously, some poplars in the middle distance being quite dark whilst
nearer trees are left without shade or local colour. In a word,
the tonality is simply arbitrary, and in this kind of drawing it
matters
The Yellow Book
mous. The rarity of beauty in his faces seems in contradiction
with his exquisite sense of beauty in curving lines, and the
singular grace as well as rieh invention of his Ornaments. He
can, however, refuse himself the pleasure of such invention when
he wants to produce a discouraging effect upon the mind. See,
for instance, the oppressive plainness of the architecture in the
background to the dismal " Night Piece."
It is well known that the President of the Royal Academy,
unlike most English painters, is in the habit of making studies.
In his case these studies are uniformly in black and white chalk on
brown paper. Two of them are reproduced in The Yellow
Book, one being for drapery, and the other for the nude form
moving in a joyous dance with a light indication of drapery that
conceals nothing. The latter is a rapid sketch of an intention and
is füll of life both in attitude and execution, the other is still and
statuesque. Sir Frederic is a model to all artists in one very rare
virtue, that of submitting himself patiently, in his age3to the same
diseipline which strengthened him in youth.
I find a curious and remarkable drawing by Mr. Pennell of that
strangely romantic place Le Puy en Velay, whose rocks are crowned
with towers or colossal statues, whilst houses cluster at their feet.
The subject is dealt with rather in the spirit of Dürer, but with a
more supple and more modern kind of skill. It is topography,
though probably with considerable artistic liberty. I notice one
of Dürer's licences in tonic relations. The sky, though the sun is
setting (or rising) is made darker than the hüls against it, and
darker even than the two remoter masses of rock which come
between us and the distance. The trees, too, are shaded capri-
ciously, some poplars in the middle distance being quite dark whilst
nearer trees are left without shade or local colour. In a word,
the tonality is simply arbitrary, and in this kind of drawing it
matters