Page 50 - The Studio First Edition - April 1893

The Lay Figure Speaks

THE LAY FIGURE SPEAKS. unrepresented as if a permanent jury, or one
specially chosen by the exhibitors, had been in
I AM told that no lay-men are supposed to utter power. But if men be invited at first, and their pic-
criticisms in this STUDIO; I wish they didn't in tures not demanded later, naturally they grumble.
others. As a lay figure one can't reply to them,
but still one thinks. " Utterly lacking in character, the most feeble
It seems to me all the correspondence upon the thing I ever saw," said a visitor on Show Sunday.
New Art Criticism turns upon a title which did not Amazed at such frank criticism I looked round,
belong to the picture, and that if, instead of but he was not addressing the artist nor yet study-
L'Absinthe, it had been called The Frugal Repast ing his own face in a mirror, only retailing his im-
of Genius, and interpreted as one green glass of pression of Mr. Whistler's Lady Meux to his host
who, by the way, fully appreciates the one English
milk and two unfortunate artists unable to afford
even a penny roll between them, it would have been master the New Criticism permits us to enjoy.
as " great a moral show " as Artemus Ward's itself. At the next exhibition, Forestry and Gardening,
All the same, it seems hard on Deboutin, the at Earl's Court, the paintings are to be selected
engraver, who is the hero of the so-called L'Absinthe, from the subjects embraced by its interesting title,
to be held up as a shocking example to sober which should afford a fine collection of works, if the
England. owners will lend them. But an annexe to a popular
The Westminster Gazette of April 5 records the promenade concert, seems to be considered hardly
appearance of THE STUDIO, says "it is nicely pro- the right locality for a serious collection of works of
duced," and is kindly anxious concerning its suc- art. Why English people should take their art
cess. This is quite " up to date " reviewing, for fasting and in silence is not explained.
even the first sheet had not left the press by that It is a pity America does not take as much inte-
date, and no human being had seen a copy, for the rest in English paintings as in English literature.
simple reason that no copy existed. For years past we have had outspoken and sane
Why does nobody coin nice new names for our little criticism of our writers from a nation distant
cliques—impressionists, naturalists, symbolists, and enough to pose as a sort of preliminary posterity—
the rest, are all adapted from the French ? Mr. a forecast, so to speak, of the verdict of the time
Ruskin invented " blottesque," for a certain style that immediately follows notoriety—before the final
of black and white, popular in his day, but the fame or oblivion is awarded.
words to describe that absence of genius, which But America, with eyes for the art of all the
consists in doing a thing in a way every one world, save one little island, does not even conde-
rejected hitherto, are still inadequate.
scend to scold us—or to be more precise has
So the new National Portrait Gallery is declared hardly done so yet. Whether the consignment of
to be barely large enough to hold the immortals so national art to be delivered this month at Chicago
long banished to Bethnal Green ; and to be like will alter the position is to be seen.
its big neighbour, unable to face possible acqui- Is it a representative collection ? The question
sition with equanimity. is easier asked than answered, for the real difficulty
Why not clear a large percentage of the British would be to decide what was distinctly representative
School at the National Gallery, at South Kensing- of modern English Art, that is to say, what is re-
ton, and elsewhere, and with the crowds that lie cognised as " quite English " by foreigners.
half forgotten in dealer's cellars, or the cocklofts of
artists' studios, make a brave show in the under- In an American paper lately it was said that
ground stations ? The light would be good enough whenever a distinctly English artist had arisen he
for many of the pictures, while as to their present had invariably chosen an ugly type of face and
occupants, the posters one knows so well, they figure, and from Blake to Burne-Jones, the writer
might be sent, like the Chantrey bequest pictures, cited examples to support his argument.
on loan to the provinces. Indeed it would seem as if English Art meant to
At last it seems we have discovered Cheret, and foreigners the Pre-Raphaelite school—not of course
at the same moment comes a serious effort to the actual P.R.B. but all the work of the fantastic,
abolish the poster altogether ; at least I am told decorative order that is easy to recognise under that
the absence of placards from a huge hoarding by heading although it lacks a more precise name.
Broad Street station is owing to the tax imposed May it not be true, with this proviso however, that
by the vestry or some local body, which would it is only the secondary grade in art that suggests
mean £200 a month for that hoarding. locality ? Great art knows no parish, and is purely
Surely in grey dingy London, even the very cosmopolitan in essence whatever its subject may be.
primary colours of the poster should be improved, But a lay figure must not preach sermons—only
not abolished. A rough deal fence blackened and listen. If only outsiders could but realise what it has
stained is a hideous thing. The hoarding at Picca- to listen to, the hours of talk on " tones " and
dilly Circus, for example, would not be so dismal " values," theories and " fads," they would stand
if covered by posters of Cheret, Rops, Grasset, aghast. I heard a model once ask a visitor, " Do
Vallotton, or Willette. they always talk like this, even when we ain't here?"
Judging by the Grafton show, an attempt to The visitor who was by way of being an art-critic
select a gallery of modern pictures without an answered briefly—" always." And then he looked
elected jury seems as little to the taste of the very sad. I wondered why ! THE LAY FIGURE.
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