Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/6
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'English Water-Colours': Article from The Times, 5.3.31
'English Water-Colours': Article from The Times, 5.3.31
Date: 1930-31
Transcription
ENGLISH WATER-COLOURS
This year's annual exhibition of
selected water-colour drawings in aid of
the Artists' General Benevolent Institution at Messrs. Agnew's, 43. Old Bond-
street, will be memorable for its impressive
collection of 46 works by Girtin. One
had not supposed that so many fine
examples of the short-lived friend of
Turner—Girt in died at the age of 27—
could have been got together. They are
hung in the last of the three bays into
which the gallery has been divided by
screens, so that tho effect is that the
whole English water-colour school, which
is represented down to the present day,
pays homage to Girtin. Whether by accident or design, the 20 Turners in the next
bay, though they include some beautiful
things, are not. so to speak, "important,"
as if it were felt that on this occasion the
more famous men would prefer to pay
deference to the young genius of whom he
said that if Tom Girtin had lived he
himself would have starved. As much
upon its arrangement as upon its contents are the organizers of this exhibition
to be congratulated.
That from many of the Girtins the blues
have flown only adds to the weight of the
collection. Some of the drawings are
actually in monochrome, and since the
others were modelled in monochrome
there is no serious alteration of values by
the loss of tinting. It would not be possible to make a collection of works in this
medium by any other English artist that
would speak so surely of genius. Over
and above Girtin's technical powers, his
instinct for composition, certainty of
drawing, and rightness of tone, he leaves
the impression of a high order of mind—
grave, reflective, and unhurried, giving
dignity to his subjects, not by idealization, but by sober truth in the statement
of their essentials.
It is difficult, indeed, to pick and choose
in such a collection. "Peterborough
Cathedral" might he named as a miracle
of architectural drawing—not in the least
like an architect's drawing—and it is
impossible to resist the appeal of such
compositions as "Harewood Bridge,"
"Durham Cathedral" (1799), "44 Guis-
borough Priory," and " Ilkley "; but, as
illustrations of Girtin's power of lending
nobility to simple material, one would be
inclined to choose two drawings in particular : "Valle Crucis Abbey " (138) and
"The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury." It is in
these drawings that Girt in comes nearest
to Cotman. but, with equal sureness and
sense of weight—the subtle indication of
settlement in "The Tithe Barn," for
instance—the drawing is more sensitive,
and there is a deeper and less "decorative " reading of the subjects.
In this exhibition everything comes
second to Girtin, though there are many
things to excite interest and pleasure.
What one feels in looking at Turner after
Girtin is his advance in atmospheric
qualities, his power of modelling the
elements, as in "The Splugen," or
realizing solid features with touches of
pure colour, as in the farther hill in "The
Valley of St. Gothard." It is, perhaps,
for his implied solidity while concerned
ostensibly with light and colour that
Turner is most remarkable—for the
amount of forgotten knowledge behind his
"visions."' There are several very fine
examples of J. R. Cozens, "On the Strada
Nomentana. Rome,"' being remarkable for
grace, and "A Grotto in the Campagna,"
for structural realization by the passage of
light ; there are some delicious Gainsboroughs— "The Shepherd." a grey,
woody subject, in particular—and Cox and
De VVint are well represented ; but, it is
felt appropriately, the retrospective col-
lection is kept a little down, in homage to
Girtin and to give value to the contem-
porary drawings, which are distinguished
by remarkable courage and catholicity in
selection.
'The Times'
5.3.'31.