Cotmania. Vol. IX. 1933-4

{Kitson annotation}

From an article on water colour painting by Adrian [illegible 1 word] at the [illegible 1 word] art exhibition "apollo" Feb.

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{Apollo article}

Contemporary with Turner, Cotman mastered the topographical style, and was equally adept at the art of "describing views" and "copying " antiquities, but perhaps by reason of his lack of worldly success he was compelled to discipline his genius, and his excursions into the sphere of imagination are consequently more conscious and intense than Turner's. We pass from Cotman's " Walsingham Priory," with its powerful record of facts in light and shade, to that splendid symbolization of nature. " The New Bridge, Durham." Cotman here has felt the need to improvise, to construct, eliminate and simplify. The trees lose their familiar detail of leaf and branch, the scene is bolder, broader and richer in significance. It has an epic quality that enlarges our knowledge and quickens our emotions. The picture is not so much descriptive as interpretative. It is true that the artist has only escaped from one formula to another, but in his struggle he has added something new to the miracle of art.

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{Kitson annotation}

'Oxford Times' March 29. 1934

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{Oxford Times article}

PLOUGHLEY RURAL COUNCIL.

Additional Interest was given to the contest at Kidilington, for recently, on the Parish Council's application to the County Council, the representation on the Ploughley R.D.C. was increased from two to three. There were five candidates. The retiring members were Mr. S. D. Kitson and Mr. Frank Wise, the latter a member of the Parish Council, and the newcomers Mr. D. A. Wynne Willson, a retired schoolmaster, Mr. T. A. Kilby, a retired policeman, and Mr. E. Helcher, a member of the Parish Council.
Kidlington householders had been vigorously canvassed both in person by candidates and by means of election addresses, which dealt at length with pressing local questions such as the water supply and electricity needs.
However, only about a third of the 1,100 voters polled at the schools, where the Deputy Returning officer, Mr. L. W. Duncombe, announced the result of the contest.

Frank Wise 255
S. D. Kitson 245
D. A. Wynne WiIson 208
Not elected :—T. E. Kilby, 177 ; E. Belcher. 27.

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{Kitson annotation}

From a [illegible 1 word] of Roger Fry's 'Reflections on British Painting', in Times Literary Supplement: april 12. 1934.

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{Times Literary Supplement article}

It is necessary, of course, to accept Mr. Fry's premises, the premises of his particular kind of sensibility, before his judgments will appear logical and connected. Obviously Turner's rhetoric will not appeal to him by comparison with the decorous observation of Gainsborough or Constable, the two English painters whom Mr. Fry praises without qualification. In exactly the opposite direction the rather withering abstractions of Cotman seem to him inferior to the very modest but genuine feeling of David Cox. a painter whose reputation was much increased by the exhibition and whom Mr. Fry praises with almost exaggerated gestures of apology.