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Painter and Poet
J.W.NORTH, A.R.A., R.W.S., PAINTER AND POET.—I. BY PROFESSOR HUBERT HERKOMER, R.A., M.A. A Lecture delivered in Oxford, 1892 ONE of the most truly original painters of our times is Mr. J. W. North. Of this originality he himself is not aware, and was once greatly astonished to read in a criticism on his work that he had a strongly marked manner. But all originality must approach perilously near mannerism. The danger is chiefly in its proclaiming the identity of the painter too readily. You spot a man's work at a glance, but do you prize it the less for that? I well remember the excitement in the days of Walker when we enthusiasts rushed into the Old Water-Colour Gallery, and after a hasty glance around the room darted upon the work whose aspect we recognized at a distance. Is it to be supposed that Henry Irving would attract the vast audiences if he were not so strongly marked in his manner? It is his
originality that makes him peculiar, for his conventionality is based upon nature. Much of the convention of the arts of former ages was based upon a true sense of nature, and the desire seemed to be uppermost to make them agreeable to the artistic eye. The different -periods would no doubt demand a different kind of agreeableness, but that brutal realism which has only come into fashion since the advent of photography, is doing its best to cast out all former artistic conventions. Many of these pictures that I am alluding to, when photographed, seem to suggest direct photography from nature, rather than reproduction. This is no merit, far from it; it is the curse of impersonality in art. Let this question of personality be thoroughly understood. The only work of art that possesses the virtue of interpretation of nature emanates from a strongly marked personality. So it is with Mr. North. His work looks strangely out of
place in any modern gallery where the dominant note is always the momentary fashion of the period. Mr. North strikes a note that is out of harmony with the noise of modern fashion in art. Strangely enough it has always been out of fashion; therefore it is true to say that he was as much ahead of his times twenty years ago as lie is to-day.
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