I feel I must give Charles M. Hawthorne the benefit of my doubts; I don't think this is the book he himself would have written had he chosen to do so. The book is mostly a collection of class notes, gathered and published posthumously by the artist's widow. Unfortunately, the reader is at the disadvantage of knowing little of what the work being critiqued actually looked like.
His critiques can be contradictory: for one student he tells them to see the color and then exaggerate it on the canvas; the next he asks why the color he put down was so vibrant compared to what was seen, and he reminds the student that the viewer shouldn't see the color, but the object being painted. He then tells the next student to stop looking at the object, and just paint the color! These observations are very difficult to comprehend without visual example, as maybe they seemed more in synch with the student's paintings at the time of the class.
Throughout the book, his mantra that painting is nothing more than putting one correct spot of color next to another, fills the pages. He was an influential teacher, and many clambered to study with him in New England. There is definitely something in his teachings, and there are kernels of wisdom to be picked out from the pages. I just don't think that this might be the best representation of what he offered his classes.
His paintings are not my cup of tea, and so, I might also be biased. There were other Americans painting at that same time whose work I liked much more. If you have reasons why you feel I am under-appreciating Mr. Hawthorne, then please feel free to comment. Well, time to finish the book, and move on to the next one...
4 comments:
Hey, great blog Matt! Say, have you ever read "Light for the Artist" by Ted Seth Jacobs?" I think you'd like it;)
Hi, Kristy. I have the book, but alas, have not read it. I purchased my copy from Maureen Thompson, who studied under Ted, and was in class with Tony Ryder. Maybe I should make that my next book, though I was planning on reading Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting.
Hello,
I picked this book up and I have to agree with your assesment. I got some good insight but it is some times contradictory. I teach Artistic Anatomy/painting and I find that it is almost impossible not to contradict yourself, at one point or another when talking about art. It is something that is so difficult to explain in words, because good art is so much more than strong fundamentals...as if that was not hard enough to learn on its own. One of my favorite quotes from JSS, "As to describe my procedure, I find the greatest difficulty in making it clear to pupils, even with the palette and brushes in hand and with the model before me:to serve it up in the abstract seems to me hopeless"
I can suggest.....
"Six Lectures On Painting"
By Geroge clausen
Delivered to the students of the Royal Academy of Arts in London 1904. This is a great easy read, very powerful insights. I have to say I have read Robert Henri over and over...just fantastic writing!
Thanks for getting great information out to us!
I feel Hensche was better at his process than Hawthorne and if you don't agree with the loud colors than there is nobody that wrote a book better than Birge Harrison. I highly recommend his book. He was a teacher in NY as the time when tonalism was being edged out by the impressionist.
Great Blog.
Ct Cummins
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