International studio . THE EAKL OF HALSBURVBY SIR GEORGE REID Siy Geoy^e Reicfs Portraits applied to himself. The same point of view isevident in The Rev. Dr. Mitchell, in Dr. WalterSmith, and Thomas Graham Murray. Indeed,in his presentation of Church dignitaries he paintsthem as members of a Church Militant. Behindhis Scottish divines stands the full defiance of theSolemn League and Covenant and the Thirty-nineArticles. When you look into their faces youthink of Drumclog and Airds Moss, of John Knoxand Andrew Melville. Sir George Reids Scotsmen could never be any-thing else than men of the Do
International studio . THE EAKL OF HALSBURVBY SIR GEORGE REID Siy Geoy^e Reicfs Portraits applied to himself. The same point of view isevident in The Rev. Dr. Mitchell, in Dr. WalterSmith, and Thomas Graham Murray. Indeed,in his presentation of Church dignitaries he paintsthem as members of a Church Militant. Behindhis Scottish divines stands the full defiance of theSolemn League and Covenant and the Thirty-nineArticles. When you look into their faces youthink of Drumclog and Airds Moss, of John Knoxand Andrew Melville. Sir George Reids Scotsmen could never be any-thing else than men of the Don and the Dee, theClyde and the Forth. They carry their country ontheir shoulders, in the conscious independence ofthe eyes, in the ruggedness of the cheek. SirJames Guthries men of the north are not em-phatically Scottish. Always full of character, theydo not bear their sign-manual of nationality socharacteristically as do those of his Guthrie had painted Thomas Carlyle, he would. EARL LOREBTRN. LORD CHANCELLOR BY SIR GEORGE REII have seen him with the eyes of Whistler, upon whichvision he would have superimpcsed his own insightinto the spiritual significance of his sitter. If SirGeorge Reid had painted the Chelsea sage, hewould have presented him as the Thunderer fullarmed against the battalions of sham and humbug,and the Lowland Scot in him would have called toyou with the murmur of the Tweed and the war-cryof the Border riever. The decorative principles as practised by Whistlerand the members of the Glasgow and other modemschools are not to be sought for in a portrait byReid. He does not use his sitter merely as thecentre for a scheme of colour. At his worst—whichis never bad—the background is a negligiblequantity ; at his best—which is superlatively fine—it does not share with any sense of equality in theimportance of the general design. This design isnever complex. Its very simplicity has led someto belittle the artistic achievement. But we areconv
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Keywords: ., bookcentury180, booksubjectart, booksubjectdecorationandornament
