CECIL ALDIN

Post -226 -by Gautam Shah

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

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Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin (1870-1935), was a British artist and illustrator. His father was an amateur artist and he inspired Cecil to start drawing at a young age. Cecil’s mastery was innate which matured through his love for animals. Years of sketching of dogs, horses, foxes, in fields, streets, and zoo, refined his skills.

He is known for his paintings and sketches of animals, fox hunting, sports and village scenes. He drew from life and his ability to quickly catch the essence of animal behaviour was extra ordinary. Aldin executed and rural buildings in chalk, pencil and also wash sketching. His compositions have zoned colours bounded by thin outlines. There is little attention to shadow casting.

After the WW-I, besides creating drawing animals he devoted himself to superb prints of old inns, cathedrals and manor houses. His book illustrations were very popular.

In 1894 he illustrated stories from Rudyard Kipling’s Second Jungle Book and also the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens’ the Pickwick Papers. Other works included The Bunch Book, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier, by James Douglas.

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FREDERICK CAYLEY ROBINSON

 

Post 225 -by Gautam Shah

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

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Frederic Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) was one of the most prolific and original British artists, remained an obscure figure. He was a painter, illustrator and decorator. He attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London and Académie Julian in Paris.

Cayley Robinson remained busy traveling abroad. He stayed in Florence and Paris. Here he took up the practice of painting in tempera, plaster, and with charcoal pencils. He experimented with egg tempera to achieve a degree of surface flatness. Robinson worked with oil, pastel and watercolours, which helped him to become, a luxury, stage and fashion designer. In 1915 he executed giant fresco paintings at the Middle-sex hospital.

Cayley Robinson scenes are full of girls and women, silently involved with their own concerns. They are all set against the architectural elements (windows), or surfaces. The people and scenic lines are curvaceously elongated. These combined with flat colours without the shades gradations or shadows, create a simple, yet allusive space. He uses subdued intonation, and the source of illumination remains indistinct. He exploits the form and colours to impress a holistic mood for the scene.

Cecil French recalls: 'The potency of spell, the visionary strangeness, the almost desperate sincerity, of the new, mysterious, isolated artist brought to mind the first strenuous beginnings of the English Pre-Raphaelite group'.

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PIERRE EUGÈNE MONTÉZIN

PIERRE EUGÈNE MONTÉZIN

Post 224 -by Gautam Shah 

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

Pierre Eugène Montézin (1874 - 1946) was a French Painter. He was a son of a Paris-based lace craft’s person. He was apprenticed as a decorator specializing in murals. He had a long and distinguished career as a post-impressionists landscape painter.

Montézin loved the plein-air painting in the country areas of the Ile-de-France. His arts show, the vibrant colours and clear light of the outdoors. These were reinforced with spontaneous brush strokes. He was influenced by Claude Monet. His loved for water of seas, rivers, puddles and streets full of slushy rains or melted snow is clearly visible. He exploits the waters through surface sheen and reflections of skies in ripples.

Montézin spent very little time in his studio. He once said ‘The subjects of the landscape painter are less in front of the artist’s eyes, than in his heart.’

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