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11. Standing Back from the
Canvas
"When I stand back I am recording mentally
what I am
going to put on my canvas when I walk up to it
(below)."
Q: There is one question I have been waiting
to ask you—why do you take so much exercise
while you are painting? Why do you move backwards
and forwards so incessantly?
"Well, as you see, I set my canvas beside
my sitter, but what I put on that canvas I judge
from a certain distance. I must go fairly far
off to see the general effect of my subject as
a whole in all that rightness of relation upon
which I insist so much. When I stand back I am
recording mentally what I am going to put on my
canvas when I walk up to it."
Q: Really, one might say that you paint your
picture while you are away from your canvas.
"In my mind; yes, I do. What I put on with
my brush is considered and settled before I touch
the picture, so much so, indeed, that I do not
look at my sitter when I am close enough to put
that touch on the canvas. How do you think I could
judge the texture of any material if I were near
enough to it to put my hand upon it? I must be
sufficiently far off to appreciate properly the
characteristic tones and values by which varieties
of texture are made apparent."
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he
brilliant Hungarian artist, Philip Alexius de László,
1869-1937, was the successor (in 1907) to Sargent's portrait
practice in London. In 1933 de László demonstrated
his dashing technique in a series of photographs, while answering
questions posed by the writer A.L. Baldry. The photos and
text were published in 1934 by The Studio Publications of
London, in volume six of their "How to Do It" series.