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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.