THE ART OF CONRAD MARTENS 



nature. As compared with those of the brother painters with 

 whom his name is always associated, the President's works were, 

 in his own day, the most popular of all. His were eagerly pur- 

 chased, while those even of David Cox were often returned from 

 the gallery unsold." 



ThoughTime, in the most equitable spirit of revenge, has reversed 

 much contemporary opinion, and done justice to De Wint and the 

 great, neglected Cotman, the ready elegance of Copley Fielding's 

 draughtsmanship remains, and he has to his credit " the invention 

 of the Downs in art." This Sussex work Ruskin praises with his 

 accustomed beauty of style ; but it must be remembered that 

 Ruskin loved all draughtsmen of line, and ever preferred the artist 

 who elevated his theme to him who simply rendered simple nature. 

 Of Fielding he says, in one of his Oxford lectures : "The depth of 

 far distant brightness, freshness and mystery of morning air, with 

 which Copley Fielding used to invest the ridges of the South 

 Downs as they rose out of the Sussex champaign, remains, and I 

 believe must ever remain insuperable, while his sense of beauty in 

 the cloud forms associated with the higher mountains enabled him 

 to invest the comparatively modest scenery of our own island 

 out of which he never travelled with a charm seldom attained by 

 the most ambitious painters of Alp or Apennine." 



Fielding painted also the mountain and lake scenery of the 

 North of England, and typical seascapes with shipping ; and in all 

 these his pupil displayed a like interest, though he had later to 

 deal with them under very different conditions of colour and light. 

 Martens must have been a consistent worker, for his Devonshire 

 sketches reveal a will to master his craft and a delight in outdoor 

 sketching for its own sake. A sound training in the practice of the 

 day had made him a good craftsman ; he had early learnt to lay a 

 wash with precision, and to handle pigments with some sense of 

 their specific differences. In general, his English work is small in 

 size, and characterized by care and neatness, as if he still must 

 feel his way, dependent on a knowledge of form and colour not 

 yet ample enough for a larger essay. He is still dominated by 

 the drawing-master's angle of vision. The ruined castle, the old 

 water-mill with attendant reflections, and the tree groups that 



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