i8 
Land & Water 
April 1 8, 1918 
Official Art: By Charles Marriott 
So far as can be judged from a photograph, the first 
prize design for a meiriorial plaque to be presented 
to the next of kin of members of His Majesty's 
Forces who have fallen in the war has the right 
dignity and simplicity. The idea expressed in the 
design is worthy, the feeUng restrained, the sjTnbolism apt 
and easy to read, and the modelling clean and firm. On the 
whole, the artist, the Government, and the general pubUc 
are to be congratulated. As a rule, this sort of thing is 
done badly in England, and it may be worth while trying to 
discover the reason why. Certainly it is not lack of ideas 
or of technical abihty in this country. 
For some reason or other, a great many people, including 
intelligent and educated people, and even 
some artists, do not seem to be able to 
bring to art the same good faith that 
they bring to literature. For ex- 
ample, they use the words 
"truth to nature" with an 
entirely different meaning 
in speaking of literature ,^^^^^^^H%F / / 
and in speaking of 
painting or sculp- 
ture. In the case 
of literature they 
tacitly, and right- 
ly, mean truth to 
nature in words ; 
but in the case of 
painting or sculp- 
ture they do not 
mean truth to 
nature in paint or 
bronze or marble. 
They mean the 
imitation of na- 
ture in those' sub- 
stances. In the 
one case they 
tacitly assume 
translation into 
terms of the 
medium^ and in the 
other they do not. As 
apphed to hterature 
they interpret the phrase 
"holding the mirror up to 
nature" figuratively, as it was 
intended ; but in the case of 
painting, they interpret the phrase 
literally, as it was not intended. The 
reflection in a mirror is a respectable . 
ideal for a possible art, but it is not the Design 
art of painting. It is the art of perfect 
colour photography. The art of photo- 
graphy, indeed, is essentially and 
hteraUy the art of holding up a mirror to nature and fixing 
the reflection. 
As will be seen, a good deal of the confusion is caused by 
the bad habit of talking about "art" in the abstract. 
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as art as distinct 
from the particular arts of painting, carving, or modelling. 
The essential thing about any art is control of the medium 
according to its nature and capacities. In the case of litera- 
ture this is more or less clearly recognised. The people of 
whom I spoke recognise that, irrespective of subject, litera- 
ture is primarily the right and effective use of words ; that 
the writer is, in fact, a word-smith ; but they do not recognise 
that, equally irrespective of subject, art is primarily the 
right and effective use of paint or marble or bronze, or what- 
ever the substance may be ; and that in one case, as in the 
other, truth to nature implies translation. The parallel in 
literature to what such people expect of painting or sculpture 
would be the sacrifice of articulate language to imitative 
sounds. 
In order to satisfy the public, and, above all, the official 
pubhc, an artist has to make a compromise between truth 
to nature in terms of his medium and the imitation of nature 
which violates his medium — as imitative sounds would 
violate language. Even in pictorial art, where a reasonably 
close imitation of nature can be indulged without serious 
injury to the medium, the difficulty exists ; but when it 
comes to special forms of art, such as the designing of coins 
or medals, the difficulty is eriormously increased. There is 
not only the special substance, but, the special form to be 
considered in the translation of nature. I have talked to 
several of the artists responsible for official insignia actually 
in use, and they all tell me the same story : the problem was 
to dodge in the interests of craftmanship the official demand 
for an imitative representation. Generally, the result is a 
bad compromise ; * and if you examine the various examples 
of official art in use, from decorations to "Bradburys" and 
postage stamps, you will see that their general character is 
that of a more or less good pictorial design clapped on to the 
surface of the materials. They are not designed in terms of 
the material or in terms of the particular art involved. 
The difference between the task of the 
artist and that of the writer in satisfy- 
ing the ofiicial mind can be illus- 
trated in a very simple way. 
Everybody must have noticed 
that in most public memorials 
the inscription is the best 
for Memorial 
By E. C. Preston 
part. The reason is not 
necessarily that the 
artist was inferior to 
the writer chosen, 
but that the 
writer was ad- 
dressing a sounder 
judgment. He 
could use his 
medium freely 
with the certainty 
of being under- 
stood. Nobody 
would pull him up 
and point out 
I that the word was 
not really "like" 
the thing. Good 
as is Mr. Preston's 
design for the 
memorial plaque, 
it has not quite 
the felicity of ' the 
inscription : "He died 
for Freedom and Hon- 
our." I cannot help think- 
ing that the combat between 
the British lion and the German 
eagle was an anticipatory conces- 
sion on the part of Mr. Preston. As 
somebody said when I pointed it out, 
he has done it " very small." Certainly 
it adds nothing to the dignity of the 
design or to the value of the leading 
idea. Fighting for honour and freedom 
and fighting Germany are not inevit- 
ably the same thing. They only happen to coincide. 
The reason why most of our official art is bad is not 
that the artists are incompetent or that the officials are 
insensible to fine conceptions or even hostile to good crafts- 
mansliip in itself. It is the much simpler and much less dis- 
couraging reason that, as a rule, the officials responsible do 
not understand that in art, as in literature, in order to be 
effective the thing must be done in terms of the medium. 
Sometimes, of course, the chosen artist is incapable of 
making the necessary translation because he has not been 
trained as a craftsman, but only as an "artist." It is much 
easier to imitate nature skilfully than to master a medium. 
Hundreds have poetical ideas, most people can write, but 
few can write poetry. I would say that for every 
hundred artists who are capable of a fine conception there 
will be only ten who can embody it in a good design ; and foi 
every ten who can embody it in a good design in the abstract, 
there will be only one who can design it in characteristic terms 
of a particular material for a particular purpose. 
Fortunately, this last is a removable deficiency, and that 
brings me to what I beheve is one reason why Mr. Preston 
has succeeded where so many have failed. Besides being a 
medallist and painter, he is a maker of toys, and he has done 
a great deal of work in connection with the Lord Roberts 
Memorial Workshops. I venture to say that he learnt 
more about designing medals in his toy-making than from 
his artistic training in the usual sense of the words. 
Plaq 
ue 
