Adventures in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and PoetsHartley, Marsden
History
Adventures in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets
Hartley, Marsden
Art; Literature, Modern -- History and criticism; Vaudeville
Among the "coming soon," we have Miss Juliet, whom I recall with so
much pleasure from the last immemorable Cohan Revue. I wait for her. I
consider myself fortunate to be let in on James Watts. We thought our
Eddy Foy a comic one. He was, for I remember the Gibson girl with the
black velvet gown and the red flannel undershirt. I swing my swagger
stick in the presence of Mr. Watts by way of applause. His art is very
delicately understood and brought out. It has a fine quality of broad
caricature with a real knowledge of economy such as Grock is master
of. The three episodes are certainly funny enough. I find myself
caring more for the first, called "June Day," since he reminds me so
strongly in make-up of the French caricaturists in drawing, Rouveyre
and Toulouse-Lautrec. Mr. Watts's feeling for satirical make-up is a
fine shade of artistry in itself. He has excellent feeling for the
broad contrast and for fierce insinuation at the same time. If you
want real unalloyed fun, Mr. Watts will supply you. Nor will Grock
disappoint you. Quite on the contrary, no matter what you are
expecting.
I do not know why I think of vaudeville as I think of a collection of
good drawings. Unless it is because the sense of form is the same in
all of the arts. The acrobat certainly has line and mass to think of,
even if that isn't his primal concern. He knows how he decorates the
space on which he operates. To make another comparison, then, Grock is
the Forain of vaudeville. He achieves great plastic beauty with
distinguished economy of means. He dispenses with all superfluous
gesture, as does the great French illustrator. Grock is entirely right
about clownery. You are either funny or you are not. No amount of
study will produce the gift for humour. It is there, or it isn't.
Grock's gift for musicianship is a singular combination to find with
the rest of his artistry. It goes with the remarkably refined look in
his face, however, as he sits upon the back of the seatless chair, and
plays the little concertina with superb execution. There are no
"jumps" in Grock's performance. His moods flow from one into another
with a masterly smoothness, and you are aware when he is finished that
you have never seen that sort of foolery before. Not just that sort.
It is the good mind that satisfies, as in the case of James Watts, and
Miss Shields.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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