Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, July 7th, 1920Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, July 7th, 1920
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
I am no stickler for commonplace colours or conventional shapes in a work
of art, but I do like things to be recognisable; to know, for instance,
when a thing is meant to be a man and when it is meant to be a boat, and
when it is meant to be a pookin and when it is meant to be a sun. The art
of Priscilla seems to me to satisfy this test much better than that of many
of our modern _maestri_. Strictly representational it may not be, but there
are none of your whorls and cylinders and angles and what nots.
But I also insist that a work of art should appeal to the imagination as
well as to the eye, and there seemed to me details about this picture that
needed clearing up.
"Where were these men going to, Priscilla?" I asked.
"They was going to Wurvin," she answered in the tone of a mother who
instructs her child. "And what do you think they was going to do there?"
"I don't know."
"They was going to see Auntie Isabel."
"And what did they do then?"
"They had dinner," she cried enthusiastically. "And do you know what they
did after dinner?"
"I don't."
"They went on the Front to see the fire-escape."
It seemed to me now that the conception was mellow, rounded and complete.
It had all the haunting mystery and romance of the sea about it. It was
reminiscent of the _Ancient Mariner_. It savoured of the books of Mr.
CONRAD. It reminded me not a little of those strange visitations which come
to quiet watering-places in the novels of Mr. H.G. WELLS. When I thought of
those seven men--one, alas, disembodied--so strangely attired yet so
careful of elementary hygiene, driven by that fierce typhoon, with that
bird of portent in the skies, arriving suddenly with the salt of their
Odyssey upon their brows at the beach of the genteel and respectable Sussex
town, and visiting a perhaps slightly perturbed Auntie Isabel, and
afterwards the fire-escape, I felt that here was the glimpse of the wild
exotic adventure for which the hearts of all of us yearn. It left the
cinema standing. It beat the magazine story to a frazzle.
"And who is the picture for, Priscilla?" I asked, when I had thoroughly
steeped myself in the atmosphere.
"It's for you," she said, presenting it with a motley-coloured hand; "it's
for you to take to London town and not to drop it."
I was careful to do as I was told, because I have a friend who paints
Expressionist pictures, and I wished to deliver it at his studio. It seems
to me that Priscilla, half-unconsciously perhaps, is founding a new school
of art which demands serious study. One might call it, I think, the Pookin
School.
EVOE.
* * * * *
WHEN CHARL. COMES OVER.
It is said that Mr. CHARLES CHAPLIN, a prominent citizen of Los Angeles,
Cal., has employed the greater part of the last few days in mopping his
brow, sighing with relief and exclaiming "Gee!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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