Silver and Gold 《银与金》

文/科斯莫·蒙克豪斯 译/爱艺 By Cosmo Monkhouse

Silver and Gold 《银与金》

文/科斯莫·蒙克豪斯 译/爱艺 By Cosmo Monkhouse

或许，对于阿瑟·休斯先生（1832—1915） 画 风柔和、令人喜爱的作品来说，特里斯特先生的藏室是品鉴的最佳场所。相比我们印制的其他画作，他的这幅《银与金》（布面油画，99.06厘米×67.31厘米）……更接近人们心目中的拉斐尔前派作品，因为画作呈现的是“纯粹”的情感，画面充溢对草叶和花朵细致入微的刻画。如果说拉斐尔前派运动还有所贡献的话，那就是激发了年轻画家的创作力，让他们不仅能描绘自己所知的一切，还能传递他们的所思所感。［图见本期封底］

There is probably no house in which the tender and loveable art of Mr.Arthur Hughes (1832—1915) can be better studied than in Mr. Trist’s1In 1883 the Hughes was part of “the collection got together by Mr. Trist at his house in Brighton.”. His Silver and Gold (oil on canvas, 99.06cm ×67.31 cm) … come[s] nearer to what the public reckons as Pre-Raphaelite than any other of the works we print;for they are “purist” in feeling and filled with almost infinite detail of grass and leaf and flower. If the Pre-Raphaelite movement did nothing else, it at least strung up the energies of our young painters to put into their pictures not only all they knew, but whatever they could think and feel.

[2] The charming contrast of youth and age to which the title of Silver and Gold has been given, tells its tale too plainly to need description in the text.Except that he is a timid and imperfect draughtsman, and somewhat too sweet and over-gentle, it is difficult to understand why Arthur Hughes should have failed of those academic honours which have fallen to the lot of men of far more ordinary endowments. I know of no modern picture more poetical in feeling or more exquisite in colour than his Morte d’Arthur nor has any one drawn Ophelia2参见本刊2017年第3期封底文《奥菲利娅》的介绍。more lovely or more pathetic. In the Trist collection you see him always exquisitely tender and true in colour, always sweet and wholesome in sentiment: Whether he appears in some lovely English landscape with flowery foreground; or in that sketch for The King’s Orchard (made famous by Mr. Ruskin’s praise in 1859—the wellremembered apple-blossom year at the Royal Academy); or in the charming group of children in church dabbling their fingers in live sunbeams. In the matter of execution, the patience and dexterity of such pictures as that of the sailor-boy at his mother’s grave3参见本刊2017年第6期封底文《出海归来》的介绍。, with its dewdrops and cobweb and Chingford Church covered with innumerable ivy leaves, are notable indeed; while in Enid and Geraint4杰兰特是圆桌骑士之一，伊妮德是其妻子。, and another picture of a female head, he has given us the quintessence of English womanhood,with its loveliness, its purity, and its sweetness of disposition.

[2]画名“银与金”被赋予了年轻与年老的对比义，这一对比令人着迷，表达相当直白而无须再用文字描述。虽然阿瑟·休斯作为画家并不完美，缺乏自信，画风也有点过于甜美和阴柔，但有一点还是很难让人理解，即天资远逊于他的平庸之辈都能获得的那些学术荣誉，为何他却得不到。在我所知的现代画作中，没有哪一幅比他的《亚瑟王之死》情感表达更诗意、色彩呈现更细腻，也没有哪一位画家笔下的奥菲利娅比他描绘得更美丽可人或惹人怜爱。从特里斯特先生的藏品中可以看到，阿瑟·休斯的用色始终柔和、真实而细腻，情感也总是甜美而积极的：无论是配以绚丽前景的英国某处美景，还是《国王果园》的素描（因拉斯金1859年的赞誉而闻名，那一年是皇家美术学院充满希望的一年，让人记忆犹新），或是教堂里在艳阳中玩着手指的那群可爱孩童。就技巧而言，那份耐心和娴熟在一些画作中显露无遗，比如那幅描绘年轻水手在母亲墓前的作品，有露珠，有蛛网，还有密密麻麻的藤叶覆盖的钦福特教堂；在《伊妮德和杰兰特》和另一幅女士肖像中，他则描绘出英国女性的典型特征——可爱、纯洁、性情温和。