{"id":107,"date":"2012-05-17T10:49:56","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T10:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1051675528.test.prositehosting.co.uk\/?p=107"},"modified":"2012-05-29T13:54:13","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T13:54:13","slug":"moping-owl-sooke-sayings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Moping Owl: Sooke Sayings…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

… from yonder ivy-mantled tow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122r The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, \u00c2\u00a0Molest her ancient solitary reign.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

SOOKE SAYINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n

I fear I may have made a mistake in always taking Little Sookey for one of Old Mother Dorment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gaggle of goslings down on Telegraph Farm. He is certainly still there in the rick-yard, waddling along after Old Goosey, gabbling away and picking up the scraps, only these days he seems rather more like a Twite, that little brown bird with a pink bottom and a merry cheep. Here he is now, \u00c2\u00a0twittery-twiteing on about the work of The Glasgow Boys, yet another lot of painters he never quite got round to for his GCSE (art app & flwr arr). A \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnebulous association\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he calls them, which is to say a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsmall, cloudy, foggy, misty cluster of indistinct stars.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Quite good really, if he meant it. I almost wish I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d thought of it. I suspect he meant \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcloose\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

You have to hand it do him, though: he does have a go at winging it, and talking about anything but painting. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Certain adjectives spring to mind\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he chatters on, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCharming\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcelegant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclovely\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 might judiciously describe their paintings\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is of course what adjectives are judiciously supposed to do, or they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not judicious. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much wrong with a spot of charming, elegant loveliness, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have thought. But no: our Sookey has a judicious doubt or two on that very point. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whether or not these are admirable qualities, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153he suggests, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153depends on your point of view.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Well yes: I suppose it does.<\/p>\n

Yes indeed: Sookey takes judicious exception to all such admirable qualities, I mean seductive aesthetical traps and snares. We are not put into this wicked world for pleasure alone, he seems to say, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hammer the point home with every judicious adjective he can. Quite the Johnny Knox, he is. Take Guthrie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Schoolmates, a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrustic scene\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of three \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcimpoverished\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 children walking along a lane: he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it one bit. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pleasing on the eye, it has been executed with skill, but the sweetness feels overdone: \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faces have been meticulously finished to emphasise their pretty features and flawless, delicate complexions. The result (here we go) is a piece of whimsy (surely not) that indulges \u00c2\u00a0(can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that) middle-class fantasies about the countryside.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Oh dear: I shall have to have a word with the Vicar before all this gets out of hand, what with Christmas coming on and all \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or is that a middle-class fantasy too?<\/p>\n

Lavery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tennis Party certainly is, which \u00e2\u20ac\u0153offers a charming vision of the ball zipping back and forth, gilded in the foreground (no, not the ball) with dabs of white, primrose and cream that represent thick sunlight (??*!! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not such a judicious adj. there, Sookey old thing). \u00c2\u00a0But everything about it is designed to flatter and seduce (oh the shock and horror and wickedness of it all), down to the detail of the gate opening on to the court (sheer depravity) \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 to entice viewers (I can hardly bear to go on) into the action \u00e2\u20ac\u201c promising that we too might mingle injudiciously with the rich and beautiful (smelling salts, Vicar, please).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

No Sookey, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re quite right. We must never mingle. Nor must artists flatter and seduce, let alone offer charming visions, meticulously finished. Whatever next? Perish the judicious thought.<\/p>\n

O WALLY WALLY<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do sometimes worry about old Wally the Dodo. I mean to say, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still with us, even now after all these years, still chuntering around the wood on his Sunday Times Mobility Trolley (special offer), gibbering the first words that come into his head and crashing into everything that \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 no: crashing into everything. It would be a kindness really. It would help, perhaps, if he cleaned his glasses once a year. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see anything through them. And they were cracked to begin with.<\/p>\n

Here is, going on about poor old Tom Lawrence, as though he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never heard of him, let alone seen him, ever before. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If Lawrence is not being given the credit he deserves, then the reasons for this neglect are clear: the modern world has put him down as a lackey. The National Portrait Gallery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s task is to prove us wrong.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d How I love that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Speak for yourself, Wally.<\/p>\n

Now his glasses have steamed up again. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The gallery began its defence with an ill-judged [attempt] to pass Lawrence off as a fascinating Regency sex pest.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ah ha, Wally old thing: that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more like it. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This nakedly (naturally) manipulative (I say, steady on: there are ladies present) press effort zoomed in on his simultaneous love affair with two of the daughters of (wait for it) the much-tortured Sarah Siddons.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Well, I must say: I know that Regency Society got up to all sorts of fun and games, but really. Much tortured, eh? Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have thought it? She of all people. \u00c2\u00a0No wonder her hair went a bit grey and frizzy. Well I never.<\/p>\n

And a simultaneous love affair too, whatever that is, and which, Dodo primly quacks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153did nothing to nuance the young goat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reputation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Oh, come come, surely it must have nuanced it one way or the other, just a bit. Nothing like a bit of nuancing, now and again, I always say. So, where were we? Ah yes, on we go. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What a relief, therefore, to find the exhibition itself not only avoiding entirely the topic of his tortuous testosterone \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I had to stop reading at that point, \u00c2\u00a0and give myself a stiff drink. Quite made my eyes water even to think about, and I still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite get my poor old wits round what it means. Still, it all comes out straight enough in the end, as you might say, rather as it did for the Young Man from Kent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go into that now: there are, as I say, ladies present. Anyway, in the event, and to Wally\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inestimable relief, the show proves, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153beyond any conceivable doubt (which is what doubts are, of course) that our Tom of Bristol was indeed a much more substantial and talented artist than most of us had suspected.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Than most of us had suspected\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, Wally? Or weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you paying attention when were taking your art-history A Level resits down at the Poly all those years ago? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Substantial and talented\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Have you never noticed? You really should get out more. No, on second thoughts, better not. And mind that ditch: \u00c2\u00a0right hand down a bit, no, no, yes, no .. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t watch. Straight in. Oooohh.<\/p>\n

OL History note<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queen Charlotte, whose great portrait by Lawrence has graced the National Gallery for ever and a day, though somehow Wally must have missed it, was never \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the reigning British Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, as he avers, therefore never Lawrence\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmonarch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. She hated the painting, and it remained unsold in his studio until his death.<\/p>\n

The Jackdaw Jan-Feb 2011<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… from yonder ivy-mantled tow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122r The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, \u00c2\u00a0Molest her ancient solitary reign. SOOKE SAYINGS I fear I may have made a mistake in always taking Little Sookey for one of Old Mother Dorment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gaggle of goslings down on Telegraph Farm. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}