I’ve just finished a sort-out of a part of my collection of sketches. Over lunch my wife and I were musing on the possible implications of our deciding to move house one day, and I was struck by the immensity of the task which would face me then, of sorting out the huge collection of drawings I have kept …. “just in case”. I have managed to do two drawers-full from one of my plan chests, and it feels like quite an achievement.
It was a surprise to discover just how much material I had put aside, imagining that it might have a future use, perhaps as reference material. A good part of it I had forgotten that I had ever done. Quite a large proportion had never really deserved to be preserved. Some pieces, however, I have hung onto for various reasons. My criteria for preservation, I have to admit, have been a mixture of technical judgement, keeping things which illustrate quite well experiments with various media, or things which are actually quite good examples of drawing. There has been an element of sentiment, I have to admit, and no doubt an independent eye would have produced quite a different selection.
The most interesting part of the exercise was my sort-through of the material I had kept from various life-drawing classes. It came as a surprise to me to discover that a large proportion of the things in the file were of interest because they incorporated portraiture, and not just figure-drawing. It is not often that I have attempted portraits, but reviewing this collection I have been struck by the fact that if any of them remain of interest it is precisely because I gave particular attention to the face rather than to a pose. This really has given me pause for thought, because I suppose that have always thought of myself as primarily a landscape artist. I have regarded life-drawing as mainly an exercise in disciplined drawing, without placing much value on the subject-matter.
As Fagin sings, in the musical Oliver, “I’m reviewing the situation”.