Ebook Burlesques

He generalises. His observations are of types, not of individuals, of situations rather than of scenes. He draws for us people whom we all know but none of us have actually seen, for when he portrays a type his sketch embodies all the salient characteristics that go to make that type. If he draws a plumber, for example, he shows us the Compleat Plumber — more like a plumber than any plumber ever was. And as with character, so with action — whatever Ir. Bateman elects to make his puppets do, they do it with an intensity and vigour beyond all practical possibility, but not (and this is the artist's secret) beyond the bounds of imagination and belief. When a man is seen running in a Bateman drawing he does not merely run — he runs; if he slumbers, one can veritably hear him snore! The intensity of the artist's imaginative effort visualises for us that which cannot humanly be, but would be if it could.