September 1 1943
Made a large drawing. Did not feel it was right. Tore it up.
September 3 1943
Having difficulty with the head of the nude. Wiped it out. Will have another go tomorrow.
September 4 1943
Well, I have got it going at last. I should be able to do something with it. I have paid for seven sittings in advance. A very good plan. Doling out money at the end of each sitting puts me right off.
Spent yesterday evening with Marion. I think perhaps we could succeed if we lived together again. I still cannot make up my mind. I cannot make promises I know I am incapable of keeping. It seems the worst sort of dishonesty.
In the dressing gown, foreground, I must introduce some chroma, to kill the yellow of her hair. And the purple cushion should be echoed with more purple. Say, on the sash of the dressing gown.
September 5 1943
Repainted a little of a large picture of Lac des Cignes that I commenced in 1938.
Started, roughly, a 24″ x 18″ of two boy dancers resting.
September 6 1943
Went on drawing in yesterday’s composition which interests me very much Later had three hours painting the nude. It advances slowly, slowly. It is one of those complicated things that won’t look right until after hours and hours of work.
September 7 1943
Worked all day at the nude. It is better.
September 8 1943
Rubbed in the composition of the two dancers – also made a sketch of some drapery for the background.
September 9 1943
Still working at the nude. The reflection in the mirror – a sheer cow.
I really must leave it alone for a few days and come back to it with a fresh eye.
September 11 1943
Painted a little panel of Hanna in the open air. I am pleased with it.
On reconsideration I find that the nude is better than I thought. It is the background that, at present needs entirely repainting, also the reflection in the mirror. When that is done we will see. Her arm must be repainted too.
September 14 1943
Repainted most ot the background of the nude. The whole thing is at last beginning to hold together properly. I will repaint the figure itself on Thursday, then maybe if that is successful one more sitting will do it. The reflection must be reconsidered and the dressing gown in the foreground. Yes, I really have hopes of it at last.
September 15 1943
Saw a good exhibition of paintings by Harold Gilman at the Reid & Lefevre Gallery. There are some really fine things there. Most of the pictures were covered with a perfectly horrible shiny varnish. It was explained to me that the pictures had had to be cleaned. Clean them by all means but then, wax. It is the only thing for his heavy impasto. It is wicked what they have done. These restorers and dealers really should learn a little more about pictures and how to treat them.
Did not feel a bit like work this afternoon. Rehung my pictures in the studio.
Robert has done a frame for my little Whistler. It is not a success and I have asked him to alter it. So often the best paintings are the most difficult to frame. Most of the frames on the Gilmans were diabolical.
The school starts again on Friday. I have done during the holidays:
Oils:
Clowns (Agricultural Hall Circus)
Portrait, Reg Reynolds
Hanna (with mirror and flower)
The Pier
Hanna (asleep, in a pink dress)
Hanna (a sketch in the open air)
The Tailor’s Shop, Marseille
The portraits of Reynard Cooper’s children. Three.
I am still working on the Nude and the Two Dancers Resting.
Also:
Celia (Resting)
Celia and Jenny
Celia (profile in red)
These three are in charcoal and pastel. Average size, 22″ x 17″ and I forgot: worked at the picture of Lac des Cygnes, a little.
All this represents seven weeks’ work and I feel it is not enough. Of the above works, however, only three are direct paintings.
Sales:
To Reynard Cooper – Three Family Portraits £45
To Peter Stone – Nude of Celia £15
To A Gumb – Contre Jour & Elizabeth £15
To Leo Kersley – Drawing of Hanna £4
Total: __£79__
I have spent a lot on materials: canvas, frames, paint, brushes, and bought a ton of coke for the winter. I did mean to buy an overcoat but one way and another I have not been able to. The old one will have to do again. I might get it repaired.
September 16 1943
The model sat for five hours today. I repainted the entire figure and parts of the background and I am fairly satisfied with what I have done. Another sitting on Saturday, for there is still the mirror reflection to be done.
September 17 1943
School reopened today. My timetable is crazy and forces me to waste a lot of time, a whole day, however, I still have 2½ days a week to paint; that means working on Sundays. But what else could one do on Sundays?
September 18 1943
Perhaps I will leave it now, after today’s work. It satisfies me much more than it did. I am inclined to blame the canvas for some of my difficulties. It is a war time canvas, excellent if it were allowed time to mature, but the piece I have feels far to0 new and I am afraid the painting will crack.
The fear of cracking in my paintings has always haunted me, yet hardly any of them have cracked, not even those I have repainted over and over again with only a day or two between the separate layers of pigments. It may be too early to say; however I am thinking of works that are the best part of twenty years old.
September 20 1943
I am thinking again of working out a picture of women by the side of the Thames. Worked a little at a sketch of the composition. I would like to paint it about 40″ x 50″ size, but it will need a great many more studies, and models. It is about time, I think, I got something larger on the move.
Evening with Peter Stone. My nude of Celia that he now has is far better in feeling thanthe one I have just finished, but this one has its qualities and it has done me a lot of good. I think I could paint a really fine nude of Hanna. I wish she was home.
September 25 1943
I have stretched an old piece of cartridge paper on a 40″ x 50″ stretcher and started to draw the composition of Women by the Thames. I have written to Pauline to come and pose for some of the figures, but I will need another model as well.
September 26 1943
When I have got the studies for each of the five figures I think I can safely make the figures, as I now have them in the composition, rather larger. Only the heads must stay as they are in relation to the distant bank of the river.
Colour. Blue, grey (a grey with a suggestion of violet) flesh colour, notes of pink, of Indian Red and of white.
September 27 1943
Did some more to the composition.
October 2 1943
Painted a sketch of Pauline undressing. Quite successful. Just recovering from a truly ghastly cold caught at that precious unheated school. I’ll stick there until the war is over, then I must find some other job. The place is far too arctic, and takes up too much time. I will try to get on with the two dancers tomorrow.
October 3, 1943
Sunday.
Commenced painting 10.20 and left off at 6. Had half an hour for lunch. I am very tired.
October 4 1943
Got up at six and got an hour of daylight. Worked until I had to go and teach. Worked again in the afternoon.
Hanna came and told me to alter the pink in the left of the picture I did and it was just what was needed.
October 9 1943
Pauline here all day. Made five drawings for my large painting.
October 10 1943
Worked on the cartoon from yesterday’s drawings. How difficult it is to get nature to fit in with one’s ideas.
October 11 1943
Two more drawings from the model.
October 16 1943
Painted a sketch of Hanna (18 x 14) with a table in the background.
October 17 1943
Worked at yesterday’s sketch and the large cartoon.
October 18 1943
Studies from the model and work on the cartoon. I have now decided how the flowers can be introduced. I think white and yellow narcissi with a few of their long, thin, dark green leaves.
Use the white bathrobe in the foreground.
October 21 1943
Talking to Percy Gidney in the Nelson this evening. He described Walter Greaves, as an old man living in Church Street before he was admitted to the Charterhouse. His hair dyed, clumsily, so that the dye blackened his ears. Wore a shiny frock coat, large black hat. Big yellow tie, in a bow. Always a portfolio of drawings under his arm. He was terribly poor and was glad to sell a large drawing for ten shillings. Percy had known him exchange a drawing for half a pint of milk.
He spent most of the little money he made on beer, added Percy. Also said that the sister of the present landlord of the Black Lion in Old Church Street had a good deal of Greaves’ work in her pub at Newmarket.
October 23 1943
Did not do much work. Made a study of the drapery in the foreground of my large picture. I am not particularly pleased with it and I will make another tomorrow. After tea went to the river and sketched a few barges. Watched the gulls flying.
I have got my large Lac des Cygnes back from the framer. It looks well in the frame which is an old carved wood one I got from Ted.
Although it is not one of my best paintings yet it satisfies me more than any of the oil paintings I have done from life at a single sitting. I want finish, more and more. It has for years been my desire to paint from my drawings, and I am at last doing a fair amount of work in that way.
Ingres, for example, will always be a great master to me. He had a classic feeling, yet when I saw Whistler’s Lady Meux, in black, I realized he too had it. I am reminded that Whistler once said he regretted not having studied under Ingres. I think I know what he meant.
Ingres seldom had good colour, but what does a little thing like that matter in the face of his other magnificent qualities.
October 24 1943
Another study for the drapery. Worked at the cartoon. In the late afternoon went to the river and made a number of little pencil sketches of details I need.
October 25 1943
Made some alterations to the big picture, chiefly in the background, but I also moved the woman and child on the right further in towards the centre, This has, I think, improved the design. The buildings have commenced to look a little too real, but when I get them in paint I should be able to get an effect of mystery, Colour and edges.
October 28 1943
Worked this evening on the river picture, drawing some gulls. Didn’t get on particularly well. I suppose I was too tired.
Earlier saw Lillian at the National Gallery. She told me she was getting a divorce. I do not know of a single truly successful marriage.
October 30 1943
Commenced a painting of Pauline – a 24″ x 13½” – the tall narrow size of which I am very fond.
At tea time Pauline tells me about an artist for whom she is sitting. He is painting such a lovely picture of her. She is wearing a bathing dress and she is lying on a rock. The background is made up of more rocks and sea and caves – ‘and the sea sort of runs into the caves you know.’ He is doing this part from a photograph he once took at the seaside. Such a lovely picture. What antics some people will get up to. I wonder if he is an Academician?
October 31 1943
Spent the entire day working at the cartoon of the river picture. I think it is improved. I must get a model for the other two figures.
November 1 1943
Painted a sketch of Hanna. I must do the same pose again when I can have a number of sittings at it. When?
Received an extraordinary letter from Bill, accusing me of all sorts of things, Says he hopes I won’t misunderstand what he says; well I can’t understand what he says.
November 5 1943
Peter Stone came this evening and bought a little nude, on a panel – 16 x 22 cm, and his friends who came with him had a pencil drawing of Great Zorro, a clown and juggler, that I drew when I was with Frisco Frank’s Circus. Now I will be able to get the models and finish my cartoon.
I have decided not to reply to Bill’s letter. I fear he is one of my failures.
November 6 1943
Started to paint the canvas of Pauline. This is the one I commenced last Saturday.Spent the evening with Marion. After diner we went to the Chelsea Palace. I almost decided to work out again my large theatre picture. I did not get what I wanted in the last one. Saw her back to Bramerton Street. As I was going a raid started so I stayed with her until it was over We talked. Of Bill and of course our, her and mine, relationship. I feel that the characteristics she, and Bill, so deplore in me, my secretiveness, my devotion to my work, my inability to sentimentalise overmuch, are the very characteristics which are inescapably part of me: left alone to work them out in the only way I know, somehow produce paintings. Paintings which they, at times, get something from.
November 7 1943
Elizabeth posed for the remaining two figures in the river picture. Made three drawings.
Meo came to tea. Remembers Greaves well. He seemed a lonely old man, he said. His long overcoat and the inevitable portfolio of drawings under his arm. Greaves went a lot to the Pier Hotel at the bottom of Oakley Street, facing the river, and to the Crosskeys public house (this has since Greaves’ time been rebuilt). He was not a drinker and would spend hours sitting over one glass of beer, alone by the fire. Some people made fun of the old chap, and the blacking with which he dyed his hair and his moustache would occasionally melt and drip off, staining his collar and shirt. Meo also said the Schwabe has some fine Greaves drawings and knows a lot about him.
Later in the evening I worked on the cartoon from today’s drawings.
November 8 1943
Worked again at the cartoons. I am beginning to lose faith in it and to wish it were done. This state of mind arises sooner or later during the progress of all my work and I must not give way to it.
It is not so difficult to make a rapid sketch that contains the spirit of one’s idea. It is when one comes to work it out on a larger scale and with the detail such a scale demands that the spirit is in danger of being lost. I am not alone in having this difficulty and almost every painter’s sketches are better than his completed pictures. This is true even of Rubens and Rembrandt. Yet sketches are not enough. Nowadays the painting, or picture, is out of fashion whilst the sketch with all its accidental qualities is praised as if it represented the end and not the beginning.
November 13 1943
Made a couple of sketches for one of the figures in the river picture.
Yesterday evening went to see Bill; Leo had written to me about him saying he was ill.
Bill was in bed. We did not refer to his letter. Took him some books today.
November 14 1943
Worked on the cartoon. Altered the buildings and two of the figures.
November 15 1943
Made some sketches form Hanna for one of the figures in the river picture. Then after trying them on the cartoon decided to use those she sat for on Saturday instead.
In the evening I went through all the material I had collected on Walter Greaves and made a lot of notes. Last week Lillian suggested that the publishers would be interested if I thought I could get to together enough to write a life. Wrote to various people about Greaves.*
*In the appendix to his edited version of Clifford Hall’s Journal, Julian Hall wrote the following notes regarding Clifford’s Life of Walter Greaves:
The Life was written and entitled Strange Echo, a quotation from The Whistler Journal by Elizabeth and Joseph Fennel, referring to Greaves’ imitation of Whistler’s style of dress: “Walking with Whistler on the Chelsea Embankment, J. had been amazed to see approaching a strange, faraway echo of Whistler.” The book, though well researched, was written partly in a quasi-novelistic style, fell somewhat between two stools, and was not published.
However, the surviving type-written manuscript of “Strange Echo” is not very long and written much more like a short story than a novel. There are no chapters, despite the fact that in his journal, Clifford makes several mentions of working on chapters about Greaves, going so far as to write, on April 28th 1945, that he did some work on chapter 9 of Greaves. So, it appears that Clifford wrote two versions of the Life and that the long one has somehow been lost since his death, as Julian clearly had a copy of it in the 1970s when he was editing Clifford’s journal, as he included a small portion of it in his appendix notes.
The short version of ‘Strange Echo’ by Clifford Hall can now be read
HERE. Editor
November 17 1943
The first reply. A most charming letter from Ronald Gray about Greaves enclosing one Greaves’ letters and giving me several useful bits of information.
November 20 1943
Painted a little panel of Elizabeth in a red shirt, the light coming behind her. After tea as she was sitting in my only armchair she lent back her head. It rested slightly to one side, rising form the high round neck of the yellow jumper she was wearing. I had found the pose for the head I have been wanting to paint of her.
November 21 1943
Put a few little touches on the little panel I painted yesterday. Did some more to the cartoon for the river picture.
Henry came and borrowed ten shillings. He made several criticisms of the cartoon; most of them I agreed with and I was glad to have talked about it with him.
No other replies yet to my letter about Greaves.
November 22 1943
Worked on the cartoon. Went on with the nude of Pauline.
November 27 1943
A very dark day, wet, impossible to paint. Did a little to the cartoon. Went to order a canvas for the river painting and joined up four sheets of tracing paper as I am going to trace it on to the canvas.
I have had the Gwen John framed and hung it on the same wall as the Whistler, her master. I remember her telling me long ago in Paris, that an artist must have no conscience when it comes to taking what he needs from other people. But, he must produce fine paintings. That, she declared, was his only obligation.
Pauline is coming on Monday and I hope it will be a light day. Really this is an impossible time of the year.
November 28 1943
Did very little today. Took the ‘Circus Orchestra’ to Golders Green to Alexander Gumb who has bought it for twenty guineas. I think it is a pretty good picture.
Came home and cooked some lunch then altered the drapery on one of the figures in the river picture. Also made a few slight alterations to the background.
Not a very productive weekend, from the painting point of view, but I was glad to sell the picture. It means I can paint others and I am now sure of a canvas for the large one.
November 29 1943
The light much better so I was able to get on with the painting of Pauline. When I had finished painting, I took some drawings to Nan Kivell at the Redfern and I have to take some more tomorrow. Met Ted at the gallery and went back for a meal with him. A jolly good meal which I needed for I had had no time for lunch. Now I feel really tired and I will go to bed.
December 4 1943
Good light. The painting of Pauline is now beginning to advance. I have got a lovely canvas for my river picture.
Saw the exhibition at the Redfren Gallery this morning. Four of my drawings are there, one has been sold.
Last night dinner with Peter and a bottle of wine. I have let him exchange the painting of Emie for another of her which is really better in many ways. I would have liked to have kept the second one but he has been so good and encouraging at a time when I needed encouragement very badly. Now he has six paintings of mine and all are ones I am really pleased with.
Only two more weeks and I’ll have a clear month to myself. I will finish Pauline nude and start my big picture. Wrote to Bill.
December 5 1943
This morning Elizabeth’s friend brought her little daughter to pose for the child in the river picture. Made several sketches and spent the rest of the day working from them. The cartoon is now practically ready to trace on to the canvas. Pulled out the second version I started last year of the Trois Arts Ballet at the Lyric Theatre – a 36″ x 28″. I think I will go on with it when I have time. I feel I could make something of it now. I have just found the studies for this Lyric painting. There are twenty-eight drawings and five colour sketches. Yes, I must certainly have a go at it.
December 6 1943
Worked on the background of the nude of Pauline. Did not touch the figure as the paint was not dry from Saturday.
December 7 1943
Evening. Saw Bill. Understood each other better.
December 10 1943
Did not go to Wimbledon. Started the river picture. Worked on it all day and got it on the canvas.
December 11 1943
Worked on river picture.
December 12 1943
Spent all day at the picture. I can see my way pretty clearly now. I feel I can do it.
Soon I will have some time to myself. I must finish the nude of Pauline and work on the river picture and also see what I can do with the one of the theatre.
December 13 1943
Pauline sat. Repainted the head. Then the light got bad and I had spoiled it. Wiped off what I had done.
December 15 1943
Tea at the Athenaeum with Professor Randolph Schwabe. He told me a number of useful things about Greaves. I have made full notes for future use.
December 18 1943
Repainted the head in Pauline’s picture. It seems a lot better.
December 19 1943
Worked all day at the river picture and established the key. Now to complete it piece be piece. The only possible method.
December 20 1943
A good long sitting. Got on well with Pauline’s picture, I hope to finish with it tomorrow when she will again sit for four hours.
Evening with Lillian. We made a few alterations to the Guys article. She really is one of the most charming people I know – and genuine.
How wonderful it would be to paint every day like this, with a clear light!
December 21 1943
Went on with yesterday’s painting. The paint was still wet and I was able to handle it easily. I think this painting has now gone far enough. I will leave it.
December 22 1943
Worked on the 36″ x 28″ of the Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith). Practically repainted it, without referring to my studies. I was able to remember it very well. This is the ideal way. The results of studies for a picture should be completely assimilated before working. By having to constantly refer to sketches whilst painting the work becomes dull and lacking in spirit. That is the mistake I made with the first version of this subject. The spirit of the thing is of the utmost importance. One can forgive minor details if the spirit is there.
December 29 1943
I got back to Chelsea yesterday having spent Christmas at Pearl and Peter’s. Marion and Julian were there. I still do not know where I am. I was able to paint a little panel of Julian’s head.
This morning I took my picture for the National Society’s exhibition, called in at Redfern’s and found they had sold one of my watercolours; saw Reid & Lefevre who said they would look at some paintings in the new year.
I took Lillian out to lunch and we had a long talk about our separate matrimonial troubles, and arrived nowhere at the end of it: unless it was to the conclusion that neither of us were fitted for the ‘blessed state.’
Then I came home and put a few necessary details into the painting of the Lyric Theatre. And I hope the light will be good tomorrow because I want to get on with my river picture.
December 30 1943
River picture. Worked on the figure on the extreme right; also the child. Altered the sky.
December 31 1943
Worked on the figure holding the green drapery.
