“ 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 Mr. 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! ”
H. M. Bateman
Summary
“Burlesques”, is a work by H. M. Bateman. It explores elements such as plumber, humour and drawings.
Quotes from Burlesques (H. M. Bateman)
“ Bateman's more difficult function is to reveal humour, not to impose it.There is no trace of the self-conscious humorist in these drawings. Facetiousness is a quality conspicuously and gratefully absent. The artist's only concern is to pluck the very heart out of his subject, and that his mind has a trend towards the humorous aspect of life is merely [ vi] accidental. For it is the humour of life, not merely of men, that attracts him, and even when he deals with seemingly quite trivial subjects, there is nothing petty or trite about his comic treatment of them. ”
“ The intensity of the artist's imaginative effort visualises for us that which cannot humanly be, but would be if it could.Pictorial exponents of the comic art are few, for of so-called "humorous drawings" not many are inspired by the true comic spirit. ”
