Science is Measurement, by Henry Stacy Marks R.A., R.W.S., H.R.C.A. (1829-1898). 1879. Oil on canvas. 36 x 24 inches (91.5 x 61 cm). Collection of Royal Academy of Arts, London. Accession no. 03/702. Image reproduced from Art UK for purposes of non-commercial research or private study only.
Marks exhibited this work at the Royal Academy in 1879, no. 379, as his Diploma work. It shows a naturalist scientist, a pencil held lightly in his mouth, preparing to take measurements of the skeleton of a stork using various instruments including the tape measure he holds in his hands. In Volume II of his book Pen and Pencil Sketches Marks described the inspiration behind this painting: "In making studies of the birds, I went to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons to take measurements of the bones, their proportionate length, &c. When I had obtained what information I needed, I came away, and crossing Lincoln's Inn Fields, it struck me that the occupation in which I had been engaged would furnish a good subject for the picture. I made a sketch of it, and my election as R.A. occurring early in December 1878, resolved that I would make this my subject of my diploma picture" (52). As it was impossible to borrow a skeleton from the Royal College of Surgeons, its conservator Professor William Flowers recommended an osteological artist in Camden Town who supplied Marks with an articulated fine specimen of a stork. Marks continued: "To paint that skeleton required considerable patience. I was continually losing my place in the intricate forms of the vertebrae, and had constantly to count them to verify the correctness of my representation. But all difficulties were conquered at length, and the picture sent off to the Academy, with the title of Science is Measurement, a title only decided on after much discussion with brother brushes and scientists" (53). The Council of the Royal Academy accepted the picture as a suitable diploma work. It is somehow fitting that Marks's diploma picture should feature a bird, a subject for which he was already known, and for which he made a distinguished contribution to Victorian art. Even today he often best remembered as a painter of bird subjects.
When the picture was shown at the Royal Academy it was widely reviewed and generally praised. The Architect found this subject yet one more example of Marks's humour:
The transition to Mr. H. S. Marks, R.A., is not very abrupt; indeed, there is a kindred touch of humour between the two artists, whose sarcasm is never cruel or bitter. Mr. Marks' diploma picture hangs in Room IV, Science is Measurement (379), an inimitable pictorial joke in the solemn apposition of the learned and calmly deliberating comparative physiologist with his inch-tape in his hand, to the impassive yet defiant skeleton of the bird, huge-beaked and stiff-legged, whom he was about to classify and compare. [304]
The Builder merely stated: "Mr. Marks's diploma work, 'Science is Measurement,' an old naturalist making a careful drawing of an extinct bird's skeleton, is in his best style of dry humour" (534).
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum found the painting a technical marvel:
Mr. Marks's third picture is named Science in Measurement (379), and the science is an interior. An elderly savant, a student of an old-fashioned sort, is in a spare chamber of a museum; before him, on a pedestal, stands a skeleton of a gigantic wading bird. He holds a tape measure and a note-book; clasped by his lightly pressed lips is a pencil. This picture is full of technical beauty; few, if any, living painters could render the silvery softness of interior daylight so well. It is certain that Mr. Marks never painted anything better, more faithfully, or more freely than the figure of the student. He never drew anything with more care than the skeleton of the bird. [574]
A reviewer for The Magazine of Art found the work quaint but successful:
"Mr. Stacy Marks, R.A., repeats the peculiar humour in the character of strange birds, which has taken his fancy so much of late. No one who has lingered among the collections at the Zoological Gardens can wonder at his choice; many of these creatures in their pose, expression, and character are even more acutely comic than Mr. Marks has made them; indeed, one charm of his work is that while it is suggestive, it is free from the slightest exaggeration. In his Science is Measurement, the expression and suggestion are conveyed by means of a skeleton, with the quaintest possible effect. Mr. Marks' finesse has never been more successful. [150]
A critic for The Portfolio praised Mark's characteristic humour and draughtsmanship: "The diploma picture of the newly elected Academician, Mr. Marks, Science is Measurement, represents a man of science, whose books and instruments are around him, whilst he looks dubitatively at a huge skeleton of some antediluvian bird. There is in the picture that sense of humour which, with excellent drawing, generally distinguishes the artist" (106).
Link to Related Material
- A Treatise on Parrots
- A Select Committee (parrots and cockatoos)
- Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Ornithologists
Bibliography
"Art Chronicle." The Portfolio X (1879): 105-06.
"Art. Royal Academy." The Spectator LII (17 May 1879): 626.
"More About Pictures at the Royal Academy." The BuilderXXXVII (May 17, 1879): 533-34.
"Painting at the Royal Academy." The Architect XXI (24 May 1879): 303-05.
"Pictures of the Year - II." The Magazine of Art II (1879): 148-52.
Science is Measurement. Art UK. Web. 26 October 2023.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2688 (3 May 1879): 571-76.
Created 24 October 2023