Byam Shaw: The Preface

"The Queen of Hearts" by Byam Shaw

Rex Vicat Cole wrote: "If I had literary ability I would write of my friend's [John Byam Liston Shaw's] character so that the charm of his nature would be adequately revealed to those who had not the privilege of knowing him.

His kindly jest and ready wit, born of a quaint imagination, would live again in the inspiration of my picture.

I would tell of his insight, his sincerity and generous nature.

I would dwell on his unbounded love for all that God created.

I would tell how unsparingly he laboured to express the beauty he saw in those creations, and I would recount the tales of his sympathy and understanding, that made him beloved.

My picture would show him religious, manly, honest and tender, well read, an incessant and methodical worker, and yet full of zest for everyday affairs, interested in games, sport and the drama: appreciative of the good things of life, sociable, and mindful of the fitness of ceremony and dress when occasion required it.

I would tell of his hatred of prudery, asceticism and humbug.

Nor would I pass over his mannerisms and use of strong and purposely exaggerated language, or his rare but violent outbursts of temper.

I would describe his works so that those who had missed their meaning should find in them a pleasure unexpected: and others who recognized in them the touch of Divine Spirit and appreciated their beauty would not in my account of them be disappointed.

As it is, I can give a faithful account of his daily life. I can place his pictures and illustrations in the order of their doing, and recount the incidents of an uneventful life that were built up round them.

Best of all, I can give a glimpse of his mind in the letters he wrote to his intimate friend, Gerald Metcalfe, without whose help I could not have undertaken even the simple tale I have attempted.

My chief purpose was to reproduce a representative collection of his work, in chronological order, and I think he would have liked me to undertake this office for him."

(Excerpt from "Art and Life of Byam Shaw" by Rex Vicat Cole.)