A series of experiments upon aesthetic appreciation in children / by Henry J. Watt.

  • Watt, Henry J. (Henry Jackson), 1879-1925.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A series of experiments upon aesthetic appreciation in children / by Henry J. Watt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    0 • (1) The shape is usually mentioned; (2) the combination of colours; (3) their brightness—black is dreary, and is disliked ; (4) pleasant arrangement of objects depicted, as also a view in the centre ; (5) niore colours in the same space; (6) plainness, as against showi- ness : this is often overruled by other motives; (7) uncommon features. This girl gives the greatest number of reasons, w'hich are all spontaneous. Questions put to her only serve to fix her meaning. She makes her judgments with ease and interest. Os was omitted at this stage. O0: (1) Shape; (2) colours, especially the bright ones—plainness and black are disliked.—It was hard to get any reasons from this girl at all, though she was reported to be an excellent scholar. Her typical answer was, “ I don’t know why.” She is of Jewish extraction. O]0: (1) Variety — of colours, shapes, positions, and objects: there can be no doubt but this is the primary motive; (2) shape; (3) combination of colours; (4) arrangement of the objects and balance between their proportions; (5) distinctness; (6) brightness. White is the favourite colour. Plainness is obviously excluded as a motive. It will be evident from these summaries how many of the motives for preference based upon the sensuous effects of an impression have been used by the children spontaneously, and how detailed and repeated their application is. The predominance of one or other motive in each child is one of the most interesting results. These motives, as the children bring them to school, or as they develop in them, are the basis upon which any education in testhetic appreciation must build. It seems clear that one of the best ways to develop them is to provide oppor- tunity for their practice. The use of the methods described provides a very natural opportunity of this kind, and the teacher could do much by variation of objects compared or arranged according to preference to cultivate a motive seldom used, or to provide an occasion for the appearance of a new motive, if not to suggest one. Spontaneous ap- pearance is, of course, likely to lead to greater interest on the part of the child. It is hardly yet sufficiently realised how much appreciation can be cultivated by practice, and especially by practice in the conscious adoption of the aesthetic attitude. We are too much accustomed to take taste and artistic judgment for innate faculties. Apart from the psycho- logical outfit necessary for the pursuit of some arts, it is more likely that artistic appreciation is a power as much capable of educative practice as is that of any skilled activity or profession, or even the general desire to face facts or the love of truth. 6. In a fifth stage I endeavoured to find the children’s capacity for