International studio (25.1905)

are as decoratively appropriate as they are naturally
charming, and have the fullest measure of the true
poetic spirit. His landscapes with incidental figures,
and his pure landscapes of the type, are
sensitive, dainty, and well observed, distinguished by
the happiest observation of atmospheric qualities,
and by that perfect refinement which comes solely
from intimacy of understanding If he had not
been so close a student, he could never have
grasped so firmly the elusive mysteries with which
nature veils herself from the unsympathetic soul,
and he could never have ranked himself so high
as her faithful and earnest interpreter.
A. L. BALDRY.
A ROOM DECORATED BY
/\ CHARLES CONDER. BY T.
AMARTIN WOOD.
PICTURE painting, having grown out of wall
painting, has never really been divorced from archi-
tecture ; it is in fact its most exquisite flower. For
the architect then to lead consciously up to fixed
decorated panels or to the movable picture is to

find him pursuing an old ideal of his art, and to
find him, above everything else, aiming at beautiful
proportion. Indeed, a regard for the beauty that is
inevitable from an observance of right proportions,
shows a recognition on the part of the architect of
what architecture, as the basis of all other arts, really
is. Architecture is the construction of set scenes
in which the drama of life is acted out. Domestic
architecture creates for a man a little world in which
he may surround himself with everything necessary
to the development of his personality. In so far as
domestic architecture remembers that it is always
the background to man, and that it should have a
restful beauty, it is good : where it forgets this in its
own glorification, where it imposes itself on his eyes
instead of giving them rest, it is bad ; and this rest-
fulness is obtained from proportion, elegant and
accurate, mathematics justifying instinct, as in an
Adams' room. An indifferent work of art hung
in a rightly built room does not detract from that
room to the extent that a beautiful picture is
detracted from when it fights against unpleasant
surroundings. The impulse which in the eighteenth
century carried pictures across everything, fans,


PANEL IN WATER-COI.OURS ON SILK

IiY CHARLES CONDER