Studio: international art (6.1896)

the supply of
boats superior
to that of
many riverside
places on the
Thames. No-
thing could be
pleasanter
than to drift
down stream
after a good
day's work
(and a good
dinner), pipe
in mouth, and
watch the Sep-
tember moon rise over Bidford Bridge. You are

apt, in spite of all good resolutions to the con- STUDIO-TALK
trary, to let your thoughts wander to the town (^ mr Qwn Correspondmts^

eight miles up the river, and to the gentleman

who " wrote something," and as the evening -w- ONDON.—As a compliment to art and
shades prevail and you go ashore, you will, if you to the men who follow it as a profession,

are in the vein, feel the subtle presence of great the peerage bestowed upon Sir Frederic

Warwickshire Will far more perhaps than in the Leighton is to be enthusiastically wel-

more prosaic surroundings of Stratford. "* corned. Asa personal honour to the

President of the Royal Academy it is in one sense
to be deplored, for by his acceptance of this latest
distinction he to some extent loses his identity and
becomes only a member of a crowd. As Sir
Frederic Leighton he stands alone, a leader of the

art world; as a peer he
counts simply as part of a
legislative machine. If, how-
ever, such honours are for
the future to be within the
reach of artists, no one more
qualified to be an " art lord "
than he could have been
selected as first recipient.
His life has been a memorable
one, and the place in the
history of art which he has
gained by the exercise of his
many qualities and accom-
plishments justifies his ac-
ceptance of any mark of es-
teem which can be devised
for him.

The winter exhibition of
the Royal Society of Painters
in Water-Colours is always
241