Studio: international art (8.1896)

Some Pictures at the Royal Academy

false nobility taught in the schools, and known as
"style." Nothing is wanting—the column, the
little altar laden with offerings, all the indispensable
accessories, without which the painter would be at
a loss to produce his picture. Mr. Watts, for his
part, is satisfied with Nature ; and he is right, for
he can convince us with that alone. In the New
Gallery he has two little pictures which achieve
distinction by the lovely and simple means which
are to be found in the artist's own self, if only he
be absorbed in their production. But best of all I
like his Infancy ofJupiter, which, somehow or other,
recalls the Poussin in the Louvre, but has less
firmness.

Coming to Galleries IV. and V. we find Mr.
Frank Dicksee again, his true painter's talent un-
hampered by the gorgeous throne which we noticed
in the last room. But what can this Confession
be ? An avowal, a crime, or a love secret ? After
all, it matters very little, for the painting suffices,
apart from the subject. To one accustomed to
seeing Mr. Lavery's fine portraits in Paris it is a
satisfaction to find more of them in London. And
the same may be said of Mr. Sargent whose Port-
rait of a Lady in a little red cloak is delightful.
Mr. S. J. Solomon is charmingly clear ; moreover he
has grace and gift of colour, and draws well; also,
it seems to me, a curious knack of mixing up the
sacred and the profane—though this in no way
detracts from the merit of his painting. And how
admirable would be Miss Bessie Rendall's work if
only a true knowledge of values, conveying the
right impression of distances, were added to her
genuine artistic gifts.

Passing on to Galleries VI. and VII., one notes
Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch's curious picture, with
horses sporting in the sea foam, recalling some of
the beautiful bas-reliefs at Versailles. Mr. John
Godward brings us back to the school of mere
imitation—futile, unmysterious and inharmonious
in art, as mere imitation is in music. Behind a
nude figure is a mosaic, so marvellously reproduced
that it seems a pity the form obscures it. The
piece of marble which, as it were, forms the plinth
of this living statue, is so real that one pities the
poor creature her frozen feet. But all this is
comparatively simple. The difficult task was the
naked figure (Campaspe), and despite the artist's
most admirable intentions, one cannot fail to
remark that the right hand is defective, as is the
drawing of the shoulders. And yet it is in things
like these that true beauty resides, and the true
difficulty into the bargain ; not in vain imitations
of unpicturesque objects. Mr. Herkomer's por-

traits of The Bishop of London, entirely in black,
and The Hon. Mrs. Gervase Beckett, in white,
convey an impression of much sincerity, combined
with great ability and power.

I will venture to select Mr. Byam Shaw's picture
— Whither ?—as an illustration of the fact that
painting can and should exist of itself—in beauty
of form and attitude and gesture. Literature is an
art, and painting is another—parallel but distinct.
Thus, while admitting this artist's real ability, I
must express regret that things so profound as
those suggested in this picture were not written
outright, that one might have a chance of under-
standing them. It would have been so much
easier and simpler, and taken so much less time.

Mr. Arnold Priestman sends a lovely evening
scene, a thoroughly good picture. Mr. T. R.
Spence illustrates, like Mr. Alma Tadema, the risk
of putting archaeology before painting, and Mr.
Edwin A. Abbey that of turning history into
anecdote. His picture is a pompous and theatrical
production, but full of good solid qualities so far
as painting and culture are concerned. Mr. Tom
Mostyn's Red Ridinghood is a piece of excellent
work, thoroughly well grasped and treated.

Mr. Frank Bramley, whom we find in Gallery
VIIL, is so rich in talent that one must needs
regret to see that he paints everything in the same
style, and that his walls, for instance, have no more
solidity than his figures. Long ago Moliere
showed us the stratagem of the lover masquerad-
ing in medical guise, and now Mr. Storey has treated
this theme very entertainingly. Mr. Ellis Roberts
has the good taste to admire Gainsborough, and
proves his partiality by this excellent portrait done
in the manner of the old master. Still in Gallery
VIIL we find a most striking landscape by Mr.
Coutts Michie, with the raging, lowering sky rolling
as it were over the plain. In Gallery X. there is a
rather complicated allegory by Mr. Charles H.
Sims, The Vine, containing evidence, however,
of the sound qualities of which true painting is
made. Mr. Gerald Moira also gives us an alle-
gorical picture, but simply and truthfully treated,
with excellent bits of contrast philosophically and
forcibly rendered. This is a work of art by a
genuine painter.

In the last of the Galleries, No. XL is a land-
scape of extravagant dexterity by Mr. Anderson
Hague; also a lovely picture by Mr. A. Delug,
In Early Spring, a study in soft whites ; also a
herd of horses by Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch, and
two excellent portraits by Mr. Walter Osborne, in
beautiful greys of delicate values, conveying a very

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