Studio: international art (38.1906)

The New English Art Club have
held their exhibition this year in
premises which may, if this has not
already been decided, become their
permanent home. Small though the gallery in
Bond Street is, it is an important move for the
Club, which has not until now had premises of
its own. The willingness of its members to
support each other’s aims, diverse as they may be,
has brought an esprit de corps into the workings

DINING ROOM, MR. P. KRdYER’S HOUSE AT THE SKAW

MR. L. MOE’S DRAWING ROOM AT JUVLAND SATER

of the Club, not without a valuable protective
influence at least as regards the art of certain
painters whose aims cannot be called popular.
Uniqueness, intense individuality, in art does not
make the art itself any greater in expression than
if its aims are popular, but a great deal of very
distinctive work is the outcome of men whose
temperament is likely to bring them into collision
with the ordinary person every time it gives itself
expression in a picture ; and of this some of the
phases of Mr. John’s art afford us illustration.
The more impersonal art of Mr. Wilson Steer
stands out as finely as ever this year in his picture
The Music Room, and in the portrait of himself
which he has painted at the invitation of the
Uffizzi Gallery.

In The Music Room, with its silver light and
delicate shadows, there are subtleties of observation
which give a peculiar beauty to the picture. The
sharply silhouetted shadow on the wall of the
instrumentalists is a happy invention of luminous
colour and interesting form. The musical silence
of a pause between music, the birth of beauty
from luxury, is expressed incidentally by this art,
bent as it is only on expression of its own. The
methods of Mr. Steer’s brushwork are responsible
for the only interruption to the mood. At this
point he parts company with the elegance of his
scheme, its classic dignity of restfulness and
perfection. Psychologically his portrait has the
interesting characteristic that one is aware of the
face looking out from the canvas as an artist
observing everything, but it makes no revelation
of what view of things inspires the artist from

22 5

The New English Art Club's Exhibition

draw the attention of those who
possess collections to it. The ex-
hibition will be held in the galleries
of Messrs. Friedmann & Weber,
9 Koniggratzer strasse, who will
defray all expenses of forwarding,
returning, and insuring exhibits.
Dr. Fritz Wolff is acting for the
Committee, and communications
may be sent to him in English at
the above address.

THE NEW ENGLISH
ART CLUB’S THIRTY-
SIXTH EXHIBITION.