Studio: international art (71.1917)

Studio- Talk

exhibitions in Toronto, Montreal, Sherbrooke It is perhaps not generally known that the

(Quebec), Hamilton (Ontario), Halifax (Nova late Mrs. Stanhope Forbes was a Canadian, born

Scotia), Winnipeg (Manitoba), Moose Jaw at Kingston, Ontario. Recently it was decided

(Saskatchewan), Regina, Saskatoon, and Edmon- to try and obtain an adequate representation of

ton, with great success and increasing interest. her art in the National Gallery of her native

-- country, and in these efforts the Trustees found

It is a cheerful fact to record that in spite of Mr. Stanhope Forbes and his gallant son Alec

war conditions and the absence of many of the more than generous. The trustees purchased

younger artists at the front, the exhibitions of Mrs. Forbes's well-known oil painting, When

Canadian art came up to standard, and from the Daffodils Begin to Peer* and in addition to this

Ontario Society of Artists in the spring and the Mr. Forbes and his son presented to the National

Royal Canadian Academy in the autumn some Gallery a collection of water-colours, etchings,

fine pictures were purchased. The painting and drawings finely expressive of Mrs. Forbes's

of the figure has not been one of the Canadian life-work,
artists' strong points until quite recently.

Puritan public opinion has been against it and During the past years the National Gallery of
prejudice dies hard, but last year the Royal Canada has paid special attention to building
Canadian Academy exhibition contained a * Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1906, and re-
clever Study of a nude dancer entitled Syl- produced in The Studio for June of that year.
phide, by C. J. Franchere,
A.R.C.A., which brought
the artist great credit,
and which the trustees of
the National Gallery were
glad to have the oppor-
tunity of purchasing.

For some time the Na-
tional Gallery had been
looking for a specially
fine example of the work
of Mark Fisher, A.R.A.,
and the opportunity came
to secure his Sheep Shear-
ing in a Barn, from the
Royal Academy. The pic-
ture is one of the paintei's
triumphs. Truthful and
luminous in colour, painted
with perfect sincerity and
deep earnestness, and an
entire absence of effort, it
conveys a masterly and
convincing impression of
nature seen through the
mind which has loved and
studied her for a lifetime.
Another important pur-
chase was the large deco-
rative painting by Gerald
Moira, entitled A July Day,
and exhibited in the Royal "in a hayfield " by Elizabeth stanhope forbes,

Academy in 1915. (National Gallery of Canada)

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