Studio: international art (82.1921)

STUDIO-TALK

PASTEL PORTRAIT BY
ERIC KENNINGTON

STUDIO-TALK

{From our own Correspondents.)

TONDON.—Since the beginning of
l_j 1913 the Royal Academy has not held
an exhibition of the works of deceased
members and associates, which in former
years used to form, with a loan collection
of Old Masters, the Winter Exhibition at
Burlington House. In now resuming the
series with an exhibition which will occupy
the galleries during January and February,
the Academy has decided to devote it
exclusively to works by R.A.'s and A.R.A.'s
who have died since 1912 and a few others
who died in preceding years. The list
as drawn up by the Academy comprises
twenty-seven names, including, besides
the late President, Sir E. J. Poynter,
twenty-three Academicians and three
Associates. To these have now to be

added three Academicians who have died
during the past few weeks—Mr. Peter
Graham, Mr. Henry Woods, and Prof.
R. W. Colton, all of whom will, we under-
stand, be represented at the exhibition, a

Mr. Graham, who was born in
Edinburgh in 1836, and with Orchardson,
Pettie and others who afterwards became
eminent, studied under Scott Lauder at
the Trustees' Academy, came south in the
late 'sixties, but always remained faith-
ful to Scotland, while Mr. Woods, ten
years his junior, had for over forty years
been attracted by the charm of Venice,
where he died after a long residence there.
Mr. Colton, who was only fifty-four when
he died last month, began to exhibit
at the R.A. over thirty years ago. He
was born in Paris and studied there before
settling in England. Elected an Associate
of the Academy in 1903, he was professor
of sculpture for some years and was pro-
moted to full membership two years ago.

Less than a month after Sir Joseph
Duveen's sensational purchase of Gains-
borough's Blue Boy and Reynold's Tragic
Muse from the Duke of Westminster for
£200,000 became known, and Sir Joseph's
declaration to a press interviewer that
the Blue Boy would not leave this country,
came the announcement of the sale of
this painting to Mr. Huntington, the well-
known American millionaire collector, who
is said to have bought it for a sum con-
siderably above that paid to the Duke—
according to one report £150,000 and
according to another £170,000. Authentic
records exist as to the sums asked by
Gainsborough for his paintings, and on
the strength of these it is assumed that he
could not have received more than a
hundred guineas (£105) for the Blue Boy
a century and a half ago. It certainly
does seem amazing that there should be
even a multi-millionaire prepared to pay
for a single picture a sum, one year's
interest on which would, if judiciously
expended, go a long way towards forming
a first-rate collection of contemporary
work. Transactions on this gigantic scale
are apt to call to mind again a certain
exclamation which Carlyle is reported
to have uttered when he visited Millais,
but after all a millionaire with more
money than he knows what to do with

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