International studio (18.1902/1903)

7W/,'

the quaHties one hopes for in a president but does
not expect to hnd combined in one man, and his
election is a happy augury for the future of the
institution which has honoured itself in eiecting
him, and for the art of Scotland as a whole.

To say that the work of none of the younger
Scottish artists exceis that of Mr. Edwin Alexander
is to give no indication of the individuality and
beauty of his outlook and method. At a time
when the general tone and tendencies of painting
in Scotland have been inHuenced profoundly by
the art of the leaders of the Glasgow group—
whose work, if it is only now beginning to be
recognised in London, has been accepted and
acclaimed both in Scotland and abroad for rnore
than a decade—Mr. Alexander, while not un-
inHuenced by the Hner qualities of that movement,
has not only maintained his independence, but has
achieved a really distinguished personal style.

The forty-six water
colours by this young artist
which were on view at
Messrs. Dott's gallery for
some weeks in November
and December, afforded
an excellent opportunity
for gauging the qualities
of his art and the range
ofhisachievement. Variety
of subject was a notable
feature. Not only were
there drawings of the birds
and animals usually asso-
ciated with his name, but
charming glimpses of land-
scape, sketches in the
East, and studies of Howers,
showed that his sym-
pathies are quick in many
directions. The most im-
portant drawings belonged
to the first class, and were
marked by great mastery
of drawing and fu*m yet
delicate handling. The
Egyptian studies, again,
though not the best he has
done in that particular
direction, expressed another
side of the East and a far
more intimate acquaint-
ance with life in the desert
298

than the work of any contemporary; and the
Scottish landscapes, especially a delicate vision of
sheep feeding on a bare upland, and two or three
twilights over ebb-tide sands, were no less personal.
But probably the little drawings of wayside Howers,
about which bees hum and butterHies Hutter, were
the best things in the show. In them he joins a
daintiness of touch and a delicacy of colour spacing
and design, quite Japanese in charrn, to truth of
structure and searching draughtsmanship.
To some these wonderful drawings may seem to
be lacking in strength of tone and splendour of
colour, but they have the rarer strength of delicacy:
the tone is reHned, the colour exquisite in its quiet
and subtle harmony. In sorne cases, however,
despite charm of drawing and colour, intensity
of study seems to have been allowed undue
prominence, to the loss of direct emotional
appeal. J. L. C.


"TIIE WINDMILI. AT SANTA CRUZ" HY JAMES PATERSON, A.R.S.A.