International studio (20.1903)

distinction, once found himself at dinner with
several ambassadors. The Salon had just been
opened in Brussels, and the ambassadors talked
of it and of nothing else. One large picture by a
young man was much criticised, and Gallait was
invited to add his voice to the general chorus.
"You agree with us, no doubt?" said one
ambassador. " In these questions of art," replied
Gallait, " I am naturally diffident, for I know
too well the difficulties of painting; but it seems
to me, gentlemen, that the picture you are dis-
cussing is full of cleverness. In it a young
fellow has thrown very well on canvas a good
many figures, all life-size; and when a young man
does that I am inclined to think that he might
succeed in any walk of life. I should not despair
of him if he entered the high diplomatic service,
in the hope of becoming an ambassador."
This little story deserves to be remembered
whenever a critic finds himself face to face with
an important work by a young artist, and hence
it is a story that we gladly remember now in
thinking of the painted ceiling that Mr. Herbert

Draper has just brought to completion for the
great Livery Hall of the Drapers' Company,
though the work is not likely to stand in need of
defence. Before this notice will be read in print
the ceiling will have been judged by a host of
persons, and already we hear rumours of the
verdicts which will be passed. Some may say
that the painter has pitched his scheme of colour
in a key too high and too light, a criticism that
fails of all significance when we remember the in-
different light received by a London ceiling during
seven-eighths of the year, and the incessant action
of the air in darkening an unprotected painting.
Mr. Draper has shown an able grasp of the
requirements of the work committed to him, realising
that, unlike the proper treatment of a mural paint-
ing, where the reality of the wall surface must be
preserved in appearance, in the case of a ceiling
the flat surface, which does no work architecturally,
and is j-27*M;r2M7*<r22y unnecessary, should be lost, and
not emphasised.
These considerations, together with the fact that
the painting, although measuring 30 ft. by 20 ft.,


MR. DRAPER AT WORK IN HIS STUDIO AT ST. IVES
34

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH