International studio (21.1903/1904(1904))

his green seas is transparent. Sky-reHections are
mirrored in his caimer water, which is wet and
lively. The glow of sunset and the iridescence of
the Northern Lights AH his pictures with atmo-
spheres of goiden-rose or opaiescent-pearL His
mists purple the distant headlands, and his storms
turn rocks and foreshores to turgid indigo and
brown, shot-silk, and bricky-green. The " objects "
he introduces retain their natural and unstrained
values and their individuality, whether in movement
or in repose.
Holst's touch is tender yet emphatic. He
understands perfectly, as his French friends say,
He seizes upon the momen-
tary movement of the sea—that mysterious poetry
of the ocean — and Axes it without effort. He
has absolute command of the horizon — wide
and high. A speck on the water, or a Heeting
-cloudlet he focuses, with its full value, at a stroke.
The Aash of the Whitby Lighthouse, the trough
of the skimming felucca, the stroke of a gull's wing
at sea, the oar-lift of a rowing-boat, the straining of
cordage, the bend of a supple mast, and the
rolling pebble on the shingly beach, are all sponta-

neously rendered with the Ane point of a full brush
restrained by a sensitive hand.
Holst's Anish is the United action of mind, and
eye, and hand. It is accomplished with a certain
amount of completeness very rapidly. The inspi-
ration of the moment, and the impressions which
come to him as his work proceeds, are worked up
with a convincing result.
The gale-blown surf sticks to his canvas; and
this is how it is done. " I just take my thumb,
he says, " when my brush has done its work, and,
dashing it into the moist cake on my palette, I run
it along the crest of my wave as it breaks, leaving
the mass of pigment just where it lays hold of the
canvas."
You may take away with you Holst's work wet
from his easel, and you will be quite satisAed and
delighted with it; but he will smile at you, for he
is not so easily content. He rejoices to keep his
picture in his Studio indeAnitely, and to go on
touching it up, correcting here, adding there, and
generally improving it.
Holst's Anished work is remarkable for high
tone; it is quite optimistic in illumination, warmth,


" THE LAST SUPPER'


BY GUE
rag