International studio (21.1903/1904(1904))

in with a stump or with the hnger, and the shadows
afterwards put in with vigorous lines. The iights
are then wiped out with soft rubber cut to a suitabie
shape. Without further preparation the coiours
are washed in with a weil-charged large brush, as
near as possible the desired tint. Some of the
charcoal is displaced by this process, and mingles
with the colour, but this helps rather than detracts
from the effect of the drawing. After the first wash
it will be found that the charcoal is hxed, and no
longer comes up, but washing out in the ordinary
manner is very readily accomplished. At this stage
further strength can, if necessary, be added with
the charcoal, but the Iights cannot now be taken
out with rubber. The paper used by Mr. Foster
has a slightly creamy tint which helps the tone, and
imparts to the hnished work the mellowness of an
old drawing. _
Some fine examples recently added to the Collec-
tion of ecclesiastical embroidery at South Kensing-
ton are now exhibited there in the Tapestry Court.
They were obtained from the Hochon Collection,
which was recently sold in Paris. The Museum
owes one of the best among them to the generosity
of Mr. J. H. Fitzhenry, who placed at the disposal

of the authorities a sum sufhcient to purchase the
beautiful Italian orphrey dating from the second
half of the fourteenth Century (No. 831—1903).
It is remarkable both for beauty and hneness of
workmanship, and for the simple and expressive
manner in which the artist has told the Story of the
Virgin Mary; the subject is represented in nine
scenes, beginning with the rejection of Joachim's
offering in the Temple, and ending with the
Assumption of the Virgin. The orphrey probably
belonged to a cope, and may be compared with
that on the cope No. 580—1884, exhibited in
a wall-case in the Italian court. An English
orphrey (No. 827—1903) comes in no degree
behind this Italian example in technical qualities,
and forms another illustration of the remarkable
pre-eminence of English embroideries in the earlier
Gothic period. had acquired a
celebrity on the continent of Europe before the
middle of the thirteenth Century, and beautiful
examples dating from that and the following
Century, and showing unmistakable signs of
English origin, are still to be found in Italy, Spain,
France, and elsewhere. The orphrey in question
belongs to the close of the thirteenth Century, and
may be comoared with the famous C^<?, and


" THE SKIPPER's WIFE
156

FROM THE DRAWING IN CHARCOAL AND WATER-COLOUR BY GILBERT FOSTER