International studio (23.1904)

Studio-Talk


undignified. They almost always look as if they
were painted to please a public which likes even
its religion to have a flavour of theatrical sensa-
tion. But this large canvas by Mr. Mostyn can
almost be taken as the brilliant exception that
convincingly proves the rule. It is beyond dis-
pute sincere and devout in intention; it is cer-
tainly free from the theatrical taint; and it has
imaginative qualities which are none the less
persuasive because they are not laboriously
involved in a cloud of abstruse symbolism.
The picture, indeed, can be praised as almost
a new departure in religious art, and as an
undeniably successful attempt to give to a noble
motive that air of dignified reticence which such
a subject emphatically requires. Moreover, it
shows no evasion of technical difficulties. The
figure of Christ seated in the moonlit garden
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is very well drawn, and the face is an especially
fine study in expression, and has a grandeur of
type which is particularly appropriate; while the
judicious naturalism of the low-toned landscape, in
which the figure is set, gives clear evidence of the
artist’s shrewdness of observation.

Another religious picture, The Adoration oj the
Magi, by Mr. Douglas Strachan, has been on
exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in Pall
Mall. In this canvas, which is decorative rather
than either realistic or dramatic, the artist has
adhered more closely to the old-master conven-
tion. He has adapted with some ingenuity the
mannerism of those painters who produced great
religious compositions which were intended to fit
into the architectural scheme of some imposing
ecclesiastical building; and he has arrived at a
result which, if it lacks inspiration, is interesting as
a scholarly exercise. In the same gallery was an
example of his work in portraiture—a sober and
discreet likeness of an elderly lady, painted with
some power but with an absence of unnecessary
display of cleverness which does credit to his
taste. The most memorable of his perform-
ances in this little exhibition was, however, a
stained-glass window designed and painted by him

STAINED GLASS DESIGNED BY H. F. WARING
EXECUTED BY THE ARTIFICERS’ GUILD

ATTENDANCE SHIELD FOR THE BY E. SPENCER
CAMBRIDGESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL