International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

The Society of Western Artists

fleckecl vau.lt overhead. Teeming with a spirit of
feudal traditions, it has much in common with the
romantic grandeur of Martigue, France. Owing to
the elevated horizon in this picture, the principal
mass, which is a rugged promontory at the left of
the canvas, reaches to the distant cliffs beyond the
blue lagoon. Another man, who reviews for us
pictures of other days, is Julius Rolshoven, of
Detroit. The types of work produced by Rol-
shoven, however, and that done by Grover, who
also depicts scenes of modern Europe with settings
of the past, are as unlike Bartlett’s as that of each
other. Mr. Rolshoven, in his two examples at this
show, has chosen to give us peaceful, solemn
visions of cloister interiors and these in turn are as
widely different in feeling from one another as they
are from anything eise. The Prayer, bathed in a
mysterious silence, gleams cool in the pale evening
light, while The Cloister, Church 0} St. Francis 0}
Assisi, is radiant in sparkling sunlight. The one
pictures throbbing Nature, as seen through the
arched corridors of a humble cloister, breathless
with the expression of spiritual Ion ging that is
embodied in the kneeling form of the white-cowled
monk; the other shows no sign of life, except in-
ferentially, unless we consider, as fraught with a
higher than its own, the wealth of tropical Vegeta-
tion that laughs
in the effulgent
sunlight. But all
the signs of life,
that are vouched
for in these
storied walls
mouldering with
clecay yet thrill-
ing with fresh
animation, are
more potent than
any actual pres-
ence could pos-
sibly indicate. It
is not simply de-
cay. It is life
continuous. On
account of the
high key in which
this picture is
p i t c h e d, the
painter’s re-
markable rad-
ering of textures
is ably demon-
stratecl. the scum pond, atttumn

A series of three productions from the brush of
Oliver Dennett Grover are reminiscent of pictur-
esque Venice, Venice teeming with her metropolitan
throngs, instinct with a new life yet pathetic in her
historic significance. Flooded with a warmth of
Venetian sunlight, which bathes the broad flight of
steps forming its central mass of colour, Mending
the Nets, Chioggia, testifi.es to such structural con-
sideration, such a suavity of treatment, that it well
merits the attention which it is receiving. It is
Venetian sunlight. It is Venetian air. They are
Venetian fisher folk. It is Venetian life. Among
other sterling Works from foreign shores, the sym-
pathetic contribution by Anna L. Stacey, also a
Venetian record, should not fail our mention. Here
we have Venice unquestionably, but Venice sub-
jectively, rather than objectively treated, Venice
from the standpoint of atmosphere, rather than
that of architectural environment. The artist
shows a fleet of sailboats in the bay at anchor rest-
ing ever so quietly in the evening mists.
But if there is any one principle for which artists
of the West should stand, that principle ought to be
the promulgation of local feeling; however true
their representations of European scenes may be,
these fail in comparison with the native charm that
haunts the delineation of their immediate surround-

CPIARLES FRANCIS BROWNE


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