International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

Studio-Talk


Studio have helped to educate public feeling, pre-
paring a favourable reception for impressionists’
works in this country.

Mr. Dewhurst’s own reward has perhaps come
indirectly in the interest which his exhibits have
always aroused. The luministes in this country
can almost be counted upon one hand. Theirs
was the last form of impressionist painting to
find acceptance in this country. The changed
attitude towards this art is notable, but Mr.
Dewhurst was in the field before such change
was apparent. He can now rely upon the appre-
ciation of the same public which was erstwhile
antagonistic.

For the first time during an artistic career extend-
ing over a period of about seventy years, the
veteran painter, Mr. William Callow, has been
induced to hold a “one-man” exhibition. At
the Leicester Galleries last month between sixty
and seventy of his water-colour drawings were dis-

played to the evident satis-
faction of his numerous
friends and admirers. For
just seventy years he has
been a member of the
Old Water-colour Society,
during which time he has
sent to its exhibitions over
fourteen hundred drawings,
some of which were to be
seen again at the Leicester
Galleries. His early train-
ing was carried on under
the direction of Theodore
and Thales Fielding, bro-
thers of Copley Fielding.
For many years he resided
in Paris, while some of his
most successful work was
done during his various
tours abroad. Mr. Callow
has faithfully upheld the
best traditions of the old
British school of water-
colour painting, and as one
of its last exponents his work
is always interesting to the
student. In 1839 Thac-
keray wrote in the “Critical
Review” : “ A new painter,
somewhat in the style of
Harding, is Mr. Callow,
and better, I think, than his master or original,
whose colours are too gaudy, to my taste, and
effects too glaringly theatrical”—a verdict which
will be fully endorsed by those who have visited
the recent exhibition.

Few more interesting exhibitions have been held
at the Whitechapel Art Gallery than that now
being held there. It is exclusively devoted to
“Animals in Art,”and emphasises the fact that the
delineation of animal forms has been a favourite
exercise of artists from the earliest times. A series
of surimonos and kakemonos with animals and
birds drawn and painted by some of the greatest
artists of Japan demonstrates beyond question
their superlative mastery in this special field.
The paint'ngs and drawings by European masters
include works by Reynolds, Turner, Gainsborough,
Landseer, James Ward, and, among living artists,
by Mr. Swan, Mr. Briton Riviere, Mr. Joseph
Crawhall, the brothers Detmold, Mr. Clausen,
Mr. Stott, and Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch.

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