International studio (34.1908)

The International Society's Exhibition

atmosphere of the rooms generally is distinctly
modern French, but much of the best work is
English.
Essentially English in character is Mr. C. H.
Shannon’s portrait of Miss Kathleen Bruce entitled
a Souvenir of the International Ball. It has quali-
ties which are too great for it to disappear into the
strange unknown regions where thousands of quite
brilliant pictures go after their exhibition. Certain
paintings belong to history from the moment they
are completed. Through a series of many canvases
Mr. Shannon has been perfecting his methods,
but only now and then does his brush catch fire
and receiving its impulse from life transform his
work into something more than the cold pro-
duct of supreme skill shut in to its own exercises
by the studio door. The rugged style which Mr.
Ricketts now affects in painting and sculpture is no
doubt an attempt to express himself in what is
termed a “ big ” way. But there was an intimate
side to his genius, which we are sure existed,
though there has been no
record kept of it in his art
of recent years. It is to
be recollected by a refer-
ence to old volumes of
“The Dial”; when it works
its way through his paint
again, acknowledgment as
a painter of significant ima-
gination will be readily
accorded to this artist.
Last month we had occa-
sion to mention in a note
the splendid achievements
of Mr. William Orpen in
recent exhibitions, but the
International Society can-
not be congratulated on the
portrait canvas which he
sends to them this year.
He seems to have put into
it every affectation he could
command for the occasion.
When we remember his
fine and unaffected portrait
of Sir James Stirling at the
recent exhibition of the
Portrait Painters we can
but hope that this canvas
at the New Gallery is a
sort of supreme farewell
to affectation. He can
afford to leave this sort of
5S

aestheticism asja means of advertisement to those
with a reputation less assured.
But Mr. Orpen is not the only painter whose
work is not wrorthy of himself. There seems an
apparent effort on Mr. Walter Crane’s part to efface
the reputation of a lifetime by one canvas. Mr.
Lavery’s record, too, is needed to support his
Miss Pauline Chase as Peter Pan, but his Signor
Totsi is a successful portrait. Those wTho give
some of the chief elements of success to the exhi-
bition are Messrs. W. W. Russell, E. A. Walton,
William Nicholson, Alexander Jamieson, H. Le
Sidaner, G. Sauter, A. Ludovici, Emile Claus,
A. Mancini, J. L. Forain, F. Mura, and several
others. The first four of these names are responsible
for the best of the landscapes by painters of this
country.
Mr. Neven du Mont’s picture of a stage scene,
The Harlequinade, would, we think, have been
altogether better as a smaller painting. The
Winds of March by Max Bohm, La Cueillette by


“ DON JUAN IN HELL ”

I!Y CHARLES RICKETTS