International studio (40.1910)

Studio-Talk

Gallery was one of the most important exhibitions
held last month. His is an art that is made up
of surprising passages of beauty, which do not
perhaps call attention to themselves in the first
look at a canvas by him. In his big seaside can-
vases a thousand incidental effects reveal them-
selves, and in his interiors the decoration on some
cushion, the perception of what is perfect in such
decoration for the purposes of rich and beautiful
accessoiies is emphasised by a thrilling sense of
light. _

We have so often appreciated in these columns
the art of Mr. Oliver Hall, that, important as the
new collection of his works was at Messrs. Dowdes-
well's lately, we need here do no more perhaps than
record the fact that, advancing still upon old lines,
the painter is achieving something unusually perfect.

Mr. Mark Fisher's water-colours at the Leicester
Gallery was another of the shows that went to
make April a rich month for the connoisseurs of
modern art. As with many a great oil painter,
mastery in another medium sufficient for a repu-
tation in itself, is eclipsed, and as with many
another great oil painter—though there are not so
many of them after all—his water-colours show the
most happy and spontaneous, and in some cases
the most essential, quality of his genius—in his
case it is nothing less than genius that is evident
throughout. _

The Fine Art Society have lately held an exhi-
bition of water-colour landscapes by Mr. James G.
Laing, R.S.W.■ these were of exceptional interest
on technical grounds, Mr. Laing being much at
home with the best qualities to be found in his
medium. Miss E. H. Adie's works at the same
gallery—garden scenes mostly in Italy — showed
that her point of view was anything but hackneyed.

At the Baillie Gallery, the most important
feature lately has been Mr. J. Campbell Mitchell's
exhibition, a painter with appreciation of all that
makes for breadth and atmosphere. Also at these
galleries the work of Mr. W. Alison Martin
afforded a novel interest; and there was much that
was attractive in Miss Annie Paterson's work,
which was shown at the same time.

In our notes last November we referred to Mr.
W. H. Walker's exhibition at the Walker Gallery,
consisting of a collection of water-colour drawings
of a humorous order, and we now have pleasure in
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reproducing one of the happiest of these pleasant
little fantasies. The old man, who has spent
weary days and years in his quest of the elixir of
life, has at length fabricated a mixture of substances
which suddenly resolves itself into a merry throng
of babes, and realised More than he Expected I

GLASGOW —It would be difficult to say
whether the figure-pictures or land-
scapes are the more attractive in this
year's Exhibition of the Royal Glas-
gow Institute of the Fine Arts. Eve, by Solomon J.
Solomon, R.A.; Lady Stirling-Maxwell, by Sir
James Guthrie, P.R.S.A.; and The Student, by
George Clausen, R.A., exercise a spell over the
visitor, as do The Village, IVhitehouse, by William
McTaggart, R.S.A., whose death last month has
removed a painter of whose achievements Scotland
may well be proud ; In a Grove of Grey Olives, by
David Murray, R.A.; and Lingering Winter, by
George Houston, A.R.S.A. Sir James Guthrie's
picture is more than a portrait, it is a refined work
of art, charming in composition, and subtle in
colour.

Other notable figure studies are Memories, by
Francis H. Newbery, well drawn and vigorously
painted; The Workroom, by Harrington Mann, a
clever handling of a difficult subject; Roses and'
Chintz, by Harold Speed, delightfully delicate and
decorative ; and Homewards, by E. A. Hornel, in
which the artist unwontedly and successfully
divides the interest between figure and landscape.
Fresh Codlings, by John McGhie, suggests all the
breeziness of an East Coast fishing haven. In
A Connoisseur, W. Somerville Shanks expresses
strongly that mastery of the figure so conspicuous
in many of the younger Glasgow men ; likewise
in a Lady in Grey, G. G. Anderson encourages
the hope that pastel, charming though it be as
a medium, will not prevent him giving adequate
attention to the more robust oil in which his latest
portrait is rendered. In portraiture the pictures
of children, by William Findlay and Hamilton
Mackenzie are worthy of more than passing
notice.

From the animal painters there are no more
interesting contributions than Foxhounds, by Sam
Fulton, a work that merits the place assigned to
it in the City permanent collection; The Brood,
by George Pirrie, an artist on terms of closest in-
timacy with the fowls; and As shades of evening
close, beckoning tj sweet repose, by Robert Louis