International studio (50.1913)

The Royal Academy Exhibition

The royal academy exhi-
bition, 1913.
As a summing up of the general tendencies
and characteristics of modern British art the
present exhibition of the Royal Academy has a very
real interest. It is a quite comprehensive show,
full of things which illustrate well most of the
varieties of practice adopted by artists in this
country, and distinguished by a commendable
catholicity and breadth of view. There are not of
course to be found in it any examples of the more
extravagant developments which we have witnessed
during the last two or three years; but this is not
surprising, because it cannot in any way be con-
sidered the duty of the Academy to recognise
absolutely new fashions in art which have not been
properly tested or securely established.
Indeed, the mission of the Academy—and a
mission, it may be said, which it fulfils very
efficiently—is to show us the results of art move-
ments which have passed definitely beyond the
experimental stage, and to deal with types of effort
which have been proved by experience to have in
them the possibilities of permanence. In this
sense it must always be behind the times; it can-
not commit itself to speculative encouragement of
activities which may or may not have come to stay ;
it cannot assume a sort of prophetic role and
profess to foretell what the art of the future may be.
What it really has to do is to sum up the art
history of the last few years and to exhibit what the
men who have made history have produced and
are producing.
From this point of view the exhibition now
open at Burlington House is as instructive as it is
interesting. All things considered, it is excellently
up to date and it gives a very good idea of the
general condition of British art at the present time.
It is, moreover, quite a strong gathering of sound
performances and there is in it very little work
which can be dismissed as really incompetent or
unworthy of some measure of consideration. The
contributors with few exceptions have justified
themselves as well trained and efficient craftsmen,
well equipped for the practice of their profession.
If, on the other hand, the show must be pro-
nounced to be rather matter of fact in its general
atmosphere, this can scarcely be said to be the
fault of the artists. They necessarily must reflect
the age in which they live, and if the tendencies of
the age are towards materialism the art of the
period will be materialistic and matter of fact.
The Academy, certainly, does not suggest that our

artists find much encouragement for imaginative
essays; it implies, rather, that they regard excursions
beyond the more or less beaten track as unlikely
to be appreciated. There is not much work,
indeed, at Burlington House which strikes any very
strong note of imagination and there is not much
that seems to have been inspired by great depth of
thought. The demand, evidently, is for things
which the public can understand without an effort,
not for works which require to be taken seriously
and carefully thought out.
However, imaginative paintings are not entirely
absent from the show. There are four oil-paintings
and one water-colour by Mr. Charles Sims which
illustrate delightfully his rare capacity for fantastic
invention. In The Wood beyond the World and
Love in the Wilderness, which are, perhaps, his
most successful achievements—though all of them
are of memorable quality—he has reached a
remarkably high level of expression. His striking
originality and his strongly personal manner of
dealing with the motives he selects have never been
better displayed than in these two canvases, and
though one may for some reasons regret that he
should have abandoned those lighter fancies which
he presented with such exquisite charm a few
years back, the more serious symbolism of such
pictures as those he exhibits this season carries the
completest conviction. He shows with them a
portrait which is equally memorable for its agreeable
evasion of the ordinary formalities of portraiture,
and for its brilliant spontaneity and beauty of
decorative effect.
Mr. Waterhouse, another painter who never
fails to charm by the daintiness of his imagina-
tion and the delicacy of his sentiment, is well
represented by two small compositions, A Song of
Springtime, and Narcissus, both admirable in their
subtlety of draughtsmanship and freshness of
colour, and by a portrait of Mrs. Philip Henderson,
which is one of the most satisfying excursions he
has ever made into this branch of pictorial practice.
He is seen, indeed, quite at his best this year, and
with this trio of pictures more than maintains the
high reputation he has earned.
Mr. Stott, again, exhibits two pictures which mark
the change that his art has been undergoing during
the last few years. His Adoration of the Shepherds,
and The Carpenter's Shop are attempts to combine
religious sentiment with the poetic naturalism
which is really his right direction; they have
charm, undeniably, but they are not so strong or
so significant as the works by which in the past he
took his place among the best of our younger

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