International studio (52.1914)

Pittsburgh International, 1914

They copy nature superbly and there
they stop contented. Is there not
the fear of travelling a lane that has
no outlet?
There is an excellent Japanese word,
esoragoto —-all acknowledgment to
Mr. A. J. Eddy—which has no exact
equivalent in English or French, and
which amounts to a canon. Every
painting, to be effective, must be
esoragoto, i.e., an invented picture or
a picture into which certain fictions
are painted. Realistic transcrip-
tions must yield to idealistic compo-
sitions, with a maximum of self. A
good picture, besides being true to
nature, in order to be great art, must
excite curiosity and pique the intel-

PORT OF DOUARNENEZ, BRITTANY BY CHARLES COTTET


ligence. Materialism is an excellent attribute, but
it should not be the sum total of a picture. The
soul of the artist must look behind his pigment
or his work threatens to become commonplace.
It fell to a Spaniard and an Englishman to show
the strongest harbour scenes. Fishermen of the
Cantabrique, by Martinez-Cubells, is an imposing
canvas, splendidly painted, showing a fishing
smack at the pier, with the crew at work, while
other boats are at anchor close by. A ray of light
illumines the sluggish water in the right-hand cor-
ner, gaining tremendous force by contrast. Hay-

ley-Lever, the Englishman, is represented by one
of his characteristic paintings of St. Ives Harbour,
full of light and movement, the boats in the fore-
ground dancing on the sunlit waves. Each pic-
ture is a masterpiece.
Comparison is invited between British and
American painters for the reason that no other
country stands so high in the quality of work sub-
mitted. Some of the Britishers that have helped
to make this year’s international a red-letter event
are W. Orpen, T. C. Dugdale, J. da Costa, Arnesby
Brown, Aiming Bell, Hayley-Lever, W. Nicholson
and Hilda Fearon. Some


harbour: st. ives, Cornwall

BY HAYLEY-LEVER

big men are not mentioned,
for the reason that their con-
tributions fall below stand-
ard. Much is expected of
Charles Sims, but his Month
of Mary is a disappointing
canvas—-heavy in colour,
unrelated, and with minia-
ture groups in the fore-
ground, resembling in con-
ception a shepherd’s cal-
endar. One charm only it
possesses, namely, a back-
ground of delightful design
and richness of tone. The
Orpen self-portrait, with its
outre background and quaint
accessories, is a magnificent
piece of characterization and
quite outstrips other essays
in portraiture, with very few
exceptions.
Gaston La Touche, the

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