International studio (56.1915)

The Royal Academy Exhibition, 1915

riotous colour arrangement, but at the same time a
finely disciplined and controlled pictorial exercise
with real nobility of sentiment. Excellently designed
and soundly restrained is Mr. Alfred Hartley’s
Decorative ' Dan ci¬
scape ; and thelland-
scapes with figures,
Pastoral, Syria and
Pattatos, and A
Basket of Flowers,
by Mr. Charles Sims
—the first especially
—are wholly fascin¬
ating in their subtle
charm of colour and
tone management
and in their delicacy
of executive treat¬
ment.
Not many sea pic¬
tures of note are to
be found on the
walls, but in such
canvases as Mr. W.
L. Wyllie’s Bringing
in the Wounded Lion,
Mr. Norman Wilkin¬
son’s The Sinking of
the Blucher, and Mr.
Percy Spence’s H.M.
Australian Fleet
arriving at Sydney
Heads, the subject¬
matter certainly is of
a kind to attract
attention.
Of the figure pic¬
tures the one which
deserves, and will re¬
ceive, most attention
is Mr. Lavery’s
Wounded: London
LLospital, 1915, in
some ways the finest
canvas he has ever
painted, and as a
study of a difficult
effect of interior
illumination cer-
tainly the most remarkable achievement in the
Exhibition. Problems of lighting also have been
dealt with most successfully by Mr. Sargent in his
Tyrolese Crucifix, and Tyrolese Lnterior; and an
effect of artificial light has been very happily realised
26

by Mr. Sydney Kendrick in his small Twilight.
More ambitious canvases, which have a strong
dramatic intention and are handled with decisive
power, are Mr. Richard Jack’s Homeless, and Mr.
T o m M o s t y n ’ s
Flight, both of
which symbolise,
without however re-
cording any actual
incident, the tragedy
of the war; and as
a contrast to these
there is the not less
ambitious July Day
of Mr. Gerald Moira,
who symbolises as
vigorously and
vividly the quiet
times of peace.
Among the other
figure pictures which
have a strong claim
to attention, places
of importance must
be assigned to Mr.
Edgar Bundy’s very
ably painted Merry
Monarch, Mr.Gerald
Kelly’s scholarly
and accomplished
Human Appeal, Mr.
Clausen’s Renais-
sance, a well-in-
tended allegory
which carries a con-
siderable degree of
conviction though it
has some unques-
tionable defects, the
Song of the Reeds by
Mr. Talbot Hughes,
The Steel I f Prkers
by Mr. Stanhope
Forbes, Mending the
Nets by Miss E.
Allnutt, and the
sumptuous decora-
tion, Queen Philippa
pleading for the
Lives of the Burghers oj Calais by Mr. F. O.
Salisbury. There are some war subjects, too,
which count—Mr. James Clark’s Defence of the
LLartlepools by the Durham Garrison Artillery
and Durham Light Tnfantry, Mr. Charlton’s


“THE KELPIE OF THE BURN.” BRONZE HEAD BY CHARLES.
L. HARTWELL, A.R.A.