International studio (59.1916)

The Royal Academy Exhibition, 1916

exercise in which exacting difficulties have been
met and triumphantly overcome, and his Iris is
a singularly happy solution of a perplexingly subtle
problem of tone and colour management. He
shows a Portrait too which fascinates as much by
its charm of treatment as by its striking originality
of manner. Then there is Mr. Brangwyn, who
after too long an absence from Burlington House
makes a dramatic reappearance to remind us that
as a decorative painter he is still without a rival.
His large still-life group, The Poulterer's Shop—it
has been bought by the Chantrey Fund trustees—
shows to perfection his power as a colourist and
craftsman, and his landscape, Ln Provence, and his
allegorical composition, Mater Dolorosa Belgica,
are well worthy to be associated with it.
Again, there are such notable canvases as
Mr. Waterhouse’s The Decameron, Mr. Greiffen-
hagen’s Pastoral, Mr. Russell Flint’s sombre and
effective Mothers of Heroes, Mr. Tom Mostyn’s
gorgeous colour fantasy The Golden Island, and
Mr. Richard Jack’s vigorous scene from the history
of the moment, The Return to the Front; and there
is a very cleverly painted camp subject Before the
Dawn—soldiers round a fire—by Mr. Fred Roe.
Mr. Edgar Bundy’s domestic drama The Doctor
Forbids is one of his most robust performances ;
Mr. Byam Shaw’s wonderful composition The
Arrested Spear is the most ambitious and suc-
cessful effort he has made for some while, and
Mr. H. Watson’s picture The Spirit of Youth,
gracefully arranged and admirably painted, marks
a very real advance in his practice.
Other figure pictures which claim attention are
Mr. Clausen’s Youth Mourning, Mr. St. George
Hare’s The Angels of God, Mr. Anning Bell’s
vivacious Spring Revel, Sir W. B. Richmond’s
Sleep, Mr. Hacker’s Abundance, Mr. Borough
Johnson’s Belgian Refugees, Mr. James Clark’s
The Fete, and the two delightful colour arrange-
ments, Frances and Poppies, by Mr. Melton Fisher.
Among the landscape painters Mr. Arnesby
Brown is, as usual, deservedly prominent. He
shows no large picture this year, but his four
small canvases September Morning, The Church
on the Hill, View of Great Yarmouth, and The
Estuary, have in a high degree those qualities
which have always given distinction to his work.
Mr. David Murray is at his best in his broad and
expressive landscape Scenting the Summer Air.
Mr. D. Y. Cameron’s exquisite draughtsmanship
and subtle perception of tone are seen to the
fullest advantage in his April, and Mr. Hughes-
Stanton’s vigorous methods are excellently illu's-
40

trated in a series of contributions, the best of
which is the very convincing Sunlight on the Sea.
Of great interest, too, are Sir E. A. Waterlow’s
The Mantle of Winter, Mr. R. Vicat Cole’s The
Trysting Pool, Mr. Bertram Priestman’s Waters of
Washburn and Wharfe, Mr. H. Knight’s Dozmare
Pool, Mr. Coutts Michie’s impressive Winter in
Surrey, Mr. Leslie Thomson’s Over the Sea to Skye,
Mr. Gwelo Goodman’s tragic Winter, Mr. R. W.
Allan’s By the Open Sea, Mr. James Henry’s
Gathering Clouds, Mr. Albert Goodwin’s Canter-
bury and Durham, Mr. Tom Robertson’s Holme
Bridge, Bakewell, and the brilliant foie de Vivre
by Mr. A. J. Black.
The portraits are, as a whole, well worthy to
maintain the tradition of the British school, and
a long list could be made of those which make
special claim for attention. Mr. Lavery has
painted the Lord Mayor with appropriate strength
and dignity, and Mr. Harold Speed the King of the
Belgians with a happy combination of symbolism
and reality; and Mr. Llewellyn, Mr. Hacker,
Mr. George Henry, Mr. Richard Jack, Mr. Fiddes
Watt, and Mr. Bundy are all admirably repre-
sented. Mr. J. J. Shannon’s Miss Isabel Burrell
is most attractive, and Mr. Charles Shannon’s
portrait study, The Lady with the Amethyst—
another Chantrey Fund purchase—is an acceptable
example of his work. As paintings of children
Mr. Herbert Draper’s Little June, Mr. Ralph
Peacock’s Betsy, Daughter of Baron Profumo, and
Professor Moira’s family group are all interesting.
Other pictures which must not be overlooked are
the two animal paintings by Mr. Arthur Wardle,
the interiors by Mr. Van der Weyden and Mr. E.
Townsend, and the clever little sketch of Lord
Byron's Palace, Venice, by Mr. Ludovici.
There is, too, much to see in the two sculpture
galleries. The large Titanic Memorial, by Sir
Thomas Brock, the colossal equestrian statue of
King Edward by Sir W. Goscombe John, the won-
derful bust of Lord Roberts by Mr. W. R. Colton,
the statues of King George by Mr. Mackennal
and of Queen Mary by Sir George Frampton, and
Mr. Thornycroft’s group The Kiss, which is the
third purchase of the Chan trey Fund trustees, are
prominent works; Sir George Frampton’s bust
of Nurse Cavell, apart from its personal interest,
is a fine example of the sculptor’s art ; and there
are other things by Mr. Drury, Mr. Pomeroy,
Mr. Reynolds-Stephens, Mr. Nicholson Babb, Mr.
Derwent Wood, Mr. H. Pegram, and Mr. Gilbert
Bayes, which prove the sculptors to be quite as
zealous as the painters in their support of British art.