International studio (59.1916)

Studio- Talk

{Mrs. Reginald Arkelf, who is also seen to ad-
vantage in two attractive figure-subjects, Study of
a Girl at a Window and Girl at a Mirror.
Mr. Wilson Steer’s marine studies, The Return
of the Fishing Fleet and Harwich, are scarcely
so interesting as his work usually is, although
they show a very subtle
appreciation of atmospheric
conditions. Reminiscences
of the war are not
numerous, the most notable
perhaps being Mr. Nevin-
son’s painting On the Road
to Ypres, in which a
rectangular mode of treat¬
ment is used with dramatic
effect. The Black and
White room, always worthy
of study at these exhibi¬
tions, is on this occasion
kept well up to the average
by the contributions of Mr.
Muirhead Bone, Mr. Francis
Dodd, Mr. Augustus John,
Mr. C. J. Holmes, Mr.
Maresco Pearce, Mr. G. W.
Lambert, Mr. Sydney Lee,
and others.

At the Leicester Galleries
one room last month was
occupied by a collection of
fifty sketches in colour by
the late Mr. Douglas
Almond, R.I., labelled Brit¬
tany in War Time, but as
our readers will doubtless
remember the interesting
article which Mrs. Almond
contributed to our pages last
September, and which was
illustrated by reproductions in colour of several of
these sketches by her talented husband, comment
is unnecessary. In another room a series of sixty-
odd water-colours by Quartermaster-Sergeant-
Instructor E. Handley-Read of The British Firing
Line impressively reminded one of the cataclysmic
character of the struggle on the western battle-
front. Mr. Flandley-Read is an able landscape
artist, and in these sketches he has concerned
himself almost wholly with landscape effects; the
human element is rarely in evidence, and it is the
scene and results of the strife, and not the strife
itself, that he depicts. More eloquent than a

column of descriptive writing are his drawings of
Ypres, reduced to an “abomination of desolation”
by the fire of great guns. The third room at
these galleries contained a large collection of
portrait-drawings by Mr. W. Rothenstein, inter-
esting alike on account of the sitters and as essays
in characterisation.

Mr. Charles Shannon has
worked in several mediums.
With wood engraving and
lithography he has won many
successes. He has painted
many portraits, which, by
reason of their fine quality
of design and colour, their
sense of style, and also
sympathy with the character
of the sitters, have gained
him a well-merited reputa-
tion. They will still con-
tinue to do so, judging by
the remarkable success of
those shown this year at
the exhibitions of the Royal
Academy and the Inter-
national Society. But
excellent as these all are,
Mr. Shannon has shown that
his greatest artistic gifts
are displayed in some of his
imaginative paintings. That
class of work which contains
great qualities of painting,
namely magnificent pictorial
conception, beauty of design
and colour, and fine crafts-
manship, is more often
associated with the art of
Venice when it was at its
zenith—the time when the
idylls of Giorgione and Titian were created. This
is the category in which Mr. Shannon’s picture
Hermes and the Infant Bacchus must be placed.
Certainly his powers have never been better illus-
trated than in this noble work. He has treated
the whole subject as a splendid decorative panel,
and its decorative qualities are not gained by
any sacrifice of life or movement. The whole
conception is carried out with unity of design
and harmony of colour. Few if any other artists
to-day could work out so complete, so rhythmical
a design for a tondo like this, and the colour
too is admirably suited to its subject.



DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY
JOSEPH ARMITAGE

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