International studio (60.1916/1917)

Studio-Talk


his method and changed his aim ; his purpose
appears to be to get his effects by the most
elemental and natural simplicity. Wells, more
perhaps than any contemporary, is “out” for
sunlight; it is an unqualified boon in the art of a
period of gloom, de¬
pression, and doubt.
; Art has been heavily
hit in many ways by
the war, not the least
in that many sketching
grounds have become
prohibited areas. But
no artist exhausts
accumulated data or
half-finished canvases
in two years, otherwise
Mr. W. A. Gibson’s
Chanson d' Automne, a
big French woodland
study, would not have
been hung. In a
gallery rich in many
masterpieces the
picture compels atten¬
tion, not so much in
composition, though
this is striking, as in
quality ; it is a picture
that will repay study.
Two interesting works
in tempera are con¬
tributed by Mr. David
Murray, R.A.; Mr.
R. W. Allan, a con¬
tributor to the Institute
exhibitions since 1878,
is represented by one
of his inimitable
fishing-port transcrip¬
tions and a large
moorland piece ; Mr.
Thomas Hunt by a
mountain, stream, and
cattle study in Skye ;
Mr. John Henderson
by an early summer
landscape ; Mr.
Patrick Downie by a
Clyde effect; Mr. J.
by a poetic pastoral; and Mr. Alexander Roche,
R.S.A., by an interior, delightfully simple and
subtle.

Beyond several charming drawings by Mr. Russell
Flint, characteristic sketches by Mr. F. Cayley
Robinson, delightful expressions by Miss Katherine
Cameron, clever studies by Mr. Dudley Hardy
and Mr. John Hassall, a delicately rendered sea¬
scape by Mr. R. B.
Nisbet, R.S.A., fine
architectural interpre-
tations by Mr. A. B.
McKechnie, there is
little in the water-

Exhibitsof sculpture,
if less numerous than
on previous occasions,
are excellent, particu-
larly the work of Mr.
T. Newburn Crook,
R.B.S., whose Water
Lily, the life-size
recumbent figure of a
young girl, obviously
just entered on her
’teens, is full of the
lithe, lissome grace of
youth. The artist’s
purpose was surely to
represent the lily purity
and sweet innocence
of young girlhood:
every line and curve,
every indicated bone
and muscle, the whole
attitude and expression,
the lights and shadows
that almost make up
for the absence of
colour, combine to
make a figure of un-
mitigated grace and
charm. Mr. Crook’s
art is unfamiliar to
Glasgow Exhibition
frequenters, and
further examples of it
will be eagerly antici-
pated by many. The
exhibition, which has still several weeks to run,
has proved a welcome relief from the daily
anxieties engendered by the war. In stressful
times like these the influence of art is all for
the best. J- T.

“the lady of the carnation
OIL PAINTING BY FRA. H. NEWBERY
(Glasgow Fine Arts Institute)

finely rendered Firth of
Lawton Wingate, R.S.A.,

colour section to arrest
attention.

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