Studio: international art (3.1894)

From Gallery, Studio, and Mart

in No. 25, and the portrait of Lord Alfred Douglas,
No. 13, show the limit. Beyond this, as in the
portraits of Mr. I. Zangwill, and Miss Robbins, the
result is rather that of an uncompleted pastel than
a sketch purely arbitrary in its selection, yet artisti-
cally complete and decorative to an unusual
degree. Among the lithographs, the admirable
portraits of M. Emile Zola, and M. Edmond de
Gincourt, a delightful fantasy, Bonnet and Powder,
and Ryllis, a lithograph in colours, deserve un-

HEADS OF EGYPTIAN BOYS

qualified praise. Mr. Rothenstein has added to
his reputation by this exhibition, and has before
him a future that may be almost anything he
cares to make it.

By the kindness of the artist, Mr. Mortimer
Menpes, we are able to reproduce several studies
for various pictures in his exhibition of " Egypt,"
which opens for a short time at the Dowdeswell
Galleries coincidentally with the issue of this num-
ber of The Studio. These have been drawn spe-
cially for our pages with lithographic chalk on rough
grained paper; and although, as in almost every
form of reproduction, the exact value of the tones
86

and the precise delicacy of the modelling must
appear a shade more mechanical in the printed
impression, yet they are as closely facsimiles as it
is possible to obtain in typographic impressions.
The paintings themselves are scarcely larger than
these studies for heads, which therein occupy barely
the space of a threepenny-bit; but to give any idea
of the pictures is not possible, since colour is their
first and last quality. It would be hard to realise
more vivid harmonies of sunlight and riotous crim-

BY MORTIMER MENPES

sons, greens and blues, than are to be seen in these
little panels, which are almost akin to stained glass
in their high key of absolutely pure, transparent
colour. The effect of each is not unlike the lustre
of fine pottery painting, or the wing of a tropical
butterfly ; and the skilful composition, the delightful
schemes of contrasted light and shade, the glowing
interiors which reveal colour in their darkest vistas,
well deserve appreciative notice; but the really
remarkable luminosity of each panel as a whole is
the most striking feature, that even in a short note
require reiteration, again and again, to suggest to
all who have not seen them the effect of the pictures
themselves.