Studio: international art (6.1896)

Studio- Talk

more interesting than the spring show on account
of the space which is given in it to sketches and
studies. It acquires a peculiar character from the
presence, among the more elaborated and respon-
sible productions, of a considerable number of
slighter works which show the manner in which
the various artists represented arrive at their ulti-
mate results. This winter a quite considerable
display of sketches is made in the gallery in Pall
Mall East. The most important of them are by
Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Professor Herkomer;
but there are others by Mr. Clausen, Mr. Walter
Field, Mr. J. W. North, Mr. Albert Goodwin, and
Mr. E. A. Waterlow, which are quite worthy of
attention. Sir Edward Burne-Jones has contri-
buted studies of draperies for his picture, The Star
of Bethlehem ; an exquisite drawing in red chalk,
called a Study of a Mead for the Virgin ; and a
portrait study in pencil of a girl's head. Professor
Herkomer is best represented by a powerful char-
coal drawing, Daphne, a preliminary statement of
the water-colour version of the same subject which
was exhibited in 1894. Mr. Clausen's sketches
are landscape notes, which are for the most part
less distinguished and less pleasing in colour than
might have been expected of him.

Of the more elaborate drawings, one of the most
notable is Mr. Abbey's illustration of the American
domestic history of the last century, a character
study to which he has given the title A Quiet
Conscience. It is a sober, strongly handled piece
of work, reserved in colour and rather heavy in
quality, but designed with fine appreciation of mass
and line composition. Mr. Weguelin's Mermaid's
Ride is also charming on account of the manner
in which he has presented in it the finer decorative
relation of flowing lines and harmonious curves;
in colour too it is agreeable, and in handling it is
fresh and expressive. Fine handling gives to Mr.
C. B. Phillip's landscape, The Frith of Lorn, a
large monumental character and a dignity of effect
which entitle it to be considered one of the best
examples of landscape in the show; and Mr. R.
W. Allan's Cromarty from the South Sutor has
something of the same quality, but is heavier in
tone and less luminous in colour.

As usual, however, the reproach must be brought
against the society that it fails to present a suffi-
cient proportion of fine figure work to give to its
exhibitions a proper balance of interest. For this
the blame must partly be laid upon the society
itself for not filling up the gaps in its ranks with
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the more able figure painters, and partly upon the
artists who, being members, refrain persistently
from exhibiting. At present the list of absentees
includes Mr. Alma-Tadema, Sir John Gilbert, Sir
Frederic Leighton, Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Poynter,
and Mr. Wainwright; while among the actual
contributors, Mr. Abbey, Mr. Walter Crane, Mr.
Carl Haag, Mr. Lamont, Mr. A. H. Marsh, and
Mr. Weguelin are represented by only one, or at
the most two, drawings of any importance. This
constant lack of balance in the exhibitions has
long been a matter for regret among lovers of
water-colour art, and must eventually destroy what-
ever influence the society may still have among
art institutions.

A "one-man show," which justified its existence
by presenting some features distinctly original and
novel, was opened last month at the Clifford Gal-
lery, in the Haymarket. It consisted of more than
a hundred pictures and sketches in oil, painted by
Mr. Percy Sturdee during a stay of four years in
Japan. For the greater part of this time the artist
lived a long way from the districts which are best
known to the European visitor, and adapted himself
as far as possible to the native mode of life. His
work, as a consequence, became not a little influ-
enced by his surroundings. It showed, when col-
lected for exhibition, a fascinating combination of
the technique of the Western schools, with the
spirit and decorative intention of Japanese art;
and, probably for this reason, expressed the peculiar
character and atmosphere of the country with a
success greater than that which has been gained by
previous illustrations of the national manners and
customs.

The first annual soiree of the Goldsmiths' In-
stitute Art School, at New Cross, was held a few
days before Christmas, in the spacious studios occu-
pied by the school. The rooms were crowded with
the students and their friends, and a succession of
entertainments, organised by the professors and
pupils, who had made themselves responsible for
the arrangements, was presented with considerable
success. The feature of the evening was a comic
lecture on "The Evolution of the Modern Poster,"
arranged by Mr. Redmayne, the secretary of the
school, and delivered by Mr. F. Marriott, the inde-
fatigable head-master. As illustrations to this, a
number of tableaux vivants, in which were vividly
presented more than a dozen of the hoarding pic-
tures with which we are all familiar, were shown on