Studio: international art (10.1897)

Studio- Talk

the art of their own land. Among the collec-
tions I know from personal observation, that of
the Luxembourg in Paris forms a happy excep-
tion to the rule, including, as it does, a few
well-chosen examples of modern foreign work.
In Berlin, however, the authorities have hitherto
abstained from acquiring pictures from other
countries, as in influential art circles there has
ever been a very marked prejudice against the
" modern movement," plein air painting, and
other developments of the last few decades.
Since Professor Von Tschudi, whose evolutionary
progress (he is looked upon as an eminent judge
of Renaissance art in its widest sense) especially
qualified him for the position, was placed at the
head of our National Gallery—the depository of
nineteenth-century art—this one-sided state of
things has been completely altered. The majority
of the purchases at the last exhibition had indicated
the direction which was to be followed in the
future ; and this was still more strikingly empha-
sised by a number of acquisitions made in the
course of the year. These fresh possessions of the
National Gallery have recently been displayed to
the public in a separate room, and they are destined
to form the basis of a collection the steady develop-
ment of which is heartily to be desired.

Prominent among the new purchases are two
pictures by Constable. An extensive view over a
landscape scene reminds us of an " old" picture,
and in its technique and colouring we find traces of
the tradition of the last century. In his small
canvas, The Water Mill, the manner is broader and
more robust, the treatment of nature more modern.
Until his day no one had succeeded so well as
Constable in reproducing the characteristics of a
real, palpable landscape. Much interest attaches
also to the artist's little sketch-book, dated 1819,
the leaves of which are covered with pencil-draw-
ings and water-colour sketches. His painstaking
technique reveals a thorough perception alike of the
immediate surroundings and of the limitless space
beyond. If we consider the influence—and it can-
not be over-estimated—which Constable's art has
exercised over France and her painters, and its
effects upon the development of German landscape
painting, the acquisition of these examples of his
genius must be regarded as eminently satisfactory.

The delicate insight into Nature, as illustrated
particularly by the Glasgow school, is seen in
several new canvases, notably a large water'colour,
136

An Autumn Landscape, by Nisbet, and an excel-
lent little work by Lochhead, A Village Street—
pictures which bear the impress of distinction,
whether seen in public exhibition or in the privacy
of the home. Subdued as they are in treatment,
they attract the eye at once by comparison with
the works surrounding them, however loudly the
latter may obtrude themselves upon our notice;
for while intensely realistic, they preserve a most
harmonious ensemble. " Distinction " is the only term
—and one is compelled to employ it again and
again in writing of this school—adequately to de-
scribe the Portrait of a Lady by Lavery, in which,
with no extraneous effects whatever (the subject,
attired in plain black, is pensively resting), the
most striking results are obtained.

The modern note is still more prominent in the
pictures of the French school lately purchased. A
small Courbet—a dark mill-stream rushing down a
weir, framed in the bare rocks around—suggests,
but hardly enables one fully to realise, the master's
great power. Manet's celebrated La Serre might
well be acquired for the Gallery. The accompany-
ing illustration of it is published by the courteous
permission of Herr Spemann. It should be ob-
served that the effect of light in an enclosed space
is reproduced with strict fidelity, in all its inevitable
crudeness, and yet the harsh impression appears
artistically softened—thanks to a well-chosen ar-
rangement of colours. Of Manet's friends and
followers, one, Fantin Latour, is represented by a
striking Port7-ait of a Lady ; and another, Claude
Monet, by a river landscape, in which the water
really seems to flow and the air to quiver.

I must pass over a number of excellent works—
among them pictures by Thaulow and Zorn, Gari
Melchers, and Maris—in order to add a few words
about the sculpture, isolated examples only, but
exceedingly well chosen, such as Rodin's bust of
the sculptor Dalou, and the powerful Catilina by
Vincotte, beside Meunier's small group, The Prodi-
gal Son. The healthy realism of the first two
works, in conjunction with the exquisite sense of
style in Meunier, who on a small scale has created
a composition of intense force, will, I hope, exert a
beneficial influence upon our young artists.

Yes; assuredly these splendid creations of foreign
art must have their due effect in time ; and it only
remains for those in authority in the world of art—