Studio: international art (10.1897)

Studio- Talk

productions, with their exquisite elegance of manner
and dainty refinement of technique, are absolutely
modern in feeling and motive, and yet are entirely
in accord with the best traditions of the art they
represent. They are remarkable for their qualities
of draughtsmanship and for their admirable arrange-
ment of line, but they miss none of the requisites
for perfection in point work. Their subjects, too,
are eminently attractive because they are so delight-
fully human and true to nature of the most pleasing
type. Such a quaint little domestic incident as the
artist gives us in Coucou, for instance; such a scene
from the life of our times as is treated in Ellen et

sa Grandmere; such portraits of attractive girlhood
as he included in his contribution to the exhibition,
are all things to remember and enjoy. No more
effective contrast to them could be imagined than
was provided by the solemn, deeply imaginative
motives of M. Legros and his followers, Mr. Charles
Holroyd and Mr. William Strang. The weighty
line, the largeness of detail, and the curiously severe
physical types which these artists affect, make their
work akin in character to that of certain old masters.
It is a strange and uncomfortable art, but its power
is unquestionable.

The remainder of the ex-
hibition consisted almost
entirely of landscapes, and
in this section a fair amount
of really good work was in-
cluded. Mr. Oliver Hall
showed all his usual capacity
and fine sense of decorative
value in Lancaster Castle,
the Kirby Pool, and the ex-
quisitely-drawn Lancaster
Moor. Mr. D. Y. Cameron
was equally successful with A
Lowland River, in which
the composition is extremely
able, and with his manage-
ment of the tone masses in
the Lnterior of Italian Wine
Farm; Colonel Goff has
rarely done anything better
than his Deserted Quarry,
with its air of dignified soli-
tude; Mr. Alfred East
carries into his small land-
scape, On the River Somme,
much of the elegance of
manner which is the dis-
tinguishing characteristic of
his pictures ; and Mr. Alfred
Hartley, in his subject On
the Tees shows admirably
with what power he can
treat a difficult arrangement
of lines. Mr. E. W. Charl-
ton, too, is at his best in A
Sail! A Sail!; his power
of draughtsmanship is singu-
larly well displayed in his
treatment of the wrecked
'on the tees" from an etching by alfred hartley, a.r.e. ship which occupies his fore-

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