Studio: international art (14.1898)

Studio-Talk

DETAIL OF BUREAU DESIGNED BY A. WICKHAM JARVIS

bright green. The carving and gesso decoration
on them and on the arm-chair, which we also illus-
trate, is sufficient in quantity to impart an air of
richness to the work without making it unduly
ornate. As those know who have attempted it, to
design furniture at once novel, useful, and comely
is a triple effort of singular difficulty, especially if
one’s ideas of comeliness are kept to a certain
severity of style that adapts itself to its surround-
ings. We do not require a bureau or chair so
abnormally eccentric in its shape that it arrogates
to itself all the interest of the room : but things of
quiet beauty that will keep their place in the inte-
rior scheme, even as such things keep their relative
place in a well-painted picture,

There is a certain annual convention which has
to be observed in all discussions about the
Academy exhibition. Every one wants to know

whether it is better or worse than the one
that preceded it, and the popular anxiety to
be satisfied on this one point is as great as if
the whole reputation of British Art depended
year by year upon the nod of the officials of
Burlington House. Without conceding any-
thing to this fallacy, it is possible to make
comparisons that are interesting between
different Academy exhibitions, and to mark
points of difference that are worthy of atten-
tion. Certainly the show this year deserves
praise, because it includes an unusually large
proportion of work which is notable not for
sensational qualities, but for sound and ster-
ling merit. Sensationalism is practically non-
existent in the collection, and there is scarcely
a canvas hung which depends for acceptance
upon mere eccentricity. The successes are
made by work that is sometimes brilliant, but
always honest; by pictures like Mr. J. W.

ARM-CHAIR

DESIGNED BY A. WICKHAM JARVIS

SI