Studio: international art (14.1898)

Studio-Talk

GLOVE-BOX IN BEATEN COTPER BY H. BLOOMFIELD BARE

proaches completion, gives
promise of all-round success,
and thereupon the architect,

Mr. Charles Ernest Deacon,
and his clients too, may
well be congratulated.

Beyond the very workable
plan, well adapted to the
site, both exterior and
interior architectural
features are designed with
decided character and dis-
tinction. The metal work,
lead glazing, fittings and
furniture are in such happy
accord with the colour
decoration of walls and ceilings, and all so well
subordinated to the general design, that nothing
appears to disturb the harmony of the whole effect.
I hope to refer again to this work, with suitable
illustrations from the building.

In redecorating the interior of the Town Hall,
the Municipal Council has decided to obtain de-
signs for the colour scheme from Professor F. M.
Simpson, Director of the School of Architecture
and Applied Art at University College. This is
a step in the right direction, for the haphazard
treatment of some of Liverpool’s finest public
buildings by the hands of the painting and deco-
rating firms has not hitherto given entire satisfac-
tion.

General regret is expressed by the students at
the decision of Mr. R. Anning Bell to retire from
the direction of the Decorative Painting Studio at
the above-mentioned school. His entire sympathy
with the needs and aspirations of the students and
his generous services to one and all have been fully
appreciated by them. Mr. J. H. McNair, of
Glasgow, is to succeed Mr. Anning Bell, and to
take sole charge of the design work of the school
(other than the architectural), and Mr. Herbert
P. M. Jackson will be mainly responsible for the
drawing and painting classes.

The admirers of William Blake, poet-artist, will
rejoice at the recent finding of over five hundred
of his most characteristic drawings which had been
stowed away and almost forgotten in a London
house, but now come into the possession of Mr.
Edward Howell, bookseller, Liverpool. These
comprise the original designs to “ Young’s Night
Thoughts.” The author’s own copy of the text with

autograph corrections, quarto, 1743, was inlaid
and extended to atlas folio size in two volumes.
Young’s publisher, Richard Edwards, of High
Elms, commissioned Blake to make these designs,
which surround the text to the full size of the
pages and display the fullest variety of his imagina-
tive genius. The work is said to have occupied
Blake two years in its completion ; it has been ably
criticised by Mr. F. J. Shields in “ Descriptive
Notes of the Designs to ‘ Young’sNight Thoughts,”’
incorporated in Gilchrist’s “ Life of William
Blake,” vol. ii. pages 289-307. The drawings,
executed principally in brush outline and water-
colour upon cartridge paper, have retained their
freshness to a remarkable degree. H. B. B.

BIRMINGHAM.—The thirty-third spring
exhibition of the Royal Birmingham
Society of Artists, which was neither
better nor worse than its immediate
predecessors, contained some very
interesting work. There was a time when the
spring exhibitions were devoted almost entirely
to water-colour drawings, but this is no longer
the custom. The exhibition contained a certain
number of pictures from last year’s London shows,
and one or two “ special features,” such as a small
collection of works by the president of the society,
Sir Edward Poynter, including The Catapult; a
brilliant series of paintings and studies by a young
Dutch artist, P. de Josselin de Jong; several can-
vases by Jean G. Rosier; and a collection of
somewhat indifferent miniatures. There was a very
lovely drawing of a Chalk Pit by Mr. J. Aumonier,
and among the local water-colour artists who stood
out well to the front were Messrs. Gabriel Mitchell,
Oliver Baker, and Fred Mercer. Other good work
was exhibited by Messrs. Walter Langley, C. M.

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