Studio: international art (21.1901)

Studio-Talk

The French Government has purchased from
Mr. Alfred East, A.R.A., an admirable picture
entitled A Passing Storm. This act of the French
Government, when viewed in conjunction with
others like it, is something more than a gracious
compliment paid to a man of genius. It is also a
most welcome evidence of that international good-
will which the arts, both old and new, foster to-
day, notwithstanding the rivalries of commerce
and of polities.

We are able to give this month an illustration of
Mr. Frampton's completed design for the patriotic
bronze medal with which the Corporation of the
City of London intends to commemorate the City
Imperial Volunteers. On the obverse side heralds
call the men to arms, and a seated female figure,
emblematical of militant London, gives the freedom
of the City to a Volunteer equipped for active
service in South Africa. Around this female
figure, as a symbol of strength and endurance, the
designer has placed a bough of English oak. On

the reverse side, guarded by guns, and nailed to
a tall staff, the C.I.V. flag and the Union Jack fly
together above a hill; while the sun, just risen,
throws his light equally on all sides—an emblem of
that temperate, even-handed justice and freedom
which alone can give both the strength and the pride
of unity to a vast empire divided by the seas into far-
scattered repetitions of the Mother-country. Mr.
Frampton, again, in the hill surrounded by oak
saplings, has symbolised one other thing, namely,
the seeming inevitableness of growth in the new
territories added to such an Empire. Below all is
an inscription :—"The City of London Imperial
Volunteers, raised and equipped for the War in
South Africa by the citizens of London. Formed
December, 1899; returned to London, October,
1900."

Mr. Jahn's challenge trophy, illustrated on
page 262, was made last summer for the committee
of the Wolverhampton Floral Fete, one of the
three most important flower shows in Great Britain.