DOI Heft:
No. 123 (June, 1903)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The spring exhibitions - The Royal Academy
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19879#0059
The Spring Exhibitions
THE SPRING EXHIBITIONS.— Joshua Reynolds, and perhaps Sir E. J. Poynter's
THE ROYAL ACADEMY. BY The Cave of the Storm Nymphs; such landscapes
A L BALDRY ' as ^ Waterloo's Warkworth Castle, Mr
David Murray's The Orwell from Wolverstone
Though the present exhibition at Burlington Park,Mr. J. Aumonier's Herefordshire Common, Mr.
House does not include many pictures which La Thangue's Moiving Bracken, Mr. East's Morn-
can honestly be called great, it is, on the ing in a Berkshire Meadow and Tintem, and Mr.
whole, a reasonably interesting show. There is in David Farquharson's Winter; and such portraits
it plenty of evidence of honest endeavour, and of as Professor von Herkomer's Sir Herman Weber,
serious, if somewhat uninspired, effort. Quite a Mr. J. J. Shannon's Miss Dulcie Laurence-Smith,
number of the contributors have sent works which Sir George Reid's Lord Mount-Step hen, Mr. C. W.
prove that they have thoroughly mastered the Purse's group The Return from the Bide, Mr. G.
principles of craftsmanship, and that they know Spencer Watson's The Earl of Leitrim, the late
how to manage the technical side of their art. Walter Osborne's Sir Frederick Falkiner, K. C, and
What is wanting is a touch of inspiration, of ex- J. S. Sargent's G. McCorquodale, Esq., give the
travagance even, which would wake the exhibition Academy of 1903 some claim to be remembered,
from its condition of dull respectability. It is not They are really fine achievements which would
good that our painters should go on plodding year do credit to a far more remarkable show,
by year in the same narrow
path, without caring to look
about for new fields in which
to exercise their capacities.
Their very skill will be a
source of trouble to them if
they get into the habit of
doing without fresh ideas, for
it will give them a fatal facility
in dealing with commonplaces,
and will lead them into that
easy accomplishment in certain
branches of practice which kills
the desire to strive for greater
things.
However, as the collection
presumably summarises the
present-day tendencies of our
school there is little use in
speculating as to what it might
be under different conditions.
It must suffice to accept what
is presented, with all faults and
deficiencies, and to feel a
measure of gratitude to the
Fates which have permitted so
much that is artistically com-
petent to be gathered in the
galleries, despite the distracting
influences now affecting the
art world. Such pictures as
Mr. J. W. Waterhouse's Echo
and Narcissus, Windflowers,
and Psyche opening the Golden
Box, Mr. Orchardson's Mrs.
Siddons in the Studio of Sir vice-admiral sir john fisher by a. s. cope, a.r.a.
42
THE SPRING EXHIBITIONS.— Joshua Reynolds, and perhaps Sir E. J. Poynter's
THE ROYAL ACADEMY. BY The Cave of the Storm Nymphs; such landscapes
A L BALDRY ' as ^ Waterloo's Warkworth Castle, Mr
David Murray's The Orwell from Wolverstone
Though the present exhibition at Burlington Park,Mr. J. Aumonier's Herefordshire Common, Mr.
House does not include many pictures which La Thangue's Moiving Bracken, Mr. East's Morn-
can honestly be called great, it is, on the ing in a Berkshire Meadow and Tintem, and Mr.
whole, a reasonably interesting show. There is in David Farquharson's Winter; and such portraits
it plenty of evidence of honest endeavour, and of as Professor von Herkomer's Sir Herman Weber,
serious, if somewhat uninspired, effort. Quite a Mr. J. J. Shannon's Miss Dulcie Laurence-Smith,
number of the contributors have sent works which Sir George Reid's Lord Mount-Step hen, Mr. C. W.
prove that they have thoroughly mastered the Purse's group The Return from the Bide, Mr. G.
principles of craftsmanship, and that they know Spencer Watson's The Earl of Leitrim, the late
how to manage the technical side of their art. Walter Osborne's Sir Frederick Falkiner, K. C, and
What is wanting is a touch of inspiration, of ex- J. S. Sargent's G. McCorquodale, Esq., give the
travagance even, which would wake the exhibition Academy of 1903 some claim to be remembered,
from its condition of dull respectability. It is not They are really fine achievements which would
good that our painters should go on plodding year do credit to a far more remarkable show,
by year in the same narrow
path, without caring to look
about for new fields in which
to exercise their capacities.
Their very skill will be a
source of trouble to them if
they get into the habit of
doing without fresh ideas, for
it will give them a fatal facility
in dealing with commonplaces,
and will lead them into that
easy accomplishment in certain
branches of practice which kills
the desire to strive for greater
things.
However, as the collection
presumably summarises the
present-day tendencies of our
school there is little use in
speculating as to what it might
be under different conditions.
It must suffice to accept what
is presented, with all faults and
deficiencies, and to feel a
measure of gratitude to the
Fates which have permitted so
much that is artistically com-
petent to be gathered in the
galleries, despite the distracting
influences now affecting the
art world. Such pictures as
Mr. J. W. Waterhouse's Echo
and Narcissus, Windflowers,
and Psyche opening the Golden
Box, Mr. Orchardson's Mrs.
Siddons in the Studio of Sir vice-admiral sir john fisher by a. s. cope, a.r.a.
42