Studio: international art (30.1904)

The London Sketch Club

by a breadth of style and sumptuousness of colour, the skyline, and again the raging, pitiless waves lash-
his landscapes are always essentially refined and ing despair over some hopeless shipwreck; Tatton
full of quiet repose. Mr. Fowler is one of the Winter, R.B.A., and his truthful studies of
most earnest members of the club. the Surrey Commons. But one could go on

To speak of Phil May in connection with the into interminable space in making mention of
active workers of the club is unnecessary for the workers at the club. There are the dis-
he rarely, if ever, joined the happy party except tinctly humorous artists, such as Starr Wood
at the annual dinner, at which times he was as with his inimitable caricatures of his friends,
great a part of the show as the entertainers them- as well as of himself; Lance Thackeray, R.B.A.,
selves. If he had only come to the weekly sketch- as clever with colours as he is with pen and
ing parties he would easily have won his share of ink; Lawson Wood, with his extraordinary genius
the honours, for everyone knows his marvellous for the prehistoric gentry; and Thorpe, and
talent, but he did not come, so I have nothing fresh Rene Bull, and Frank Reynolds, and Alaster Mac-
to tell of him. But I feel my space is going, and donald and many others. But my space is fast
I have only just begun to talk of the men. There shortening, and I must give a little peep into the
is Tom Browne, R.I., R.B.A., who has lately left Bohemia of the club, for these clever artists are quite
off his captivating Spanish studies to give us his as quick at tomfoolery as they are at their sketches;
view of Dutch boys in voluminous trousers and and the tales of the jollifications at the London
wooden shoes. His hold on the public equals Sketch Club are most weirdly fascinating. Let us
that of Aldin, and no matter what he does, relate some.

he is always direct and sure, and thoroughly It is at the Friday evening suppers, when the
himself. Lee Hankey, R.I., is well known for cares of the day are put well into the background,
the charm of his persuasively grace-
ful outdoor figurework, particularly
where the subject includes children.
Mr. Hankey handles his landscapes
with skill and refinement, and his
sense of colour is always poetic.
Then there is Montague Smythe,
one of the most artistically refined
of men, who does exquisite land-
scapes after the modern Dutch
School, bits of delicate colour most
alluring in their reposeful, tender
grays ; and Hugh Thomson, with
his eighteenth-century youths and
maidens, as dainty, as full of
romance as some fragrant memory
from the past; Shepperson's poetic
figure-work, so deliciously influenced
by Fred Walker; F. Newton Shepard's
delightfully decorative water-colour
work of children, with their lis-
some figures and wind-blown hair ;
Reginald Jones, with his wonderful
sense of quality in water-colours, whose
autumn effects hold a wealth of
splendour, snatched from hill and
woodland; Giffard Lenfesty, R.B.A.,
with his quietly-dignified and highly-
refined landscapes, low-toned and
wholly restful; Charles Dixon, R.I.,
with his surprising contrasts in wide
stretches of sea, rippling lazily to meet "a fish sale" by Dudley hardy