Studio: international art (30.1904)

Studio-Talk

beauty which, together or separate, are the very
life of the higher forms of art, almost all were
remarkable for the virile, fresh, and vigorous way
in which they were handled. Mr. Peploe's vision
is not very subtle, and he is possessed by a perverse
taste for the ugly or the bizarre in figure and land-
scape. Some of his landscapes also, cleverly though
they are placed upon the canvas, and vividly as
they register flashing effects of light, are too
reminiscent of such painters as Sisley and Pissarro
to be quite convincing. In figure, however, if
here and there one traced, or fancied one could trace,
an influence, the observation, although unpleasing,
rather brutal and tending to caricature, was per-
sonal, direct, and vital, and it was expressed with
remarkable virtuosity and power in paint which,
while preserving to the full the bloom of direct and

premier-coup brush work, yet escaped the super-
ficiality and thinness so often associated with that
method. But, if one excepts several of the flower-
pieces, which fail through the painter's deficient
perception of beauty, the many still-lifes were the
most satisfactory, as they were the completest
things on view. Simple, but strikingly effective in
design, frank and untroubled in colour and surface,
and admirably drawn in true painter-like fashion,
with the brush and by juxtaposition of closely
observed tones, such pieces as the little Fruit
Study, the group of artist's brushes, paint tubes,
and medium bottles ; or that of a red lobster, a
yellow lemon, and a white plate, are triumphs of
executive skill, and attain a high level of excellence
in the restricted field and manner to which they
belong. J. L. C.

" A DRURY LANE ROOKERY" FROM A PENCIL DRAWING BY F. L. EMANUEL

(See London Studio- Talk)

348'