Studio: international art (41.1907)

The New Gallery

statuettes. From outside notable contributions are
made by Messrs. Lanteri, Furse, Mackennal, Bayes,
Derwent Wood, Conrad Dressier, Lynn Jenkins,
Spicer Simpson, Gotto, Taubman, and Reynolds-
Stephens, whose Guinevere's Redeeming was re-
produced in these pages two years ago.

THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY.

The Spring Number of The Studio is espe-
cially opportune at the present time, when public
attention is directed to Scottish art by the develop-
ments which are taking place in connection with
the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal
Scottish Academy. Mr. A. L. Baldry has care-
fully and fully described the growth and de-
velopment of the Academy from its early struggles
down to the present day, when it stands as one of
the most important and flourishing art institutions
in Great Britain. The volume contains some
portraits of prominent artists, and interesting fac-
simile autograph letters, but its most attractive
feature is the splendid series of forty reproductions
in facsimile colours made direct from original works
by distinguished artists who have been connected
with the Academy.

THE BROTHERS MARIS—JAMES,
MATTHEW, WILLIAM.

The Summer Number of The Studio will
be ready in a few days, and the subject "The
Brothers Maris " is one which will appeal to all who
are interested in the higher forms of modern painting.
James Maris is universally accepted as one of the
most accomplished landscapists the last century
produced, and in the rendering of atmospheric
effects had no equal since Constable; while
Matthew Maris is held by many to be the greatest
artist living at the present time. The public have
always shown a strong desire to obtain any in-
formation regarding this extremely individual
painter whose personality seems to be shrouded
in mystery. The writer, Mr. D. Croal Thomson
(author of "The Barbizon School," etc., etc.), has
enjoyed exceptional facilities for obtaining direct
from the master himself most interesting details of
his career, and the volume will afford a unique
opportunity of studying every phase of his subtle
art. It will contain numerous illustrations in fac-
simile colours, photogravure, and other processes,
of important examples by each artist, and a facsimile
reproduction, personally supervised by the artist,
of a study by Matthew Maris, will be amongst the
most attractive features of the book, one of the
most distinguished and interesting publications ever
issued by The Studio.

5°

The;;twentieth summer
exhibition of the new
gallery.

Although there is in the New Gallery this
year a very fair proportion of works which are
well worth attention, the show as a whole has less
than its usual interest. It suffers from that general
ineffectiveness which for some time past has been
perceptible in most of the larger exhibitions, and it
is wanting in freshness and originality. The good
things in the collection come almost entirely from
men who have accustomed us to expect good work
from them, and who keep well up to the average
of their accomplishment in previous years; what is
lacking is new work by men who are not already
established institutions, or who, being well esta-
blished as exponents of one type of performance,
have been inspired to attempt something quite out
of their usual direction. In the comparatively recent
past the New Gallery was a place where surprises
could be expected, where things not ordinarily seen
elsewhere had a way of appearing; and now that
the gallery has taken upon itself an atmosphere
that differs hardly at all from that which habitually
pervades the other places where modern pictures
and sculpture are exhibited, it seems to have fallen
a victim, as they have, to a kind of sleeping sick-
ness. The whole of modern art is affected by this
somnolence, and a drowsy inclination to let things
stay as they are is one of the most disappointing
peculiarities of the artists of the present day.

But perhaps it is a little unreasonable to expect
anything else while the condition of the modern
art market remains so depressed, and while art
patronage continues to be directed by neither
taste nor common sense. Artists can hardly
help being dull when the people who should
encourage them are occupied in a sort of gamble
in speculative old masters. So long as buyers
would rather spend their money upon questionable
canvases in a condition of decay than upon good
modern works which are too obviously authentic
to be exciting, and so long as patronage is con-
ducted on Stock Exchange lines, the opportunities
offered to workers who have the misfortune to be
alive will be inevitably scanty, and will assuredly
not be such as to induce them to break new
ground. On the whole it would seem that we
ought to be thankful that the exhibition is no
worse; there are some thoroughly sound and
sincere productions in it, and with these we must
be content.

Among the portraits, the one branch of painting