DOI issue:
No. 184 (July 1912)
DOI article:Wood, T. Martin: The New English Art Club's exhibition
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20778#0160
The New English Art Chib
family, is of course remarkable. It is a real
interior; behind the frame space is suggested—
more space than the great Dutch interior painters
could suggest. So actual is this part of the
creation that the little figures almost seem to
have air to breathe within the frame. But they
are not living as the Dutchmen’s figures are living.
The impulse towards tenderness in painting a baby-
child’s face is especially missing from the child
near the edge of the frame, though vivacity the
face has of a kind. But scarcely any of the faces
show the intimate touch of sympathy which the
painter extends to the reflections in the candelabra
and the glass of the picture frames. How naturally
Hogarth would have engaged the gestures of these
children and their expressions in the unconscious
little drama ! But his background would have been
as a drop-scene compared with the light, and the
subtleties of its reflection, shown in Mr. Orpen’s
painting.
The New English Club are partial to interiors and
to light streaming through the windows, and besides
Mr. Orpen’s work we have chiefly Professor F.
Brown’s An Interior, Mr. Tonks’ Temptatio?i, Mr.
David Muirhead’s In a Studio, and A Spring
Morning by A. Stuart Boyd; La Chambre sur la
Cour, by Miss Gwen John ; Mr. C. Stabb’s The
Crumpled Dress, Miss C. Atwood’s A Law Court,
A Girl Rubbing a Wardrobe, by Fairlie Harmer,
but of more importance than any of these, Mr.
Wilson Steer’s The Morning Room. In this
picture he has painted a figure between two
window lights, and further back in the room
a green jar rests on a table where the light is
more stable, strengthening and intensifying the
character of the beauty of the picture. We
are glad of this still corner, for the impression
given by a canvas entirely flooded by a transitional
effect of light is often unsatisfying, not altogether
dissimilar to that provoked by the stillness which
family, is of course remarkable. It is a real
interior; behind the frame space is suggested—
more space than the great Dutch interior painters
could suggest. So actual is this part of the
creation that the little figures almost seem to
have air to breathe within the frame. But they
are not living as the Dutchmen’s figures are living.
The impulse towards tenderness in painting a baby-
child’s face is especially missing from the child
near the edge of the frame, though vivacity the
face has of a kind. But scarcely any of the faces
show the intimate touch of sympathy which the
painter extends to the reflections in the candelabra
and the glass of the picture frames. How naturally
Hogarth would have engaged the gestures of these
children and their expressions in the unconscious
little drama ! But his background would have been
as a drop-scene compared with the light, and the
subtleties of its reflection, shown in Mr. Orpen’s
painting.
The New English Club are partial to interiors and
to light streaming through the windows, and besides
Mr. Orpen’s work we have chiefly Professor F.
Brown’s An Interior, Mr. Tonks’ Temptatio?i, Mr.
David Muirhead’s In a Studio, and A Spring
Morning by A. Stuart Boyd; La Chambre sur la
Cour, by Miss Gwen John ; Mr. C. Stabb’s The
Crumpled Dress, Miss C. Atwood’s A Law Court,
A Girl Rubbing a Wardrobe, by Fairlie Harmer,
but of more importance than any of these, Mr.
Wilson Steer’s The Morning Room. In this
picture he has painted a figure between two
window lights, and further back in the room
a green jar rests on a table where the light is
more stable, strengthening and intensifying the
character of the beauty of the picture. We
are glad of this still corner, for the impression
given by a canvas entirely flooded by a transitional
effect of light is often unsatisfying, not altogether
dissimilar to that provoked by the stillness which