Studio: international art (46.1909)

Reviews and Notices

Miss Edith M. Bennett, Mr. Robert J. Swan, and
Mr. Leonard Wingate, and London County Council
Scholarships were awarded to Miss Enid Ledward,
Mr. G. F. Rhead, Mr. Stanley W. Hogbin and
Mr. John S. Wood. Local and Council prizes, in
addition to those already mentioned, were gained
by Mr. Frederick Byrne, Mr. Leonard Wingate,
Miss Constance Lang, Mr. W. H. Broad, Miss
Elsie Redsull, Mr. Walton Burridge, Miss Lena
Priestley, Mr. Reginald E. Clark, and Miss Fannie
Newnham. Two students, Miss Edith M. Bennett
and Mr. Robert J. Swan, passed the entrance
examination to the Royal Academy schools.

The Gilbert-Garret Sketch Club held an exhibi-
tion last month in the club room in Great Ormond
Street, which is said to have been used formerly by
Toole as a rehearsal room. The club is respon-
sible for the arrangement of the annual Gilbert-
Garret sketch competition in which most of the
London students’ clubs take part, and several
works that had figured in recent competitions were
to be seen upon the walls. Of the more ambitious
studies Mr. J. McWilson’s oil picture in a grey-blue
key of a river nymph standing in shallow water,
and the clever painting by Mr. Vernon Pearce of a
lady in outdoor dress, were the most notable. The
landscapes included a sympathetic study of Trees
and Sunshine by Mr. J. Allister Heir; Saltings,
Rye, by Mr. F. Grey, in which the recession of the
flat country was capitally suggested, and good
sketches by Mr. A. H. Webb and Mr. Charles
Ince. W. T. W.

MELBOURNE.—Great interest centred
in the Melbourne National Gallery
Students’ exhibition this year from the
fact that the triennial travelling scholar-
ship of ^150 per annum was to be awarded.
The leading students were Miss Constance
Jenkins, Miss Cumbrae Stewart and Mr. Wm.
MTnnes, and the award fell to the first-named
student for her picture entitled Friendly Critics.
This is the first time the travelling scholarship has
ever fallen to a lady competitor, and Miss Jenkins
is to be congratulated on the fact. This year
students have been allowed to select their own sub-
jects, whereas in previous years they had to paint
to fit a set title. Miss Stewart’s work also deserves
honourable mention. The life class work of the
painting school was of an unusually high standard,
but in the black-and-white section a slight falling
off was noticeable. Mr. MTnnes and Mr. Lorimer
were the chief exponents of this medium. J. S.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

John Pettie, R.A., H.R.S.A. By Martin
Hardie. (London: Adam & Charles Black.) 20s.
net.—Fifteen years after Pettie’s death, this mono-
graph on one of the most distinguished of nineteenth-
century Scottish artists appears. The lapse of
time has undoubtedly placed difficulties in the
author’s way in dwelling much on the personal
note, but enough has been stated to give the
reader some conception of the bright and breezy,
energetic and warm-hearted character of one who,
in addition to being a great painter, was in many
respects atypical Scot. The incidents of the early
life at East Linton and in Edinburgh, when, in
conjunction with Orchardson, Chalmers, and
McTaggart, the first steps were on the ladder that
was to carry each of them to fame, will be read with
great interest. The writer tells an amusing story
of Pettie and McTaggart obtaining the permission
of the Artillery Officer at Edinburgh Castle Half
Moon Battery to help fire the Royal Salute on the
day of the i860 review of Volunteers in Holyrood
Park, a review which formed the subject of one of
Sam Bough’s famous paintings. Mr. Hardie has
also a story to tell about the painting of the cele-
brated portrait of Mr. Campbell Noble in Noble’s
studio at Coldingham, and there are various other
interesting incidents recorded which help to an
understanding of the man. When the author
writes of his uncle’s work as an artist, he does so
with a commendable personal detachment. The
book is profusely illustrated by reproductions in
colour of almost all of Pettie’s principal pictures,
and the catalogue of his works is not the least
valuable portion of the volume. It shows that
Pettie was an indefatigable worker, not a year
passing, from i860 till his death, without the pro-
duction of several important subject pictures in
addition to portraiture and other work.

Dutch Art in the Nineteenth Century. By
Hermine Marius. Translated by Alexander
Teixeira De Mattos. (London: The De La
More Press.) 15x.net. The Art of the Netherlands
Galleries. By David C. Preyer. (George Bell
& Sons.) 6s. net. Great Masters of Dutch and
Flemish Painting. By W. Bode. Translated by
Margaret L. Clarke. (Duckworth & Co.)

7x. 6d. net.—That three good books on Dutch
painting should appear simultaneously—each, it
is to be feared, to the detriment of the other
two—-is a striking illustration of the keen com-
petition in the literary market. Of these the
best is perhaps the one from the pen of Hermine

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