Studio: international art (47.1909)

Arthur Street on

Australia to England has, indeed, been as marked
as it has been interesting. Directly he came to
London he began quite perceptibly to feel the
influence of the stylists in painting, and under this
influence he became conscious that he possessed
decorative instincts which as yet he had hardly
attempted to develop. So upon his robust
actuality he grafted in a very individual way
refinements and subtleties of expression which
increased the delicacy and charm of his work
without diminishing its power. He gave more
attention to the adjustment of the details of his
design and to the working out of a consistent
scheme of pictorial arrangement, and he learned
more surely the value of intelligent suggestion
in his transcription of nature’s facts. He added,
in fact, to his art just that touch of restraint and
just those qualities of
orderly contrivance
which were necessary to
make its vitality fully
effective, and to give to
its masculine originality
the right degree of
aesthetic interest.

For the last ten years
there has been no inter-
mission in this process of
development, and there
has been no pause in
Mr. Streeton’s progress
towards that position in
the front rank of British
artists to which he is
entitled by virtue of his
unusual ability. He
has matured steadily,
thoughtfully, and with
a sense of responsibility
that deserves admiration;
and he has acquired a
complete control over
his resources without
sacrificing any of those
essential characteristics
which have from the
first accounted for the
attractiveness and the
unusual distinction of
his achievement. He has
exhibited much at the
Academy, the New Gal-
lery, and many other
galleries in this country

and abroad, and his work has always more than
held its own wherever it has been shown. In 1906
he went out to Australia and had exhibitions of
his pictures at Melbourne and Sydney, in both
of which cities he was welcomed with enthusiasm
and received the most practical proof of the
opinion that was held there of his powers.
Several of his paintings were purchased for the
art galleries of the different states, and he had a
host of private buyers besides.

He returned to London at the end of 1907,
and, in January 1908, was married to Miss Nora
Clench, the well-known violinist, and shortly after
he went for some months to Venice, where he
painted a series of pictures which are in many
respects the most important he has as yet produced.
It is decidedly instructive to compare these

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