Studio: international art (48.1910)

Art School Notes

colossal figure of tragic fate exist in the low violet-
blue tone of evening with the same degree of
reality as though seen in bright sunlight. The
subject, sombre in its suggestion, depends not at
all upon the particular facial expression of any
figure, or upon any particular incident. The
spirit of the thing wholly relied upon the line and
colour masses of the composition.

It was a strange conceit of the artist to conceive
the figure of the Tragic as well as the Comic Muse
on the opposite panel in gigantic size. Did he
wish to convey that the character of even the
greatest plays are mere figures in comparison to
the human joys and sorrows that created them !
As the songbird his mate, so does the youth
ensconced in the branches of the tree, enthral the
three listening maidens. To each one does his
song appeal in a different fashion : the one listens
in dreamy rapture, the other in passionate longing,
while the heart of the third is wrung in secret pain.
The apple-tree blooms—spring sunshine laughs—
love is born. This sentiment is carried out in the
colour scheme by greens and pearly greys, and
pale blues. The reddish hair of one of the figures
has been most cleverly used as a decisive colour
note in the composition.

The third panel, entitled The Quest of Beauty,
is over the proscenium, and furnishes the comple-
mentary note to the other two. S. H.

ART SCHOOL NOTES.

LONDON.—Mr. J. S. Sargent, R.A., will
act as Visitor in the School of Drawing
at the Royal Academy from November
22 nd to the end of the term. Mr. Alfred
Drury, A.R.A., will act in a similar capacity in the
School of Sculpture, and Sir Aston Webb, R.A., in
the School of Architecture. A substitute will have
to be found, unfortunately, in the School of Paint-
ing, in the place of the ate Mr. E. J. Gregory,
R.A., whose name was down as Visitor for the same
period. All the paintings, models, drawings and
designs for the gold medals and other prizes were
sent in on the 6th inst, and the competitors must
now possess their souls in patience until the even-
ing of the 10th of December, when the names
of the winners will be read out in the Third
Gallery at Burlington House in the presence of
the Academicians and students and the large
audience that never fails to attend on these
occasions.

Professor Church, F.R.S., in the address with
which he commenced the series of winter lectures
at the Royal Academy on the chemistry of artists
materials, mentioned two or three books on tech-
nical subjects that he thought might be of interest
to the student. He commended in particular for
its information on paints, mediums and so forth
Professor Ostwald's book, known in its English
translation (published in America) as " Letters to
a Painter." The writer is an eminent German
chemist, who, having retired from the practice of
his profession, now devotes himself to the study of
the materials used by artists. Other books men-
tioned by Professor Church were Prof. Holmes's
" Notes on the Science of Picture Making" and
"Fresco-Painting: Its Art and Technique," by
Mr. James Ward, who assisted Leighton in the
execution of the South Kensington lunettes illus-
trating the Arts of Peace and War. The Professor,
in commenting on Mr. Ward's book, said that it
cited a picture painted forty years ago by Leighton
in a church at Dulwich, and now in excellent con-
dition, as an example of the stability of fresco.
This, however, was misleading. Some years ago the
advice of Professor Church was asked about this
very fresco. The surface was scaling off, and it was
only the treatment applied by the Professor that
saved the picture and restored it to something like
its original condition. The peculiar quality of the
ground of the fresco, which had called forth the
admiration of Mr. Ward, was due entirely to Pro-
fessor Church's treatment. In his lecture at the
Academy Professor Church discussed most of the
grounds and fabrics upon which pictures are
painted, including plaster, canvas, paper and wood.
He impressed upon the students the absolute
necessity of protecting the backs of pictures as
well as the front, and told them how this could be
done, and also how to restore the white ground of
canvases that had become darkened by exposure
to the impurities of London air.

The Royal Academy Professor of Chemistry
has instructed a whole generation of painters in
the composition of their materials, for it is exactly
thirty years since he began to lecture to the
students at Burlington House. Professor Church,
who himself practises the arts—he has several
times exhibited at the Royal Academy—has
enjoyed the friendship of many artists, notably of
Leighton, who, careful student that he was, con-
stantly consulted the chemist about colours and
mediums. When Leighton was about to begin
his picture at the Royal Exchange, the first of the

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