Studio: international art (49.1910)

A rt School Notes

corrected careless pupils who had no respect for
the material in which they worked. The old men,
said Sir Charles, were masters of their materials,
and were in this respect far more accomplished
than modern artists. Speaking as a painter he
cautioned the students to work systematically and
carefully in oil, and not to be misled by the state-
ment so commonly and confidently made that oil
is easier than water-colour, because in the stronger
medium the artist can conceal any errors beneath
a fresh coat of paint. Sir Charles assured them
that it is really easier to make corrections in water-
colour than in oil, and described how David Cox
proved this by washing out the foreground of a
landscape so completely that he was able to reverse
the drawing and paint the sky where the foreground
had been.

After urging the students constantly to practise
drawing the human figure, as the only thing that
could give them a true sense of proportion, Sir
Charles commented on the presence of fashion-
plate drawings among the works shown on the
walls ; and to the amusement of the audience sug-
gested that even to the fashion artist some know-
ledge of the human figure might not come amiss.
However, he expressed his satisfaction that fashion
drawing was studied at the Royal Female School
of Art, and as examples of what might be achieved
in this direction produced from a portfolio some of
the artistic fashion-plates of the earlier years of the
nineteenth century. It is, by the way, probable
that some of these plates were drawn by one of
Sir Chatles Holroyd’s predecessors at the National
Gallery, Thomas Uwins, R.A. This artist, who
was Keeper of the National Gallery in the fifties,
drew for several years the fashion-plates in
Ackermann’s “Repository of Arts.” Sir Charles
Holroyd concluded his address by complimenting
Miss Rose Welby and her staff on the success of her
pupils, some of whose works he criticised individu-
ally. The King’s Gold Medal was gained by Miss
Winifred Wight, the Queen’s Scholarship of ^50
by Miss Jane S. Blaikley, and the William Atkinson
Scholarship by Miss A. Dorothy Cohen. In the
National Art Competition medals were gained by
Miss Winifred L. Fison and Miss A. Dorothy Cohen.
Full Teachers’ Certificates were awarded to Miss
Hilda M. Knight, Miss Jessie Jacob, and Miss
Georgina C. Levie ; and local prizes to Miss J. S.
Blaikley, Miss Brenda Hughes, Miss Edith Livesay,
Miss Jessie Humby, Miss Barbara Spurr, Miss
Winifred Fison, Miss Muriel Luke, Miss A. Dorothy
Cohen and Miss Winifred Marchant.

164

Mr. Ernest A. Cole, the young art student
whose admission to membership of the exclusive
Society of Twelve has lately attracted much atten-
tion to his work, was trained almost entirely in the
art school directed by Mr. Frederick Marriott, at
the Goldsmiths’ College, New Cross. Mr. Cole, who
is only nineteen, came to the Goldsmiths’ College
in 1905 with a London County Council Scholar-
ship, gained at an evening continuation school at
Hither Green, and has studied there since, except
for one session spent at Blackheath School of Art,
preparing for an art teacher’s certificate. His
drawings and models were prominent features of
the exhibition of students’ work held at the Central
School of Arts and Crafts last summer, and Mr.
Charles Ricketts, who was one of the judges on
that occasion, was quick to appreciate the promise
of the youthful artist. Modelling rather than
drawing has hitherto been Mr. Cole’s principal
study, and at the last National Art Competition he
gained a silver medal for modelling from the nude.

In the retrospective exhibition of the Polytechnic
(Regent Street) Sketch Club some excellent work
was shown in the Past Members’ Section. Among
the best things were the landscapes of Mr. W. T.
Wood, Miss Katherine Clausen, Mr. Tobias Lewis
and Mr. John C. Moody ; the pastorals by Miss
Dorothea Sharp, the lithographs by Mr. Spencer
l’ryse, Mr. Edwin Noble’s animal studies, a portrait
by Mr. E. A. Widdas, and illustrations by Mr.
F. Carter and Mr. H. Rowntree. One of Mr.
Tobias Lewis’s oil sketches was a study for the
picture with which he gained the Turner Medal
at the Royal Academy in December. W. T. W.

DUBLIN.—For some time past there has
been a decided increase in the amount
of interest displayed in Ireland on the
part of the general public in the
artistic development of the country, and to this
fact is due in large measure the success which
attended the first exhibition organized by students
of the Metropolitan School of Art. Limited to the
present students and those who had received their
training in Kildare Street during the past ten years,
this exhibition, held in January, provided a much
needed opportunity for the younger generation of
Irish artists, and so successful was the venture
that the event is likely to become an annual fixture.
The standard of the work was remarkably high
for an initial undertaking, and considerable taste
was evident in the hanging of the pictures and the
general arrangement of the exhibits, which included