Studio: international art (49.1910)

Studio-Talk

exhibit there was evidence of much earnestness
and simplicity of purpose.

Mr. Archibald Browne's work was perhaps the
one strong contrast to the virility and realism
which the exhibition as a whole suggested. He
plays much and most successfully in a minor key.
In all his work there is much tenderness and
sympathy for those of Nature’s moods which best
express the impulse of his own individuality. Mr.
W. Edwin Atkinson showed ten pictures, and
while throughout there was evidence of ability to
grasp the essentials of his subject and apply
directly and simply his individuality to their inter-
pretation, there were two in which this ability was
most marked—The Golden Hour, a group of trees
against a golden sky, at once simple, direct and
pleasing, and Dutch Moonlight (below), another
note of simplicity and a successful one.

Mr. Clarence Gagnon’s work is full of that
artistic facility, that innate glow of pictorial expres-
sion, which the true artist can no more stem than

the bird can help singing. Occasionally this
facility usurps the mastership, and the result is
somewhat slight. The colour is always clear and
fresh, and there is a spontaneity and optimistic
truth which are of great use in an exhibition in
which a somewhat positive realism predominates.
Mr. Gagnon is perhaps better known up to the
present by his etchings, which have received much
deserved recognition on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mr. J. W. Morrice might surely have been better
represented. In all his work there is great facility
and mastership of colour, but there is not that
individualism and convincing power which one
surely expects from his brush. His Grand Canal
is a clever study full of fine colour values, and his
snow pictures are adroit and have much quaint
charm of subject and form. Mr. F. Brownell, of
Ottawa, showed a very clever picture, The Harvest
Field (p. 244), perhaps the finest colour scheme
in the show. The sunlight and shadow are truly
harmonised, the distance is well valued, and
though perhaps one feels the desire for a simpler
sky, yet the brooding passion of the storm is
finely impressive.

There were few portraits of figure
pictures of any kind in the exhibition,
landscape being at present the govern-
ing impulse of Canadian art endeavour.
Mr. Brymner, the President of the
Canadian Academy, showed a double
portrait of two girls which had some
measure of success, and Mr. Curtis
Williamson’s portrait of his father was
perhaps the finest piece of craftsman-
ship the exhibition produced. The
personal note was strong and resonant,
the technique masterly, and the result
showed plainly that sympathy with the
sitter’s individuality which alone can
give absolute success to a portrait.
Landscapes are also shown by Maurice
Cullen, J. L. Graham, Edmund Morris,
all of which expressed the prevailing
spirit of directness and virility. The
only sculpture shown was by Mr. Phim-
ister Proctor. Our illustration of The
Challenge on the opposite page is
typical of the excellence of his work.
In all the pieces there is a most con-
vincing dignity and truth of line and
form, and an artistically presented study
of life in its graceful and powerful
movements. Eric Brown.