Studio: international art (51.1911)

Studio-Talk

Mr. A. Carruthers Gould ; Lincoln from the Fens,
by Mr. A. W. Rich ; The Sea Shore, by Mr. Fred
Mayor; Port7-ait Study, by Mr. A. Rothenstein;
and A Cornish Farm, by Mr. Charles Stabb.

We have received from Messrs. W. Marchant
& Co., proprietors of the Goupil Gallery in Regent
Street, a printed circular in which they protest
against the action of the Imperial Arts League,
recently formed “ to promote personal intercourse
between artists and others interested in art,”
in refusing to admit to membership their principal,
Mr. William Marchant, who it appears had been
invited to assist in forming the League and had
already become a Foundation Member. They
state that he was subsequently excluded in pursu-
ance of a rule which, while declaring that all
British artists and “all lovers of art” shall be quali-
fied for membership, goes on to disqualify “ all
persons engaged for profit in the business of selling,
buying, or valuing works of art, or reproductions
thereof, other than their own works, or reproduc-
tions of their own works,” etc. As a protest against
the attitude of the League towards dealers as a
class, Messrs. Marchant & Co. have intimated that
they will henceforth refuse to members of the
League the facilities of exhibition and of sale at
the Goupil Gallery, which, as every one knows, has
hitherto been intimately identified with the pro-

gressive elements in modern art. It is, of course,
for the League to regulate their own policy in the
matter of membership, but it can hardly have
escaped the framers of the rules that the one we
have quoted was bound to give rise to some resent-
ment, as seeming to impute to picture dealers
among others a purely mercenary interest in art—
for it is clear that they are not regarded as “ lovers
of art.” We understand, however, that the rule as
at present framed was objected to by some of the
members, and that it is likely to be modified.

But for the anxiety which Mr. R. Anning Bell
sometimes shows to compromise with the great
British public, he might be spoken of as certainly
one of the significant figures in the art history of
the present time. But, anyhow, Mr. Anning Bell
has the characteristic that was Titian’s : that with
the advance of his years his art continues ad-
vancing to something more profound and free.
Found, The Great Cloud, The Three Marys at the
Sepulchre, these three panels, shown with water-
colours at the Leicester Gallery, testify to this
continued advance.

The two water-colour drawings by Mr. William
T. Wood, here reproduced, have been selected
from that artist’s exhibition at the Fine Art Society’s
Galleries last October. Mr. Wood has attained