Studio: international art (52.1911)

Art School Notes

ground in sculpture, we were possibly on the
verge of the greatest period of art in England.
In lamenting the scarcity of demand for ideal
sculpture in this country the lecturer complained
that the patron of to-day never seemed to want
to go beyond work of six inches or so in
height! The young sculptor who devoted
himself to ideal work must, he said, be pre-
pared for a long struggle, for privation and
for possible failure. Success in any case could
only be for a few, but the chance of it was
worth the hardest fight, and later on the artist
would look back to that time of struggle as
infinitely precious, although he might bear the
scars of it all his life. Mr. Colton warned the
Academy students against the dangerous fascina-
tions of colour, ' the Calypso of sculpture," and
said that although the Greeks used colour, he
could not believe that it was on their finest
work, but only on big things that were meant
to impress the common people. Mr. Belcher,
R.A., presided at Mr. Colton's first lecture,
in the absence, through long-continued illness,
of the popular Keeper of the Royal Academy,
Mr. Ernest Crofts, R.A.

At the recent exhibition held at the Grosvenor
Studio, Vauxhall Bridge, the most notable fea-
ture was the collection of outdoor studies made
by the members of the summer sketching
classes conducted by Mr. Walter Donne, the
principal of the Grosvenor Life School.
Some of Mr. Donne's own accomplished out-
door work was shown on the same occasion,
and looking from it to the studies made in
the class it was interesting to notice how
successfully the pupils had maintained their
individuality when working side by side with
a strong painter. Mr. Donne makes a point
in his teaching of endeavouring to preserve
the personal outlook in the work of each
student, and the variety of treatment seen
in the exhibition was a proof of his success.
Among the oil paintings the completest work
shown was a sunny study by Miss I. Watkin
of an orchard near Dieppe, vigorously handled
and very pleasant in colour. Miss V. Down
showed a good sketch of marsh and sky painted
on the Welsh coast near Barmouth; and other
praiseworthy works in oil were landscapes by
Miss E. M. Wright, Miss Helen Sengel and
Mrs. Duncan ; and a fresh, bright painting
of a child's head by Miss R. Bonnor.

Miss S. M. Duigan contributed an excellent

water-colour of a rough cart road across fields,
seen on a hazy morning, and another sym-
pathetic drawing in grey tones of a haystack
and cabbage garden. Miss L. B. Swan's
pastorals were dexterous in execution but dis-
played a slight tendency to mannerism; and
Miss Beach showed artistic capacity in the
choice of such an admirable subject as the
ancient churchyard seen in her picture. Attrac-
tive landscapes in water-colour were also ex-
hibited by Miss Johnson and Miss Roscoe, a
frame of capital pencil landscapes by Miss L.
Watkin, and decorative and figure designs by
Miss Branfoot and Miss Noel. A group of
sketches in colour made for the weekly com-
position class illustrated another useful side
of the work of the school, which was further
shown by numerous bold and vigorous studies
from the nude figure, which the students are
encouraged to draw and paint the size of life.
The interest of the school exhibition was
strengthened by the paintings by Mr. Donne
already referred to, and by some charming
studies by Mrs. Donne, of children, and of
quaint and fanciful animals treated decoratively.

Mr. Charles Shannon's election to an Asso-
ciateship adds another name to the long list
of artists who commenced their education at
Lambeth and afterwards attained to member-
ship of the Royal Academy. These artists
include, in addition to Mr. Shannon, the late
Harry Bates, A.R.A., and John Macallan Swan,
R.A.; Sir George Frampton, R.A., Mr. Stan-
hope Forbes, R.A., Mr. W. Goscombe John,
R.A., Mr. W. R. Colton, A.R.A., and Mr.
F. W. Pomeroy, A. R.A. It was at Lambeth,
in 1885, that Mr. Shannon gained one of the
earliest of his many artistic successes by
carrying off a first prize for figure design in the
Gilbert (now Gilbert-Garret) competition. It
has already been noted in this column that by
a remarkable coincidence another first prize in
the Gilbert Competition of the same year was
taken by Mr. Charles Ricketts, then, as now,
the inseparable companion of Mr. Shannon.

Mr. D. Murray Smith, R.B.A., criticised
last month at the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole
School of Art a number of compositions and
designs selected from those executed by the
students in the course of the past half-year.
The useful and eminently practical comments
of the landscape painter were listened to with

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