DOI Heft:
No. 249 (January 1914)
DOI Artikel:The new english art club
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21208#0324
The New English Art Chib
appeared in the catalogues of the succeeding exhi-
bitions, J. Aumonier, Francis Bate, F. Brangwyn,
Alfred East, Mark Fisher, A. Hartley, J. L. Henry,
W. Llewellyn, A. D. Peppercorn, Leon Little,
Adrian Stokes and Mrs. Stokes, Leslie Thomson,
W. L. Wyllie, and J. Lavery, in 1887 ; Whistler, W.
Sickert, B. Sickert, C. H. Shannon, Frank Short,
J. Buxton Knight, F. E. James, and R. Anning
Bell, in 1888; Moffat Lindner in 1889; and in
1890, James Guthrie, William Stott of Oldham, and
Albert Moore.
As the New English Art Club began so it has
continued; it has brought forward a large propor-
tion of the best artists of our time, has helped them
to make their reputations, and has passed them on
to strengthen and vitalise other societies. In course
of years, perhaps, it has lost a little of its earlier
catholicity and has to some extent narrowed its
scope—in the sense that it does not, as it did
originally, view all schools of practice with equal
tolerance. But it adheres consistently to its'policy
of encouraging the young
and unknown artist, and it
gives to the men with whose
aims it is in sympathy, most
helpful chances of proving
what they have in them. For
what it has done in the past
British art owes it a real
debt of gratitude ; for what
it is doing now, a large
number of budding painters
have every reason to be
thankful, for they are being
assisted by it to take what-
ever position in the world
their own capacities entitle
them to claim. No other
society works on the same
lines and no other can be
said to have made so few
departures from the general
programme of operations
which it mapped out at the
commencement of its career.
And now the Club has
reached its fiftieth exhibition,
an event in its history which
deserves to be recorded.
For the first five years of its
existence it held only one
exhibition annually, but in
1891 it started a winter show
in addition to its summer
one, and it has adhered to this custom ever since—
and it has certainly never failed to secure sufficient
support both from artists and the public to keep up
excellently the quality of the exhibitions for which
it has been responsible. The collection it is pre-
senting now in the galleries of the Royal Society of
British Artists is a typical one, not altered at all in
character with the idea of celebrating a special
occasion, and it is well up to the average of those
which the Club has organised in recent years.
There is much in it that is of great importance, a
certain amount that is interesting without being
quite convincing, and some work, perhaps, that
need not have been included ; but as a whole the
gathering does credit to the Club and thoroughly
justifies the position it has taken up.
One of the best things in the show is Mr. W
Orpen’s allegorical picture, Solving the Seed, a
decorative composition admirable in its originality,
its charm of treatment, and its technical power ;
but of not less interest are Mr. P. W. Steer’s
302
appeared in the catalogues of the succeeding exhi-
bitions, J. Aumonier, Francis Bate, F. Brangwyn,
Alfred East, Mark Fisher, A. Hartley, J. L. Henry,
W. Llewellyn, A. D. Peppercorn, Leon Little,
Adrian Stokes and Mrs. Stokes, Leslie Thomson,
W. L. Wyllie, and J. Lavery, in 1887 ; Whistler, W.
Sickert, B. Sickert, C. H. Shannon, Frank Short,
J. Buxton Knight, F. E. James, and R. Anning
Bell, in 1888; Moffat Lindner in 1889; and in
1890, James Guthrie, William Stott of Oldham, and
Albert Moore.
As the New English Art Club began so it has
continued; it has brought forward a large propor-
tion of the best artists of our time, has helped them
to make their reputations, and has passed them on
to strengthen and vitalise other societies. In course
of years, perhaps, it has lost a little of its earlier
catholicity and has to some extent narrowed its
scope—in the sense that it does not, as it did
originally, view all schools of practice with equal
tolerance. But it adheres consistently to its'policy
of encouraging the young
and unknown artist, and it
gives to the men with whose
aims it is in sympathy, most
helpful chances of proving
what they have in them. For
what it has done in the past
British art owes it a real
debt of gratitude ; for what
it is doing now, a large
number of budding painters
have every reason to be
thankful, for they are being
assisted by it to take what-
ever position in the world
their own capacities entitle
them to claim. No other
society works on the same
lines and no other can be
said to have made so few
departures from the general
programme of operations
which it mapped out at the
commencement of its career.
And now the Club has
reached its fiftieth exhibition,
an event in its history which
deserves to be recorded.
For the first five years of its
existence it held only one
exhibition annually, but in
1891 it started a winter show
in addition to its summer
one, and it has adhered to this custom ever since—
and it has certainly never failed to secure sufficient
support both from artists and the public to keep up
excellently the quality of the exhibitions for which
it has been responsible. The collection it is pre-
senting now in the galleries of the Royal Society of
British Artists is a typical one, not altered at all in
character with the idea of celebrating a special
occasion, and it is well up to the average of those
which the Club has organised in recent years.
There is much in it that is of great importance, a
certain amount that is interesting without being
quite convincing, and some work, perhaps, that
need not have been included ; but as a whole the
gathering does credit to the Club and thoroughly
justifies the position it has taken up.
One of the best things in the show is Mr. W
Orpen’s allegorical picture, Solving the Seed, a
decorative composition admirable in its originality,
its charm of treatment, and its technical power ;
but of not less interest are Mr. P. W. Steer’s
302