Studio: international art (61.1914)

Studio-Talk

concoction about it, and yet it has the style and
deliberation of a work of art composed expressly
for framing. None of the pictures are mere tran-
scripts from nature, but they each evoke the
presence of nature. The execution is phenomenally
neat and the artist's innate gift for composition
always keeps him from the commonplace.

A beautiful carved oak door, the clever handiwork
of the late Marquis of Northampton, has recently
been placed in the inner court of Castle Ashby,
Northamptonshire. His lordship, who did the
whole of the carving himself, put the finishing
touches to the door only a few days before he died,
but did not live to see it placed in position. The
carving represents sections of the arms of the
Compton family and the details are executed with
exquisite delicacy and accuracy. Most of the shields
are copied from carvings already in existence at
Compton Wynyates, the family seat in Warwickshire.
Wood carving was one of the favourite hobbies of
the late Marquis, and he took a keen pride and
interest in this particular door. The lock on one
side of it is a replica of an old Flemish lock, and
on the other side is a reproduction of one on an
ancient door at Bury St. Edmunds.

Among English painters who have been affected
by Post-Impressionism, Mr. S. J. Peploe holds one
of the first places. It would seem that the theory
of Post-Impressionism is too strong for an English
artist's head. Mr. Peploe affords us the rare
instance of an artist whose head is stronger than
the theories he has embraced, he uses them
instead of artistically succumbing to them. Con-
sequently he gets the best out of them, gaining
from them what licence for freedom of line and
abandonment to colour he may require, but pre-
serving always evidence of contact with life as well
with theory, retaining vitality and the power to
convince where so many under the same influence
have entirely lost these.

At the Baillie Gallery where Mr. Peploe's Exhi-
bition has been held there have also been works
by Mr. Roberto Domingo, entirely dealing with
the subjects of the Spanish bull-ring. The artist
is obviously an " illustrator," though not perhaps a
black-and-white artist; each painting describes a
distinct phase of the fight with a scrupulous regard
for fact. The method is that of an Impressionist,
sometimes hardly sufficiently suppressing the evi-
dence of haste ; the point of view in every painting
is that of the " expert" more interested in the fate of
232

the combatants than in composition, but with a
fine talent for conveying movement.

Mr. Anthony R. Barker has become prominent
of late as a lithographic artist as well as an etcher,
and to judge by some of the prints we have seen,
the lithographic chalk is a medium which suits him
quite as well as the needle. In the print reproduced
opposite, the spontaneous freedom to which the
medium lends itself is effectively exploited.

At the Manzi-Joyant Gallery in Bedford Street
the Black Frame Club held their annual exhibition
last month. Many of the best works were found
on reference to the catalogue to be from one hand,
that of Mr. Paul Paul. Mr. E. Borough Johnson,
though never so personal an artist with brush
in hand as with a pencil, was also responsible for
important items. Mr. D. A. Wehrschmidt's Sketch,
Mr. Percy W. Gibbs's The Bridge, St. Thibault, and
The Isle of Urk, Holland, are things to be remem-
bered, and other contributors of interesting work
were Messrs. Haughton, Lobley, and S. E. Scott.

OAK DOORWAY AT CASTLE ASHBY, NORTHANTS, CARVED
I!Y THE LATE MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON