Mr. Geoffrey Blackwell's Collection of Modern Pictures

Mr. Pissarro's work is based on colour values, than pression. His pastel of Mrs. Blackiveh and Baby
which there is no more elusive or more difficult study. (1913) has character, and his small Nude in pastel
Consequently so completelysuccessful apicture ashis is a scholarly piece of work. There is an early
Blackpool Valley, Rye (1913) holds a unique position. Portrait of a Lady by Mr. Augustus John, which
This work is a balanced, harmonious, architectural possesses that artist's quality of draughtsmanship,
composition ; line supports line and plane is con- It is more refined and more sensitive than his
sequent upon plane and related to it with a logic not later work, if a little cold and detached in charac-
common in Impressionist painting. The picture is terisation.

suffused in sunlight—a lyrical poem of the morning. The failure of the application of a definite
Rye from the Harbour (1913) has the same intimate formula to landscape painting is apparent in the
sense of reality. The tones are carefully analysed, later work of Mr. C. J. Holmes. His earlier
The subtle presentation of values and contrasts of exercise of his invention produced many beautiful
colour imparts a remarkable feeling of vitality to things, such as the water-colour and charcoal draw-
the work. The other pictures by this excellent ings Sty Head Gill (1910) and Near Musgrove
artist, Swampy Meadows, Riec (1912), Rye, from (1910) in which mass and line produced rhythmical
Cadboro', Cloudy Weather (1913), and The River composition. Bishop's Stone (1911) also, with its
at Kew (1914) are, in their way, achievements of extreme simplification and remoteness from nature,
like quality, if they do not represent such exquisite has charm. But Mr. Holmes's later works, like his
moments of nature.

Mr. Tonks is a well-
known master of technique.
But with all his distin-
guished drawing and
original sense of colour his
work makes no emotional
appeal. Gifted with un-
usual sensibility he seems
incapable of communi-
cating his emotion in his
work. He is essentially a
picture-maker. The Stroll-
ing Players (1912-13), ad-
mirable as it is in drawing,
in colour, in balance of
light and shade, fails to be
more than an accomplished
academic exercise. In the
same way his picture Hunt
the Thimble, a remarkable
achievement of warm
colour-harmony, excites no
warmer feeling than ad-
miration. He comes nearest
to revealing his emotional
impulse in his pastel of Les
Sylphides (1913), a remini-
scence of the Russian
ballet. The picture has
great charm in its arrange-
ment of masses and colour.
It has not the vitality nor
the resilient line of Degas,
but it does present a

definite and beautiful im- "landscape" oil painting by george clausen, r.a.

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