Studio: international art (65.1915)

Studio-Talk

under Sir Frank Short. He has exhibited at the
New English Art Club, the Royal Academy, the
Royal Scottish Academy, the International Society,
and at various international exhibitions in Venice,
Florence, and Leipzig. He is an Associate of the
Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, and is represented
in the Print collections at the British Museum, the
Victoria and Albert Museum, the Uffizi at Florence,
and the Library of Congress, Washington.

When the miniatures of the Australian artist,
Bess Norriss (Mrs. J. Nevin Tait), were first
shown in London, her gifts in this branch of art were
quickly recognised. Most of her work has necessarily
been associated with portraiture. In Australia
she had sittings from Prince Ranjitsinhji, the Hon.
William Shields, Premier of Victoria, and Edith

so far as the applications of art to industry are
concerned the lack of that organised co-operation
which has played such an important part in the
development of German and Austrian industrial
art in recent years is felt to be a drawback calling
for remedy. Consciousness of the need for closer
co-operation among the parties interested in the
welfare of our applied arts has brought into exist-
ence the Design and Industries Association, to
which reference was made in these columns
recently, and which we learn has taken steps to
establish branches in the chief industrial centres.
And now there is a promise of another organisation
which, while having much the same chief object in
view—namely, “to bring the designer, manufacturer,
and public into closer co-operation,’’differs as regards
its modus operandi. This scheme is for a British

Crane, the first actress to
play Trilby in the Com-
monwealth ; and since she
came to London she has
painted a number of nota-
bilities—particularly those
in the musical world.
Avoiding any set attitude
in posing her sitters, she
aims to concentrate the
interest on the personality
of the original, at the
same time taking advan-
tage of any note of colour
to heighten the effect of
the composition. One of
her works, Bon Jour, a
group composed of a nurse
and child, was bought for
the Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool. The artist is
also represented in the
Melbourne Gallery by two
works bought by the
Felton Bequest, and her
miniatures have been
shown at most of the im-
portant exhibitions here
and in Paris.

What the ultimate effect
of the great war on the
artistic production of this
country will be it is of
course impossible to
predict, but there are
already signs that in
276

“MRS. C. CASS, OF NEW YORK”

FROM A MINIATURE BY BESS NORRISS TAIT