Studio: international art (65.1915)

Studio-Talk

LEEDS.—There is a popular
but mistaken belief that
all British talent drifts
Londonwards, to take up
its quarters in that shelter of the
arts. A contrary instance may be
cited in the case of Edward Cald-
well Spruce, a sculptor who has
successfully resisted the metropoli-
tan magnet and still keeps to the portrait bust of cot., e. a. brotherton (bronze)

BY E. CALDWELL SPRUCE

279

It seems hardly possible to get away from the
war, and even in the recent exhibition of sketches
by Mr. Hugh de T. Glazebrook at the Fine Art
Society—gleanings from pleasant holiday rambles in
North Italy and the “Trentino”—we were conscious
first of all of their interest as recording scenes in
the Italian war zone. Of particular interest wxere
the clever impression of Autumn Haze, Arco Valley,
Trentino and A Port, North Italy, Summer; while
other works which attracted attention especially
were Fishing Village, Sestri Levante and Moun-
tainous Country round Riva (Lake of Garda).

The exhibition of Arts and Crafts at the Institute,
Central Square, the Hampstead Garden Suburb,
may, we hope, be the first of a series of shows
supported by local artists and crafts-
men. A number of pictures, etch-
ings, miniatures, lithographs, &c.,
were exhibited, and one would refer
particularly to the clever studies of
birds and animals by Mr. Edwin
Noble, various paintings by Mr. E.

A. Verpilleux, especially his clever
Sheep Fair, a quaint fan entitled
The Italian Marriage Procession by
Miss Sylvia Smee, some of Mr. W.

Barribal’s gay and vivacious water-
colours, Mr. Fred Taylor’s poster
design, Off for the Holidays, now
familiar as advertising the Brighton
Railway ; also some excellent minia-
tures by Mr. Dudley Heath (Hon.

Secretary of the exhibition). Local
craftwork was represented in some
charmingly simple and original
pottery by Miss Richards,
bookbindings by Miss Hedera
Sydenham, leather-work by W. G.

Grant, and metal-work and jewel-
lery by Miss Enid Kelsey. Some
of the admirable productions of the
Artificers’ Guild were on view.

provinces; Leeds being the place of his home and
work. Though a frequent exhibitor at the Royal
Academy and the Paris Salon, Mr. Spruce is less
known in the South than his work warrants.

Born at Knutsford in Cheshire (the “Cranford”
of Mrs. Gaskell) in the sixties, he began modelling
early. Employment at a local tile factory was his
first start in the serious business of life, but a habit
of making portrait busts in his dinner hour, pro-
voked the ire of a foreman and Spruce, refusing to
give up art, left in disdain. Eventually he found
his way to Leeds where a wider field of art was
open to him. The Burmantofts Art Pottery was
in its early years, and Mr. Spruce shortly became
head designer and modeller, a position he held for