Studio: international art (72.1918)

Studio-Talk

Cameron, Mr. Julius Olsson, Mr. J. W. Morrice
(the well-known Canadian painter), Sgr. Ettore
Tito (the doyen of the modern Venetian School),
and many others of note in the world of art,
including Mrs. Swynnerton and several other
ladies. The pictures they are to paint will, it
is announced, be ex-
hibited at Burlington
House before being
dispatched to Canada.

Pending the comple-
tion of their new gal-
leries in Chelsea, the
directors of the Chenil
Gallery, where the work
of Mr. (or, as we should
now say, Major) Augus-
tus John is usually to
be seen, have taken the
gallery of the Alpine
Club, close to Conduit
Street, for displaying a
collection of paintings
and decorations by this
distinguished artist,
and the exhibition will
remain open till the end
of February. The col-
lection comprises close
on sixty works, diverse
both in subject-matter
and mode of treatment
and ranging in size from
small panels to the large-
scaled Tinkers occupy-
ing almost the whole of
one end of the gallery.

There are numerous
portraits among them,
including the Lord
Fisher of Kilverstone,
which attracted much
attention when ex-
hibited for the first time some year or so
ago, and including also a masterly portrait of
Ambrose McEvoy the painter.

The wood-block print entitled Apple Gatherers,
by Mr. John E. Platt, which we reproduce on
the opposite page, was shown at the last spring
exhibition of the International Society, which,
true to its title, always contrives to offer its
160

patrons a good representation of the graphic
arts. The subject here treated typifies the
labourer's perpetual endeavour, despite rebuff,
to wrest her increase from Mother Earth, and a
sentiment of rural autumn is expressed by the
warm, sober colour and the richness of the
printed surface. The
other print by Mr. Platt
of which we give a black-
and-white illustration,
was also included in the
same exhibition. The
subject, Venantius For-
tunatus, was a bishop
who lived in the sixth
century and composed
the Passion Sunday
hymn beginning “ Vex-
illa regis prodeunt.”
While a student at
Ravenna he was threat-
ened with blindness, but
miraculously recovered
his sight by anointing
his eyes with oil from
a sanctuary lamp, and
it is this incident which
the artist has repre-
sented. The scheme of
colour is rich—the back-
ground being a positive
vermilion, the cloak grey
with black, dark blue,
and purple ornament
over a white tunic en-
riched with gold—and
the print admirably
displays the beautiful
quality of flat colour
characteristic of wood-
printing. Mr. Platt is
head master of the
School of Art at Leek,
Staffordshire, and the
technique followed by him in making his
wood-prints is based on the methods prac-
tised in Japan, of which Mr. Morley Fletcher
has given a full and concise exposition. Other
work recently executed by Mr. Platt includes
a series of coloured designs for mural figure
paintings in the Church of All Saints at
Leek, of which Mr. Norman Shaw was the
architect.

"VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS.” FROM A WOOD-
BLOCK PRINT IN COLOURS BY JOHN E. PLATT