Studio: international art (77.1919)

THE STUDIO

THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBI-
TION, 1919. a a a a

PERHAPS the most appropriate com-
ment which can be made upon
the 1919 Academy Exhibition is that it
rounds off with some distinction the series
of shows which have been held at Burling-
ton House during the period of the war,
and that to a certain extent it points the
direction in which the developments of the
future should tend. For it is distinctly
a war exhibition, and the bulk of the works
included in it have been produced while
the war influence was still affecting strongly
the thoughts and the feelings of the people.
It has the same characteristics, the same
merits, and the same defects which have
marked its four predecessors, the same
atmosphere of sober effort and the same
lack of striking performances which rise

appreciably above the general level of the
collection. Its distinction comes from the
solid sincerity of intention with which
most of the contributors have worked to
make the best of their capacities, its signi-
ficance as a suggestion for the future from
the example which this sincerity sets to the
men who, later on, will have to adapt to the
needs of their own time the traditions
which we are following to-day. 0 a
Historically it is interesting because we
are hardly likely to see a show quite like
it again. It marks the end of an era, and
in the new one that is beginning the art
of this country must inevitably change in
sympathy with the modifications which
will be made in our social conditions and
in the manners and customs of our national
life. The change will probably be slow
and gradual but it must come, and to what
it will ultimately lead it is scarcely possible

LXXVII. No. 315.—June 1919