Studio: international art (82.1921)

THE RENAISSANCE OF THE
TATE GALLERY. BY THEODORE
GALERIEN. 00000

FOR the first time in its existence the
Tate Gallery has become a National
Gallery of British Art, in fact as in name.
Before the war it held an anomalous posi-
tion as the storehouse of the Chantrey pic-
tures and the Tate miscellany with the
works of Turner and Alfred Stevens thrown
in as make-weight, and, in the centre of all,
a gold and aluminium shrine dedicated to
the works of the great painter-preacher of
the Victorian era, G. F. Watts. a 0
But now all that is changed. Some of the
earlier works, from Hogarth onwards, have
been transferred from Trafalgar Square,
and the problem of representing British
Art entirely without the earlier Masters is
thus removed. Thanks to the enterprise
and, one may say, the courage of the
Director in borrowing largely, latter-day
art including the most advanced types of
painting (not to misuse the word art) may
be seen in hideous or joyous contrast
(according to the sensations of the beholder)
with those earlier works which the dizzy
Vorticists find so thoroughly unworthy of
preservation. 00000
Many of the smart young men of the day,
whose names are familiar through self-
advertisement, are temporarily seen in
these unfamiliar halls. The most notable
absentee (for one harmless drawing hardly
indicates his presence) is Mr. Wyndham
Lewis, who, still beating the big drum in
the back streets, succeeds in attracting only
the small boys. 0000
The work of what may be called the
" bucolic school of Post-Impressionist-
Pre-Raphaelites " is abundantly repre-
sented by Gilbert and Stanley Spencer and
their, artistically speaking, poor relations
the brothers Nash who have, somewhere,
been called the eccentric Botanists on
account of the curiously dissected appear-
ance of their landscapes. 000
There are examples of modern genius in
the work of Augustus John and Walter
Sickert, and specimens of the later forms of
fatuity not easily to be classified under any
particular ism; the whole forming a con-
spectus of British art, both interesting and
enlightening. 00000
LXXXII. No. 344.—November 1921

It was an excellent idea to borrow prize
paintings from the Slade School. Work
that should be seen has been momentarily
rescued from comparative oblivion. Mr-
John's uncurbed youthful ability in his
prize painting of 1898, The Brazen Serpent,
with its undigested Old Master manner-
isms, can be contrasted with the work of
his maturity and it may be seen to what
extent he has found himself and restrained
his abundant ability from ebulliency to art.
From his prize painting of 1898 to his
masterpiece The Smiling Woman of about
ten years later is an immense advance,
emphasised by his gradual decline to the
arrested success of his Decoration : Galway
of 1916. Sir William Orpen's prize picture
of The Play Scene from Hamlet is peculiarly
interesting. More stylistic than Mr. John's
and more subtle, it was yet less promising;
as being too plausible; it shows that:
cleverness which, cultivated for its own
sake, becomes an insuperable obstacle to
the creation of great art. Many war paint-
ings have been borrowed from the Imperial
War Museum and given a wider publicity
than any they would have got at the
Crystal Palace. They are worth seeing
again. Its quality of first-hand impression
gives value to Mr. John Nash's Oppy Wood,
which is crudely decorative and amateurish
in handling. Professor Tonks's admirable
and scholarly Advanced Dressing Station in.
France is a model to the students who are
fortunate enough to have the example of
his enthusiasm and experience ; but Mr.
Stanley Spencer's Travoys is not clear ex-
pression (although admired in these days
when queerness passes for originality),
being too obscure for realism and too in-
volved for decoration. It has some interest
as arabesque. Mr. H. Lamb's Irish Troops
surprised by a Bombardment in the Judsean
Hills is the most striking of these war pic-
tures. It has real intensity of expression.
The painting of the detail is admirable and
it keeps its place in the decorative whole.
His use of the clouds of smoke is very
effective. Then there is Sir William Orpen's
Hall of Mirrors, an appropriately named
picture, in which the painter has been wisely
interested less in the personalities than in
the reflections. Being a philosopher he
realised that the personalities were puppets:
and they are painted accordingly. 0 &

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