Studio: international art (83.1922)

SOME PICTURES AND DRAWINGS
IN SIR JAMES MURRAY'S COL-
LECTION. BY J. B. MANSON. a

THE pictures reproduced here represent
but a small part of the remarkable col-
lection owned by Sir James Murray.
Nothing less than reproductions of all the
pictures could give an adequate idea of the
excellence of this collection, for, unlike
many others, it does not consist of two or
three plums set in a mass of dough. To
do that would be impossible here, nor is
this the place to indulge in the pastime
which is called “ scientific criticism," the
inveterate habit of the dull mind which,
tape measure in hand and magnifying
glass in eye, surveys impartially the surface
of works of art which come within its pur-
view, and pulls to pieces the rose, petal by
petal, in order to discover the secret of its
beauty. 00000

Sir James Murray's present collection
is the flower of gradual growth. It has

reached its present perfection by judi-
cious pruning, by the constant addition
of rarer blooms, and the ruthless rejection
of sickly plants. 0000
At the beginning it consisted mainly of
the works of the Royal Academicians and
Royal Scottish Academicians of the period.
When these grew threadbare, or their
owner outgrew them, they were discarded.

The first important step forward was
due to Mr. Arthur Symons's admiration of
Monticelli's Fete Champetre, which is still
one of the gems of the collection, and his
eloquent silence in the presence of the
array of the R.A.'s and R.S.A.'s showy
productions. 00000
This was a diagnosis by implication
and Sir James Murray was not slow to
realise its significance. Most of the R.A.
pictures went. Those that survived, good
examples in their elderly way, such as
Orchardson's Reverie and The Borgias,
Pettie's Scene from Peveril of the Peak,
Stott's Flamingoes, Gregory's Intruders,

“ FETE CHAMPETRE "
BY A. MONTICELLI

6l

Vol. LXXXIII.—No. 347. February 1922.