Studio: international art (83.1922)

EARLY WATER-COLOUR
DRAWINGS AT MESSRS. AGNEW’S,
BY H. M. CUNDALL, I.S.O., F.S.A.

ALL lovers of water-colour drawings by-
artists of the Early English School
may well be grateful to Messrs. Thomas
Agnew & Sons for their annual exhibitions,
held in aid of the Artists’ General Benev-
olent Fund. It is surprising how they
are enabled to get together every year such
interesting collections of the best of the
early English Masters. The Exhibition
recently closed was no exception to the
rule, and was quite up to the standard of
the previous ones. The work of Turner, as
usual, held the premier position. The
earliest, A view looking towards the north
Transept, was one of a series of architec-
tural drawings of Salisbury Cathedral,
which he executed about 1798. It is an
admirable example of his topographical and
antiquarian work. There are two others of

this series, The Entrance to the Chapter
House and South View from the Cloisters
in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Beauport, near Bexhill, was painted after
Turner had thrown off the trammels of the
topographical draughtsmen with their out-
line drawing and flat tints. It is a scene
of the undulating downs with a country
house in the distance. Free washes have
been introduced with sunlight and at-
mospheric effects. The weeds in the
foreground give a suggestion of u Old ”
Crome, but not executed in his careful
manner. A study for this drawing is in
his Sketch Book (No.cxxxvm), u Views in
Sussex ” at the Tate Gallery. An aquatint
was also made of it by C. Stadler and
printed in colours. The “ England and
Wales ” series was represented by Ports-
mouth Harbour, Gosport and Yarmouth :
Nelson’s Monument, both in an excellent
state of preservation. The former shows
the entrance to the harbour with the masts

Vol. LXXXIII.—No. 350. May 1922.