Studio: international art (85.1923)

NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

included sculpture, pictures, drawings, and
almost everything that goes under the
heading of prints* The National Gallery
of Canada is mercifully not a museum, 0
The sculpture consisted of two Assyrian
mural reliefs from the Palace of Assur-
Nazir-Pal. It is impossible not to be en-
thusiastic over both of them ; the sense of
character and decoration is brilliant in the
extreme. The National Gallery possesses
rather a good collection of casts in its
sculpture court,which it is hoped toreplace,
partially at all events, with original sculp-
ture, and with these two Assyrian reliefs
a worthy beginning is being made. 0
Two fourteenth-century primitives come
next on the list. They are neither of start-
ling proportions, but both are gems of
their kind. The Three Apostles, Florentine,
was almost certainly one of the wings of a
triptych with donors on the other and the
Madonna and Child in the centre. There
are qualities about it which nearly settle
its authorship upon Agnolo Gaddi (d.1396).
The condition is perfect, and the colour as
brilliant as the day it was painted. The
second Primitive is from the same School
and is connected rather than attributed to
Taddeo Gaddi, the father of Agnolo. 0
It is not often possible to find much of
the Florentine seventeenth century which
is not at once enormous and uninteresting,
so a delicate and really lovely study by
Francesco Furini (1604-1649) for his Adam
and Eve in the Pitti Palace was more than
welcome. There is probably not another
example of his art on the American conti-
nent. a 0 a 0 0 0

Modern painting still plays the most
important part in the Canadian National
Gallery from economic reasons, although the
balance is being redressed with every year,
and if it does not boast, it believes that its
modern collection, particularly British,
would be hard to beat outside England. 0
William Strang, R.A., will certainly be
reckoned among the twentieth-century
elect one day, both as a painter and an
etcher. Two of his pictures were pur-
chased, a figure composition called Joy of
Summer, and his portrait of Lucien
Pissarro (a colour reproduction of which
has appeared in this magazine). Together
they are an ample commentary of a great
achievement, apart they might be two
24

intensely interesting pictures by two
different artists. 0000
There is no need to talk about Charles
Ricketts's genius, it has been the theme of
critics and panegyrists for a generation. His
Danaides is an extraordinarily interesting
example of his art. More brilliant in
colour than most of his work, the curious
design and Caryatid-like character of his
figures seem to suggest the legend of the
daughters of Danaos, who for the murder
of their husbands were for ever condemned
to carry water in their broken jars, through
the voids of Hades. 0000
No one's work was more interesting last
year than W. W. Russell’s. Honoured
with a well-deserved A.R.A., and fortified
by one of the few really successful one-man
shows of the year, his work, both in land-
scape and figure, is giving him a prominent

"the three apostles

EARLY FLORENTINE SCHOOL

(Attributed to Agnolo Gaddi)