Studio: international art (85.1923)

THE FLOWER-PIECE IN MODERN ART

FLOWER STUDY.” WATER-COLOUR
BY EDITH GRANGER-TAYLOR

(Grosvenor Galleries, Winter Exhib.)

Among the moderns who excel in flower
painting are Mr. Davis Richter, Mr.
Philip Connard, Miss A. K. Browning, Mr.
George Sheringham, Miss Ethel Wright,
Miss Beatrice Bland, to name but a few.
One might have expected women artists to
excel in flower painting, but where delicacy
of perception and handling are concerned
sex counts for nothing in any branch of
art. One remembers a flower-piece by Mr.
George Lambert, a quiet group of roses
and delphiniums, and some pale yellow
flower, painted against a pearly-grey back-
ground : just such a group as Fantin would
have chosen. Mr, Maxwell Armfield, who
of late has been much away from England,
showed, some years ago, water-colour
drawings of flowers growing in the open.

Japanese influence was evident, but the
work was individual, showing a real love of
flowers and sense of their significance.
Some of the drawings were used to illus-
trate a book written by the artist's wife.
Of the many modern books on flowers and
gardens, this was one to please both the
flower-lover and the connoisseur, a a
It is probably the town-dweller, living
under a leaden sky, who most appreciates
the decorative value of modern flower-
paintings. There is something joyous,
something that responds to a craving for
colour in the flower-piece, whether a
painting or a woodcut. Fortunately for
the art-lover of strictly limited means,
delightful modern woodcuts of flowers are
obtainable. a a a a 0

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