Studio: international art (85.1923)

"BLACK CHARLES"

gestive rather than expressive. The large
and splendid fullbodied one, if the term
maybe used, which Mr. Burrell also owns,
is not amongst the works on loan at
Edinburgh. a a 0 a a
By Honore Daumier, that great carica-
turist and lithographer, are three small
pictures, the best of which is the masterly
La Blanchisseuse, a monochrome in oil, and
amongstothers, unusual of size for Daumier,
a large picture. The Good Samaritan, more
interesting perhaps than successful. Is it
possible that the habitual draughtsman was
a little at sea with paint on such a scale i
Ballet Girls, by Degas, with less than his
usual precision, charms by its lovely and
varied colour, and the Les Danseuses Rouges,
by its learned pattern and dominating
red accentuated by complementary tones
of green and bluish green. These pictures
are both in pastel. Corot has two ex-
amples, one of the single-figure nudes
or semi-nudes of which he was fond, and
which have secured an increased apprecia-
tion of late years, Portrait of a Woman, and
a little oil sketch, Boats in Harbour. Of
another great Frenchman, Manet, two
small works (not here) have recently been
added to the collection ; one of them is
alluded to later. The Madonna of Bruges
is the one of the two pictures by H. le
Sidaner which will be most generally
preferred. It is a beautiful dream of blue
twilight. Thomas Couture, classic in
subject often, but in treatment wholly
romantic, is at his best in the virile head,
Un Conventionnel. Painters will most fully
appreciate the splendid and masculine
qualities of this rich and vigorous impasto.
Similar characteristics may be discerned
in the pictures of Theodule Ribot, added
to a Rembrandtish inspiration of light and
shade. Here are several examples both of
figure and still-life. Of the former,
Mother and Daughter, an old and a young
woman side by side, is an arresting
specimen. 0000a
Finally, to conclude this first article,
mention must be made of a remarkable
small picture by Bargue, an apparently
little-known French painter, concerning
whom biographical dictionaries yield
nothing. Whistler would have been proud
to sign this Lady at TabU—harmony in
blacks and greys. T. C. M.

72

“ BLACK CHARLES " : AN OLD

COUNTRY HOUSE IN KENT *

THE successful adaptation of an ancient
farm house and its surroundings to
modern residential requirements is well
exemplified in the house of which illus-
trations are here given. Known as 44 Black
Charles/' it is situated amongst the
Kentish Hills near Sevenoaks, and is
surrounded by farm buildings and trees,
as an old farm house usually is : it was like
this when Mr. Strickland, the present
owner, bought it. It has always been an
interesting point as to how the name
44 Black Charles " originated. Probably
the original owner was a dark man known
to his friends as “ Black Charles," and
the house came to be known by this name.

“ BLACK CHARLES/' UNDER-
RIVER, KENT : NEW PORCH
MADE OF OLD MATERIALS
W. J. ALLCORN, ARCHITECT