Studio: international art (85.1923)

THE COLLECTION OF MR. WILLIAM BURRELL

pie, large of dimensions, sliced to show its
succulent interior and rich enveloping
crust, with nothing of the French kickshaw
about it, but rather food for a lusty
trencherman, it is flanked on one side by
one of the artist's favourite copper pans,
and on the other by a bottle which we
suspect contains nothing much better than
that thin red fluid yclept vin ordinaire.
Such a fine pie would perhaps—but this
is not aesthetics—be more fittingly sup-
ported by a flagon of good English ale or
a flask of Rhenish at least. The grave and
subtle tones of this fine picture, its re-
served yet rich colour, its sober dignity of
arrangement, all combine to lift it far
above the kitchen table from which it
draws its inspiration. No better example
could be given of the power of art to
elevate common material and mould it to
pictorial uses. Similar qualities of un-
obtrusive but virile technique characterise
the two little pictures Pomegranates and

Fruit, by Gustave Courbet, although their
scale precludes little but realization and
quality. With what a delicate yet masculine
hand these fruits are portrayed — one
would like to u paw ” the apples in the
latter, to stroke their glossy sides, and the
immortal (or surely to be so !) essay of
Burroughs comes invitably to the mind.
G. S. Bonvin, a good name for a painter
of things to eat and drink, is responsible
for four works, one of which, however, is
not still-life but a Girl Playing Piano, an
essay in the Dutch manner but lacking
their air and fusion. The best of the other
three is the admirable The Crow. The
Theodule Ribot, Roast Beef, Kidney, etc.,
shows the qualities of his figure pictures,
and two paintings by Ricard exhibit some
versatility of method, but the only
specialist of the lot, Antoine Vollon, in his
one example, is less interesting than the
others. The most individual of them all,
the least influenced by tradition, Fantin

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“ A FAIR IN BRITTANY.’' OIL
PAINTING BY LUCIEN SIMON