Studio: international art (86.1923)

LIVERPOOL

"THE HAPPY INFANT.” BY WILL C.
PENN, R.O.I. (Walker Art Gallery
Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, 1923)

LIVERPOOL.—The Liverpool autumn
show is, like the world, “ full of a
number of things ” (the final exhibit is
a vase numbered 2327, and the catalogue
ends with the generous addendum “ Wood
Stands Extra ”). In the same confusion
as last year hang works by nineteenth-
century painters loaned by Lord Lever-
hulme and others, examples of foreign
work (Carolus Duran, Bastien Lepage,
Josef Israels, etc.), various pictures from
the Liverpool Permanent Collection, a good
deal of bracing Scotch work, and masses of
academic modern effort. There is also a
large room devoted to applied art, and this
is, perhaps, the most interesting part of
the overflowing building. 000
Out of this chaotically hung exhibition
there emerge (with necessary concentra-
tion on the part of the observer) some
amusing, some interesting, and some really
fine things. The difficulty is that the
mind is so frequently disturbed by the
feeble and the slight that enjoyment is
marred by constant irritation, and good
work suffers in consequence. There are
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some pictures which no violent colour
contrasts on the part of neighbouring
attempts can kill. Whistler’s Blossoms,
for instance, and Albert Moore’s Reading
Aloud. Holman Hunt’s Scapegoat looks
magnificent, but other works by him show
the immense gulf between the best and
poorest moods of one man. The pre-
Raphaelite pictures look newer than the
Whistler and other later nineteenth-cen-
tury work. Will they still be there when
modern work has faded i Is this a dis-
pensation of Providence or merely a hint
to modern paint-makers i Among modern
efforts (there are few very modern efforts
at Liverpool) Professor Rothenstein’s por-
trait of Col. Lawrence fascinates as an
artistic problem picture (quite a different
matter from a “ problem picture ” in the
sense beloved of the public). It shows a
determined attempt to square the circle—
to be academic and modernist at the same
time. The great beauty of the sitter suffers
to some extent, but that perhaps was.
inevitable. 00000
Another work which seems to bring the
present age before one is the beautiful
Epstein bust Helene—a most refreshing
sight. Liverpool has no sculpture room,
but one or two good things are scattered
about the building, and much that is—
just sculpture of the usual type. Demeter,
by Mrs. Phyllis Archibald Clay, is out-
standing, and so is a group of pictures
by the late E. A. Walton, R.S.A. Six
pictures by one artist, and a gravely
dignified artist, give the eyes and mind a
feeling of that repose which is the element:
of art. The rest of the Scotch work might
do likewise if only it were hung together
or among work suited to it. The con-
sciousness that Sir William Orpen is a
great artist and a hope that his work may
last quite as long as that of the Pre-
Raphaelites may be noted in passing. 0
A little later the consciousness that there
are too many pictures painted is all that
survives : and we do so badly need good
inkstands and beautiful fireplaces and well-
proportioned doors. Why all this yearning:
on the part of lesser men to do “ some-
thing in a frame ” i 0 0 0 0

The works illustrated are all by artists
with local associations — Mr. Terrick
Williams, R.O.I., is a native, though not