Studio: international art (86.1923)

BELFAST—GLASGOW

resident, of the sea city; Mr. Will C.
Penn, R.O.I., is resident though not native;
Mr. Alison Martin is one of the most
interesting of the artists entirely belonging
to Liverpool. J. W. S.

BELFAST.—The Irish Free State, for
the moment, compares unfavourably
with Northern Ireland as an artistic com-
munity. Seven years of warfare and turmoil
have, as might be expected, woefully
hampered the Southern artists. The
Northerns, enjoying comparative peace and
security, forged ahead and proved once
more that material prosperity has a deep
influence on artistic production. The
Northern Government now propose to
■erect an Art Gallery at a cost of £80,000 ;
and the Premier, Sir James Craig, has
roundly declared that the money could not
be better spent. 0000
In the Free State, painters, for the most
part, display a predilection for portraiture
or genre. In the North the best men are,
almost without exception, engrossed in
landscape. They form a very distinct group
whose work is characterised by typical
racial traits. Their landscapes, though by
no means emotional, are always most
obviously sincere, closely observed, firmly
.and cleanly handled. The chiefs of this
growing school are Mr. Paul Henry,
Mrs. Henry, Mr. E. M. O'Rourke Dickey,
Mr. Frank McKelvey and Mr. J. Humbert
■Craig. Mr. Henry is represented in the
Luxembourg by a spacious landscape which
the French Government acquired in 1921.
His merit has now received further recogni-
tion from the premier art institution in his
own country,for he has just been elected an
Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy.
Mr. Dickey has had the honour of favour-
able notice in England from Sir Charles
Holmes and Professor A, M. Hind.
During the present month, those of our
readers who are residing in or visiting
London will have an opportunity of
inspecting some of his recent produc-
tions, since he is showing, at the
Leicester Galleries, The Sabine Mountains
and other subjects. Mr. Craig, the most
typical Northern of them all, has, curi-
ously enough, a large circle of admirers
in Dublin, by whom his bold, honest work
is eagerly sought. T. B.

GLASGOW.—In studying the lives of
various artists, it is remarkable how
many of those who have attained eminent
positions were self-taught, or started
life in professions having little in common
with that in which they became famous ;
while so many thousands of others who
have followed an untrammelled course of
study are remembered only by their
brilliancy while students. Mr. Robert
Eadie, whose water-colours, Snow on the
Roofs and The Bow-backed Bridge, Strath-
aven, are here illustrated, was perhaps
fortunate in starting life as a commercial
artist, a side of art with its many branches
which has much to commend it; though
the numerous ties connected with it may
be good and helpful as an artistic disci-
pline, they are not always enticing to the
creative spirit of the artist that calls for
freedom. Mr. Eadie must be happy in
still being a young man and having been
able early in life to attain his ambition in

"SNOW.ON THE ROOFS ’’
WATER-COLOUR BY
ROBERT EADIE, R.S.W.

341