Studio: international art (87.1924)

CHELTENHAM—BIRMINGHAM—DUBLIN

CHELTENHAM.—We illustrate here-
with an interesting piece of work by
Mr. Harold Holden. His treatment of the
casket and illuminated address is pleasing
and unconventional. 000

BIRMINGHAM. — Messrs. Cornish

Brothers have published a Picture Map
of the City of Birmingham in the year 1730,
of which we reproduce a portion on the
opposite page. Mr. Bernard Sleigh, who
made this map after considerable research
in the city records, has been for some years
a practitioner of the picture map, on behalf
of the Birmingham Civic Society and
Messrs. Cadbury Brothers. Mr. Sleigh has
succeeded in combining artistic and anti-
quarian interest in a very pleasing piece
of cartography. 0000
At the present day, when the expansion
of commerce and industry have changed
the face of the countryside and the town so
enormously, a production of this kind gives
valuable aid to those who may wish to
visualise the appearance of their city in
other days, and who cannot but be indebted
to the artist and his publisher for this
glimpse of the past. 0000
Now that town-planning is occupying
men's minds, it is to be hoped that fresh
developments in building, here and else-
where will be so directed that the esthetic
side will not be neglected, for where this
happens ugliness supplants beauty, and
there is no necessary connection between
ugliness and utility. 0000

DUBLIN.—The recent appointment of
a Director of the National Gallery of
Ireland has caused a great deal of adverse
comment. Mr. Lucius O’Callaghan,
R.H.A., the new Director, is well known
in Ireland as an accomplished architect,
and enjoys a widespread and deserved per-
sonal popularity. But few people had
thought that he possessed the peculiar
qualities desirable in the Director of an
important collection of pictures and, conse-
quently, the announcement of his appoint-
ment created something of a shock. When
a letter appeared in the Irish papers,
signed by two of the Governors of the
Gallery, stating that, in their opinion,
Mr. O’Callaghan had been appointed im-
properly, having regard to the superior
qualifications of other candidates, com-

ILLUMINATED ADDRESS AND
INLAID CASKET IN EBONY
BY HAROLD HOLDEN

ment became intense. All the Dublin
newspapers protested, and questions were
asked in An Dail. However, the President
stated there that he had no power of veto
in the matter. Mr. O’Callaghan’s appoint-
ment must, therefore, be considered irre-
vocable ; and it can only be hoped that he
will justify to the full the hopes expressed
by his supporters rather than the fears
expressed by those who took exception to
his appointment. 0000
The Government have decided that the
time has come when the National Gallery
and the National Library may be reopened
to the public, and the authorities of both
institutions are now busily engaged in
setting their respective houses in order
with a view to admitting the public in the
early spring. During the past two years,
while the National Gallery was closed, a
large number of important pictures have
been acquired by the Governors which
their owners, the citizens, have not so far
had an opportunity of seeing. 0 0

The revival of Irish interest in art, of
which I spoke in a recent note, will be
encouraged by the forthcoming visit to
Dublin of Dr. W. Martin, the learned
Director of the Royal Gallery at The
Hague. He proposes to deliver four lectures
on Dutch art, at the Alexandra College,
early in April, and his course is looked
forward to with exceptional eagerness, as
the National Gallery of Ireland is pecu-
liarly rich in notable works by the Dutch
Masters of the seventeenth century. T. B.

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