Studio: international art (87.1924)

LONDON

aggrieved party, and although one feels that
the husband is mentally shrugging his
shoulders, he listens with suave affability
to the pleadings of his displeased spouse.
A whole string of quaint little figures are
vastly relishing “ The Joke,” and their
mirth is almost irresistibly infectious. The
Drummer (reproduced) can surely speak
for himself, a 0 a a 0
In others the very name conveys the
poetic sense which has inspired them, as in
Ode to the Blackthorn, The Lovesong, A
Sprig of Plum (see reproduction). In the
latter there is a rhythm of line and a
daintiness of colour which are simply de-
lightful—subdued greyish-blue and mauve,
grey and pale olive, set off by the black
hair with its comb and flowers, and the
dark branch with its rose-coloured blooms.
Or The Jade Flower, in which the woman's
garment is an artful scheme of a bluish-
black with drab stripes, over it a greyish-
violet kimono with a flowered pattern in
palest lemon, relieved by the discreet red of
the small boy’s clothes. In others, again,
there is simply an orgy of rich exquisite

LONDON. — Our frontispiece this
j month, Westminster Bridge, by Antonio
Canaletto, was probably painted after the
summer of 1746, at which time the bridge
was first made passable for foot passengers
and horses. In the spring of 1747 the pier
on the north side collapsed, and the damage
was not finally repaired until about the
summer of 1750. There are two of Cana-
letto's drawings of the bridge extant, which
seem to have been made for the purpose of
this picture. The first is in the British
Museum and was reproduced in Mrs.
Finberg's admirable account of Canaletto
in London, which appeared in the Pro-
ceedings of the Walpole Society, volume 9.
The other is in the Royal Collection, at
Windsor, and was reproduced in the Cata-
logue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club
Exhibition of Old London Office in 1920.
This latter drawing was also reproduced in
an article on Canaletto’s topographical
drawings in the Art Journal for 1894. The
barges on the water are not, as might be
imagined, a reminiscence of Venetian
pageantry. They are, in point of fact, the
Lord Mayor’s barge and those of the City

colours, as in A Persian Garden, whilst in
The Profiteer’s Daughter a gaudier keynote
has intentionally been struck. Over them
all, however, there is a strange fascination,
and they make a most enchanting little
gallery—things of beauty and a joy for
ever, a a a a a a
Before bringing this cursory notice to a
conclusion I want to say a word about Miss
Lord's printing, for she does all her own
printing. It has been said of her that as an
artist she has been endowed with that
precious gift, le feu sacre ; one might add
that as a printer she has the skill, the
fervour, the unflagging ardour of the ideal
craftsman of the Renaissance, ruthlessly
scrapping what cannot pass muster before
her exacting scrutiny. Her etchings are
simply masterpieces of printing: A Persian
Garden or The Lovesong, perhaps, stand out
pre-eminently. Miss Elyse Lord may be
said to have evolved her own technique,
which never fails to respond generously to
her call. Little wonder that her colour
etchings have met with a singularly ready
appreciation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Companies about to take place in the Lord
Mayor's procession, which, in those days,
was held on the river. 000
The scene shown is substantially that
which met the eyes of Wordsworth when
he crossed the bridge on September 3rd,
1803, and was moved to write his famous

MINIATURE BY MISS
M. R. PEACOCK

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