Studio: international art (89.1925)

MR. JOHN FLANAGAN, PORTRAIT PAINTER—LONDON

with the old masters who painted with
divine patience and the " tightest " pos-
sible handling. His portrait of Mr. Town-
ley Searle has some resemblance to the
painting of Holbein in its precision and
care. And yet because he lives in the
present he rejoices also in the instantaneous
record of light and shade, seeing his subject
as a whole, and painting in one magnificent
spurt the complete impression given at
•one particular moment. In short, he is
always experimenting and always ad-
vancing. He can fail—naturally. He can
fail because his work is progressive. An
artist stereotyped is an artist lost, as Mr.
Flanagan well knows, and when he spoils
a canvas it is often a prelude to something
better than he has done before. 0 0
I should be sorry if this article were to
be taken as only a conventional eulogy.
The public is wearied by many cries of
" Wolf " from the exuberant individuals
who write criticism. But in all seriousness
Mr. Flanagan has the equipment of a
great artist. He is still young, and much
is yet to be expected from him ; and one
may look forward to the time when to be
painted by Flanagan will be generally
held a distinction. W. G.

YACHTS AND YACHTING IN CON-
TEMPORARY ART. 000

AFINELY-produced volume on the
above subject is now in preparation
at The Studio offices, and will be issued
in September in an edition limited to
one thousand copies, at the price of three
guineas each. 0000
Major B. Heckstall-Smith, the well-
known authority, deals with yachting from
the artistic point of view. From the Dutch
painters of the seventeenth century to
such modern experts as Mr. W. L.
Wyllie, R.A., Mr. Norman Wilkinson,
Mr. Charles Pears and Miss Alice Fanner,
a fine collection of pictures of this, the
most graceful of all ships, has been
assembled. Owing to the limitation of
the edition, readers interested are advised
to place their orders early. 0 0

LONDON.—The spring exhibition of
the Royal Society of Painters in Water
Colours includes much work of admirable
quality and is on the whole of more than
average importance. Among the more
prominent contributors are Mr. Charles
Sims, who shows several of his character-
istic light and colour fantasies, Mr.
Brangwyn, whose Windmill, near Ditchling,
and Cannon Street Station are magnificent
designs handled with masterly confidence,
Mr. Oliver Hall, Mr. Russell Flint,
Mr. A. J. Munnings, and Sir Herbert
Hughes-Stanton, all of whom are repre-
sented by paintings of notable quality ;
and other good things come from Mr.
R. W. Allan, , Mr. Moffat Lindner, Mr.
H. E. Crocket, Mr. Cecil Hunt, Mr.
Lamorna Birch, Mr. W. W. Russell,
Mr. H. S. Tuke, Mr. Rackham, Mr. Lee
Hankey, and Mr. James Paterson. Gener-
ally the traditions of the society are
excellently maintained. 000
In the exhibition of the Royal Institute
of Painters in Water Colours the most
noteworthy achievements are Sir David
Murray's luminous landscape The Path
of the Rainbow, Mr. Fred Taylor's amaz-

" OXFORD STREET." WATER-
COLOUR BY A. VAN ANROOY

(Royal Institute of Painters
in Water-colours)

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