Some notes, written by Mi'. Stott concerning his
ideal of the picture of his ' Birth of ^'enus/ are before us.
' VeniiSj if ever born, must have been born fresli from
the sea, from the foam beautiful and pure, with no
mark of her godhead upon her but her beauty. If
attendant gods there were, or Tritons or sea-nymphs,
surely thej' were invisible as air, for what eyes would
see, or care to see, anything which miglit interrupt this
vision of creamy foam, turquoise-blue sea, and ))alpi-
t.ating new-born thing, amazed at her existence ? The
only possible intruder is the gull, which pauses in its
flight to look.'
It would be difficult for a painter to realise this ideal.
As a composition of line .and colour, the picture is most
skilful and delicate. The white-limbed goddess,
standing with two arms outspread, is the key-note to
the circular composition. About her, the curve of the
wave that has given her birth, the retiring and ad-
vancing froth-ci'owned water, now pushing forward,
now barring the semicircular sweep ; the shimmer of
light in the wet sand ; the melting away of the dis-
tance into the island of Arcadia, over which hover
two faint pink clouds, make up a satisfying harmony.
What disappoints us is the Venus herself
In his rebellion against any attempt to intellectualise
art, in his passionate assertion that art must appeal by
beauty only to that which is sensuous and simple with-
in us, he misses, we think, its essential appeal — that of
the suggestion of a spiritual beauty, of which the phj--
sical is but the emblem and token.
In the ' Nymph ' sleeping in the wood, we have a ren-
dering of repose and soft harmony of line. The beauty
of the greenness of underwood, of sunlight dripping
through the foliage, of the soft lusciousness of flowers
in the half light, play about the flesh tints of the
sleeping nymph, differing and yet agreeing with this
chord of colour. The circular composition has once
more the figure for the key-note.
In his last capital work, ' Diana and Endymion,' Mr.
Stott has rendered, with broad and pregnant touch, the
effect of a world drenched in moonlight. The senti-
ment of night imbued with radiance is given with ex-
traordinary felicity. The poppies, the still trees, the
dimly seen figure of iMidymion, are part of a visionary
world. Out of a giant crescent, the mighty radiance of
which sweeps from sky to earth, Diana has stepped,
slightly veiled in a web of moonbeams. We re-
produce the sketch of the figure. She walks along
with a quick step : no goddess, but a perfect note
of colour in this moonlight symphony. To sum up,
the figures, as figures, in Mr. Stott' s work are, to our
thinking, debateable. As effects of nature of the same
order as the skies and streams and flowers, they are
equally marvellous with these in his rendering of them.
And of the natural objects in his work we may be
always sure. His pure landscape offers us one of the
purest delights the soul can know. To enjoy him
without alloy of doubt or qualification, we must still
turn to those compositions in which earth and sea and
sky, and light and space, the great elemental beauties,
are the all in all.
We have indicated here some onlj^ of Mr. Stott's
most prominent works. The exhibition of his pictures,
in the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris, contained a num-
ber of lesser works. Some of these, in pastels and
water-colours, were gems of colour ; representing evan-
escent effects of moonlight, delicate mists, sketches of
sky and sea. There too were shown sketches, and
more finished renderings, taken during a visit last
summer and autumn in Switzerland. Mr. Stott en-
camped among the frozen altitudes of the Jungfrau,
and watched, through the night till dawn, the white
world given over to the sway of the September moon.
From this experience he has brought back impressions
of a charmed scene of incomparable whiteness and
gleam.
In the sketches, struck off in the very heart of nature,
Mr. Stott appears to us unrivalled as a poet-painter.
In the sketches of heads we have reproduced, artists
will, we think, admire not only a most delicate sense
of beauty in line, but a power of characterisation which
shows how far Mr. Stott might go as a portrait-
painter, if he could dissociate his mind from the
ever dominant impression of the surroundings of his
figures.
Alice Corkran.
Mr. ORcn.RDS0N' is the painter of elegance in all its moods.
His picture for the forthcoming Royal Academy represents a
company of gentlemen standing round a table toasting their
host. The walls of the large room are hung with tapestries ;
the table is laden with fruit, flowers, plate glass, all glowing in the
lamp-light. The gentlemen wear the costume of the time of the
Regency. Delicate salmon-pink and golden satin coats and waist-
coats give the key-note to the scheme of colour. Lace cuffs
and ample neckties, their gold embroideries and jewelled swords,
all the dainty masculine paraphernalia of the time, is delightfully
painted. The uplifted slender hands holding the glasses filled
with wine, the air of distinction of the convivial group, are
rendered in Mr. Orchardson's best style. The host is an aristo-
crat of the old French school, long-nosed, bright-eyed, an
expression of finesse on every feature. Every accessory in the
scene is painted with that sense of beauty which distinguishes
Mr. Orchardson's work. A dish full of roses is a marvel of
dexterous manipulation. The sheen of the satin has a flower-
like sweetness of tone. It is all so charming, and yet we wish
Mr. Orchardson had chosen a theme that reminded us a little less
of some of his former pictures.
Mr. Barrett Brow.ning is sending from his studio in the
Ke/.zonico Palace, Venice, an almost full-length portrait of his
father to the Spring Exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery. Mr.
Browning is represented standing, and in profile. He wears a
leather-coloured heavy tweed coat with a cape, negligently draped
about his figure. He holds a hat in his slightly crossed hands.
The attitude and the animated expression of the countenance are
very characteristic of Mr. Browning.
Sir James Linton has let his house and studio at Hampstead,
and is about to open an art school in Kensington.
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WILLIAM STOTT OF OLDHAM
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