The New English Art Club, whose third exhibition is now
open, has become the centre of attraction for all who are at once
lovers of Progress and haters of Convention. The exhibitors,
whether members or non-members, are each animated by the
desire to study Nature with unprejudiced eyes, to probe into her
mysteries, and, by patient study and effort, to make her disclose to
them some of her jealously guarded secrets, and to convey their
impressions with loving faithfulness born of carefully acquired
knowledge. Experiments many of the pictures are and needs
must be, but all are justifiable and interesting, even when partial
failure is the result. It must not be forgotten that Rembrandt and
Velasquez — indeed that all art, either individual or culminative,
can only be led up to by tentative efforts. No one could glance
round the fivescore pictures now on view at the Dudley Gallery
without immediate conviction that the New English Art Club
Exhibition is a peculiarly distinctive one. Everywhere there is
manifest, amid all the varied, and sometimes perhaps eccentric,
idiosyncrasies of method and manner, the handiwork of the genuine
artist. Among the most striking characteristics of the exhibition
are the subtle effects of light and atmosphere in intensifying, or as
it were in bringing out, the soul of colour. The light that never
was on sea or land is certainly upon some of these canvases, yet
therein is no derogation from their quintessential truth. This is
the case in Mr. Theodore Roussel's 'Evening in June,' Mr.
Herbert Dalziel's 'Nightfall' — the one bathed in silver-grey va-
pn.iriness, the other irradiate wilh a soft green gloom in which the
lingering daylight harmonises wilh the advancing dusk ; Mr. Arthur
Tomson's pastel ' Moonrise,' luminous in its green tones and
poetic in sentiment, and the ' Spring Evening ' of Mr. Sydney
Starr. Notable among the land and sea scapes are ' Winter on the
Cairn,' by Mr. James Paterson, strong, and very true to nature ;
'A Clouded Moon,' by Mr. T. Hope M'Lachlan, recalling in its
poetical treatment the work of Mr. Cecil Lawson ; Mr. A.
Roche's delicate Corot-like ' Eventide ' ; Mr. Nelson Dawson's
'In the Dogger Bank'; Mr. Edward Stott's 'A Village Street,'
with its brilliant primrose-coloured sky ; and Mr. William Estall's
'Dawn.' Powerful sunshine pervades Mr. H. Scott Tuke's
' Bathers,' flickers dazzlingly through the foliage of his ' In the
Orchard,' and dyes with evening glow the meadow and boys of
the charming 'Water Frolic,' by Mr. Fred. Brown. Sunshine
also illumes Mr. J. Sargent's two pictures — ' St. Martin's,
Siunmer,' very eccentric in treatment, and 'A Morning Walk,' a
girl strolling beside a stream whose colour is rendered marvellously
purple-blue by the reflection of a passing cloud. Mr. Jacques E.
Blanche exhibits two beautiful pieces of still life, delicate in colour
and workmanship. Mr. Walter Sickert has again chosen a
music-hall motive, but this year his treatment thereof is decidedly
more successful. 'I Like Him !— But He Loves Mel' — a
pair of tennis-players who have turned from their game to the
more absorbing theme of love — by Mr. Francis Bate, is full of
subtle gradations of colour, strong and harmonious. Mr. Francis
E. James contributes two exquisite flower pieces, ' A Rose in a
Rummer,' and ' Cineraria,' both distinguished by their perfection
of colour and that peculiar quality of insight wherein Mr. James
as a specialist stands quite alone. Of the portraits, the most
remarkable is Mr. E. A. Walton's fine sombre ' Portrait of a Girl,'
rich in coloration, and masterly in workmanship : this portrait
forms the subject of one of our plates. Mr. P. Wilson Steer's
two striking colour studies are somewhat marred by coarseness
of fibre. Noteworthy also are Mr. Sydney Starr's portrait of the
young poet Mr. Raffalovich ; ' Verve,' by Mrs. Lily Delissa
Joseph, a spirited full-length figure of herself, robed in black
against a dull-red background ; the Whistlerian ' Portrait ' in
silver-grey tones by Mr. Maurice Greiffenhagen ; and the
delicately painted head of a child in a blue frock against a blue
background, by Mr. G. Clausen. Lack of space only permits me
to mention two delicate studies in silverpoint by Mr. George
Thomson, jlr. Frank Short's aquatint ' The Curfew,' and excellent
pastels by Miss Elizabeth A. Armstrong (who also exhibits a
drypoint). Miss Annie Ayrton, Mr. Bernard Sickert, and Mr.
Henry Muhrman. The younger Scottish artists are well repre-
sented. Besides Messrs. E. A. Walton, A. Roche, T. Hope
M'Lachlan, Herbert Dalziel, and J. Paterson, there are interesting,
and in one or two instances valuable, examples of the art of Messrs.
T. Millie Dow, J. E. Christie, J. Guthrie, George Henry, Well-
wood Rattray, and J. Lavery, whose ' Note ' of the Glasgow
International Exhibition is excellent.
The Royal Institute of Water-Colour Painters. — It
would certainly be straining the quality of mercy beyond endurance
if we were to say that the show at the Royal Institute of Water-
Colour Painters was good, yet it certainly is not so bad as it has
been made out. That is chiefly owing to the work of outsiders,
which is occasionally very fine. Robert W. Allan's ' Breezy day in
Arran' (128) is fresh and unconventional, and offers a good example
of freedom to the hidebound technique about it. A lady's work
(172) is a hitherto unnoticed bit of sweet colour by Miss M. J.
Sherbrook, while near it is Nelson Dawson's ' Holy Island Sands'
(181), which is equal to his best work. Some small figure studies
by H. Cafiieri, R.I., are worth looking at, though too much alike,
with badly painted skies. 'Music hath Charms ' (240), by Henri
Dumont, is a charming piece of work, and very original in feeling.
What Mr. Tuke of Falmouth sends is always worth looking at,
and 328 and 535 are not exceptions to the rule. Charles H. Shan-
non's ' Red Mammoth ' (370) is a clever and astonishing production
after the manner of his oil in the Grosvenor last year, and is superb
in colour. There are several good specimens of Mr. East's work.
Josef Israels' sends two, one 'The Widower' (510), and the other
'Coming Home.' Mr. Stock, R.I., has by far the most striking
work by a member, and. ' Immortality's Sunrise ' (590) is worthy
both in feeling and execution, though it is not quite a success,
while a ' Musician's Fancies ' (S07) is very striking. What Claude
Hayes sends is also noticeable, 713 perhaps especially. Yet in
spite of there being as much good work as this (and a few others
besides) the general effect of the exhibition is not encouraging.
Mr. M'Lean in the Haymarket has a small collection of
British and Foreign pictures. Jules Breton's ' Cape of Antibes ' (5)
is fine in colour and tone, and well painted. Mr. Edwin Ellis's
'Morning Catch' is good, but, like all his work, a little heavy,
while the values are doubtful, to say the least of it. There are
several noticeable things by Mr. J. W. Goodward, the apt
follower of Mr. Tadema ; but the only thing in the room really
worth taking much trouble to see is Munkacsy's 'Love and Song'
(36), the painting of which is simple, and simply astonishing in its
cleverness. It seems the very acme of technical dexterity in almost
every part, for the faces, the hands, the flowers, and all the acces-
sories of the whole picture, could hardly be better, save perhaps in
the girl's dress, which is a little slovenly.
Mr. Tooth, next door, has a larger exhibition wilh much re-
markably good stuff in it. F. Eisenhut's ' I pray you for your
charity,' an Eastern begging scene, is as good as a course of lessons
in painting to many of the Englishmen whose work hangs near it.
There are several Meissoniers in the gallery, but they are not all
good specimens of the artist's work. A head by Bouguereau (64)
should be looked at, while D. Farquharson's ' Strathtay ' is better
than some one has seen of his of late. F. Del Campo's ' Harbour,
Capri' (So), is admirable in colour and composition, and strikes
one as very true. No. 92, 'The Last Shot,' by G. H. Staack-
mann, is a daring piece of painting, but succeeds in ex]5ressing an
instantaneous act very well indeed. P. Bedini's ' Under the
Lindens' (113), a nun under trees in strong sunshine, is admir-
able. The sole example of Fortuny here is ' Le Jardin du Poete,'
which is about fifty pictures in one, without a focus and tickled up
all over. Vet the colour is fine, and individual parts of the
painting very good. There are two of Frank HoU's earlier
pictures here, and they are wonderful, both of them, in feeling and
in execution, but the last, ' Gone ' (122), three female figures in a
station with a train departing, is tremendous. That HoU should
have been drawn aside by the power of money from this work to
portraiture is one of the most melancholy instances of genius mis-
applied and power wasted that this generation affords.
The French Gallery. — The exhibition of the work of Con-
tinental artists at the French Gallery is a very interesting one, and
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EXHIBITIONS
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