ART
Recording Britain. At the National Gallery.
THE second exhibition of the work of artists entrusted with the task of recording the " changing face of Britain " is now on view at the National Gallery. The first exhibition, last summer, repre- sented twenty-one counties, and the present exhibition consists of a selection of about "too drawings of subjects in twenty-one counties in England and Wales of which more than half are areas previously untouched." It also includes a group of drawings of Windsor Castle by John Piper, which have been lent by H.M. the Queen, who commissioned them from the artist.
Mr. Piper's drawings of churches and other buildings are well known, and these new pictures are worthy of his reputation. They all show Windsor Castle in various aspects with a firm grasp of significant detail subordinated always to a strongly romantic con- ception. That is to say, they are much more than fine topographical drawings, they are the work of a remarkable artistic vision combined with fine, unfaltering craftsmanship. The exhibition generally witnesses to a healthy vitality among our artists. I would draw attention particularly to Thomas Hennell's Beech Avenue at Lachem, a fine example of the work of this gifted draughtsman ; to Kenneth Rowntree's Cox's Farm—soon to be submerged under the Derwent Valley Reservoir scheme ; to Michael Rothenstein's Great Shambles, a street in the old part of York ; to Mildred Eldridge's delightful Baptism in the River Ceirrog, Denbigh ; and to Mona Moore's characterful Welsh studies. The committee responsible for this enterprise (which has been made possible by the generosity of the Pilgrim Trustees, with the assistance of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, the Georgian Society and other bodies) deserves our warmest thanks for their admirable use of these artists' services in wartime. JAMES REDFERN.
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