12 FEBRUARY 1954, Page 12

ART

a-crown of anyone's money. Among other attractions are Bernardo Bellotto's impres- sive Piazza del Campidoglio, once attributed to Canaletto ; a cunning, pig-eyed Thomas Cromwell and a Flemish Catherine of Spain ; a typically and oddly haunting group by the brothers Le Nain ; a lovely Gainsborough 'fancy piece' of children and cattle, three lovely Hobbemas and Blake's Satan Calling up His Legions. Worth noting, too, are the odd little painting of a Cistercian or Car- thusian Sister by the engraver Jean Barbault, and the view of Windsor Castle by Jan Griffier (1652/6-1718) with the scholars playing in the foreground.

Another provincial collection makes its bow at Agnew's, where the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, shows some 120 examples from the finest collection of English

watercolours outside the .metropolis—many of them never before seen in London. This . is a must, and to the Gallery—now hard hit by rising costs—go the proceeds of this exhibition.

Two other mixed shows demand a visit. The Lefevre Gallery have some fine French paintings of the last and present centuries, few of them familiar. A Courbet seascape, in the glimmer of twilight, with the topmost surface of a heavy, oppressive bank of cloud catching the last of the sun, is particularly impressive. A couple of doors away Messrs. Tooth are presenting an anthology of British contemporaries, notable among them Stanley Spencer who shows four canvases, including two from a new series dealing with Cookham Regatta.

M. n. MIDDLETON