ART.
ARCHITECTURE AT THE ACADEMY. [COMMUNICATED.] ARCHITECTURE, to judge from its form at this year's exhibition, has certainly taken a turn for the better. Them is less of
mere undistinguished pedestrian competence and distinctly more of the true fire. With Sir Edwin Lutyens, R.A., now
amongst the judges, the despondent may object that the im-
provement is more apparent than real, as a man of genius would obviously choose for exhibition the best of what
was submitted. There is certainly more than a little in this,
for the selection in the past has sometimes been extremely curious. Perhaps the unfortunate joint architectural design of three Royal Academicians that so surprised us at last year's exhibition gave some clue as to what kind of thing was accept- able, but, if it did, the profession generally clearly preferred to risk exclusion by designing to please itself.
Be that as it may, there is plenty of individuality as well as a pleasing variety of outlook. The year's " fashion," however, would seem to be the extremely flat-pitched roof with wide overshadowing eaves--this style being worn indifferently by all classes—cottages, mansions, and public buildings. In the blinding light that the exhilarating water-colours indicate (usually by Mr. Farey), it all looks appropriate enough, but in these islands the Italian sky is almost as rare as the back- ground of cypresses—also an important part of the composition.
War memorials naturally still predominate, taking many shapes —gardens, temples, crosses, screens, towers, churches, chapels, and halls. The Whitehall Cenotaph has not been without its effect, the most successful essay in this direction being the Portsmouth memorial by Mr. Barnard. In the centre of the main wall is a design by Sir Aston Webb, P.R.A., showing his own conception of the Cenotaph idea—and what has actually happened in the City of London. The present writer has seen the monument itself and can only say that the drawing exhibited is an honest confession of what has been done. Immediately above is a free Baroque design for the Bishop's Stortford school chapel by Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis that owes something to Wren but more to seventeenth-century Spain.
Sir Robert. Lorimer is most interesting in that he has com- posed trophies of arms in the manner of Blondel or of Mansart with modern weapons only, yet with triumphant success. There are " tin hats," wire-cutters, field-telephones, Mills bombs, stick- grenades, Verey light pistols, field-glasses, rifles, coils of barbed wire, machine-guns, H.V. shells, and even gas-masks. They tell more of the war than do most " allegorical groups," and, as here treated, form a beautiful and intricate pattern that adds great interest to the screen that it adorns. We seem to lack the engaging aptitude for trophies that has always distinguished the French, and indeed to be somewhat shy of them. The present writer vividly recalls the deletion of a particularly treasured trophy of arms from a war memorial design of his own because the committee " didn't see the sense of a salvage-dump." Sir Robert's admirable rendering might well have won them round. At any rate, it is fine propaganda for the Military Trophy. The Carillon tower is a form that a town memorial might often take with advantage—so many English towns being in obvious need of some dominating feature so situated as to catch the eye and• give the place a centre and a focus when seen from without. Such a feature has Mr. Tapper designed for Loughborough in his pleasant Campanile. Of the remaining war memorials, Messrs. Granger and Leather& columnar screen and garden court should be mentioned ; also Messrs. Newton's speech-hall for Marlborough, and Mr. Walker's dignified Mill Hill Assembly Hall.
Private " Luxury Building " is, as might be expected, but thinly represented, though a Scotch-Baronial • palace " for a Royal personage " (presumably hypothetical) shows that so far as projets are concerned, the law of supply and demand does not operate. "To Noblemen and Men of Wealth," as the advertisements say, Mr. Robert Atkinson's sumptuous interiors ought especially to appeal. He has a. great flair for luxurious pomp. On the whole, however, it is the quantity and quality of the " commercial " architectural designs that are most encouraging. Th. precepts of Mr. Selfridge regarding Architecture and Commerce, and his own shining example, are clearly being neglected no longer. Sir John Burnet, who is further extending the Selfridge store on an heroic scale, shows his bold design for an impressive tower of office buildings and warehouses at London Bridge that contrives to combine akv-scraping d la Americaine with a monumental quality all ite own. To Mr. Curtiss Green are due the palatial premises for the Woleeley Company now building at the head of Arlington Street—the design fur the entrance hall being especially notable for its gracious . dignity. Then there are banks, factories,
departmental stores, warehouses, power houses (in Egypt and Ireland), and shops.
Most of us have remarked the delightful series of fish shops —" Macfisheries "—that have recently been appearing in various parts of London—shops that are admirably designed and equipped for their especial trade, and that display their wares in the most alluring fashion whilst duly preserving their freshness. The purchase of a haddock can now become a high aesthetic pleasure—a novel possibility entirely due to Mr. Leslie Mansfield, who shows his design for the shop in Bond Street. The private individual who can afford to be a munificent patron of the arts is becoming ever more rare, and his final extinction may be even now at hand. If the new aristocracy of commerce will but call in the artists, art may yet flourish in its service, and, as an enlightened few of these men of affairs have already discovered, may enhance their reputations and their revenues at the same time.
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