17 OCTOBER 1931, Page 3

Two Academicians The Royal Academy, while mourning the death of

Sir William Orpen, has lost two more popular and dis- tinguished members in Mr. Charles Ricketts and Sir Bertram Mackennal. Mr. Ricketts, who was sixty-five, was one of the most versatile artists of our time. As painter and engraver and as a designer of stage scenery and costumes lie was equally successful, and he wrote well on the old masters, whom, with his lifelong friend and colleague Mr. Charles Shannon, he had studied pro- foundly. Sir Bertram Mackennal, who was sixty-eight, was the son of an Australian sculptor. He attracted attention at a very early age by the grace and charm of his modelling, and the promise was fulfilled in the many important works of his maturity. He was the sculptor of the memorial to King Edward VII, and his was the difficult and delicate task of designing the new coinage of the present reign. He was the first artist from the Dominions and Colonies to be elected to the Royal Academy. Far beyond Oxford Sir Arthur , Cowley's death will be mourned, for he served her and the world of letters well, especially as Bodley's Librarian from 1919 until this year.

* * * *