ART
WHAT more is there to be said about Blake? Nothing in the five hundred words at my disposal. It has been established by posterity, backed by voices of far greater authority than my own, that Blake was an unique genius and one of the glories of his native land. If anyone has any doubts about this they had better go to the National Gallery, where reassurance will be rapid. I would suggest a particular study of the horses of Elijah about to Ascend in the Chariot of Fire, and then a look at the Tate's new Rouault, The Three Judges, in the next room. It proves nothing, but the technical approach is extraordinarily similar. Equally it is interesting to compare certain water-colours of Paul Nash and David Jones with another Blake in the collection, of two people in a wood. One comes to the rather obvious conclusion that time is a non-existent factor in Art, except in terms of glamour, and that much-vaunted word "originality." Originality is an aspect of painting wherein time is important, in terms of influence and what not, and Blake lived before his time, but forgetting all that, and looking at the pictures—they are neither ancient nor modern, but absolute.
The Tate has acquired many fine pictures since the outbreak elf war, both English and French, and among the latest additions are several discerning purchases, in particular the fine Wyndham Lewis, the Burras, and the fine early Gertler. The gallery has also been fortunate in receiving several excellent presentations, including the Bonnard After Tea, the Modigliani, the big .Mathew Smith still life, and the exquisite Paul Nash, Pillar and Moon. But there are some strange discrepancies and curious choices. Why, for instance, the dull Fuseli head? Why only one Sutherland and eleven Moores? Why two pictures by Leonard Appelbee, and none by Robert Colquhoun? Why the second-rate Grant Hayrick and the bad Smith Young Actress? Why a Ceri Richards and not a William Scott? Still, on the credit side is the intelligent acquisition of a John Martin, and the remarkable Frances Hodgkins, Two Women With a Basket of Flowers. This picture, which I imagine is an early work, is almost in the manner of Toulouse Lautrec, and does not fall short of the French artist's general standard.
To all this detail may be added the statement that no public collection of pictures in France can hold a candle to the Tate, either for quality or variety, in spite of the miserable allowance of L500 per annum for the nation's purchase of works of art, and its conse- quent reliance on the benefaction of individuals and societies.
Tooths has a pleasant show, containing a notable Sickert, a good John landscape, Nash's big Circle of Monoliths, and a Spencer townscape of St. Ives. At the Lefevre Gallery is a roomful of Spencer Gores. There is something tame about these pictures. The craftsmanship is good, and certain paintings such as Letchworth are pleasant, but the pictures influenced by les Fauves, such as Garden of 2 Houghton Place, are as " wildbeast " as a very old circus lion in a cage. At the same gallery is a Sutherland, which I think should go to the Tate at once. It is called Narrow Road between Hedges,
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