6 MAY 1938, Page 6

Sir William Llewellyn's announcement that the Royal Academy will devote

its next Winter Exhibition to Scottish art arouses expectations which cannot very obviously be satisfied. Are Scottish paintings of the quality for a Winter Exhibition available ? The English exhibition in 1934 was already rather a come-down after its great predecessors, but it could at any rate put up a fight. But what can Scottish painting put forward to rival the canvases which have till now hung in Burlington House ? Some good Allan Ramsays, some brilliant Raebums for those that like his particular form of flash, some worthy Wilkies, the' Glasgow school, and some landscapes of the Highlands ? This would make an interesting show in a small gallery or as an exhibition at the Scottish Academy, but as the central feature of the year in London it seems hardly adequate. A good deal may depend on what private houses may yield. Last winter's Seventeenth- Century Exhibition owed a great deal to them.