ART.
THE GROSVENOR GALLERY.
THE Grosvenor this year is the most interesting of the Exhibitions. It might have been expected that the nets of the Academy and New Gallery would drag the waters clean, or leave only the smallest of fry for Sir Coutts Lindsay. Instead of that, he has made for a new fishing-ground, and been rewarded by a splendid haul. The Grosvenor of thia year publishes a new set of painters, and the publication is only second in interest to that of the famous first exhibition in the same Gallery.
The occasion is a convenient one for recalling a few of the. events between then and now. In that exhibition, two strong notes were publicly struck. There was the art of Mr. Burne- Jones, and that of Mr. Whistler. In the first was revealed a man haunted by a particular and beautiful type of face, a genius of the first order in design, a decorative colourist. But the range of application of his art was limited and remote, and it had nothing to say to those technical problems—methods, that is, for including new facts—with which modern painting is pre- occupied. It therefore founded no school, only tempted a few feeble parodists. Mr. Whistler's art, on the other hand, did offer new points of artistic attack upon the actual and modern, and accordingly has had a strong influence on the younger men. This movement was reinforced by a fresh contingent from Parisian studios, the English and American "Impressionists," among whom were Mr. John Sargent and Mr. Stott of Oldham. Then four years ago came the opening of the New English Art Club ; and there, side by side with the "London Impressionists," two other elements declared them- selves. One was the Newlyn School, a band of painters who apply to the old popular and homely incident an accomplished modern technique. The other was a new Scotch band of painters. At the New English Art Club this spring, two. things were evident. Newlyn had deserted in a body to the Academy. Glasgow was not at its best. That is explained now. Glasgow has gone over to the Grosvenor.
What are the characteristics of this school P—for the element of "school" is clear from a glance at the walls. There is the- stamp of a common inspiration about the work of Messrs- Guthrie, Roche, Lavery, Melville, and Hornel. We might attempt to label it under those French names that sugges1. themselves as obvious prototypes. But there is stuff and original power enough in the work to make it more than a derivative. Its general character is, that while handling the resources of modern technique, it uses them to a distinctly decorative purpose. The real is there, but the artists are not satisfied with that subjection of the object to the nature of paint where the modern artist often sets up his rest ; they compel the thing as well into a tapestry. Sometimes the result is frankly this last and nothing more, as in the Druid fantasy of Messrs. Henry and Hornel (173) ; but in the "Wild Hyacinths" (163) of the latter, it is still possible to interpret the wood as a place seen like that, seen very carefully, it is true, and by a man in search of a tapestry point of view for Nature, but still seen. And when we go on to Mr. Guthrie's " Orchard " (195), the balance of Nature and decoration hangs fairly even. It is noticeable all through this work, as a symptom of its tendency, that the opposition of dark land against bright sky, which in Nature is the most striking of facts, and the most disturbing to a design that aims at equality of tone in all its parts, is got over in various ways, as by bringing the horizon high up, or by shutting out most of the sky with trees. Mr. E. A. Walton, in his " Landscape " (40), attempts, not altogether successfully, to reduce a large space of sky to a deep low-toned blue. The most aggressive of the pictures under consideration is Mr. Arthur Melville's "Audrey and her Goats" (109). It is a large canvas of great simplicity and force. The prevailing colour is rich green of grass and trees, broken by an autumn russet. The russet becomes red in the hair of the goat-girl. The brown shaggy herd completes the design. The effect of truth is surprising in a picture, and if Mr. Melville could hear the abuse lavished on his goats, he ought to feel encouraged. Mary Queen of Scots has been more dangerous to painters than ever she was to statesmen ; but she rests quite harmlessly under Mr. Lavery's trees (41) : picture holds its own, and history routs dimly in the background. Mr. Roche is feeble in his "Garden of Girls" (223), but he has a pretty portrait- study, " Marie " (134). Mr. T. Millie Dow points the danger of decoration not well enough fed (" Afterglow," 128).
And now it is time to turn to the rest of the exhibition, for there is other good work to be noticed. There is the curiously different manner of Mr. George Clausen, with its cold, clear tints (" Girl at the Gate," 51). Drawing, painting, palette, are those of Bastien Lepage, and it is surprising that so much talent should keep so close to its master. There are two examples here of the landscape work of Mr. Henry Mahrman, whom we noticed recently (30 and 35). Both are rather mannered. There are two clever portraits by Mr. J. J. Shannon (15 and 74) ; and Miss Maude Millett in a wonderful dress, by Mr. C. W. Bartlett (165). Mr. Orchardson has painted himself for the Uffizi in his well-known yellow way (36), and Mr. Pettie's portrait of Mr. J. Campbell Noble (115), if it is not good painting, is a fair reminiscence of Rulaens, and a striking face.
Mr. Stott's Lempriere piece (" Diana, Twilight and Dawn," 190) is not good enough for him of Oldham. Has he been playing himself on those yellow sands (11) too long ? Mr. John R. Reid is another painter in danger. He has five works here, and the manner, which used to suggest fairly enough open-air illumination, seems to be going off into ineffective rawness. Mr. David Murray exhibits largely everywhere, and yet maintains his own level. "A Doubtful Crop" (59) is his best here. The same may be said of Mr. Henry Moore (" Sand-Laden Surf," 63). Another ubiquitous painter is Mr. Brartgwyn, and the worst of him is, that, having seen him once, we seem to have seen him all. The big, leaden-coloured sea- piece was a good pattern for once, but its variations have the air of having been arranged in the studio, not freshly observed (" Sail Ho 1 " 219). Mr. Napier Hemp, on the other hand, takes a fresh turn in his " Oporto " (174), and Mr. Peppercorn in his two contributions (73 and 191). There is sunshine in Mr. W. Estall's "Down by the Brook" (9), Mr. Mark Fisher's "Cows in Orchard" (10), and Mr. T. C. Morton's "A Scotch Harvest" (168). The neighbour of this last, Mr. Wellwood Rattray's "Passing Shower" (167), and Mr. James Paterson's "The Moon is Up" (158), are also noticeable. Mr. W. Kennedy's "Cooking Trenches" (105) is a bright sketch, and Mr. T. Austen Brown's little evening piece, " Gossips " (112), is good. Among all these younger men, a veteran, Sir William Fettes Douglas, holds his own with an old and beautiful " Stonehaven from Bervie Braes" (139), the roof-tops of the fishing town, with a stretch of silver sea,-water behind them. Among the water-colours should be seen Mr. Melville's
Javanaise Dancers" (341), Mr. Nisbet's " Tentsmuir, Fife" (337), Mr. R. Jones's "The 'Neptune's' Last Mooring" (340), and Mr. C. J. Watson's Dutch sketches (324 and 343). "It will be noticed," says the catalogue, "that Sir Coutts Lindsay has this year hung some pictures on the staircase." If Sir Coutts Lindsay likes the result, and will in future hang his own pictures there, we will make every effort not to notice them (" The Vision of Endymion," 102).
Previous page
