ART.
THE ACADEMY.—II.
SOME four or five years ago a rumour reached the outside -world that there were dissensions at the Academy over the question of accepting for exhibition a statue by Mr, Bayard Thomas. It was even said that certain Academicians had threatened to resign if the work were not placed in the gallery. Needless to say the statue was rejected and no one deft the Academic body. Lycidas, the statue in question, now stands in the Tate Gallery, a monument to the genius of the ,sculptor and the folly of those who refused to give it a place. Whether because they have learnt some- thing or because they feared a greater and more damaging =scandal, the powers that be this year have allowed us to see a work by Mr. Havard Thomas, Thyrsis (1,990), which rises to a level not attained by any picture or statue in the exhibition Here we feel that the sculptor is a complete master of his craft when tested by the most exacting standard, for his work depends solely on an inspired rendering of the human form without help from anything else. The charm of the statue resides in the fact that the artist, although he has com- plete mastery, works with all the zest and passion of a discoverer treading new paths. There is no self- eatisfied use of methods already perfectly acquired
— no virtuosity which seeks to astonish. For this reason we at once think of Donatello and his inspired naturalism. Mr. Thomas without a trace of affectation gives is those qualities which delight us in primitive art, the art '3ivilich has in it the joy of being on the threshold of new places and not in the worn rut of custom. Most artists feel the need of this freshness of outlook, and many seek to attain it by doing something startling and end in the mere production of a trick. One of the impressive things about this statue is its aloofness: it has no connexion with the surrounding works It stands in its own world of poetry. When we turn from it and go into the next room where the huge monumental images stand in rows we begin to think of the Euston Road. It is sincerely to be hoped that the Thyrsis will eventually adorn a national collection and that the mistake of the neglect .of Stevens will not be repeated with regard to an English sculptor of genius.
A picture which has primitive qualities is Mr. Strang's Bank Holiday (712). There is a force and directness of painting -which is uncommon, and an expressiveness which is arresting. The scene is a commonplace one—a girl and a young man at a restaurant table—but there is a passion about the statement of the facts which makes the picture unforgettable. Mr. Strang, though he has used strong colour, has avoided, to our comfort, those cold and violent hues he too often delights in. Mr. Sims gives us the idea of being an extremely able man ardently anxious to say something but not knowing what to say. His picture, The Shower (63), is full of brilliant passages, but marred as a whole by freakish irrelevance. The oolour of the things seen through the descending rain on the left side of the picture is beautiful, and the spirit with which the Rubens-like avalanche of figures and draperies in the centre is painted is charming ; the souffle is very well made and very light, but it has too many flavourings in it to be a satisfying dish. A restless. ness of quite a different kind is seen in Mrs. Swynnerton's circular portrait group (282). Here the colour is deep and gorgeous, a real harmony, not a collection of bright colours ; but the background of apple trees is too distracting, and the legs of the child on the right do not seem to belong to any thing in particular. However, the centre of the picture, with the black and gold of the lady's dress and the lovely child on the right with the pale blues, is certainly one of the most satisfactory pieCes of colour in the exhibition. The other portrait by the same hand (780) suffers from the defect of too much disorder in the surroundings, but the characterization of the face is excellent, and, as is usual with this artist, the colour harmony is strong and distinguished.
Mr. Orpen reserves his somewhat prosaic portraits for the Academy, usually sending his more interesting pictures else- where. His three portraits this year are remarkable more for their great power than for their pictorial qualities. The lady in the group (197) is a fine piece of realization achieved by solid means without trick ; but taken as a whole the work is unsatisfactory. The two figures do not unite in a pattern, but remain unconnected, in spite of the painter's efforts to achieve a composition by his favourite device of a circular mirror reflecting himself. Mr. Orpen's portrait of H. Brittain, Esq. (467), has unity of effect, attained by sacrificing everything to the head ; but it is a masterly performance.
Mr. J. Crealock has contrived a very original and graceful arrangement of form and colour in his portrait, The Red Sofa (92). A sense of space is conveyed by the narrow strip of white wall framed on either side by the dark green curtains, adding dignity to the graceful figure in black on the red sofa. The picture is moderate in size and is painted with both power and restraint.
Mr. Arnesby Brown has determined to be effective and powerful, and his picture, A Norfolk Landscape (237), tells even at the end of the next room. For this carrying power he has sacrificed a good deal. Even at a moderate distance it causes the work, except the very ably 'painted cattle in the foreground, to lack distinction. The composition consists of horizontal and parallel lines of country, which produce the feeling that we are looking at a section only of a wide view. The eye is not kept within the frame, but feels that only a part of the subject has been revealed, not all of it that there was or ever could be. Mr. Bertram Priestman's picture, Sunset and Smoke on the Rochester River (248), has the concentration lacking in the last-mentioned work : here we feel that what we see is the whole. Mr. E. Proctor's large snow scene (189) has qualities of realization which go far to atone for want of interest in colour. There is a dinginess which is not necessary even in so sombre a work ; but the stormy sky and the hillside both show power of expression.
In conclusion may be mentioned the unfinished work by the late Mr. Abbey, The Education of Isabella the Catholic (114), with its fine treatment of black ; Mr. Waterhouse's portrait of Miss Betty Pollock (185), remarkable for its beautifu(l5a6n8)d, delicate colour ; Mr. Sims's little picture, A Spring Muse
with its beautifully felt landscape background; Mr. H. E. Bowman's Village Street, Moonlight (599), with its true realization of the blue of night ; and Sir Charles Holroyd's decorative fancy, The Garland (721). H. S.
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