Art
[EARLY ENGLISH WATER-COLOURS. WALKER'S GALLERY.]
Mr. Auguste Walker is an acknowledged authority on the Early English School of water-colour painting, and for his 25th annual exhibition he has assembled at his gallery in Bond Street a collection of about a hundred and seventy-five pictures which should bring joy to the hearts of all lovers of the school of that period. First mention must go to the four works by Alexander Cozens (period 1746-1786). Pictures by this artist are rare. All four are in monochrome, though his Bathing Scene has some other colour mixed through it giving a slightly green effect. Rocky Island is the best of the four. The island lies spread out, something like a map, and tails away into the distance, and the whole effect is rather weird. Near it is a work by J. R. Cozens, his son--London from Green- wich, painted in 1791. It is a fine view with the dome of St. Paul's showing behind the sweep of the river and shipping. Country Lane with Cattle Drinking is the best of the three de Wints. The only J. S. Cotman is uninteresting. There are two Girtins, the one of Lincoln Cathedral, painted in 1798, showing the small steeples on the West Towers, which are now no more, and whose removal caused such a commotion. Among the lesser known painters the following deserve men- tion : Haymaking and Windmills, two very delicate and pleasing small works by R. Brandard, Landscape with Stream and Cottage, by Samuel Austin, and Mountain Pastoral, by P. S. Munn. There are a few works by foreign artists, among which three dainty drawings by Edouard de Beaumont are noticeable.
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