ART.
THE CONTEMPORARY ART SOCIETY.
SUPPOSE that to have backed the winning horse in any Derby would certainly bring you a fortune in years to conic. You would, of course, put a little on every horse every year. That, roughly, is what the Contemporary Art Society to do. It is morally certain that among the young artists of any time there is at least one, there are probably several, whose works will one day•be universally held as masterpieces. Then the nation will wish to purchase them ; and the nation will have to pay the prices of masterpieces. The Society proposes to buy the work of young artists, while they are still cheap, and then to give or loan them to the public collec- tions of London and the provinces when they are wanted. This not only forms a storehouse for the nation, but in the meantime encourages the painters just at the time when they most need financial aid. Many pictures have already been bought (the Society was founded in 1910), some have already become forty times as valuable as when they were bought and form part of our national collections. The scope of the Society's work is naturally limited by the subscriptions which are received, and I wish in this note not only to recognize the splendid purpose and already remarkable achievement of the Society, but also to plead for that help which will enable the work to be extended.
An exhibition of pictures acquired• by the Society, with several loaned works " to give an idea of what the Society might buy if it had the means," was recently held at Grosvenor House. The result was surprising, and a high compliment to the Society's buyers. It inspired full confidence, but even without full confidence the Society should be encouraged. It cannot fail to back the winners if it has the money to back all the artists who are held by any serious opinion to be in the running.
Subscriptions should be sent to the Hon. Secretary, Lord Henry Bentinek, M.P., at 16 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. I. ANTHONY BERTRAM.
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