ART.
EDWARD LEAR.
" How pleasant to know Mr. Lear" is the motto on the catalogue of an exhibition of paintings and drawings at 112 Piccadilly which permits the general public to know for the first time the fullness of his talents. Lear exhibited landscapes at 4-.1.10 Royal Academy and at the Society of British Artists in bin
lifetime, but except by the owners of his pictures and a few students these works have been forgotten, and this beautiful collection that has been brought together and exhibited to assist the funds of a very worthy object reveals an artist with a rare sense of style and a serious student of nature. Study, style, and a deep feeling for a particular kind of beauty pervade nearly all these works. His craftsmanship rises to its highest in the noble Thermopylm (lent by Lady Strachie), a landscape in.the grand manner that takes rank among the finest things of our classical water-colour school, but in such studies as the exquisitely drawn Marble Rocks, Tubbulpore (lent by Lord Northbrook), Cephalonia (lent by the Hon. William Bruce), Ithaca (lent by the Hon. William Bruce), Florence (lent by Lord Northbrook), and the two Carrara views we see his very personal approach to beauty in its freshest and most delicate moments. The rich brooding influence of Samuel Palmer can be felt in many of the pictures, particu- larly in the small oil painting, Morn Broadened on the Borders of the Dark (lent by Lady Strachie). Holman Hunt, who gave Lear lessons in painting while Lear gave Holman Hunt lessons in Italian, is also brought to mind by some of the Eastern drawings, and, of course, Turner's influence is never difficult to find in the work of any topographical artist of last century ; but none of these influences go very deep. Lear has left us a personal legacy of beauty as well as his famous legacy of fun, and we are grateful to the ladies who have organized this exhibition and made London aware of it.
J. B.
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