ART
ALTHOUGH Sickert died but four years ago, he may be considered, not unfairly, to have belonged to a previous generation and another age. Historically, his place in English painting is secure enough ; he was, with Steer, the great English Impressionist. At the same time I doubt -whether it is merely fashion which finds the sombre poetry of his early work more personal and exciting than those later canvases in high Impressionistic key. An opportunity to study his development from the Whistlerian days of the early 'eighties, through Dieppe and Camden Town to the nineteen-twenties, is offered by Messrs. Roland, Browse and Delbanco, who have arranged an admir- able and representative little exhibition of his drawings and paintings. Upstairs Miss Elizabeth Morris shows a series of gouaches, which are charming, pretty and feminine. They are so dependent on the vision and example of Miss Frances Hodgkins, however, that it would have been wise to have allowed her talents to have matured further before holding a one-man show.
Next door, at the Redfern Gallery, may be seen drawings and water-colours by Mr. Sigmund Pollitzer. I am reminded of Picasso's dictum that it is those who follow the innovator who make his dis- coveries attractive and palatable. Mr. Pollitzer finds his main theme in those tree forms which were first exploited by Graham Suther- land, but lacks that uncanny pressure of intuitive understanding which makes Sutherland's work so extraordinarily powerful. Instead, he offers a relaxed and decorative version which is exceedingly pro- ficient technically. This seems to me to be academic work of the best kind, which, in a well-ordered world, would find a home in the Royal Academy. His watercolours sometimes seem to lack tension and sufficient content for their size, but with what superb penmanship does he dwell upon the surface of timber that is rent, torn and twisted and the intricacies of the sunflowers which form his other main theme! These drawings would hold their own in any exhibition. At the same gallery Mr. Lyons Wilson lightheartedly mirrors Miro in a few small pictures which are tasteful and have nice titles.
The Adams Galleries are showing a distinguished little exhibition of French painting since Courbet, which can be thoroughly recom-
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