ART.
THE NEW GALLERY.
Tne artists who usually contribute to the New Gallery have been most faithful to their styles,—it might almost be said to their mannerisms. So much is this the case that it is hard
to believe that one is not still looking at last year's exhibition. As in former year; Mr. Sargent startles and delights us with the daring of his execution and the depth of his science. In the full-length portrait of a child, The Hon. Victoria Stanley (No. 248), the artist seems almost to have wished to show that with marks upon the canvas, which when looked at near seem meaningless, he can produce, at the proper distance, an effect as finished as it is forcible. The simplicity of the means used suggest to the uninitiated a rapid and careless style of work, rather than the deep knowledge and acute vision which have been used in the making of this picture. It is curious how the superstition that Mr. Sargent's drawing is faulty still lingers among certain critics. A morning paper announced this week that the drawing of the left leg of the little girl in the picture under discussion was not "impeccable." Could a figure with a badly drawn leg stand so easily and so con- vincingly as does this one The rather curious bend of this leg is proof of the artist's insight into the form of a thin, loosely made child. The colour of the portrait is singularly harmonious and rich, and the feeling that the figure has thickness as well as height and breadth perfect. In spite of all these qualities, there is something that does not entirely please about the picture ; something difficult to define, but perhaps the bravura of the execution indicates that the artist was not deeply moved by his work. Entirely different is Mr. Sargent's
other work here, Major-General Ian Hamilton (No. 124). The characterisation of the head seen full face is conspicuously
fine, and the colour beautiful; the subtlety of realisation of
the planes, and therefore of the construction, makes this head perhaps the most satisfying piece of painting in the exhibition. Mr. Robert Brough has a talent which be seems determined to spoil by trying to be overmasterly, and trying to outdo
Mr. Sargent in freedom of painting, but he only results in being pointy. It is a pity, as both his portraits (Nos. 149 and 190) seem to have in them the promise of being better than they really are.
The Gallery abounds in imitations, more or less near, of the manner of the Quattrocento painters, but none can be said to be of much interest, though they make one realise what a loss this style of art has sustained by the death of Blame- Jones.
In the department of pure landscape there is certainly no work here of first importance. It is a melancholy fact, but landscape art appears to be in a backwater. The sincerity and conviction appears to have gone out of the work of the realistic painters, destroying their force and leaving them simply dull ; and at present there is not much vigour in the school of imaginative landscape art. Mr. Mark Fisher has seldom done better than Water Frolic (No. 1141 with its sunny air and glittering lights. The colour of the flesh of the boys bathing is as true as it is beautiful, and the whole picture most harmonious in composition and colour. Mr. Peppercorn's sober and restrained Evening (No. 101) has the inestimable merit of being a consistent whole ; the quiet sky, the dark hill and foreground, all go together without question. Of course, when both form and colour are reduced to their elements it is not so difficult to attain unity as it is when the material is more complicated.
One of the true landscapes in the exhibition is the Loch Ness (No. 133) by Mr. Watts. Like a wise artist, he has not bored us with the topography of Scotland, but has given us instead a beautiful vision of air, water, and distant blue mountains.
Mr. Watts also sends a portrait of Hr. Wilfrid Blunt (No. 139), which is remarkable for the ease of the pose and the thoughtful expression of the face and finely modelled head. The picture is of course entirely free from that appearance of being an enlarged photograph coloured which is the destruc- tion of so many portraits.
The quality of style is not so often found that it can be passed over when it exists, as it undoubtedly does in the work of Mr. Wetherbee. He has two pictures of quite different character, and both beautiful. The Siren (No. 79) has a finely drawn and painted sea. There is real force in the great swelling waves which are bringing the ship on to the rocks. Perhaps the mermaid's figure is in- adequate, from the fact that it is too completely realised, and therefore too human. Though small in size, the picture is large in treatment. This artist's other work, A Sylvan Stream (No. 259), is of a peaceful evening, with tall, graceful trees, by the side of a stream in which boys are bathing. There is a pleasant remoteness in this picture derived from the omission of the small and tiresome facts of the scene. The composition is essentially dignified.
The picture called Severn Side (No. 206), by Miss Bromley- Martin, is interesting for two reasons in spite of its obviously immature technique. Firstly, the picture shows evidence that the painter was vehemently possessed by the motive of the work, and knew quite clearly what she wanted to say; secondly, she has a feeling for serene and dignified beauty which is of an unusual kind, and has no connection with prettiness. The faces of the child and the young woman in this picture have the true and unmistakable quality of beauty. These figures are relieved against a field of mowing grass beside the river, and a wide distance beyond. There is much that is good in the parts of the background, but it is far from being in harmony with the figures, more as regards values and planes than colour. At the proper distance for looking at the picture as a whole, what is seen is a confusion of planes from which emerge two beautiful faces. The draw- ing of the figures is far from satisfactory, and the ear of the young woman and also her right hand are of a decidedly amateurish quality.
Before bringing this notice to a close the reader's attention must be called to Sir George Reid's admirable portrait of Dr. Fairbairn (No. 215), Mr. E. Stott's two pictures, which are among the best things here (Nos. 78 and 64), Mr. Priest- man's (No. 80), Mrs. Swynnerton's (No. 37), Mr. Lindner's (Nos. 12 and 59), Mr. H. Speed's (No. 42). H. S.
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