Artists' .Memoits
Self and Partners. By Sir Charles Holmes: (Constable. 1/18,) Oil Paint and Grease Paint. By Dame Laura Knight. (Nichol- son and Watson. 21s.) - - THERE are two kinds of memoirs-,-those which one reads to meet the author and those which one reads to meet the author's friends. Sir Charles Holmes' reminiscences -Self and Partners, in spite of its bracketed sub-title, Chiefly Self, belong emphatically to the second category. The author tells us quite a lot .about himself, his family, his early life, his various positions and activities throughout his life, and yet at the end we have no clear idea of what he is like. In any scene in which many figures are involved his is the one which stands out least distinctly. This may be partly due to the modesty of Sir Charles, for in many cases the episodes themselves are interesting and by a slight change of emphasis mop glory might have been drawn on to the figure of the writer: The book has, however, two definite merits. The .first is negative and lies in the extraordinary tact with which Sir Charles deals with all the disputes in which lie found himself involved while Director of the National Gallery. At the time feeling ran very high and the trouble was greater than -the reader would guess from the quiet account. given in these reminiscences. But it is greatly to the author's credit that he has avoided any too severe distribution of blame and given a defence without the corresponding attack. The second -merit is more positive. From Sir Charles' book we learn a lot about many figures of interest and of their relations with the art world. Roger Fry appears on many pages and -it is good to know more of his work in connexion with the Burlington and of his enthusiasms over the first Post-Im- pressionist exhibition. Other great figures—Ruskin, Pater, Wilde—come forward for an instant but none of them appear in any completeness. It As rather the less startling but not less attractive figures of the picture-gallery world, the author's . colleagues, that fill the bulk of the book.
From any page of Dame Laura Knight's book it becomes evident that the authoress has the art of impressing her own personality on her surroundings and of conveying that person- ality at least as clearly by means of the written word as by means of paint. Her early life was unattractive, painful and disagreeable, but her description of it makes fascinating read- ing. All her relations stand out clearly as real human beings, their singularities described with a complete lack of emphasis which makes them the more striking. At times the struggle to keep alive at all seems to have been serious, and the authoress -keeps the whole sympathy of the reader when she writes of a diet of porridge and of the few shillings earned here and there in casual teaching. The description of life in Nottingham is vivid, and forms a good contrast to that of visits to an aunt in St. Quentin, where the attitude of a French girls' school towards an intruding English pupil is described with painful reality. At times the writer reaches real dramatic force as in the passages about the struggles of the fishermen of Staithes, and the horrors which a storm may bring upon them. In all these parts the authoress is completely. successful, and in the visit to Holland, with its discovery of Rembrandt and Vermeer
Avz are-still entirely captivated: If we had to make a complaint about the book it would be that the second half is a disappoint- ment. As the subject gets More important and the people involved grow grander, for some reason the result grows less interesting. Is it that the authoress allows herself to be sub- merged in the events in which she is involved ? But to the end the book is worth reading, especially for those who are inter- ested ;in:.Dame Laura Knight's paintings. For the various phases of her Career bear closely on the develdpment of her art, and it is instructive to follow her successive passions for the theatre and the circus. For myself I find that the early chapter's- of the reminiscences -have a reality and a vividness above. that of the paintings:and, as a rendering of a scene, I would. prefer the description of Little Grandma's death and burial in chaptiii to most-of the canvases.
Asrruomr BLusrr.
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