Art
THE SAVILLE GALLERY, STRATFORD PLACE, OXFORD STREET.
THE pictures now on show at the various galleries within a short distance of Bond Street are pleasantly varied. One has the choice of impressionist, water-colour landscape, English gardens, and the modern style. Mr. Walter Sickert's work' shown at the Savile Gallery covers a period of from thirty-five to forty years, but the casual visitor should not imagine he is going to detect a gradual ascending scale of mastery, for Mr. Sickert's pictures of thirty years ago need just as much study as his latest efforts. As the collection consists of but forty-five canvases one is not overwhelmed and should be able to give what attention they need. Mr. Siekert is not everybody's artist. Many may receive something of a shock when they first see, at close quarters, A Box in the Penici. To get this picture into correct perspective one must realize that this is a portrait of a lady, seated in a dark box, in a gaily lighted theatre, and that one is seeing her from the stalls : this is not obvious. Mr. Walpole in his short introduction to the catalogue says that Mr. Sickert appeals to him especially. .on account of the speculation which his pictures evoke. It is this power of evoking curiosity, or of suggesting details which must be filled in by the individual eye, which gives the work its appeal : but gay or gloomy it is all the same to the artist. Compare The Palace of Napoleon the Third (No. 19) with La Poissonerie de Dieppe (No. 20), one as bright as day, the other dark as night : who is going to say which is the more finely painted ? Suspense (No. 4) opens endless possibilities. What fate is in store for the solitary figure seated before the fire ? In the dark Music Hall, Canning Town (No. 9), the hot atmosphere reeking of smoke is well suggested. The label " Portrait Painter " would never fit Mr.Sickert, but his picture of Mr. Winston Churehill follows one round like a living face, and
only those with tax-free consciences should see it. All who are interested in a strong personality expressed in paint should see this exhibition not once, but many times ; each visit will lead to fresh discoveries.
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