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THE NEW ENGLISH ART CLUB.
AT the Exhibition of the New English Art Club we see, often in pictures in immediate juxtaposition, the struggle between the old and the new methods of representation. Hitherto the Society has set apart a room in which the more modern developments have been isolated. This year the newcomers have broken their bounds, and their works are to be found on every wall. The result of this should be enlightening to the general public if they will but take heed. In the history of art over and over again there have been moments when a change has suddenly come, and the painter seemed to look on the world with new eyes, and apparently beheld things unobserved by a former generation. There is no reason to believe that the bodily eye suffered a change, and often there was no difference in the technical skill of the artists. The difference at the moment of change is the difference, not in what the artist sees around him, but in his method of stating his vision in paint.
We are now passing through one of these phases, and the change is being acclaimed as a rebirth of the soul of art. How far this is true time alone can tell, but of the change of fashion in representation there is no doubt. The prophets of the new movement insist on the vital necessity of design, and the unimportance of realism. How many of the newer prac- titioners appear to think that to make a picture unlike Nature is all that is needed! The great curse of nineteenth-century painting was the belief that to represent faithfully a pleasant bit of Nature was to paint a picture. Now the newer practice seems to be satisfied that the same bit of Nature if unrealistic- ally portrayed constitutes a design. Both are wrong, for in neither has the creative impulse of the artist been called forth, and it is just this creative impulse which matters. An instance of the difference made by even a very slight introduction of the consciously rhythmic qualities, as opposed to the recording of natural phenomena as in an inventory, may be noted in two slight water-colours banging close together. Professor Brown's sketch (No. 197) is merely a schedule of what he saw, cleverly set down on paper. Mr. Hamilton Hay's little water- colour is equally slight, but its sense of design makes it leave a pleasant memory. A picture which has not only undoubted qualities of design, but great beauty of colour, is Mr. Holmes's Birches, Clay Cross (No. 146). The old gold of the smoky sky, culminating in the yellow disc of the rising moon, forms a perfect background for the light steam and black smoke coming from the two tall chimneys, while the purple slope with the green trees is exactly right in :colour and shape. The only thing which appears doubtful is the insistence of the light-grey stone wall. It appears so to detach itself as to risk the unity of the design Mr. Orpen seems to have determined to give us examples of the styles of great masters adapted for modern use. The masters he has chosen to copy on this occasion are Vermeer of Delft and Pietro della Francesca. In the picture of an artist at work in his sun-flooded studio (No. 139) we get repre- sentation by means of light and atmosphere. Here tones are balanced with the greatest sublety, colours are deftly inter- woven with greys so that none predominates, but over all, that the master may not seem too slavishly followed, there is a haze of indefinite edges. The black and white diamonds of the floor are there to remind us of Vermeer, but of Vermeer slightly smudged. The Italian primitive venture after the manner of Pietro della Francesca is a much more ambitious picture, and one which inevitably takes hold of the spectator for good or ill. The scene is laid on a wind-swept upland by the sea. The grass scarcely covers the stony grounds and stone walls divide the few fields near the low-roofed cottages from the wild. Under a crucifix the priest is blessing the peasant bride and bridegroom, while the wedding guests, mostly barefooted, stand around. As a tribute to the modern spirit a motor-car is introduced, and by a device which no doubt gave the artist immense delight its light-grey colour makes it do duty for one of Pietro della Francesca's pale patches of background. In this work repre- sentation is achieved entirely from the side of form. Tone in the modern sense is not used ; colour is arbitrary. The figures are realized with a power which no other artist here possesses, and, though emphasized almost to the point of caricature, are memorable. But the picture has one great quality. It conveys in terms of Irish coast landscape some of the sensations only realized in primitive Italian work. The upper part of the background, including the sky, the glimpse of blue sea, and the green and stony hills, forms a remarkable assemblage, showing how an Atlantic upland can be perfectly expressed by the methods of the great primitive of Arezzo. The two studies for figures in this picture (Nos. 163 and 165) should not be missed. They are of great power. Mr. Orpen has gone back to the past to find a style to interpret what be sees. He shows, however, that by throwing overboard all the procedures of modern impressionistic landscape painting, with its realisms of tone and atmosphere, he can impress us more truly with the spirit of the place than if be had retained the modern developments of realistic painting—developments which too often run towards the unessential.
Mr. Rich within his own domain is a master, and he is now showing a number of beautiful water-colours, each with its own individual charm, though he never leaves his chosen path. Particularly successful are his delicate and sober visions of Lincoln (Nos. 168 and 243); while in No. 191, The Parish Church, Huntingdon, he exhibits his command of architectural drawing. Mr. Rich has taught a great deal of his secret to his pupil, Miss Helen R. Lock. Her Lincoln (No. 218) is an excellent performance, especially as regards the sky and die- tance. Let us hope this excellence will be maintained when
she leans less on the method of another. H. S.
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