Sir
Roger—What have we here?
Giles—There is everything under the sun set down
with some show of reason; they run atilt at the world,
and treat men and manners as familiar as an old hat.
Sir Roger—Think you they protest too much? I like
a matter disposed bravely, but—
Giles—Methinks they have a genial tongue. Will
you hear them?
Sir Roger—Well, an’ it be not too long I’ll
have some sack, and you read on.
—
Old Play.
At the first flush it might seem necessary to apologise
for what may be considered an act of temerity in venturing
to write a notice of the Academy exhibition just closed.
If there is any department of criticism that needs special
knowledge it is that of the plastic arts, and if our
idea in the following sketch had been to point out what
was excellent in technique it would have been necessary
to accompany our words with a protest. But such was
not the idea. It seemed that no task would be more congenial
than to set down the impressions which some of the pictures
had left upon the minds of two persons whose art is
different but whose surroundings and mode of life are
the same. And this is what we have tried to do. The
position of the painter in a country like our own is
one of peculiar difficulty. His art depends more than
any other on the culture, the experience of the past,
and, in a land like Canada, where we have practically
no great pictures available and no eminent resident
artist, the young painter finds himself without the
means of overcoming the technical difficulties of his
profession. To do so he must go abroad; he must seek
in the ateliers and in the galleries of Europe for the
practical insight which he could never obtain at home.
That our exhibitions from year to year show a marked
advance in technical skill is due in the main to the
fact that our artists often by their own energy and
self-denial have sought for knowledge at the source.
This has raised the general excellence of the work,
and has also had an effect for good upon those native
geniuses whose art has often developed an astonishing
vigor and individuality under unfavorable conditions.
With this last idea in mind one naturally thinks of
the pictures of Mr. Homer Watson. Here is an artist
who owes less perhaps to influences from without than
any of his fellow-workmen. But how fine his native manner
is, how instinct with energy! He has so thoroughly mastered
a certain kind of landscape under definite conditions
of atmosphere that he reproduces it without a trace
of uncertainty. He speaks from his canvas with something
of that authority which is the unfailing indication
of genius. In two of the pictures in the present exhibition,
which are very characteristic, he reproduces the landscape
under the presence of those cool, half stormy days when
the fields are darkened by great shadows and swept by
splendid gleams, and he conveys a delightful impression
of the reality. How different is the work of Mr. Brownell,
whose pictures are characterised by an exquisite skill
governing a pure, natural taste. His “Low Tide,
N.E.” is perhaps the most satisfactory bit of
work in the collection. The delicate clods part fleecily
below the blue, the sandy shore runs into lines of quiet
grey, the rocks are yellowish brown and the sea creeps
in with fragile foam from a palish-green distance. The
impression is exquisite. His technical perfection is
again convincing in “The Step Child,” where
the figure has tone pensiveness and the surroundings
absolute verisimilitude. Mr. Brymner, another painter
who had the advantage of the schools, produces work
in which there is always charm as well as careful sincerity
and truth of observation. His “Wreath of Flowers”
in the “National Gallery” is one of the
pleasantest pictures which our art has produced, and
if none of Mr. Brymner’s work in the present collection
equals this there are nevertheless three of his contributions
which are of very high merit. Conspicuous among them
is “In the County of Cork, Ireland,” a painting
to which the observer will return again and again with
increasing pleasure. Mr. Brymner has treated us to one
of the few local and specially national scenes in the
gallery, that of “Champ de Mars, Montreal, winter’;
and his smaller canvas, “Near Killarney, Ireland,”
contains a felicitous impression of a cloudy sky and
crowded clumps of low trees and bushes. It may be remarked
here that Mr. Brymner and Mr. Watson, our two most characteristic
landscapists in oils, each possess excellences which,
if the power presiding over genius would let them exchange
at least in part, would render their work in a still
higher degree satisfactory. It would appear that Mr.
Watson might spare some of his vigor and wealth of movement
to Mr. Brymner, and that Mr. Brymner might transfer
to Mr. Watson some of his care and prudence. Unfortunately
such loans are impossible or else we would have two
perfect painters.
It has seemed
to us that, in this exhibition at least, our landscape
artists have been most successful, and this statement
leads naturally to the mention of Mr. Reid’s large
canvas, “The Foreclosure of the Mortgage.”
The picture, with all its points of excellence and notwithstanding
the interest which naturally accompanies a serious and
important attempt, hardly succeeds in realising the
painter’s motive. The figures in the left foreground—the
woman bowed and prostrated by grief and the child at
her side looking on with wandering eyes—are done
with truth and pathos, and if the painter had exhibited
in his completed picture an equal vigor of expression
and attitude the result would have been decidedly more
impressive. As it is the rest of the figures are detached
and fail to produce a satisfactory unity of effect.
In bringing into his picture the weakness and misery
of the sick room, the artist has, we think, signally
missed the opportunity offered him to represent simply
and typically one of the commonest and most significant
tragedies of our everyday life. If he had placed before
us the figure of a strong man in the full possession
of health and strength, beaten down at last in the long
struggle with financial difficulties, he would have
realised a situation, less painfully pathetic, perhaps,
but infinitely more tragic and more imposing.
Mr. Harris’
medium-sized canvas in a somewhat similar vein, which
he calls “Going Wrong,” is perhaps more
successful, although it will not strongly impress those
who are familiar with Mr. Harris’ finest work.
With “Cradled in the Net” Mr. Carl Abrens
makes his first appearance in the Academy. He is to
be welcomed and congratulated at the same time. The
quiet dreaminess of that sun-flooded corner of the room,
where the little child lies in the hammock so sound
asleep, leaves us with a perfect sensation of repose
and contentment. Miss Bell’s “Twilight Reverie”
aims at a remarkable effect, and, although not particularly
attractive, may be considered one of the most prominent
pictures in the gallery. To return to the landscapes
again, Mr. Woodcock’s “Cabbage Garden”
strikes one immediately by its subtle scheme of color
and by its craftsmanship, and, although somewhat affected,
it shines by comparison with his other pieces, which
appear mannered and conventional. Mr. Raphael, too,
has several landscapes which are interesting but unmarked
by any individual qualities. Of the portraits, Mr. E.
Wyly Grier’s “Portrait of a Physician”
appears to be the best, although it would have been
greatly improved by a warmer background; the present
black wall looks like poverty of invention and leaves
the figure unprotected. Mr. Forster’s “Portrait
of My Mother” are good pieces of work. The latter
we would rank next to Mr. Grier’s, if not with
it. Miss Tully’s portrait of Mr. Kivas Tully is
also noticeable. It fell to the lot of Mary Hester Reid
to make a complete success with her “Roses and
Still Life,” which is quite indescribably delightful.
Here and there about the walls were groups of flowers
excellently painted, but this picture was the richest
and most natural of them all. The small canvas of Mr.
A. Watson, “A Kitchen Corner in a Humble House,”
if faulty from the painter’s point of view, nevertheless
deserves special mention for a certain pleasant touch
of nature which we find to be rare.
Turning to
the water colors, the conspicuous figure is once more
Mr. L.R. O’Brien—conspicuous more by reason
of the excellence than the number of his pictures. “Grand
Falls on the St. John River” and “The Mill
Pond at Blair” are, we think, his best exhibits.
In the former the beautiful painting of the snow-white,
misty cataract with the light upon it is a delicious
surprise. Mr. O’Brien’s style and method
are so well known that any extended observations of
his work seem uncalled for. Mr. Manly displays a vigorous
touch and much truth of observation. “A Street
in Point Levis” is a very picturesque representation
of a sloping street with ancient-looking houses, and
“Leafy June a-Summering Comes” is an accurate
delineation of a natural bit of river scenery by one
who evidently loves the fields. One of the pleasantest
pictures of the collection is “Sunshine and Shadow,”
by Mr. Fowler, who again displays his characteristic
decision of color and strenuous vigor of touch. Mr.
Bell-Smith appears to have been in Paris and to have
filched some of the mannerisms of the French water-colorists.
His success is rather doubtful although the “Street
Scene near Notre Dame” is certainly worthy of
careful attention. His “Rocky Mountain Canyon”
is decidedly good, although the handling of such subjects
by our artists in general is usually an opportunity
for complete failure. The Rocky Mountain scenes to which
we are being constantly treated are impressive and amateurist,
of this we consider most of Mr. Matthew’s present
exhibits to be noticeable examples. His "Pleasant
It was When Woods were Green" is somewhat more
satisfactory. Mr. Charles Moss has two very pleasant
bits of colour inconspicuous in size, but of real distinction.
A clever little bit of local antiquarian interest is
Mr. Watt's "Old Mill at Lachine," a little
picture, pleasant in tone and very truthful; and Mr.
Colin Scott's "South Harpswell, Maine," has
some exceedingly attractive features.
In looking
over these walls covered with interesting and promising
pictures, a melancholy and frequent thought returns
to us that the perverse fates continue to bestow riches
on those who neither know how to use them for the benefit
of the community, nor have the taste to acquire, by
a noble employment of them, a rational satisfaction
for themselves. We amuse ourselves by making a short
list of the smaller paintings, which even if we were
only moderately well-off we should assuredly make haste
to buy. Most of all we covet: Mr. Watson's "Evening
on the Thames," Mr. Brownell's "Low Tide,
N.E.," Mr. Brymner's "Near Killarney, Ireland,"
Mr. O'Brien's "Grand Falls on the St. John River,"
Mrs. Reid's "Roses and Still Life," Mr. Woodcock's
"Cabbage Garden," Mr. Fowler's "Sunshine
and Shadow," and Mr. Manly's "Leafy June A-Summering
Comes."
L.&S.
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