Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-05-12
RIVAL OF ROYAL ACADEMY
Exhibition at Art Gallery in London
New Open.
PICTURES ARE NOT UP TO STANDARD
Critic Finds DuIIness CHIEF Feature
0 of Exhibit, with One or Two
Good Portraits and
Landscapes.


open. This exhibition is the chief rival Of
the Royal academy in the summer. and its
aim is to get ahead of the older institution
1t gets ahead in point OF time, for 1t opened
a fortnight earlier, but II II has got ahead
this year in point of quality, then the
Royal academy will be a very poor show
indeed. Perhaps the present collection of
pictures seems particularly poor, coming,
as It does Immediately after the exhibition
of the International society, held in these
same galleries. That stands much better
chance of being a good show, for the best
talent Of many nations is assembled and
the committee is catholic in its tastes.
At one time the new gallery befnlended
gifted artists who were not accepted by
the Royal academy. The fiery, quarrel
some Whistler never came to terms with
the powers that be at Burlington house;
and Burne-Jones, although he exhibited
there once or twice after he was taridly
elected an associate, returned to those who
first recognized his talent.
Watts, too showed his best pictures
there. Then the New gallery had reason
for its existence. Now these men are dead
and the galleries are mostly filled with the
work of few feeble imitators and certain
artists who are not accepted by the Royal
academy.
Oh. the dullness Of theml The uninterest-
ing. insipid. mediocre dullness! with great
cunning their work is placed in the first
two rooms, otherwise the visitors would
never have looked at them at all.
Few Good Pictures.
There are commonplace maidens, in In
adequate drapery playing on impossible In
struments, while they smirk at the spec
tator: there are coy Greek shepherdesses
struggling with shepherds whose muscles
look as though they were bags stuffed
with sawdust; there are pretty cottages
with the regulation flower garden. There
are Illustrations of medieval legends
which perhaps would not be so bad If re-
duced to the size Of an illustrated manu-
script.
In these rooms the mediocre dullness Is
relieved by one or two good portraits and
few good landscapes. Almost the first pic
ture one comes to is landscape by Mofat
Lindner.
1t would be interesting II one could only
see It. But why, oh why, is it glazed? To
look at a picture through a glass. is al
most as irritating as looking at a notable
parsonage or a pretty woman or a fine
stretch of country from behind a closed
window. One longs to throw up the win
1t is permissible to protect an invaluable
work of an old master by glazing It; but
in the present case the glass only serves
to reflect the other pictures in che room
or else the visitors Moffat Lindner Isl
capable artist and does charming work
when he sticks to his own style. 1t is
foolish Of him to initiate Arthur Melville,
as so many others are doing since the
..o.+t,,,v,o,,a axbititto7, NJ that exceDtfOnally
gifted man.
Sir James LInton's large picture, 'The
Admonition," is a nice old-fashioned, early
Victorian work A bishop has arrayed
himself in his mitre and priestly garments
to go and chide wastrel prince who is
idling away his time in the company of
a singing girl and troupe OF marionettes.
Some Pictures Noticed.
Byram Shaw is more at home in dealing
with a large emblematic composition. His
coloring is apt to be a trihe>crude. and in
the Gagged Bird" the green is too rank
and the detail overelaborated of the for
NAL garden which obviously forms the
cage of the girl who is kneelng in the
middle of the lawn. She is holding in
her hand a bird cage of which she has
opened the door, and her upward look fol-
lows the other Gagged bird she has just
liberated.
The first picture in the next room is a
portrait by ]. ]. Shannon, A r. A, of
the Countess Stradbroke. She has cast up
her eyes with fearful look, as much as
to say, why am 1 placed in the com
pany of all these Indifferent works of
, art?"
The full length portrait of Hon Mrs.
Coulson Fellowes by the same artist
hangs on the opposite side of the room.
She is trying to look as though she were
not conscious that her white evening dress
was really too dirty to wear.
Percy Spence, endeavOring to make John
Burns. NJ p, look like cabinet minister,
has toned down his rugged countenance and
reduced the size of his massive shoulders
till he is as much like a common-pl place
parsonage as it would be possible for John
Burns TO be. j. +. Blanche has portrait
of Lucien Simon, a simple and fOrcible
work. without the harshnsss of color and
technique which he so often gets in his
more ambitious paintings.
influence of whistler.
Harrington Mann has a successful picture
portrait OF child called Kathleen" With
out being an imitation Of Whistlers style,
the influence of that master is felt in the
scheme Of gray, relieved by the touches
or rose colored ribbons in the chIld's hair
Lady Alma Tadena's dainty little picture
called Love at the Mirror" shows a pretty
figure of a girl gazing at herself in look
ing glass. Lady Alma-Tadema has acquired
her husbands finished technique and adds
to it a charming quality OF feeling all her
own
There are three good landscapes in this
roOm-"A Solitary Place Against the Wind
and Open Sky" By Ivystan Hetherington,
a silvery gray picture in which winding
stream reflects the warm light in the sky;
'Moorland." by Arnold Freshman, where
rolling clouds throw shadows on the undu-
lating moors; and The Dignity OF Autumn"
by Alfred East. A. r. A. decorative com
position which shows the influence OF the
foreign school OF landscapists.
The north room contains all that is best
In the exhibition. Here the works Of John
Sergeant r. A, though by no means the
best examples Of his paintings, easily take a
first place. He sends full length portrait
of the Rev. Edmond Ware, late head
master OF Eton. and half length Of Mrs.
Harold Harmsworth.
Both show signs of impatience, as though
he had not given sufficient time TO the draw
ing and arrangement before beginning to
/ naint and the head of DR. Ware looks