The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16
EXHIBIT DRAWS
 OLYMPIC CROWDS Stadium Deserted While Show
 Is Largely Attended RARE PICTURES ON VIEW French Paintings Disclose a Greater Simplicity Than Those of English
 men In F'ranco-B British Art
 Exhibit at London.
By CHARLES HENRY MELTzER.


 London August. 7.-Every one fancied that the great attraction of the Franco British Exhibition would be the Stadium with the Olympic games. And what has happened?
 As matter of fact the Stadium was frequently deserted, while the stucco pal ace devoted to French and English art has awakened immense interest.
 The national exhibits are separately grouped and 1t is well for the more re- l cent painters of Great Britain that they are not forced into close comparisons 1 with their French brethren. Fortunately l for the Britons the dead masters of both nations have been admitted to the exhibi- tion but the French have availed them- 1 selves only sparingly of this liberty. i The British, on the other hand, have drawn unhesitatingly upon their masters i of a bygone generation.
 1 Thus there Is marked difference in character, as in quality, between the two i sections of the art exhibition. l Yet, even with the tremendous advan- tage to the British exhibits of having sup l plemented the galleries of living painters with museum of retrospective British ] art, I saw more life and more truth in the French art section.
 Both, I make haste to add, have done nobly in their fight for honor. In fact in this Franco British palace one suffers from a positive plethora of artistic wealth.
 What mostly impressed me was the su- periority of the French over the British school in the matter of sincerity One sees that, while the British school has labored more or less steadily for the past hundred years to attain beauty of a con ventlonalzed kind, the painters across the channel have worked in the direction of truth
 Nor do the tendencies of the two schools seem to be changing to any marked or noteworthy extent. Only the ideal of beauty of many of the British painters has of late degenerated into an ideal of prettiness, while the French now strain at times less after what might call truth tastefully edited than after realism.
 With rare exceptions too, the British paintings lack the temperamental quality. They are seldom bold, more seldom rug ged, never compelling.
 In the French galleries, there are paint ings which at the first glance startle one. But they usually the result of tenn peramental sincerity.
 As instances of supremely British con- ventionalized art I may mention the ..Bower Meadow" of Rossetti and "Le Chant d'Amour' of Burne-Jones The compositions painfully and most seriously ordered on the pattern fthe early Dtal- ian masters, the figures all artfully posed, the original humanity of the faces replaced by idealizations.
 To perceive what comes of the mere worship of prettiness in art, you need only look at the works of Poole and Norris all grace, all sickly lovlness and "simper- ing charm" One of the worst (and most popular) pictures in the exhibition IS Pooles Seventh Day of the Decame- ron" Both the ladies telling naughty stories and the gentlemen who listen are too sweet for anything" Among living artists classed as British are Sargent who contributes his dashing and effective Por- traits of Lady Elcho. Lady Tennant, Mrs | Adeane and Mrs. Wertheimer, Rerkomer, exemplified in "The Last Muster and Portrait of the Duke of Devonshtre;' ] Orchardson with "The Borgia;" Alma i Tademna, Poynter Fildes, shannon, Vicab Cole, Collin Hunter. Macbeth, Charlton, ] Lady Bretler Represented of course by ''The Roll Call" lent by King EdwarD 1 and less favorite artists There are near ly 1500 works in the British section, 1n- ] cluding some hundreds of water colors ana some unexpectedly interesting pieces of sculpture.
 i The French exhibits number about l,0O0, inclusive of paintings, sculpture and en- i cravings. Among them are examples, l though not very considerable examl) )les, or ! IngreS Represented Dy HIS Ioilidi Oi eiO Sculptor Bartoloni), a sketch pr the i Decoration for the Gallery of Apollo' and the rather well-known "Mirabeau stnd the Marquis de Dreux Braize" by Del acrolx; three marvels of microscopic art by Meis- sonnier; one oil painting. La Herse, py the incomparable Milet; works by Troy 1 on Dupre Daubigny, Corot and others or their time and group; exquisite compost tions. full of tenderness and yet truthful by Cazin Jules Breton,, Lepine and oth- CTS: a lovely Return of the ltlock, charming in tone and sentiment by Gas ton, Gugnard; wonderful still life studies by Vollon; famous portraits by uarolus, Duran, Bonnat, Benjamin Constant ana Duez; two Rosa Bonheur, and many more delightful canvases.
 Taken as a whole the French pictures and the French sculpture in the eXnlpi- tion are singularly sane and homes [. Bew of the perverse eccentrics who Haunt themselves year after year on the' Walis of the salons have been admitted 10 the 1 galleries, while, if one may judge from | the decency of almost all the co mposi- tions on view, the juries responsiphe must have selected the exhibits with preoe- termination not to call a blush to the most sensitive check
 In one of the rooms I was glad to see Lies Foins,' C'The Haymakers,) work by Bastien-Lepage, which, twenty years ago, caused excited controversy. Time has mellowed and dignified the req lism of the painting. The peasant giri who stares at vacancy, while her male comrade, stretched out on the ha-yneid' snores in peace, has lost much or the coarseness which shocked one when the picture was first exhibited. She seems less bestial.
 Piquant by the contrast it suggests IS the charmingly delicate Young woman at the Water-Side," by Heilbutt.
 It was hardly kind to send no better ex- ample of Puvis de Chavannes than hls ..Beheading of John the Baptist Ihe
 John, who kneels in the center of this composition, awaiting death by the sword of Herod's mymidon, has little In common
 with the hero of the Salome episode
 The Reason Why.
 From Answers.