The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-23
LONDON'S TASTE IN ART
PICTURES TALKED or AT THE
ROYAL ACADEMY.

SAPgent's Decorative Panel, Israel and
the Law" One OF Them-Another
Problem PaintIns-work OF the
Newer Artists-Portraits Of Interest.
LONDON, May 12.-The 141st exhibition
Of the Royal Academy is now open and
tho galleries have been thronged with
tho usual ~sightseers. Sightseers is the
only way to describe the people who go
to Burlington House during the three
months when the summer exhibition
Ia being held. for they 60 there not be-
cause they care about art but because
every ione else goes, because it gives
them something to talk about. =.
The people who go to the Academy
are never seen at the National Gallery.
they rarely go even to the Tate Gallery
II Is the Americans and foreigners who
do that-they take the pictures there
for granted as part of their national
possessions. How many people in on
don. for instance. know the portrait
by Holbein of Christina, Duchess OF
Milan2 The Duke of Norfolk lent it
TO the National Gallery and IL has been
on view there for years, but probably
not one Londoner in a thousand has
seen It,. Now that the Duke has sold
IL and the report has been spread that
II is coveted by America and Germany
q public subscription is to be opened so
that England shall not be despoiled OF
her art treasures!
At the Academy can be seen the latest
portraits Of fashionable women, leaders
of society, Cabinet Ministers local Mayors
and celebrities of all sorts; historical
events and personages are picto1ally
presented over and over again; there are
pictures of game. large and small, as
we'll as dogs and horses, that appeal to
sportsmen; there are religious pictures,
views OF ~cathedrals. royal castles and
other famous places and pictures that
ten a story. There is in fact something
TO suit the taste Of everybody.
Is it the fault Of the Academicians
that these pictures do not represent the
best modern art Of the nation? They
do not invite painters to send their work.
they merely notwithstanding to their
judgment-the hest of those that are
sent to them. Many artists prefer to
hold a n man show, thinking. and
rightly so. that their work looks better
hung apart from all other work and is
more appreciated IL a good deal Of it
10 hung together. Take for example
the pictures Of Roger Fry now on view
at the Carfa1 Gallery. How would
suoh delicate watercolors painted on ]
silk look il scattered among the water
colors at the Royal Academy?
Other artists again, such as those who
form the New English Art Club. are all
kindred spirits and their pictures when
hung together do not clash. Possibly
some Of the members Of the New Eng
lsh Art Club began by sending to the
Academy: but the Academicians, like
all officials. are chary of taking up ad-
vanced ideas until it is proved that the
ideas show a real and not a spurious
advance.
1t must not be forgotten that the charges
levelled against the Academy are the same
"a those levelled against all official bodies.
Paris lie recognized as the home Of the
most advanced art. and yet the impress
sionists when they first appeared were
encouraged not at the Salon but by pri-
vate enterprise; yet it was a genuine
movement-it fourished for many years
and Influenced modern art as much as
the Pre-Raphaelites.
The younger generation is always knock
ing at the door. as Ibsen says, and though
the older generation may stop it's earn
and refuse to open the door, yet il it
keeps the doors closed too long the younger
generation has a way Of bursting in and
sweeping everything before it.
The Young Turk party in English art,
though it may rail against the Academy
and its conservative way is not strong
enough to raid Burlington House, kidnap
its president and put Charles Ricketts, or
Augustus John in mis- place. What they
have done is to organize a strong oppo-
sition at the Grafton Gallery and show
there a selection Of chosen pictures.
chosen from the work lone during the
last ten years by the most advanced and
revolutionary artists. Much OF the work
has been seen before, hut gathered to-
9ether in this way it makes a show OF !,
interest and importance. 4
Now-and this fact is noteworthy
many Of the artists who exhibit at the
Grafton Gallery are showing some work
at the Royal Academy. This fact and
also the fact that the Academy has been
redeoorated-the walls in m os Of the
rooms are no longer a dirty dark red
and Is better hung than usual, shows that
the Academicians feel that they were
getting too far behind the times. In most
Of the rooms there are only two rows of
pictures, so that all Of them can be we'll
seen. 1t is only here inc there that a
picture is -skied."
There is still room for improvement,
however, in the way of hanging, for it
seems absurd that SOM Of the best
pictures should be placed in Gallery
VIII, which is small and comes so near 4