The sun., 1919-02-16

am writing it under command. in an
epoch when the general duty is to
obey. Fortunate are they-and I
count myself among them in the pres
ent instance-to whom obedience is
pleasure
II wish to note two things about the
exhibition. The first is, it demon
strates an untruth. War is monoto-
nous. 1t is hellishly monotonous.
This is the opinion Of all soldiers, and
it is the opinion Of artists who have
seen the war. 1t is certainly the opin-
ion OF those who. like myself are en-
gagged in the AFFAIR of collocating the
war work of artists with view to OBJ
tanning a more or less complete artistic
record of the war.
"A famous art critic said to me:
The mischief is that in war there are
only six subjects for a painter Monot-
ony is therefore inevitable. But Will
lam Orpen comes along and brilliantly
disproves what everybody else knows
In his heart to be a profound truth. SO
that we are obliged to limit the axiom
a little and say: War is monotonous
for all men except William Orpen.' He
has found not six subjects, but sixty, a
hundred and siXty-innumerable, diff
ferent subjects.
And thus his immense. fecund. tire
less energy has been able to vent itself
without inflicting the slightest tedium
upon the public. Surely no one can
glance around these walls OF diversity
and not be astounded that their con-
tents are the offspring Of single in
dividuality, produced within a very
short space Of time! / ought to re-
mark, in passing, that even William
Orpen could scarcely have accom-
plished what he has accomplished in
the brief period and in the conditions
imposed IL he had not apparently In
vented special technique for the pur-
pose. These pictures are painted In a
new manner-in the artists war
manner-very broadly very rapidly
sometimes very summarily. perhaps
thinly. Their success is largely due
apart from the reality of the inspira-
ton, to an extreme competence In the
choice and employment OF means.
THE second thing I wish to note is
the singular freshness OF vision, evok-
ing truly remarkable vivacity of in
William Orpen, having discovered a
new subject, composes it newly. His
resourcefulness is as reliable and as
unerring as that of Mozart. Land
scape, shell holes, ruined trees and
buildings, dugouts, tents and the
tragedy and comedy OF human exist
ence-he sees them as though nobody
had ever seen them pictorially before;
and he arranges them in fresh pat
terms Of contour, color and plane. His
ingenuity in manipulating the ma
terial is simply endless. and yet he Is
never tempted to falsify the material.
This is especially true OF the figure
paintings. And in the figure paintings
you can more plainly see the evidences
Of that taste for life and for all life,
which is at the bottom of William
Orpens achievement and renown. The
Falling Bomb, The Return of a Pa
troll 'Poilu and Tommy Highlander
Passing Grave The Receiving
Room'--in such pictures you have, in
my opinion, William Orpen at his
finest, and with all his qualities. in
Guiding his astonishing competence, in
full play. The Receiving Room for
me, has something in It OF Daumier.
The compliment is high.
And to get a more intimate notion
Of the artists idiosyncrasy. of his
own personal way of savouring life,
examine his portraits OF himself"