The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-14


 they get neither the one nor the other, but a fancy picture which might easily be the magazine advertisement of silk hose or porch furniture or what not. The Hon. Esmond Harmworth is in this sort of picture. He is the nephew of Lord Northcliffe, the youngest member of Par lament and is lately married. While the pair were honeymooning on the Ri- viera, Charles Simms, a Royal Acad- emician, painted them on hotel terrace in Mentones The girl wife lies in a much cushioned basket chair at one side, and well out of the way of the landscape at the other end of the canvas the husband is posed in an aimless and uncomfort- able position on the edge of a table. in the empty space between them Is painted a really lovely bit of Monaco with Monte Carlo strung like a gleaming jewel along it's blue sea rim. But this is nothing the figures utterly spoil the picture, and the landscape ruins the DOT traits There sAs no effort at compost tion or at anything but cheap and ob- vious appeal to popularity
 The most powerful portrait in the exhibition is by an academician- elect, Walter w. Russell, one of the best known teachers at the Slade School of Art. This is called MT. Minney,' and SHOWS q COGpulGul OlChtuSleti man rfgged out in all the splendor of the eos. Everybody wanted to know who Mr. Kinney was if he was really a profiteer and all about him. It has turned out that he was just a model, a nice old man whose profession was barking for the old Ferris wheel at the earls court exhibition. Indigent, he turned up at the artists studio one day and was promptly painted Then MT. Russell went off to war, and when he came back he sent MT. Minney's portrait to the academy, on the chance. It has gained him the first place in the show and a position in English art only second to that of Augustus John and Sir William Orpen.
 "The Old Santa Fe Trail,' by J. Young Hunter, is fine reminiscent picture which ought to go to America. for it is really historical in the best sense-the tail end of a prairie schooner, blankets and cook pots in frowsy comradeship. A typical Indian pioneer an dhis wife in sIat sunbonnet and their brown legged progeny ex- changing civilities with two Indians whose friendship has been bought by their good d-drenching all, the glorious midday sun of the west
 There are perhaps more than the
  colored jumpers and it is character istic of the times that the younger she girl the more certain is sfe to be painted with cigarette in her fin gers. In fact. almost as ce.tainly as she appears in brooches with a boyish hand thrust cheeky in pociS e..- This is a ne wguise for English misses; it must be acknowledged that it suits her admirably The> lank. shallow hipped type of high born British wom- ar is essentially boyish in looks as we'll as character. and she is reluctant to relinquish a uniform adopted for war work but whica so entirely ex- presses her new found aspirations.
 The important pictures Of the academy are of course Sir William Or- ren's two great peace conference paintings For once an historical painter has refused to become senten- tious. Sir William evidently enjoyed every moment of his work. Both are comparatively small. The Hal of Mir TOTS and the salon of the famous French palace are the chief things. With inimitable craft the artist has put ir the peace conference every plump golden curlique, not a shiver of re- flected light has he missed, not an inch of red satin damask, all are there. exuberant and imposing; and righ. at the bottom. painted in a long, shaI,oy panel. are what Lord Robert Cecil re- ferred to as "a group of wicked old men smothered in decorations settling the fate of the yorld.' The faces are no larger than dollars, and each one is revealed with a craft surpassing mere artifice. The other picture, The Signing of Peace" is perhaps a trifle more respectful At least there are here windows thrown open and a sense of movement and air that conveys the impression that an epoch in the worlds history is ended. This is impressed by the act taking place in the imme- diate foreground. The German dele gate signs his name and already the heavy book is being closed by eager hands before his fingers have left the page.