The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-14
Royal Academy Show in
 London Dravs Big Crowds

, with gray cruisers, Dover Harbor crammed with shipping-that, is the sort of picture that will always take and will get itself reproduced in all the pie ture papers before the week is out. Fancy storm pieces or lmitless wastes where sky and ocean meet make small appeal to English taste. A good honest" paint ing of the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens on sunny spring day with a hundred miniature ships scudding before a brisk gale will attract more people than a poetic conception of some grand ocean sweep with never a boat in sight
 The food pictures this year run even portraits of court beauties hard. Pic lures called The Saffron Cake" "The Food Problem" strawberries, Golden Apples Fruit, "A Jug of Milk, "A Lobster Salad" and half a dozen called Afternoon Tea" or by other names, but in reality the same thing, hang on nearly every wall
 These pictures are not still life in any sense; there are always people in them. "Strawberries,' by William M. Palin, is one of the pictures of the year. A mother doles out the luscious fruit. berry by berry, to her three children seated around a white-clothed table, The expression of primitive greed on the faces of these three children is masterly. The eldest a girl has acquired a certain skill in yelling her appetite; the second child, about g, twitches with supposed appetite, the boy frankly reaches forward and consumes with his eyes the heaped bowl of fruit. The painting of the crystal dshes the white cloth the glasses and the panelled walls Is done in the best style of that London school of interior painting which owes much to Walter Sickert and his group.
 To another school belong two pictures by Sir John Lavery, "The Convalescent and "A Room in Sunlight, Tangier. ' They will undoubtedly become better known than Strawberries" not because they are better painted. but because they lend themselves perfectly to reproduce tion and are as pretty as can be. Be- sides this gossip has it that they are really portraits of wel-known society women easily identified whose escapades have furnished the chief amusement now for some years. Lady Diana Manners, who has already figured in the pages of the years best sellers, and is recognized as the heroine of one of the most popular plays now running, is now the London editor of the ultra smart French woman s paper. "Femina." She fell through sky liaht while watching the fireworks at the peace celebration and for months after that was confined to her couch Stories of the boudoir where she received
 her friends in the most raVlsnlhS deshabille were told at every dinner table. Her sheets of golden tissue, her throne-like bed hung with glistening satin as white as her own throat, her carpets of tiger skins and her screaming parTqueets of flaming red to match her lips, were varied by black satin bed clothes and heavy gold brocade hangings. But all ways there was the aura of pale gold, and it is no wonder that Sir John Lavery found inspiration in this exotic oriental ism. In the picture the artist himself ap- pears reflected in an antique mirror. ana so is provided a romantic story-picture which future generations will no doubt scan with amused interest. Sir John Lay ery's other pictures fall distinctly into second place in comparison "ltn this. Even his war picture of Admiral Beatty reading the terms of the peace to the German delegates in the fore capln oI the Queen Elizabeth gains but passing glance. though it is a powerful present. ment of an historic event.
 The old Florentines used to put por- traits into their landscapes; today English patrons want a landscape thrown Tn with each portrait. The result IS that