A CRITIC CRITICISED.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14314, 27 March 1912, Page 10

A CRITIC CRITICISED.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THB PRESS." Sir, —Your critic finds only faults in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" exhibited this year in tho Art Gallery, or if ho finds any saving grace ho omits mention of it. I. on the contrary, am so impressed with its that its faults have eluded mc. Has your critic considered.that it is the representation of a dream, and docs he know tho dream of which it is a representation .** Has his attention, in reading, been held only by tbo central figures?

It so. then tho saving graco of Shake*? -' i., ■, pearo's play-dream has'cono literally J ■>.'' tho Bottom has been knocked' .'.; ■ out of it. Ho objects thai *■' ? the eye is drawn iv several ■ directions simultaneously by tho various ; small figures introduced; that there is ", . ; a lack of harmonious arrangement in 'v -■ > ihoso figures, and that they tako from' tho effect of tho central figures. As ; , - they should bo. tho smaller hgures are' ~ mofo subordinated in tho picture than [ they arc in tho play, and I entirely dis- ,* I ngreo with him wheu ho &a-s they are , ■ r inharmonionsly arranged. From almost „, | any standpoint the eyo is first attracted ' I by tho juxtaposed heads of tho girt -, t and tho ass, and when attention is re- s I laxed, tho eyo is drawn downward* ' 1 through tho bright blue, of the peacock , ' j (a blue echoed twice in tho upper part' r | of the picture), its sweeping tail, and; ' ( so out of tho picture. It is quite u< j time before the eye, wlulst conscious of- j dashes of colour hero and there, for-! f get« tho central figures and is led in> . \ an elvish and fairy dance hero and - \ there, finding groups, nnd pairs, and " JL solitary figures, scattered us iv the 14j& fashion of dream; and of some, again *-! t as in dream, it cannot bo said if they '-, ". are solitary or in pairs: nor is tho mind . '. loss, mystified if the eyo approach tho picture or if it recede irom it: thov aro still dreamily dubious. Yet the'figure* -*' ,„' - arc not altogether haphazard as in \- \ dream; for the ring of small figures in the foreground runs in circle from tho • ,' veacock, to which it is connected by tho reluctant faun: and note the grada- . ' tion from this reluctance, to tho abandon at tho othor end of the circular ■ , group. At tho'. ass's feet the - ' pair thero seated—if it bo a pair, and , ; from his bent arm and side shadow , -* " emerges the serenade? , . Tho laughing V Cupid behind tho girl's head is a fading .■ away from her own tace—and how long 's . ' it is beforo tho Cupid is scon at all I ~ | The group on tho right throws up from - ' the robe, and tangled heap of verdure, , ■ as tho fallen potaF throws up from tho contrasted darkness of the lap. The ' » ' animals pu the left arc scon last of all, »<■<•, so subdued aro they in colour and outline. Every group, or figure, or creature, is connected with the central, pair in one way or another, in action, j or in position; even,the pair bnlow the] ' - robe at tho extreme- right arc uo moroi ' 5 disunited than is a violet from, the* deep shade of tho bank where it grows. Thero is an orderly riotousness m the; picture, a vagrant beauty, and the' <, > touches of humour aro piquant, bus eubdued to tho great central humoar of the dream. "When tho critic complains of the lack of harmonious arrangement! does be mean that ho dreams like a '" ; geometrician? . Has ho ever dreamt?- ■ ' Is not the'central figuro of a droaia \ surrounded»by fantasies that after a - [f timo cause the control. figuro to bb fbr» v' * gotten, but fad© : awny* again, as-in tho picturo under consideration, when tha :, " central figuro returns to ite ( promin- -"" euce? Tho tiny figures at first* appear ■ • to bo flowers; is it to be objected-that '? ! t)>- dream turns thorn into fairies? ' 1 ReadmE the whole articloof the. , j- ■ critic, I begin to think his colour ' <& '■ senses aro dim; that ho cannot droanr"'?? i any but drab dreams; that ho lacks '"'* '< imagination to seo. Tho picture appeal*'i i more than any in tho exhibition, on - account of its imagination, its variety ar; of colour, and, from the point of view v--of a dreamer, its naturalness. Ma.v '• Mr Wallwork, whilst he is with us, see many moro " Midsummer Nights." ar4 *' v - givo us tho representation of his 1 ing.—Yours, etc.. > . v> ' JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN. '