ITALIAN ART.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19928, 15 May 1930, Page 2

ITALIAN ART.

EXHIBITION IN LONDON. CROWDS AT BURLINGTON HOUSE. (FROM OtTIl OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, April 4. The exhibition of Italian art at Burlington House closed last week. To write on the closing of an exhibition for which we have such an affection (says Major A. A. Longden, the Secretary-General in the "Daily Mail") is like writing a funeral march. Never in our lifetime shall we experience such a thrill at an art exhibition. The work has been harder than any human being imagines. Roughly speaking, one in a hundred persons wished to see one ol us for a thousand different reasons. What tired us was the daily round of questions such as: Will you look at this picture which I have brought" I have my car just outside full of uld Italian silver Pardon me, but haven't you got No. the wrong way round? May I come on Sunday? Why not? Could vou allow my partv of 12 to be admitted at 8.30 a.m. because we have come a long way. Is this the refreshment room? May I leave my boots on this table as I've brought up slippers from the country and I can't carry them round all day. No Damage. The patience of the staffs concerned has been one of the features of the exhibition, only excelled by the calm, and I might almost say distinguished, behaviour of the masses of people who have passed through our turnstiles. There has been no disturbance, no damage, no personal no theft: the visitors have moved quietly and gently about and whoever says that they came merely because it was the fashion is quite wrong. A person earning £5 a week does not particularly care about fashion and we have had thousands of such people. But all of this hard work, work almost to breaking point, is worth while for the good it has done. An ancient visitor with a smile stealing through her face of past suffering soul: "You have opened a window in the darl> wall of my life." That and like expressions made the exhibition worth while. On Wednesday we had an attendance of 12,700, the highest daily attendance at any art exhibition within memory Wo have turned the halfmillion point if schools and season ticket-holders are included. Five editions of the catalogue have been published in the ten weeks, and more than 8000 visitors purchased season tickets, one as recently as Monday last. Now the work of dismantling begins, and the works are to be returned to the many gracious owners with care and speed. Wo are grateful to the admirable permanent staff working under Mr Lamb, the secretary of the Royal Academy We also owe much to our own loyal staff, who, though only temporarily employed, have worked almost to breaking point for the common weal. And I must not end this note on our exhibition without a word of thanks to the National Gallery lecturers, remunerated so generously by the "Daily Mail." Their work was greatly appreciated and we are mindful of their fine service