ART IN THE EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 16

ART IN THE EMPIRE

A COMBINED GALLERY

VERY NOTABLE PICTURE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 14th April.

A gallery has been established in London where it will be possible to study together and to buy representative pictures from the Dominions and colonies and Great Britain, It is possible now, largely through-the generosity of Sir Joseph Duveen and the cooperation of the Dominion Governments. The gallery is situated in the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, in a well-lit top story, and decoration and hanging' are admirable. Owing to the limited time available Australia ana New Zealand are not represented. The collection brought together is small, but admirably chosen,and most effectively displayed by Mr. Evelyn Shaw and.his colleagues. A blue seal indicates the works on loan, and those purchased will be marked with a red seal.

The most discussed picturie Tvill be "s.s. Trinita,' 1^ by Mrs. Monnington, or Miss Winifred Knights, as she elects to be named. She, like her ,husband, won the British Prix de Home, and during her residence in thiV Eternal City, several' fine pictures of a serious cast came from her brush. Miss Knights is a slow worker, she has been engaged for over three years'on the "Trinita," and it is not yet complete; a number of the figures are still in the initial stage. The finished parts, however, are of the most elaborate description, detail being rendered with extraordinary precision. Space, height, depth,, and volume are suggested with remarkable illusiveness, somewhat in the vein of Piero della Francesco. This work which illustrates a religious festa in the Apennines was painted for Sir D. T. Cameron, but Miss, Knights remembered that she had promised to give a woman friend her next finished picture and the "Trinita" will not become his property. The canvas has been greatly admired. The Hanging Committee's admiration for it amounted to worship and it is reported that £3000 has been offered for it. CANADA AND SOUTH AFRICA. The Canadian contingent does not include any pictures by "The- Seven" who represent the most vital, perhaps the only vital, manifestation of national Canadian art. On the other, hand the artistic achievement of South Africa appears in a much more favourable light, than it did at Wembley. One of the South Africans, Mr. N. Lewis, has made a name for himself in this country, but therj is now a wholu group of landscape painters colour vision hag developed under the sun of the Veldt, and who owe little or nothing to iiiuropean training or influence. There are also offerings from India. Scotland is served .by Mr. James Pryde's romantic "Bed Bed," and the more prominent English artists in the mam rest on the laurels won for them by pictures which have been previously exhibited in London, which is surely mistaken practice. These include works M £° B4r r ? ry ' Sir Wil»»»« Orpen, nif-i \B; W' Nevinson, Mr. W. Glvn Philpot, Mr. Gilbert Bayes, and Mr. I Charles Shannon.

Mr. Alfred Hardiman, who won the Borne sculpture scholarship in the same year as Mrs. Monnington, has sent a fine bronzo "Athlete" to the Imperial Institute. The most interesting contributions from the Dominions arc Mr Charles Simpson's presentment of Montreal Harbour and Mr. J. E. A Volschenk's South African-landscape with a foreground of aloes in bloom. 85, Fleet street.