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Rh of the most perfect flower studies in the Exhibition. Treated with grecat reserve in colour the observation of visual form and the decorative arrangement of spaces give the educated eye constant pleasure. The flower painters of France have, it seems to us, sacrificed ftir too much of the exquisite construction which is one of the greatest charms of the floral world, to attaining an intense and marvellous glow of colour. In the work of Miss Swan, 1304, 1352, we find flowers forming the motive of very lovely art in which form is not lost in an intoxication of luxuriant pigments. We now come to Mr. Lavery's name, and liis picture of Queen Mary in the wood, entitled 'Dawn, 14th May 1568,' which arrests the spectator in spite of liimself. The traditions which have stifled the presentment of historical painting are here entirely abandoned ; the subject is treated with a keen perception of the real conditions of the episode. Here we have none of the laboured leai-n- ing that pleases the antiquarian ; details are not insisted upon ; but in that dreary dawn we feel this is how the poor Queen looked and felt. The beauty and thorough keeping of the whole is no surprise to those who know Mr. Lavery's ' Tennis,' on which it is a distinct advance. The last of the works to which we can refer at tliis time is Mr. Roche's ' Shepherdess,' No. 403. After the reserved grey tones of Mr. Lavery's ' Queen Mary,' this curiously composed picture, with its rich mingling of browns, purples, yellows, and greens, impresses us as a little forced in colour. The tenderly felt and beautifully drawn little girl kneeling in the foreground is treated in a naturalistic manner, while the sumptuous background of hillside, trees and sky, is distinctly romantic in conception and execution ; iience a certain confusion. The individuality and strong feeling of the picture are unquestionable. There is nothing in the least like it that we can find in the galleries, it is the work of a man who has something of his own to say, who means to say it in his own way. Want of space alone forbids us to dwell with adequate attention on several other remarkable works by men connected with Glasgow, either by birth or residence. Those to which we have referred are, we think, among the most interesting, though they by no means exhaust the list. That they are different in all important respects from what has been hitherto accepted as naturally emanating from local studios is granted ; that they are representative of an advance to a fuller and deeper knowledge and a more independent expression of individuality in pictorial art is confidently claimed.

IT is probably known to most of the readers of the Scottish Art Review that an Art Congress is to be held in Liverpool at the beginning of December. It is to be organised after the manner of Congresses, with division into sections, and the like now familiar arrangements. The Presidential Address will be delivered by Sir Frederick Leighton on December 3. Mr. Alma Tadenia is to preside in the section of Painting, Mr. Alfred Gilbert in that of Sculpture. Architecture is to be under the leadership of Professor Aitchison, Applied Art under that of Mr. Walter Crane. Mr. Sidney Colvin is to be President of a section devoted to Art History and Museums, and Mr. Mundella is to open the section that will deal with National and Municipal Encouragement of Art. Numerous jiapers by leading authorities have been arranged for in all the sections, and promises of attendance already sufiice for the confident prophecy that able discus- sions will arise upon all subjects of general interest. It may, however, be asked, what probable result such a Congress as the one in contemplation is expected to effect, and why it slioukl be held in Liverpool. The last decade has certainly not been barren in talk about Art. Has that talk been pro- ductive of good ? We, for our part, are of opinion that it has. Little has been accomplished in any day without mucli individual persuasion. Formerly this was done by the contact and conversation of individuals. In our own time the press and the platform perform many of the functions which could in days of a smaller society be as well or better performed by private intercourse. It is only by aid of some organisation that the persons inter- ested, or willing to become interested, in any subject can now be reached. Hence the growtli of con- gresses, periodicals, and other organised methods of bringing opinion to a focus.

The fact that there has been, in these latter days, so much talked and written about Art is proof, were such needed, that some Art problem does exist. The world is so full of interesting problems that nothing has a chance of getting itself talked about which does not intimately affect the comfort or delight of