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226 Some recently -finished work of the same order, carried out by three ai-tists in tlic hall of the Chalmers Institute, Fountainbridge, is here illus- trated. The hall in question measures 37 feet by 27, and the walls, 18 feet high, arc surmounted by a coved ceiling. ^Vindows occupy one long side, and alono- the other and at the two ends, on a line about five feet from the floor, are placed nine landscapes in oil, set in an architecturally-designed panelling of dark wood. The painters of these can- vases, Mr. R. B. Nisbet, Mr. A. G. Sinclair, and Mr. Garden Smith, have illustrated the different phases of a day from earliest dawn roimd to niglit. and have chosen their scenes from the neighbour- hood of Edin- burgh, in one case from the im- mediate vicinity of the hall it- self. The gene- ral arrangement of the decoration will be seen from the accompany- ing sketch indi- cating the posi- tion occupied bv the pictures in relation to their surround in gs, while Mr. Sin- clair and Mr. Nisbet (Mr. Gar- den Smith being now abroad), liave kindly fur- nished studies of two of their works. Mr. Sinclair's ' Sunset ' occupies the end of the room behind the platform, and gives a sympathetic rendering of the close of day upon the canal and beside the harves of Fountainbridge. Opposite to it is the long panel by Mr. Nisbet, illustrating ' Noonday '' by a scene on the same canal, a mile or two to the west of Edinburgh. The artistic quality of these paintings as pictures is excellent ; they are crisply touched, and full of atmosphere. As bringing the freshness and colour of the fields and moors into the midst of the somewhat dreary surroundings of the hall, they carry out the intention of the donors of the work in an admirable manner. Considered, however, from the point of view of decoration, the works are not entirely satis- factorv. Eacli is too independent, too franklv pic- torial. They are not arranged according to any general sclieme of colour or light and shade, nor is there that special accordance between the pictures and more purely decorative painting on the walls and ceiling, which would stamp the work as the out- come of a single artistic conception. To secure that an undertaking of this kind carries out the decora- tive idea, it should be planned by a single artist, who should carry his colour-sclieme throughout, and con- sider each part in relation to every other. It stands to reason, indeed, that paintings executed in the studio, and afterwards fixed in position are not likelv to have that look of perfect ' keeping' which can be better secured in mural paintings proper. The canvas wall- picture, at pre- sent so much in vogue in France and Belgium, is after all but a ■pis allcr. The appropriate gra- phic decoration of monumental architecture is the mural paint- ing proper, and it will be a reproach both against our art- ists and our sci- entific chemists if they cannot mature some safe and simple pro- cess by which it can be carried out without risk of fading or scaling, or the other misfortunes which have attended so many modern wall-pictures. The remaining illustrations to this article repre- sent some efforts at wall-painting proper, by a lady of Edinburgh, well known for extreme delicacy of handling and fine decorative taste in illumination and embroidery. Mrs. Traquair, the lady in ques- tion, brings to her mural work much of the feeling of the illustrator of the mediaeval manuscripts. Her first attempt at mural decoration — on the walls of the tiny mortuary of the Sick Children's Hospital at Edinburgh — has the aspect of a piece of illumin- ating enlarged. It has the same curious elaboration of symbolical detail, the same fresh and cheerful appearance, the same refinement in drawing and exe- cution. True, liowever, to its origin, it fails in arclii-