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Rh The New English Art Club, whose third exhibition is now open, has become the centre of attraction for all who are at once lovers of Progress and haters of Convention. The exhibitors, whether members or non-members, are each animated by the desire to study Nature with unprejudiced eyes, to probe into her mysteries, and, by patient study and effort, to make her disclose to them some of her jealously guarded secrets, and to convey their impressions with loving faithfulness born of carefully acquired knowledge. Experiments many of the pictures are and needs must be, but all are justifiable and interesting, even when partial failure is the result. It must not be forgotten that Rembrandt and Velasquez — indeed that all art, either individual or culminative, can only be led up to by tentative efforts. No one could glance round the fivescore pictures now on view at the Dudley Gallery without immediate conviction that the New English Art Club Exhibition is a peculiarly distinctive one. Everywhere there is manifest, amid all the varied, and sometimes perhaps eccentric, idiosyncrasies of method and manner, the handiwork of the genuine artist. Among the most striking characteristics of the exhibition are the subtle effects of light and atmosphere in intensifying, or as it were in bringing out, the soul of colour. The light that never was on sea or land is certainly upon some of these canvases, yet therein is no derogation from their quintessential truth. This is the case in Mr. Theodore Roussel's 'Evening in June,' Mr. Herbert Dalziel's 'Nightfall' — the one bathed in silver-grey va- pn.iriness, the other irradiate wilh a soft green gloom in which the lingering daylight harmonises wilh the advancing dusk ; Mr. Arthur Tomson's pastel ' Moonrise,' luminous in its green tones and poetic in sentiment, and the ' Spring Evening ' of Mr. Sydney Starr. Notable among the land and sea scapes are ' Winter on the Cairn,' by Mr. James Paterson, strong, and very true to nature ; 'A Clouded Moon,' by Mr. T. Hope M'Lachlan, recalling in its poetical treatment the work of Mr. Cecil Lawson ; Mr. A. Roche's delicate Corot-like ' Eventide ' ; Mr. Nelson Dawson's 'In the Dogger Bank'; Mr. Edward Stott's 'A Village Street,' with its brilliant primrose-coloured sky ; and Mr. William Estall's 'Dawn.' Powerful sunshine pervades Mr. H. Scott Tuke's ' Bathers,' flickers dazzlingly through the foliage of his ' In the Orchard,' and dyes with evening glow the meadow and boys of the charming 'Water Frolic,' by Mr. Fred. Brown. Sunshine also illumes Mr. J. Sargent's two pictures — ' St. Martin's, Siunmer,' very eccentric in treatment, and 'A Morning Walk,' a girl strolling beside a stream whose colour is rendered marvellously purple-blue by the reflection of a passing cloud. Mr. Jacques E. Blanche exhibits two beautiful pieces of still life, delicate in colour and workmanship. Mr. Walter Sickert has again chosen a music-hall motive, but this year his treatment thereof is decidedly more successful. 'I Like Him !— But He Loves Mel' — a pair of tennis-players who have turned from their game to the more absorbing theme of love — by Mr. Francis Bate, is full of subtle gradations of colour, strong and harmonious. Mr. Francis E. James contributes two exquisite flower pieces, ' A Rose in a Rummer,' and ' Cineraria,' both distinguished by their perfection of colour and that peculiar quality of insight wherein Mr. James as a specialist stands quite alone. Of the portraits, the most remarkable is Mr. E. A. Walton's fine sombre ' Portrait of a Girl,' rich in coloration, and masterly in workmanship : this portrait forms the subject of one of our plates. Mr. P. Wilson Steer's two striking colour studies are somewhat marred by coarseness of fibre. Noteworthy also are Mr. Sydney Starr's portrait of the young poet Mr. Raffalovich ; ' Verve,' by Mrs. Lily Delissa Joseph, a spirited full-length figure of herself, robed in black against a dull-red background ; the Whistlerian ' Portrait ' in silver-grey tones by Mr. Maurice Greiffenhagen ; and the delicately painted head of a child in a blue frock against a blue background, by Mr. G. Clausen. Lack of space only permits me to mention two delicate studies in silverpoint by Mr. George Thomson, jlr. Frank Short's aquatint ' The Curfew,' and excellent pastels by Miss Elizabeth A. Armstrong (who also exhibits a drypoint). Miss Annie Ayrton, Mr. Bernard Sickert, and Mr. Henry Muhrman. The younger Scottish artists are well repre- sented. Besides Messrs. E. A. Walton, A. Roche, T. Hope M'Lachlan, Herbert Dalziel, and J. Paterson, there are interesting, and in one or two instances valuable, examples of the art of Messrs. T. Millie Dow, J. E. Christie, J. Guthrie, George Henry, Well- wood Rattray, and J. Lavery, whose ' Note ' of the Glasgow International Exhibition is excellent. The Royal Institute of Water-Colour Painters. — It would certainly be straining the quality of mercy beyond endurance if we were to say that the show at the Royal Institute of Water- Colour Painters was good, yet it certainly is not so bad as it has been made out. That is chiefly owing to the work of outsiders, which is occasionally very fine. Robert W. Allan's ' Breezy day in Arran' (128) is fresh and unconventional, and offers a good example of freedom to the hidebound technique about it. A lady's work (172) is a hitherto unnoticed bit of sweet colour by Miss M. J. Sherbrook, while near it is Nelson Dawson's ' Holy Island Sands' (181), which is equal to his best work. Some small figure studies by H. Cafiieri, R.I., are worth looking at, though too much alike, with badly painted skies. 'Music hath Charms ' (240), by Henri Dumont, is a charming piece of work, and very original in feeling. What Mr. Tuke of Falmouth sends is always worth looking at, and 328 and 535 are not exceptions to the rule. Charles H. Shan- non's ' Red Mammoth ' (370) is a clever and astonishing production after the manner of his oil in the Grosvenor last year, and is superb in colour. There are several good specimens of Mr. East's work. Josef Israels' sends two, one 'The Widower' (510), and the other 'Coming Home.' Mr. Stock, R.I., has by far the most striking work by a member, and. ' Immortality's Sunrise ' (590) is worthy both in feeling and execution, though it is not quite a success, while a ' Musician's Fancies ' (S07) is very striking. What Claude Hayes sends is also noticeable, 713 perhaps especially. Yet in spite of there being as much good work as this (and a few others besides) the general effect of the exhibition is not encouraging. Mr. M'Lean in the Haymarket has a small collection of British and Foreign pictures. Jules Breton's ' Cape of Antibes ' (5) is fine in colour and tone, and well painted. Mr. Edwin Ellis's 'Morning Catch' is good, but, like all his work, a little heavy, while the values are doubtful, to say the least of it. There are several noticeable things by Mr. J. W. Goodward, the apt follower of Mr. Tadema ; but the only thing in the room really worth taking much trouble to see is Munkacsy's 'Love and Song' (36), the painting of which is simple, and simply astonishing in its cleverness. It seems the very acme of technical dexterity in almost every part, for the faces, the hands, the flowers, and all the acces- sories of the whole picture, could hardly be better, save perhaps in the girl's dress, which is a little slovenly. Mr. Tooth, next door, has a larger exhibition wilh much re- markably good stuff in it. F. Eisenhut's ' I pray you for your charity,' an Eastern begging scene, is as good as a course of lessons in painting to many of the Englishmen whose work hangs near it. There are several Meissoniers in the gallery, but they are not all good specimens of the artist's work. A head by Bouguereau (64) should be looked at, while D. Farquharson's ' Strathtay ' is better than some one has seen of his of late. F. Del Campo's ' Harbour, Capri' (So), is admirable in colour and composition, and strikes one as very true. No. 92, 'The Last Shot,' by G. H. Staack- mann, is a daring piece of painting, but succeeds in ex]5ressing an instantaneous act very well indeed. P. Bedini's ' Under the Lindens' (113), a nun under trees in strong sunshine, is admir- able. The sole example of Fortuny here is ' Le Jardin du Poete,' which is about fifty pictures in one, without a focus and tickled up all over. Vet the colour is fine, and individual parts of the painting very good. There are two of Frank HoU's earlier pictures here, and they are wonderful, both of them, in feeling and in execution, but the last, ' Gone ' (122), three female figures in a station with a train departing, is tremendous. That HoU should have been drawn aside by the power of money from this work to portraiture is one of the most melancholy instances of genius mis- applied and power wasted that this generation affords. The French Gallery. — The exhibition of the work of Con- tinental artists at the French Gallery is a very interesting one, and