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.
THE FORTHCOMING ART CONGRESS AT LIVERPOOL.
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
