DLA018-0031  Transcription

WOLMER WOOD,

MARLOW COMMON,

MARLOW, BUCKS

Jany. 3rd 1930.

My dear Philip

I am afraid my notes, which I hope reached you on Wednesday, was a very hurried scrawl but I had only a minute to write it as I was hard at work on my notice of the Italian exhibition.^[1] I was very sorry I could not get to you for Wednesday night but I had to be at the Pastel society private view^[2] in the afternoon and get home that night as I had Thursday booked up with things I had to do here – I have had a rush all the week. I was rather disappointed with the Italian exhibition; perhaps I expected too much but it seemed to me heavy and yet at the same time a little weak. There is a sort of prettiness in Italian art and when you get such a mass of it all together this prettiness becomes rather too evident. I certainly did not think the show as impressive or as strong as either the Flemish^[3] or

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the Dutch^[4] – my recollection of the Flemish primitives particularly is that they were far more serious in treatment and far finer in colour than the Italian. However, I want much to hear what you think of the exhibition so, if I may come to you next Wednesday, we [illegible words] talk about it. I hope you [illegible words] [look?] at the Pastel Society [illegible words] you go abroad; I think it is well up to the average and there is a fair amount of good work in it – Terrick Williams has some charming landscapes, Davis Richter a large and ambitious painting of Paddington Station and Leonard Squirrell some very good stuff; Cohen shows only one thing, a sketch of a child’s head, not his best work.^[5]

I hope Patry^[6] was able to tell you all about the R.B.A. position – I have not heard much more about it lately, but I did have a short chat, at the Academy on Monday, with Littlejohns^[7] who was one of the moving spirits in the attack on Sickert’s policy of hanging a lot.^[8] He is, I think, one of your supporters but he did not seem to be hopeful about you, or anyone else, getting a really large majority, as the society seems to be very much divided up into factions – that is always

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the way these things go, artists are such hopeless people when anything like united action is required; they never can agree over which agreement is obviously important in their own interests.

Ever so many thanks to you and Lucy^[9] for the photo, which arrived this morning. I am delighted to have it and it is most nice of you to have thought of sending it I hope Paul^[10] had got all right again before he set off for America and I hope sincerely that he will not have too rough a passage. I am afraid, though, that he is bound to get some bad weather as there seems to be a lot of it about – it was [illegible] blowing fairly briskly here today and we have had some heavy rain.

Well, au revoir my friend and our best of wishes for the future. I hope this year will see the realisation of your picture [illegible] – I am quite anxious to see the picture as you are to paint it.^[11]

Our love to you both | Always yours

A.L.B.

Editorial Note:

Alfred Lys Baldry (1858-1939), British artist and art critic who authored several articles on de László and who was a close family friend; for biographical notes, see [3562].

SMDL

17/05/2018