DLA018-0016  Transcription 

WOLMER WOOD,

MARLOW COMMON,

MARLOW, BUCKS.

Oct. 2nd 1930

My dear Philip

I thought that as were wandering about Europe I had better wait till you got to Paris before writing you a letter – in case it went astray. Now I am writing I feel that I have very little to say as nothing particular has been happening lately and I have not been doing anything out of the ordinary run. The galleries are beginning to open again and I did three exhibitions yesterday when I was in town, one in the Fine Arts Society galleries is quite decent – water colours and oil paintings by Charles Oppenheimer, who, in spite of his name, is a Scottish artist.^[1] The other two did not strike me as particularly good; I hope there will be better ones later on.

I am closing down within the next few days the show by R.B.A. members at the Plaza; it has gone on longer than I intended but a society which half promised to

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arrange an exhibition failed me and I had to fix up things with another. I am now going to have a collection of works by members of the British Water Colour Society; it is a society which has exhibitions in country towns and does not include many people of much note but I am told it can provide enough decent stuff. I am an Hon. member of it so I thought I might as well give it a chance of making an appearance in London. Half a dozen R.B.A. members – including Littlejohns^[2] – belong to it.

By the way, I had a circular about the R.B.A. Art Club a few days ago. The programme is varied and interesting and ought, I think, to attract people. I hope the Art will go well as, if it does, it will help the R.B.A. a good deal but a good deal will depend upon getting the right sort of people, and upon the ways things are [worked?]. However, Hesketh Hubbard is an energetic person so he ought to back you up in your plans for making the scheme a success and I hope that when you get back you will find that things have gone all right while you have been away.^[3]

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I suppose you are hard at work now in Paris and I hope your trip round to so [many?] places has done you good, the moving from place to place can scarcely be called rest., still you have had change of scene and a variety of experiences. I hope the weather has been kind to you; it has been not too good here for the last week or two, chilly and dull, rather a lot of rain. I did want to go out to do a few autumn sketches but have had no chance – I have been rather busy finishing off the article on Albert Moore, which I think, I told you I was writing.^[4] It is done now and the people for whom I was doing it seem pleased – so that’s all right. I shall have to be starting now on my lecture for the Leighton centenary, it is not wanted until December but I want to write it without a rush as it must be rather carefully considered and treated.^[5]

Have you been thinking over the film while you have been roaming about? I want to hear what incidents in your life you are selecting so as to make the story go with a swing – movement and incident are necessary in a film, as people like to see things happen.

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Patry phoned me two or three days ago, he has finished his large portrait of Lady Stradbroke and one of her aunts.^[6] I asked him if he was lending it to the R.B.A. but he said that she wanted it at once and would not let him show it. He wants me to run down to Bedlescombe to see it but I am afraid I cannot manage that. did you ever meet Ellis Roberts the portrait painter?^[7] I saw a notice of his death recently. He had a great vogue as a fashionable art some years ago, though he was never very good, but latterly he did not exhibit much. He was rather skilful in doing portraits in a sort of old master way so that they looked all right among older pictures if one did not examine them too closely.

Well, au revoir, I am looking forward to a letter from you to say how you are and what you are doing in Paris. Please give my love to Lucy and my best thanks for the cards she has sent me. She and Pat seem to have had a very attractive trip through many attractive places.

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

08/04/2018