ART

Chinese Landscape Painting: The frontispiece of the present issue of this journal will prove of interest to students of Chinese art, as it gives a good illustration of the source of inspiration of the great landscape painters of the T'ang and Sung periods. It is a photograph taken by Mr. Orvar Karibeck of the Shi Feng, or West Peak, of the famous sacred mountain of Hua Shan in Shensi, and both in subject and composition it might be an early Chinese landscape painting. Hua Shan is a remarkable mountain that rises out of the range known as the Ching Ling, stretching from east to west across Southern Shensi to the south of the main road from T'ung-kuan to Si-an Fu, and it has long been considered sacred by the Chinese. Numerous temples have been built in its fastnesses and even on the summits of its various peaks.These temples are reached by precarious paths cut out of the living rock, and in places chains are rivetted to staples in the reck surfaces to give pilrims to the Shrines and monasteries a hold in difficult and dangerous places.

Many of the T'ang and Sung painters must have been familiar with the wonderful scenery of Hua Shan, transferring their impressions of it on to their silk scrolls in their inimitable style, which hiss remained the model and inspiration for all succeeding artists in this country.

Other places in China where occurs scenery that reminds one of Chinese landscape paintings are the Lu Shan in Hunan, in which the famous summer resort of Kuling is situated, the mountains of Northern Chekiang and Southern Anhwei and the mountains of Fukien, but nowhere is the scenery more characteristic than in the Hua Shan, which stamped itself upon the work of the rugged and forceful landscapists of the Northern School of early Chinese painters.

The Ferguson Collection of Chinese Art: What has been described as the most valuable private collection of Chinese art objects in China is going to be placed on exhibition in the Wea Hua Palace in Peking, says a message from Nanking, whore on November 23 the Board of Directors of the University of Nanking, holding its semi-annual meeting, gave its approval to the erection of a special building to house this collection. The latter is being given to this university by its present owner, Dr. J. C. Ferguson, the famous authority on Chinese art, who was the flrst president of the University of Nanking, holding that office from 1888 to 1897. It was during this period that Dr. Fergusen began to collect Chinese objet d'art, his collection now consisting of numerous valuable bronzes, porcelains, paintings, jades and other objects of cultural and artistic value and interest. Many of the pieces in this fine collection are unique, not being duplicated in any collection, private or public, in the world. This is the first instance in China of a collection of this kind being donated to an institution for public exhibition, and its donor is to be congratulated on his fine display of public spiritedness. It is to be hoped that his example will be followed by others.

The collection will be on exhibition in Peking till the building in Nanking for its reception has been completed, when, presumably, it will be transferred to the latter city.

Art Club Exhibition in Shanghai: As usual about this time of year a number of art exhibitions have been put on in Shanghai. The Shanghai Art Club held its Arinual Exhibition of Art at 264 Kiangse Road from November 11 to 25, an unusually large number of pictures, sketches and sculptures being on display. The catalogue listed 338 exhibits, the work of some forty-three artists, not a few of whom appear to be new to this city, as far as the public showing of their work is concerned. While much of the work shown at the exhibition was of a high standard, we cannot help once more deploring the fact that our Shanghai artists seem to have a wrong idea of what an art exhibition should be, in that they are in the habit of displaying series of what can only be called studies, many of them only rough studies, instead of finished pictures. We have no hesitation in saying that seventy-five per cent. of the work shown in the exhibition under discussion would find no place in an exhibition in Europe or America, not because it is inferior, but because it is not exhibition material. This is greatly to be deplored. It would be much better were the Art Club to restrict the number of exhibits that any artist might have in the show to two or three and insist upon these being finished works, rather than, as at present, to put up a dozen or more studies or sketches by each artist who cares to send in that many. We do not, wish to give the impression that there were not many very gcod pieces of finished work to be seen at the exhibition There were many such, but unfortunately they were swamped by a superabun-dance of the type of exhibit about which we are complaining.

Also, with regular photographic exhibitions being held in Shanghai, we see no reason why photographs, however artistic they may be, should be included in exhibitions of painting and sculpture. The German Art Exhibition: Very different from the foregoing exhibition is that which was opened in the Chinese Y.M.C.A. building on Boulevard de Montigny in the French Concession, Shanghai, on November 29 by the Friends of Pictorial Art, Munich, an association which has already sponsored one successful exhibition in Shanghai. The present exhibition was under the patronage of Mrs. H. Knebel, wife of the German Consul-General in Shanghai, Mrs. C. T. Wang, wife of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nanking, Mrs. R. Laurenz and Mrs. S. F. Huang, the pictures on display being the work of well Imown German artists, carefully selected by the committee of the above mentioned association in Munich for exhibition. The result is a show thoroughly worth seeing, including, as it does, numerous excellent etchings and drawings, as well as some fine oil paintings and water-colour paintings by famous artists. Shanghai needs more of this kind of exhibition, and those responsible for it are to be congratulated upon their public spiritedness.

International Photograph Exhibition held in Shanghai: At the Shangllai International Photographic Art Exhibition, held in the Chiyo Yoke, 80 Nanking Road, during the second week in November, some five hundred pictures were placed on show, including amongst them a large number of most highly artistic productions. Viewing such pictures one is astonished at what can now be achieved by the camera, and almost wonders whether it can be worth any artists while to learn to draw and paint, so beautiful are the effects obtainable by photographic methods. The exhibition was a distinct success, and will, we trust, become an annual event.

A. DE C S.