The Camden Town Group in Context

“We are certainly Impressionists,” said the secretary, “although we do not like the word. We take into account the effect of atmosphere on color.” There are no hard and fast rules governing the new school, whose members hold that every man has some originality which he should be allowed to express fully. “We have broken away from convention, and recognise no laws of art. Each man is a law unto himself. You might describe us as art anarchists.”

Some of that anarchy is exhibited at the Carfax gallery. Certain pictures, the “Crocks” and “Cab Horse” of Mr. R.P. Bevan, for instance, will come as a shock to those accustomed to conventional methods.

Mr. Bevan’s work at first sight looks as if a naughty child had run amok with a box of crayons and a badly illustrated paper. But, as was pointed out, the work of the new school needs an acquired taste. Its many hidden beauties grow on one, and especially is this noticeable in the work of Mr. Spencer F. Gore, the president of the group, who makes one see beauty where one never expected it.

But for looking at a few of the pictures in the exhibition smoked glasses are almost a necessity.