The Camden Town Group in Context

 The second exhibition at Carfax of the Camden Town Group, unlike most sequels, is more than confirmatory of the merits of the first. This little group of painters, some of them very young men indeed, seem to have been born to an art, the more eccentric features of which less gifted painters have been at pains to acquire. While it is true that the pioneer is generally accused of an eccentricity that is admired in his disciple, there is a vast difference between the sober claims of the Camden Town Group and many of the wilder Post-Impressionists. Mr. Henry Lamb and Mr. J. D. Innes might together be the component parts of Mr. John at his more than best, the one with a weighty and sincere “Portrait,” the other with his rich, solemn landscapes. Here are no fools who rush in where angels fear to tread. For subject as for method the Camden Town Group have not sought far afield. Mr. Spencer Gore’s “The Garden” might be the next-door villa, trembling in the misty light; the homeliness of Mr. Bevan’s “Cabyard – Night” is full of tense, sincere feeling. Less inspiring is Mr. Walter Sickert’s work, with its apache-like suggestion. I am rather weary of apache-figures, apache-houses, apache-atmosphere. Here a little goes a long way, and Mr. Sickert has given us more than a little. One of the best pictures of this very interesting show is Mr. Walter Bayes’s “Bridge,” with its bather in the water below. In colour and design this is one of the most delightful pictures I have seen of Mr. Bayes’s always delightful work.