The Camden Town Group in Context

It cannot be said that there is anything among the exhibits which calls for a lyrical expression of delight, unless such might be inspired by a company of ballet dancers, cab horses, and murderers, to which Mr. Gore, Mr. Bevan, and Mr. Sickert introduce us; or by the garden corners, pale landscapes, and railway stations in which Mr. Manson, Mr. Pissaro [sic], Mr. John, and Mr. Drummond delight to dwell. But the choice of such subjects as these is, doubtless, a sign of the vital modernity to which sweetness, sentiment, grandeur, “the glory and the freshness of a dream,” make no appeal. Few would suspect that the country was a beautiful place if these landscapes were the only means of bringing it to the eye; not one would guess it to be hallowed with a thousand poetical associations, as it is.

But, after all, these artists are not to be quarrelled with because their works do not give the satisfaction of art. These pictures are but the first trembling experiments of a new development – that new art to which some painters are looking forward with all the ardour of the Israelites journeying to the promised land of Caanan [sic]. Let them not look back! – lest the fate of Lot’s wife overtake them. We wish these painters, with their lofty aims, every success, and look forward, with them, to the time when their experiments shall have brought art within their grasp.