Page 48 - Studio International - November 1966

Kyffin Williams
Llanddona 1965-6
Oil on canvas
36 x 48 in.

there's an element of Fin de siècle Orientalism. Yet
Bonnard's drawings are by no means so perfectly fitted
to their purpose as the work done by the Persian illumi-
nators. One is not surprised to be told that the book itself
looks disappointing beside these first sketches. They rely
for their charm on their casualness and sketchiness, and
these are not the ideal qualities for the task. There's
something out of focus about the artist's approach.
I found myself torn between an admiration for the
drawings as drawings, and a feeling that here, already,
was an explanation of why twentieth-century book-
design and book-illustration have often seemed so feeble.
Le Petit Solfège was a book to teach children about music.
I suspect it delighted the children less than their parents.
It is the work of a great artist—but there's a taint of the
affected and the amateurish.
At the LEICESTER GALLERY, there is a show which follows
on quite conveniently from a discussion of Bonnard. In-
deed, perhaps the link is too direct. In the first two rooms
there are recent paintings by Roger de Grey. One or
two of the most successful pictures—a couple of studio
interiors, for example—seem to be directly related to the
kind of thing that Bonnard was doing towards the end of
his life, though they lack Bonnard's saturation of colour.
On the other hand, a picture of an orchard reminds us
instantly of Cezanne, and a more open landscape is a
kind of souvenir of de Staël. The pictures are the work of
someone who is both intelligent and skilful. In some ways,
Roger de Grey they supply a better critique of the painters I have just
Le Rouret VI 1965-6
Oil on canvas mentioned than any writer could—a direct demonstration
36 x 40 in. of their qualities and defects. But I can't get very excited