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MEMO FROM H. FREEMAN THE WORLD. 189 LOGO THE WORLD A JOURNAL FOR MEN & WOMEN Latest time for Adcts.- 12 noon on Monday ADVERTISEMENT OFFICE, 86, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E. C.

2nd June 1897 With Compliments.

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Messrs. Obach's gallery in Cockspur Street is one of those rare havens to which a weary critic can always turn with the certainty of rest and restoration for eyes irritated by crude colours and disastrous drawing. Like that happy land made immortal by J. K. S.,

"Where the Rudyards cease from Kipling, And the Haggards ride no more,"

the Cockspur Street Gallery breathes an atmosphere of peace and artistic content not always to be found in modern exhibitions. As usual, the exhibits are picked examples of the French landscapists, and though there is nothing so epoch-making as Diaz's masterpiece "La Mare aux Viperes," which formed le clou of Messrs. Obach's exhibition last year (and which, alas! "is lost to sight, though to memory dear," having been purchased and sent to America), almost every picture in the present collection is a gem of value. Foremost in excellence are the beautiful "Approaching Storm," by Diaz, with its admirably rendered mass of rolling storm-clouds, through which one can feel rather than see the calm and sunshine beyond, and the lovely gleam of light across the moorland; Corot's exquisite "La Ronde des Nymphes," one of those idyllic scenes of nymphs dancing in the shade of trembling aspens under a sky of rose and pearl, of which only he knew the secret; Diaz's sunlit glimpse of "The Forest of Fontainebleau," with the light splashing into the mystery of the woodland; Daubigny's "Les Laveuses," one of his very best landscapes, with the beautiful moving reflections in the river, and the limpid opalescent sky; Troyon's brilliant "The Normandy Cliffs," full of the silvery radiance of early morning, with the slanting light making long shadows to the figures and glistening on the grass still wet with dew; Corot's soberly realistic "L'Etang de Ville-d'Avray;" Jacques's "Poultry," full of his best quality; Isabey's vigorous "Granville Harbour," and a beautiful bit of mellow colour, "The Alchemist;" Harpignies' "Souvenir of the Pyrenees," with a luminous evening sky; Professor Legros' "Eventide," one of the most impressive and beautiful landscapes even he has ever painted; Daubigny's exquisitely balanced harmony of fair tones, "Road at Valmondois;" two unusually good Ziems; and a lovely "Country Road in Autumn," by Mauve. Such pictures as these are an inexpressible relief; and a visit to Messrs. Obach's, pour se rincer l'oeil, as the French so aptly put it, becomes almost a necessity to all who respect their artistic vision.

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