Mies Keith's Fine Work on Show at the B. W. A.
Simultaneously with the revival of woodprint work in England and America, Miss Elizabeth Keith, whose pictures are being exhibited in the rooms of the British Women's Association in Kiukiang Road, 1s developing, the art with Oriental subjects. An exhibition of woodprint work was given in New York Jast spring when one of Miss Keith's prints was hung, the subject being that of a Chinese scholar in official dress. The picture attracted considerable attention among critics and this among many others is hung at the present exhibition. From a consideration of the detail of the work which involves cutting, tracing, and colow'ing, processes repeated as many times as there are colours to be produced, such subjects as the funeral procession, the marriage ceremony and a bathing beach scene at Kamakura are most interesting. But of by far the greatest interest are the portrait studies which Miss Keith is doing, thus developing a new branch of the art, for attention has hitherto been paid only to form and colour. The print of the scholar mentioned above is one of these and even better illustrations are two interesting sketches, one representing Lama priest and the other a Korean ancient, the latter study entitled "from the Land of Morning Calm." A picture of two old Korean gentlemen, with wrinkled, smiling faces, deeply engaged at a game of chess, is delightful. The scenes portrayed are always typical of native life in their respective countries, whether in China, Japan or Korea and are those which one wishes to preserve in memory. It would be interesting to know whether the artists who are engaged in similar work in England and America are able to achieve the success with colour which Miss Keith has done. Most of her paints are made from Japanese herbs and the depth and richness of colour makes one feel that the Orientals have not lost all their ancient monopoly of colour production.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.