British-American

Passengers in the side concourse of the Pennsylvania Station, Manhattan, noticed, last Saturday afternoon, a great limousine drawn up not far from a taxicab stand. It was a car hardly designed to lounge unnoticed through the streets of the metropolis, for one side of the shining tonneau was tastefully draped in ar large British Union Jack, the other in a large U. S. flag. In it sat three high hats--Sir Harry Gloster Armstrong, British Consul; Walter L. Clark, President of the Grand Central Art Galleries; Irving T. Bush, Art patron. They were waiting for Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador to the U. S., to arrive from Washington. On the other side of Manhattan Island, 4,000 people--said to be the largest assemblage ever to attend a New York exhibition--waited for him also. For this Ambassador had promised to lend his presence to the opening of the Retrospective Exhibition of British Paintings, under the auspices of the English-speaking Union.

Sir Esme arrived, quickly traversed the town in his gaudy limousine, stood before the 4,000. To them he read a letter from President Coolidge to President Clark, welcoming the exhibition as an endeavor "to bring about among English-speaking peoples the interchange of ideas which leads to a good understanding." After he had made a speech of his own, after Mr. Clark had made a speech, the 4,000 were free to turn their faces to the walls.

They saw, first of all, ten portraits painted in England by John Singer Sargent, never before exhibited in the U. S. Notable among these was the artist's portrait of Lady Sassoon--an arrogant, amazingly refined countenance portrayed with the delicate distinction characteristic of aristocracy and Sargent at their best. There, too, was one of Mr. Sargent's famed Werthheimer portraits. There was Munning's picture of the Prince of Wales on Forest Witch, his graceful chestnut mare. There was Sir James J. Shannon's portrait of the Princess Patricia, loaned by the Duke of Connaught. There were two Hogarths from The Rake's Progress series, two portraits by Reynolds, a romantic landscape by Gainsborough, a liberal representation of other 18th Century painters.