Cotmania. Vol. III. 1928-9

{Kitson Account}
Oct 12. 1928. The Misses Bulwer came to lunch and inspected two Cotman drawings
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{Sadler Letter}
The Master's Lodgings,
University College, Oxford
Telephone: Oxford 2681
Oct 13 28
My Dear Kitson,
I must try to say how grateful I am for a memorable and exciting afternoon. It is a very great privilege to see so many lovely things, so beautifully kept and placed, + , above all, in the right hands
Yours sincerely
M E Sadler
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{Newspaper Clipping}
MR. WALTER H. ALLCOTT
Mr. Walter H. Allcott in his water-colours of the Pyrenees, Mallorca, Italy, and England, at the Fine Art Society's Galleries, 148, New Bond Street, reveals himself as a student of the old English water-colourists, especially perhaps of Cotman, whose subjects he has even, in a few instances, borrowed. In two water-colours of Durham Cathedral, for example, he has done two excellent exercises in Cotman's manner. But in many of his pictures he has adapted this dry and exact manner for his own purposes, and especially in "Near Sienna, San Gimignano," where a subject which most painters would have enjoyed, apart from its associations, as an exercise in planes is reduces almost entirely to a flat pattern, the use of the medium assisting the drawing to this end. Though this involves a diminution of the ordinary intention of painting, in Mr. Allcott's works it certainly leads to a neatness and elegant precision. Moreover, it enables him to treat quite harmoniously subjects which, though there is a constant demand for them, are very rarely treated successfully, namely, romantic mountains. Sometimes Mr. Allcott in such subjects deserts his flat manner, but in "Mallorca - The Road to Soller," the extravagantly solid is, almost by a tour de force, made flat and elegant. But on the whole Mr. Allcott's architectural subjects, especially "Palma - The Bishop's Palace," "Florence - From Near Porta S. Giorgio," and "A Street in Assisi, the last being a delicate pastel, are most successful.

The Times, 23.10.'28