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200 THE MANSARD GALLERY
or Roberts are confronted by a handful of
their French contemporaries. They are not
confronted by the best of them : Mr. Fry has
hung nothing by Matisse, Bonnard or Picasso,
for instance, though, had he pleased, he could
have shown a couple of pictures by the last-
named, at any rate. He chose well, I dare
say but it is ; mere justice to admit that the
only two French artists fairly represented are
Marchand and de Vlaminck. For the rest,
the single picture by 1'Hote is a characteristic
work of that engaging but not very formidable
painter ; the two small pictures by Friesz,
good as they are, hardly rank among his
there is in London at least one
masterpieces ;
other work by Gris, and that, to my thinking,
a better while the Derain is ; by no means
worthy
of that eminent artist.
I wish we could have been shown three or four
capital works by Derain, because there is no
man in the modern movement more readily
appreciated by people who care for painting,
but boggle at the unfamiliar. I remember
finding myself once in Kahnweiler's shop on
the Boulevards with an extremely intelligent
official from South Kensington, and I remember
his admitting with excellent candour that,
though the Picassos still puzzled him, he was
a thorough convert to Derain. Naturally :
how should a man of taste and erudition not