RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITISH .sx COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE .sx By .sx R. A. Duncan , A.R.I.B.A. .sx social and aesthetic activity which displays itself in architecture should be susceptible to the onslaught of these events , for architecture , of all the arts , leans most dependently on science and economics .sx It is remarkable that the British mind which , as everyone knows , has contributed so much to the advancement of pure and applied science , to social system and industrial method , has been reluctant to express a parallel development in architecture , for we must admit that although great changes in architectural .sx THE last century contributed such a sequence of wonders in applied science , that we have become like blase children in an overstocked nursery ; we scarcely raise our heads to look at new marvels .sx If , however , we make some effort to grasp the sequence of events and their significance , it begins to dawn upon us that we are certainly assisting at the disintegration of an old civilization and possibly at the birth of a new era .sx We may , however , make an attempt to take in at a glance the whole picture of change .sx We may see the apparent inconsequential occurrence of theories and discoveries which rain down pell mell , and the endeavours of the social organism to adjust itself to meet the new conditions .sx It is not surprising that that .sx form have taken place in England during the last century , inspiration has , on the whole , been sadly lacking .sx A powerful tradition in house building , the cult of individualism and a tendency to mix ethics and architecture have all played their part in holding us back from a successful corporate expression of new ideas in building .sx Perhaps also our bitter experience of the blight which the beginnings of industrialism cast over the country has made us timid in accepting the gifts of science .sx Whatever may be the causes , it comes about that the use of new materials has largely been forced upon us by economic pressure , and drastic changes of form have first appeared in those structures in which economy is almost the sole ideal ; thus early commercial and industrial building ( apart from structures such as warehouses and mills ) , which had some tradition , was either accidental in design or the product of the engineer .sx More recently , the great expansion of commercial enter-prise , so as to embrace nine-tenths of our activities , has called for the employment of designers of every kind , so that if the field of the architect's work has been contracting in one direction , it is rapidly expanding in another ; that of commercial building .sx It is in this field especially that we must look for the successful expression of those new .sx factors which have intruded upon the traditional methods of building and are the outcome of industry and applied science .sx Even if we admit that we must turn to France and Germany for the origins of many of the innovations , justice has hardly been done to British architects , as this country has not been wholly without designers who appreciate the need for fresh thought and have endeavoured to solve novel aesthetic problems , perhaps some-what less sensationally than recent Continental work , but nevertheless frankly and with a fair measure of success .sx The most profitable method of testing the vitality of our modern architecture is to take the special problems created by innovations in construction and materials and examine the various solutions which appear to the British mind as being satisfactory and logical .sx The most far-reaching of all changes has been brought about by the now general employment of steel .sx That this deviation from tradition was fundamental was not at first perceived by .sx any architect , whether British or foreign , for the economic production of steel was evolved primarily in answer to the needs of the mechanical engineer and was at first localised in its application to building .sx The immediate effect of the use of steel was to give a skimped and mean appearance to many structures , because in other respects they retained a traditional character in the use of masonry and brickwork .sx So long as the mere clothing of structural steel continues to ape functions which it no longer performs , the effect can rarely be satisfactory .sx Messrs .sx Heal's shop and the Kodak building are two excellent attempts at solutions of the problem ; they are especially praiseworthy in that the designs were largely original at the time of erection , and as the forerunners of English modernism , they have provided a precedent for much subsequent work .sx The National Radiator Building , now in the course of completion , shows a further advance beyond the foregoing examples in one respect , namely that the external wall is here frankly handled as a veneer of black granite .sx Whatever exception may be taken to the choice of the colour , the treatment is as logical as the marble sheathing which was employed by the Byzantine builders .sx This structure also serves as a good expression of the essential rectangular unit nature of steel construction and the method of piling floor on floor , now made possible by the use of steel , and practical by the invention of the electric lift which provides the means of vertical communication .sx It is the wedding of such factors as these which has given birth to new types of buildings like the skyscraper .sx The Solex building is a successful design of another type which has been extensively employed by Messrs .sx Wallis , Gilbert and Partners .sx Here the attenuated forms dictated by the frank display of the steel construction , are contrasted by the use of a heavy surrounding frame of masonry or brickwork , giving a sense of solidity to the building .sx Reinforced concrete has recently come into competition with steelwork as a structural material .sx The design problemscreated are , as far as the main issues are concerned , similar to those caused by the employment of steel , as may be seen from the illustration of the Shredded Wheat Company's factory at Welwyn .sx There is , however , this important exception , that , whereas steel generally calls for some casing or other , concrete can be left exposed and screen walls can be made homogeneous with the supports and beams .sx The interior of the Horticultural Hall is an interesting example of such treatment .sx The novel system of construction employed should also be noted , for it admits of an ingenious method of lighting by tiers of clerestory windows and achieves dignity and beauty , while sacrificing none of the practical and economic needs .sx The majority of the buildings illustrated have one feature in common , and that is the great increase in window area .sx This demand for more light is responsible for much of the change in the accepted traditional proportions and is setting a new scale , as may be seen in the warehouse in St. John Street , Clerkenwell , which shows an attempt to deal with the problem without undue eccentricity .sx This increased window area has , like the tall building , become possible by the development of a number of factors ; these are , the economic production of large sheets of glass , the use of steel frames , and most important of all , the invention of central heating , without which our climate would have effectively limited the size of windows .sx It would be possible to continue almost indefinitely the list of minor factors which are disturbing the detail of building traditions .sx There is one , however , which is particularly noteworthy , namely , the introduction of the cantilever , for , in its modern use , it is an entirely novel form .sx The nature of the aesthetic problem may be judged from the illustration of the enormous cantilever stand employed at Lord's Cricket Ground .sx Here is a dramatic piece of engineering , which by its unaccustomedness and dynamic nature gives one almost an uneasy feeling .sx With such forms as these , much time must elapse before we can accept them naturally , and our sense of the possible ceases to be affronted .sx AN AUCTION CAUSERIE :sx FATE OF BIG CANVASES .sx By A. C. R. Carter .sx FOR some weeks past all sorts and conditions of folk have been putting the question to each other :sx " What will it fetch ?sx " and it will not be long after this number of THE STUDIO is issued that everybody will know the fate of the Portland Vase .sx The familiarity of the public with a name indeed accounts for much , and for this reason , people are still talking about 46 guineas being the last bid for a huge picture by Rosa Bonheur , for which the late Mr. W. H. Smith ( another household name ) paid 4,200 guineas in 1888 .sx Now this capable and conscientious French artist did not deserve this auction debcle , even if the taste for the art of the animalier has declined .sx The plain truth is that the descendants of Rosa's art lovers have no longer room enough for pictures eight and a half feet wide .sx A bigger garage :sx yes but no enlargement of the dining-room for a canvas merely showing a ploughing-team in hard labour somewhere in France .sx Even the national and public galleries have all the large pictures which they require , and it is because of the over-crowding of space that Sir Joseph Duveen has had to come to the assistance of the State in providing more accommodation .sx Cathedrals and palaces invited pictures of big dimensions when the Italian masters were painting .sx On the other hand , the Dutch artists were wise in remembering generally that their works would be hung in small rooms .sx The National Gallery authorities are still properly proud of that 13,650 purchase in 1857 of Paul Veronese's Family of Darius before Alexander , which used to occupy 151 feet of wall length in the Pisani Palace at Venice , but the ordinary citizen would be greatly bothered if any artist , to whom he had been kind and hospitable , sent a picture to him such as this in acknowledgment of his entertainment .sx For it is believed that Veronese did this thing .sx When I saw the company at Christie's obviously aghast at the size of Rosa Bonheur's Labourages Nivernais , I vividlyrecalled that afternoon of July 4 , 1896 , when the first and last bid for The Deluge , by Henry Fuseli , R.A. , was one guinea .sx This measured 10 feet by 7 feet , and it immediately followed his Creation of Eve , of similar size , for which someone , greatly daring , had given five guineas .sx Meissonier statisticians used to work out his values in square inches .sx Here we had 140 square feet of paint by Fuseli for six guineas !sx Two years later ( July 16 , 1898 ) , the Burne-Jones sale , however , found votaries not afraid of huge cartoons and pictures .sx Two designs , each 19 feet high , for a stained glass window in St. Philip's Church , Birmingham , fetched 390 guineas ; and the Duchess of Sutherland attended in person to see her agent win for her at 5,500 guineas that Love and the Pilgrim , 5 feet by 10 feet , which the painter had dedicated to his friend the poet , Swinburne .sx This now hangs in the dining room of Carbisdale Castle , Ross-shire , and the latest bulletin about it is that it took ten men to lift it when it required a little moving not long ago .sx But the sale which has left the deepest impression on my mind , in respect of canvas-dimension , is that on February 1 , 1908 , when .sx the studio remainders left by Edwin Long , R.A. , were sold after his widow's death .sx Long is famous in auction history for having been alive to learn that his Babylonian Marriage Market was considered to be worth 6,300 guineas in the art market , an event which happened on May 13 , 1882 .sx It is known that , for some time before his death in 1891 , he had been occupied in filling a canvas , 82 feet by 17 feet , depicting The Parable of the Sower .sx The beautiful idea has no relation to price , and Long resolutely refused to accept 5,000 guineas for this picture , which he held to be his maximum opus .sx It therefore remained unsold .sx When the sale at Christie's occurred , the first bid was 50 guineas , and at 125 guineas the recognized auction champion of British art won it .sx THE BURIAL OF THE CONDE DE ORGAZ .sx A series of details from the masterpiece of El Greco in the Church of S. Tome , Toledo .sx