78 ART GALLERY. 
A painting commemorative of the occasion was voluntarily under- 
taken by Mr. Arthur J. Lyons, of Paris, on the suggestion of the 
Chairman of the Sub-Committee, and this, which contains the 
portraits of over 50 well-known Liverpool people, was offered by 
subscribers, and accepted as a gift to the Art Gallery. The subject, 
an extremely difficult one, was handled with great ability by 
Mr. Lyons, who has specialised in compositions of this kind. 
Opinions vary as to his success, but those which were unfavourable 
may, perhaps, have been due to the natural distrust of anything 
unusual in pictorial art—which similarly found expression when 
Rembrandt produced his so-called ‘‘ Night Watch,’’ in which he 
disregarded the arid conventions regulating such pictures. It is to 
be regretted that, as the picture was intended for the Permanent 
Collection, the subscription list was not such as to justify the artist 
in spending a month or two longer in doing his utmost to make it 
worthy of his reputation. 
386 works were sold, the catalogue prices of which amounted to 
£8,394 6s. 6d. This shows a very gratifying improvement, the 
total being more than double that of the previous year, and larger 
than that of any year since 1900. 
In addition to the official catalogue, an illustrated one was, as 
usual, published by Messrs. D. Marples & Co. The Committee had 
vaiuable professional assistance in the preparation of the Autumn 
Exhibition from Messrs. Adrian Stokes, A.R.A., I. A. llornel, and 
Adolph C. Meyer, A.R.E. 
The attendance of the public at the Exhibition was somewhat 
less than that of the previous year. This may, in part, be attributed 
to the shorter duration of the Exhibition, due to the delay in opening 
it, caused by the Railway Strike, which prevented pictures being 
brought from London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, &c. There is, how- 
ever, a general shrinkage in attendance at all exhibitions in recent 
years, but it may be noted that, as regards the Autumn Exhibition, 
the falling off during the last two years coincides with the great 
