To this great gift of nature, since this quality in its highest form cannot be acquired, Conder added practically nothing. It is with a feeling akin to resentment that we find faculties so exceedingly rare and so precious, allied to such a lamentable lack of training and art education. It is indeed possible that, if his life had been prolonged, these shortcomings would have been supplied, as Burne-Jones taught himself the human figure after he became famous; but, after all, criticism is perhaps somewhat ungracious where there is so much that is admirable, and the utility of speculations as to the ‘might have beens’ is extremely questionable. [Illustration: The Red Fan. Conversations Galantes, painted on silk by Charles Conder. Mr. John Lane.] The number of Conder fans existing in various collections must be considerable. Mr. Lane has a dozen, or possibly more, of which perhaps the finest is reproduced here. Silk is the material employed, to which his method is especially suited. They appear to have been mounted only in very rare instances, and are generally framed for purposes of decoration. There is no reason why they should not be used—in fact, there is every reason why they should, since suitability to a prescribed purpose is one of the very first canons of good art. Mrs. Lane has a blue fan, mounted, and in use. The work of Frank Conder is obviously founded on that of Charles, with which it presents many features in common. Among the several fans by this artist illustrated in the winter number of the _Studio_, that representing two young girls holding masks, with Cupids, and in the background a river and bridge, is perhaps the most individual. The many admirers of Mr. Brangwyn’s work, and they are legion, will doubtless welcome the two characteristic examples given of fans by his hand. In both instances, the colour scheme is a play upon blue, somewhat similar to, and at the same time, necessarily, vastly different from, the red fan of Mr. Conder. The motto of Danton the Republican—‘de l’audace, et encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace,’ ‘to dare, and again to dare, and always and evermore to dare,’ would seem to be peculiarly fitting to the work of Mr. Brangwyn. In the hands of a less gifted artist this would probably mean disaster; in the instance of the original of the coloured illustration, a bold gouache on silk, the result is one of almost overpowering brilliance. The half-tone illustration represents a sketch on grey paper, and must be considered merely as the first idea of a fan, to be materially modified in the working out.