referring to this very impressive example of expressionist painting , Ensor himself stated that je me suis joyeusement confin&amp;eacute; dans le milieu solitaire o&amp;ugrave; tr&amp;ocirc;ne le masque , tout de violence , de lumi&amp;egrave;re et d&apos;&amp;eacute;clat . le masque me dit : fraicheur de ton , expression suraigue&quot; , d&amp;eacute;cor somptueux , grands gestes inattendus , mouvements d&amp;eacute;sordonn&amp;eacute;s . following the Belgian school , we come to the French Nabis with fine examples of the intimiste work of Vuillard and , in particular , of Bonnard whose nu &amp;agrave; , painted in 1908 , and lent by the Mus&amp;eacute;es Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique , Bruxelles , is possessed of every single quality of drawing , painting and composition that any , and every , artist seeks to achieve . this exhibition of Les sources du 20&amp;egrave;me Si&amp;egrave;cle has been so well planned and displayed that one is continually startled and excited by the contrasting schools and groups of artists that confront one as one moves on from room to room . after the reposed and subdued work of the Nabis we suddenly come face to face with the agitated , violent chromatic paintings of the Fauves and the cynical , cruel expressionism of Rouault whose large strident water-colour on paper of M et Mme Poulot ( collection of M Philippe Leclercq , Hem ) reproduced here , is one of his greatest works . next come the German expressionists and the paintings of Nolde and of Munch , in particular , have been carefully selected to indicate the important role that this school played in the formation of 20th-century art . l&apos;angoisse , by Munch ( which is reproduced here , and lent by the Collections Municipales des Beaux-Arts , Oslo ) is , to say the least , agonizing in its able form of expression . and then we come to the British section which is very revealing ( for the French public , anyway ) in that the accent is much more on arts and crafts than on painting and sculpture . the artist-architect who stands out most prominently is Charles F Annesley Voysey , member of the art workers guild and nominated , in 1936 , royal designer for industry . principal among the number of exhibits lent to the Museum of modern art by the Victoria and Albert Museum , is an enchanting tapestry , designed by Voysey and which was executed , in 1899 , by Alexander Morton and Co ; and a series of delightful wall-paper designs by Arthur Heygate Macmurdo , who was a close friend of William Morris and of Ruskin . from the elegant designs of these British artists we are shown the fantastic French style metro furniture of the turn of the century . a complete dining-room suite has been transported from the Mus&amp;eacute;e de l&apos;&amp;Eacute;cole de Nancy and installed in a separate room in the exhibition at the Museum of modern art . this ensemble , executed in 1903 , has to be seen to be believed . this likewise applies to the ghastly style of the Lit Papillon , also lent from the Museum in Nancy . but it was not only in France that the craftsmen produced furniture and fittings of extraordinary and extravagant design . during the reign of Queen Victoria , sensational works of art were fabricated such as the startling dining-room table centre-piece , executed by Alfred Gilbert and his assistants , to commemorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria , in 1887 , and which her majesty the Queen has graciously lent to the present exhibition in Paris . again , by way of contrast , the exhibition continues with the work of the Cubists and important painting-collages by Braque and Picasso . L&amp;eacute;ger , too , is exhibited to marked advantage with his cubist composition , la noce , painted in 1910 , and owned by the Museum of modern art in Paris . Guillaume Apollinaire , speaking of this canvas , said . les gens de la Noce se dissimulent l&apos;un derri&amp;egrave;re l&apos;autre . encore un petit effort pour se d&amp;eacute;barrasser de la perspective , du truc mis&amp;eacute;rable , de la perspective , de cette quatri&amp;egrave;me dimension &amp;agrave; rebours , la perspective , de ce moyen de tout rapetisser in&amp;eacute;vitablement . and then we come to the grandfather of the Peintres de Dimanche , Le Douanier Rousseau . his charmeuse de serpents ( from the Louvre ) is surely one of the greatest , and most natural , of primitive paintings . der Blaue Reiter group of avant-garde artists is admirably represented with important paintings by Kandinsky , among which the dramatic and powerful composition entitled avec l&apos;arc noir , painted in 1912 , and lent by the widow of the artist ; by Jawlensky , whose portait de jeune fille ( from the Kunstmuseum , Dusseldorf ) is a superb example of his work ; and by Franz Marc whose well-known composition of les trois chevaux rouges ( lent by M Paul Geier , Rome ) typifies his search after the spiritualization of nature . nearby are hung a few small water-colours and drawings by Klee . this is the only artist in this very important and instructive exhibition whose work I find poorly represented . the originality , the fascination of his very individual art certainly merited more than this . futurism , the short-lived beginning of the century revolutionary movement , founded by Marinetti who spoke of a roaring motor-car , which runs like a machine-gun and is more beautiful than the winged victory of Samothrace &amp;hellip; is mainly represented by Boccioni with a disturbing quasi-religious composition entitled mati&amp;egrave;re ( lent by M Gianni Mattioli , Milan ) . the origin of pure modern abstract painting is fully exemplified in the work of Mondrian . in the present exhibition I was intrigued by his l&apos;arbre rouge ( from the Gemeente Museum , La Haye ) for I always remember Mondrian telling me , in his own studio in Paris , that he was more interested in painting a lamp-post than a tree ! les sources du 20&amp;egrave;me Si&amp;egrave;cle exhibition concludes with some fine examples of the work of Modigliani , de Chirico , and Chagall . Kokoschka , I am pleased to say , is very well represented with several portraits and landscapes which reveal the true talent of this artist who , I feel , is still not sufficiently known and appreciated . there is much I would have liked to say about many other interesting exhibitions now taking place in Paris . but I find I have sacrificed my allotted space to this outstanding exhibition at the Museum of modern art . thus I am obliged to leave reviews of the exhibition of sculpture by Lilla Kunvari ( at the Galeries Raymond Duncan ) ; of enamels , by Andr&amp;eacute; Marchand ( at the Galerie David &amp; Garnier ) ; of painting by De Gallard ( at the newly opened Galerie Herv&amp;eacute; ) ; and of the annual &amp;Eacute;cole de Paris show ( at the Galerie Charpentier ) until the next issue . new art galleries continue to spring up in Paris all over the place . since six months ago , when I calculated that there were more than two hundred and fifty of them , I reckon that the figure is now not far off the three hundred mark . as this is one of the busiest seasons of the year for exhibitions , I am receiving daily so many invitations for private views that I have to decide which shows are not worth seeing . the other day , one of the small left bank galleries sent me an invitation for a new exhibition and stamped on the envelope was les tableux sont le meilleur placement au monde ( paintings are the best investment in the world ) , which is proof enough of the very profitable business now being done by the Paris dealers during the present boom . after reviewing the remarkable exhibition at the Museum of modern art , of sources du 20&amp;egrave;me Si&amp;egrave;cle , in last month &apos;s Paris commentary , there was not space enough left for me to refer to Lilla Kunvari &apos;s sculpture , at the Galeries Raymond Duncan ; and Michel de Gallard &apos;s paintings at the new Herv&amp;eacute; gallery . I have followed the progress of this talented young artist &apos;s work since I called on him , shortly after the war , in his tiny , drab studio in the squalid La Ruche building way over in the 15th arrondissement . de Gallard managed to escape from La Ruche a few years ago and he now lives outside Paris where he leads a retired and happy life painting realistic scenes of the countryside and of the peasants working in the fields . his drawing has gained in strength and his palette is becoming more varied while he seeks to bring more light into his well balanced compositions . his impressive Cathedrale de sens , which was reproduced in last month &apos;s studio , testified to these qualities . Lilla Kunvari is an able Hungarian sculptor who was educated in France and who studied art in the Paris academies . her drawings have the delicate force of Rodin while her small terra-cotta busts and figures ( like that of l&apos;orateur : see my last Paris commentary ) recall the grotesque heads so cleverly caricatured and modelled by Daumier . for all that , Lilla Kunvari &apos;s art has an appealing individuality . one of the most thrilling exhibitions I have seen for a long time at the very active Galerie de France is that of recent paintings by Tamayo who is considered one of the greatest living Mexican artists and whose work is well known and admired in America , but less known in France , and even less in the U.K . Tamayo was born in Oaxaca , in 1899 . he took to painting when very young and , at sixteen years of age , studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts de San Carlos . he left the Academy three years later and devoted himself to a study of the impressionists and the Cubists . he held his first one-man exhibition when twenty-two years old at a time when he was attempting to combine in his compositions both the pre-Columbian tradition and the modern expressionism that he had learnt from his study of the school of Paris . in 1929 , he was nominated Professor at the &amp;Eacute;cole des Beaux-Arts in Mexico City . four years later he executed the first of a series of outsize mural decorations for the &amp;Eacute;cole Nationale de Musique , Mexico City . in 1943 , Tamayo moved to New York where he held his first one-man show there at the Pierre Matisse Gallery . since the war , he has travelled widely throughout Europe and has exhibited at all the big international shows while executing frescoes here and there . I saw and spoke to him in Paris during his exhibition at the Galerie de France and he told me he had to hasten back to Mexico City where he had to start work on a gigantic mural for the Mus&amp;eacute;e de l&apos;Histoire which will measure about 100 metres by 15 metres ! he reckoned that this will take him at least a full year &apos;s hard work to complete . Tamayo is , indeed , a prodigious worker . the twenty-five canvases on view at the Galerie de France represented only a part of what he had produced in 1960 . his particular form of expression is difficult to describe on account of its striking originality ; but what is apparent is the strange and unusual combination of Mexican folklore art and a quasi-abstract European form of painting , as can be judged from his homme au mur , reproduced here . at the same time there exists a fantasy , especially in his smaller canvases , which reminds one of the intriguing and charming esprit of Paul Klee . a certain cubist expressionism is to be found in his compositions wherein the arithmetical balance is based on the laws of the golden section . and there is a haunting , evasive , subtle quality about his colour orchestration of harmonies of pastel hues . the texture , too , of his paintings is of a very individual and striking quality . Tamayo himself told me of the secrets of this : he mixes his paint with powdered marble . an exhibition which was not widely advertised but which was , in my opinion , of equal importance and significance to that of Tamayo - though quite different in aspect - was the show held at the re-opened Galerie Jeanne Bucher , in the Rue de Seine , of recent paintings by Vieira da Silva , whose work I have always greatly admired . I hope to be able to write about her at some length in a forthcoming series of articles in the studio on leading abstract , and near-abstract , artists of the school of Paris , so I shall praise her work here in short terms . like those of Tamayo , Vieira da Silva &apos;s paintings are very individual and original and this in itself is a rare enough quality these days . 