AUCKLAND SOCIETY OF ARTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 120, 22 May 1890, Page 8

AUCKLAND SOCIETY OF ARTS.

THE CONVERSAZIONE TO-NIGHT.

' THE BEST PICTURES.

The Auckland Society of Arts open their doors this evening at eight o'clock. As usual, the exhibition is heid in the Choral Hall. Five hundred members' tickets entitling the holder to entrance, to the inaugural conversazione have already been issuod, and when it is remembered that Art Union tickets carry with them a like right of admittance, it will be seen that bhefunction will be as crowded as we are told it will be fashionable. Certain it is that there will be far too much of a crush to see the pictures well. Several visits in the daylight will be necessary to get anything like a knowledge of the merits of the works displayed. Still, even on a crush day, as they call the private views in England, it is possible to see something if you know where to look for ib. Ib is the poking round, not knowing where to look firsb thab, wastes time and is so distracting. Our representative has taken a hasty walk round wibh the object of finding out what are the most striking and important pictures, so as to give our readers an idea where to look and what to look for thi3 evening. Criticism in detail is reserved till later. The pictures mentioned are those which appear to be pre-eminently worth looking at. On entering at the door ib will be best to turn directly to the left and to follow the walls round consistently. The pictures here mentioned are taken in this order. The first picture that will catch theeye will be Miss Dobaon's life-size oil painting, " The Debutante," which is hung immediately above the entrance door. As its name implies, ib is the picture of a young girl at her first dance. She i 3 sitting in a graceful attitude, which very aptly portrays a certain amount of timorous, bashful anbicipabion. There is something very clever in the way in which the artist has caught and transferred this to canvas. It is expressed as much in the pose as in tho face, which is slightly averted and cast down. She is robed in white satin, a most daring and difficult thing to paint by the way. Ib is a large picture, and as such is broadly and dashingly painted. Ib i 3 by no means perfect, bub its faults are mainly due to the character of the painting. The weakest point aboub it is the drawing, which is occasionally faulby. In her flesh tints Miss Dobson is most successful. The high lights on bhe satin gown are a little overdone, and the artist has occasionally become too rough in the laying on of colour. It is apt to give the appearance of the slap-dash school, which is not agreeable. Bub the debutante is a good picture, and will do good work in Auckland. If Miss Dobson's boldness occasionally (and ib is only very seldom bhat it does), if her boldness does somebime3 run away with her, it ab least Baves her from becoming commonplace. A marine-scape, representing a headland on the west coast, by Mr F. Ball, is worth looking at. The sea is well painted, and the cliif stands out with plenty of solidity. Almost exactly below is a subject painting by J. Elder Moultray, representing the Rear-Guard leaving the clearing atMoturoa. The arrangement and grouping in the picture are very good, and there is plenby ! of life. The drawing of the figures is by ! no means perfect, bub it is creditable. The colouring is well managed ; nothing is over accentuated so as to carry the eye away. Everything harmonises and in keeping. The emoke effects are really clever and the foreground is full of detail and excellently carried out. " The Retreat " is a very ambitious work, but ib is certainly successful. A little further on is "Shelly Beach, a daring but very meritorious work by Mr Walter Wright, whose pictures show real genius right through. His faults are those of youth. In Shelly Beaoh he has been particularly successful with the perspective of his boats. Some of the figures might be more graceful, and the trees on the cliff are not very successful, bub the picture as a wholo is remarkably good. Ib shows sbudy and .painstaking work, The sea is well rendered, too, and the contrasts in tb_ lights and shades are -well carried out. A few paces further on is a very pretty lake scene by Mr T. L. Drummond. Ib is in his usual style and displays the usual virtues. Turning tho corner a lot of smaller works sent in for competition are reached. A glass screen for fireplace by Miss A. R. Gardiner will be sure to catch the eye. Painting on glass is not a very old art, and not in our opinion a particularly desirable one. Miss Gardiner's lilies are rather stiff and heavy and the foliage looks, so to speak, clogged. The flowers are too rageed too. They look as if they had been cut too long and lost their freshness. ( The same remarks apply to another screen by the same lady hung a little further on, representing some trumpet lilies. They are nob so well painted as the other, and give one rather the impression thab the colours have run. A panel picture of poppies, by Mrs J. C. Buckland, hung almost next door and rather low down, is wonderfully good. The rich red of the poppies is admirably rendered and their arrangement is all that can be desired. In the doorway are some most beautiful pieces of statuary from the Paris Exhibition, lent by Mr Brett, of which we shall have more to say on another occasion. Passing them, we come to several paintings of horses for competition. Far and away bhe best is tho head of a horso named Jack, by Miss Mary E. Morton, who is evidently a lover of horses. There is an amount of life in this head that is beyond praise.* Miss Morton will undoubtedly develop into a very clever animal painter. The drawing of her horse is excellent, and her colouring far above the 3 average. She has painted exactly what she saw and not what ehe thought, as is evident frcm the lock of mane which overhangs the neck on the wrong side. This peculiarity is often noticeable in horses, yet not one person in a hundred would put it in a picture, as it *' looks wrong," because the majority of gee-gees have their manes all one. way. Mr H. Press's picture, "Moonlight on Rangitoto," bangs on the wall as we again turn the corner, lb is distinctly clever. The moonlight on the water is delightful, and the breaking waves tipped with silver are well rendered. The distance effects are managed carefully, and altogether the picture is a pleasant one. The next work has probably caught our eye directly we entered the room and we have been rather impatient to get up to it. It is by Miss Dobson and is called " Meditation." For several reasons it is worth a good long study. In the first place it is a pastel—and a very good' specimen of the new'work, which even in England is yet in its infancy, and out here almost unknown. Pastel, it may be mentioned, is a superior sort of chalk work. The art of usinc ib has been revived wibh much enthusiasm during the last few years in France, and during last season in London there have been exhibitions of pastel pictures at the Grosvenor Gallery. _~..__ Miss Dobson's work is called "Meditation," and under the title are written the words, "'I am half sick of shadow,' said the Lady of Shalote"—a quotation from Tennyson, which most will recognise. The picture represents a young girl leaning forward, her face resting against her hand. The arm is supported on her knee and she looks out of the framo with wide-open eyes, evidently absorbed in day dreams. The expression of the face is not go spiritual as it might be. It verges almost too much on the

I've had a very good dinner, but I want to know what's for tea. There is a slight lack of sentiment, but the softness in tne colouring makes up for everything. The pose is perhaps a woe bit straindd, and the line of neck from the back of the bead to the shoulder 13 certainly too long, but the finish and delicacy of tho workmanship is deserving of the highest praise.

[Owing to pressure on our space we have been compelled to hold over the major part of the notice prepared for to-day's issue.]