DEATH OF MR. FRANK WRIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 182, 1 August 1923, Page 7

DEATH OF MR. FRANK WRIGHT.

A DISTINGUISHED ARTIST. PAINTER OF NEW ZEALAND SCENERY. .

It is with deep regret that we record the death of Mr. Frank Wright, the wellknown artist, a regret that will be felt wherever his name is known. For about a week he has been suffering from influenza, which turned to double pneumonia, and he passed away this morning at half-past eight, in spite of everything that could ibe done for him. Born 63 years ago in Nottingham, where for three generations |iis people had been connected with the calling of lace-designing, he naturally adopted an artistic career, and he studied for several years .at the South Kensington School of Arts, where he won several competitions in designing. He came out to New Zealand in 1877, and, after going through varied experiences, he settled down permanently to his profession, and started teaching in 1888. Since then he and his brother, Mr. W. Wright, have shared the 'studio in Auckland from which so many popular picturps have issued. At the recent exhibition of the Auckland Society of Arts both the brothers were right at the top of the sales list, so popular are their works.

Tho late Mr. Wright made the New Zealand bush his special study, and he caught the charm of it with wonderful skill. Although he worked both in oils and watercolourg, his watercolours were perhaps the more successful. He had a wonderful eye for colour, and some of the pictures he painted of the Urewera forests —a favourite field of hie at one time—were considered truer than anything that lias hitherto been attempted. He is represented in the Auckland Gallery by his large oil painting "The Mill Valley, Karekare," and several other popular works, including one showing the building of a Maori canoe, this last mentioned being in collateration with his brother.

I Being recognised as a gifted portrayer iof distinctive Xew Zealand scenery, it I was natural that the late Mr. Wright \ should have been 6elrcted by A. and C. 1 Hacks the famous firm, of colour book I publishers to illustrate their book on the J Dominion, and that volume contains i some of the most attractive work that ; the two brothers have ever turned out. : Many of the late Mr. Wright's picture* have been bought by people passing through New Zealand, and they have even gone as far afield as Ceylon and Russia. ■In addition to his love for his chosen art, the late Mr. Wright was a keen musician. He had a good tenor voice, which used to be heard in the Waiata Quartet—one of the first of the kind that hae since become so popular in Auckland —and he was an enthusiastic member of the Royal Male Choir, of which he was chairman for many years. He had a most likeable personality, and fow men j had a larger circle of more genuine j friends.