TRAGIC DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1932, Page 7

TRAGIC DEATH.

New Zealand Artist-Soldier's Bitter Struggle. SUCCESS CAME TOO LATE. LONDON, April 26. The death of Mr. James F. Scott, a New Zealand artist, occurred in tragic circumstances yesterday, Anzae Day. Mr. Scott came from Dunedin and had lived in England since the war. The depression had lately caused a lack of commissions, thus forcing Mr. Scott to carry on through the winter without means, except a pension, which he spent on necessary food and artists' colours. Friends offered help, but he accepted only occasional meals.

Mr. Scott had suffered acutely from an internal complaint for the last eight months and he broke down on Saturday. His journey to the hospital was interrupted at a studio, where he signed his last picture, "A Sculptor Study."

Then, during one of his last periods of consciousness, the news was conveyed to him that the picture had been accepted for the Royal Academy.

Mr. Scott went to Gallipoli with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Wounds prevented further service as a combatant and lie was appointed one of the official Australian war artists. He was responsible for the frescoes in the Australian pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.

MR. SCOTT'S CAREER,

WORKS IN MANY GALLERIES,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, tins day,

It is accepted here that the London cable refers to Mr. James Eraser Scott, ai, artist, aged 55, who was born in Dunedin and educated in the Kaikorai School. He began his studies at the Dunedin School of Art and went to Paris, Antwerp and Brussels to study, then to Australia where he enlisted.

He was wounded at Passchendaele. He held the rank of lieutenant and was appointed official artist to the Australian Government. He has 30 pictures in the art gallery in Sydney and two in the Dunedin gallery. He did the frescoes not only for the first Wembley Exhibition, but for the New Zealand Court at the second Wembley Exhibition.