"HALL OF PRINTS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 214, 10 September 1934, Page 3

"HALL OF PRINTS."

NATIONAL ART GALLERY. SUGGESTED LIST OF FIFTY. Mucli interest has been aroused in Wellington art circles by a proposal made at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts by Mr. Nelson Isaac, who drew attention to the fact that there would be areas of wall space in the new gallery which the existing collection would not touch, and suggested that it might be feasible to secure sonic of the good reproductions of famous paintings in order that the public would be able to see the nature in conception, colour and form of the masterpieces of which they read from time to time. Mr. Isaac's idea was well received (says the "Dominion"), and may lead to action later on. Mr. August Jollifant, iu a letter, gives a "tentative list of 50 artists whose work would glorify any gallery in the world." The list follows: — Albrecht Durer's "Adam and Eve," Murillo's "Beggar Boys" or "Prodigal Son Feasting," Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," Michael Angelo's "The Cumaean Sibyl," Kubens' "Miracles of Ignatious Loyola," Rembrandt's self portrait (in National Gallery, London), Bellini's "Virgin and Saints," Van Dyck's "Christ on the Cross" (at Bruges), Holbein's "The Meyer Madonna," John Constable (typical), Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadcma (typical), John Millais' "Ophelia" (Tate Gallery), Raphael's "Madonna With Goldfinch," Van Eyclc (Hubert) "The Marys at the Sepulchre," Franz Hals' "Laughing Cavalier," Gainsborough's "Mrs. Siddons," Watteau's "The Dance" (Dulwich Gallery), Millet's "The Woodcutters," Reynolds (selection from English National Gallery), Correggio's "Danae," Manet's "Lola de Valence," Burne-Jones' "Mirror of Venus," Rossctti's "The Beloved," G. F. Watts' "Orpheus and Eurydice," Turner's "Crossing the Brook," Hogarth's "The Shrimp Girl," Vales<iuez's "Aesop," Tintoretti's "Bacchus and Ariadne," John Sargent (any portrait), Perugino's "Virgin and Saint Bernard," Whistler's "Symphony in White," Jan Vermecr's "The Cook" (Rijks Museum), David Cox (any of his windswept landscapes), Fragonard's "The Swing" (Wallace Collection), Goya's "The Maya," Mediaeval painting, the Wilton Doptych, Jan Steen (any portrait), EI Greco's "The Trinity," Memling's "Willen Moreel and Sons," Titian's "Assumption of the Virgin," Corot's "Bent Tree," Sir Thomas Lawrence's "Red Bov" or "Man with Hawk," Romliey's "Emma Lyon as a Bacchante," Raeburn's "Last of the McNabs," Kneller (any portrait). Rousseau's "Edge of the Wood." W. Orpen, any example, Augustus John, any example, Van Gogh, any example, Cezanne, any example.

"I do not claim that tlio pictures mentioned are the very best the artists have painted," says Mr. Jollifant, "but each, I think, its a splendid gallery picture, with characteristics that appeal. The art of reproducing masterpieces, even to the minutest crack in the canvas, is so wonderful nowadays that when they are viewed alongside one another the difference can scarcely be detected. As we can never hope to secure iiny of these originals, by all means let us have a 'Hall of Prints,' so that 'these glorious patches of applied paint' may not only educate those of the public who do not move far from home, but may also serve as an inspiration to local painters ito push onward and upward."