OLD PAINTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 14 September 1940, Page 10

OLD PAINTINGS.

OFFER TO AUCKLAND.

BY A LONDON DOCTOR.

Twelve paintings by Dutch and English artists of the 17th and 18th century have been placed on offer to the library committee of the Auckland Art Gallery by Dr. H. Wansey Bayly, of Harlev Street, London, who served with an artillery brigade attached to the New Zealand Division in the last war, and had since made friends in Auckland in the course of two visits to the Dominion as ship's surgeon on one of the New Zealand Shipping Company's liners. In a memorandum to his offer Dr. Bayly states that he had observed that the Auckland gallery had no "old masters" of the periods mentioned. He did not claim that the paintings under offer possessed pedigrees, but they belonged to the periods, and probably the "schools" of the painters to whom they were attributed. As such they would serve to prepare the minds of Xew Zealanders who could not get Home to see the pedigreed masterpieces, by enabling them to distinguish the various styles. ' Ho felt there could not be too many links i between Britons at Home and in Xew Zealand.

According to a list, the pictures include Dutch la ml-capes by or after Hobbenia and Ruysdael. Among the English works attributed in the same way are:— Ban Dvek. '• Port rait of a Gentleman"; Roninev, "Lady and Child"; Lelv. "Sir Nicholas Stewart. Bart."; Hoppner. "Dr. Simmon. Physician to George III."; and Constable. "A Mill and Stream." There is also a portrait of Charles I. by an unknown painter. The library committee will report on the matter shortly.