AN ARTIST'S REMINISCENCES.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11460, 19 December 1902, Page 5

AN ARTIST'S REMINISCENCES.

HOW SIR GEORGE GREY SAT. CHAT WITH MR TENNYSON COLE. (FROM OIR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, November 15. on the eve of Mr Seddon's departure from London. I informed you that both he and Mrs Seddon had given sittings for jhei- portraits to Mr Tennyson Cole, an ir ti«. who some years ago *pen 6 a consider. ,ble time in New Zealand, and who has l!rwd v painted the portraits of several of the colony's best-known public men. tor twenty years of hie artistic life, Mr Tennyson Cole has been-painting leading polltician , a nd other men of first tank. For Si SerVVe Houj ol: Common,; of the President of the Boa»* ™ a ™g • SL JSre of Lord SaUebury now hangs S tjfSw Conservative oub, as doe* also one of Lord Beaconsfield. And a portrait of his of Sir George Urey, painted after he -GO.M. of New Zealand" came to Sgland for the la>b time, was purchased JJ a wealthy West Australian to form, with r tto gowVwanr"wsS*3 thank, and «t». last I had an *£"*** convention with Mr Tennyaon Ode, Jho informe:! me that «ince he left >cv Zeaand many other notabiUfcies-Dutch and Z«l«d- you have a climate which mikes people want to mo\» about, O nd ham; U? South you have a people who never want t ?j do■ *$at they Jre not obliged to do," said Mr lennyeon Cole, in thl course of a. comparison between the two parts of the world. Under glorious condition* life » a pleasure in (New Zealand. And work » a pleasure. Suoh condciion-, I think, tend to produce a better claw of people. *«ew Zealanders are healthier physically and morally, lake the drink question. I* am not. a teetotaller, but I cannot help contrasting New Zealand and South Africa in reprd to that. In the latter plo°e they aon t seem ebl* to resist the drink- Many people make fortunes, or plenty of money to make them, but they spend it in the bars. And now they want to license bars for natives, which in itself will become a great danger. (South Africa, being spoken of, .and Mr Tennyeon Cole having painted Sir Ueorge •Grey, it -was inevitable that the name of that great man should crop up. "When I first met Sir Goorge I was painting in Wellington," said Mr 'Knnyaon Cole. "i asked him to- ait, for a portrait of that statesman was very much wanted there, but he waa In such. * bad state of health. I had painted Mir John Ballance just before he died, and I may here say that. Mr Seddon purchased a. eeeond picture of fcia late ahjef before he left. London. But to return to Sir George. When J came to England I found him here, and on reminding him of hie not having been able to nit m Wellinston. he kindly said he would eit in London-'-that was if he did not get better, for if •he did he intended to return to New Zealand the next week. It turned out, however, that he w*B never to go, and so it came about that he gave me sittings." "What sort of ejtter was he? ,1 'lExceKent after & while. He was rather difficult to get to sit at Brut; but when I had got him comfortably settled with a cup of tea in his hand, he could not have betn better. I would have liked that portrait , to go to New Zealand, for it wan t o liktt him, and I always regarded it as unfortunate that it went to Perth. I was painting Mr Cecil Rhodes when he was subscribing for Professor Harkomei'e portrait, of Sir George, end we often talked of him. It wns about thia time that M* Tennyron Col<£, still at South Africa, painted the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Marlborough, afterward leaving Capetown to accompany the celebrated Dr. Carl Peters, the German West African, explorer, on one of hie latent and most important expeditions. By tie way, Dr. Carl Peters' book on this journey ie just out, and is being widely reviewed. Mr Tennyeon Cole* illustrations are everywhere most favourably criticised, and' then* great value lecognijfed. On returning to Europe lie *pent a considerable time oa the Continent. '"What * psitiom Germany now holds in the axb world," he eajd. "I went to the exhJwtion* at Berlin, Munich, and Dunseldorf. Why, it waa like three Paris Salons afe once, From a, technical point of view they are quite up to anything } th« German* now seem, .to make you feel the Sirne motif of their pictures rather than s excellence and dexterity of the painters. In iobmg at their picture* yoir cannot «*y. now cleverly that man paints' you •ay, 'how natural it all is.' Dusseldorf showed only one school. But what a powerful etjhool it must have been for them to set together such an exhibition!" In conclusion Mr Tennyson. Cole said he w-as unab 4 e to say when he would finish the portrait* of Mr and Mrs'Seddon; all fle could say wa s that ttiey would be finished a« won aa possible.