BEQUEST MADE TO ART GALLERY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21436, 30 March 1935, Page 5

BEQUEST MADE TO ART GALLERY

SUM OF £2OO TO BUY OIL PAINTINGS For the purchase of an oil painting for the McDougall Art Gallery the sum of £2OO has been left to the Christchurch City Council under the will of Miss May Schlesinger, who spent all her life in Christchurch and died here last Saturday, at the age of 52 years. The total value of the estate left by Miss Schlesinger is £560, but the solicitor to the estate, Mr H. S. J. Goodman, said yesterday that, as there were no next of kin, there was no likelihood of the will being disputed.

Mr Goodman said that Miss Schlesinger had desired, as she herself had lived her life in comparatively drab and monotonous surroundings, to do something which would add brightness to the lives of other people. She had determined, therefore, to provide for a new picture in the Art Gallery, where she had been accustomed to spend a good deal of time. Nothing would shake her conviction that this was the best use to which the money could be put. In her will she expressed the wishthat the painting should be of a scene in the south of France, Spain, Italy, or Egypt. The painting was to be selected by the art committee of the McDougall gallery; but beyond the expression of the wish no definite ruling has been mads about the tvpe of picture to be chosen. The will provides that a small plate bearing Miss Schlesinger's name shall be affixed to the picture. Mr Goodman said that she had hoped that her action might stimulate others, perhaps with larger means, to act similarly.