NEW ZEALAND ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 25, 29 July 1895, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS.

SEVENTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION. In opening the seventh annual exhibition of the Academy on Saturday afternoon, His ExceJlenoy the Governor said it was the third he had had the pleasure of attending and opening, and every year there had been a distinct improvement in the quality and merit of the work shown. This vraa very gratifying. While he did not pretend to be a judge of painting, anyone who had lived the length of time he had, and had Been as many art exhibitions, mast have an idea of what was good and what was bad. There were more portraits than had been shown before, and several of them possessed a great deal of merit, and those who had taken up this description of art exhibition would, no doubt, improve aa time went on. The younger members were displaying more assiduity, and there was, he remarked, improvement in their work. He wished success to the artists exhibiting, and then declared the Exhibition open. -y - TH» MOTDBBB. This year's exhibition is the very beßt of the series, and though it includes some pictures whioh Bhonld not have been hong either in the interests of art or of the artists, it contains a mnoh higher average of 1 work than any of the preceding exhibitions of original work by the_ olub. There are somo 200 exhibits, embracing oil, water color, pastel, and wood-carving. Amongst the oils are some very striking pioturea, the place of honour being giren to |an extra-life size portrait of Mr. Clayton, A.D.C. to Bis Excellenoy, by Mr. J. M. Nairn, a study fall of charaoter. Mr. Nairn is largely represented otherwise. So is Air. J. M. Madden, though the latter has nothing equal to that fine study of trees and sheep and autumn tints in Hagley Park, which he showed last year. So is Mr. Pay ton, tbe Gibbß', Signor Nerli, Mr. J. Baillie, Miss Richardson, and many others. But we will leave the oils to a future oocasion, and taking the order of the catalogue reverse the usual order of prooedenoe by dealing first with THE WATEE COLOURS. There are 86 of them, and they fill the whole of the eastern wall, and half of eaoh end wall. The fineßt picture in the colleotion is that excellent example of John Gully, " On the Weßt Coast Boad," an admirable stndy of rain-soaked road and forest and mountain, with the soft mißts rising and the rain-clouds wreathing the mountain sides Near it is a striking picture (25), " AGolden Afternoon, Lower Kaikorai," by W. M. Hodgkin, the whole valley aglow with rich colour. Taking the moßt notable . pictures from the entrance TV. Fairholme has the beßt example he has yet shown here in "Fisherman's Plat, Sumner," a bright, breezy coast scene, particularly happy as to the oloud-filled sky, and full of air. F. Wright has most attractive pictures in 3, 6, 11, and 12. The Auokland artist has made Mb work suffer by white monnts, which acpentuate its sometimes hard effect, but this caunot conceal its admirable quality, whioh is especially apparent in the cbaraoteristio bit of Northern coast scenery " On Point Chevalier," with its excellencies of drawing, composition, and colour—pohntukawa trees, beaoh, and water is the subject, illumined in the strong Northern sunlight, which makes everything so dear- out. There is interesting work in No. 8, a bright child's faoe in pastel by B. A. BranfiU, illustrating " The Vision of Little Mary Stranger" from the"PhantasmoftheCity." No.9,theheadof a peasant, by Ella Gerard, is solidly painted, but " photographic " in its lack of expression. No. 15, " Taffodil," by J. H. M. Parsons, represents a biliouß-looking young woman, whose least objectionable feature is her red gown— probably hung for its oolonr Bohezne. Noel Barraud Bhows Tasmanian scenes, the best being a good picture of ruffled water and wind-swept encalypts, "On the Derwent" (13). W. P. Barraud has in 26, " Summer Evening," a delicately treated scene on Lake Wakatipu. J. D. Perrett has in 33 and 34 two soft and pleasing pastels of Southern Lake scenery. Mabel Hill iB largely represented, but has not maintained the ratio of advance which made her work so remarkable at the last show. There iB ability shown in all Miss Hill doea, bnt fresh inspiration and direotion is now needed. The most pleasing of the present piotures ia " A Little Brunette " (36), a brightly-treated piotnre of a ohild. " Where Ground was Never Touched by Spade" is a strong landscape stndy. M. E. Richardson exhibits a particularly happy sketch of a fair-haired ohild (45j, full of life and expression, and in 46 has a strongly-limned and gracefully •posed extra -life size portrait study. Miss Richardson shows deaided advance during the year. One of the very best things on this wall is No. 48, " Washing Day," a strongly and oleverlypaintcd little subjeat picture of the housewife at the washtnb, by F. M. Hodgins, who h»B also a particularly dainty sketch in the delioate portrait of a oharming girl, entitled "Marguerite" (63). J. Baillie has made most marked advanoe during the year, and his work shows deoided promise. "In the Glow of Sunset" (58) is a poetic composition, attracting much attention, as is 56, a freely-treated impression of a sunlit cornfield. J. M. Nairn this year makes an excursion into water colour with No 50, a bold sketch on Thorndon-quay, and 51, a daintily and very oleverly painted portrait of a lady, in whioh oharaoter and expression are deftly caught in one of tbe best things of the Exhibition. 'B. N. Anderson has a huge portrait of a lady in 51, but the artist's aspiration has outrun Mb power of exeoution. His sketch of " Waterloo Quay " is work more within his powers, and consequently better work. " A Rescue "is a clever little seascape, full of breezy suggestions, by H. M. li. Atoherley. "A study of Cows," by B. A. Gill, has caught the peculiar look of sleepy introspection characteristic of the family milker. The cows are better treated than the rest of the piotnre. Amongst a number of exhibits H. M. S. Atoherley has in 69 a striking sketch, "At South Head,, Sydney," whioh indicates impressively the great height of the sun-burned oliffs, and the distance to the blue sea below and beyond. M. O. Stoddart has two flower studies in 70a. and 84, both good examples of the delioate and artistic treatment which have won for her flower studies suoh general appreciation. A.T.Blackeseridagood study of red pelargoniums and mignonette in 8 5, and Mr- H. Archibald a large and well-drawn still life study of a pot palm in a window. J. Byrne, A. B. Coffey, J. H. Young, and J. W. Tristram send from New South Wales a number of interesting sketches, whioh have in oommon the glowing colour, strong sunlight, and the broad foregrounds of barren sands of the water-logged beaohes whioh are so oharaoteristio of the Australian sohool, and which Lister Lister has made so popular on the other side. They are nearly all coast and river soenes. Perhaps the best of *U is a sketoh of flat be«oh with two tiny figures of boy and girl walking into the water— the little figures are full of life and acfaon. It ia by A. B. Coffey. Astrikingsketch mt^ to t R J^" (77 >> b * J - H - Y ° MFM F- "Bondi" (76), a sketoh of wave-washed rooks, is skill, fully treated. Other exhibitors of water colours are M. C. Smith. K. Holmes (karaka tafea-and a wind-blown figure— the trees the better of the two, though they give tho effeot of being " stuck" in, and not of growing in the gronnd), E. M. Bronsden (a Bketch inside St. Paul's), E. Diake, L. W. Wilson, J. C. Richmond, I. M. Blaokett, H. G. Fitzherbert, D. E. Hutton, E. M. Koohfort, and W Jones.