THE BAILLIE GALLERY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1914, Page 8

THE BAILLIE GALLERY

SOME EXCELLENT PICTURES. One of the chief attractions of London for the New Zealand visitor arriving in tho season are the Royal Academy and the picture galleries, public .and private. A visit to London means more time and more money than the majority of people in New Zealand have to spare. Hut here in Wellington is a great opportunity of seeing pictures that have come from the Royal Academy, and pictures, too, that (if not acquired for New Zealand) will ultimately be found in public galleries or private collections. To see such a collection one must go very far indeed, apait from the large Australian galleries. For reasons of his own, Mr. Baillie has made a venture which probably no other man would have made. He has brought to New Zealand thousands of pounds worth of pictures, and is exhibiting them here in what are really fortuitous circumstances, but which, nevertheless, are all to the advantage of the citizens of Wellington, especially m there is not at present adequate room to house the fine collection the city already possesses. It is not essential to have the critical faculty highly developed, nor a proud knowledge of art, to enjoy a good picture. Most people dan do that, otherwise the national collections of Australia and elsewhere would not be so popular with the majority of people as they are. In the temporary Baillie Gallery, which is in the great Harbour Board store next to the Customhouse, there is excellent light for the adequate exhibition of the pictures, and Mr. Baillie himself has seen to the hanging. It may be too late in a couple of weeks^ time to see this fine collection, and a similar opportunity is not likely to occur again in Wellington. ' Mr. Baillie has decided to throw the gallery open free to-morrow afternoon, so that those who are unable to go in the week shall have a chance of seeing the pictures, of seeing the work of some of the greatest living artists of our time.