A FAMOUS PAINTING

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 33, 9 February 1922, Page 7

A FAMOUS PAINTING

DUTY FREE INTO AMERICA,

(«NIII> PRBSS AS3CCIATION.—CO?YRISBt.}

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW. ZEALAND CABLB ASSOCIATION.)

(Received February 9, 9.30 a.m.)

NEW YORK, Bth February. Gainsborough's "Blue Boy," which arrived secretly by the . French liner Savoie, was admitted to the United States without Customs payment because the painting is more than "one hundred years old. It will shortly be placed on public exhibition, and the admission receipts will be devoted to charity.

[The "Blue Boy" is ,one of Gainsborough's most famous. pictures, one reason being that it is the subject of an. interesting tradition, the validity of which rests upon the date at which the picture was painted—an undetermined fact. In 1778, the great paintei, Reynolds, uttered the dictum that blue was a colour unsuitable for the main light of a work. Many commentators declare that the "Blue Boy" was painted in 1779, and claim that Gainsborough made the picture in order to refute Reynolds's dictum. But there are others who hold that the picture was .painted several years before Reynolds ''laid, down the law" on the point. Gainsborough never signed or dated his landscapes, and only a few of his portraits carry date or signature.]