In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 21

In the Public Eye

, Because of the. rejection of a portrait by Mr. Wyndham Lewis, Mr. Augustus John has resigned from the Royal Academy, Mr. John has been an Academician since 1928, having become an Associate in 1921. Now fiftynine years of age, Augustus John had his early struggles as an artist, but they did not last for very long. Before he had left the Slade School his drawings were recognised as those of a master. William Rothenstein (now Sir William), later principal of the Royal College of Art, befriended him and showed his drawings to Sargent, Furse, Conder, and Harrison. Some of these drawings were bought, and John was able to take a small studio. This was in 1899. Of his drawings at this period, Sir William Rothenstein writes: "They were truly, remarkable; so remarkable that they put mine, and Shannon's (Charles Shannon), too, into the shade. He had the copiousness

which goes with genius." During the World War Mr. Augustus John held a commission as official artist with the Canadian Corps and was later commissioned to paint the chief characters at the Peace .Conference. His portrait of Mr. Massey, now hanging in the National Art Gallery here, was done at this time and was a work which the artist himself liked but which few of Mr. Massey's friends admired. Every now and then John's portraits cause a sensation. He is proverbially bored with certain subjects. Wealthy, people who have little but their! wealth to commend them fail to interest him, and he sometimes does bad work judged by his own standards. There is the case of the American fam- j ily who were to pay £5000 for their j portraits. He tried and tried again, but eventually he gave up the task and' forfeited the payment. He can also be cruel. There was the portrait of Lord Spencer which appeared at the Academy a few years ago. The artist produced the finest work in painting the elaborate uniform, but, to quote the expression of the time, he "just put a pudding on the top." Lord Spencer is .reported to have laughed, heartily over the portrait. There was the case of Gerald dv Maurier, who said he looked too gloomy. There was the wonderfully painted portrait of Tallulah Bankhead, but the face was that of a dead woman. Mr. C. W. Briggs. On his ninety-first birthday, sixtythree years after his invention of animated screen pictures, forerunners of Mickey Mouse and associates, Mr. Caspar W. Briggs, of Philadelphia, received the distinguished service award of the Pennsylvania Arts and Sciences Society. * A scroll presented to Mr. Briggs at' his home in Germ'antown asserted that the members of the society had "taken into respectful regard not only the creative ability of the recipient, but have considered as well the'inspirational and beneficent influence which has been bestowed upon mankind through the exercise of these talents thus recognised." Mr. Louis Walton Sipley, .president of the society, observed that Mr. Briggs once had "a corner, on the entertainment and educational aspects of photography." Mr. Briggs put on the market in 1875, after several years' work, a device using the intermittent mechanism and shutter as employed on the modern movie film projector. For the pictures he photographed a series of drawings on the edge of a mica disc, which was turned rapidly in front of the projector lens. The first pictures were of a.dancing skeleton. Three years previously, Mr. Briggs and his father, Dr. Daniel H. Briggs, inventor of the collodion-process stereopticon slide, had established »a magic lantern slide business in Philadelphia. When the American Museum of Natural History, New York, first began to use slides, Mr. Briggs made them, He created new sets of pictures to illustrate history, literature, music, and the Bible, hiring artists to make thousands of drawings. Mr. Paul Robeson. Paul Robeson, the great American negro singer, made a stay of twentyfour hours in Barcelona on his return journey from Madrid recently. He was visited by the Commissioner of Information of the Government of Catalonia, Jaume Miravitlles, and by the well-known folklorist and musician Joan Gols i Soler, with both of whom he discussed the music of Catalonia, both ancient and modern. A number of songs collected by Senor Gols are already in Mr. Robeson's repertoire, and arrangements were made for. him to obtain others.

"Spain," said Mr. Robeson in an interview with the "Manchester Guardian," "is fighting the cause of all the human race. As an anti-Fascist I think any other political distinctions should be sunk, as they are being sunk in Spain. while the common enemy of all liberty is attacking us all. My own case is an example. Because of my race, and for no other reason, I should never have been permitted to develop my voice and create my career in any country under Fascist rule. In the democracies the negro has to struggle against prejudices, but not against an actual crushing law. He finds opportunity if he has the initiative to seek for it and the courage to fight for it. Fascism does not allow initiative and courage to live."

Mr. Robeson plans to begin a series of concerts and other public appearances, first in England, where he now makes his home, • and later in his native country, in the interest of the Spanish Republic. He will embody in his programmes a number of ancient and modern songs of (he people in Spanish, in Catalan, and in English translation. He is especially enthusiastic over the national hymn of Catalonia, "Els Segadors" ("The Reapers"), and as he stood in front of his hotel at the moment of leaving his deep voice suddenly rang out in its strains. Deeply touched by this parting tribute to their country, his hosts joined him in the song.

Questions in the House of Commons this week elicited from Lord Winterton a statement that a British mission has been sent to the United States and Canada to investigate the possibility of purchasing aircraft there for the Royal Air Force. Lord Winterton, who had' been Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister without Cabinet rank, was announced by Mr. Neville. Chamberlain last month, to forestall further criticisms of the Air Ministry, to have been given a seat at the Cabinet table.

He will keep his present post but he also will have a place on the Air Council and he will be responsible" in the House of Commons for all . questions concerning the Royal Air Force. The present Under-Secretary for Air, Lieutenant-Colonel ' A. J. Muirhead,

will devote himself exclusively to,civil aviation, thereby carrying out one of the recommendations of the recent scathing report by Lord Cadman's Committee of Inquiry.

' Lord Winterton's promotion means the Air Ministry will have two representatives in the Cabinet just as when Mr. Anthony Eden was Minister of the League of Nations affairs and tfiere j was a Foreign Minister as well. The, Air Minister, Viscount Swinton, will continue his present post but will have ] I a full-fledged Cabinet Minister as his deputy in the Commons. Since Lord Winterton is an Irish Peer he is able to belong to the House of Commons, where he has been re--1 garded as one of the ablest of the rightwing Conservatives. Mr. Franz Nurvinski. A young Jew and his ■ wife who had fled from Germany and crossed three frontiers were found on March 20 drifting in an open boat in the English Channel and were rescued by the Glasgow steamer Meta, 1575 tons, which later put in at Brixham.

The man, Franz Nurvinski, 22, had left Germany to avoid conscription. His wife is 21. Nurvinski refused to go back to Germany, because he was afraid he would be shot on sight for desertion. He wanted to appeal to the British Government to allow him to remain in England. After questioning by immigration officers, however, he and his wife were refused permission to land. ' The Meta proceeded on her voyage to Algiers with the couple on board.

The couple were found midway between Cherbourg and the Isle of Wight. ■ '.. ■ . ■• Nurvinski explained that he and his wife, each having a GeYman passport, crossed the German border into Austria and after several months went to Switzerland. They then decided that they would make an effort to get to England, where they had friends. From Switzerland they crossed France to Cherbourg, where they found themselves penniless.

On March 19 they had no food and in the evening they took refuge in a Cherbourg fishing boat. Next morning they found that the boat had broken from its moorings and was drifting in the open sea, out of sight of land.

Neither knew anything about navigation. The man could not even hoist a sail properly, and when ■ the boat was sighted by the Meta the lug sail was only half hoisted. The wife was trying to steer, but a strong swell j made her task difficult. When Nurvinski saw the Meta he waved with a scarf and his signal was seen by; Captain A. Mitchell, who altered his course. Dr. L. O'Shaughnessy. Dr. Laurence O'Shaughnessy, pioneer in Britain of surgery, of the heart, ; has completed successfully a series of : experimental operations which offer new' hope to sufferers from angina pectoris. Lord Dawson of Perm and two heart specialists of the cardiovascular clinic, Lambeth Hospital, Dr. Daniel T. Davis and Dr.' H. E. Mansell, have helped him.

"The Lancet," the British medical paper, states: "We see the; prospect of added months and years of active life and comfort for a group of people whose bodies usually have been ageing faster than their minds. Such rejuvenation will be a great achievement.

"Familiarity with the marvels of surgery makes most of them seem commonplace, but even for the medical man operations on the. beating heart still have dramatic quality. This particular form of heart trouble arises from lack of oxygen in the heart muscles. From some causes not yet understood, the blood vessels of the heart become strangled by disease, the steady beat weakens, eventually ceases.

"Why this should happen we have no idea: we often accept it philosophically as part of the process of growing old, and resignedly plan our lives, or our patients' lives, accordingly.

"But now," the "Lancet adds, "tell the surgeon the heart lacks biopd, and he offers to perform an operation for increasing its, blood supply."

Dr. O'Shaughnessy takes muscles and fat from the wall of the chest, grafts them on to the living heart, and slowly the blood vessels in the new muscle begin to feed the heart with blood and life-giving oxygen, gradually taking over from the heart's own strangled blood vessels.

Five sufferers gave their lives while this new knowledge was being sought^ while the technique was being perfected. Ten others were alive six months after the operation. Nine of those ten lost their angina. Seven of them were able to resume work.