NOVELTY IN ART

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 March 1926, Page 7

NOVELTY IN ART

PORTRAIT OF STAMP. Mr. A. T. Markman, secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, has received from Stockholm, Sweden, a. novelty in art in the shape of a reproduction in colour of a portrait of Dr. Julius Juhlin, Director-General of the Postal Services of Sweden. Dr. Juhlin presided at the last International Postal Congress, held in Stockholm, which was attended by Mr. Markman. With the reproduction, which is about two feet square, came a letter stating that the original had been unveiled in the Swedish House of Parliament. The portrait, which is the work of Mr. Axel Jungstedt, a professor of the Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts, is a very wonderful piece of work. Although one may examine it as minutely as is possible, one cannot' discover any portion of the portrait or its setting which is not part of a Swedish stamp. The only places where a stamp face is not revealed are here and there where a little bit of the white margin, with the serrated edger (the perforation mark) has been used to gain a high light, but even in such cases the wljtte paper is attached to a stamp. This device has been used, for example, in getting the round of the shirt cuff, but even the light reflection in the pince-nez, which the Director-General is wearing, has been effected by the use over one-half of the lens of a pale blue stamp. Viewed at a little distance, one would never guess how the artist had gained his effects, but with the aid of a strong reading glass the marvellous skill and infinite amount of patience involved in such a work become apparent. It is the intention of Mr. Markman to have the reproduction framed and exhibited in a shop window in the city as an artistic production of the greatest ingenuity.