£27,000 A YEAR FOR ART

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 January 1928, Page 9

£27,000 A YEAR FOR ART

Felton Bequest Gives Melbourne Pre-eminence in the World of Art.. . Many ' Magnificent Purchases “Cross the Line .. .

Ho realise the munificence of the Felton Bequest, which is devoted to the purchase of works of art for the Melbourne Gallery, you must think in thousands. It is considerably in excess of all the bequests, combined, made to the National Gallery, London, since 1864, and is thus the greatest in the Empire. The income derived from the estate, after payment of certain annuities and administration expenses, is applied in equal shares to charitable purposes and to the purchases of works of art as provided by the will. At the present time the value of the whole trust is £692,537, the share of income available annually for the purchas of works of art amounting approximately to £27,000. Since the death of Mr. Felton in 1904, the value of the estate at the present market prices has been nearly trebled, the income for art purposes for the first year being about £lO,OOO. Big Items The recent supplement to the “Historical Record of the Felton Bequests,” issued by the Felton Bequests Committee, shows that the amount expended on and in the administrative expenses, the purchase of works of art for the Melbourne Gallery, from the inception of the trust in 1904 to the end of 1926, totalled £284,525. Here are some of the largest prices paid for pictures: £31,395 for “The Madonna and Child,” by Jan Van Eyck; the portrait of the Countess of Southampton as “Fortune in the Clouds,” by ' Van Dyck; £17,800; a portrait by Tintoretto, £14,000; “Walton Bridges,” by Turner, £7,250;- “The Bent Tree,” by Carot, £5,750; Portrait, of Miss Theophila Palmer, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, £5,000; and “Portrait of an Officer,” by Gainsborough, £4,900. Besides sides paintings and works in sculpture, hundreds of prints and many examples of applied art have been purchased, the sum of £4,725 being expended on a rare illuminated manuscript. The Old Masters Besides the old masters I have mentioned, the Melbourne Gallery now contains paintings by Titian, Watteau, Ruysdael, Jan Steen, Teniers and others. As for prints and drawings by old masters, they can be counted by the hundred. Here are three items taken from the long list of purchases for the gallery; Eighty-six woodcuts by old masters, 208 original drawings by old masters and 1,340 etchings and engravings, mostly by old masters, including Rembrandt, and Durer. To avoid a mere catalogue if names, 1 may mention that the English section includes a number of works by mem-

bers of the old water colour school; also works of the later French artists range from Meryon to Manet, and that the, sculpture section includes examples by Rodin, Barye, Fremiet and Alfred Gilbert, the greatest living English sculptor. A number of Aus l tralian works are bought ;ach --ear, the record price for a work by one of our own artists being £1,200, which was the sum paid for “Circe,” by Sir Bertram Mackennal, R.A. Not long ago two paintings by Sydney Thompson were acquired. Small Works It may be worth mentioning that some of the rarest works are quite small in size. The Van Eyck Madonna measures only 10 3-Bin. by 10 5-8 in., the dimensions of The Bent Tree being 22£in. by 16Hn. Artists are always attracted to the beautiful little Bonnington, “Low Tide at Boulogne,” which is 7in. by Biin., while the best study of still life, “Oeufs sur Plat,” by Antoine Vellon, is not much larger. Some works have a curious history. When Harold Parker, the Queensland sculptor, went to London, he worked

as an assistant to two or three celebrated sculptors, and then got six weeks’ leave to do something, for'himself. Getting in a supply of food, he never went out of the studio until he completed a beautiful micture of Ariadne deserted on the Isle Naxos. When it w r as exhibited at the Royal Academy, it made such an impression that the representatives of-the Charibrey Bequest offered to purchase it tor the Tate Gallery for £l,OOO. Thencame a cheque from Sir W. S. Gilbert for the same amount, alt was tantalising. to receive two big offers for one work and the lattdr, of course, had to be, declined. Parker never repeated this success, . and he will probably be known as the sculptor of one masterpiece, which in some respects is the finest work produced by an Australian sculptor. A reduced replica of the figure -was purchased by® the Felton Bequest for 500 guineas.

The Accumulation So far, the number of; works, great and small, which have been purchased by the bequest number about five thousand. One comes across items s like these: 134 Japanese iron sword guards; specimens of typography, representing about 830 English and Continental printers from, Gutenberg to 1700 A.D. Also 600 old filigrams (water-marked sheets of paper}; Twenty books of etchings and engravings, a series of reproductions of rare old master prints, and a number o£ . modern etchings and books of lithographs. There has been such au accumulation that additions have had to be made to the gallery at a cost of £50,000. These will be completed next April. The majority of . theprints will never be hung. They will be placed in portfolios in a printroom and any particular print you may desire to see will be brought oiit and laid on a table before you. £27,000 a year! What a mass of art there will be 50 years hence! The purchase of works undet the conditions of the Felton Bequest, are conducted on a bi-cameral system. The two bodies are: The Felton Bequest Committee and the trustees of the Melbourne Gallery. Both can recommend the purchase of works of art and both can employ experts to , advise on the purchase of works. But the recommendations of one body must be accepted by the other before anything -can be acquired. It is like the Upper and Lower Houses of .Parliament. . } < The Donor And now a word about the donor of the bequest. Alfred Felton, like the , founder of the Turnbull Library, the founder of the McNab Library, and! the founder of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, was a bachelor. Born* at Maldon, Essex, in 1831, he came out to Melbourne at the age of 23; Prospering in business he eventually became a partner in the, firm of Felton Grimwade ..and ..wholesale, druggists and manufacturing chemists. He ’ also acquired\ large grazing interests in Victoria and New South Wales. During the last 20 years bPhis life, he lived at the Esplanade Hotel, in the seaside suburb, St. Kilda. Two rooms on the ground floor- knocked into one, made his living-room, the bedroom being upstairs. The pleasure he ..derived from the pictures surrounding him, he evidently thought should be extended to others. In his will, he desired thaHthe works of art purchased should have “an artistic and educational value, calculated to raise or improve public taste.” I WILLIAM MOORE,