ARTIST EXPELLED

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 December 1934, Page 9

ARTIST EXPELLED

FROM AMERICAN ACADEMY. MELBOURNE, December 12. , Advice was received by cablegram from New York that a man believed to be in Sydney had been expelled from the National Academy of Designs on a charge of exhibiting as his own work a copy of a painting “On the Moor,” by Septimus Power. .The picture is owned by the National Gallery, Melbourne. The director of the National Gallery, Sydney (Mr S. Macdonald) said tonight that Stephen Bransgrove had exhibited three pictures in the last exhibition of the Royal Art Society. The trustees of the gallery bought one of them, but it, was .discovered that it was a copy of an American advertising picture, and the sale was cancelled. The picture, “On the Moor,” is well known in Melbourne. It was acquired by the National Gallery, Melbourne, in 1927, and hangs in the McArthur Gallery. It is an oil painting of a fair size, and shows a portrait group of a man, a woman, and setter dogs, with a moor as a background. The acting-director of the Melbourne Gallery (Mr W. B. Mclnnes) said that it had been painted by Mr Power in England, and was brought to Australia with other works, and exhibited in Melbourne before being acquired by the gallery. Mr Power left Australia for England about 12 months ago. At Port Said he had to leave the ship on which he was travelling, owing to a severe illness, and, after an operation had been performed, he resumed his journey. When leaving Australia he stated that he intended to go subsequently to the United States, but it is not known if he did so.