THE ASS’S ART

Grey River Argus, 6 December 1938, Page 5

THE ASS’S ART

It was at the back of the amusing little Bohemian restaurant run by “Father Freddy,” whose death at a ripe old age Montmartre has been lamenting, that the famous futurist picture called “Sunset Over the Adriatic” was painted, says the “Manchester Guardian.” In Father Freddy’s establishment, Le Lapin Agile (the sign of which shows a merry rabbit leaping out of its casserole), there gathered many writing and painting men who were fond of love, life, and laughter, and a plot was hatched there in 1910 to put over a masterly “leg-pull” at the show of the Salon des Independants. That salon’s committee gave a place of honour to the sensationally colourful “Coucher de Solei sur I’Adriatique,” signed “J. R. Boronali.” Critics studied it and wrote solemnly of its significance. To their horror presently the news leaked out that, having locked the door, a select little gathering had led into the restaurant the docile ass,

stabled at the back, which Pere Frede| used for light transport. The organ-] isers of the jest then tied a succession of brushes dipped in various gaudy paints to its tail, and held up a canvas which the gifted creature itself adorned by its tail-whiskings. The ass was rewarded by a long drink and the painting sent off for its triumph at the exhibition.