CANTERBURY SOCIETY OF ARTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11539, 28 March 1898, Page 6

CANTERBURY SOCIETY OF ARTS.

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION. At the formal opening of the eighteenth annual exhibition of pictures, held under the auspices of the Canterbury Society of Arts, the President, the HonE. C. J. Stevens, was in the happy position of having an encouraging statement to make. Ho was amply justified in referring to the collection now in the gallery as a more even representation of artistic work than has been seen on former occasions. A year ago, it will be remembered, the exhibition was an exceedingly disappointing one. This time visitors can scarcely fail to experience a general sense of gratification, and they will find quite a number of paintings that will well repay careful examination. Of course, there are exhibits in which mediocrity is manifest; there is some crude work, and there is also some that is immature. But it has to be borne in mind, as Mr Stevens judiciously intimated, that young artists are sending in year by year, and it is well that they should have the encouragement of a place for their productions on the walls of the gallery, provided that a fair standard of merit is) reached. The Selection and Rejection Committee has, no doubt, done its very necessary work painstakingly and conscientiously, and the general result is distinctly satisfactory. It was Byron who cynically declared painters to be the most dogmatical and opinionated people in the world. Certainly, like musicians, they have their tempers, and the Canterbury Society has in recent years suffered thereby. The rifts, however, seem to have been closed up again, and peaceful, healthy rivalry now holds sway. Financially, too, the Society is steadily improving, and in this respect it will continue to improve, if those to whom the active management is entrusted are careful to miss no opportunity of popularising the exhibitions. It may be suggested, as has been done before, that the interest attaching to these annual displays would be greatly enhanced if a collection of original sketches were to be included, and still more if these, or some of them, were offered as prizes in an art union, the tickets therefor including admission to the Gallery. It would perhaps be by no means a bad thing to specially encourage the attendance of artisans and their families, and certainly no pains should be spared to induce the rising generation to go in large numbers. Pictures are educational, and in the very best sense. It has been well said that though the painter may be described, as to the execution of his work, as a mechanic, yet as to his conception, his spirit and design, he is scarcely below the poet in liberal art. Some pictures are veritable poems without words; “ they are windows to the imprisoned thought—they are books; they are histories and sermons, which we can read without the trouble of turning over the leaves.” There are now close upon a hundred working members in the Society, and the majority of these are really well represented, the pictures numbering upwards of 350, while there is, besides, an excellent loan collection, the value and interest of which must be obvious to everybody. Here in Christchurch one naturally looks first to see what the “ veteran,” Mr John Gibb, may have sent in, for he always gives us something that there is a sense of gratification in looking at again and again. His canvases do not cover so large an area as on former occasions, a marine subject, No. 77, being the most prominent in this respect; and though at first glance there is some suggestion of “a painted ship upon a painted ocean,” the picture grows upon one, and “ Waiting off Banks Peninsula ” will be photographed in many memories, if only for the aerial perspective. No. 2, a Mount Cook subject, painted in the early morning, is a quiet-toned, restful scene that is very pleasing, while the river reflections in No.- 44 have been skilfully treated. No. 54, “Waitaki River and Otakiki Range,” best seen in the daylight, is quite interest in j from the geolological standpoint, ai d calls to mind one of Ruskin’s comments on paintings “ They show, in a mountain, first, how it was built or heaped up; and secondly, how it is now being worn away, and from what quarter the wildest storms strike it.” And if Mr Gibb, sen., is a welcome exhibitor, his son, Mr W. Menzies Gibb, is even more so. His half-dozen pictures strate that he has pressed into the forefront of his profession, and that his artistic judgment is ripening apace. He seems to be at home either with oils or water colour, and his selections of subjects are for the most part happily made. In No. 11, “Evening Calm,” the gold-hued mist of the closing day is skilfully treated, while in No. 90, a New , Brighton sunrise subject, one sees one of the very best nature studies in the exhibition. No. 49, again, “ Sunshine and Shower,” with its perspective of sea and shore, is a picture that the possessor will not be likely to weary of looking at. No. 232 is a good water-colour study of tumbling

stream and autumnal tints at Little Rivei% but No, 333 has been hung rather too high to be seen advantageously. . ■ . • Mr C. Bickertou is an energetic worker, as his eight contributions indicate, and a vigorous one, as their 'style denotes. ' Inthis they exhibit a particularly strong family likeness, which, perhaps, may be best described as Vanderveldanesque. It may be doubted whether he will adhere thereto, for be has genius enough to enable him to break, away and reveal more of_ his own personality as an artist. He is doing some, good portrait work; he is a bold colourist on occasion, and bis technique encourages the anticipation that his name will be a prominent one in art circles. Miss M. O. Stoddart is another of those whose paintings are looked for with real interest, particularly if she chooses flower studies rather than landscape, and she has sent in half a dozen varied contributions. Most people will probably prefer those flowerpaintings of hers which are grouped, to those .in which the background is a..land, or sea-scape, the latter, as in No. 10, .having . the effect of rendering the flowers themselves',indistinct. No 239, “Native linum arid,; "Wild Irishmen,” is beautifully painted,., well maintaining Miss Stoddarfc’s high", reputation and the appreciative comments that have so often been made regarding her work, even if it be admitted that the individual flowers have been suggested rather than delineated. The modelling of the roses in No. 329 is excellent. One of the' busy workers is Mr Perrett, who has sent in eight subjects. He has quite an individual style, painting, in most instances, with broad washes of colour, and getting some highly effective results, as, for in- 1 stance, in No. 245 a, “ Lake Manapouri,” or in 323, “ Evening, Milford Sound.” At the same time, Mr Perrett shows that he can produce crisply painted oil studies, such as Nos. 25 and 32, which are small and good. Mrs Claude Sawtell, always a welcome exhibitor, and one of the most vigorous in style of women artists, has only sent :iri three pictures this year, confining herself, to flowers. Of these 225, “ Magnolias,” Is the most pretentious, though there is in these blooms and their foliage a natural stiffness that always seems to detract frorii the artistic effect, and one turns with a seuce of relief to the beautifully painted;, roses and chrysanthemums depicted by, means of water-colours in Nos. 310 arid." 311, the latter being a particularly taking , study. Mrs John Guthrie, who this year contributes three oil landscapes, ought to paint more and exhibit more than she has hitherto done, for her work is distinctly meritorious. No. 34, “ A View on the Canal Reserve,” being specially noticeable. In No. 59, however, a river picture, the greens are over vivid. One is glad to see that someone who can deal with animal portraiture is represented in the exhibition. This is Mr W. A. Bowring, who has entered seven pictures, some of them displaying very considerable merit. One does not care much for No. 75, representing the head of a lion, and infinitely prefers the small heads of two dogs that are bracketed in No. 27, or the kindly-eyed collie whose portrait appears in No. 72, this being perhaps the best example of the artist’s work.