Action Against Committee by Artist

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 98, 29 April 1935, Page 7

Action Against Committee by Artist

REJECTION OF PICTURES BY ROYAL ACADEMY United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, April 25. There is a further Royal Academy surprise. Mr. Homcrville Hague, who has painted more Royal portraits than any living artists, is applying for a summons against the committee to show cause w'hy it rejected the painting “‘Band Playing at Saint James’s Palace. ’ ’ A friend says the Academy has not accepted a number t ' Hague’s pictures since 1914 and he thinks it time to take drastic action. . The Magistrate at the Marlborough Street Police Court informed Mr. Homcrville Hague that ho had no power to summons the committee of the Academy to show why the pictures were rejected: He suggested that Mr. Homerville Hague should lay an information. The latter says that he will do so and that he is also going to ask his Majesty to withdraw the Academy’s charter. Ho is determined to continue the fight even to'the Privy Council.

It was reported by cable on Friday that a sensation on the eve of the Royal Academy Exhibition, which is to open on May 8, had been created by the resignation from associateship of Mr. Stanley Spencer, A.R.A., because the president, Sir William Llewellyn and the council, refused to hang two of his five pictures. The rejections are entitled “Lovers” and “St. Francis and His Birds.” Tho hanging

committee did not think they were advantageous to his reputation or to the influence of tho Academy. Mr. Spencer declared that the action was outrageous and that he would exhibit all five pictures himself. The Royal Academy refused to return the accepted pictures to Mr. Spencer, who said ho would do everything to get them