AUCKLAND SOCIETY OF ARTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7923, 15 April 1887, Page 5

AUCKLAND SOCIETY OF ARTS.

OPENING OP THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION. Yesterday evening the seventh annual a exhibition of the Auckland Society of Arts Was opened with a members' conversazione, and, though the gathering was strictly conj fined to members and friends. Among those present were the Mayor (Mr. A. Devore) and Sir Maurice O'Rorko, Speaker r of the House of Representatives. The room was crowded throughout the evening to an 3r extent which prevented any careful inspeci- tion of the pictures which adornad the walls. These works of art numbered 254, besides jr photographs, decorated ware, wood carving, a » u d miscellaneous examples of local work, t- The pictures were of a very high class character, showing a degree of merit throughout r. which wau warmly commented upon by the ie visitors during the evening. The Exhibition a was generally considered to be far the beat "0 which has yet been held in Auckland in its it display of local talent. There can be no >e doubt that when the general public have an o opportunity of viewing the pictures in the it Exhibition, which is to be formally opened _d to-day, it will prove highly attractive. l ® . The opening last night was announced for d eight o'clock, and shortly after that time ,0 Mr. Mack nib, upon whom fell the duty * of delivering an inaugural address, apd peared on the raised platform, and said, ?" Ting Society has hitherto been very fortune nato in having His Excellency the Governor « present in Auckland to open its annual exhi--10 bition, but on this occasion public duty connected with the early meeting of Parliament detains him in Wellington. This has d boon a source of regret to the society, and 6 will doubtless be a disappointment to your>f selves, for the Governor is not only an ■0 artist, but has shown a lively interest in •- the advancement of art throughout the g colony, I am sure he would be pleased to 'O have been here to-night If it could have been d arranged, to op on this new gallery, aud aay a d few words in praise and encouragement to our Auckland artists. In the absence of His e Excellency, the duty naturally devolved upon 8 the president of the society, who had undertaken it, but was called unexpectedly away e from town. Under these circumstances— 6 there being no time to make other arrangeJ* ments—the society requested me, as one n of their vice-presidents, to say a few >' words by way of preface and introduc--0 tion _ to the opening of the exhibition, 6 and in doing so I would first congratulate 0 the members and the public on finding art 11 so well accommodated in thi3 spacious 0 gallery. (Cheers.) The building itself rer fleets the greatest oredit on the liberality of 1 the citizens, who have shown their appreciation of art by the provision they have made ' for it pere. The room in which we now stand was designed and built expressly for an art gallery, aud it will be a matter of regrot if it is devoted to any other purpose. There have been a few persons who have seemed inclined to say that it should be used as a Town Hall, but this does not appear to me to be the wish of the ciiizeus. The city councillors, representing them, have adopted unanimously the suggestion made through the Press to r apply to the trustees of the Mackelvie estate to place in this gallery the art collection left . by Mr. Mackelvie until such time as other j. arrangements could be perfected. It is to be hoped that the executors will see their way ' to comply with the request ; but, whether 1 they can or not, the City Council will have done its best to clothe these bare walls with works of art, aud give to the citizens the [ advantage of the collection left to them by i their generous benefactor, Mr. Mackelvie. His Worship the Mayor has moved in the same direction by suggesting that the i Jubilee year of Her Majesty should be cele- ; brated by purchasing choice .works of art to be hung upon these walls. That suggestion has been very favourably received in many quarters, and is likely, I hope, to prove successful. The Art Society itself has moved somewhat to the same purpose. It has resolved to purchase one or two pictures out of its own funds every year from the works of colonial artiste. We hope to have these pictures hung permanently on these walls. I'he first thing we have to do ia to make a beginning, and to form the nucleus of a collection, however small it may be. Judging from what has occurred in other countries, we shall have a large number of additions given gratuitously to that collection. There is no part of the world, and no public gallery which has not been enriched in that manner. This has been, particularly the case in England with regard to the National Gallery. The list of donors to it is great, and the gifts very extensive, and valuable. I will mention one out of a long list of donors, the great artist Turner. He has presented to the British National Gallery no leas than 282 pictures, and has given more than 19,000 water colour drawings and sketches, a collection said to be unrivalled for beauty, variety, and value. In looking around the walls of this gallery, wo must admit that our artists have made an advance during the last few years. If those who were at our first exhibition will compare that with the present one they will be convinced of that fact, and they will acknowledge the groat improvement in landscape and portrait painting, In England they have established a national portrait gallery to obtain and preserve the portraits of their great men, and I should like to see something of the kind established here also. We have on our walls portraits which show that our artists are not deficient in that branch of art in which Reynolds and Lawrence excelled. If that were done it would gjve employment to our artists and preserve for future generations the features of our early statesmen—men who by thoir actions and force of character have materially affected the history of this colony. Muoh is expected from our landscape painters, both from their industry and the excellence of their works. Possibly in time to come some artists of more than ordinary talent will appear and represent our local scenery with a distinctive character of its own. This originality will bo admired and copied by others, and so a distinct school may arise, recognised, and perhaps known to artists as the New Zealand School. Thus far the progress of art may fairly be predicted in this colony. The rapid improvement of our , artists and our young pupils in the schools plainly shows that the art talent has not died out among us. The eye is * a3 true here, and the skilled hand ' as obedient, as in the old country, J The art talent is rapidly being developed, * and will, with sufficient encouragement, » advance surely to parfection. Ladies and ( gentlemen, it would be unwise to detain you 1 longer from the music and viewing the i pictures. I have purposely made no reference a to the pictures on the walls, for the gentle- s men of the Press will give fully the t merits or demerits of each picture, d and with a judgment more to bo relied t upon than my own. There is one feature in ' this exhibition which is new. I refer to the I illustrated catalogue, which will be found h upon examination to equal any similar work t issued in the old country. 1 have now only 1' to announce to the prize winners that due no- o tice will bo given as to when and where the a prizes will be presented. I now declare this e exhibition, the seventh annual Exhibition of ft the Society of Arts, duly opened. c The company present then inspected the a pictures, so far as the crowded state of the a room would allow, and Impey'a Band very c ably played the following selectionsof music: si —Slow Maroh, "Queon's Letter overture, a " Le Bouffe et Le Tailleur " (Ganeaux) : t< valse, "LesLy" (Tollot) ; overture, "Mar- b guerite D'Anjou" (Meyerbeer); valse, w "Vis-a-Vis" (F. Mullen); achottishe, t! "Coriaandequadrille, "Royal Castle " h (Deablins) ; galop, " Peer of the Realm" d (Lewy). it P Second Notice. P On making a second visit to the Exhibi- ? tion Gallery, it seemed to us advisable still to defer, for a short period, the taking up of p each artist's work in detail ; and merely for ?' the present to enter somewhat more fully } into particulars in regard to the more remarkable pictures exhibited. 61 Keeping to the line, then, and passing a without present observation some very w meritorious productions, we could not but 01 be attracted by a picture—ono of the smallest 01 in the whole collection, but a little bit Pj of extreme felicity, We refer to Mrs. ? Findlay'a "Through the Meadow" (No. 56) Jj 1 a simple subject—merely a healthy little ' English boy resting in hia wheelbarrow, in 61 the surrounding of the sweetest of English w greenery, and the pleasantest of English air. The whole idea of the little picture is excellent, and the composition and colouring cu of great appropriateness and delicacy. It fj 1 deserves olose study on the part of our a younger art students, as an example of the on present stylo of landscape painting in Eng. Cc

land and the Continent of Europe—a style which recognises nature, and nature only (as opposed to conventionalism) as its guide. We may paint New Zealand landscapes by the score, but we need not think of sending them to Europe expecting approbation, until we can produce work as fresh and true as this delicate little "off-hand" picture of Mrs. Findlay's. Until we can, it will be but faint praise we shall get. Soyez en sur. Close by we come upon Mr. Gouldsmith'a "Evening, Glen Dhu, Lake Wauaka" (No. 58). In this picture Mr, Gouldamith has given us one of the finest landscapes we have ever seen in Auckland. The calm and stillness of the scene, under the fading light of day—soon to deepen into twilightis most poetically and even grandly rendered; the reflections of rook and hillside being especially noticeable in their fidelity. The sky is very fine and appropriate, and the atmoapheric effects are consistent and true. Freshness and harmony pervade the whole composition. There has been from time to time considerable talk of the formation of a school of New Zealand landscape. This would, doubtless, be a most laudable object (if the disciples would follow it up with the honesty and ability which, for example, Mr. Watkins has exhibited in his "Home of the Cormorant"). In the picture before us, Mr. Gouldsmith'a, we have an example of artistic power—genuine artistic power, though strauge to New Zealand characteristics (for we are informed that Mr. Gouldsmith has only recently arrived in the colony) finding all paintable things alike easy, or alike difficult, as the reader may prefer. Mr. Gouldsmith is what he is, merely beoause he has the trained artistic eye, and seeing things well ia sure to paint them well. Of course it is impossible to pass Miss Sperrey's "At Ohinemutu" (No. 74) without being at once- arrested ; but somehow it is equally impossible to pass an unqualifiedly favourable judgment upon it. It is curious to observe how widely the artist has differed from herself in this. In her "Goatherd," which has been seen here before, and is placed just opposite, the handling of the subject is firm and masculine in an eminent degree, impasto solid and bold, and the result thoroughly effective. In the Ohiaemuta picture there is too much of the ad captandum—too much effort after " sweetness and light," which are not to be had in the genuine article "down there." The drawing is by no means up to the mark, and the background does not stand, as it might do. the ordeal of close examination. In the face of the Maori [ lady there is a curious look of depression—not mental but facial ; the features look as if they had been rather severely "sat upon" at some period, and the injury never fully recovered from. The indicating of the tattooing about the mouth is surely incorrect, the whole lips being painted a complete and unbroken greeny-blue. (Tattooing must be a somewhat painful operation, and it is very sparingly indeed that the moko is applied to mucous membrane.) The expression of the features, however, is very sweet and gentle ; but rather too much so to be strictly correct, we fear. The baby's head is hardly worthy of Miss Sperrey's skilful pencil, and the drapery is rather careless and unmeaning. With all its faults, however, the picture will doubtless find many admirers. Mr. Gibbs's "Will She Weather It?" (No. SI) is a good example of a rather conventional manner of pourtraying the wild wash of the sea when swept by a "spanking breeze." The effect, however, 13 good, and the painting of the little vessel gallantly wrestling with wind and wave is correct and spirited. The sky is comewhat monotonous, being one of those leaden " cieux " which we opine Mr, Gibb would do well to avoid, unless he be prepared to grapple with them seriously, (See JRuakin passim ) This we say in no deprcciative spirit; we have here a collection with higher aims in its individual exhibits than is here presented. Though Mr. Gibb's picture is admirably composed and perfectly harmonious, the natural- | istic, we regret to say, has been sacrificed. 1 Passing over, in the meantime, Mr. At- i kinson's excellent picture of "A Flemish Peasant's Home," to which we shall come j again by-and-bye, we certainly cannot pass : his "Sunshine" (No, 95). In this picture Mr. Atkinson has undertaken a very difficult 1 task—the representation of a pretty young lady seated in a swing, with the light from the "searching eye of day" striking from behind the figure, the face and front altogether being under the effect of the most complicated and subtle reflections. It is an I effort that very few would venture to make, with any hope of success ; but Mr. Atkinson has succeeded in the best sense, having done the work ably ana conscientiously. He I possesses, eminently, the ars cclare artem ; and perhaps not many, looking casually at the picture, could realise the arduous nature of the work accomplished. Among other noticeable points, the ruddy glow coming through the aemi-diapbanous ears will be recognised by all as capitally managed. Mr. Handel Gear's " Yorick" (No. 105) la an excellent example of genuine and solid artistic work. It is not a large painting, hardly more than a head, but Mr. Gear has taken a position in his treatment of the subject that is well nigh unassailable. Though there be a faint suspicion of the laugh b&iug only " from the teeth outwards"a veritable jester's laugh—still this is the fellow of excellent fancy, who was wont to set the table in a roar. We may justly say that the picture is a thorough success, and it is refreshing to find that the patient labour on the picture has been a genuine labour of love, and has added, touch by touch, to the perfect embodiment of the original idea without in the slightest degree wearying the spectator. Technical excellence pervades "Yorick," and students will scan with extreme interest the use made of the point of the palette knife in the harmoniously-painted tapestry background. Full and rich harmony characterises this admirably-finished picture, and we are reluctant to pass even temporarily svith bo slight a notice.