CITY'S ART TREASURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17957, 6 December 1921, Page 8

CITY'S ART TREASURE.

LARGER GALLERY NEEDED. RARE ORIGINAL WORKS. An address on " The Civic Claims of Art" wa« given by Dr. T. W. Leys at the weekly luncheon of the Auckland Rotary Club-yesterday. • Dr. Leys said his chief puqioso in bringing the subject before ihe club was to enlist tha co-operation of Rotarians in securing increased accommodation for the municipal art collections. When in Auckland Lord Northcliffe Baid he had received a letter from a friend in Sydney, who was an authority'on art, telling him that whatever he missed seeing in Auckland lie must not fail to visit the Art Gallery. To the impression which the gallery made upon another tourist, when passing through Auckland, we received the gift 'of a valuable picture bv that' eminent animal" Eainter, Briton Keviere. , This brought im to a most important matter. Thanks to the generosity of Auckland citizens, past and present, we had one of the finest art galleries south of' the equator. Among the art collections of Australia and New Zealand the gallery was subordinate only to those, of Sydney and Melbourne, which it excelled for its representation of original works by old masters. For this distinction we were indebted to Sir George Grey. It would be difficult to place a value upon the paintings by Franz Hals. Guido Reni, Velasquez, Cuyp (Koip), Fnayera, Tancret, Murillo, Raphael, and that exquisite little oil painting by Netscher, which was said to have been Sir George Grey'B favourite picture. But in the realm of modern art toe gallery had also finer examples of the work of some eminent British artists than was possessed by Sydney or Melboumo. Among these he might mention that masterpiece by Sir E. A. Waterlow, R.A.; " Autumn Floods," in the Mackelvie gallery; Sir Alfred East's "Outside the Bull'Ringj" Yeend King's " Blackmore Vale;" and that remarkable example of sane impressionism, with its wonderful effect of heat and dust, " After the Heat of the Day," by Arnsby Brown, R.A. ■ * ■ n ' After referring to other treasures in the gallery, Dr. Leys said the collection of pictures had cost the city little more than the price of the buildings in which they i wero exhibited. Within the last 12 I months pictures exceeding £4000 in value | had been idded at no cost to the city, ' and they M ere now hung on crowded cross screens, which did not display Them to advantage, and which prevented equally valuable pictures on the walls from being seen. In three or four years' time another sum of between £3000 and £4000 would be available for the purchase of pictures from the Mackelvie endowment. What provision was being made for them? Personally be believed the requirements of the next 10 years could bo met by an expenditure of £10,000 in extending the 1 present buildings along Coburg Street, but the ideal solution would be to erect _ an up-to-date gallery as part of the municipal block on the old market block.. The corporation might reasonably; be asked to 'encourage generous citizens possessing art treasures to give. them to the city by offering suitable facilities for their public exhibition. Few citizens realised the value of the rare manuscripts and, early-printed* books which were among the. treasures of the library, and nothing equal to which could be found elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. There were three works from the press qf Caxton, which Lcird Northcliffo believed would bring £10,000 if offered for sale. There was a Shakespeare First Folio, a copy of that edition having been sold for £4200 within the past two months. Among the manuscripts was a copy df the New Testa- _ mont written on vellum, nearly 500 years aco, by Thomas A. Kempis. _ At the conclusion ot his address Dr. Leys wae warmly applauded. '