WORKS OF ART.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6439, 2 December 1881, Page 6

WORKS OF ART.

Many visitors were attracted to Messrs Kennedy Macdonald and Co.’s sale rooms on the 13th ultimo by the announcement that a collection of oil paintings were to be offered for sale. The pictures, which were catalogued as from the celebrated collection of the late P. L. Evcrard, Esq., of London, certainly far excel anything of late offered the Wellington public. Lot 1, “Off the Coast of Holland,” by # P. Moris, is a small work showing very painstaking efforts to produce the cold, grey aspect of sea and atmosphere at early dawn ; true, perhaps, to nature, but in production sacrificing the attractiveness of art. Lot 2, “ Hunting in the Forest of Fontainhleu,” by Gustave DorJ, is another small cabinet painting, an excellent specimen of the weird, and mystic effect which this artist introduces into all his pictures. A mass of trees and tangled undergrowth ; a misty huntsman in the foreground, another figure or two dimly discerned are the first impressions conveyed. Gradually, as the picture is studied, it becomes instinct with rough, woodland life. Lot 3, “ Banks of a River in the Tropics,” >-y Marilhat. A striking production, dependent for its chief effect upon the contrast of sombre masses of giant vegetation in the foreground, and the glint of noon-day sun upon the bosom of the

I stream, the vivid plumage of tropical birds, I disporting amid sedges and waterlilies, har- I monises the contrast with good effect. Lot 4, “Preparing for a Promenade,” by Agapit Stevens, and Lot 12, “ The Morning Call,” by J. C. Mertz, are two good specimens of the French school; realism and delicate production of textile effects are the prominent motives. The figures are clad in the fashionable costumes worn when the artists limned the outlines ; the garbs of each, and every detail of adornment and surrounding appointments, are produced with marvellous accuracy. Lot o, “On the Grand Canal, Venice,” is the work of an unknown artist. The effort has been to depict the canal, the gondolas and craft on its water, and surrounding palaces and domes in one luminous bath of yellow sun gleam. In the light in which the picture is hung, the result is somewhat garabogey, but in good perspective the work would claim attention for its merits. Lot 6, “ Vessels on the ScheldtLot 8, “On the Scheldt;” Lot'll, “Vessels on the Scheldt;” Lot 13, “Unloading a brig,by J. Claessens, are the gems of the collection. There is probably no painter of marine scenes who excels this artist in clearly-defined and natural effects of wave and sky, and the fidelity with which is produced the minutiae of shipping scenes, effects which the majority of marine painters either bring out in obtrusive and angular outline, or paint as in a mist, blurred and indistinct. Lot 7, “Cattle in a landscape,” is a small but effective bit by M. Cortes, made familiar to the public by its reproduction in engravings. Lot 9, “Dutch River Scene —Winter,” by A. Dott, will also be familiar as the original of a favorite engraving and oleograph ; but the mechanical touch of the most skilled engraver fails to give more than the merest shadowy idea of the beauties of the original. It is a picture worthy of place among the highest art collection. Classing with this, though unpretentious in degree, is Lot 18, “A Winter Scene,” fay J. Such—a picture of much merit. Lot 10, “Mountainous Landscape— Evening,” by LacombliS, is remarkable for the particular atmospheric influence which in its production evidences close observation and a manipulative power of no mean degree. Lot 14, “ A Coast Scene ” by Sir A. Callcott. E.A., is a good example of this artist’s capability of producing wonderful effects of light and form. Lot 10, “A Welsh Scene near Dolgelly ” by Thomas, is a large and well manipulated landscape view of upland and river scenery. Lot 15, “ Irish Scene—Rock Cashel,” by Friske, is a conventional treatment of a well worn theme : two lovers billing and cooing amid the ruins at the top of the famed height, where kings and prelates once sat |in state. Lot 17, “ The Hayfield,” by Friske, is an effective rural scene, though painted in sombre shadowing. Lot 19, “ The Old Lock Gates,” by H. Chaplin, is a picture which grows in attractiveness the more it is studied ; the water effect in the foreground is marvellous, and the placid midsummer surroundings suggest the calm retreat, far removed from haunts of men —the ideal of perfect quietude. A large unframed oil painting “Judith and Holofernes ” —by an Italian artist, depicts in realistic fidelity the apooryphical story of the decapitation of the chief captain of the Assyrians by the Jewish widow, with his own fauchion, as he slept. In addition to the oil paintings, which, by the way, with the one exception mentioned, are all handsomely framed, a number of somewhat rare engravings, and also water-color pictures of New Zealand scenery were included in the catalogue.