SERGT. DONALD F. BROWN, V.C.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18340, 2 September 1921, Page 2

SERGT. DONALD F. BROWN, V.C.

Mr A. H. O’Keeffe, the well-known Dunedin artist, has just completed u painting, to the order of the Government, ot Sergeant Donald Forrester Drown, V.C., who was killed shortly after the gallant action which won him the Victoria Cross. ino painting will be hung in the war museum with the other paintings G f New Zealand Victoria Cross winners. Mr O iveeffe s picture is three-quarter-size, and is a very tine work. Mr O'Keeffe had only a photograph to work on, and a glance at this shows how well he has reproduced the well-shaped Head, the animated eyes, the ffrmly moulded .mouth and chin, and -in tact the general soldierly bearing of the deceased. The picture boars ample evidence of the painstaking care and sympathetic feeling of the artist, and adds one more to the splendid artistic efforts of Mr O’Kelfe. The greatest praise of the painting is afforded in the following letter written from Oamaru by the deceased's father, Mr Robert Brown:—“lt is with great pleasure that I recall the visit which I made to your studio, accompanied by my daughter, to inspect the portrait of my late son, Sergeant Donald F. Brown, V.C., which you have bean painting to order of the Government. We both consider the likeness is very good, and especially when we recollect that you had never seen him in life, and had only a post card to work from, taken casually during a visit to Armentieres in France, near which town he was encamped. Yet no one who knew iriy son would fail to recognise him at first glance, and wo both fed convinced that you have gone to great pains in the production of a portrait, so true to life in almost every detail.”