DUNEDIN ART GALLERY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19958, 27 November 1926, Page 23

DUNEDIN ART GALLERY.

EXHIBITION OF PICTURES. IV. H. Linley Richardson, R.8.A., shows two figure subjects in oils—one a single portrait, that of Miss D. K. Richmond, the well-known water colour painter (No. 33), and the other a group, “Writing the Incitation” (No. 85) —which for many reasons are the most remarkable pictures in the gallery. It is true that there is an uncomfortable bigness about both the works—in fact, in the latter the children’s heads are rather like that of G. K. Chesterton’s “Sunday,’’ which was too big to be possible! But this is a cheap and obvious form of criticism which betrays in the critics a lack of knowledge and appreciation of what is really good. All things should not be judged hy the same standard. Whereas Mrs Kelly obtains her portrait by clean, rapid strokes (rather like a landscape sketch), and Mr Nicoil obtains his by careful translation of forms into brush marks, Mr Richardson pursues his object with that tireless patience which characterised the preRaphaelites, and with deep appreciation of iiis subject. A comparison of the head of Miss Richmond with the children’s heads will show that this is not an artist who wishes to demonstrate his skill in handling paint in a certain way or that he can draw anything that is placed before him (like a camera). If Mr Richardson demonstrates anything, it is that he is a poet. Let us forget tiiir .particular ideas and preferences in the matter of painters. Painters do not all talk in the same language, and we are apt to condemn the work of others if their ideas of colour, design, or technique do not agree with ours. A little thought about these two pictures will show that the artist has really seen and painted the souls of his subjects. He has seriously applied himself to the difficult task of showing how very, unlike are youth and age, physically, but how very much alike they are in dignified simplicity. Among portrait painters there are, speaking generally two types —one, the man who uses his skill to demonstrate the characteristics of his subject, and the other, the man who uses his subject to demonstrate his own skill. One sees many examples of the work of the latter, but very few of the former, and amongst those few we must place Mr Richardson. From a technical point of view, No. 83 is very interesting in showing the artist’s economical use of paint without loss of depth of tone or richness of colour. Thin films of paint and small- stippled brush marks are very rarely seen nowadays, most artists falling in with the present (and easier) fashion of broad strokes of thick opaque paint. One cannot leave this picture without a reference to the very beautiful drawing ana painting of the hands and the subtle distinction between those of the girl and the boy. Hands do not, as a rule, receive the attention they deserve, as can easily be seen by glancing round the gallery, but these particular hands are a revelation of beauty of line and form, and have obviously received as must attention as the heads. One also wonders how the Hanging Committee came to’place beside this thorough and scholarly piece of work, another portrait of a child which certainly possesses a certain amount of attraction, but the door drawing and painting of which is ascentuated by the contrast. One of the best-known portrait and figure painters of New Zealand is Mrs M. E. R. Tripe, who is represented by four very fine large works and three others. Studies of the nude do not often find a place in local exhibitions, partly because so few artists feel competent to embody such studies in pictures, and when they are shown they are practically always in the same form as No. 7,. “The Two Models”—that is, a study of an undraped figure indoors. As such, this painting of Mrs Tripe’s is a very beautiful piece of work, the fainting of the torso being quite the finest representation of flesh in the gallery, very delicately and subtly modelled and extremely graceful. But, somehow, a nude seems to call either for open air and bright sunshine, as in the beautiful work of Russell Flint and Charles Sims, or for something more imaginative, perhaps classic—at any rate not an ordinary sitting-room, suggesting humdrum, Ordinary clothes and afternoon tea. One hopes that this artist will_ be inspired to paint something more creative. There is no reason why every artist should be tied down to the literal representation of the actual surroundings of such a subject. It is different in the case of No. 40, “The Green Slipper,” by Evelyn Poison, which is frankly the life-class model in her natural surroundings, though it is a pity that the surroundings have been painted with far greater success than the figure. Returning to Mrs Tripe’s work, No. 22, “The Shingled Head,” is a very charming little picture—far more successful than No. 60, “Peacocks,” which strikes one as being too large and too bold and having too much paint on the canvas to agree with the painter’s delicate touch. “The Shingled Head” is more suited to the artist’s particular technique. It is always easy to see whether a painter haa enjoyed doing a certain piece of work and when the painter is pleased the spectator is pleased also. There are * many reasons for thinking that the “Shingled Head” is the best picture that Mrs Tripe has shown in Dunedin. One hesitates to criticise the work of so accomplished a painter, but it is worth noting that no really great' artist has ever despised the study of anatomy. In many of the biggest schools of art at Home and in Europe and America visits to dissecting rooms and a practical knowledge of anatomy form part of the training of the figure painter. It is an essential. One feels that it is a great pity that the work of this artist should be marred (if only slightly) by such things as the apparent dislocation of the legs in No. 7, the formless arms in No. 14, and the queer-shaped body of No. 60. An artist should neglect none of the many avenues which lead to success, and it has been shown, all through the history of painting, that the greatest works are always the most scientific and full of knowledge.

Two portraits by .Tulia Lynch. No. 60, “J. Lynch. Esq.,” anti No. 116, “The Painter’s Mother,” arc noteworthy on account of their unusual and quite masterly technique. The way in which the correct tones and colours have been obtained (even if with a struggle) in No. 69 by building up with tiny touches of paint is extremely good. One wonders how the artist arrived at this particular method, considering that her other two exhibits — No. 121 and No. 127 are treated in a totally different manner, the paint being streaked on in quite large pieces. But apart from technique, there is very little that attracts in the painter’s work. It is colourless and heavy, and the subjects uninteresting. The remainder of the figure subjects shown are for the most part of a sketchy nature, and one feels they are out of place in such an exhibition. No. 53, “Reflections,” by E. M. Collier, for instance, is only the commencement of a picture—and quite a good one. It is unpleasant to find expanses of blank canvas and marks of the first drawing showing through the paint. There is a tendency nowadays towards such work, the idea being that a picture is “finished” when the artist has decided he will not do any more to it, and not when he cannot do any more. One trembles to think of the result if such ideas were applied to things like house-building or cookery! Why did not the artist go on and turn this sketch and the other one— No. 72, ‘'Grey Day”—into two quite charming pictures? A review of the oil colours would be incomplete, without a reference to the two excellent still-life groups by Gladys Anderson, No. 50, and No. 87, “Japonica.” The former is a splendid piece of colour and arrangement, original in its lighting and soundly painted. Altogether there are three works which really arrest cho attention and hold it, because of their vigorous and sound painting, and evidence of thorough understanding of the

subject. They are No. 11, “Portrait of C. F. Kelly, Esq.” by Elizabeth Kelly, No. 20, “Mt. Eolleston Buttress,” by Grace Butler, and No. 50, “Still Life,” by Gladys Anderson.