PICTURE FINDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 17

PICTURE FINDS.

HAVE YOU ANY OLD MASTERS?

. It is quite possible that stored away ap, ppecure corner; or . JMddap .imder rubbiep iji gojajjs gttiCj tjipre im. nutcy mecea of property worth a couple thousand guineas -each—or even more (mrites Percy Bland in the Daily News). ■they may have been lying there tor years, because nobody but an expert would suspect them of having'any value. A blurred, perhaps tom, piece of old ■ canvas, looking smudged or daubed with colour, might; well he something quite different; from what it seems. It might be an old master camouflaged-by flirt. , The quest for pictures by famous painters has taken a new lease' of life recently, and some;quite respectable fbrtUnes are being realised by people who never suspected the worth'of some neglected possession until the eye qf an expert _ discovered its value. T This is particularly true of the British ‘ Isles, for, since Tudor times, Britain has Md a rich store of pictures, not on!y x tnose painted by her own artists, but also the work of foreign painters who tolled here, or whose masterpieces were brought home by British travellers. . One of the main reasons "why owners of old masters are often upawarq of the worth of the pictures is that in ; many cases the real painting of & famous artist, a Rembrandt or a Rubens, has beCruoverpainted at a later day, and the original work does not appear on the surface until restoration is undertaken.

Quite a considerable amount of overpaintinp took place through'the puritanical attitude of people into whose possession the pictures came by heredity or otherwise. It seems rather ridiculous viewed by modern standards, but reference to collateral forms of art and literature will show similar instances. Recently a famous Continental authority' was invited to express an opinion- as to a painting by the celebrated Dutch artist, Rembrandt. The picture had been picked up in an obscure village in Belgium. The subject represented an old woman reading her Bible. ' The expert concluded that it was a genuine work of the Dutch master, and implored a wealthy friend to purchase it for £4OOO.

Tbe friend thought that the expression on the woman’s face did not at all suit the occupation of Bible reading, but finally accepted the expert’s advice. The expert then had the picture restored, when it was found that Rembrandt had pictured the old lady doing nothing worse than plucking a goose. Apparently a half-naked goose was not considered suitable for exhibition to a later generation, and another artUt was commissioned to tone it down for posterity. The picture is to-day valued at 160,000. A peer who had a particularly celebrated collection agreed to dispose o£ some of the paintings to a firm of dealers. The senior member of the firm called upon him to value the pictures apd settle the financial side of the transaction. The peer welcomed him, but expressed his regret that the journey would prove fruitless. The pictures which werej in the vendor’s judgment, of real value and importance were kept at his other seat pome hundreds of miles away. He entertained his visitor to lunch, after which, at the letter's request, he took him to an attic to inspect some old curios. Immediately on entering the attic the visitor’s attention was attracted to old canvases, framed and ■ unfratued, lying around at random. The peer said thev were of no account, hut the dealer begged perraisison to examine them. After a few minutes he fixed upon one of the most disreputable in appearance, and said: "This is a missing Holbein, I will give you £BOOO for it.”