TWO ORIGINALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23299, 17 September 1937, Page 10

TWO ORIGINALS

"SIMPSON AND HIS DONKEY"

AUCKLAND ARTIST'S VIEWS

<Peb United Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Sept. 16,

Two copies of the famous picture, "Simpson and His Donkey," differing in size and in some details, were painted at the same time, by the late Sapper H. Moore-Jones, acpording to Mr A. A. Schmidt, an Auckland artist, who was a close friend of Sapper Moore-Jones and saw him at work.

"The painting possessed by the Auckland Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Association and that which was sent to England were painted at the same time, but the one now in Auckland was finished first," said Mr Schmidt. "I was frequently with Moore-Jones while he was doing these pictures.

"As far as I can remember the painting sent to England was much smaller than that now in the Commercial Travellers' Club, and it was because of its smaller size that it was sent for reproduction by a London publishing company. There were some slight differences in the two paintings, the wounded soldier's head in one case resting further back on the shoulder of the soldier standing beside the donkey." Referring to the photograph obtained in the south by Sapper Moore-Jones, Mr Schmidt said it was a small snapshot, 2£in by 3£in. It was used by the artist merely to get the likeness of Simpson, the driver of the ambulance donkey, who was known to Peninsula soldiers as "Murphy." "There is a lot of quibbling about these pictures," Mr Schmidt continued. "They are both originals for they were worked upon at the same time. Anyhow, it is an artist's privilege to paint the same subject over and over again, and I consider that such pictures are all originals. The old masters did the same thing."