OUTSTANDING EXHIBITION BY GREAT BRITISH WATER COLOUR ARTISTS ARRIVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27234, 10 November 1949, Page 6

OUTSTANDING EXHIBITION BY GREAT BRITISH WATER COLOUR ARTISTS ARRIVES

Valued at £21,000, an exhibition of 158 early British water-colours covering the period from about 1750 to 1850 will be opened at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery to-morrow and will remain on display until December 9. The exhibition, which has been arranged through the Empire Art Loan Exhibitions Society—founded in 1932 by thd late Sir Percy Sargood—is probably the finest water-colour collection of its kind ever to have been sent overseas. Two works from the King’s collection at Windsor—a Rowlandson and a Sandby—are included, and there are seven by Turner, Most of the paintings chosen, however, are by artists whose works have seldom been exhibited abroad.

When the Daily Times called at the Art Gallery yesterday, the curator, Mrs A. G. Pearse, was supervising the unpacking of three cases of paintings, which had arrived from Wanganui in the coastal vessel Gale. Four more cases have yet to be delivered and the staff of the gallery will have an extremely busy time hanging the pictures for the opening to-morrow. Two rooms in the gallery nave been cleared for the exhibition. Since the collection Was shipped from England early in the year it has been shown in the Australian national galleries, and in Auckland, Wellington and Wangabui. The paintings will be sent back to England after the Dunedin exhibition. The collection, which has come from private homes and galleries all over England, has been assembled to illustrate the development of the art of water-colour painting from approximately 1750 to 1850. The exhibition contains a number of first-class examples by the great water-colourists of the period, as well as a selection of representative works by the lesser known artists. The British Pre-eminence Water-colour has become a peculiarly British art. The fluid transparent medium readily suggests the effectg of the changeable island climate, and it is easy to manipulate under the moist atmospheric conditions. Arranged in chronological order, the collection shows how the efforts of the eighteenth century topograpnical draughtsmen began a movement which

culminated in the genius of Turner, Girtin, Cox, de Wint and other late Georgian and Early Victorian masters of landscape. Seven masterpieces by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) will be on view. They are: “ Malmesbury Abbey,” "The Thames Looking Toward Westminster,” “Dudley Castle,” “A Swiss Pass,” Kussanacht, Lake of Lucerne,” “Exeter,” and “Bellinzona.” The two paintings from the royal collection are Paul Sandby’s “ Tne North Terrace, Looking West, Windsor Castle,” and Thomas Rowlandson’s “ King George 111 Returning From Hunting Through Eton.” Both these artists are represented by other paintings. “Lancaster Sands,” and “Peace and War ” are famous examples of the art of David Cox, who is represented by five other drawings. There are three paintings each by Peter de Wint, John Varley, Samuel Prout and Copley Fielding, and two delightful seascapes by Constable. . It is not often that New Zealanders have the opportunity of seeing great paintings in the original and this is particularly true of the famous works of the past, because these are safely housed in overseas galleries and collections. Even the person completely ignorant of art should be able to find much to fascinate him in this outstanding collection. People of Dunedin will be able to see the exhibition during the normal gallery hours and it is intended to arrange special evening sessions as well as instructive talks.