PAINTING COPIED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27570, 12 December 1950, Page 6

PAINTING COPIED

Chance Discovery At Exhibition LOAN WORK FROM DUNEDIN Through sheer chance, it has been discovered that a copy by an unknown French artist exists of one of the Dunedin Art Gallery’s best paintings. The two paintings have been brought together in an exhibition of old masters at present on display in Christchurch, and have aroused great interest among art lovers. The Dunedin Gallery’s work is, according to the title, a painting of a bridge at Rimini, Italy, and the other is said to be of a bridge over the Loire, in France: but both are obviously pictures of the same scene. According to the principal of the Canterbury School of Art, Mr Colin Lovell-Smith, and others who have seen the two pictures, the “ Bridge Over the Loire ” is probably a copy of the other. It is most unlikely that the two pictures have ever been shown together before, or that any of the previous owners suspected the existence of the other, although one at least is 200 years old. This is the work of Richard Wilson, a foundation member of the Royal Academy. The Wilson was acquired in 1947 by the Dunedin Art Gallery from the Duchess of Kent’s collection. The Canterbury Society of Arts, \vhich arranged the current exhibition, asked the Dunedin authorities for the loan of a suitable painting for the exhibition. and this was the one chosen. The painter of the other picture, “ Bridge Over the Loire,” is an unknown French artist. The painting was one of a number lent by the trustees of the Neave estate, and is believed to have been in the possession of the Neave family since the arrival in Canterbury of the late Mr F. D. S. Neave. The segne portrayed by both artists is an old stone bridge spanning a stream in the middle of the picture, and in the foreground three figures are kneelirtg on the shingle bank, apparently washing linen. Even such details as the shape of the branches of trees and the outlines of clouds are the same. The colours in Wilson’s picture are brighter, but this, according to Mr Lovell-Smith, is probably because it has been cleaned recently. If the other was cleaned he thought it would look even more like Wilson’s. Wilson, born in 1714, went to Italy about 1730. When in Rome he attracted the patronage of a Frenchman, Vernet, who gave the young painter many useful introductions. Returning to London in 1755, he continued with his work but, probably because of his difficult manner, was not very successful. He was recognised, however, as a great painter, and was one of the first members of the Royal Academy, founded in 1768. Wilson is now acknowledged as one of the outstanding English landscape painters and a forerunner of such great painters as Constable. His paintings of Italy, in particular, awakened a new interest in landscape painting. There are few other examples of his work in New Zealand.