CAPTAIN ROBERTSON'S MARINE PAINTINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 846, 15 February 1868, Page 8

CAPTAIN ROBERTSON'S MARINE PAINTINGS.

There are now being exhibited, at Mr West's premises in Princes street, a collection of oil paintings by Captain Thomas Robertson, of Port Chalmers. It has only been on occasions when a similar collection has been made by Captain Robertson, of paintings executed by him, that there has been an opportunity of inspecting an equal number of works by a local artist ; and as the present opportunity only extends until Saturday week, when the paintings are to be distributed to the prize-winners in an Art Union, it may most justifiably be suggested that advantage of this opportunity should be promptly taken.

The pictures are 14 in number, and the great majority of them are by no means of miniature size, but considerable stretches of canvas, presenting paintings of much more than average merit, and, in several instances, more than the average merit of the same artist. They are all, in greater or less degree, paintings of marine subjects, in the delineation of which Capt. Robertson's strength as an artist lies, and, with one or two exceptions, they are illustrative of New Zealand coast scenes, or of incidents in the maritime history of the Colony.

The largest of the number, and the picture upon which, perhaps, the most labor has been bestowed, though it has, among the others, close competitors in point of artistic excellence, is the painting of ' ' His Excellency Sir George Grey landing at Port Chalmers." The painting is a faithful representation of the facts, and forms a pretty, pleasing picture. Port Chalmers presents at any time a redundancy of the picturesque, and it has been painted in various aspects by Capt. Robertson ; but the bay and its surroundings are seldom seen in a more cheerful, sparkling light than under the morning sun, with a fresh breeze blowing from the north-east ; and these are the conditions under which the landing is represented as having been made. The glancing light upon the water, the mottled sky, and the imparting to the picture the appropriate atmospheric appearances, are the features in which the artist's skill is most observable ; but the picture exhibits also indications of accurate drawing in its perspective, and

% the wrrectportraits-of 7 th'e^Bteatc(6r j&fi&,"«tifl' t the' drifts Omb'oji'iafii^Wifarr rior QttfeenV ' The Brisk" ik ri repre«enlea ; wlifcn her yams manned, and firing a salute,, as, the hjjdki contaiiurig,tbe Governor, is rn^k- ' i^Lg a sweep shore- w^rd > after, leaving ; ;fche vgsspl's aide. A3 aiwhole,,th? paintingis creditable ,to the artist,, and is, a -worthy memorial of the late vice-regal visit to the Province. . • "In another painting of Port Chalmers. Bay, and of the Brisk,, $he view-point is different, arid^the vessel is represented in another aspect, Her sails are loose, and hanging, .man-of-war fashion, to dry in the sunshine of a calm afternoon..' 5%e picturesque group of hills on the Pb'itbr bello side of the harbor forms the,,background. In a third painting of the "Port, tEe view is taken 'from the jetty, the ransje of vision including the He^ds and the hills in its vicinity : and in the body' of the picture are seen the steamer Alha'toi-' bra, and a group of hulks and sailing vessels. The Alhartibra is. not the only portrait in the picture. In adopting the common expedient of the artist, of introducing in the "foreground" some prominent object characteristic of the picture as a whole, Captain Robertson is usually very happy in his choice of objects, and" in this , instance there is a waterman's skiff, with occxip^ants whose familiar figures and faces it is impossible to mistake.

The two pictures . which are most thoroughly suggestive of the " wet sheet and the flowing main," are those named " Vessels off Otago Heads, " and "Vessels in- Foveaux Straits." The second is, perhaps, "the most striking picture of the whole number exhibited. In the vicinity of Bluff Harbour and Dog Island, a number of vessels are under canvas, tacking or running before a freshening westerly breeze. Murky clouds are gjfthering in the westward, indicative of an impending squall, and athwart them are thrown the rays of the setting sun. The sea is of that •tint peculiar to such a vicinity, where the features are shallow water' and a sandy bottom. Thus represented, the sky and the sea would make a sufficiently impressive picture, but the positions and the grouping of the vessels give it additional animation. In the "Vessels off Otago Heads," the principal object is one of Messrs Patrick Henderson and Co.'s fine liners, represented' as leaving the Port, and lying over to a full-sail breeze from the southward. In the painting of the vessel, there has apparently been much careful manipulation, and the aspect of the sea is appropriate to the supposed circumstances and the situation. The short, sharp ledges of sea which form to the northward of Cape Saunders, and towards the harbor-mouth, during the prevalence of a strong breeze from the south-west, are well represented, and a good choice is made in selecting the early morning light, if it has no other effect than inducing critics to become early risers, and to witness the beauties of a sunrise as seen from Otago Heads.

The steamers Rangitoto and Hero occupy separate pieces of canvas, and make good pictures, more especially the Rangitoto, which is represented as under steam and her fore-and-aft canvas, in the neighborhood of the Solander. The neighborhood is a favorite one for the realisation of the influences of a heavy gale of wind and a confoundedly crosssea ; and these are the conditions under which the Rangitoto appears.

Of two other pictures of local interest, one is a painting of " Burkes Brewery," or rather of a section of the scenery in the neighbourhood of the Brewery. It is a moon-light scene. The Golden Age is lying alongside the Brewery jetty. The lighter Argus is sailing up the Short Channel ; and there is a boating party at their oars. The sky is beclouded even unto gloominess, but through an aperture in the clouds the moon sheds a subdued light. The other picture— a smaller one — represents the ship Ocean Chief, on fire in Bluff Harbor.

"A Wreck, Sunset," is a representation of a brig stranded, and left high and dry by the tide which has retreated, and the storm which has abated, until the face of Nature has assumed its very quietest aspect. The.fore-shortening of the vessel is very good, and the pacific tone of the elements after the storm, i*well conceived and aptly represented. The smallest picture of the lot, bnt not the least artistic, is a "Beach Scene" — an English coast scene by sunset. Two others are a "View from Leith Roads," and a " View of Leith Harbor." They are not bran new, like the others ; .but in their subjects, and their treatment, they have merits of their own which are not inconsiderable.

Along with <Dapt. Robertson's pictures there are also on view, at Mr West's, chromo-lithographs of colonial scenes, as painted or drawn by M. Chevalier. .

Liberal. — An old maid is more liberal than a young one. The latter may always be 4 willing to lend you a hand; the former will give you one, and even thank you too. *