ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2215, 13 August 1896, Page 52

ART AND ARTISTS.

• . • M. Tisaot, the famous French watercolouriet, is about to enter the Order of La Trappe. Before retirlrjg from the world be will complete bis illustrations of the Gospel narrative. • . • Professor Herkomer, R.A., recently told some entertaining anecdotes of his student days in Paris and his early struggles against poverty. His studio cost him a few shillings a week, and be cooked his own meals. Professor Herkomer was long on intimate terms with poverty. When his 41 Chelsea Pensioners," hie first signal success, was accepted, he says he " fell on his knees and wept." •. ♦ In the Windsor Magazine for May, Mr Lewis Hind gives a chatty account of famous painters at work. He' tells us that " Sir Edward Borne-Jones has no liking for an ornate studio. His floors and walls are bare ; and as for incompleted pictures, Lhave never seen sucb a collection. 'It would take me lOO^ears to finish them all, 1 ' be sometimes remarks with a sigh. To Sir Edward it ip always' a delight to begin, a new picture. He never /finishes it straightway out of hand. They wait for the mood when he can do them, justice ; and with such a collection of fragmtnte by him, it follows that he knows not' the meaning of an idle day." •.' A remarkable case of death from fright was that of the Dutch .painter Pbutman. He was at work in his studio, where there was a nnmber of .death's heads and skeletons, when he happened to fall asleep. During hiseleep there was a slight shook of earthquake, and when be woke up suddenly, he saw the skeletons and skulls' dancing around in the greatest; confusion; 1 He at once beoame panic-stricken, and rushed across the room and threw himself out of the window on to the pavement below.. He died a few days after, .not from injuries received in the fall. Put from*the nervous shock given by the'daricirjg skeletons,- thougß the cause I of their' festivity was explained to bim. ■/Mi Abel Hold, of Brookhouse, Oawi thorne, the veteran aitist who in September last attained the age of 80 years, and who died recently, had, when a boy, a fondness itir drawing animals and birds from Nature. - When only 17 years of age be was earning scanty wages by painting show-cloths, depicting wild animals and battle Bcenee, for showmen. He began to paint portraits when he was 18. With few exceptions, between the years 1849 and 1871 Mr Hold was an .exhibitor at the Royal Aoademy, and it was his boast that he never had a picture rejected. By far the largest portion of Mr Hold's works are game and , still-life pictures. It is estimated that deceased tainted something .like 3000 picture*.— Liverpool Daily Courier.' . MB G. P. TVATTS AT HOME. "Some of. our most famous, artists have their studios in the oountr'y," says a wjiter in the course of an article referred to above on " How Famous Painters Work," which appears in the Windsor Magazine for May. •• Mr G. F. Watts, R.A., i has made for himself, within the last few years, a charming home at Compton, on the i Hog's Back, in Surrey. Built in the midst of tangled woodland, • Limnerslease ' shows inside and outside the fine taste of Mr and Mrs Watts. Nature has not been rudely curbed, nor have convention and formality been allowed to spoil the rural beauty of the scene, An old-faehioned garden with the flowers wbicb used to charm our grandparentsMies behind the studio. The morning sunlight floods the beautiful room where the veteran artist labours at an hour when most of us are lying a-bed, for Mr Watts has been an early riser all his long life. At a young man he trained himself by sleeping, on a board, and to this early rising and other Spartan habits Mr Watts attributes his activity. 44 When you enter bis splendid studio a great white" figure of ' Energy ' reminds you that he 'is also a sculptor; indeed every expression of ait interests him. He and Mrs Watts have supported most liberally the society which aim's at the spread of arts and crafts in onr towus. and villages. M§ 'Watts likes working in bis Surrey studio during the winter, paying occasional visits to bis betterknown Kensington home. He is always bnsy —a splendid example to everyone wio sees and knows him! Probably no artist has ever before had the rare honour of twice declining A baropetcy, but Mr Watts rightly believes that his countrymen will respect him quite as xnnqh (or even more) without a handle to bU name. Uo baa held bis great talents in

trust for the ultimate benefit of thousands, who, by tfee medium of Mr Watts's portraits of his leading contemporaries, are made acquainted with tbeir faces, and alsowtb a famous artist's ablest work."