ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2309, 2 June 1898, Page 46

ART AND ARTISTS.

— No artiat of modern times has been 80 extensively reproduced as Sir John Millais.

— The woman who has achieved the greatest popularity of recent years as a miniature painter is Miss Kussner, an American, who spends her whole time doing miniature work in America, Paris, and London.

— All was evidently grist that came to Madame Daudet's artistic mill in her estimate of her husband's work The pair had one day a little scene rocra dramatic than wise, and afterwards Daadefc remarked t " This seems, my dear, like a chapter that has slipped out of a novel." "It ia more likely, Alphonse," she replied, "to form a chapter that will slip into oae."

— The late Mr Aubrey Beardsley had some carious methods of work. Asked on one occasion whether it was true that he always worked by candlelight, Mr Beardsley replied: " I suppose I ought to express some apology for its being the truth; but I admit that I can't work by daylight. I am happiest when the lamps of the town have been life» and I am so used to working hy artificial light that if I want towork in the daytime! have to pull the blind down aad get my candles in order before I begin." — There is probably no family in England ao similarly, and largely gifted as that of Mr Alma-Tadema, the Royal Academician, four members of .which have achieved distinction in art and letters.. Mr Alma-Tadema's wife is a skilful wielder of the brush and received the gold medal for painting at Berlin a little over a year ago. His daughter, Miss Anna, won a medal at the last Paris Exhibition, and promises to rival her mother as a painter. Miss Laurence Alma-Tedema, the second daughter, has deserted art for literature, and her novel, " The Wings of Icarus," displays an arh no less promising than that of her sister.

— It is a mistake to suppose, as mosfc people are apt to do, that art education consists in merely teaching young persons hot? to draw, or even how to design. The most accomplished designer, the best of such as are being manufactured by the thousand nowadays, may to the end remain entirely dead to the greater and deeper significance of art. At one time, and that not so very long ago, the person who could draw something and could model something was considered well enough equipped in respect of taste to assume a position of authority on all matters appertaining to art. Those.days are gone by, and it is now recognised that two classes, each distinct from the other and each specially educated, are necessary for the proper arts. The first consists of those who work, the other of those who may be called the " appraciators " — those on whom will ultimately fall the duty of encouraging art and artists ; that is to say, the collectors and the great manufacturers of the future. For taste, like genius, must be fostered" and trained. — M. H. Spielmsnn. A CAHEEE INDEED.

The death of Aubrey Beardsley at the age of 24, at Mentone, i 3 sad, but .not unexpected. The present writer met him first soon after he had given np his work in the Guardian Fire Office. He came into the room — a frail, slight figure, with pale, luminous face and a manner volatile and enthusiastic—with a portfolio of drawings undei his arm. One inclines to think that first harvest of his perverse, corrupt genius represented his best work. Two or three of us bought specimens there and then, and one of the results o£ that evening was his "introduction to the Studio, which was in the throes of its first • number. Mr Peanell was askeS to write the article, and it was the Studio that gave him his first acknowledgment. He did interesting work for the Pail Mall Budget, illustrating the Lyceum production of " Becket " in his own weird way — a way, let it be said, that never was and nevev could be popular. Later he drew for the Yellow 800k — in fact, he was the Yellow 800k — and when he ceased to draw for that interesting quarterly it died gallantly, bat surely.

Aubrey Beardsley's imitators- were many, but nose possessed his strong, virile line ox his grotesque and fantastic imagination. His recognition was swift and complete within its own bounds. He was appreciated from the first by a small enthusiastic circle. He had a new thing to say, he said It with a wonderful dexterity, for he had precocious power over his material from the first. And he died at 24. A career, indeed 1 — Academy.