ART AND ARTIST.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 53

ART AND ARTIST.

A CHAT ABOUT MR W. P. FPJTH, R.A.

j From the popular point of viesv no painter 1 of recent years lias met with sucli success as ' the artist whose name heads this paper. | His pictures appealed directly to that great !• public who, knowing little or nothing of the theories of art, were touched by the Mibiect or &enliment of the works, and vc-co-ded them llicir highest meed of approbation. A contemporary ol Dickens, wnen the author was in the height of his fame, >lr Frith won tbe popular acclaim witn his art, just as Dickens did with hw, by aepnl- ' mc f-ceaca of life which were familiar to all, i with a fidelity that was faultless m its rawilitude. Hence their Hnjarity. Novels and pictures alike appeal io nu- ' man nature with a frankness ttt.xt fit once met with a response, and aitnnugh many novelists and painters have worked since those days, none have yet displaced Dickens i and Fritl from the hearts of "the masses {as the favourite author and artist Before the removal of " The Derby Day from the National Gallery to Millbank there was | always a little crowd standing round it on the public days aflhe gallery ; leaning over the railing, the visitors carefully scaW and discussed the various groups oi figme* in this masterpiece of patient^oiWlj Just as when it was exhibited at .the Royal Academy in 1858, it had a guard of honour ! of a coiiUable, and an iron railing before it to keep the crowd that was always pressing to look at it within bounds, so in our Rational Gollery it was the centre of attracts lo the popular eye. . Doubtless, here we finer works of art m that Academy exhibition, as there certainly were m the room at the National Gallery, but none that annei ed with greater force to the taste of 2? pefple- Tl- comparison beWeer i the works of Dickens and those of Mi Fr th executed on the same lines as "The Dei by Day/ and by which he is best known, en/be carried a little farther. Dicken s stories always made a more or less obvious moral-lhe vitos always met with .the i , due reward to the great delight o his, readers. So in the same manner Mr Filths , pictures of "The Road to Rum" an , Race for Wealth "-typical examples of his YO rk— have a distinctly didactic purpose, the artist is preacher as well as painter; , the pictures are sermons written m paint on the canvas sheet. Simple, bat forcible » ; easily read, but imprinted on the mind with far greater power than many spoken words. Of course, it need hardly be pointed out that the founder of purely English art— William ! Hoo-arth— worked on the same lines a ceni tury before Mr Friths time, and with force and skill such as have never been equalled. His set of pictures of "Marriage a la Mode""' (in 'the National Gallery), his " Rakes Progress " (in the Soane Museum), his "Idlo and Industrious Apprentices, startled his day and generation, and placed him high on the pedestal of fame. Hogarth said of these " subjects of a modern kind and moral nature" (as he himself described them) that "I wished to compose pictures on canvas similar to tions on the stage. In these compositions those subjects that will both entertain and inform the mind bid fair to be of the greatest public utility, and must therefore be entitled to rank in the highest class. Thus i the decision which Hogorth made to paint " subjects of a modern kind and a moral nature" exactly anticipated Mr Friths, when in 1852 he started upon his work Eams<rat« Sands," the first- of his representations of contemporary life. That be should have met with discouragement sometimes is not to be wondered at, and, apropos of this, MiFrith tells in his " Reminiscences " the story of a lady critic who, not knowing that she was addressing tho artist himself^ spoke disparagingly of "The Derby Day." "To me," she said, "'The Derby Day' is in a very lon- style of art; it is vulgar. Perhaps you may say that such a scene is necessarily vulgar. There I should join issue ' with you. A refined artist would have elevated* the scene ; have filled it with life and character ; have given it grace and beauty, even to women who go to Epsom. 'As j my critic ran on," writes Mr Frith, ''I fek ' the sincerest pity for her. "tor I made up j my mind that I 'must confess myself to he the author of the maligned production ; and this I did in a bungling fashion enough, for I said, ' I am so sorry you don't like it, ior I painted it !' Never, never shall I forget that poor lady's distress. I tried to help ] ier _l forget 'how, but I know I tried. Then she was unfortunate, for she flew from her colours. 'Of course,' she stuttered, 'I really had no idea— but then, of course, it is a very clever picture ; but I confess I don't like the subject.' 'No more do I,' I declared, ' but then you must not quarrel with copper because it is not gold.' "' This was spoken many years ago, but Mr Frith to-day, at the age of 78, is just as outspoken and honest about his work as he was then. The success of " The Derby Day " led him to paint other pictures similar in nature. In 1862 "The Railway .Station" was exhibited. The engraving of the picture_ is so well known that, no detailed description is needed to recall it. There was the great crowd split up into groups, skilfully handled and composed as before. Soldier and sailor bidding farewell; the criminal arrested when he thought his flight was assured the father and mother seeing their sons <-ff to school— a group, by the way, representing tho painter and his family— and many other scenes common to the platform of a busy railway station. In 1871 came the first of the' gambling scries of pictures — "The Salon d'Or." The canvas represents the gambling saloon at Hombiu-g— now a thing of the past. It is a faithful transcript of the scene, as witnessed by the artist in 1869. So anxious was he to have toe surroundings of his figures faithfully conect that he had a photograph taken of the saloon, ai<d actually secured one of the chairs from the place— which he informs me he still possesses — a croupier's rake, and other articles. — Quiver.

— The highest price ever paid for a poem was six thousand golden crowns, paid to Saw nazaro by the citizens of Venice for his eulogy on. their citv — a poem of six lines only.

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— "Always pay as you go," said Uncle Dudley. " But, uncle, suppose I've nothing to pay with?"— " Then don't go."

— Mabel (studying her lessons) : " Papa, what is the definition of volubility?" Mabel's Father: "My child, volubility is a distinguishing feature of your mother when, on acount of urgent business affairs, I don't happen to reach home until after. two o'clock in the morning. "