ART ANn ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2413, 31 May 1900, Page 50

ART ANn ARTISTS.

— Mr Hubert Herkomer, or, as he calls himself on his visiting cards for uss in Germany, Professor Hubert Ritter yon Herkomer, is staying in Berlin, and is very busy painting an enamel picture of the Kaiser. It will be I - metres high, and probably the largest enamel portrait in existence. "His Majesty," said Herkomer, "is every inch a Kaiser, and as such I am painting him. He is standing before the throne in the Knights' Hall in his ln-.perial robes, and at bis feet are lying the Imperial insignia, the crown, the Imperial globe, and the sceptre and sword." The Professor is enchanted with the Kaiser, whom he finds, as most people do who come in personal contact with him, extremely ' courteous raid kind. He says also that his Majesty thoroughly understands the wishes and ways of an artist, and thus he makes the sitting 3 exceedingly pleasant by his graceful and affable manner. — Under the heading "Our Rising Artists," Mr A. L. Baldry gives an interesting account in the Magazine of Art for March, ot the work of the new A.R.A.. Mr Alfred Drury, the British sculptor, with nine specimens of his handiwork. His slatue of Circe in bronze, and head of St. Agnes, which he modelled in 1894, were purchased by the City Art-Gal-lery in Leeds. The collection of pictures in the possession of Mr J. Caifrae Alston, of Glasgow, is the pubject of an illustrated article by Mr Robert Walker. Mr Ernest Law contributes another paper on the "Vandyck Exhibition at the Roy^al Acadenry with five illustrations. The clocks at Buckingham Palace are veritable treasures of art, and Mr F. S. Robinson's descriptive and profusely illustrated article on the subject forms another attractive ieature ol" the issue. — Landscape architecture as a fine art is invariably the last to awaken general interest; yet, as a matter of fact, it was the first_ of the arts known to mail. "God Almighty first planted a garden." But for well-known reasons, the natural sequence in the development of the fine arts has been changed, and landscape architecture has been relegated to the rear of the procession. At the present time, as never befoie in the United States, interest; in landscape architecture is beginning to claim the attention of our people, for thcugh among in it is still iv its infancy, such progress is being _ made that we have every reat.?u to anticipate a brilliant future for this, one of the most delightful of the fine arts. However, until the art of landscape architecture is clearly distinguished from that of gardening as well aa architecture, forestry, and other closely-allied callings, no such future can be reasoivibly expected. From the greater number of welleducated and trained men now in the profession, an dthe steps being taken to increase both their number and proficiency, tue distinct recognition of landscape architeiliue as a profession cannot much longer be delayed. — yevibner's.