ART AMD ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 17 April 1901, Page 64

ART AMD ARTISTS.

—In the Entiance Galleiy j>t Hertford House there is a poiL-ait of the Queen by Sully, an "Aunncm aiiisv bom at"the cml of the eighteenth cciuury. wuo c'icd near the end of the nineteenth at the age of 90 T-he Queen was a young girl when she &at to him boon after her ooionation fiul weanpg her iobe 0 of State, and the portrait was such a Uvounte with her that she had it copied for Kensington Palace and included in the Koyai collection. The ongmal, -v/ith its <\\vvm of simpl-city and atihsh bcau(3 , han;, opposne Lawrence's full-length cf the corpulent George IV occupying' a >ofa, and it has been tLe happy idea of the kocpej of the gallery to ha\e tV> p ctui'o, wlnc'i just now attiacts «o mournful an inlciosi, draped m blac!.-. The ci ope h.mg> round tile frame m gracciul folds, re. eahng the V.R. on ihe scutcheon underneath, and the ciown which oiiiaments the frame above. This is, vie b"lie\e, tlie fhsfc time that in an English p:ctuie gallery feeling and sympathy ha\e been allowed to show themselves*.

— Quite the kiaiulest old mon in the mat tcr of yem of whom England can bo?st is Mi Ti,»m?s Sidney Coopei, the celebiatocl Roysl Academician, whose piowc=s with the brush is so phenomenal that he is> find to be able to pain; a sheep if not in the twinkling of an eye, at all evenrs in the space of five minute 0 . Mi- Cooper will be no le=s than 93 next September. He became an A.X.A. exactly 55 years ago. llo«t artists of 97 would be expected to ha\e lost all active interest in their profession. Not fo the evergreen Mr Coo]ser, howei er, who is at his easel every day of the week. Mr Cooper's vigour i^ all the moic wonderful because in his early days ho had a hard struggle for existence. Born in humble circumstances and with =caicely a penny piece to heip him to bridge over his difficulties, he underwent prnations of a kind which would have dm en the majority of young aitists of the present day into another calling, if. not off their feet. — The Royal Academy is rich in grand 01.l men. Though he has now retired from that institution. Mr (4. F. Watts. is still looked upon as one of it* most di.^tmguii-hed ronrr^pi titnes. Mr Watts is 83, and first exhibited in the Academy a^ for back as 1837 — o\ oi- 63 ypprs ago. This magnificent painter is one of Ihe most lemaikable men

'ot lie cinttny. Though hr> suffers i from enfeebled health, his pr^ion f or W oik i! .-.o gioat that ho is to be found at his on^el on mctt mornings when the hphfc <=er\ C 3 at a; eiiily an hour a*- 6 o'clotk. Mi\ o'clock lia^, b--tn In-, laU-t hour for ri-ing from tin 1 \eiy bcgi<mii>q of hi-- long and acmo (fiiecr Desp.te In-, yeeii", Mr Vv'atta is a, ma'i of iiii", .uif-tiulo pauenct . .\nd haa uceii Lrown to paint a picture cor and u:cr - .igai'i hctcic allowing it to be exhibited in. public. — Another famous knight of tlic brush 11 ! Mr W. P. Frith, who ha* b"cn s-nnously ill 1 of lato. Mr Frith was 82 on Jam-aiy 9. The I genial painttr of "Derby Day" aM the 1 ifl.'pMy v;;<-(>o'«fui "Railway Station" — two I pi 'turos which ha\e recehfd more willing ' Att<=mu>n at the hands of foigers than any I , i",t'_'r — jold liis fiist woi'k of aiL at the early ' :,„" ot 12. It was a poitiait, of the family ' dc<r, and he was allow c-d to sit up late to ' fx'-cuto it — the porirait, not the dog. Ho fini=Lca it in triumph, and it brought him =i\prr.eo from the paternal pocket. Enccmaged by the offer of a eimilar reward for a'lothct poi trail and the charming prospect of being allowed to sit up l^t^, he at once de"idfl to become an nrtitt. Later on, how1 e'. ►■•' . he i limited lik ideas. He -visited \anj (,\h i"«m and gazed lovingly upon vhat he ' imagined wa=> the easy way in v. - h:rh the I v ip 1.;?'1 .;?' b( f th^ hnminer earned e> living. I But he counted without, hi? father, who m?d^ -unli a drad set ajramsfc the auetioneer1 ing p. ojeci that younj; Frith promptly went j hick to l)is coac'l aid stuck to it. -i!r j Frith, when hi> health permits, := still a. I crept worker. Like Mr Watts. hovve\cr, he j ha^ icjred fiom tho Royal Academy. I ' PHUJATIC INCIDENT' IN PAINTING. Ti there is one fad in particulai that if; ' ne'i.r. p; th" painter and thf* public to steer i c.oar ol lit this tune, it is the nocion that, 1 iinv dramatic interest in a picture is a diversion from a picture's legitimate aims; i {md that ih" fir3t and Inst business of the ! }iaii.tor i- to bo decoratnc; that it is Ins 1 func-.ion to be concerned only with what 'ihey (all "paint." Paint, however, the i iJ.oughtfu 1 . pei.-on who is outside the studio { will ?t even recollect, is a medium of cxi pi'es'iur— docs not suffice in itself; or, rather, when it docs suffice, the arnst has grappled, beautifully h may be, successfully it may be, with only ona of the problem? I with -whic'i it wa.<- h;s right, if Jip- rhose to { cxcic;=o it, to concern himself. The truth ! about the introduction of dramatic incident \ in painting seems to me to be that it may I pdd immensely ret only to the width but to the depth of the appeal which the pictuio mny mab". At the same time, the too great rebancs upon dramatic or literal y interest doe> obviously open the door fcr the neglect i of qvio/iitics tWt are a painter's alone — beauty of line for ita own sake, beauty of colour for its own sake, richness or gaiety of tone for its own ?ake. . . The standards of actual painting have undoubtedly been raised, and there is now, I think, little danger of any recurrence to the standards cf a generation ago — although it is true, indeed, t'-mc "values" arc not e\erythinp, lhat the square touch is not everything, albeit it wa< invented by the great Master, who i.« now approved most of all: I mean, of course, Velasquez.— Feedebick Wedmoee, in "Great Thoughts. "