ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2510, 23 April 1902, Page 69

ART AND ARTISTS.

ADVENTURES OF SOME FAMOUS PICTURES. For a poor man to be the owner of a fortune without knowing it, especially -nhen that fortune takes the form of a famous picture, is by no means unusual, for many of the most "priceless paintings in existence have found their way into the possession of humble folk, who, in the majority of cases, have not discovered the fact until it was too late. Seven years ago a man in passing a rag-and-bone shop in the Paris slums saw an old panel lying among a lot of cast-off clothing in the window, and. being a collector of curios, he went in and secured it for the trifling sum of 3f. He took his purchase home, and when it had been cleaned he was astounded to see the signature of Rembrandt with the date 1629 in one corner. Experts proved that the panel was indeed the work of the great master, jrnd shortly afterwards the owner refused £4000 for the curio >vhich the poor shopkeepei had long been unable to get half a crown for. Several of the Gainsborough paintings have undergone very romantic careers. The famous "Duchess of Devonshire" for a long time lay unsold in a Sloane street furniture shop until Mr Wynne Ellis bought it for £60, and sold it by auction shortly afterwards for 19,100g5. Another picture by the same artist once hung in Dolby Hall, and the owners at length, thinking it useless, gave it to some children to use. as a target for their maibles. The picture had been penetrated in seventl places when the children's father was only tuo glad to accept an offer of £7 from a dealer for it, but within 24 hours this individual sold it again to a wealthy collector for £2000. It has since come into the possession of Lord Rothschild, who recently refused an offer of £10,000 for it. At least two of Rubens's masterpieces have been almost given away by their owners, who were ignorant of their worth. Some years ago a London bricklayer, out of work, pawned a blackened picture for a few shillings, and the pledge never being redeemed, it was sold by the broker to a dealer for a sovereign. On cleaning the picture the dealet found it to be a genuine Rubens, and ere the week passed he sold it to the late Lord Dudley for £7000. The same painter's "Lot and His Daughters" was for more than 50 years in the possession of a poor family at Bath, who willingly sold it for a few pounds, in an auction room in 1895, only to hear shortly afterwards that experts had since valued it at £10,000. On the slopes of one of the Italian mountains lives a Hum who owns one of the most priceless ait trea.-ures extant. It j* the finest known specimen of Memhutz's work, and, allhougu the money the owner makes as an Alpine guide is email, he refused an offer of £12,000 for the picture not long ago. At present it adorns the wall of his hut, and upon his death is to be given to the local church. Few men have been so fortunate as was an impecunious friend of the late J. E. Millet, for the great artist, anxious to repay <i slight service rendered some years before, decided to paint a picture and sell it to hi.s benefactoi fo>-a Mnall .sum in order that he might >-ell it again at a. profit. The result was his masterpiece. "L'Angelus, ' and he let his friend have it for £40. A few hours aftei ward 1 * that lucky individual u- sold it to a collector of Millet's pictures for £15,000