ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 66

ART AND ARTISTS.

—Mr Sargent's painting of the Duehc-ss of Portland is expected to be the great «ensation of the year in artistic circles. — Joaef Israels has just completed his seventy-eighth birthday. He is the doyen of Dutch painter 4 . You may always find him in the morning in his great but comfortably untidy studio in The Hague. Here the little bowed figure, grey-bearded and bright-eyed, works with all the fire and ardour of youth. — Professor Herkomer lf-call' the days of his early professional struggles, when he had literally to cultivate art on "a little oatmeal," diluted with tea; and when, after saving two sovereigns with -untold selfdenial, he spent them on a wood-block and on models to sit for the Graphic picture which marked the turn in the tide of hie fortune. — Mr Luke Fildes, the Royal Academician, is_ no believer m inspiration a« the only btimulus to good work. "Whatever my mood may be," he says, "I always make a point of going to my studio every day as regularly as a man goes to hie office or workshop. The moment I begin my day's work I become interested in it, and interest i^ not p. bad .substitute for inspiration." —Mr Solomon J. Solomon, A.R.A., lias painted tome of his most successful pictures by gas-light. Indeed, he affirms that he can obtain better results in this' way than if ho painted by daylight According to Mr Solomon e\ery artist should aoc-u>tom Jiii'.ioelf io aitificial light, especially if he li' cs in England, where sometimes for days together the &un fails to make its appearR/iCO. — Lady Butler is probably tho only Eng-h-h arti.=t for whose ~<i)c beiiefit a cavalry i harge wa« ordeicd. When 'he was pamf ing her stirring picture ".Scotland for Evei" i the ono day expressed a regret that she had ■ never seen a body of cavalry in tho act i of charging, with the result that a ftcneial ■ in whose licaiing hhe had spokon ai ranged ' that a charge 3 houkl take place for her ■ £-pc ( 'a! bonpt'.t si — A y&fei-pftcfi i£ ik.£ biographies oXjiX*--

sent-day Royal Academieions suggests very strongly that Londoners show a greater capacity to excel in art than do provincials, for the metropolis has produced 18 members of the premier institution in thia country against 14- who were born outside London. Seven academicians were born abroad, these being Sir E. Poynter (Paris), and Messrs Sargent (Florence), Abbey (A"merica), Alrna-Tadema (Holland), Horkomer (Ba-x-aria), Yeanies (Russia), and Prinsep (Calcutta). — Claude doer not rouse the enthusiasm of the average Briton. The classical landecape is out of favour. We have become more exacting about landscape since his day. With Mr Corbet elected an associate of the Royal Academy, with Mr Stott and' Mr Arnesby Brown at his heels, we have learnt to demand a simpler, a more direct method — ono that will give instant pleasure without trouble. The ruined castle perched upon a hill has had its day ; nymphs and shepherds that never were on shore or field have been banished for a human interest more authentic than. Claude's. — Academy. —Mr Rolman Hunt, the great painter, tells an amu=ing story of his earliest efforts in the art he was destined to adorn so brilliantly. A* a youth he was employed' as clerk to an auctioneer, and in his idle moments he began ro draw * flies on the-ground-glass of the office windows. Every day he added a few, until the window Sad the appearance of being covered by a perfect swarm of flies. One afternoon the auctioneer, indignant at the intrusion of so many flies into his office, began vigorously to brush them off with his .handkerchief; and Mr Hunt still recalls with laughter his amazement and rage at finding how obstinately the flies resisted his attacks. — Little did Franz HaiL;, that bibulous craftsman of gennis, who npver troubled his head about messages, or influences, or artistry ; who would have roared with laughter had he been told that Fra Angelico was wont to weep when he painted a holy picture; who was summoned before the magistrates of Haarlem for ill-treating his wife and being constantly drunk and disorderly; who in his later years "fell into poverty" — little did he think that to-day the nations would be scrambling for his pictures: that in January, 1902, one of hi 3 portraits would: fetch at public auction £3780, and that the owner of his '" Man Playing a Guitar" is reported to have refused "fabulous sums" for it.— Academy. — The trustees of the National Portrait Gallery have secured for the national collection the famous portrait of John Bunyan, the immortal author of "The Pilgrim's Progress," painted by Thomas Sadler in 1685. The portrait was the property of Alary, Countess of Cavan, daughter of the Rev. John Olive, for many years rector of Ayot St. Lawrence, Herts, who had obtained it from a source dating back to the days of John Bunyan himself, as attested by pßpprs in the possession of Mary, Countess of Cavan, who has generously consented to part with this valuable treasure for the benefit of the nation. With the exception, of a pencil drawing by Robert White in the Print Room at the British Museum, this is the only authentic likeness of Bunyan which it at present known to exist