MR. WILLIAM GREENE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 19 (Supplement)

MR. WILLIAM GREENE.

Really good animal painters and interpreters of animal life have always been comparatively rare even in the Home Country, where Cooper, Landseer, and Rosa Bonheur stand at the head of the list. One reason for this is, no doubt, to be found in the initial difficulty of giving to the restless model that union of life and absolute correctness without which the creature presented is a caricature and not a likeness. Difficult as it is to draw a " life model," even when intelligence ieeps the model in one position, this difficulty is much increased when the object is always on the move, and the ■effort- to restrain it immediately produces an unnatural pose. How completely Mr W. Greene has succeeded in overcoming this difficulty will be apparent to every student of his really interesting work, in which the action and life of the animals forms at once his merit and their claim to our admiration. Mr ■Greene tells us that '" Subjects such as those I send you appeal to me much more than anything else in nature, and the simple pastoral landscape is to me much more beautiful than our grander scenes; and, he adds, " I fear that the latter lias, to a certain extent, a bad effect on our young artists, causing them to think far too much of subject, and to neglect the interpretation of "that quieter beauty which is ■within the reach of everyone, and yet is seen by few." Mr •Greene is an Australian born, and obtained his art education in Melbourne ; but he has spent most of his time and painted his best pictures in New Zealand. His home is in Timaru, where he leads a very busy life entirely devoted to art. His studio is a delightful and much sought after place, and he has a number of private pupils, 'besides being art master in ithe Timaru Girls' High School, the Technical Classes, etc., where he is much beloved ■by his pupils for his readiness to help them, and to explain their difficulties. These are days in which to be successful in any pursuit, art being no exception, a man needs to specialise, to focus, and concentrate his attention in one particular line, and bring all the forces of his nature to bear in that one direction, allowing all his other work to fall into a subordinate position, and it is to this fact, no doubt, that Mr Greene owes his rapid rise to the foremost position among New Zealand artists. In doing this, as he himself told us, he follows his natural bent, and the hours spent in the farm yard and in the harvest field, in the forge, the byre, and the stable, are no doubt as full of fascination 'for him as their result is full of charm to the real lover of art. He is also a true outdoor worker, and if the animals were eliminated from his pictures they would remain very pleasing and truthful landscapes, in which the flat stretch

in the harvest field — in the middle distance the reaper and binder at work on the crest of a slight elevation, the leading horse most admirably fore-shortened, and apparently on the point of walking out of the picture. In the distance a glint of blue sea, and a low hillside covered with shocks of corn, and on the right some realistic heads of golden grain waving in a light breeze, and as yet untouched by the knife. Over all the soft haze of an autumn sky full of moisture and light. 2. " A New Set of Shoes." — An excellent presentment of a well-loved theme, in which the fine grey Clydesdale in the centre of the forge rivets our attention, so that we do not at first notice the well-poised figure of the smith, and the accuracy of the numerous details of the smithy, not forgetting the quaint chimney in the background. 3. " Spring." — This we consider to be really an excellent

of pasture land lies under a wide sky, both full of the tender half tints so dear to the real student and lover of nature, and so much more enduring in their charm, than the bolder dash of colour that is attractive to a neophyte. The success of Mr Greene's work thus lies in the thoroughness and finish of every detail, and the conscientious interpretation of seemingly unimportant details, as shown in the touch of blossoming gorse in the picture, called " Spring," and the clods of freshly turned earth under the feet of the plough horse, who moves through the cold, colourless stillness of a winter day with almost startling realism.