ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2579, 19 August 1903, Page 75

ART AND ARTISTS.

— Some of ilr Solomon J. Solomon's most attractive piotures have been painted by ga^-light. He has accustomed himself to artificial light, and the Academician 0011sidert, that every aitut fhould do so, especially in London, where it to often happens that the sun ctaies to shine for days at a stretch. The portrait of Mr Zangwill, one of his most (successful pictures, was painted in less than six hours by Mr Solomon, who is one of the most lapid painter 3 of portraits living. — Probably no corporate body has been so riddled with critic ; sm as the Royal Academy: And yet no corporate body i 9 co popular with the public. Other picture exhibitions liave their dwindling share of viators — the Academy is always crowded. It is one of the Sow an'iual tights of London that the BritUh public insists cm ceeitig. Every morning for three months in tho year the suburban trail's shoot Royal Academy sightseers into London. Tho women always wear their brightest drccses; you cannot mistake them, and ,you can verify your opinion by th^ gleam of the blue. catalogue they carry cv tiiiir return journey. Art, in the form of the bummer exhibition at Burlington House, L? us popular as n football match. Its popularity increases every year, and shows 110 «ign of waning. Tho exhibition, like musical comedies, newspaper competitions, and. so forth, suits the public; it is always in fashion, and the Royal Academy is the very worst place in London to look at pictures.-r-Aoademy. — The late Mr S. E. Waller was a writer of short stories and magazine articles as well a1?a 1 ? an artist, but of courpe he is best known by his pictures, which in several oase3 attained a remaikable popularity. Tho secret of his eucce<?3 lay in the fact that hw pictures, which roached no very high degree of technical excellence, appealed directly to the emotions .of tho public, and such works as "The Empty Saddle," "The Day of Reckoning," and " 'Twixt Love and Dutj " liad a huge salo when engraved and published. . Once when ho was paiuting "The Morning of Agincourt," Mr Waller put his model, clad in full armour, and seated on horseback, in the opon air. A small boy, who contemplated a raid on the fruit trees, put his head over the palings and suddenly fled in terror, ehrirking that he Isad seen "an awful sumniat in 's garden." Mr Waller afterwards gave him Home useful and reassuring hints on Tudor armour.

— Mrs E. M. Ward has been "commanded" to make two copies of the official portrait Mr Luke Fiidcs is painting of King Edward. Few women artists have suoh a busy career as Mrs Ward. She exhibited her first pictuie luoro than half a century ago. For many years past she has done but little original work-, her art school making very heavy demands upon her time. Her school was for many years the fashionable art tchool of London. She has had more than ono royal student. Mrs Ward comes of artistic atcck, and a love of art i 3 in her blood. Her husband was also an artist, and she owes something of her skill to his training. Mrs Ward has manyinteresting stories to tell of tho difficulties girl students had to encounter. Sho was the first woman to put in an appearance at the R.A. lectures. There was no rule against women attending, but prejudice existed against their doing so, and this principle was within an ace of becoming a rule. Mrs Ward, however, supported by the presence of her husband, appeared at one of Mr G. D. Leslie's leotures. There were three women at the next, uud from that time student* of both #exe3 have attended the lectures. Her daughters are both artists, and he«r son is Mr Leslie Ward, better known as "Spy" in Vanity Fair.