ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 60

ART AND ARTISTS.

— Probably no aroat aitist ever learned his art under grcatc-r dirrbulticis than Mr J (!f.orge Tir.v;orth, the wcll-knov.n sciuptor The clay for his liist mode' 5 was begged i from workmen engrged in digging up old

I sewers; and liis father, a Waivorth wbeell wiighi, was so opposed tc his eon'fi ouki- ' \ation of ait that as soon as a m-od'el w&finished he would seize and destroj it. He

was in f.uccrsion a wheelwright, a fire work- ' make, and a hot-prefer before he found ' his v;aj to the Royal Academy schools and ' thenco to later fame. • — iMr W. P. Frith, the \ctcran Royal ', Academician, has meny interesting memories

of Dickens, notably of painting his portrait

under dkcouiaging conditions. Mr Firth 1 was nahirally anxious to picture "Boz" in j his working attire, but was dismayed to find I that he invariably wore in his study a c ca * , of light blue silk with enormous and aggresj sive red cuff. "TIm 1 difficulty I had in in1 c'ucmg him to put awa/ his ilnery .and a 1 ume a more modest garb," Mr Firth .- \ys, "no one will evci know; but by cheer importunity I succeeded at last, and he proved a most delightful sitter."

i JIR JOHN HASSALL, R.I.

I !Jinn o do3a is the name of a tiny prairie 1 town, about ""30 mile^ westward of Wmni- ! peg ; but the excelsior epirit of the we.st ] must have inspired its inhabitants from the. \ day that tho first shanty was erected, ac ' more thin a decade, ago the town had an j annual agricultural exhibition, and connected therewith was an "Ait Department.'* , More wonderful =till, to encourage the amateur artists of that lone countryside, three.

prizes were awarded foi the best pictures cent in. Now there cams to this far prairie

town som-e 15 years ago a young man who was starting 'lfe au a farmer, with a hankering after tho graphic arts, so that to him the curious association of art and agriculture was at once a natural and a fortunate circumstance.

Ho wc-nt three paintings to the exhibition, driving the nine milos from hie farm into ZUinnedcsa with the precious works packed hi tlio bottom of his oart. The judges awarded mm all the three prizes, the highest on; being only some 16clol. A year passed, and the art circles of Minn&dosa were again, fluttered by the came young man cairying off the three prizes. But when a third exhibition was preparing, the too uccessful exhibitor wac waited upon by a tmaH deputation and asked if he would object to tho Methodist parson's daughter receiving th© first prize, as there was "a foeling in the town that public bonmirs s-hould not all go to ono Englishman." He c'kJ not object ; he had too keen a FQuise of humoui not to fall in with the =ugge."tio 1, and that year the first prize of the Minnedcsa exhibition for a stiikmgly original painting of a "large blue jay on & vermilion sky." O-cldly enough, the young farmer who in his way commenced his career as an artist at a littlo town whose- name few people in England have ever hea |- d, was destined to become in ? very short time one of our foremost humorists of tho pencil.

It was while in Canada, where, with his bvothei, ac fpent three years *.t farming, thot Mr John Hassall cent his first sketch tc an Engli. h paper. This early effort of his appeared in the Daily Graphic of February 26, 1890, anc 1 he tells .ne that although it was not intended to be humorous, it did come out rather quaintly. Four years passed before hi^ socond rawing appeared, and this, in the Sketch of March 7, *189+, struck that veil 1 of broad and unctuous humour v-hich ho ha^ wotted so happily ever since, and which jrives not the siigllteet hint of pcteriag out. "Between the c first two puohthed sketches w«re sundwich-ed c ome three years of close study "r the art schools of Antwerp and Fa) is, and his first success at Burlington House dates fronr the jame ceasor a-, that in which he commenced hia oonricctioii wit'i illustrated loarnalism.

Mi Kassall thus, in common with jo many of oui black-and-white men, <=c cut to be a <olourist, and dpspite his great succscs in simple line, I .sliall venture to suggest that we always cc him or ms very best vihen he v- employing the pigments. H9 has a fin<>, true, im-tinct for effective masses of flat coloui, and =orne of his posters have been veritable triumphs. llm mdnidual touch 15 unmistakable ; xhe quaint thickness of line, the jtron-g shadow effects, are xll unbko the methods of any of hie xmtem.poranes.

But more, important *rom our present point of -view tJTa.n any question of mere technique, is Mr Hasfe-ill's sterling sense of humour. His sketches are* invariably humorous of themselves, and do not require the legend bencith to provide the. fun. The. ragged -vagabonds af London streets, the delightful and ; ntermiuabl& ijrocession of city boya, the muffin men, duu-tm&n, street artists, ice-cream vendors — these and th&ir like among the lowly on«s of society are. the favourite exeieise of his pencil. It is Air Ho stall's chief merit that his mo-3t oalpably humorous effect? are obtained *entirclj- without attempt at burlesque. He does not caricature, but deftly accentuates the ftatui-es \rh:en render a face oi a figure of humoi ous aj pp-arance.

Betv.-ce,i 11, 0 designing of posters, ch.ildions picture, books, and book covers, supplying lllusriahone for nost of our huuiproiM writers, and his work on the Sketch, Mr Hassall must be one of the. busiest men in London. Born 35 years ago, he received his early education at Newton Abbot College, Devon, and at Heidelberg, after which cam© the Canadian interlude as a' ready told. The rest we know. One finds it difficult to believe it is loss than 10 j-eara since ho commoiicctl his oarecr as a humorist of the pencil, and that only four years ago his first illustrations for a book appeared., when we think of -.ho

numerous works r.o'.v ncherriiL-d a~ "Illustrated by John H-vall." — J. A. H'.Jivsatox, ,n Men and Women.