ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 78

ART AND ARTISTS.

— Mr William Arnold Sandby, of 8 Queen's terrace, Windsor, and' late of the Oommander-in-Chief's Office, London (nephew of Thomas \ and Paul 1 Sandby, Royal Academicians), who died on May 28 last, aged 75 years, bequeathed bj his will of April 18, 1894, £1000 to the president, treasurer, and! council of the Royal Academy of- Fine Arts, London, to" be invested to provide an annual "Sandby Gift," in memory of Thomas and Paul Sandby, foundation members )i the Royal Academy, to be awarded alternately co an architect or landscape painter, or to the families of such artists needing such assistance.

— Public Opinion is responsible for the following story about Holman Hunt's first poitrait: — One day when Holman Hunt, ia his office boy days, was alone in the office, a g€«ntlcman called and asked' for the principal on business. On the principal's return poor Hunt could not remember the calier's name, but he said: "I can' remember the gentleman's name, sir; but this is what he was like." And he promptly drew a picture of the visitor which was so striking a likeness that, the principal forgot bis annoyance in his astonishment.

— By the death of Mr Henry Le Jeune, the Royal Academy loses one of its oldest members, one who has been connected with it for 70 years. Born in 1819, Mr Le Jeune became a student in. the Academy schools in 1834, and took the gold medal in 1841. Ho was headmaster of the Government School of Design from 1845 tilJ 1848, in which yeai he was made, instead, curator of the Academy Painting School, a post which he held for 16 years. In 1863 he was elected an Associate, but he never attained to the rank of Academician, and finally retired in 1886, though he continued to exhibit until 1894. —Mr Edwin A. Abbey, R.A., whose Coronation picture is now on show, and whom, in spite of the fact that he is an American, we persist (says the London Evening News) in calling an English artist. is one of fche^mosfc popular members of the Royal Academy. There is a breeziness about Mr Abbey, and, his genial wit is never of the bitang variety. He is, in fact, just the good-tempered, kindly soul that he looks, and if he can give a helping hand to a younger member of his calling he is always willing to do so. Although he has a fine studio in London, Mr Abbey infinitely prefers to work at his quiet country place at Fairford, Gloucestershire. It is a huge room 70ft by 40ft, and here he has done most of his big work. When he is not painting-, Mr Abbey is often to be found cycling or playing cricket.

ROBERI CRANELL MINOR, A P.OETPAINTER.

If ever there was among the painters of AmCrioa one deserving of the appollation which Leigh Hunt bestowed upon Wordsworth, "a dedicated spirit," it was the late Robert Grannell Minor, painter, mystic, and! poet, and one of the most cha-roiing personalities to the few who knevr aiyl honovued him, at the giiaie time

one of the least known of great landscape' painters of this country, save among, his associates and tli3 whe men who now predict a riso in values with a great artist's departure. Robert Minor was one of the last connecting links of the generation of romantio landscapists who held the centra of the limelight for some 30 years between the fifties and the eighties — that coterie of Americans who received their inspiration from the Barbizon masters 1 , particularly Daubigny, Diaz, and 1 Corot, and wir counted among their illustrious number at least one painter who stands supreme throughout the world (and in whose early recognition and fame none Tejoiced more than did his compatriot), George Inness. Between these twe great painters there is little hesitancy of choice ; but it is by no means to the disparagement of the poetartist, Minor. George Inness was a man of perhaps a greater capacity, reaching out to conquer kingdoms in his art in domains where Robert Minor knew it was beyondl his power to achieve distinction. Yet, in this very prophetic ability to study and! realise his own limitations, and to attain a signal triumph over the methods which he chose for his own, Robert Minor achieved j by patience and by long struggle in almost L pathetio obscurity a victory which was np- [ thing short of heroic, and left behind him. some examples of the romantic school of landscape painters which are worthy to be framed in pure gold, to be hung "on tne line" with the foremost of his time. Few painters ever began tinder circumstances which tended more to intrench them within the barracks of a mere business career chan did Minor. He was born in New York in 1840, when the metropolis gave only little heed to the development of an artistic movement within its circles, and regarded a painter as a bohemian parasite on society, surviving in indolence on the crumbs from, the worker's board. The whole doctrine of "getting there" was hidebound in the science of business. At the risk of spoiling a poet and a thinker, he was thrust into commercial life, a career for which he was ill-fitted. However, at the close of the Civil War, when the conflict which tore the country all but asunder, was over, Robert the dreamer broke away from the life which was fast proving more and more unendurable, and struck out boldly for the other side of the Atlantic, where he ] might have daily contact with the great j masters of the Continent and also enjoy | that which should prove more helpful stilli the_inspiration afforded by the atmosphere of art and antiquity, the learning- of the universities and the incentive to work offered by . daily study of the great .paintings in the various private and. public collections. It was at Antwerp that the youthful painter received his first rewards for so much courage, and here he studied diligently under Van Lupps!i ( , then among the foremost of the Continental teachers and artists. Afterward, however, drawn toward the colopy of romanticists located at Barbizon, in France, he struck cut across the frontier and was soon counted among that circle of painters which has left such an immense impression upon the art of France and of the world of painters in general. * At this period the little art village which is immortalised by the presence of such men as Millet, Corot, Diaz, Daubigny, and others, was nothing more than a promising colony. Books had not been written, about it then, nor was it famous in song and fiction, the refuge of the ambitious students all the way from the Pyrenees to the Polar Sea, and from Oregon to the Volga. But Minor found' there what he had come across the Atlantic to discover — he found himself, and greaF was his rejoicing thereat. He found that he had indeed the temperament, the dream power, the enthusiasm, and, above all, the capacity for hard work which somebody has said is paramount to genius, and with the influence of Diaz and Daubigny, and perhaps somewhat of Oorot, the young painter returned to America, and began the struggle of developing something distinctly individual, and. above all, American in motif Tnd sentiment. Thereafter followed a conquest, not only of "idea over form," but of genius over public indifference, that would have put to rout the most trenchant enthusiasm of the militant dreamer and' worker. Minor entered upon a long and bitter apprenticeship — indeed, he seemed never to. feel satisfied with the most happy results, that would have vouchsafed illusions of success to oue less demanding of himself, less sensitive, less critical. In the. eld University Building in Washington square, one of the fondest reliquaries of departed' opvilence and the glories oE a past genciation, Robert Miuoi* worked for years most dtiligiently, sincerely, proudly, and with -a courage that was truly noble, even sublime. He was past 5C years before success, such as may be called success, at anyrate, -which means fame among jorunoiss&ui and picturebuyers, prices somewhere commensurate with their value, and a promise for a solid future comparatively free from constant toil i under adverse circumstances came to him. j Indeed, although he had taken several "honourable mentions," and like doubtful honours at the hand& of American and European institutions, it was not until tha Exposition of 1889 that the Parisian critics condescended to offer him a medal, and not of the. first class at that, for a masterpiece called '"Close of Day,"' afterwarJ sold amid applause at the Evaus sale for the sum of 3050d01. It was not until 1897 that Mr Minor was made an Academician, although previously he had done some splendid works, such as the charming "Eventide," in the Coveoran Art Gallery, at Washington; "The Veil of Kent," pronounced by eminent critics the chef d'oeuvre; the "Autumn Sunset," j owned by P. W. Rouss : "Midnight," in the collection of Mr Untermyer; the lovely "Twilight," in the Metropolitan collection", and the noble examples of his genius possessed by Charles Hearn, and also by Louis Katz, who was largely instrumental in furthering the fame of the painter ac home and abroad. — New Yoi'k Herald,