A CLEVER LADY ARTIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 82

A CLEVER LADY ARTIST.

In a paper on "The Art of Mrs Stanhope Forbes," which is accompari'sd by 15 fine reproductions from the artist's picture? in the November Windsor, the writer say*: —

"Tt is easy to pilo praise upon praise, to admit refinement of thought, and power and delicacy of handling, to say that her work =uggesfs beauty rather than insists upon truth, and to remind ourselves that '-he know* what <o omit, but it is a difficult thing to translate the charm of her picture* into tfords. to affix to them tho exact de»ciiptive adjt-ctive by which to unlock their secrets, for thcee lie, seerainglj, in

a combination of contradictory qualities. AYe see delicacy of thought with strength of colour in ' The Leaf.' N to which 6ho appends Rossetti's translation of Leopardi'» verse :

Where the .wind carries me t go without fear or grief, I go whrtber each one goes; • Thither the leaf of the xese, And thither the l-aurei leaf; in 'The Gipsy,' a country girl listening, apparently, to the sound of the , wings of Time as he flies, imagination clothes imagination. Often Mrs Stanhope Forbes'* hesitation is as attractive as is her assurance, and perhaps the actual excellence of her art lies in the successful endeavour she hasmade to be independent of mere intelligence, and in having got Tid of the responsibility of realism."

"In her art Mrs Stanhope Forbes shows no design upon our tears, still less upon our smiles. She is essentially ar> idealist, and however justly observed and rendered? her effects of realism are, thtjy are always subordinate to and illustrative of this quality. " Interminable are the discussions as to what idealism is, but probably it is the faculty of one of the powers within us by use of which we first mentally disintegrate our surroundings, and then from such disintegration make selection of that which we consider to be beautiful. None escape wholly from the dictation of their own personal ideals. We see this in the adherence of nearly all painters to a certain, type, for the artist drops his predilection, like «. veil over his work. Invariably above prose, the pictures of Mrs Stanhope Forbes, on occasion, when happy fancy takes shape in happy colour, and when; through romance she "weaves, as she often does, a thread of very real human sympathy, touch poetry. " Her sentiment is tranquil, her taste refined, her colour rich, fluent, decorative, and for all its vivid orange and flamboyant reds, never violent nor exaggerated. Her feeling of composition shows that quality of completeness which marks only the- work of the best artists, and her pictorial understanding places her to-daj in a position, of pre-eminence among women painters." " Working impartially in the mediums of oil and water, attaining in both to a veryadmirable proficiency, Mrs Stanhope Forbea shows in her art an appeal which, never fails to influenco to admiration.

" Fromentin said: 'The whole art of the colourist lies in his knowledge in- employing the exact relatfon of values in tones.* And perhaps in this truth of tone, which Mrs Stanhope Forbes possesses in a marked degree, she owes something to he talent of her husband, and, aince he is one of the most influential of the group of English painters who have studied with advantage the question of values, this is scarcely to be wondered at. But there is in her work no trace to suggest what Manet used tcvcall la peinture a quatre mains, for to her, long ago, must have come the knowledge that the faculty which belongs to the copyist was one which a certain prejudice in her nature made impossible."

— " Is your husband up yet? " inquired the early morning caller. " I suppose he is," replied the stern-looking woman at the door. " Well, I'd like to say a few words* to him." — " So would I. He hasn't com© home vet."

— Eva: "She never had a beau in all her life." Katherine s " And yet ah© has the nerve to declare that her "face ie her fortune." Eva: "Gracious! It must be one of those ' unclaimed fortunes ' we hear so much about." »

— Wife: "There's no doubt about it— marriage does improve «. man's politeness." Husband): "How bo?" Wife:' "Well, you frequently get up * and offer mo your chair now; before we were married you always wanted to keep half."

— Old Lady (Ln teens, to chemist) : "Wiwill you poison my dear Mt-LittL© -Fido? He's in such agony?" Chemist (politely) : "With pleasure, madam." Old Lady (indignantly) : "With pleasure, you nasty, unfeeling man ! Then you shan't do it !"