ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 107

ART AND ARTISTS.

THE "PORINGLAND OAK." The acquisition by the National Gallery of John Drome's "Poringland Oak" is a most happy event. This splendid work feays a Home papery has long been acclaimed as one of the finest tree pictures in the world l . It was painted in 1818 or thereabouts. The date can be fixed, as Mr Laurence Binyon has pointed out, by the circumstance that the three figures of boys bathing in the pool under the oak are known to represent Crome'r sons, and to have been painted by Michael Sharp. The youngest of the three must be Michael Sharp Crome, who was named after his father's friend, and was bora in 1813. The painting thus contains the intimation of its approximate date. The oak tree is the grand object in the picture. Mr Binyon says:—"lt is portrayed with a keen sense of its majestic beauty, behind it, coming througn its branches and enkindling clear reflections from leaf and bark, and mirrored in the solemn pool beneath, how beautiful a light! How richlv the liffht clouds about catch on their soft edges" the glory tha> makes luminous the serene evening sky! To have .seized the light so intimately, and at the same time to have painted the tree so firmly, with such precise apprehension of its growth, yet with so broad a style and with no confusion of the delicate intercepted lights, is a triumph of the rarest kind. Lesser men would have been content to granple with one problem only, and would perhaps have had less success in that than Crone in both." The, "Poringland Oat was purchased from Crome by CfPtaui Steward, and was by him exhibited in l&fl. It has been shown at various Old Masters exhibition* by its last private owner, «» Rev C J? Steward. As late as 1908 there were negotiations for the; purchase of tjhe . "Oak," which has now been sold to the National Gallery on Messrs Christie a valuation for £2700. Crome himself nevei received more than £SO for one of his paintings, and it is a fact that the superb " Household Heath," now one of the "lories of the National Gallery, was bought in 1831 for a guinea. It was then in two pieces and in a neglected condition. In 1F62 it reached the national collection at the price of 400 gs. Coach and Sign-painting.—

Crome was essential.lv a Norfolk man, and his fame travelled beyond the county rather slowly. He usually painted -Norfolfc subjects, his nictures were bough 1 ajK> owned in Norfolk, and it is hie glory to have founded the Norwich school of painting—the first provincial school known m England. Crome raised himself by his native intelligence and his complete love for his art. He was born of poor ,parenta in a low publichouse in Norwich in 1768. His first brushwork* was applied to coarfses and inn signs. Two or three of his works in the latter kind are said to be still in existence. His connection with London was slight, and was largely due to his friend Sir William Beeehey, who wrote: " Crome, when I knew him, must have been about 20 years old, and was a very awkward, uninformed county lad, but extremely shrewd in all his remarks upon art, though be wanted words and terms to express their meaning." The Drawing-master.— Like nearlv all the painters of his clay Crome <rave lessons. Accounts of his teaching ability differ. Dawson Turner says he inspired his pupils with his own enthusiasm. It is told that once a brother painter met him out in the fields surrounded by a number of young people, andi remarked: "Why, 1 thought I had left you in the city engaged in your school?" "I am in my school," replied Crome, "and teaching my scholars from the only true examples. Do you think "—pointing to the view—"that either you or 1 can do better than that?" He was known as the Norwich drawing-master, and among the families in which he taught was that of the Earlham Gurnoys. In 1802 he accompanied John Gurney. with his six unmarried daughters and his son Manuel, on a trip to the Lakes.. Rajah Brooke, of Sarawak, was one of his pupils, and of these teaching days a glimpse is given us by Dr Jessopp, who says: "In later life Brooke seems tc have been a fair draughtsman. 'Old Crome' w;s the drawingmaster during his time at Norwich, and i- ■ great favourite with the boys. As a teacher he was, according to the tradition of ithe school, simply useless, and his ipupils took a delight in decoying the old gentleman into 'finishing' their drawings for them, which usually meant beginning a sketch and ending it at a sitting, for Crome, when once he took a pencil or brush into his hand, never could' be induced to drop it, and he would work away with extraordinary rapidity, quite forgetting how time fas passing. The Rev. Jonathan MatchtfiJt, now resident in Norwich, still possesses one of these "school exercises.' It is a small landscape in oils, which Crome actually painted durinig hia lesson at the school, with the boys looking on at him, admiring his artistic skill." Crome was a celebi-ity in Norwick, and very popular on personal grounds. He is described «,s a jovial, easy-going man, fond of his joke and glass of grog. He died on April 22, 1821 • On the day of his death he said t* h'« a-rtist ; son: "John, my boy, paint for fame, and if your subject is only a pigsty, dignify itl"