ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2975, 22 March 1911, Page 85

ART AND ARTISTS.

DEATH OF A SCOTTISH ARTIST. The death of Mr John MacWhirter recently after a brief illness removes from our midst one of the most widely known and popular of British painters. Like Orcihardson and M'Tagart, who died within a fortnight one of the other in April last, he- belongs to the group of brilliant students under Scott Lauder, several of whom tooic London by storm four decades ago and brought art into hundreds of homes where till then it was unknown. John MacWhirter was born on March 27, 1839, at Slate-fond,, near Edinburgh, where now lives Mr' Lawton Wingate. Hisfather, Mr George MacWhirter, paper manufacturer, of Oolinton, was himself a draughtsman, a botanist, a geologist, and an enthusiastic lover of Nature. The father died when John was 13, whereupon he was removed from his school at Peebles. When he was taken to Oliver and Boyd's, the " well-known booksellers, in Princes street, one of the partners said, "Helooks an intelligent boy, though under the usual age. "We'll try him." So he was bound apprentice for five years. After six months he ran away. Inclination towards art was the determining factor. H* entered the schools of the Board of Manufacturers, and before he was 15 had a picture hung at the Royal Scottish Academy. After profiting by tuition under Scott Lauder, Mr MacWhirter began to make his mark at the Royal Scottish Academy, to which he contributed regularly. The themes of his pictures are in themselves sufficiently indicative of his wayfaring spirit. Germany, Norway, Italy, Switzerland were visited, the latter preferablv when lovely flo-wers star the- great valleys and hill slopes. In the early seventies Mr MacWhirter moved to London, after having contributed to the sumimer exhibitions at the Academy since 1865. In 1878 he showed "The Three Graces of the Trossachs," a picture «f three exquisite trees which stand ■ about half a mile from the head of Lech Katrine l , and are now pointed out to every tourist as "The MacWhirters." That was an, early, and perhaps the finest, of his birch subjects, whicn, he has often been heard to say, the dealers came to demand of him as though each spring they sprang up fromi an eternally refreshed source within himself. "The Three Graces" immediately won him assooiateship of the Academy, and a couple of years later the canvas appered at the R.S.A., there to receive another crown of honour. In 1892 the Chan-troy trustees paid ££Oo for the flower-fragrant "June in the Austrian Tyrol." The folowing year Mr MacWhirter was raised to full academical honours, painting for his diploma "Nature's Archway.'' Few artists possessed greater facility or more industry than Mr MacWhirter. Yet "my work is never easy to mo," he once observed, "and in an uncertain climate like that of Scotland it is often most aggravating. .Many people imagine that all that an artist has to d<- it, ix> sit in a chair and wield a brush. The truth is that a painter requires four eyes, vigour, determinatioir), health, and a special gift born ia. Lim. If he lacks these qualities the profossk**j means to him starvation or grind, grind, grind

throughout his career." A good memor/ especially, Mr MiacWhirter insisted on, fc necessary to a landscape painter who hoi>eß to secure the fleeting effects of Nature. MaoWhirter used eometimes to talk of colour in Scotland, and' ho has -written delightfully on the same subject. "If Italy is the land of light," he once Said, "Sootland is certainly the land of colour. The grey olive, the vine, and the stone pine l and white walls of Italy require sunshine to show them to advantage; but Scotland has colour -where there is no sun, and gloonv and cloud 1 often aid the bsauty and: grandeur of the Highland landscape. Millaia compared Scottish colour to a wet pebble—he meant that the green mosses, tpe dark pine, the golden birch, tho blue hills, and the richness* of the heather and bracken made such a glorious combination of rich juicy colour tha,t all other countries seemed dry by comparison." The main excellence of MaoWhirter, it has often been pointed out, lay in the painting of his trees: 'Asked once what object in Natuire gave him most pleasure to paint, "Oh!" he replied, without a moment's hesitation, "trees of course. Think of what a tree means to the painter, both in colour and form. How delightful to sketch with the pencil! how difficult to indicate tho genus of the tree —firs, beeches, birches, oaks, and then think of tho colouring of a tree: the smooth grey of tho beech stem, the silky texture of the birch, and tho rugged pine and oak. I assure you that there is nothing so fascinating- as the painting of trees." His "Weird Sisters," "Three Kings of Sherwood Forest," "Fallen Giant," "Golden Leaves," "A Winter Fairy," and other of his works will at once occur to the reader. Mr MaoWhirter occupied a charming house in St. John's Wood, where he had a studlio which is said to be the finest in. London, not excepting: that of the late Lord Leighton. It is entered from the hall by means of a quaint gallery and double staircase in black, polished ebony, which la constructed in the olden style within the walls of • the studio, and supported on columns carved in a classical design. Another handsome room is the library, a feature of which is a fine colkoticn of portraits of some of the most celebrated British artists of tho Victorian Era, both living? and dead, which it contains; nearly all ©I these having been gifts to Mr MacWhirteP from his personal friends.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE GLASGOW SCHOOL. "By the election on Thurhday of Mr John Lavery and Mr D. Y. Cameron to its assooiateship the Royal Academy may be said to have "brought to its natural conclusion one of the most interesting and conspicuous incidents in contemporary art," writes the Manchester Guardian. "The notable revolutionary movement of the eighties, known aa the Glasgow School, which waged war on Burlington House and all that it represented has now been invited to march in and take its shaae of the privileges, honours', aocruments, and consideration due to members of the official corporation of English art. Mr George Henry, another of its leaders, has been inside since 1907; Ms Brangwyn and Sir Alfred East, who were associated with tham, drawing much of their inspiration from the late Arthur Melville, are also there. "Mr Hornell,' whose paintings used to make town councils roar with merriment, is mow hung in a place of honour in Burlington House. Mr James Paterson, al gifted writer as well as painter, who firs? explained l the school to itself, is a frequent contributor. Thare seems to be nothing more to fight for. The brave words on both sides, the taunts, defiances, and denunciations are forgotten. "The Glasgow men suffered a season of abuse and neglect from official bodies. It now remains for them to show that their stiff lesson was not for nothing. _ New movements will arise—have indeed arisec—itha.t are as alien to their art as their at* was to that of their/elders before them. Will they meet the new things without prejudice, in the belief that although thery themselves were the men wisdom will aoo entirely die with them." TURNER: WHERE ARE HIS DISCIPLES AND FOLLOWERS? When we were told lately by a French art critic that the genius of Turner is still grossly overrated by Britishers generally, we 'found it difficult to dissemble our derision. Where, forsooth, is landscape painting better understood or more efficiently practised than in England l , and if it be a fact that Turner is still the god of British' idolatry, where are his disciples and followers? For it is certainly true that imaginative landscape—-the Turner variety, which is Natiu'i plus temperament (often a greai deal of temperament and very little Nature, as in the case of the Post-Impressionists)—■ has no practitioners in England, and if iha discriminating l critic has to look for the source of modern landscape, he does not put his finger upon Turner, but upon Con» stable.

If Turner is still admired in England by the artiste, the admiration is purely pLatonio, .as may be learned from any exhibition of current landscape.—G. R. Halket, in the Pall Mall Gazette.

Because ho gave his employees the weekly half-holiday on Wednesday, like the ather tradespeople, instead of on Saturday, as provided in the award, a Te Aroha bailor has been fined ss, and because be !;ept a weekly record of overtime instead yf a daily one he had to pay 20s and costs.

The largest barometer in the world was recently set up in the Italian town of Faenza, the birthpace of Torrioelli, who discovered the barometer and the " vacuum" which perpetuates his name. The liquid US$4 • purified oil rendered free from air 4 and this gives a column over 11 meti**} in height.