ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3004, 11 October 1911, Page 81

ART AND ARTISTS.

AN OLD MASTER. • In Christchurch another old master has been rescued from oblivion. We need not mention the gentleman's nam© who dlisioovered . it; suffice it to say h© is a professional artist. On© day passing a of business, he saw hanging up an oil painting, the price required being legibly written across the face of th© work in chalk figures. The artist negotiated the purchase, and took th© pictur© home. When opportunity oflbred th© plo ture frame was taken asunder, there to find enclosed portraits of the limnless family, each bearing th© baptismal cognomen. The obverse was then subjected to careful cleaning, and displayed a masterpiece by Alexand©r Fraser. This artist was born at Edinburgh in the year 17?5, andl died at Hornsey, England, in 1865. He was a genre painter, and was Sir David Wilkie's l coJlaboa-ateur for 25 years. Wilkie's pictures are fraught with his highly cultivated taste and labour. Th© work referred to illustrates the following linos: Lo! her bright image pendipnt on my meek Is all Palemon rescued from tho wreck; Take it! and guy, when panting in the wave, I struggled life and this alono to save. Tho lines ar© from the ©pic of th© "Shipwreck," written .by William Falconer, and printed in Mav, 1762, by Millar, and dedioated to H.R.H. Duke of York. The central figures are Arion and Palemon, and th© them© of the poem is: Palemon falls in love with a young lady, a neighbour of the parents. The acquaintance thuts set up is resented by th© man's people, who ar© determined upon sanding him to sea. Accordingly h© leaves, and on th© wav to the Mediterranean he forms a friendship with Arion, who in turn accepts the entire confidence of Palemon. The vessel is overtaken by a storm, and finally strikes near Cap© Sunium, of the Grecian Isles, andl the few (five in all) who cling to one of th© lower masts of th© vessel are washed ashore. Th© work, then, shows the two just landed, and th© dying Palomom pronounces the quartameter to his friend. Th© picture restored Is exquisitely rendered!. It is now the property of Miss Wildey, of Christchurch, who is forming a fin© art gallery in her new home.