ANOTHER "OLD MASTER."

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12585, 16 October 1911, Page 2

ANOTHER "OLD MASTER."

(Special to the Herald.) CJHRISTCHURCH, this day. A correspondent writes to the Press : There has lately been rescued from oblivion m Christchurch another old master, the rescuer being a professional artist. One day passing a place of business he saw hanging up an oil painting for sale. He negotiated the purchase, and took the picture home. When time offered the picture was taken asunder, and enclosed were found, portraits of the Limmer's family, each bearing the baptismal cognomen. The obverse was then subjected to careful •cleaning, and displayed a masterpiece of Alexander 'Fraser. This artist was born at Edinburgh m the year 1786, and died at Hornsey, England, m 1865. He was a "genre' painter, and was Sir David Wilkie's colloborateur for twentyfive years, and Wilkie's pictures are fraught with his cultivated taste and labor. The work referred to illustrates the following lines: — •* ' Lol her bright image, pendent on my neck, Is all Palemon; rescued from the wreck; Take, and suy when . painting m ' the wave, I struggled life and this alone , to save. The lines are from the epic of the "Shipwreck," written by Wm. Falconer and printed m May, 1762, by Millar, and were dedicated to H.R.H. the Duke of York. "The picture is now the property of a Christchurch lady.