ELIOTH GRUNER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17408, 5 November 1930, Page 11

ELIOTH GRUNER

BORN IN GISBORNE NOTED LANDSCAPE PAINTER VISITING IIIS BIRTHPLACE I -V Mr. Eliotli Gruner, an Australian artist of note, is at present visiting Gisborne as part of a tour of this country searching for paiutable scenes. Gruner is a name to conjure with in art circles, though the painter is still a young man, and Gisborne will he proud to learn that the artist was born in this town, though his family migrated to Australia when he was ; very young. The artist’s youthful experiences were those common to all who finally'achieve success; lean years of study and struggle, minor successes, which dissatisfied the worker, and finally triumphant recognition by the world.

Grnner drew before be could talk, and in his school days played truant to attend Julian Ashton’s art classes, until he was found out and an interview with his mother, during which Ashton impressed her with her son’s possibilities', made it. possible for hi nr to continue both his school and his painting. At the age of 13 family misfortune put an end to his studies, and he was compelled to enter commerce, anti it was not until he was 29 that the' great decision to live for art, even, as he humorously put it, if he should starve. The artist s mother approved of the step taken by her son, and was consent to starve with him, and there came a time'when starvation was very near for both of them while the young painter put all his energy and skill ’ into a projected exhibition of liis work. Gruner was sitting in a tram car on his way to the gallery wfiere his work was being shown when lie noticed by accident a newspaper, the headlines of which featured his name and -place in the exhibition. With this justification lie was. able to go on. Even his smaller pictures realised high prices, and the National Art Gallery paid 3CO guineas for a Gruner, while the trustees of the Bank of New South Wales gave a very large sum indeed for his famous harbor study to present to Sir John Russell French.

LORD NORTHCLIFFE’S HELP During his tour of Australia, Lord Northdine visited the National Art Gallery and saw the “Valley of the Tweed,” a typical Gruner, with all the lovely distance and light and air effects which he translates so authentically and yet with such imaginative charm to canvas, and the visitor was so impressed with the picture that he exclaimed.: “The showing of a scene like that in London would do more for Australia than any other form of publicity.” From this remark grew the plan to givb an exhibition of the work of Australian painters in London, and Gruner '‘was selected to arrange it, Northcliffe promising to he god-father to. the effort. But when Gruner arrived in London the peer was dead, and but for the help given by the Dominions editor of the Times the project might have never eventuated. The Times gave .column after column of publicity on Australia generally, and tfvory day had something warranted to Adulate public interest in anything Tomwcted with the country, so when the exhibition was finally staged at Burlington House, and opened by the Duke of -Connaught, the 'stage was set and tho audience ready-made. _ Art critics gave it as their considered opinion that the examples of Australian art ranked as high as any Royal . Academy exhibition, and great surprise was expressed at the technique shown. The lack of good galleries in Australia, where the works of the masters could be studied,' had not handicapped the young country at all, and they had developed an individuality as refreshing! as it- Was brilliantly expressed. MELBA’S KINDNESS

Gruner cannot speak too gratefully of Dame Nellie Melba, whose unbounded energy aud great influence in the world of art and letters paved the way for the exhibition. Her salon was always ooen to Uie Australian artist, aud site' x' filled it for weeks with people who could be of service in his mission. Her home is exquisitely beautiful, and she would drug Gruber from one object d’art to another, bringing lovely Hungs to his notice and never giving him time to lbok at them, running him from her blue boudoir to her blue bathroom and exclaiming, “,Ydu must paint this. % Think! 5 'A ‘Study in Blue,’ Melbas bathroom by Gyuiier, on tlie line in the Academy.”' Gruber has been hung both at the Academy and at the Beaux des Arts, .Paris, and many galleries in Europe were anxious to obtain hiß work during the progress of the exhibition, but everything he showed was lent by collectors who would not sell. ‘The artist paid a'fine tribute to the work of George Lambert and the services lie has rendered to Australian art. He was both a great personality aud a great artist; and his disciples profited exceedingly by his advice and example. There i s a cultufed public in Australia ready for the ' work of the growing colony of painters of pierit. many factors show the keenest judgment appreciation, though Gruner found n he returned from his journey that the public were afraid ftf his new style and would not encourage him to solve fresh prqblems. They wished to buy the Graners with which they were familiar, but he has overcome this peculiar aversion, and now collectors are asking for the ‘‘new Gruner.” POETIC IMPRESSIONISM Mr. Gruner had little to say about his own work, and nothing at all about the notable position he occupies in contemporary art—the details here given are gleaned from press notices—■but all lovers of the beautiful and understandable in painting will remember how he takes some simple theme, a field with a few straggling trees, an undulating! hill or two, a stretch of lonely country, and, denuding it of unessentials, translates it into poetic impressionism. The artist is noted for the clarity of bis work and his clean paint, and nobodv has been more successful in transferring the peculiar sun-flecked blue of Australian skies to canvas, and not even Streeton nor Hans H.eysen have suggested the romance of distance with greater imagination. Another medium in which the artist has worked with definite success is dry point etching, ami his study of poplars, a beautifully balanced and exquisitely poetic composition is known to art lovers tfie world over and was recently reproduced in the number of Art in Australia devoted to a ’critical study of Grafter's work. All the landscapes of Mr. Gruner sing and have lyrical life, for he is an interpretive artist with the power of bringing out the subjective qualities of thp scene so that his work produces the impression that one is tilig at his depictions of Australia ugh eyes newly opened to beauty. Hind, in Jiis study of landscape painting from Giotti to modern limes, includes a Gruner among notable landscapes by the masters, and ‘‘The Connoisseur” and the English papers way unanimous is stating that bis

picture “The Valley of the Tweed” was the most vital and beautiful landscape of the year. Accompanying Mr. Gruner on his visit to New Zealand is Mr. Brian Cannell, an English art student wlioSo medium is oils. Both artists look forward to an enjoyable time in this country, the chiaroscuro, the contour of the hills, and the individuality of the landscape proving most inspiring.