PHIL MAY

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6601, 19 May 1925, Page 1

PHIL MAY

HIS UNPUBLISHED DRAWINGS GREAT ARTISTIC SCOOP BY - “AUSSIE” A critic once asked the question “What is Art,” and an art critic replied, “Phil May.” Splendid in itself this answer is and true, too. In England, where they knew him best, and in Australia and New Zealand where we knew him well, his position as the master of his craft has not been disputed. , It as in the Old Time Century Club in Sydney that Phil May made a number of drawings that prior to this week had not been published before, and one of them, a caricature of Mr Fred Broomfield, one of the original members of the Club, is the last drawing made by Phil May in Australia. In addition to the great value of the drawings themselves they are surrounded by interests lent to them by most unusual circumstances. For instance, a George Rignold sketch of that capital actor in the guise of Mephistopheles, supplemented by a head of Federici in the sarhe part, and of Harry Diver as he might have appeared had he undertaken it, together make an unique trio. Mr Broomfield stood with Phil May and Edmund Fisher in the “Shades” beneath the trap of the Melbourne Royal the night Federici collsfpsed from heart failure during a performance of “Faust,” in which Nellie Stewart was the Marhgaritta. The wonderful scene in which the dress suits contrasted their sombreness with the crimsons and blues in satins and 'velvet grouped round the expiring singer, the crude lights of carriage lamps and torches made a picture Phil never forgot and one which he nourished the ambition of some day painting. Some of the unpublished drawings together with. an article on the Century Club by Mr Fred Broomfield, appear in the latest issue of “Aussie,” just to hand, and the remaining drawings are to be published in five succeeding numbers The story of the Century Club brings * one into intimate touch with the great Phil May, and the drawings help us to live again the happy hours, we spent with his pictures when the English-speaking world first accepted the definition: “Phil May is Art.” Another splendid article in the May “Aussie” of great interest to readers is the story by Bill Lawson of how Australia and New Zealand have missed the tourist ’bus.