VALUED PAINTINGS LOST

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1929, Page 11

VALUED PAINTINGS LOST

TWELVE SAVED FROM WRECK EXTENSIVE PILLAGING REPORTED MR. M. FULLER’S ALLEGATIONS. DAMAGE DONE ART TREASURES. Pillaging of art treasures, passengers’ effects and cargo scattered along the 20 miles of beach in the vicinity of the Manuka wreck, off the Nuggets, is reported by Mr. Murray Fuller, who returned to Wellington on Sunday. One of the oil paintings by the late Mr. H. H. La Thangne, R.A., was found tacked up on tho wall of a whare. Mr. Fuller, who lost many valuable paintings in the wreck, has recovered 12 found by settlers. The two principal pictures found, valued at 400 guineas each, were “Sussex Meadows” and “A Provencal Forecourt,” by Mr. Ln Thangue. Mr. Fuller is disappointed at not finding any of the most valuable works (except La Thangue’s), especially Sir William Orpen’s "Soldiers Resting on the Somme, 1918.” This was one of his most important war pictures, painted on the spot in France.” Sir George Clausen’s two important works have not been seen, nor have Mr. Arnesby Brown’s. There were four of Mr. Brown’s landscapes on board the vessel. Mr. Brown, R.A., is the most outstanding English landscape painter of the day, and these works are a great loss.

Mr. Fuller told a Press representative that he was. surprised on arriving at the scene of the wreck to discover that neither the Customs Department nor the police was organised; nor had any ■attempt been made to protect from pillagers the valuable cargo that was coming ashore by every tide. There was one Customs official only at the scene of the wreck. The local, police constable lived at Owaka, 13 miles distant along a road almost inaccessible and dangerous during the wet weather experienced since the disaster.

“THIEVING FROM EACH OTHER.”

“Some of the beachcombers are so keen,” Mr. Fuller said, “that they are thieving from each other, one man making a little collection on the beach or in the bush, to recover later, only to discover that his little ‘cache’ had been pilfered by someone else. I do not, of course, wish to suggest that all the settlers in the district are dishonest.” A regrettable incident was reported to have occurred at Papatowai. A Mr. Lawson salvaged several suitcases and other passengers’ baggage. These he put carefully aside to collect later and deliver to the police. When he returned he discovered they had all been ripped open and the goods removed. Mr, Fuller was informed on arriving at Owaka that his only chance to recover the pictures salvaged was to visit the homes of the settlers and others in the district, explain the importance of the loss and enlist the sympathy of those people who had found paintings after the wreck. This was a long and arduous task, especially as there were no roads to some of the shacks on the bush sections. He found Mr. La Thangue’s “A Provencal Forecourt,” tacked to the wall in a two-roomed whare, where a settler, his wife and family were barely existing. Most of the other pictures were found in similar whares, where the occupants declared they were waiting for the owner to claim his property.

Had there been proper supervision from the day of the wreck there would, Mr. Fuller says, have been no chance of loss and damage. Some of the pictures were reported to have been found —one large painting being hidden in the bush. These had not been traced before Mr. Fuller left.

Of the pictures recovered the two most important are La Thangue’s. In reference to the cable messafie that he died from depression on hearing of the loss of these works, Mr. Fuller says this might be a mistake, as Mr. La Thangue was an elderly man —one of the oldest members of the Royal Academy. He had been ailing for years. He was a wealthy man and both of his pictures were fully insured. For one he refused a 300-guinca offer from a provincial gallery iii England. Other pictures found included two by Mr. Sydney Thompson, one by Sir -Herbert Hughes-Stanton, R.A.; one by Mr. Algernon Talmadge, R.A.; a picture of two nudes, by Mr. Harold Speed, and a landscape by Mr. S. iJ. Lainorna Birch, A.R.A. ARTICLES WASHING ASHORE. Varied articles were still coining ashore. Mr. Fuller noticed flour, blankets, sheets and other linen, and women’s clothing. Numbers of stockings, deck ehairs and personal effects were being collected. One stranger to the district was reported driving through Owaka a ear containing a picture. Mr. Fuller heard from Lloyd’s agents that Sir William Orpen’s picture, “Soldiers Resting on the Somme,” was insured in London. The work, valued at 800 guineas, was of great historical interest, as well as being a valuable work of art. It was painted on the spot, in France, 1918, and showed a group of seven Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders grouped before a dug-out, before making the final advance on the German lines, which eventually ended the war. Sir William prized the work very much.

Other pictures not heard of at the wreck were Mr. Brown’s four important landscapes. One, of cattle, was finished just prior to Mr. Fuller’s departure from England, and was to have been sent back for exhibition in the Royal Academy next year, provided it did not fmd a home in New Zealand. Of the other pictures of which no trace was found, the most important were six by Dame Laura Knight, A.R.A.; two by Air. Harold Knight, A.R.A.; nine by Air. W. Russell Flint, R.A.; 15 by Air. Harry Watson. RAV.S. The last-named formed part of a collection which Air. Watson intended to exhibit in a “one-man” show in London. Air. Fuller persuaded him to exhibit them in New Zealand instead. Luckily some of the collection was sent direct to Wellington, and those pictures, said Air. Fuller, would be shown next February at the Art Gallery, Wellington. Other valuable pictures lost were by Mr. Julius Olsson, R.A.; Mr. Algernon Talmadge, R.A., Sir Herbert HughesStanton, R.A., Alias Lucy Kemp-Welch, R. 0.1., Mr. Harold Speed, R.P., Sydney Thompson, Mr. S. J. Lamorna Birch, A.R.A.,- Mr. Terrick Williams, A-.R.A. and Nr. H. Davis Richter, R. 0.1.