A FAMOUS ARTIST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10924, 13 November 1913, Page 5

A FAMOUS ARTIST.

DEATH OF PET.RUS VAN DER < VELDEN. News in Christchurch yesterday that Petrus'Van der Velden, the Dutch artist, who has resided in New Zealand for many years, died at Auckland on Tuesday. He waa born at Rotterdam in 1834, and educated there. On leaving school "he was apprenticed to lithography, working at the stones, and the work .was greatly disliked by him. and it was with some relief that he learnt that his master could not continue the business, and that consequently he would be released from his bonds. He was fairly into manhood when he found himself able to follow art as a profession. After studying in Paris and Berlin he returned to Holland, where he achieved his first Bucoess and won fame. For three years he devoted himself to a close study of the fishing folk of the i island of Marken, in the Zuyder Zee, ! becoming the greatest interpreter of ; those people and their lives, and his ! name was known in art circles in all parts of the world when he, at the age of fifty-six, adopted the advice of a friend in New Zealand that he should make his home in this country. He arrived in Wellington in 1890. After living there for some years he came to Christchurch. Here he established a class for pupils. He also did a good deal of work in Christchurch, where he became well known to residents. He left Christchurch for Sydney, but returned to Wellington again in 1906, and lived in New Zealand ever since. His health had not been good for some time, but last week he left Wellington for Auckland, where he was suddenly attacked with illness. The funeral will take place at Auckland to-morrow. His work is represented in the public galleries in Auokland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, ana in many private galleries and halls in different parts of the dominion. The Canterbury _ Art Society has two of his pictures. One, " The Otira Gorge," was bought by the Society from Mr Gilbert Anderson; the other, " Evening in Holland," was presented to the Society by the Hon E. C. J. Stevens. One of his most notable pictures is " A Dutch Funeral," which waa owned privately in Ghristchurob for some years, but whioh recently was sold to the Art Gallery at Auckland. A portrait of himself, exhibited in the Christchurch Gallery some years ago, was bought by Madam Melba when she was in this city. It is now in the Melbourne Gallery. He regarded "Disillusioned " as the greatest work of his life. It is a large picture, the central figure of which is a young woman, the wife of a fisherman. She is sitting in her cottage, with her hands in her lap, and is thinking of her good-for-nothing husband, who has deserted her after the birth of their child. A PUPIL'S APPRECIATION. One of Van der Velden's pupils, speaking of the artist last evening, said that he was never properly appreciated in New Zealand. It was in his native land that his genius was fully recognised. There his name was associated with the names of Israels, the three Maris brothers, and Antonie Nauve. His art was not only his profession but also his religion. At least it was regarded as a means of express* ing the deepest religious feelings he held. He impressed upon his pupils that the principal thing to be considered was that art was beauty, not merely a display of clever technique, which was only a means to an end. He had a charming personality, but all his thoughts and energies were concentrated on his art. He did not scorn money; it simply did not enter into his mind. He regarded it only when he found that it was necessary as a means of supplying the food without which he could not live. He was a Bohemian of the best type, and was a simple, unaffected lover of Nature, and was never happier than when he was interpreting her different moods and portraying her in her most beautiful aspects.