BLUNDERS MADE BY SEA PAINTERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

BLUNDERS MADE BY SEA PAINTERS.

18-Gl'N BATTLESHIP,

(By H. C'. Fcrraby.)

Sea, power is so intangible a thin g that he is a bold man who attempts to represent it. Several artists have essayed the task at this year's Roy.u Academy, but it would be flattery rn say that any one of them has really succeeded in conveying the spirit or that force by which alone the Empire, is kept alive. The artist who, to mv mind, comes nearest among modern marine painters to perfect expression of the beauty and the significance 01 tlio modern war fleet is Mr Norman \\ llkmson, and he is not represented at Burlington House. None of the big canvases is wholly satisfactory. Mr Bernard Gribblc's

•"Silent Might'' is perhaps the most happily inspired of the pseudo.alegoricai pictures. Mr \\ yUie's "Spotting for the i'leet," an incident of the Dardanelles campaign, is the best. "story picture" l.y a long way, and in spirit very accurate. But what class of shu>

has the painter evolved in the craft lying next to the Queen Elizabeth:' She appears to have turrets for eighteen big guns —and if this is so, I am sure the Director of Naval Construction will b • only too glad to have the plans, tor so far* he and his stall' have only succeeded in getting battleships to carry eight. .Naval students will quarrel more seriouslv with the historical accuracy ol Mr Wvllie's "A Fight to a Finish,' the scene of the loss of the Good Hope and Monmouth. Apart altogether from the sentiment of the picture, which can only be a matter of personal taste (and so far as I. am concerned the sentiment is all wrong), Mr Wyllio has taken liberties with the facts. Thus we have it. on the authority of Captain John Luce, of the Glasgow, who took part in the fight, that "a heavy spray ot head sea made firing difficult,"' The German accounts also referred to the heavy sea running, and an anonymous eve-witness, whose account was published here some weeks after the battle, said: —"Owing to the big sea, the rolling, and the gathering darkness, it was impossible to spot the fall of out shells. 3 ... In the face of this evidence Mr \\ vine paints both the doomed cruisers in an only, sluggish sea, and depicts a great series of waterspouts to indicate tht German shells falling short, though he omits to put any on the other side ol the ship for the over-salvoes. The moment lie has selected would seem to be that, at which the fire ir the Good Hopso caused the explosior which destroyed her. She is still silhouetted against a fading sunset, but

picture, and one would very much lik< to bo at liberty to quote his com ments. It may be said, for the benefi of those who have not yet been to tin Academy, that the incident is a tigh' between a British patrol boat and • German submarine, with a couple o! presumably British cruisers in the background. I 1k» patrol boat has just di s charged two torpedoes at the siibnia line, which is lying on the surface with her quick-firers manned. That n tu say, she is at a great disadvantage, because she is not,in trim to submerge, though in all conscience she ought io be, with three enemy >hios so near ar hand, and the heavy guns ot the two ci nisei's in a position to blow her into

scrap iron. -Moreover, those toipedoes of All Heniy s worry one. Fliey are expenN,,v things, ;ind both of them are v obviously going to lie wasted, for it beyond man's brain to conceive how without portorming contortionists feats to u hu-li the "i in fi sii ' has not yet been tunned, they can be exp-.'cted to In". tlio submarine. The other submarine/ picture. .Mr Bernard Cribble's "Work o:' the Huh'- is happier, with its pathetic figure of the sinking wiiuLjatiinier and the iar-oif U-boat. One point particularly struck me about, all the nautical pictures in tinAcademy, and that was the fact, that the modern impressionist method <>i painting has its disadvantages lor posterity. We are dependent for a "teat deal of our knowledge of the old-time navy on the accuracy of detail in tin pictures painted at the time. The correct representation of a flag, for example, may make all the difference in dating a picture before or after th" 1111011. Our knowledge of the evolution ol na\ a I unitorms is largelv dependent on the accuracy of the prints and caricatures of such men as (iillrav and Rowland son, and on the portraits ol admirals by Leiy, \'an J)yck, Kne'ler, Reynolds, and tho various Royal Academicians down to tlio time that uniform regulations were officially printed.

iho naval student- of 2016 A.T). would not find it easy to decide what classes ot ships most ol the vessels in tiie pictures at this year's Academy belonged to. I -spent a considerable time studying all the naval pictures, and am still in doubt about several of tiie ships. As an example, 1 may just mention the four-funnelled cruiser in Mr Burgess' "Watch That Never .nils." Is she meant for one of the Minotaur class or not?

Pictures are a treinendoiis help to the student of later ages. The pictures brought together at the great Chelsea Naval Exhibition were of incalculable value, and they also served to emphasise the importance of the old-time appointment of Marine Painter to the King. Men like Huggins and J. T. Serres may not have been great masters, but they were ii'eat allies of the historian. Since the death ot the Chevalier de Martino the post, as tar as I know, has not been filled, which is a pity. There are men who would till j t . well, and the opportunity is here to have a truly British marine painter. It is a remarkable thing that- most of our best sea artists have been of foreign origin the \an do A eldcs, do Loutherbourg, and Dominic Serres are examples. Only Clarkson Stanficld and Pocock of the olden times—stand out in the memory as purely British painters ol the Naw.