ART AND ARTISTS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 6, 11 February 1893, Page 128

ART AND ARTISTS

Mr Alfred Gilbert, sculptor, who succeeds the late Mr VVoolner as an Academician, does so by a unanimous vote —a compliment rarely paid to an initiate into that select body, the Royal Academy. Mr Gilbert, who was a pupil of Boehm, though now only thirty-eight, has for some time been regarded as a coming man in art circles. He was born in Berners-street, London, but has spent much of his life in Paris (where he studied at the Eeole des Beaux-Arts, under M. Cavelier), and in Rome. It was at Rome that he executed the • Kiss of Victory ’ in marble, and then ‘ Perseus Arming,’ ‘ Icarus,’ and many other works, which elicited the admiration of artists. At the Royal Academy, in 1886, he exhibited the plaster model of the ‘ Enchanted Chair,’ and at the Grosvenor Gallery a small statuette. With Mr Onslow Ford, he is regarded as leading the new or ‘ decadent ’ school in sculpture. Its members are notable for accepting as fully as possible all accessory aids of colour, form, and

decoration to their work, while seeking in the moulding of the form itself to follow the example of the great masters. Mr Gilbert was already an Associate of the Academy when elected.

The Auckland Sociey of Arts Exhibition promises to be very successful. Mr F. Wright will show a fine oil landscape of the Te Aroha Mountain, the view selected being from a spot on the river some distance below the township. Some bold cloud effect of the magnificent description to be seen at the famous health resort are introduced very effectively. His brother has almost ready a fine land and sea scape on the Whangarei Harbour, full of sun and pleasant to look upon. Another of Auckland Harbour shows an old merchant sailing vessel being towed into dock for repairs by the steam ferry boat Victoria. This will be a favourite picture at the exhibition, if we are not mistaken. Mr Paton has, ’tis said, a quantity of his usual excellent work. He is at present away on his holidays, and it is improbable that he will be back in time for the judging of the competition. Mr T. L. Drummond, Messrs Ball, Trenwith, Gibb, Sprott, Wilson, Pirrit, and others are also sending work, so a good exhibition may be anticipated.

The pictures forming the well-known Guntzbourg collection were sold just before the ’Frisco mail left, at the Hotel Drouot, some of the prices showing a curious variation on those obtained at their last sale. ‘Le Pont de Pierre,’ by Rousseau, sold for 33,500 f., a considerable increase on the 2,400 f., for which it was bought twenty-five years ago. A Troyon which was bought at the same time for 5,600 f., now sold for 73,200 f., and a Diaz which had cost 1,200 f., went now for just ten times that sum. Two Rosa Bonheurs, however, had increased in value only from 7,000 f., to 7,850 f.

The London County Council, in publishing the important scheme for a new street from Holborn to the Strand, has shown that it is quite prepared to take upon itself the duties of that Minister of Fine Arts, for whose appointment there have been calls these many years. For the Council has actually gone out of its way, not only to preserve the church of St. Mary-le Strand, but also to utilise that historic building by making it the chief feature of the improvement at the point where the new street winds and widens into the Strand.