Back to New Zealand.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 16, 19 October 1910, Page 15

Back to New Zealand.

ARTIST’S IMPRESSIONS OF HIS OWN COUNTRY. THE FUTURE OF PAINTING IN THE DOMINION. Mr. Herbert J. Babbage, a New Zealand artist, who has spent some seven years in England and Europe, and has exhibited at the Royal Academy, is at present in Auckland. During his rambles through the principal art centres cf the Old World, Mr. Babbage has worked in London, Paris, Cornwall, Brittainy, Normandy, Venice, Florence. Naples, and the Italian Riviera. A large part of hrs working hours were spent at his studio in St. Ives, the remote and picturesque fishing village in Southern Cornwall, famed, with Newlyn, an adjacent village, as the resort of the British School of Impressionist painters like Stanhope, Forbes, Frank Bramley, and Terrick Williams. Speaking to a “Star” representative on Monday afternoon, Mr Babbage expressed surprise to find amongst Auckland artists so few marine painters. “I consider the harbour here one of the finest sketching grounds I have seen in the Australasian colonies. Altogether apart from its picturesque setting, Auckland possesses what so few of the New Zealand towns have, and that is atmosphere. The early morning effects at times have quite a beauty of their own, and it is very much helped by the fact that you have such a picturesque array of craft like the scows and fishing boats. These fine old scows, with their broad sails half raised against a still morning tide, with mist on the hills and sunlight coming across the water, are more than picturesque. I have only been here a few days, and already have secured a couple of oil sketches and a watercolour. “The harbour foreshore,” he added, “is very picturesque from the artist’s point of view : but then, you know, we revel in untidiness. The deserted boats lying about, the odd groups of wharf labourers, and old factories and timber mills propped up over the water are just the sort of compositions to appeal to us for the sake of a picture. Auckland has a lot of good material about its harbour that lends itself readily to the palette of the marine painter, and I should imagine that sooner or later an artist will arise to transfer it to a glowing canvas.” “Yes, I cannot help noticing many changes,” responded the artist to a question. “But they are changes for the betterment of art in New Zealand. In both Wellington and Auckland painting is coming more into line with what prevails in Europe. The art of my younger days in New Zealand makes me smile to look back on. It was the art of our' forefathers brought out to New Zealand bythem when England was in the throes of mid-Victorian sentiment and artistic

banality. Much of that old legacy has gone. I have just concluded a tour through the principal towns in the North Island, and 1 found that in each a number of people were eager to see painnngs and discuss art. The taste, of course, is only beginning; but compared with what it was when I left New Zealand, I think a distinct advance has been made. I was very much impressed with the development that has taken place in Wellington —art was almost dead in the capital when I knew it—and also Auckland, where it cannot escape notice that the ranks of painters have not only largely increased, but the art represents altogether more comprehensive fields of talent. No! I am not a pessimist. I don’t believe in the so-called crudeness and poverty of colonial painting. New Zealand is doing very well. Her art must take the impress of its surroundings. That is to say, it will become national, as has been the case with other countries The way is long, but from the examples of work I have seen, especially from the younger generation, there should be no room for pessimism in this country. You see, I am a New Zealander myself, and I positively decline to forget it.” Mr. Babbage, who is staying in Auckland for several weeks, opened an exhibition of his paintings at the Art Society’* buildings, in Coburg street, on Monday.