BRITISH ART.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20493, 11 March 1932, Page 13

BRITISH ART.

an important period. MR FULLER'S ADDRESS. Memories of. games of snooker in which Sir David Murray and Sir William Orpen captained sides were recalled, by Mr Murray Fuller, a wellknown lover of the fine arts, when addressin" the Wellington Rotary Club Jhis we°ek. He stated that the Dover Street Art Club, in London, offered the best atmosphere in which to meet British painters of the present day _ "The ■ Art Club in Dover street, g-id Mr Fuller, "is a very beautiful W home converted for club purposes old hom . e v C ning resort, and and is a n ,Vht one may meet t s »r» »°° ,ber ot the nearly every a . j custom Kw *.'m AC fol- Lnds to join up till , , yame of snooker every iu a friendly g gj r j> av id .Saturday e | e ci r \VilUam Orpen capMurray and Sir YVim from tains ot ffam e of snooker, as being an ordl !J" twenty a-side, there were ha d a shot ,r U A"t 85 *«% *¥? D "' d nt all. At »o i re ]i n quisb his caplirfiss, ot the Orpen's. Death. tfictton with his sunny "Sir William ma ',j e the club rock and boyish tinned Mr Fuller.' with laughter, a yap at the "His deafch . |1 ul nnt readily be filled. His t-iub that will not quick; genial nature, r made him an Sympathetic perception, ma^ ideal .companion. a tale of disroady to .end «Jj kind to children, tiflss, and was a ne ver passed a 1L was purchasing; never Bower-seller wituuu Without a word passed a .» « . an<J a ,_ and often a tip .j younK tolks ways there was. a. t fw he wna waiting at Ins , vo „„»er strugalwaya helpful tothe gler along tho a ,u roolll 0 f great "Orpen\ studiojvas a . beauty," continued Mr J i

walls were of a soft sunlight yellow, triiu two large plateglass windows taking up the whole of the front of the building. Crystal candelabra and glitte'ring glass balls hung from th<s ceiling, radiating the light in every direction. The studio was as light as an operating theatre. I met many interesting people there who sat to this famous painter, including Lloyd George, Ray Lancaster, and Dame Madge Kendall."' Interested in Maoris. Mr Fuller spoke of Sir William Orpen's work as the official painter of the war for the British Government, the result of which alone would have made him famous Hi* also mentioned having met Augustus Johif, who was very much interested in New Zealand, and talked of coming out to paint the Maoris. He had always been interested in the Maoris since he painted some of them at the White City Exhibition some years ago. Mr Fuller also spoke of Dame Laura Knight, and how she haunted the theatres to get her. subjects, and had travelled in a caravan with a circus in order that she could paint her wonderful pictures of circus life. Dame I/aura also earned fame through Her paintings of the Russian ballet—Popol.'ovn Pavlova, Genee, and others. At Its Best. Mr Fuller said it had been his goo a fortune to become the personal friend of many of the most prominent British artists of the present day, and wished raore particularly to speak on these artists than on art generally. British art was in its best period now, as the portrait painters of the day were greater than those of the eighteenth century. They were better known, too, through propaganda, as great artists, were regarded as news by the papers, as witness the case of the wreck of the Manuka some two years ago, when L'lany valuable pictures were lost. Reuters sent a message about the wreck tc London, incidentally mentioning that the pictures included examples of the work of Sir William Orpen, Augustus John, and Dame Knight. Curiously enough, the more important papers made ' more of the loss of the pictures than the loss of the Manuka. Only recently. had it been his pleasure to congratulate the editor of the "Manchester Guardian" for the very fine niiu accurate description of the pic- j tii re? which had been lost in the Manuka. | Art was very much alive in the Old Country, continued Mr Fuller, as could

be judged by the activities of the Royal Academy in arranging each winter .ex--1 hibitions of the paintings of Italian, Flemish, and Dutch artists of the past; and at the present time there was an exhibition of French art in progress at Burlington House. At the Italian exhibition the crowds were so great every day and all day that artists could • not get an opportunity to study them, and the receipts at the doors amounted to £BO,OOO, of which the Royal Academy received £40,000. An Important Period. "This ;s a most important period in British art," said Mr Fuller. "It had provided two of the greatest portrait painters of all time in Orpen and John. In the remote past Groat Britain had produced no great painters, nor had it taken much interest in painting until Holbein was imported from Germany to paint royalty and the nobility of England, whilst later Charles I. ln_ troduced Van Dyk. Then came Hogarth, whose works are to-day considered among the greatest of the earlier half of the century, an artist whose simple, direct, yet faithful and searching brush left its impress upon the age. In the second half of the century a group of fine portrait painters were revealed in Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney, and Gainsborough; and, later still, Sir Henry Raeburn. After that for a considerable time England produced no great artists with the exception of W'illiam Blake and George Morland until toward the end of the century, when great landscape painters turned up in Turner and Constable. Before Constable's time it was conventional to paint all landscapes in browns—the artists could not see green grass or blue sky, everything had to be some shade of brown, urftil Constable dared to be natural and paint green grass green and blue sky blue. He was remonstrated with by the connoisseur. Sir Thomas Beaumont, who pointed out to Constable that Nature was best painted in the golden-brown tones of a Gremona violin, whereupon Nonstable placed a violin on the grass ana asked Sir Thomas was the instrument anything like thp colour of the grass. It was France which first recognised the greatness of Constable."