Picture of the month

Press, 24 June 1983, Page 16

Picture of the month

. . . at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery

“Cynthia’s Birthday,” C. 1927-8, by H. Linley Richardson, portrays the artist’s children celebrating the birthday of his youngest daughter, Cynthia. The scene, which captures the magical moment when the birthday candles are lit, was one of many childhood scenes painted by Richardson in the 19205.

He explains this preoccupation in his “Reminiscences”: “The coming of my own children brought before me forcibly the beauty of children and I drew, and painted, and etched, and lithographed, and modelled numbers of things from them ...”

In this painting, Richardson’s desire to express the beauty of his daughter’s birthday has resulted in a carefully arranged composition. For example, the pale green and blue hydrangeas have been placed on the table to balance the flowers behind. The artist has also imposed a pastel colour scheme on the

work, and the children’s clothes, the flowers, lace cloth, and china plates have a mother-of-pearl glow to them.

H. Linley Richardson was born in London in 1878. His father was a commercial artist, and from an early age Richardson was encouraged to pursue a career in graphic design. After a short period at a School for Drawing for the Press, however, Richardson realised that his real interest lay in painting. He promptly enrolled at the Goldsmith School of Art in London, and after that at the Westminster School of Art where he was awarded a Queen’s prize for life drawing. His training was completed at

the Academie Julian in Paris whereupon he returned to London and established his own studio in Dorking. By this time Richardson had developed an artistic style based on the realist styles of artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer, Frank Holl, and Sir John Millais. It seems likely in fact that a specific painting by Millais, his “Autumn Leaves 1856” influenced Richardson’s depiction of “Cynthia’s Birthday.” The similarity in the pensive expression on the childrens’ faces in the two paintings suggests this. In 1905, Richardson was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Three years later he received an invitation from the

New Zealand High Commissioner to teach life classes at the Wellington Technical College. For the next 20 years he taught in Wellington. During this time he developed a lifelong interest in portraying Maori life. He also worked on portrait commissions and landscapes. In 1928, the artist and his family moved to Palmerston North

where he became head of art at the Technical College. Apart from one trip back to England in 1938 Richardson remained in Palmerston North until his death in 1947. “Cynthia’s Birthday” was exhi-

bited at the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1928. The Christchurch City Council then bought it for £l2O. It appears that it was one of the council’s first purchases for the McDougall Gallery and as such it provoked some comment in the daily newspapers. One person claimed that the buyer “ought not to be let loose with ‘money to burn’ for he has selected ‘Cynthia’s Birthday’ by H. Linley Ricardson—a group of pud-ding-faced, expressionless children, all staring at a birthday cake—a greedy lot who find it difficult to keep their hands away from the cake.”

There are two other works by Richardson in the gallery’s collection, “Bathing the Baby,” C.1920s and “Portrait of a Maori Boy.” “Cynthia’s Birthday” will be on display at the gallery during July.

DEBORAH SHEPARD

Gallery information officer