CHILD ARTISTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1217, 28 August 1911, Page 9

CHILD ARTISTS.

PLENTIFUL IX AUSTRALIA. Ml'. Rupert liunny has como hack io Melbourne from the artistic centre of the world, Paris, only to find that the Melbourne children nrc artists by temperament and inclination. I have never come across so manv clover clnidrcu/'Jic said to an "Argus*' mtcmeiver. '\Xot that there arc not clever child artists , anywhere else, but tiiey seem so numerous Jiore. I have mm?u the work of no fewer than seven of their, in the tew weeks of my stav. They arc surprising. Ono little girl 'of 12 or 13 years showed mc a number of sketches, mainly of animals. They were drawn with a wonderful certainty of line, a 'fat' line, not niggled, as is usually the case with untrained draughtsmen. 'This child had ho training at all—she jnst went out and drew from Kahire. Another young girl has a surprising gift of caricature, and rot another has an extraordinary insight into character iu her drawings of her friend?. "It is'my opinion that young children who show talent of this sort are better left to Aaturo than thrust into the serious work of .a class. Their parents have tu - 1110 tt'hafc to do. I have advised them in each ca?o to leave voung artists alone. Training might possibly tiro them, a • i 1Il t absolute correctness they might lose their own individuality. Anil after all, it is individuality which counts in art. Correctness counts for little with a great individuality-. Thank God, 1 have lorgotten how to draw/ said a great rrench artist. "In- the case of one of theso talented children I would say, let him or her keep entirely to Nature. At an age when some artistic judgment comes, and with it the feeling that art is to be tho dominating influence of life-say at lb, that is the time to begin seriously. And I do not think it neccssary then to leave Australia. Looking at the masterpieces of Lurope.au artists in European capitals is valuable, but. the great thing is to develop one s • own way : of • seeing things. Many men liaro looked too much at the old masters, and ended by ■ bacoming imitators. The post-impressionist movement, ridiculous as a great deal of it i*, has this merit, that it throws aside many of tho bad conventions. Cezanne hatl a beautiful colour sense, but he was not intelligent; Gauguin had much that was pood, but he should have worked in tapestry. Matisse is a great talker, his drawing* are ludicrous; and Van Gogh was a madman. But out of all this have como some of the modern men, men with something to say in an intelligible manner. This post-impressionism is a deliberate attempt in some cares to see as a child sees. The trouble is that it is deliberate. A clever child's work is vital, and fresh, and interesting, because it is his or her own impression. "I remember in Paris they published a journal in which children's drawings were a main feature. Bertram Mnckennal'.s littli daughter was n remarkably clever girl. She had a. fino, imagination, but did not draw from Nature at all. Some of her dvawinc? were sent to this paper, but the sender received a communication from the editor that this was a serious paper—that only children's drawings were accented. Ho would not believe that these weVe drawn by n child. "I do not say Hint Australian children are more artistically gifted than the children of other races; I only know that siijeo J have been here I have been privileged to pee more clever children's work than I have seen before in such a slioti .mace of time. Tt may be that* ht-re in Australia the children of cultured parents are roarer to Nature—see more nf her—than they do in older countries. The sunlight the broad spaces of park and field "and forest, allow them to b? more out of doors perhaps. If ever they are to do anything important in art they must Wn .to Nature. "For without bet as . a continual source of inspiration the cleverer fancy and the strongest imagination must burn themselves out."