THE FINE ARTS

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1395, 22 March 1912, Page 6

THE FINE ARTS

AN APPEAL FOR FUNDS. BAILLIE COLLECTION. A large deputation, consisting of members of the Council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and Wellington people interested.in the encouragement of fine arts, waited on,the.. Wellington City Council last night'and asked the council to earnestly consider tho question of making a special grunt from the municipal funds for the purchase of pictures from tho Baillie collection, concerning which a good deal has. already appeared in the columns of jThe.Dominios.. Proposals Outlined.

'Mr; H. M. Gore formally made the request,, and addressed the council at some length. He reminded the council tbn.t the Government, was establishing, in connection with the new Dominion Museum, a public art gallery. The Prime Minister, he continued, had assured them that, the plans of .tho buildings were already in hand. As in a city like Wellington one public gallery would be sufficient to meet their 'requirements practically for all fime, : the municipality, as well as the academy, were, by the*action of the Government,'freed from the obligation that would otherwise have rested upon them of providing a site and a building for such institution. As an academy, .recognising this, they felt it a duty, as well as a pleasure, to assist the Government in every possible way in the furnishing of the now gallery with works of art, and, ns one step, they intended, when' the building was well under way, to call a meeting of their members to consider a motion that the whole of their collection of pictures in the Street gallery should bo handed over as the nucleus of what would no doubt, eventually, be the New- Zealand National Gallery— and a very creditable nucleus it would form. But they had taken another step of equal importance. They hnd arranged with Mr. John Baillie, of the Bail Vie Gallery, London, an old Wellington boy, and a one-time member of their academy, to bring: out- forj exhibition here a collection of pictures representative of the very best wort of the British masters.

The Academy's Funds. These pictmes have been selected at. Home by Mr.Bbillie with the assistance of Mr. G. Clausen, R.A., and every precaution had been taken to exclude, from the collection anything of an unworthy or meretricious nature." The academy had at present a sum of ,£SOO, an amount voted.by Parliament, in 1910, for tho purchase of works of art from the forthcoming exhibition, but they hoped that that sum would be very largely augmented by public contributions, which they wore taking active steps to raise. They now nsked the council (o earnestly consider the questions of voting a. special grant from the municipal funds for the purchase ot pictures from the magnificent collection to which he had referred. Such an. opportunity of acquiring pictures for the public gallery would be unique, and would, in all probability, never occur again, because in this project they were favoured by tho fact that Mr. ]3aillie was desirous of paying a -, visit' to his native town, and had been able to considerably ' enlarge on the- scheme they submitted - to him. It was hardly. conceivable, 'of course, that this splendid collection of art. treasures would bo allowed to leave New shores without .a. determined and patriotic effort being made.to. retain the best of them for .Wellington. .Ho had gathered that it was the intention of the absent Mayor, Mr. Wilford, to move in the matter this yean . But that responsibility had been entirely removed by the.action of the Government. Therefore they felt that, as a matter of honour, and for tho reputation of the city,, all their efforts must now be directed to tho furnishing of the gallery with suitable works o£ art. And now, was tho time to act. They asked the council to treat this as a matter of urgency, as the exhibition was to open on April 20. and, in the event of the council's deciding to vote ah adequate.and liberal grant, the academy should be in a position to make their selection for the city before tho gems of the collection were snapped up by agents from Australia and from the other centres of. the Dominion. ■ ' '

Interprovlncial Jealousy. ■ According to report, there was a littlo feeling ,in some of. the .other centres against the establishment' of a. National Gallery, in Wellington, .but all art lovers ill those cohtrea must realise that tie establishment of a. national gallery would give to art in New Zealand the greatest stimulus it had ever had, for it was quite certain that when they had in thoir central gallery.a good and representative collection of pictures, such a system of loan and exchange would bo instituted that every one of the other centres would in turn have the best of those works for a period in their galleries. " It had, been suggested as.on.alternative that the council might be prepared to consider the granting of a £ for £ subsidy on the amount raised by public subscription for the purchase of pictures. Other Speakers.

Dr. Fell said that it would pay, the city from a mero £ s. d. point of view to encourage this kind of thin?. It would add lustre and renown to Wellington vrhan it was known that the citx Tiad a collection of works of high character, and it could not fail, to brins many visitors to Wellington. ' ' ■

Mr. H. S. Wardell. <ra ex-president of the society, held up the example of other cities in supporting art galleries. Thft English cities had given generous contributions to art galleries. Liberal support for the galleries was given by the Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham corporations for the encouragement of art. Within New Zealand. Auckland could be taken as an example.

Mr. TT. Lee, chairman of tho Wellington ■Education Board, olifcrved that inn request nf. the deputation appealed to him very strongly from the education point, of viow. Aβ art gallery wos a. homo of instruction, and a most desirable placo of recreation.

Finance Committee to Report, The Deputy-Mnyor (Mr. ,T. Smith) said that he was sure tho council must have been impressed by the way in which the deputation hn<l put thoir case. Ho lioped tlio council would bo able to help materially, but he. of course, could not promise, anything. The deputation hnd come at a bad time —the end of the financial year. Their proposals would bo referred to tho Finance Committee of tho council in tho usual way for, report. , In reply to a question respecting the amount of public subscription expected, Mr. Gore sa'id that Mr. Gray, who had been appointed secretary to tlio movement, reckoned on oellinsr -CiflftO. To be well on tho r-icht side Mr. .Gore estimated the amount at j>2ooo.