A PICTURE SHOW.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1425, 27 April 1912, Page 6

A PICTURE SHOW.

MR. FLETCHER. JOHNSTON'S COLLECTION. The occasions are few and far between in Wellington when the lover of good pictures by reputable artists has sticJi an opportunity to bedeck the homo and the gallery, with paintings well calculated to-be a joy for ever to"iheir owners. Mr. Fletcher Johnston has made a practice of recent years of bringing to New Zealand a selection of oil and water colours quite meritorious enough to please exacting connoisseurs, and this year he* has brought a shipment that is in ninny respects superior in the aggregate to those which havo found ready buyers in t'ne past. At present the walls of the Turnbull gallery in Panama Street are hung with a little collection of water colours thai is bound to attract attention. Among them are several very fine examples from the brush of I.exden L. l'ocock, who is an artist of great versatility, a line bold eolourist, and who has a wide range of idea. "Tho Shepherd's Queen," exhibited in tho Royal Academy of 1908, is perhaps the very best example of this artist's work seen in New Zealand. It is an Arcadian subject, a young woman nursing a child under the greenwood tree, nml sprawled in front oi her is tho shepherd who, in an attitude of lazy amusement, is crowning the little one with tt wreath of wild (lowers. Tho figures are splendidly drawn, and expressimi ol both tho mother and the child are alike admirable. The painting of the lush grass of spring, the trees, stream, and graxing sheep, half lost in the golden haze beyond, is charming. Another attractive piclure from this artist's brush is "Leisure Hours," a group o? three in a hedge-encompassed garden—a young lady and a boy looking over a wonderfully illuminated book, and a girl leaning aii the clipped hedge-top idly contemplating the pair. In this picture Sir. J'ocock's faculty for colour is well displayed. ]t is rare, that, we get such good figure-painting from water-colourisls. The. same artist has a quaint study in the Rossetli sl.vle, entitled "An AngeV a vague, misty impression of a beautiful girl worked out in a haze of palo blue and pink (lockings. Other notably good paintings by this artist are: "The Outlaw's Wife" —the figure of a woman standing in a darkling wood, through which the sun breaks in golden flashes. Sheridan Jur.nvles is represented by an interesting painting entitled "A Good Samaritan," a medieval subject, representing a toddler giving alms lo an aged minstrel or troubadour, while its parents look on in proud astonishment. A I roup of halberdiers moving over the bridge in tho middle distance, and a gaily-hosed youth lolling over the parapet give colour aud character to the scene, ill which draughtsmanship and colour scheme are alike admirable. .T. Shaw Crompton contributes "A Charge of 'Treason" aud "The Morning of Life," and W. S. Stncey, of the Dudley Gallery, has n couple of excellent pictures of Lnglish farm life—one of branding sheep in Hampshire, and the other of sheani"? sheep in the same country. G. G. lulburne's "Sir Roger do Coverley" is an attractive bit of figure painting that it is difficult to pick faults in. It is a gay little gathering, moving with grace through the old-fashioned dance. Alired Strutt, A.R.E., a painter of annuals, has a gooil study of horses in Ins picture "O to be young," two brood mares watchiug their foals gambolling in tho distanco, and is happy in the painting of i stag's head. W. Men Bishon and his wife, Florence Fitzgerald,-arc also represented by a number of desirable paintings. Tlio exhibition will bo open to the public to-day and next week.