VON TEMPSKY, ARTIST

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 134, 23 June 1937, Page 8

VON TEMPSKY, ARTIST

Examples of His Work in Napier Art Gallery INTERESTING EXHIBITS There are two small collections of watercolour drawings at present showing in the Hawke 'a Bay Art Gallery whieh are of more than usual interest. One of these is a series of vivid drawinga by the late Major Gustavus Yon Tempsky. The following is an extract from Cowan's " Adventures of Kimble Bent." Yon Tempsky was of aristocratic Polish blood. He had begun soldiering life as a Prussian chasseur, had served under the unfortunate Emperor Maximilian in Mexico, and fought in several littlo wars in Central Arnerica; had been a gold-digger on the great tented fields of Victoria and the Hauraki; was a clever artist in water-col-ours and a good miniature painter, and had written a book of travels in Mexico, "Mitla," illustrated with his own sketches. In the Waikato War he and Gaptam William Jackson had led their Forest Rangers in several sharp sk'rmishes, and in Taranaki he was in the thick of the bush-lighting, and had tramped with his veterans through tbe ofrest in General Chute's great march from Ketemarea northwards to Mataitawa and New Plymouth, round the back of the mountain. Swarthy of visage, with long black, eurling hair, upon which a forage cap was cocked at a defiant angle, his grey flannel shirt carelessly open at the neck, his trousers tucked into long boots that came nearly up to his knees, a bowie-knife in a sheath and a revolver at his belt, a naked sword, long and curved, in his hand — this was Von Tempsky on the war path, a picturesquely brigand-like figure, upon whom the solders' eyes rested with won.'ler and a good' deal of admiration. He married Emelia, ooly daughter of fcjtaneslaw Bell, who was British Consul at Bluefields, Central Amcrica, and sisler of the late Napier Bell, a wellknown uiarine engineer. Mrs N. Kettle, of Napier, is his daughteT, and she has lent these drawings to the Art Gallery. Most of his drawings depict' scenes of the Maori war, obviously drf.wn shortly after the events to whicb they relale but executed witb a great sense of imaginative decoration. Tbe draugbtsnianship is marvellous and the crlouring very strong, after the style of some of tlie old Gerraan priuts. Tlitrc is a drawing also showing a drinking saloon in the days of the CaiiforniaTi Golcl Rush. The liistor'eu! and artistic value of (.'•'"so ji .'ture-- is sucli that they sbould, il" | !,s- Vc, |,c cu by evcryono. Tui- o.iiei exliibit i.s a , small collee-

tion of caricatures by the late W. A. Bowring. Mr Bowring spent some years in Napier before the War, having a studio in the old Athenaeum building. ' He was one of the original founders of the first Napier Art Society in 1911. He painted many portraits in his day, but he was probably at his best in caricature, and this collection, lent by.,Lady McLean and Mr H. E. Troutbeck, represents residents of Hawke's Bay, well known at one time and still so to many living to-day. Messrs G. P. Donnelly, of Crissoge, P. S. McLean, J. D. Ormond and J. H. Coleman are all shown in characteristic attitudes. Major Gascoyne, Mr A. L. D. Fraser M.P., and Captam Bowor, who was Town Clerk of Napier for ixfty-one years, now living in Syduey, H. M. Lowry, Hon. J. (later Sir James) Carroll, T. Groome, J. N. Williams, Archibald and Stewart Waddell are all there, and the list is completcd by F. James, the jockey. " Both these collections will be on view for about another ten days or so, when the gallery will be closed in preparation for the annual exhibition of the Hawke 's Bay Art Society.