EMINENT ARTISTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 7 December 1927, Page 7

EMINENT ARTISTS

PICTURES FOR NEW ZEALAND AN IMPORTANT SELECTION. BY MR. E, MURRAY-FULLER. Before long, New Zealanders will have the opportunity of seeing a very fine exhibition of paintings by eminent British artists, states a London correspondent. The selection has been made by Mr E. Murray-Fuller, of Wellington, who has been privileged to spend many happy hours at the studios and homes of practically all the artists, examples ot whose best work he has been fortunate to secure. Although in size not comparable to the display of pictures seen in the Dunedin Exhibition, Mr. MurrayFuller things that the examples which will be sent to New Zealand in this instance will be of more interest and importance to art lovers and collectors than any previous show that has been held in the Dominion. The following is a list of sdme of the prominent painters whose works will be sent out: Sir Herbert HughesStanton, R.A., Arnesby Brown, R.A., Sj. Lamorna Birch. A.R.A., W. Russell Flint. A.R A. Terrick Williams. A.R.A.. Harold and Laura Knight, R.W.S.. etc., Julius Olsson, R.A.. W. Davis Richter. R. 0.1., W. Lee-Hankey, R. 0.1.. RE., etc., Robert W” Allen, R.W.S. Frances Hodgkins (formerly of Dunedin), Cecil Hunt, R.W.S., Campbell Taylor, A.R.A.. Lucy Kemp-Welch, R. 0.1.. Algernon Talmage. A.R.A., W. J. Leech. R.H.A., H H. La Thangue, R.A., Harry Watson, R.W.S., Moffat Lindner. R.W.S., Norman Wilkinson. R. 1.. Harold Speed, and many others. All these artists are very much interested In New Zealand, and are quite decided that only their best work should go out.

Mr. Murray-Fuller was especially pleased to have Mr. Arnesby Brown’s work, because his output now is very limited and he is painting fewer pictures every year. For these he Las a very readv market m England. lie has given five of his works, one of which he considers the finest sky and one of the three best pictures he has ever painted. This is to be sold only to a public gallery. It is a wonderful landscape, and should create a great deal of interest among the collectors and artists in New Zealand.

UNIQUE ETCHINGS. During the past two months Mr and Mrs Murray-Fuller have been spending some time in Cornwall, where they enjoyed the hospitality of several well-known artists, including Mr. S'. J. Lamorna Cove—and Mr and Mrs Hughes (Eleanor Hughes is, of course, a New Zealand artist, and is now in the first rank of water-colour painters). Etching ha s occupied most of Mrs Hughes’s time recently, her etchings of trees being ciuite unique, as they are treated differently and with a greater searching knowledge of drawing than has previously been attempted by modern etchers, Mr. Lamorna Birch is intensely interested in New Zealand, being a true artist and nature lover. He hopes to go out to the Dominion next summer, to paint as well as to fish. Besides being one of England's most eminent landscape painters, he is also one of the leading authorities on fly-fishing, on which subject he has written a good deal for journals dealing with fishing as a pastime. He is a man who makes the uninitiated in the art feel that there is a great deal more in fishing than merely catching fish.

Included in the coming exhibition will be several of Mr. Lamorna Birch's latest and most important works as well as a number of small water colours.

While at Newlyn, the New Zealand artist had a long chat with Mr. Stanhope Forbes, who is an old man now but who is an interesting personality. His reminiscences of the earlier days and of the painters he knew are entertaining and almost historic. Mr. Murray-Fuller himself has naturally been busy with painting, and he thinks that some of the results obtained in Cornwall and in London represent his best efforts.