A STRIKING PICTURC

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1930, Page 8

A STRIKING PICTURC

THE STORY BEHIND IT

SYDNEY, September 25. One of the most striking exhibits on show with the exhibition now being held in Melbourne by twenty painters is one by the famous portrait artist, Sir John . Longstaff, and called “The Waif.” Sir John lias painted most of the famous Australians of the present generation, and for each subject be has been well, but (not. extravagantly, paid. To “The Waif” belongs the honour of having received a fee for posing. One day, a youth knocked at the door of Sir John Longstaff. He asked for help. He did not give his name, lie did not say where lie come from, and, artist-like, Sir John did not seek any of there particulars. “Per 1 forgot to ask him his name.” said the artist. “We talked about all sorts of things while I was painting the picture. He told me he had walked from a farm somewhere to Ballarat looking for work, and then he got to Melbourne somehow or other. I think he said when he left me that he was going to walk to Geelong. I painted his head. What else could a painter do in the way of giving him a job. I thought lie looked an interesting head.” ’

And it was an interesting head, judging by the interest the portrait has aroused. The original has been found living in a cheap boarding house in Melbourne still seeking a steady job. He refused to reveal his identity, for lie did not want his parents to know that he was a “waif in a big city like Melbourne.” He said that his parents kept a small farm in Victoria, but' it was not large enough to support, him and his parents as well, so lie left home. Still being a “waif” was a hungry and depressing, business, and be was not really interested in the fame that had come his way through the picture. What he wanted most of all was a steady job. He praised the generosity of Sir John Longstaff, and added that posing for a picture was “easy money.” “When. I get a regular job,” said the waif the other clay, “the first thing T will do is to write home and tell mother about it. She must never know that I have been a waif in a city.”