ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 85

ART AND ARTISTS.

TWO FAMOUS PAINTERS. — Ford Madox Brown: H B. Brahazon. Ford Madox Brown and H. B. Brabazon wer© born in the same year; they lived to Oi<J' age through the epech most momentous in the history of modern painting; diev were both responsive to the art of the pas*,, ami each ir his different way struggled to paint light, -ether than to- paint mas.* ; that is, strove lo paint bodies in their environm>3nt of air, and not merely in their local colours. They were both then pioneara cf a new vision founded upon th© old. But here the- resemtblance ends. Brown died— some say at the hands of th© Town Councillors of Mancifesstsr — a decorator and a story-teller. Brshazon qn'deid aa a disciple of Claud© Mone.. TheLr aims at the last were as wide as th© poles. When Madox Brown started upon a canvas h© had an aesthetic or 8 moral end in view, and the marvel is that he never got a wider audience- in the country where art has . generally been regarded either as a sermon or a topical song. He had to fill a design with an ultimate appeal to th© public. It was theii verdict they looked for. Th© picture hanging op the wall or the fresco on the plaster was his vindication of a theory, and whether he pleased or displeased — and he was ever a fearleae spirit — he had something to say, and said it, that the public and the critics migiht learn. His, in short, was a conscious art that wae not complete without the spectator. He never preached to empty pews. Brabazon, in contrast, was lie entirely unconscious painter wbos3 "unpremeditated art" was his joy, who painted as the boy whistles on the gate, for the love of it. Wherever the sun was, there .he went, with pc public or critics in sight, but only his own ideal to pursue-, with only his own eammuninspi with Ni&turc to concern him. And co it happened that he got closer to Nature, closer to the essential, than Madox Brown, to whom the unessential and the trivial app&aled as part of a language in which he could sp»ak to the public. It was Brabazon 's good fortune, of course, that h© was n«vt-r ''a professional artist" ; that circumstances allowed him to igqpre the profession, and to remain the artist only. Bnt this is not to fay that lie was more amateur than Madox Brown. To paint for love and not for money transforms an artist into an amateur only in England In th© sense of ineflbci ivemess Brown was, on the contrary, more amateur than Brafcaaon, and if one studies some of the drawings of Madox Brown, one appreciates at once the remarkable ad\xiniea in technical achievement since his day. Such pictures as " Th© Traveller" (begur in 1868) and "Weights and Measui-ps" (a small mplica of thcfresco at Manchester) are both essentially amateurish — using th© word in Its strictly popular sense — work in which a romantic or historical episode is expressed without any technical skill. His "professional" per forma-nce in both *a«es was to come in afterwards in the completed picture. Can on© imagine Brabazon in such an attitude towards his art? Although it was founded upon the earlier masters of watercolour — he was a "sedulous ape," in Stevenson's phrase, and a copyist to the end of his life — his brush never touched his subject without a complete surrender to his cmiotion. It is possible that there are 6till some critics who would declare him "unfinished," but the> are of the kind who would ask for a. chemical analysis of the thundercloud or th© sunshine. Brabazon had a wider vision and a more simple aim. For these reasons lie remains the gtreat artist — amateur or professional — and below him, on another plane, Madox Brown must take his place among the craftsmen.—Pall Mall Gazette. A FAMOUS ART SCHOOL. In a paper on " The Art of Mr Rowland Wheelwright," which i< accompanied by 12 beautiful reproductions from the artist's be« pictures, in the August Windsor Ivlagazine the writer says : — "In the course of the 21 years daring

| which Sir Hubert -yon. Hericomer presided ] over the Bushey School of Asrt, we find , much talent to Lave been set n the right j road. ; "The mint and anise and cummin of praise and the rue of Blame have had their , part in producing from amongst the rank and file Mr Arnesby Brown, A.R.A., Miss Lucy Kemp Welch, R.8.A., Mr Tom Moetyn, Mr H. J. Ford, Mr Brough John- , son, Mr G. Harcoui-t, and Mr Rowland ' Wheelwright, R.8.A., painters of disparate ambitions, but each possessed of a very real workable talent of which time has to ' test the fulness of scope, i "It is probable that these, the professor's j best pupils, in their work resemble that of j their master .least, an-d that it is the per- ' eonal qualities which, in the eyes of connoisseurs, have- in each case won for them individual recognition. 'It is a noteworthy fact,' writes Professor yon Herkomer, ' that after long erudy from the life in a school, students will -take up some other branch of . art to which their taste or capacity leads them. Pupils of mine who were only , taught to draw and paint the human figure | have" become kndscapists and animal : painters; and it is as a landscape and ani- ; mal 'painter that Mi- Rowland Wheel- | wright is proba-bry destined to increase to f permanence a ensirk ho has already made. I Nature to the landscape painters offers in- , exhaustible choice of subject; it suggest ' idealism or supplies its own perfect corn-, position, when the eyes which look -upon it can avoid the j ro3garity of harsh raaJism, -yet j Iholu to a wefl-balanoed suggestion of actu- ] alifcy.' i " ' Nafutr©,' wrote Whistler, ' contains the ' 1 elements in colour and form of all pictures, I I as the keyboard, contains the notes of HI j music _ ._ . when the- evening mist clothes ' the riverside with poetry as with a veil, i and the poor buildings lose themselves hi j x the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become \ campanile, and the warehouse* are palaces '• r in die night, and the whole city hangs in ! ' the heavens, and fairyland is before us, then i the wayfawr hastens home, the working j , mer and the cultured one: the wise man j • and the one of pleasure cease to understand, ' as they heve ceased to see; and Nature, who for once has sung in tune, sings hor exquisite song to the «rtist alone, her son , and her master — her Eon in that he be- j loves her, her master in that h& knows her. ' To him her secrets are unfolded, to him her I lessons havo become gradually clear/ • "In 'Turning the Piougii,' in 'Evening,' itr* ' A Lord of Creation,' and in ' The Ploughman * Mr Wheelwright shows himself the inheritor of a. goodly share of that magical artistic vision oi* which Whistler wrote. To see the ploughman 'homeward plod his weary way' belongs to our experience ; h© is part of the fabric of life to the unimaginative, just as he is part of tfhe fabric of lomenoe to the artist The office of landscape-painter, in fact, is to find the i virtue, as wo say of a herb, in Nature, rei 'ducfi it to its elements, separate it from I its unpictorial adjunct*. and""ptao3 its artiet tic residua on canvas; and Mr Wheelwright, after having worked r vom the life in the i Bushey School, is one of those pupils Professor yon Kerkomer speaks of whose taste and capacity have withdrawn him gradually more and more each year from iibe domain of episodic into that of romantic art. ; Nbt that Mr Wheelwright entirely conchies himself to landscape and animal painting; 1» is young enough to be still greedy of discovery, and it may be some time yet be-fore his wcik on th© Academy walfa challenges attention as a 'WhecJ- j wright' because it is but a variant of some one { lor other of his beloved themes. Already | there are 6igns in his art tihat the grandiose in subject is giving way to simplicity, that ■ h© is painting for the sake of some . one or other of the appealing aspects cf Nature's mood, rather than for the extrinsic element of adventure ; and this with a tenderness and fulness of expression very engaging, since it is obvious that he is alive to beauty i in emery form, as well as sensitive to both . l^ne and colour." / — A German critic of modeirr art has i recently announced that Stothard in Jus bssfc paintings is superior to Turner. The critii eism, it is true, was made more from a ' desire to depreciate Turner than to glorify Stothard. But it reminds ufi* that the j latter artist had qualities which deserve more- recognition than they now receive. Stothard certainly holds no very conspicuous place in general esteem. As ?. painter ho is remembered most often by one of ib© least fortunate of his productions, "The Canterbury Pilgrims," which serves the admirers of Blake conveniently for illustrating his inferiority to that artist. But Stothard*« pictures count for comparatively little in his production. He lives by hie book-illus-trations, and"*these will prevent his being . forgotten. — Times. ] — " The Rescue," the famous picture, by Millais of a fireman bringing children out of a burning house, which was sold at Christie's last month, was painted 54 years ago. Th© picture w«ts one tha caused the artis* infinite trouble in the painting, and was only completed by the most desperate efforts in time for the Academy of 1855. On the last day but one bafoise "sending-in" Millais commenced at daylight, and actually worked all through the day, the following night, and ih© next day until the van came for the picture. Ever then it would not have been <l©ne in time if Charles Collins (biotber of Wilkie Collins) bad not sat up with Millais and helped .him painl the firehose ! —Do Painters FLatt-er — "It is almost impossible," said a noted artist, "to avoid 1 flattery in painting portraits. The only exceptions are those people — there are veryfew — whom T"satnre lias endowed with faces and figures that render it unnoessary. If a man comes to you v> ith- a 'mulberry' nose you must soften down the defect as much as possible. Atwl the cross-eyed ledy must not be cross-eyed in the picture. The weak or commonplace faoes must be made distinguished, otherwise your sisters will complain. Their objection wili be that the likeness is not an accurate one That will mean, of course, that it is altogether too accurate ; Still, there are some strongminded artists who are willing to losa clients rather than trifle with facts. Of one of thefte — a well-known sculptor — it i 3 eaid that if a man cam'? to him with ears i as large as a dontkev's he woukl not hesiI tate to copy him. He wouid not even pass ! over a srjar or a pnnnle But we cannot all afford to be so conscientious."

i 1 —There are more than 30,000 steamships and sailing vcsbAs of ICC tons and upward* . in tiie world. :