£27,000 A YEAR FOR ART

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 20

£27,000 A YEAR FOR ART

Felton Bequest Gives Melbourne Pre-eminence In the World off Art . . . Many Magnificent Purchases “‘Cross the Line 95 . . . (Written for THE SUN by WILLIAM MOORE)

ao realise the munificence of the Felton Bequest, -which is devoted to the purchase of works of art for the Melbourne Gallery, you must think in thousands. It is considerably in excess of all the bequests, combined, made to the National Gallery, London, since 1864, and is thus the greatest in the Empire. The income derived from the estate, after payment of certain annuities and administration expenses, is applied in equal shares to charitable purposes and to the purchases of works of art as provided by the will. At the present time the value, of the whole trust is £692,53.7, the share of income available annually for the purchas of works of art amounting approximately to £27,000. Since the death of Mr. Felton in 1904, the value of the estate at the present market prices has been nearly trebled, the income for - art purposes for the first year being about £IO,OOO. Big Items The recent supplement to the “Historical Record of the Felton Bequests,” issued by the Felton Bequests Committee, shows that the amount expended on and in the administrative expenses, the purchase of works of art for the Melbourne Gallery, from the inception of the trust in 1904 to the end of 1926, totalled £284,525. Here are some of the largest prices paid for pictures: £31,395 for “The Madonna and Child,” by Jan Van Eyck: the portrait of the Countess of

Southampton as “Fortune in the Clouds,” by Van Dyck; £17,800; a portrait by Tintoretto, £14,000; “Walton Bridges,” by Turner, £7,250; “The Bent Tree,” by Carot, £5,750; Portrait of Miss Theophila Palmer, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, £5,000; and “Portrait of an Officer,” by Gainsborough, £4,900. Besides sides paintings and works in sculpture, hundreds of prints and many examples of applied art have been purchased, the sum of £4,725 being expended on a rare illuminated manuscript. The Old Masters Besides the old masters I have mentioned, the Melbourne Gallery now contains paintings by Titian, Watteau, Ruysdael, Jan Steen, Teniers and others. As for prints and drawings by old masters, they can be counted by the hundred. Here are three items taken from the long list of purchases for the gallery: Eighty-six woodcuts by old masters, 208 original drawings by old masters and 1,340 etchings and engravings, mostly by old masters, including Rembrandt and Durer. To avoid a mere catalogue of names, 1 may mention that the English section includes a number of works by mem-

One of the finest statues in Australia — Joan of Arc, by Fremiet (Felton Bequest) bers of the old water colour school, also works of the later French artists range from Meryon to Manet, and that the sculpture section includes examples by Rodin, Barye, Fremiet and Alfred Gilbert, the greatest living English sculptor. A number of Australian works are bought each rear, the record price for a work by one of our own artists being £1,200, which was the sum paid for “Circe,” by Sir Bertram Mackennal, R.A. Not long ago two paintings by Sydney Thompson were acquired. Small Works It may be worth mentioning that some of the rarest works are quite small in size. The Van Eyck Madonna measures only 10 3-Sin. by 10 5-8 in., the dimensions of The Bent Tree being 22Jin. by 16Jin. Artists are always attracted to the beautiful little Bonnington, “Low Tide at Boulogne,” which is 7in. by SJin., while the best study of still life, “Oeufs sur Plat,” by Antoine Vellon, is not much larger. Some works have a curious history. When Harold Parker, the Queensland sculptor, went to London, he worked

as an assistant to two or three ceK brated sculptors, and then got weeks' leave to do something for hinf self. Getting in a supply of ioS he never went out of the studio umii he completed a beautiful picture of Ariadne deserted on the Isle of XaxoT When it was exhibited at the RoWi Academy, it made such an impressim! that the representatives of the Chan brey Bequest offered to purchase it fnthe Tate Gallery for £I.OOO. tw came a cheque from Sir W. S. Gilberi for the same amount. It was tan talising to receive two big offers f o j one. work and the latter, of course had to be declined. Parker n eTe ; repeated this success, and he «-yi probably be known as the sculptor of one masterpiece, which in som» respects is the finest work produced by an Australian sculptor. A reduced replica of the figure was purchased by the Felton Bequest for 500 guj 0 . eas. The Accumulation So far. the number of works, great and small, which have been purchased by the bequest number about fire thousand. One comes across items like these: 134 Japanese iron sword guards; specimens of typography representing about S3O English and Continental printers from Gutenbers to 1700 A.D. Also 600 old filigrams (water-marked sheets of paper. Twenty books of etchings and engravings, a series of reproductions of rare old master prints, and a number of modern etchings and books of lithn graphs. There has been such an atcumulation that additions have had to be made to the gallery at a cost o; £50,000. These will be completed next April. The majority of the prints will never be hung. They win be placed in portfolios in a print, room and any particular print yoc may desire to see will be brought out and laid on a table before you £27,000 a year! What a mass of ar there will be 50 years hence! The purchase of works under the conditions of the Felton Bequest are conducted on a bi-cameral system. The two bodies are: The Felton Be quest Committee and the trustees of the Melbourne Gallery. Both can recommend the purchase of works c: art and both can employ experts in advise on the purchase of works. But the recommendations of one hod; must be accepted by the other before anything can be acquired. It is like the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament. The Donor And now a word about the donor of the bequest. Alfred Felton, like the founder of the Turnbull Library, the founder of the McNab Library', and the founder of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, was a bachelor. Born at Maldon, Essex, in 1831, he came out to Melbourne at the age of 22. Prospering in business he eventually became a partner In the firm of Felton Grimwade and Co., wholesale druggists and manufacturing chemists. He also acquired large grazing interests in Victoria and New South Wales. During the last 20 years of his life he lived at the Esplanade Hotel, in the seaside suburb, St. Kilda. Two rooms on the ground floor knocked into one, made his living-room, the bedroom being upstairs. The pleasure he derived from the pictures surrounding him, he evidently thought should be extended to others. In his will, he desired that the works of art purchased should have “an artistic and educational value, calculated to raise or improve public taste.”