Genius of Art

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 22

Genius of Art

From Office to Prison and Madhouse POVERTY AND FAME

“How hideous'.” “How wonderful'" “What ridiculous efforts'.” “What marvellous painting!” Such conflicting verdicts were to be heard all day long at the St. George's Gallery in Hanover Square recently, where an exhibition of pictures va3 providing art lovers in London with a really first-class sensation. They were the pictures of a French : artist named Loutreuil. He died in a public hospital near Paris four yesrs ago. He had had a strange life. . Beginning as a solicitor’s clerk, hs won an art scholarship at the age o! 25 and studied in Italy, where he was looked upon as a painter of very great promise. Half-Crown Portraits In 1914 he declared himself a couscientous objector to war, and was sent first to prison, then to a. home for the insane. Declared unfit for service, he made his living by doing portraits at half-a-crown each! His talent quickly declared itself; it could not be kept under. He became known in Paris. He organised exhibitions at which famous artists showel their work. But his eccentricity dragged him down again. He dropped to doing portraits once more for a poun-i or two apiece. Now the canvases he left behisd have been gathered together, and >t at the St. George’s Gallery they ar« the objects both of extravagant prate and of unerestrained abuse. Buyers who aim at being in tb* fashion, and who remember how lan Gogh's and Gauguins work was first ridiculed, are making purchases. ! A number of little red seals meaniac j “sold” are to to be seen, i “A gamble?” said one such Purchaser in reply to query. “No, n” ! quite. I call it a ‘lock-up.’ ” Speculative, all the same!