AN ART EXHIBITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 202, 30 September 1909, Page 3

AN ART EXHIBITION.

The exhibition of paintings by Mr. H. I. Babbage in Hooker's sample rooms is attracting a good deal of attention, and at all hours of the day there are visitors. The treatment is a distinct change, a sort of "impressionist" style, and yet not that exactly. It is best described as) the "broad" method for open-air work of the modem school. There is not the same delicate finish that is seen in some pictures, but the details are all there, and they grow into the picture under the eye, just as do the features of a landscape as the vision ranges' from point to point. One of the paintings that invariably holds the attention of visitors is the "Miserieordia," a Continental funeral scene by night, with the flaring flambeaux. ' The Cornish coast supplies some excellent canvasser, notably the fishing-fleet scenes off St. Ives, the craft being shown under full sail hugging the const. The great sm;'css of these lies in the fact that the artist has transferred to the eanva* the idea of the movement of the waters, and in the capital perspective. There are some pretty rural scenes. English and Continental; numerous seascapes, and some £.~>-niimite figure studies done in the Parisian schools. The exhibition will be brought to a clo-e on Kalufctay.

Writing uf the Wellington Art Socio! v's exhibition the New Zealand Time* says: It should lie a s'nbject of congratulation tliat two of tlie most imnnrlnnt ami striking of the oils on exhibition shonlil be the work of a young New Zealand artist, Mr. Herbert J. Bahbage, of Wanganui, who has lint recently returned from a lengthy sojourn in the Old Country and on the Continent. Mr. Babbagc's Apple Boat on the Seine is a harmonious and completely artistic effort which has, it mav he noted, gained honour for its painter by being exhibited on the walls of the Royal Acs ■lew. 'l.'-e quaint barges moored alongside the quay, the effectively placed figures', the tall old houses jiathed in a smoky mist, with the venerable towers of Notre Daine in the far background, are all contributing laccors in an excellent composition. This picture reaches a hi'sh level of technical performance, hut it is to be regretted, we think, that there is such a depth of uninteresting foreground. The second example of Mr. Babbage's art is n very hold painted sea-scape, ''Waiting for the Tide, St. Ives Fishing Fleet." Here is a fine aerial perspective and a splendid force of subdued colour. The scene depicted is strikingly picturesque and the subject is handled with a decided robustness of style.