ROMANCE OF PICTURES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 14 November 1913, Page 6

ROMANCE OF PICTURES.

I Another chapter in the wonderful romance of picture* lias: bceii written' during the past few days by the sale," for £20,160, of Gainsborough's "The •Market Cart,* a canvas which nineteen years ago was purchased for £4725. Remarkable as thus increase in value is, it is yet a long way from creating a record. Two years ago a well-known collector obtained £30,000 for a Titian, for which only five years earlier- he had paid £2205. An excellent bargain indeed! No doubt there are still more wonderful-.in-stances. Gainsborough was fajrly prosperous in hie day, but he can j hardly have dreamed that a picture ' oi 1 his would ever sell for £20,000. When he was .painting portraits at JJath towards the end of the eight-. I eenih century lie was glad enough to i take commissions at five gutneaSi ftitd I a portrait of that period' waft btated | in a recent law case to tte valued at I over £BOOO. It was at Bath that the artist did oue of his finest landscapes W payment "for services renI tiered" I>y the public carrier, who I admired art and the artist so much that he would not accept money. That picture now probably -represents the highest fee ever paid to a,earner.