“NEW LIFE AT FIFTY”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1940, Page 3

“NEW LIFE AT FIFTY”

ARTIST WHO BELIEVES IN MIRACLES. Henry Havelock Cornell, an artist, believes in miracles. Five years ago he shuffled along the Embankment, in London, a middle-aged man, down and out. finished. Now he is holding his first one-man show at the Leicester galleries and selling his paintings at £l5 a time. Thai’s Cornell's idea of a miracle, states "The People." It was the King who helped him and inspired him. Had Abraham Lincoln died at fifty he would have died unknown, and at that age Cornell was spending his nights among the homeless in St Martin's Crypt. Thin, dour-faced, wearing a cap and mufiler. Cornell described the lucky chance that brought him fame. "As I stood in Piccadilly." he said, "gazing al the pictures of a pavement artist, I thought to myself. "I can do better than that." "I had twopence in my pocket—twopence to satisfy hunger or ambition. "Ambition won. I bought chalks and started to draw on the pavement opposite the King's house—he was then the Duke of York—at 145 Piccadilly. "I did well until a burly sergeant moved mo on. ... So it was back to shivering on the Embankment again? No. 1 wrote to the Duke and he sent his equerry to see that I got my old place back. "Often, after that. I saw him at his balcony window, looking at my work through binoculars. "Royal patronage." 1 thought to myself. Fancy poor old Cornell getting Royal patronage!" That was enough to work the change in Cornell’s character. Back in his room ho fount)' inspiration. Scones from his wandering career as a riveter, newsboy, soldier, hawker, and boot repairer came back to him. He remembered the gipsies lie had camped with, the down-and-outs he had met. And lie started to paint those memories—to paint and |iainl till his dreams came true. At fifty, finished; at fifty-live, a sue- | cess. There's a moral in that for all i of us.