DOI Heft:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0105
Studio-Talk
and poetic imagery which must be the inevitable
characteristics of such art as shall fittingly symbolise
our magical Australia. And the reason for the
lessening of ambitious effort this year is possibly
not far to seek. One finds it in the fact of the
painters being many and the patrons few. In
Australia, for the most part, where wealth abounds
Philistinism flourishes, and in the studios of the
artists of most promise the unsold canvasses bulk
largest.
Highly meritorious is W. Lister Lister’s oil
painting Early Evening Glow. The picture as a
whole possesses all those commendable qualities
which are invariably exhibited by a seascape from
this practised hand. Howard Ashton’s landscape
Russet Eve has charm and sincerity, but this artist
was by no means adequately represented.
This year A. Dattilo-Rubbo reaches high-water
mark in respect to local performance. His Old-
Age Pensioners is a strongly-painted character study,
and his reputation is much enhanced by this work.
Two pictures from the brush of Hans Heysen call
for mention—The Coming Home and Mystic Morn.
The artist has striven after Australian effects, and,
though failing in the achievement, has neverthe-
less produced work of more than ordinary merit.
L. Bernard Hall, in A Colozir Chord,, produced a
work calculated to satisfy the most exacting re-
quirements in the matters of composition, drawing,
and colour. In the water-colour section, D. H.
Souter was represented by some of those fantastic
productions in which his cunning as a craftsman is
best displayed.
In black-and-white, the most noteworthy exhibit
was Norman Lindsay’s Pollice Verso, depicting
with startling vividness a writhing pageant of the
flesh passing the cross whereon Asceticism is cruci-
fied. The craftsmanship displayed is equal to the
boldness of the conception, but the picture came
in for much undeserved condemnation in many
quarters. Passing Australian Types, by George
Taylor, claims attention by reason of its faithful
representation of at least two distinctively Australian
types—the swagman and the fossicker. But why
the artist has labelled these “ passing ” Australian
types is hard to understand. The swagman is
still with us in more than necessary plenty, and
the writer has, within recent months, seen the
lean and sinewy fossicker prosecuting more or
less-—and generally less — successfully his search
for the few vivid grains of gold which are to open
up for him a shining avenue of hope. Excellent
drawings were exhibited by Fred. Leist; his Minuet
is all compact of grace and full of sympathy with
the daintier manners of an earlier day.
The portraits of His Majesty King Edward VII.
and Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, by John Long-
staff, are now on view at the Sydney National
Art Gallery, where the unveiling ceremony was
recently publicly performed by Sir Harry H.
Rawson, the Governor. Neither portrait detracts
from Longstaff’s reputation, though in point of
merit one unhesitatingly appraises the portrait of
the Queen more highly than that of the King.
The former work was executed to the commission
of the women of New South Wales, and the latter
to that of a former and affectionately remembered
Governor, Earl Beauchamp, who presented it to
the Trustees of the National Gallery.
For the National Gallery, now slowly approach-
ing completion, three prizes have been awarded in
the bas-relief competition. A first prize of ,£50
has been awarded Gilbert Bayes, of London, for
his fine Assyrian panel (here reproduced), in which
dignified treatment is given to The Coming of Sen-
nacherib and his Queen to view the building of his
Palace in Koyounjik. Countess Feodora Gleichen
secured the first award of jf 50 for a no less note-
worthy portrayal of Queen Hatasu giving directions
for the construction of her famous avenue of Ram-
headed Sphinxes. James White, a Sydney sculptor
of established reputation, was awarded a second
prize of S2S f°r a Pane^ depicting Thothmes
visiting the Temple of Render ah.
In the Sydney Domain, in close proximity to
the Art Gallery, has recently been placed a fine
statue of Robert Burns, the work of F. W. Pomeroy,
and virtually a replica of the well-known Paisley
statue from the same hand. There is a woeful
lack of statuary in Sydney public places, and
the spirit displayed by the Scottish members
of the community in thus memorialising
Scotia’s bard in our midst is to be most warmly
commended.
At the time of writing Percy F. S. Spence,
recently returned to his native land after a lengthy
sojourn in London, is holding an exhibition of
pictures in Sydney. His colour work, viewed as
a whole, exhibits a marked improvement, and his
effects in black-and-white are generally meritorious.
L. R. M.
87
and poetic imagery which must be the inevitable
characteristics of such art as shall fittingly symbolise
our magical Australia. And the reason for the
lessening of ambitious effort this year is possibly
not far to seek. One finds it in the fact of the
painters being many and the patrons few. In
Australia, for the most part, where wealth abounds
Philistinism flourishes, and in the studios of the
artists of most promise the unsold canvasses bulk
largest.
Highly meritorious is W. Lister Lister’s oil
painting Early Evening Glow. The picture as a
whole possesses all those commendable qualities
which are invariably exhibited by a seascape from
this practised hand. Howard Ashton’s landscape
Russet Eve has charm and sincerity, but this artist
was by no means adequately represented.
This year A. Dattilo-Rubbo reaches high-water
mark in respect to local performance. His Old-
Age Pensioners is a strongly-painted character study,
and his reputation is much enhanced by this work.
Two pictures from the brush of Hans Heysen call
for mention—The Coming Home and Mystic Morn.
The artist has striven after Australian effects, and,
though failing in the achievement, has neverthe-
less produced work of more than ordinary merit.
L. Bernard Hall, in A Colozir Chord,, produced a
work calculated to satisfy the most exacting re-
quirements in the matters of composition, drawing,
and colour. In the water-colour section, D. H.
Souter was represented by some of those fantastic
productions in which his cunning as a craftsman is
best displayed.
In black-and-white, the most noteworthy exhibit
was Norman Lindsay’s Pollice Verso, depicting
with startling vividness a writhing pageant of the
flesh passing the cross whereon Asceticism is cruci-
fied. The craftsmanship displayed is equal to the
boldness of the conception, but the picture came
in for much undeserved condemnation in many
quarters. Passing Australian Types, by George
Taylor, claims attention by reason of its faithful
representation of at least two distinctively Australian
types—the swagman and the fossicker. But why
the artist has labelled these “ passing ” Australian
types is hard to understand. The swagman is
still with us in more than necessary plenty, and
the writer has, within recent months, seen the
lean and sinewy fossicker prosecuting more or
less-—and generally less — successfully his search
for the few vivid grains of gold which are to open
up for him a shining avenue of hope. Excellent
drawings were exhibited by Fred. Leist; his Minuet
is all compact of grace and full of sympathy with
the daintier manners of an earlier day.
The portraits of His Majesty King Edward VII.
and Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, by John Long-
staff, are now on view at the Sydney National
Art Gallery, where the unveiling ceremony was
recently publicly performed by Sir Harry H.
Rawson, the Governor. Neither portrait detracts
from Longstaff’s reputation, though in point of
merit one unhesitatingly appraises the portrait of
the Queen more highly than that of the King.
The former work was executed to the commission
of the women of New South Wales, and the latter
to that of a former and affectionately remembered
Governor, Earl Beauchamp, who presented it to
the Trustees of the National Gallery.
For the National Gallery, now slowly approach-
ing completion, three prizes have been awarded in
the bas-relief competition. A first prize of ,£50
has been awarded Gilbert Bayes, of London, for
his fine Assyrian panel (here reproduced), in which
dignified treatment is given to The Coming of Sen-
nacherib and his Queen to view the building of his
Palace in Koyounjik. Countess Feodora Gleichen
secured the first award of jf 50 for a no less note-
worthy portrayal of Queen Hatasu giving directions
for the construction of her famous avenue of Ram-
headed Sphinxes. James White, a Sydney sculptor
of established reputation, was awarded a second
prize of S2S f°r a Pane^ depicting Thothmes
visiting the Temple of Render ah.
In the Sydney Domain, in close proximity to
the Art Gallery, has recently been placed a fine
statue of Robert Burns, the work of F. W. Pomeroy,
and virtually a replica of the well-known Paisley
statue from the same hand. There is a woeful
lack of statuary in Sydney public places, and
the spirit displayed by the Scottish members
of the community in thus memorialising
Scotia’s bard in our midst is to be most warmly
commended.
At the time of writing Percy F. S. Spence,
recently returned to his native land after a lengthy
sojourn in London, is holding an exhibition of
pictures in Sydney. His colour work, viewed as
a whole, exhibits a marked improvement, and his
effects in black-and-white are generally meritorious.
L. R. M.
87