Studio: international art (47.1909)

Art School Notes

“sleeping basuto” (bronze) by a. van wouw

APE TOWN.—The shield illustrated on
page 158 was designed and executed
by Mr. Denis Santry of this city as a
trophy to be competed for annually
by the public schools of a group of districts in
Cape Colony. It is of beaten silver, mounted on
oiled teak. The floral decoration is based on the
most typical flower of South Africa, the Protea,
or “ Sugar Bush,” and the design at the top of
the shield is derived from the beautiful old
Colonial Dutch architecture, which the late Cecil
Rhodes always strove to preserve and encourage.
Above the shield is a boss bearing the arms of
Cape Colony in enamel. The height of the shield
is 42 inches over all. Until he took to craft-work
Mr. Santry was an architect.

The portrait of Sir Henry de Yilliers, K.C.M.G.,
President of the South African National Con-
vention, is from a wood engraving executed by
Mr. J. M. Solomon, and is one of a series he has
been doing of leading members of the Convention,
from whom he has received personal sittings,
including ex-President Steyn, General Botha,
Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Mr. Merriman, Generals
De Wet and De la Rey. Mr. Solomon is an architect
by profession.

PRETORIA.—Mr. Antony van Wouw,
whose bronze figure of a Sleeping
Basuto is here illustrated, was born in
Holland in 1862, and received his
training at the Art Academy, Rotterdam. After

holding a leading position in a well-known
Dutch architect’s office, he emigrated to the
Transvaal in 1890, and, in addition to architec-
tural work, made a speciality of Kaffir busts.
In 1895 he became professor of drawing, and in
the same year obtained a commission for the
monument to President Kruger, which was about
to be erected here when the war broke out.
This commission occupied him three years, which
he spent in Europe. Since the war he has
executed several notable works, architectural and
otherwise; but latterly he has devoted himself
almost exclusively to typically South African
bronze statuettes. F. V. Engelenburg.

ART SCHOOL NOTES.

LONDON.—The delegates from the
London students’ sketching clubs who
met to choose the subjects for the
Gilbert-Garret Competition of the
coming autumn are to be congratulated upon their
selections. Except in sculpture they cover the
widest possible range, and in the figure, animal,
landscape and design sections no student will
have any right to complain that the chosen sub-
jects are unsuited to his particular scope of treat-
ment. The subjects in these sections are, for
figure, Labour ; landscape, A Cloudy Day ; design,
A Poster for a Pageant; and animal, The End of
the Day. In sculpture the subject Samson and
Delilah is one with which few competitors can
find fault, and it ought to inspire some spirited
and picturesque models. The delegates by whom
the subjects were chosen included representatives
of the Royal Academy, South Kensington (Royal
College of Art), Lambeth, Westminster, Calderon
Animal School, St. Martins, Gilbert-Garret, Birk-
beck, Heatherle.y’s, Grosvenor, S. W. Polytechnic,
and Clapham. In addition to these it is probable
that many other London students’ sketching clubs
will take part in this always interesting competition
and endeavour to wrest from South Kensington
the award of honour gained in 1908. It is a pity
that the award of honour—-the championship of
the sketching clubs—does not carry with it some
sort of challenge shield or other tangible memorial
that could be held for the year by the victorious
school. Long ago, when the competition was in
its infancy, one of its originators (Mr. A. W. Mason,
of the Birkbeck School) proposed that a silver
palette should be provided and held as a trophy
by the winners of the award of honour; but this
suggestion, unfortunately, was never carried out.

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