DOI issue:
No. 256 (August 1914)
DOI article:Moore, William: Notes on some younger Australian artists
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21210#0229
Notes on Sonic Younger Australian Artists
able success in America. Last year he was awarded
an honourable mention at the international exhibi-
tion at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, and this
year he just missed gaining the gold medal by one
vote. The artist has, however, been invited by the
American Federation of Art to have the painting
exhibited at various cities in the States. Mr.
Lever at one time did a lot of painting at St. Ives,
where he got his subject for the Port of St. Ives
which now hangs in the Sydney Gallery.
When Mr. H. Septimus Tower recently visited
his native country he found a public ready to buy
his works, for Australians dearly love a horse, and
the artist's hunting pictures and animal studies
appealed alike to artists and laymen. One of his
hunting pictures, Stag Hunt, Exmoor, was bought
by the Felton Trustees for the Melbourne Gallery.
During his short stay he painted an equestrian
group of the children of Lord Denman, and the
group of Mrs. J. Nevin Tait (Bess Norris, R.M.S.)
and her son, here reproduced (p. 207). Mr. Power
gets a swing of movement into his hunting pictures
that is rarely equalled by any other painter.
From the time Woolner spent two years in
Melbourne, doing medallions of citizens at twenty-
five guineas each, Australia lias always been repre-
sented by some follower of the plastic art. Harold
Parker, who is the only prominent artist that
Queensland has sent abroad, made his first hit in
London when the Chantrey Trustees purchased his
Ariadne, the sculptor being the youngest Australian
to have a work bought out of this fund. Ariadne
is the figure of despair, and it was almost in despair
of gaining the recognition due to a genuine artist
that Parker started to model this work. In plaster
it attracted little attention at the Academy, but
when it was exhibited in marble five years later it
was immediately singled out as a work of rare
beauty. The late Sir W. S. Gilbert made a good
offer for it, but he was a few hours late, for it
had already been bought for the nation for ^1000.
Exquisite in its tense sadness it stands out at the
Tate Gallery as one of the best works of this
century.
In this article I have only dealt with a few
artists who have been successful in their respective
mediums : limitations of space oblige me to pass
over others who are doing important work. I
cannot close, however, without a full reference
to Norman Lindsay, Australia's leading artist
in black and white. Within his range Lindsay,
who is now thirty-five years of age, is in
" GUM TREES "
EY HANS HEYSEN
209
able success in America. Last year he was awarded
an honourable mention at the international exhibi-
tion at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, and this
year he just missed gaining the gold medal by one
vote. The artist has, however, been invited by the
American Federation of Art to have the painting
exhibited at various cities in the States. Mr.
Lever at one time did a lot of painting at St. Ives,
where he got his subject for the Port of St. Ives
which now hangs in the Sydney Gallery.
When Mr. H. Septimus Tower recently visited
his native country he found a public ready to buy
his works, for Australians dearly love a horse, and
the artist's hunting pictures and animal studies
appealed alike to artists and laymen. One of his
hunting pictures, Stag Hunt, Exmoor, was bought
by the Felton Trustees for the Melbourne Gallery.
During his short stay he painted an equestrian
group of the children of Lord Denman, and the
group of Mrs. J. Nevin Tait (Bess Norris, R.M.S.)
and her son, here reproduced (p. 207). Mr. Power
gets a swing of movement into his hunting pictures
that is rarely equalled by any other painter.
From the time Woolner spent two years in
Melbourne, doing medallions of citizens at twenty-
five guineas each, Australia lias always been repre-
sented by some follower of the plastic art. Harold
Parker, who is the only prominent artist that
Queensland has sent abroad, made his first hit in
London when the Chantrey Trustees purchased his
Ariadne, the sculptor being the youngest Australian
to have a work bought out of this fund. Ariadne
is the figure of despair, and it was almost in despair
of gaining the recognition due to a genuine artist
that Parker started to model this work. In plaster
it attracted little attention at the Academy, but
when it was exhibited in marble five years later it
was immediately singled out as a work of rare
beauty. The late Sir W. S. Gilbert made a good
offer for it, but he was a few hours late, for it
had already been bought for the nation for ^1000.
Exquisite in its tense sadness it stands out at the
Tate Gallery as one of the best works of this
century.
In this article I have only dealt with a few
artists who have been successful in their respective
mediums : limitations of space oblige me to pass
over others who are doing important work. I
cannot close, however, without a full reference
to Norman Lindsay, Australia's leading artist
in black and white. Within his range Lindsay,
who is now thirty-five years of age, is in
" GUM TREES "
EY HANS HEYSEN
209