April 1892: Fine-Arts – Messrs Van Baerle Brothers, Hope Street – Works by Miss Lily Blatherwick, R.S.W.

An article on page six of The Glasgow Herald, on Monday the 4th of April, 1892, reads:

 

“FINE-ARTS. – Messrs Van Baerle Brothers, Hope Street, are at present showing a small

collection of pictures and water-colour drawings by Miss Blatherwick, R.S.W. Visitors to

the exhibition in connection with the Institute of the Fine-Arts, now running its course in

Sauchiehall Street, may have noticed two contributions by Miss Blatherwick to the art of

the year. These are good enough in their way, but they do not show the artist at her best.

For this higher exposition we must visit the gallery of Van Baerle, where Miss Blatherwick’s

refinement and strength are strikingly attested in a series of pictures, chiefly of flowers.

It is a common notion that the study of flowers for artistic purposes is one for ladies only.

Such art is supposed to be limited in it [sic] scope, and for that reason to be eschewed by

painters of the ruder sex. Like all prejudices, this particular one dies hard, but it is dying.

Not to multiply the names of artists of repute who not unfrequently bring the exercise of

their highest skill to bear on leaf and blossom, we may mention those of James Paterson,

T. Millie Dow, and John Henderson. In pictures of this class bearing their names we have

not merely beauty of form and bloom, but artistic treatment and arrangement. So also in

the flower studies of Miss Blatherwick. The product of the garden is presented, with the

added graces of the artist, who makes combinations that do not suggest themselves to a

duller eye, and invests her subject with well-considered light and shadow. Of this we have

a convincing illustration in her first picture in the order of the catalogue, ‘A Pot of Roses.’

The flowers are placed in a reddish-brown jar, the pink and white blossom full out, and

dropping off in fragrant shower. Stem and leaf lend coolness to the bright tints, which are

further accentuated by the deep shadows of the pot. This we regard as perhaps the most

successful of the flower studies, although the second picture of the series, ‘Purple Poppies,’

the green of the leaves continued in the background, may be reckoned as scarcely if at all

inferior in quality. Miss Blatherwick paints the flowers of all the seasons – of spring, summer,

and Christmas – and she does so with breadth as well as daintiness. She has, too, several

landscapes, of which we may only mention two small pictures in tender greys, ‘On the

Hampshire Avon,’ and ‘By the River Side,’ in the latter of which trees of characteristic growth

are repeated in the stream below. The collection is one of distinct merit.”

 

There is an advertisement on the front page of this issue of the Herald, under “Fine Arts and Exhibitions”.

 

The two paintings in the 1892 Institute exhibition were: number 53, Evening on the Avon, and number

399, ‘A Mile from Town to the Farm’.