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’.