The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1913-05-20
Evidence That Another Crime
Covered Art Treasure Has
Been Located.

Clawing through unreasonable tan
giles of torrid, dripping iungles, men
have gone insane seeking an intoxieat-
ingly scented plant known as an orchid,
and with the same avidity of harpies,
men have trekked the outer campongs
lof civilization and the innermost re-
cesses of sombre art galleries seeking
grime-coatcti paintings Of fn-sters. long
since given up for lost by the world
in the dust of by-gone ages.
One of these intrepid explorers for
treasures in the form of rare paint
ings is believed to have been found in
Honolulu. He has penetrated to the
four corners of the globe, if his story
is credited, and dug into the riifraff of
the Seven Seas in the madly fascinat
ing pursuit of lost gems. His life reads
like a page from the works of fanci
full Kipling modernized with the stun
ming realism of a Frank Norris.
Slowed away in an outbuilding in
Honolulu, regardless of its value or its
influence on the world of art, he be-
lieves he has unearthed canvas which
he has no quaims in attributing to one
of the greatest of the old masters, Peter
Paul Rubens.
Dollars in hard eked coin he is
spending to send the painting to the
Royal Academy of London, where he
hopes it VIII be favorablv judged by
the critics of the old world masters.
One Of Rubens' Treasures.
"The original of this painting is the
work of Rubens," he said yesterday,
| 10 nth
81 do not speak haphazardlv. The com
position and technique, the brilliant
lighting of the whole, lost in this pho
tograph, is essentially characteristic OF
the particular style of Rubens. ! be-
| lieve the name of the painting to be
'The Guardian Angel, but, at that, it
may prove misnomer However, the
face of the woman as she bears aloft
to the starry heavens the innocent
child. might without any stretch OF
the imagination cause just claim for
| the name.
The long index finger of the con
noisseur Indicated like professor
with pointer, the depletion of sin
in the form of Satan crouching hide
GUS and subservient to tho omnipotencc
of Good in the immediate foreground
of the photograph.
Resembles Picture in Louvre.
"There is the pith of my claim,
he said "That CHASTITY figure bears
a resemblance overpowering in SINH
larity to one of Mephisto now in the
Louvre of Paris and credited without
room for doubt to Rubens. The ana
tomical formation in the peculiar anc
enlarged shape Of the ear adds to III
reasonatleness. Add to that the glow
ing brilliancy of the carefully tonef
hues which are visible despite the lapst
of centuries since it left the master 4
hands, and my claim is proven beyond
Z. question, to a moral gertrude.
"It is not a new sensation for M
to delve into the records of the mimi
table masters of the middle ages.
lave spent years in countries, civilize'
and outlandish, searching for rar
paintings, much as n man would searcl
diamond pits for crystalized carbons
have q firm conviction, rooted by ex
perience, that only in far distant land
are objects of art obtainabe. At best
even there, it is only rarely that on
: finds such gems as this.
According to this authority, Ruben
, left on record over 20O0 paintings an,
some 4s4 drawings. Altogether the out
put of Rubens has been estimated a
1000 paintings, but it is a matter o
history that only some of these re
! eeived work from his brushes.
Like the elder Dumas, who turac
}. ont more novels than any one man i
! the authorship world through the al
of his force of assistant writer's, Ruben
formed the habit of retouching wit