DOI Heft:
No. 108 (March, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19875#0156
Reviews
his work, he is thoroughly alive to the requirements
of the poster as a means of artistic appeal to the
popular imagination.
Amongst the most interesting and effective
specimens of the work exhibited, special mention
deserves to be made of Bastard's Ranz des Vaches,
Baud's Savonnerte, Vautier's Hotel - Pension,
Forestier's Golf, Chanson Francaise and Rallye
Sport, Dunki's Heraut and Viollier's FAvar'e, Le
Lys and Odier. The Ranz des Vaches is an alto-
gether happy and successful achievement, in every
detail of it, a fitting accompaniment to that song
of Alpine pastoral life so dear to the Swiss
peasant.
There can be no doubt that the Soci^te' Suisse
d'Affiches Artistiques is destined to accomplish for
Switzerland what similar societies have done for other
lands. It is in possession of the largest lithographic
press in the country, by means of which it brought
out recently a fine Album of drawings, by some
of the best Swiss artists, of sites and aspects of
Geneva, past and present.
R. M.
DRESDEN.—Klinger has recently finished
a female bust in Parian marble and
a bronze statuette of an athlete. The
last-named figure stands about three-
quarters of a yard high, and has the peculiar
charms of a sketch. In order to fix the attention
on his principal object, which was to display the
powerful muscular build of the man, the artist
has neglected finishing all details of the head-
The way the eyes are treated seems to me very
happy, as one feels the mark of the worker's
hand. The whole surface of the bronze has been
generally less polished and finished off than is
usual with Klinger, thus strengthening the impres-
sion that we have a sketch before us, and not a
work of art pushed to its last stage, which leaves
nothing to our imagination.
A year ago the local sculptors, all but two, united
in a public complaint to the effect that they were
being neglected, while the work of Belgian and
French artists ware bought at great cost for the
Museums, etc. A wail of this kind is always tact-
less ; besides, it was unwarrantable, for, thus
challenged, State and Municipal authorities soon
disclosed the fact that more than half a million (in
our money, of course) had, within the space of a
few years, been devoted to promote the Dresden
School of Sculptors. Since then the City has
voted a new allowance of 20,000 marks a year. It
is to be reserved for the purchase of bronzes and
statuettes by Dresden sculptors.
The death of Friedrich Preller, jun., has been
more of a loss, perhaps, to Dresden Society than
to Dresden Art. Even with those who received his
paintings with cold respect only, his personality
excited admiration and love. Preller's misfortune
was to be the son of a famous man. The elder
Preller, also landscape painter, and praised by
Goethe, well expressed the ideal of his time. His
classical compositions—for example, those illus-
trating the Odyssey, now at Weimar — were
truly " modern" in their day. But this style he
impressed upon his son; and he abided by it,
notwithstanding the changes in our sentiments
that have transpired in the course of the last forty
years. At his death one of Preller's last paintings
became the property of the Dresden Gallery, where
it hangs as a welcome addition, but as a memento
of a past taste.
Preller was a member of the Academy, and that
body has chosen as his successor Eugen Bracht,
who gained his reputation a generation ago in
Dusseldorf, and had recently settled at Berlin.
Like Preller, he will hold the Chair of Landscape
Painting at the Academy Art School. Bracht is
a painter of Oriental scenery, and sixty years of
age. However much one may admire him in his
proper sphere, it is to be regretted that the duty of
instruction has not devolved upon some painter
more in feeling with the modern art of landscape.
The second International Exhibition recently
closed its doors after an exceptionally successful
half year. Works of art to the value of ^25,000
have been sold: for example, out of over 50
pictures by the Glasgow School only eighteen
remained unsold, while in the department of
drawings, water-colours and prints, more than 60
per cent, of all works exhibited found purchasers.
The attendance throughout was satisfactory, too.
H. W. S.
REVIEWS
Japan: a Record in Colour.—By Mortimer
Menpes. Transcribed by Dorothy Menpes.
(London : A. & C. Black.) Price 20s. net. This
is not a globe-trotter's account of his travels nor a
guide-book. It is essentially a book of impressions
—impressions made upon a receptive mind, well
and broadly attuned to the things and ways of art.
143
his work, he is thoroughly alive to the requirements
of the poster as a means of artistic appeal to the
popular imagination.
Amongst the most interesting and effective
specimens of the work exhibited, special mention
deserves to be made of Bastard's Ranz des Vaches,
Baud's Savonnerte, Vautier's Hotel - Pension,
Forestier's Golf, Chanson Francaise and Rallye
Sport, Dunki's Heraut and Viollier's FAvar'e, Le
Lys and Odier. The Ranz des Vaches is an alto-
gether happy and successful achievement, in every
detail of it, a fitting accompaniment to that song
of Alpine pastoral life so dear to the Swiss
peasant.
There can be no doubt that the Soci^te' Suisse
d'Affiches Artistiques is destined to accomplish for
Switzerland what similar societies have done for other
lands. It is in possession of the largest lithographic
press in the country, by means of which it brought
out recently a fine Album of drawings, by some
of the best Swiss artists, of sites and aspects of
Geneva, past and present.
R. M.
DRESDEN.—Klinger has recently finished
a female bust in Parian marble and
a bronze statuette of an athlete. The
last-named figure stands about three-
quarters of a yard high, and has the peculiar
charms of a sketch. In order to fix the attention
on his principal object, which was to display the
powerful muscular build of the man, the artist
has neglected finishing all details of the head-
The way the eyes are treated seems to me very
happy, as one feels the mark of the worker's
hand. The whole surface of the bronze has been
generally less polished and finished off than is
usual with Klinger, thus strengthening the impres-
sion that we have a sketch before us, and not a
work of art pushed to its last stage, which leaves
nothing to our imagination.
A year ago the local sculptors, all but two, united
in a public complaint to the effect that they were
being neglected, while the work of Belgian and
French artists ware bought at great cost for the
Museums, etc. A wail of this kind is always tact-
less ; besides, it was unwarrantable, for, thus
challenged, State and Municipal authorities soon
disclosed the fact that more than half a million (in
our money, of course) had, within the space of a
few years, been devoted to promote the Dresden
School of Sculptors. Since then the City has
voted a new allowance of 20,000 marks a year. It
is to be reserved for the purchase of bronzes and
statuettes by Dresden sculptors.
The death of Friedrich Preller, jun., has been
more of a loss, perhaps, to Dresden Society than
to Dresden Art. Even with those who received his
paintings with cold respect only, his personality
excited admiration and love. Preller's misfortune
was to be the son of a famous man. The elder
Preller, also landscape painter, and praised by
Goethe, well expressed the ideal of his time. His
classical compositions—for example, those illus-
trating the Odyssey, now at Weimar — were
truly " modern" in their day. But this style he
impressed upon his son; and he abided by it,
notwithstanding the changes in our sentiments
that have transpired in the course of the last forty
years. At his death one of Preller's last paintings
became the property of the Dresden Gallery, where
it hangs as a welcome addition, but as a memento
of a past taste.
Preller was a member of the Academy, and that
body has chosen as his successor Eugen Bracht,
who gained his reputation a generation ago in
Dusseldorf, and had recently settled at Berlin.
Like Preller, he will hold the Chair of Landscape
Painting at the Academy Art School. Bracht is
a painter of Oriental scenery, and sixty years of
age. However much one may admire him in his
proper sphere, it is to be regretted that the duty of
instruction has not devolved upon some painter
more in feeling with the modern art of landscape.
The second International Exhibition recently
closed its doors after an exceptionally successful
half year. Works of art to the value of ^25,000
have been sold: for example, out of over 50
pictures by the Glasgow School only eighteen
remained unsold, while in the department of
drawings, water-colours and prints, more than 60
per cent, of all works exhibited found purchasers.
The attendance throughout was satisfactory, too.
H. W. S.
REVIEWS
Japan: a Record in Colour.—By Mortimer
Menpes. Transcribed by Dorothy Menpes.
(London : A. & C. Black.) Price 20s. net. This
is not a globe-trotter's account of his travels nor a
guide-book. It is essentially a book of impressions
—impressions made upon a receptive mind, well
and broadly attuned to the things and ways of art.
143