DOI Heft:
No. 159 (June, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: English drawing: a note on the exhibition at Leighton House
DOI Artikel:Hans Thoma on the internationality of art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0083
Hans Thoma on the Inter nationality of Art
it may in the obscurity of shadows seem to have
altered. In drawing not what he knows but what
he sees the artist crosses the bridge from form to
colour, for the misleading obscurity of shadow
belongs to colour more than to line. At no point
can drawing escape line. The square touch in
painting, which seems drawing itself, only defines
the shape of a plane and fills it in the one touch,
the drawing resting alone with the shape of the
edge of each plane.
Line drawing has suffered through a system of
teaching for a time in fashion, the student being
taught, as it were, to hew out form after blocking
in the drawing in squares, a system antagonistic to
fine artistic feeling and setting individuality of touch
at a discount. The evil effect of teaching so
mechanical a device is far-reaching.
Such an exhibition as it is now pro-
posed to hold annually at Leighton
House, if it wisely seeks the en-
couragement of drawing as the most
sensitive part of art, may do much
to stimulate fine drawing in England,
and show in its exhibitions' that
characteristic note of individuality
in beauty which in itself denotes
the English school.
T. Martin Wood.
see the art of a country surrounded by a kind of
Customs-barrier against all contact with the art of
other nations, will hardly be pleased with these
views.
“ Thoma, while recognising the national character
of art, looks upon foreign influence not as a mis-
fortune, but in the end as a gain to national art.
France and England especially are, in his opinion,
far too much akin to Germany in intellect and
culture to exclude that reciprocity and mutuality in
matters of art which cannot be other than beneficial.
Thus Germany is indebted to French art for having
freed her from the fetters of a so-called ‘ poetical ’
kind of genre-painting, absolutely barren and life-
less from a truly artistic point of view, as well as
from that badly renowned costume painting, based
ANS THOMA ON
THE INTERNA-
TIONALITY OF
ART.
A Munich correspondent writes
us : “A few months ago much dis-
cussion took place in the German
press about some strictures which
Professor Thode of Heidelberg had
pronounced on certain tendencies in
modern German art, especially those
followed by Berlin artists, such as
Liebermann and his disciples, which
he asserted were violations of the
intrinsic spirit of German art. As
in this diatribe the art of Hans
Thoma was especially eulogised as
typical of the true German spirit,
the views which Hans Thoma him-
self holds on the question of the
international character of art, as re-
cently set forth in the ‘Siiddeutsche
Monatshefte,” are of particular in-
terest. Those who would like to
62
“THE towers of the badia
AND BARGELLO, FLORENCE”
BY CAYLEY ROBINSON
it may in the obscurity of shadows seem to have
altered. In drawing not what he knows but what
he sees the artist crosses the bridge from form to
colour, for the misleading obscurity of shadow
belongs to colour more than to line. At no point
can drawing escape line. The square touch in
painting, which seems drawing itself, only defines
the shape of a plane and fills it in the one touch,
the drawing resting alone with the shape of the
edge of each plane.
Line drawing has suffered through a system of
teaching for a time in fashion, the student being
taught, as it were, to hew out form after blocking
in the drawing in squares, a system antagonistic to
fine artistic feeling and setting individuality of touch
at a discount. The evil effect of teaching so
mechanical a device is far-reaching.
Such an exhibition as it is now pro-
posed to hold annually at Leighton
House, if it wisely seeks the en-
couragement of drawing as the most
sensitive part of art, may do much
to stimulate fine drawing in England,
and show in its exhibitions' that
characteristic note of individuality
in beauty which in itself denotes
the English school.
T. Martin Wood.
see the art of a country surrounded by a kind of
Customs-barrier against all contact with the art of
other nations, will hardly be pleased with these
views.
“ Thoma, while recognising the national character
of art, looks upon foreign influence not as a mis-
fortune, but in the end as a gain to national art.
France and England especially are, in his opinion,
far too much akin to Germany in intellect and
culture to exclude that reciprocity and mutuality in
matters of art which cannot be other than beneficial.
Thus Germany is indebted to French art for having
freed her from the fetters of a so-called ‘ poetical ’
kind of genre-painting, absolutely barren and life-
less from a truly artistic point of view, as well as
from that badly renowned costume painting, based
ANS THOMA ON
THE INTERNA-
TIONALITY OF
ART.
A Munich correspondent writes
us : “A few months ago much dis-
cussion took place in the German
press about some strictures which
Professor Thode of Heidelberg had
pronounced on certain tendencies in
modern German art, especially those
followed by Berlin artists, such as
Liebermann and his disciples, which
he asserted were violations of the
intrinsic spirit of German art. As
in this diatribe the art of Hans
Thoma was especially eulogised as
typical of the true German spirit,
the views which Hans Thoma him-
self holds on the question of the
international character of art, as re-
cently set forth in the ‘Siiddeutsche
Monatshefte,” are of particular in-
terest. Those who would like to
62
“THE towers of the badia
AND BARGELLO, FLORENCE”
BY CAYLEY ROBINSON