Studio: international art (38.1906)

Austrian Peasant Embroidery

Austrian peasant em-
broidery. by a. s.

LEVETUS.

Last year I spent Whit Sunday at
Hungarisch-Hradisch, a small market town
in Moravia. It was a glorious day, and
quite early in the morning, even before

FIG_ !. PORTION OF HEAD-DRESS HERZEGOVINA-DALMATIA

EMBROIDERED IN WOOL l8TH CENTURY

(Pro-bertv of Vitus Vuletic-Vukasovit, Ragusa)

“WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE’’

needed, that sincerity in whatsoever work develops
along its own lines towards maturity is the out-
come of individual tendency, strengthened by
training and education. But while Mr. Niehaus
never goes beyond these restrictions, he has set
himself to obtain a telling effect or emphatic im-
pression ; his work is sensitive and sympathetic
to a degree, and versatile enough to take in all
expressions of plastic art; and with it all he has
a practicality that keeps him well in hand with
his subject. The pitfall of most men of undoubted
ability is rather the persistent conscious-
ness of the artist’s personality than of the
art it projects; with Mr. Niehaus one
feels that he sinks his individuality in
the greater feeling that his sculpture
expresses. Above all, he has an unerring
instinct for grasping what is characteristic
and human.

six o’clock, the market-
place presented a lively
scene, the stalls decked
in fine colours, the sellers
and buyers brilliantly clad,
and all of them eager.
Suddenly the place seemed
to be deserted, the stalls
gradually disappeared, one
by one the people went
into the old church at the
other side of the square.
For a time hardly a sound
was heard, when all at once
the church doors opened,
the short service was over,
and a flood of light seemed
to pour out of the sacred
building. The sight of the
people issuing from it was
a revelation to me. My
eyes were attracted first to
the men, then to the women
and children. There was
by c. h. niehaus not one whose garments
were not adorned with rich
embroidery; no part of their attire seemed too
insignificant to adorn. And with what grace they
wore it, men, women and children alike, it is hard
to explain. We people of the capital seemed alto-
gether out of place amid this brilliant scene.

The same kind of spectacle can be seen any
Sunday or holiday in any part of the Austrian
provinces, especially in the eastern part of the
empire. Each province, nay, each town and
village, has its own peculiarities, and by those
familiar with these regions the inhabitants of

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