Studio: international art (87.1924)

MISS ELYSE LORD’S COLOUR ETCHINGS

PIANO DESIGNED FOR
MESSRS. GAVEAU
BY PAUL POIRET

PIANO IN POLISHED ROSE-
WOOD DESIGNED FOR MESSRS.
PLEYEL BY RENE PROU

close collaboration of the technical expert
and the furniture-designer, but neither
will go out of his way to meet the other
and so no progress is made. One of our

MISS ELYSE LORD'S COLOUR
ETCHINGS. BY GEORG BROCHNER

IT may savour of heresy, but Miss Elyse
Lord’s recent work might well make one
a little sceptical as to the infallibility of a
certain very famous poet in his vehement
protestation about the unbridgable gulf
which for all time will sever the East and
the West. For here is a young English
artist, a true child of the Occident, who ap-
parently through sheer artistic intuition,
has sensed (perhaps not a pretty but a
pregnant word) the spirit and visioned the
peculiar beauty—aye, and humour—of the
Orient. It seems all to have become hers
in a strange, spontaneous manner, blended
with and enriched by her gift of rare
imagination, a veritable Aladdin’s cave
yielding at her bidding the one gem after
the other. a 0 a 0 0

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largest makers of pianos recently wrote to
me that there were many designs which
seemed charming and tasteful but which
could not be adapted to the necessary
shape of the instrument without modifica-
tions which would take away all their best
features. On the other side, one of our
most original decorators, M. Francis
Jourdain, told me that he had often thought
of turning his attention to pianos, but had
been deterred by the many limitations, a
Still, certain makers and craftsmen have
done their best to surmount the difficulties,
great though they are, and must be con-
gratulated on their attempts (some of
which are shown herewith), although these
solutions cannot be said to be entirely
satisfactory. And in closing we may note
with pleasure that the International Exhibi-
tion of Decorative Arts, which is to be held
in Paris next year, has already set in motion
some new attempts,such as those of Messrs.
Pleyel, who announce instruments by
Dufresne, now in course of construction,
and promise others by Ruhlmann, Fabre,
Herbst and Montagnac. No doubt someday
we shall see really satisfactory solutions
of the problem, applied not only to a few
expensive examples, but standardised and
adapted to the ordinary instrument, making
it a truly modern piece of furniture. a

M. Valotaire.

The gems in this case are her colour
etchings, modest in compass, some almost
diminutive, but all, every one of them,
rich in true merit and great charm. The
lines are graceful, except perhaps when her
humour, which can be a little malicious, is
allowed some play, and Miss Lord’s colour
schemes are subtle in the extreme—at times
one would call them sumptuous, veritable
poems in mellowed yet festive shades which
I think she might safely challenge any of
her sisters and brethren in the arts to rival.

Sometimes she contents herself with a
single figure, as in two of the etchings we
reproduce, in others she groups two or
three or more persons, as in The Purchase,
The Joke, The Chosen One, admirable little
scenes full of drollery and never missing
their point. Miss Elyse Lord is evidently
no mean psychologist; suffice it to mention
a little print. The Complaint; the wife is the