Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1903 (Heft 2))

THE INFLUENCE OF ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY ON
INTERIOR DECORATION.
THE ELABORATE way in which the artistic photographers
mount and frame their prints has attracted attention every-
where and called forth critical comment, favorable as well as the
reverse, from various quarters.
NOBODY can deny that they go about it in a conscientious,
almost scientific manner, and that they usually display a good deal of taste;
but the general opinion seems to be that they attach too much importance
to a detail which, although capable of enhancing a picture to a remarkable
degree, can do but little toward improving its quality. The artistic photog-
raphers differ on this point. They argue that a picture is only finished
when it is properly trimmed, mounted, and framed, and that the whole effect
of print, mounts, or mat, signature, and frame, should be an artistic one, and
the picture be judged accordingly.
THIS is a decided innovation. In painting, frames only serve as " boundary
lines” for a pictorial representation, similar to those to which we are subjected
in looking at a fragment of life out of an ordinary window.
THE frame clearly defines the painter’s pictorial vision, and concentrates the
interest upon his canvas, even to such an extent that all other environments
are forgotten. At least, such was the original idea. But it seems that we
have grown oversensitive in this respect; we would also like to see the
frame harmonize with the tonal values of the picture it encloses.
BUT up to date very little has been done in this direction. The official
exhibitions still insist on the usual monotony of gold frames, and the
painters seem to have neither any particular inclination nor the opportunity
to create frames of lovely forms and well-balanced repeating patterns of
their own. The frame-makers and art-dealers are masters of the situation,
and their interests are strictly commercial ones. " Attractive enough at first
sight; hopelessly inartistic on further inspection,” is the verdict which one
has to give of the average frame of to-day. Tryon, Dewing, and Horatio
Walker are the only painters I know, who seriously oppose the mechanically
manufactured picture-frames. They have their frames specially designed
for each picture—Stanford White being the designer of quite a number of
them. Their frames are wide and flat without corners and centerpieces;
the repeating pattern is generally a simple, classic ornament, with a tendency
toward vertical lines. The coloring is gold, but tinted and glazed by
the painter himself until it corresponds with the color keynote of the
special picture the frame was designed for. This method will undoubtedly
find favor with many of the younger men, but a radical change can
not take place until the despotic “framing” rules of exhibitions have been
abolished.
THE artistic photographers, on the other hand, had no rules to adhere to.
All they wanted were artistic accessories for their prints. They could allow
their imagination full sway. They obeyed every impulse and whim, and

31