Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1911 (Heft 33))

PHOTO-SECESSION NOTES

ALTHOUGH the Photo-Secession has had little to say about pho-
/A tography in the recent issues of its organ, Camera Work, its
A Jk interest in the medium has not waned, and the Buffalo Show of
Pictorial Photography, about which more is to be read through the pages of
this number, is evidence of the work that has been quietly but steadily accom-
plished by the champions of pictorial photography. The endorsement of the
work and attitude of the Photo-Secession by the Albright Art Gallery as
printed in the catalogue is significant. Its importance warrants our reprinting
it in these notes:
“In pursuance of the intentions and expressed desire of the late director
of the Gallery, Dr. Kurtz, the management of this exhibition was put into the
hands of the Photo-Secession, with whom the directors of the academy and
Miss Sage, the present director, have co-operated in fullest sympathy.
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy
Albright Art Gallery.”
The directors of the Albright Art Gallery further decided to purchase
twelve of the prints from the exhibition to form the nucleus of a collection
which is to be housed in one of the galleries, which as a memorial to the ex-
hibition is permanently to be devoted to pictorial photography.
The season at “291” opened with a mixed exhibition of lithographs and
drawings by different artists, and some paintings and sketches of Emile
Rousseau. Among the lithographers, Cezanne, Renoir, Manet and Toulouse-
Lautrec were represented by choice examples of their work. Drawings by
Auguste Rodin were also shown. Reprints of press comments on Rousseau’s
work will be found on the opposite page of Camera Work. The following
reprint of the note written by Mr. Max Weber, a friend of Rousseau, for the
catalogue, will give an idea of the spirit of this painter who, if little known by
the public, was much loved and appreciated by his fellow painters.
“The work of Henri Rousseau, who died September 5 of this year, is shown here for the first
time in this country. For many years his work was of a most interesting character in the Salon
des Artistes Independents of Paris, in which he steadily exhibited since 1886, and for whose
existence he fought from the beginning. The few pictures in this exhibition are loaned by Mr.
Max Weber, who was a devoted friend of Henri Rousseau. He began his career in the custom-
house service of the French government, but, gifted with artistic instincts, he eventually sought
to express himself in plastic art. His work greatly interested the younger group of painters and
critics in Paris, known as Les Fauves, who were his greatest friends and admirers up to the last.
He was truly naive and personal, a real ‘primitive’ living in our time. He loved nature passion-
ately and painted as he saw it. His larger work is very fantastic and decorative, and recalls Giotto
and other primitives. He lived a life of simplicity and purity, the spirit of which dominates his
work.”
Following this exhibition, there were shown drawings and etchings by
Gordon Craig, the first exhibition of this artist’s work in America. The
drawings made some five years ago represent a style which he has since
abandoned. His more recent work, as exemplified in his etchings, is inspired
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