International studio (15.1901/1902(1902))

Studio-Talk

Mr. F. E. Laszlo’s admirable sketch-portrait of
the Hungarian Minister of Education.

DRESDEN.—Hermann Hultzsch, several
of whose works are here reproduced,
was born at Dresden in 1837. At
the age of fourteen he entered the
Academy of Arts and became a pupil of Rietschel,
the eminent sculptor, remaining in his studio till
Rietschel’s death in 1861. Later, through the
influence of Mr. Gruner, formerly secretary to
the Prince Consort, he was commissioned by
Queen Victoria to execute a statue of the Prophet
Ezekiel; and this work was completed, after two
years’ work in Rome, in 1866. It now stands in
the Mausoleum at Frogmore. On his return to
Dresden, Hermann Hultzsch worked in his own

“the huntress” by h. hultzsch

pleasing kind of constructive common sense, having
nothing in common with a luxury-bred taste for
gewgaws of trivial ornamentation. But it is neces-
sary to add here that English critics, in their attitude
to Hungarian and Austrian craftsmanship, must
make allowance for the effects produced on a new
style by national traditions and by racial tendencies
of temperament. These influences, potent in all
countries, cause nations to attach very different
meanings to the phrase “constructive common-
sense,” “ simplicity in constructive design.” The
significance that an English craftsman finds in it
may seem bald to a Hungarian, unsympathetic to
a German, and as barbarous to a Parisian as Shake-
speare was to Voltaire. Yet there are in Hungary,
as in other parts of continental Europe, some crafts-
men whose feelings as to simplicity in design seem
to be of true English descent. A good example
of this at Budapest is found in the work of Mr. E.
Wiegand, whose Study Hold-All (p. 206) is a
piece of furniture which might have been planned
by an English designer.

We have pleasure in giving a reproduction of

STATUE

BY H. HULTZSCH
20Q