International studio (15.1901/1902(1902))

The Darmstadt Artists Colony

of furniture, the response is a sigh. “ There
is no simple modern furniture,” he declares.
“ It is either beyond one’s means or doesn’t
fit into the home and the life of ordinary man.”
Those who thus relieve their feelings by sighs,
not always without cause, will, to judge by his
work in the Darmstadt Colony, find in Patriz
Huber a ready helper, and will derive from his
interiors the conviction that simple middle-class
furniture may be produced which will meet modern
art requirements. Middle-class — burgerlich — the
word is very expressive of a certain kind of interior
architecture. And if we seek for another signifi-
cant word, “ German ” soon suggests itself.
“ Middle class ” and “German”—this is indeed
the tendency in all the rooms of Habich’s house,
of Gliickert’s house, and in the bachelors’ dwellings
which have been designed by Huber in the Colony.
Now, the word “ German ”—in using which we have
to take in all shades of Germanism from the utmost
north to the extreme south, including Munich art,
for instance, but excluding that of the Viennese—

naturally comprises a great range of peculiarities,
of typical values. Essentially “ German ” is
Heinrich Vogeler, the painter and etcher of
Worpswede, who often designs furniture, in his
graceful yet angular manner. “ German,” too, was
the entire “ Biedermaier ” style. “ German,” too,
the fashion of richly - carved furniture; and
“ German ” the desire to live as the French and
Italians of former centuries lived. But when I
apply the epithets “ German ” and “middle-class ”
to Huber’s interiors much is expressed. In the
first place the artist is conscious of the fact that
he is raising dwellings and designing furniture
for ordinary men. He begins by excluding
extravagance in colour and outline. His aim is
comfort combined with agreeable effect. Of course
he is also endeavouring to found a new style.
Only he seeks his effects less by designing rooms
strongly individual—individual, that is, as regards
the inmates—than by inventing new forms for typical
furniture. Any number of people could live in
Gluckert’s house; even Habich’s house, which has

BEDROOM

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DESIGNED BY PATEIZ HUBER