International studio (16.1902)

Robert Sterl

of saints when presented as vagabonds, or of
Danae’s charms when disclosed in the form of a
charwoman. The allegorical triptych of the Belgian
Le'on Frederic, now in the Brussels Gallery, repre-
sents, perhaps, the climax of the period.
When the time came, Sterl took to “poor folk,”
along with the rest, yet not so savagely, if I may
be allowed the expression, as most of the others.
The issue alone would prove this. Frederic, for
example, now no longer paints poverty. To Sterl it
has been more than a passing freak.
To paint or carve “poor folk ” for a public that
has lost its naivete so completely as th e living age is
not an easy matter. To-day, Constantin Meunier
is one of the foremost, if not the foremost, in the
field. Yet when we look upon his magnificent

work can we quite repress the feeling that at
heart he does not only want to captivate us f°r
his work, but also for the folk whom he uses as
models ? Sterl would be the first to rebuke me it
I were to draw an unfavourable comparison, and
yet I cannot help thinking that he has avoided a
pit into which many have fallen. He has succeeded
in presenting the “poor folk” without either evok-
ing our compassion or our disgust, pressing them
into the service of artistic ideas solely.
He chose as his models the working people m
the sandstone quarries along the Elbe. Soff>e
pictures show us groups being paid off, or return-
ing home in the evening, or repairing to the.
tavern; others, single types of working men °r
their womenfolk. What they are doing does


“AT WORK
236

FROM A DRAWING BY ROBERT STEK1'