DOI Heft:
No. 65 (July, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22774#0073
Studio-Talk
“innocents abroad”
(See Philadelphia Studio- Talk)j
BY J. S. SARGENT, R.A.
What their subjects? What the general aim of
their work ? The recent show is an answer to all
these queries, at least a partial answer, and, to all
intents and purposes, that answer, as far as it goes,
is a satisfactory one. There has been, during the
last few years, a kind of pause in art-production at
Munich, and what has been done lately has not
been quite up to the level of the traditions of the
past. The old keen appreciation of nature seems
to have been to some extent in abeyance, and
the exquisite harmony of colour, which was one
of the most marked characteristics of the modern
school, has been replaced by a reversion to the
old monotonous and gloomy uniformity, at one
time so universally adopted, yet in spite of
which every artist had an individual style of
his own ; or, in the case of the few excep-
tions to this rule, formed himself on the style
of some well-accredited master. Great as have
been the difficulties witli which the younger men
have had to contend, there is now no doubt that
those difficulties have been or are in a fair way to
be overcome, and it is only in the work of some
few of the older members of the Society that the
faults referred to above are noticeable. On every
side we are met with examples of an earnest stud
and careful observation of the moods of nature,
and an honest endeavour faithfully to reproduce
them. Indeed, this devotion to nature is, if
possible, sometimes carried too far; resulting in
a certain loss of individuality in the artist, and
the critic is tempted to ask: have these young
men no opinions of their own to express, or
is technical excellence their one and only aim ?
Is their imagination lying altogether fallow ?
Is their ambition altogether in abeyance ? Have
they no yearning after personal distinction, no
original ideas to which they are eager to give
voice in beautiful form and colour? A merely
superficial observer might say that all these indict-
ments are proved, and on the strength of that
unfair decision prophesy evil things for the art of
Munich. Those, on the other hand, who have
watched for the last few years the development of
the art-school of the Capital realise only too well
what self-abnegation on the part of these young
painters is implied by this readiness of theirs to
restrain their owm imagination and seek to give
first a purely impersonal rendering of what they see,
rather than impressions coloured by the passage
through their own minds. German artists in
general, not only those of modern Munich, have
59
“innocents abroad”
(See Philadelphia Studio- Talk)j
BY J. S. SARGENT, R.A.
What their subjects? What the general aim of
their work ? The recent show is an answer to all
these queries, at least a partial answer, and, to all
intents and purposes, that answer, as far as it goes,
is a satisfactory one. There has been, during the
last few years, a kind of pause in art-production at
Munich, and what has been done lately has not
been quite up to the level of the traditions of the
past. The old keen appreciation of nature seems
to have been to some extent in abeyance, and
the exquisite harmony of colour, which was one
of the most marked characteristics of the modern
school, has been replaced by a reversion to the
old monotonous and gloomy uniformity, at one
time so universally adopted, yet in spite of
which every artist had an individual style of
his own ; or, in the case of the few excep-
tions to this rule, formed himself on the style
of some well-accredited master. Great as have
been the difficulties witli which the younger men
have had to contend, there is now no doubt that
those difficulties have been or are in a fair way to
be overcome, and it is only in the work of some
few of the older members of the Society that the
faults referred to above are noticeable. On every
side we are met with examples of an earnest stud
and careful observation of the moods of nature,
and an honest endeavour faithfully to reproduce
them. Indeed, this devotion to nature is, if
possible, sometimes carried too far; resulting in
a certain loss of individuality in the artist, and
the critic is tempted to ask: have these young
men no opinions of their own to express, or
is technical excellence their one and only aim ?
Is their imagination lying altogether fallow ?
Is their ambition altogether in abeyance ? Have
they no yearning after personal distinction, no
original ideas to which they are eager to give
voice in beautiful form and colour? A merely
superficial observer might say that all these indict-
ments are proved, and on the strength of that
unfair decision prophesy evil things for the art of
Munich. Those, on the other hand, who have
watched for the last few years the development of
the art-school of the Capital realise only too well
what self-abnegation on the part of these young
painters is implied by this readiness of theirs to
restrain their owm imagination and seek to give
first a purely impersonal rendering of what they see,
rather than impressions coloured by the passage
through their own minds. German artists in
general, not only those of modern Munich, have
59