DOI issue:
Werbung
DOI article:American studio talk
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26228#0193
^7/2<?7^'<f<272 57/////'o 71^2^
groups above named, I am made to feel an im-
pression of vast space and soiitude, as of the prairies
enveioping those Hgures ; not because they stir in me
a recoHection of the prairies, for I have none, but
because they speak to my imagination, and them-
selves create an image for me. I hnd them in a
word most extraordinary examples of impressionistic
scuipture; a yr<y<7.f of which iet us refer to Karl
Bitter's a hgure for the Hubbard me-
morial. It represents a nude youth, seated, with
arms drooping between his knees, and his hands
meeting round the handle of a sledge-hammer. A
languor circulates through the body and limbs, and
the head sinks back upon the neck, the beautiful
eyes being raised with a mingled expression of
weariness and longing. At the back of the figure
is a high panel terminating in a shallow vault, and
decorated on each side by a slender tree-stem with
round bunch of foliage; while an anvil, garlanded
with a wreath of roses and thorns, stands on the
right. The whole subject is treated with reverence
and deep feeling; it has the distinction of rehne-
ment both in conception and execution ; and speaks
home directly to heart and brain. Yet I question
if it has a power of moving one beyond the feel-
ings immediately excited; it is an idealization,
limited to a specihc range of sentiment and does
not supplement this with an appeal to farther flights
of imagination. Yet, this I feel is a conclusion
rather arbitrary and one which greater familiarity
with the statue nn'ght correct. For it is just this
point towards which I have been groping — will
familiarity increase or lessen the hold which the
figure makes upon one's imagination?
The <722c T-dAkw by Bela Pratt is a disappoint-
ment, after the promise which he gave sorne years
ago in the work which he did for the Congressional
Library. The figures are elongated even beyond
the decorative necessities, the modeling is un-
alluring, and the sentiment is rather dismal than
poignant. Nor clo 1-hnd in the tympanum for
St. Bartholomew's Church — a Madonna and Child,
framed in a wreath held by two kneeling angels —
the subtle qualities of beauty usually associated
with the art of Herbert Adams. To be frank, there
is a certain finickiness in the detail, a lack of quiet
decorative spacing in the composition, and of deli-
cate breadth in the- embroidery of light and shade,
that affects one with an impression of prettiness.
Again in the large portrait statue of William EHery
Channing there is a suspicion of affected grace in
the tilt forward of the figure upon one foot, and in
the elegant gesture of the right hand drawing the
gown in folds across the body. On the other hand,
in the portrait statue of Richard Smith, represented
in shirt and trousers, examining an object through
a glass, there is an entire reliance upon the facts,
stated with complete straightforwardness and sim-
plicity; a kind of realism too unalloyed, as some
may think, for sculptural dignity. In the statue of
Commodore Perkins, by Daniel C. French, the
frankest kind of statement has again been attempted
by the sculptor, and scarcely in justice to himself.
For Mr. French's strongest point is the impressing
upon his work a quiet stamp of personal elevation,
a reflex of his own character and artistic attitude
of mind. So he is relinquishing his happiest vein
when he tries to represent the bluff geniality of a
naval man. The character which he succeeds in
obtaining is rather commonplace, and takes no
account of more valuable qualities which the subject
must have possessed. His bust of PhiHips Brooks
is far more satisfactory; and better still the <y
<? Z<7</y—C<77'/<7//<?, for here we find ourselves defi-
nitely in touch with the highest qualities of Mr.
French's work : a nobility of pose and fine dignity
ofexpression ; qualities pre-eminent in the equestrian
statue of Washington, in which he cooperated with
Edward C. Potter.
The seated statue of Benjamin Franklin repre-
sents one of the happiest of John J. Boyle's efforts,
and was with little doubt the most notable portrait
in the recent exhibition ; most handsome in line
and mass; and persuasively complete in the render-
ing of character. Again in this last particular the
bust of J. Q. A. Ward, by Charles H. Nichaus, is
very notable ; a work severely free frotn any deco-
rative accompaniments, but which rivets one's
interest by its concentrated force of expression.
The same sculptor shows a colossal subject
Z?/-///^,* a nude man of powerful physique kneel-
ing to hold a drill, which he is about to strike with
a hammer, poised above his head. The figure is
naturalistically rendered, though in a broadly gen-
eralized -manner that creates a feeling of large im-
pressiveness, and it is further lifted from direct
realism by a sort of impersonal signihcance which
invests it with something of the isolation and iarge
allusion of a classical conception.
Mr. Ward himself has been assisted by Paul W.
Bartlett (whose grand statue of Michel Angelo was
seen again at this exhibition) in a very important
group to adorn the pediment of the new Stock
Exchange. It has superior qualities of decorative
value ; whether it is large enough in scale and feel-
ing for the position it is to occupy can be better
cv
groups above named, I am made to feel an im-
pression of vast space and soiitude, as of the prairies
enveioping those Hgures ; not because they stir in me
a recoHection of the prairies, for I have none, but
because they speak to my imagination, and them-
selves create an image for me. I hnd them in a
word most extraordinary examples of impressionistic
scuipture; a yr<y<7.f of which iet us refer to Karl
Bitter's a hgure for the Hubbard me-
morial. It represents a nude youth, seated, with
arms drooping between his knees, and his hands
meeting round the handle of a sledge-hammer. A
languor circulates through the body and limbs, and
the head sinks back upon the neck, the beautiful
eyes being raised with a mingled expression of
weariness and longing. At the back of the figure
is a high panel terminating in a shallow vault, and
decorated on each side by a slender tree-stem with
round bunch of foliage; while an anvil, garlanded
with a wreath of roses and thorns, stands on the
right. The whole subject is treated with reverence
and deep feeling; it has the distinction of rehne-
ment both in conception and execution ; and speaks
home directly to heart and brain. Yet I question
if it has a power of moving one beyond the feel-
ings immediately excited; it is an idealization,
limited to a specihc range of sentiment and does
not supplement this with an appeal to farther flights
of imagination. Yet, this I feel is a conclusion
rather arbitrary and one which greater familiarity
with the statue nn'ght correct. For it is just this
point towards which I have been groping — will
familiarity increase or lessen the hold which the
figure makes upon one's imagination?
The <722c T-dAkw by Bela Pratt is a disappoint-
ment, after the promise which he gave sorne years
ago in the work which he did for the Congressional
Library. The figures are elongated even beyond
the decorative necessities, the modeling is un-
alluring, and the sentiment is rather dismal than
poignant. Nor clo 1-hnd in the tympanum for
St. Bartholomew's Church — a Madonna and Child,
framed in a wreath held by two kneeling angels —
the subtle qualities of beauty usually associated
with the art of Herbert Adams. To be frank, there
is a certain finickiness in the detail, a lack of quiet
decorative spacing in the composition, and of deli-
cate breadth in the- embroidery of light and shade,
that affects one with an impression of prettiness.
Again in the large portrait statue of William EHery
Channing there is a suspicion of affected grace in
the tilt forward of the figure upon one foot, and in
the elegant gesture of the right hand drawing the
gown in folds across the body. On the other hand,
in the portrait statue of Richard Smith, represented
in shirt and trousers, examining an object through
a glass, there is an entire reliance upon the facts,
stated with complete straightforwardness and sim-
plicity; a kind of realism too unalloyed, as some
may think, for sculptural dignity. In the statue of
Commodore Perkins, by Daniel C. French, the
frankest kind of statement has again been attempted
by the sculptor, and scarcely in justice to himself.
For Mr. French's strongest point is the impressing
upon his work a quiet stamp of personal elevation,
a reflex of his own character and artistic attitude
of mind. So he is relinquishing his happiest vein
when he tries to represent the bluff geniality of a
naval man. The character which he succeeds in
obtaining is rather commonplace, and takes no
account of more valuable qualities which the subject
must have possessed. His bust of PhiHips Brooks
is far more satisfactory; and better still the <y
<? Z<7</y—C<77'/<7//<?, for here we find ourselves defi-
nitely in touch with the highest qualities of Mr.
French's work : a nobility of pose and fine dignity
ofexpression ; qualities pre-eminent in the equestrian
statue of Washington, in which he cooperated with
Edward C. Potter.
The seated statue of Benjamin Franklin repre-
sents one of the happiest of John J. Boyle's efforts,
and was with little doubt the most notable portrait
in the recent exhibition ; most handsome in line
and mass; and persuasively complete in the render-
ing of character. Again in this last particular the
bust of J. Q. A. Ward, by Charles H. Nichaus, is
very notable ; a work severely free frotn any deco-
rative accompaniments, but which rivets one's
interest by its concentrated force of expression.
The same sculptor shows a colossal subject
Z?/-///^,* a nude man of powerful physique kneel-
ing to hold a drill, which he is about to strike with
a hammer, poised above his head. The figure is
naturalistically rendered, though in a broadly gen-
eralized -manner that creates a feeling of large im-
pressiveness, and it is further lifted from direct
realism by a sort of impersonal signihcance which
invests it with something of the isolation and iarge
allusion of a classical conception.
Mr. Ward himself has been assisted by Paul W.
Bartlett (whose grand statue of Michel Angelo was
seen again at this exhibition) in a very important
group to adorn the pediment of the new Stock
Exchange. It has superior qualities of decorative
value ; whether it is large enough in scale and feel-
ing for the position it is to occupy can be better
cv