DOI issue:
No. 82 (December, 1903)
DOI article:American studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26230#0218
.SY2^2(7 71?/^
the delicate web of the composition, in fact, being
strained to tenuosity. The later one is built up
with more regard for the architectonics of a deco-
ration, and strikes a more jubilant note ; yet one en-
tirely free from passion or depth of appeal; while it
lacks the spontaneousness of the other frieze and is
a more labored production. The charm of both
consists in the refined grace of all the figures, in the
variety and freshness of their pose and gesture,
and in the purity and loveliness of the color. One
may recognize these qualities and yet feel that they
are more characteristically exhibited in the artist's
less ambitious works.
Memorable among these are his studies in Venice,
the pen drawings made in r88o and the water-
colors which he executed during his second visit,
the following year; and, particularly, the drawings,
pastels, and paintings, which were the fruits of his
visit to Japan. To make this pilgrimage had been
the dream of his life, one that appeared to him un-
realizable ; but the opportunity came in 1890, when
he was commissioned to accompany Sir Edwin
Arnold, in Order to illustrate the latter's work,
" Japonica."
" Can I give you an idea of Japan?" he wrote to
a friend at that time. " No, I 'm afraid not. I ex-
pected much of it; I expected to be interested,
fascinated. I was faintly prepared even to find the
reality go beyond my expectations, but I was hardly
prepared to drop into a new world! And yet a
world, I find, with which I was not altogether un-
familiar; the thousand and one things that go to
make up life having in a way become familiär to me
through its art. I am only brought face to face with
the living reality of it. But it is this fact which be-
wilders and benumbs one's senses. It is this reality
that is so eluding, overwhelming! You will find
nothing to guide you in forming a comparison with
what you may have seen or feit before. Life is on a
different plane. If one could make comparisons, it
would have to be with such dead civilizations as
those of Greece and Egypt. Can you fancy what a
living dream it all is? I have seen enough, feit
enough here, to come to the conclusion that life
FASTEL
BY ROBERT BLUM
clxxxv
the delicate web of the composition, in fact, being
strained to tenuosity. The later one is built up
with more regard for the architectonics of a deco-
ration, and strikes a more jubilant note ; yet one en-
tirely free from passion or depth of appeal; while it
lacks the spontaneousness of the other frieze and is
a more labored production. The charm of both
consists in the refined grace of all the figures, in the
variety and freshness of their pose and gesture,
and in the purity and loveliness of the color. One
may recognize these qualities and yet feel that they
are more characteristically exhibited in the artist's
less ambitious works.
Memorable among these are his studies in Venice,
the pen drawings made in r88o and the water-
colors which he executed during his second visit,
the following year; and, particularly, the drawings,
pastels, and paintings, which were the fruits of his
visit to Japan. To make this pilgrimage had been
the dream of his life, one that appeared to him un-
realizable ; but the opportunity came in 1890, when
he was commissioned to accompany Sir Edwin
Arnold, in Order to illustrate the latter's work,
" Japonica."
" Can I give you an idea of Japan?" he wrote to
a friend at that time. " No, I 'm afraid not. I ex-
pected much of it; I expected to be interested,
fascinated. I was faintly prepared even to find the
reality go beyond my expectations, but I was hardly
prepared to drop into a new world! And yet a
world, I find, with which I was not altogether un-
familiar; the thousand and one things that go to
make up life having in a way become familiär to me
through its art. I am only brought face to face with
the living reality of it. But it is this fact which be-
wilders and benumbs one's senses. It is this reality
that is so eluding, overwhelming! You will find
nothing to guide you in forming a comparison with
what you may have seen or feit before. Life is on a
different plane. If one could make comparisons, it
would have to be with such dead civilizations as
those of Greece and Egypt. Can you fancy what a
living dream it all is? I have seen enough, feit
enough here, to come to the conclusion that life
FASTEL
BY ROBERT BLUM
clxxxv