DOI issue:
No. 91 (Septemner, 1904)
DOI article:Singer, Hans Wolfgang: The fine arts and horticultural exhibition at Düsseldorf
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26962#0309
Dusseldorf Exhibition
paints old towns, as does also A. Dircks, who varies
these themes with marine subjects. Wilhelm
Schmurr deserves particular notice. The portrait
which he calls The Profile is painted in fine, silvery
subdued, and harmonious tones. The Study of a
Nude is the same girl, her brilliant auburn hair
contrasting effectively with the beautiful flesh
colouring. The author rather whimsically gives
this painting the title Beauty of Form. At first
sight such a simple study after the nude seems
scarcely a thing of any great importance, yet in this
very exhibition one need only compare it with
two somewhat similar pictures, the Despair by
L. Kunfy and Carolus-Duran’s Reverie,
to become aware of its superior artistic
qualities, even in the simple matter of
pose. The pictures namedarequite insipid
by the side of Schmurr’s painting.
Funck’s Beside the Death-Bed is full
of fine feeling, and a picture of which
one may say that it is remarkably
well painted in the best sense of the
phrase. The light-blue boarding of the
bed, the deal wall, and the floor are
handled with that superior taste which
knows just how far it may go before
becoming over-elaborated, and in which
such geniuses as the great Delft Vander-
meer and Pieter de Hoogh were noble
exponents.
The promising sculptor, Hugo Leven,
has a room to himself, in which we find
most interesting bronzes and other
pieces of cabinet-sculpture. I ought
also not to omit mention of a small
room, with furniture and decorations de-
signed by Wilhelm Faiser, executed by
Messrs. A. H. Schipperges Sohne of
Kleinenbroich.
The horticultural exhibition is a great
and unexpected disappointment. One
would have expected that the committee
in charge, having such extensive grounds
at their disposal, magnificently located
along the Rhine, would have made a
series of attempts at laying-out modern
gardens. Of course they would have
been gardens on a more or less reduced
scale, yet they might have served to
display new ideas of treatment. Not a
single attempt of this kind has been
made, if we except an effort by Peter
Behrens, which is rather better than
many others of his designs for house
decoration and furniture, the principal interest of
which, however, consists rather in details than in a
general plan.
There is a big building with a series of dioramic
views of gardens in the past, from the “ paradise ”
down to nineteenth century gardens. But my
feeling is that such dioramas are hardly to be taken
seriously. There are numbers of the usual palm-
houses and such things, and from time to time
great shows of orchids, roses, etc, are held for
a day or two. But this is all. The one thing
which people interested in art really look for
—something in the direction of new garden
“THE PROFILE” BY WILHELM SCHMURR
*37
paints old towns, as does also A. Dircks, who varies
these themes with marine subjects. Wilhelm
Schmurr deserves particular notice. The portrait
which he calls The Profile is painted in fine, silvery
subdued, and harmonious tones. The Study of a
Nude is the same girl, her brilliant auburn hair
contrasting effectively with the beautiful flesh
colouring. The author rather whimsically gives
this painting the title Beauty of Form. At first
sight such a simple study after the nude seems
scarcely a thing of any great importance, yet in this
very exhibition one need only compare it with
two somewhat similar pictures, the Despair by
L. Kunfy and Carolus-Duran’s Reverie,
to become aware of its superior artistic
qualities, even in the simple matter of
pose. The pictures namedarequite insipid
by the side of Schmurr’s painting.
Funck’s Beside the Death-Bed is full
of fine feeling, and a picture of which
one may say that it is remarkably
well painted in the best sense of the
phrase. The light-blue boarding of the
bed, the deal wall, and the floor are
handled with that superior taste which
knows just how far it may go before
becoming over-elaborated, and in which
such geniuses as the great Delft Vander-
meer and Pieter de Hoogh were noble
exponents.
The promising sculptor, Hugo Leven,
has a room to himself, in which we find
most interesting bronzes and other
pieces of cabinet-sculpture. I ought
also not to omit mention of a small
room, with furniture and decorations de-
signed by Wilhelm Faiser, executed by
Messrs. A. H. Schipperges Sohne of
Kleinenbroich.
The horticultural exhibition is a great
and unexpected disappointment. One
would have expected that the committee
in charge, having such extensive grounds
at their disposal, magnificently located
along the Rhine, would have made a
series of attempts at laying-out modern
gardens. Of course they would have
been gardens on a more or less reduced
scale, yet they might have served to
display new ideas of treatment. Not a
single attempt of this kind has been
made, if we except an effort by Peter
Behrens, which is rather better than
many others of his designs for house
decoration and furniture, the principal interest of
which, however, consists rather in details than in a
general plan.
There is a big building with a series of dioramic
views of gardens in the past, from the “ paradise ”
down to nineteenth century gardens. But my
feeling is that such dioramas are hardly to be taken
seriously. There are numbers of the usual palm-
houses and such things, and from time to time
great shows of orchids, roses, etc, are held for
a day or two. But this is all. The one thing
which people interested in art really look for
—something in the direction of new garden
“THE PROFILE” BY WILHELM SCHMURR
*37