DOI issue:
No. 95 (January, 1905)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26963#0339
Studio-Talk
it is scarcely to be wondered at that he is less known
than he deserves to be, according to his merit.
Ege has braved the dangers of the malaria coast
and the heat and fevers of Southern Italy in search
of picturesque spots, always displayingan inclination,
not altogether common in our day, towards such as
are haunted by interesting old memories. One of
his most clever canvases shows us that stretch of
the Fluvio Busento where, according to—is it
history or myth ?—Alaric was buried, in armour
and on his steed. Another shows us the site of the
“ Sabinum ” of Horace, on Mount Lucretilis. The
painting Along Virgilian Shores takes us farther
south to the Punta Palinuro, opposite to which
Aeneas’ pilot is supposed to have dropped into the
sea, after having fallen asleep at the helm of his ship.
When we come to investigate Professor Ege’s
aims as a painter pure and simple, they are
nothing less than an attempt to rejuvenate what
was once admired and has since been ridiculed
under the name of “Heroic Landscape.” The quon-
dam admiration was contemporaneous with the rise
of the art itself, and was governed by an appre-
ciative feeling for what the men from Koch down
to Preller aimed at. The ridicule was more recent,
and was the result of our perceiving how utterly
inadequate were the technical equipments of these
men. But though they failed, there is no say-
ing that such an art as an Heroic Landscape
art is an impossibility. It is doubtless feasible to
elevate the style of landscape painting to a stage
above naturalism without becoming bombastic.
And it must be possible, likewise, to people such
landscapes with figures taken from antique history
or myth, without sinking the painter-like qualities of
the work altogether into the story. In short, one
can well imagine a Nicolas
Poussin of our day, though
as far as I know he has
not yet come.
As to Professor Ege,
he himself is the last to
believe that he has already
come any way near that
goal. The first step towards
it is to obtain mastery
over technical difficulties,
and with what Ege ex-
hibits this time, he only
desires to show that he is
to be taken seriously as
one who looks at landscape
with the eye of a modern
painter and has a modern
painter’s command over
his materials. All the
pictures but the one named
Along Virgilian Shores
are only studies, and even
that one, though already
indicating in what fashion
he is going to try to
evolve a style, is a paint-
ing without figures.
The numerous studies
are all very fresh and
spirited. The brush work
is free, but it is not so
267
“PEASANT IN THE SABINE MOUNTAINS
BY EBERHARD EGE
it is scarcely to be wondered at that he is less known
than he deserves to be, according to his merit.
Ege has braved the dangers of the malaria coast
and the heat and fevers of Southern Italy in search
of picturesque spots, always displayingan inclination,
not altogether common in our day, towards such as
are haunted by interesting old memories. One of
his most clever canvases shows us that stretch of
the Fluvio Busento where, according to—is it
history or myth ?—Alaric was buried, in armour
and on his steed. Another shows us the site of the
“ Sabinum ” of Horace, on Mount Lucretilis. The
painting Along Virgilian Shores takes us farther
south to the Punta Palinuro, opposite to which
Aeneas’ pilot is supposed to have dropped into the
sea, after having fallen asleep at the helm of his ship.
When we come to investigate Professor Ege’s
aims as a painter pure and simple, they are
nothing less than an attempt to rejuvenate what
was once admired and has since been ridiculed
under the name of “Heroic Landscape.” The quon-
dam admiration was contemporaneous with the rise
of the art itself, and was governed by an appre-
ciative feeling for what the men from Koch down
to Preller aimed at. The ridicule was more recent,
and was the result of our perceiving how utterly
inadequate were the technical equipments of these
men. But though they failed, there is no say-
ing that such an art as an Heroic Landscape
art is an impossibility. It is doubtless feasible to
elevate the style of landscape painting to a stage
above naturalism without becoming bombastic.
And it must be possible, likewise, to people such
landscapes with figures taken from antique history
or myth, without sinking the painter-like qualities of
the work altogether into the story. In short, one
can well imagine a Nicolas
Poussin of our day, though
as far as I know he has
not yet come.
As to Professor Ege,
he himself is the last to
believe that he has already
come any way near that
goal. The first step towards
it is to obtain mastery
over technical difficulties,
and with what Ege ex-
hibits this time, he only
desires to show that he is
to be taken seriously as
one who looks at landscape
with the eye of a modern
painter and has a modern
painter’s command over
his materials. All the
pictures but the one named
Along Virgilian Shores
are only studies, and even
that one, though already
indicating in what fashion
he is going to try to
evolve a style, is a paint-
ing without figures.
The numerous studies
are all very fresh and
spirited. The brush work
is free, but it is not so
267
“PEASANT IN THE SABINE MOUNTAINS
BY EBERHARD EGE