International studio (25.1905)

been so, brown and grey with very little other
colouring.
Both Herr and Frau Mediz look for new ground
and out-of-the-way corners for work. They are
both so fond of rich colouring that they seek
those parts of the earth where Nature is most
profuse in her gifts. They have both endured
the blaze of the sun on the highest points of
the Dolomites and other ranges of the South
Tyrolean mountains, often spending days on
their heights, at different periods of the year,
with no one near, and sleeping under the blue
canopy of heaven. In their open-air existence
they have learned the true shades of the rays
of the sun as they fall ' upon earth; and so
they know full well all the tones, from orange
to violet, and from violet to orange.
One of Frau Mediz's pictures in is of an
underground river in the cave of St. Canzian, near
Trieste. It is very dramatic and also very weird.
The colours arising from the misty cave throw a
purple shade on the deep green waters of the Recca,
a river scarcely perceptible from above. She
relates how torturing it was to paint; there were

' CYPRESSES

storms of wind always beating across the entrance,
and blowing the canvas here and there, while
she had to beat back the bats with her maulstick.
She was obliged to climb down unknown and
untrod paths; only here and there did she find a
footing, and in another cave she was forced to live.
Before finishing her picture, in order to get the right
reflex from above she climbed a hill over thirteen
hundred feet high twice a day. This is endurance
for art indeed ! The colouring of this picture is
very entrancing. Depict to yourself the clear deep
greens of the waters and soft reds of the rocks, and
behind them the dark cave through which the
waters How; and the contrast to the ice blues of
the glaciers on the Gross Glockner, with the warm
mossy red stones and the grey-blue mists. This
picture also was painted under terrible hardships :
five weeks in a little hut on the mountain, and not
even a bed upon which to stretch her weary limbs
—nothing but the bare ground. This is, indeed,
working for art, and the result is very gratifying.
On the face of the earth, too, they seek unbeaten
paths. The 7^ 7^73 by Karl Mediz,
was also painted on the mountains, the men stand-
ing on a piece of rock,
behind them the glaciers :
four men, the oldest ninety
years, with full white
beard reaching to his knee,
leaning on his mountain
stick, the others not much
younger, all weather-
beaten and wearing that
strange look peculiar to
those who spend their lives
in the higher regions.
There is not a detail
forgotten. In
C by Karl
Mediz, we have those
thickly grown pines, al-
ways found in the South
growing in thick forests
near the rocks. The trees
are larger than in nature,
which makes the repre-
sentation more effective.
In the distance we see
heavy thunder clouds
sweeping along. The rocks
are of variegated red and
the sea deep green with a
red reHex. Both husband
BY KARL MEDiz and wife are fond of