International studio (25.1905)

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PLAN OF THE BUNGALOW AT SUTTON-ON-SEA
/^'CONVERSATIONS WITH
# ADOLF VON MENZEL. BY
\_JOTTOMAR BETA.
Hts EXCELLENCY—he was the only artist thus
distinguished in Germany, and least in need of
it—had asked me to come to see him. This
was an extraordinary occurrence. The then octo-
genarian was always as solitary; as a lighthouse-
keeper, up four Rights in a Berlin " sky-scraper,"
called "Miethscaserne," near the park, or "Thier-
garten." But he had been persuaded to take sides
in a discussion with the director of the Academy,
Anton von Werner, whose spokesman I had been
in the "Deutsche Revue" (1898 and '99). The
" Progressives " were encroaching upon the sacred
precincts of that venerable establishment. They
were said to be ignorant reprobates, mostly colour-
blind, who, after having failed in every other
decent vocation, even that of authorship, imagined
themselves called upon to revolutionise the laws
of perception and artistic representation. The
Academy, in its present state, they argued, would

obliterate their natural
genius.
And His Excellency
took sides — but as an
umpire. In fact, he
sided with the young,
as well as with the old.
He exhibited his pic-
tures both at the acade-
mical and with
the Liebermann coterie,
under the wing of
Cassirer, where at the
time of his death his
great cartoon, called the
Cassel cartoon, which
has never been painted,
was being exhibited.
His Excellency was too
diplomatically trained
and too just to con-
demn the good with the
evil.
" I am either a thorn
in their side," said His
Excellency, having
opened the door to me
in person, after I had
W. GLEAVE, ARCHITECT , , ^
rung the bell for a
quarter of an hour, " or
I am put up as an example in argument.
" It is quite true that I went the Academy
myself when I came from Breslau in 1830 and
rushed into paint, picking up crumbs as a litho-
grapher, with six younger brothers and sisters at
home to assist. But my father had been an artist
before me and had been my teacher. True, also,
I have my own way of painting, and it is good
enough for ?w."
I thought it pleasant to interpolate a remark :
" Herr von Werner said, ' If our young people
were all Menzels we should not be in need of an
Academy at all.'"
" Very kind of him," the octogenarian continued ;
" but I have had to pay dearly for my independent
spirit. Look at those pictures of mine in the
National Gallery and in the Castle (' Alte Schloss ')
—a/ a 2*
.SaMLKw/, ZX<? -Z?<z#A ZAv/MAirA They are
opaque and shrivelled. I began with inundating
my paints with hot oil and other vehicles; and
that is very dangerous. Later I abolished
everything of that sort. I have no secrets like
Gussow and Bocklin, with their amber-varnish and

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