International studio (30.1906/1907(1907))

Henri Teixeira de Matt os

in the- seventies, Rome was still the goal of the
sculptor, though her repute as a finishing-school
for the painter had not only suffered shock, but
was in ruins.
In Rome the young fellow took a studio and,
having but a slender purse, persuaded people to
sit to him for their portraits, hiring when he could
a model on his own account. But here he was to
suffer the second great disillusion of his career.
He slowly came to realise that the art of sculpture
in Rome was in utter decay—the life gone wholly
out of it. In her academy every pupil had to
begin at the elements, and the prospect fretted
him. He therefore set himself to self-education in
his craftsmanship, and pitted his strength against
his fellows. He naturally strove to excel in what
others were doing.
He wrought little figures of Cinderella and such-
like statuettes. These soon found ready purchasers.
The demand grew. He
soon had plenty of such
wrork to do. For days he
would work upon carving
the details of lace collars
and shawls, or the minute
flowers in a girl’s hair. He
mastered the whole bag
of tricks—veils, brocaded
gowns, and the rest. In
the modelling and carving
of these things the weeks
stole away from under his
feet. The standard every-
where was the marketable
value of the thing done.
For three years young
Teixeira de Mattos went
with the tide, to arouse
from his industry at last
but to find that he had
been swept into the stream
of the commonplace, and
was sinking with the rest.
He awoke, weary of the
whole business, and dis-
satisfied with himself.
His twenty-second year
saw him packing back to
his native land. Yet he
did not leave Rome wholly
barren — he had had the
great advantage of learning
to work in the marble.
He now took a studio
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in Amsterdam, determined to be done with
schooling, and to shed all foreign influence. But
he found it no such easy matter to rid himself
of the Italian methods, in which his hand and eye
had become so facile. His Cinderella had been
bought by a resident in Rotterdam; indeed,
this sort of statuary was in the prevailing taste
in Holland as much as in Italy. The temptation
to win easy success was too great for a young
artist who had his name to make, and the young
fellow gave in for awhile to the fashion that he
had made, and his Eh bien !—a coquette with a
fan—was followed by the Deluge of his thirtieth
year; in fact, it took eight years of his life to rid
his craftsmanship of what he had learnt in three
years in Italy.
The sculptor was far from satisfied, yet his
success only increased the temptation to keep to
the path that seemed easy to his feet. He had


BY HENRI TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS