DOI Heft:
No. 117 (November, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28250#0100
Studio-Talk
he too now sees the artistic possibilities of the gas-
lighted music-hall. And Shinn has learnt another
thing from Degas ; he has learnt how to draw. Look
over his many portfolios of studies and sketches
made from the nude — ideas and suggestions
executed with that congenial medium, red chalk—
and you will see drawings powerful in their draughts-
manship, studies entirely free from all taint of the
academic, drawings that proclaim him to be an artist
possessing really great gifts.
Shinn is a master of the pastel; he knows tho-
roughly both the possibilities and the limitations
of his medium. The material is never
strained in endeavouring to get too much
out of it; and if technically his pastels are
great achievements, pictorially are they also.
Look at the picture which the artist has
called Matinee Crowd., Broadway, a charac-
teristic example of the artist’s work. What
movement there is in this drawing. How
the people are scurrying along in the face
of the snow and wintry blast. How the
snow sweeps and swirls up the icy avenue.
Also, what movement there is in the
pastel of the girl on the trapeze. She is
fairly swinging through the air.
In the two pastels entitled A French
Music Hall and Outdoor Stage, France,
we also have two admirable examples of
the artist’s work in this direction. He
has grasped and preserved the very spirit
and life of these scenes for our edification.
Very real they are : we might almost im-
agine ourselves looking in upon the actual
scene. Much is lost in the reproduction,
as the artist’s daring use of colour is not
disclosed, but even in the small photo-
graphs they appear very vivid. A little
picture, done in pastel, of Gramercy Park,
New York’s only private square, a seductive
gradation of wonderful tones, gives us a
beautiful nocturnal effect, but is unfortu-
nately too sombre to submit to reproduc-
tion ; a misty evening effect on the broad
East River, with gem-like lights in the
distance, is too ethereal for that purpose.
Some time ago Shinn put eighteen of
his paintings in oil on exhibition at a New
York gallery, and very interesting they
proved to be. The artist is still rather
new to oils, and in consequence his paint-
86
ings are occasionally somewhat raw, but they hold
out every expectation for great work in the future,
when he becomes more familiar with his medium.
Some French stage scenes done in this medium
are extremely clever, and the decorative painting
(page 84), which owes so much to Fragonard, is
a notable bit of composition and colour. These
paintings are as vigorously executed as the pastels :
they have the same daring colour schemes, painted
with a full and rapidly manipulated brush. But
what they lack is the spark of real genius which
has gone into the making of the pastels : their
models are too apparent.
EVERETT L. SHINN SKETCHED FROM LIFE BY
CHARLES DANA GIBSON
he too now sees the artistic possibilities of the gas-
lighted music-hall. And Shinn has learnt another
thing from Degas ; he has learnt how to draw. Look
over his many portfolios of studies and sketches
made from the nude — ideas and suggestions
executed with that congenial medium, red chalk—
and you will see drawings powerful in their draughts-
manship, studies entirely free from all taint of the
academic, drawings that proclaim him to be an artist
possessing really great gifts.
Shinn is a master of the pastel; he knows tho-
roughly both the possibilities and the limitations
of his medium. The material is never
strained in endeavouring to get too much
out of it; and if technically his pastels are
great achievements, pictorially are they also.
Look at the picture which the artist has
called Matinee Crowd., Broadway, a charac-
teristic example of the artist’s work. What
movement there is in this drawing. How
the people are scurrying along in the face
of the snow and wintry blast. How the
snow sweeps and swirls up the icy avenue.
Also, what movement there is in the
pastel of the girl on the trapeze. She is
fairly swinging through the air.
In the two pastels entitled A French
Music Hall and Outdoor Stage, France,
we also have two admirable examples of
the artist’s work in this direction. He
has grasped and preserved the very spirit
and life of these scenes for our edification.
Very real they are : we might almost im-
agine ourselves looking in upon the actual
scene. Much is lost in the reproduction,
as the artist’s daring use of colour is not
disclosed, but even in the small photo-
graphs they appear very vivid. A little
picture, done in pastel, of Gramercy Park,
New York’s only private square, a seductive
gradation of wonderful tones, gives us a
beautiful nocturnal effect, but is unfortu-
nately too sombre to submit to reproduc-
tion ; a misty evening effect on the broad
East River, with gem-like lights in the
distance, is too ethereal for that purpose.
Some time ago Shinn put eighteen of
his paintings in oil on exhibition at a New
York gallery, and very interesting they
proved to be. The artist is still rather
new to oils, and in consequence his paint-
86
ings are occasionally somewhat raw, but they hold
out every expectation for great work in the future,
when he becomes more familiar with his medium.
Some French stage scenes done in this medium
are extremely clever, and the decorative painting
(page 84), which owes so much to Fragonard, is
a notable bit of composition and colour. These
paintings are as vigorously executed as the pastels :
they have the same daring colour schemes, painted
with a full and rapidly manipulated brush. But
what they lack is the spark of real genius which
has gone into the making of the pastels : their
models are too apparent.
EVERETT L. SHINN SKETCHED FROM LIFE BY
CHARLES DANA GIBSON