International studio (32.1907)

Talashkino

searches, thanks to the birth of a truly nationalist
artistic movement, exempt, however, from all trace
of Chauvinism, this great truth was, so to speak,
discovered that Russia has not the least need to
seek her inspiration from the Occident, that
without going to make her pious genuflexions in
the little sanctuaries of the Salon d’Automne or
the Independants, she can live and prosper
artistically on the immense capital bequeathed
her by past centuries.

The simultaneous birth of Russian operas, re-
flecting the musical soul of the people, gave to
artists a vast field of action in decoration and

Two great currents, the ex-
pressions of the intimate opi-
nions of two camps, at the
present time divide artistic
Russia. On the one hand is
the gravitation of a group of
artists towards the most extreme
Occidental tendencies, towards
the newest altars of French art;
on the other, is a revival ot
the tradition whose treasures
the centuries have accumulated
in old Russia, the Rouss of the
period anterior to Peter the
Great. This latter current, more
profound and more original,
since it is not merely imitative
and does not seek to introduce
into Russian art elements foreign
to the Russian soul, is incontes-
tably more interesting by reason
of its power.

Russian plastic art, as well
as Russian music, to-day turns
towards the past, so rich in
wonders, and on which the very
soul of the people sets a most
individual and original seal.
Russian music before Glinka
was Italian. It was only from
the time that composers found
their inspiration in the melodies
of the people that it acquired
its national and artistic value.
The same with the sculptural
and pictorial arts. Towards the
end of the nineteenth century,
thanks to ethnographical re-

CARVED DOOR AND FRAME FOR TALASHKINO THEATRE

DESIGNED BY S. MALfUTIN

cacy of palette was once more apparent. Among
the legion of flower painters one has to make
mention of M. Karbowsky, who has a very personal
gift; of Mme. Devolve, who continues to preserve
the dignity of her name; and of M. Dumont,
whose six exhibits were, without exception, very
beautiful. Now that our great Fantin is no more,
M. Dumont is certainly the best painter of flowers
of our modern French school.

H. F.

TALASHKINO: PRINCESS TENI-
SHEF’S SCHOOL OF RUSSIAN
APPLIED ART.

BY C. DE DANILOVICZ.

r35