International studio (34.1908)

Studio-Talk


BRONZE BUST OF GUSTAVE GEFFROY
BY AUGUSTE RODIN
PARIS.—The exhibition of Russian
art which Princess Tenicheff
organised recently at the Galerie
des Artistes Modernes proved of
great interest to the French public, and all
the more so since it knows very little about
Russian decorative art. The works exhibited
—textile fabrics, carved wood, ceramics,
enamels—together formed curious manifes-
tations of a genuinely rustic art emanating
from the people, and at the same time an
art which, while respectful of the past, refuses
to be enslaved by literal imitation of tra-
ditional conceptions, and adapts itself to the
needs and tastes of the present by the crea-
tion of works characterised by vitality and
strength. In this exhibition two painters took
part—Roerich, who so powerfully recalls the
pagan period of Russia, and Bilibin, repre-
sented by some very interesting illustrations
for the Volga, the Toison d’Or, and the Rot
Saltane. Shchousseff, the architect, showed
various designs for churches and monasteries-
I admired greatly a little equestrian statue of
Ilya Murometz, by Baron Rausch de Trau-
benberg, displaying a remarkable strength of
execution. Princess Tenicheff herself ex-
hibited a series of champleve enamels of a

kind quite new to us, both as regards method ot
execution and decorative style. It was under her
direction that the peasant women of Smolensk
executed a collection of embroideries shown on
this occasion, at once rich and subdued in their
colour schemes, and abounding in precious little
gems of ornamentation ; and from her ateliers at
Talashkino came also the ceramic objects exhi-
bited. The names of the decorative artists
associated with this institution deserve to be
remembered. They are Barshchevski, Beketoff,
Maliutin, Michonoff, and Zinovieff.
The works of art purchased by the State each
year are submitted to the inspection of the
Parisian public in a large exhibition held at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Most of them have
already been seen elsewhere, only those com-
missioned by the Government being occasion-
ally new to the public, as was the case with
the plafond executed by M. Gervex for the
Palais de l’Elysee. The great attraction of


BUST OF ZIEM BY SEGOFFIN
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