International studio (34.1908)

Studio-Talk

Leistikow can speak the
poet’s language also in
pencil-landscapes, and U.
Hiibner is, in the same
style, a clever impressionist,
who only lacks delicacy in
the treatment of clouds.
Some of the most refined
nudes are drawn by Th.
van Rysselberge, who is
more sympathetic without
pointillistic toils. Two of
Germany’s master draughts-
men, Max Klinger and
Richard Muller, give their
votes again for the creed
that high art means com-
plete consciousness coupled
with temperament. Klinger
is only the portrayer here,
but Muller undertakes
illustrations reveal him as a designer who can con- flights into the imaginative, and his wings are again
dense much in the epigram of ornament and as a rather weighed down by earthly reminiscences,
sharp observer of reality. Sober realism
and poignant wit mark his individuality,
and he can express them in coarse as
well as in graceful forms, and with a
special sense for the decorative. The
drawings of Hans Baluschek depict social
misery with Zola’s realism. They are a
kind of illustrative description, but de-
serve higher estimation for qualities of
characterisation and pathos. Slevogt’s
muse plays freely with its subjects, and
his lithographs for the Ilias are really
spiritual and vivid improvisations. His
hand masters movement and facial ex-
pression, and can without presumption
undertake to grasp scenes from heroic
strife and stress. Kathe Kollwitz is
again of brutal energy in some specimens
of her series—Peasant Wars—but her
command of all the technical possibilities
of the etcher is so sure that she accom-
plishes real marvels in Rembrandtesque
half-tones. L. Corinth gives excellent
proofs of his draughtsmanship in some
very careful studies from nature, but he
is more himself in the dashy execution
of sensualistic visions. Liebermann’s
pencil-sketches from the bustle of Dutch
street-life are fit products of a coup d’ceil
method, but such an attempt in pastel
comes out rather gaudily and indistinct.
74



SELF-FORTEAIT

RY HEFRY LUYTEN