International studio (36.1908/1909(1909))

H ^ ERLIN.—Eyes accustomed to singling
] ^ out good work among the masses of
B modern art production cannot overiook
* ^ the fans of Margarete Erler. This
artist is steadiiy developing her taste and execution.
She is cultivating the crafts of the jeweller, the
lace-maker, the embroiderer
and the painter in order to
perfect her favourite art,
that of the fan maker. We
never trace a striving after
show or cheap effect in her
work, an unfailing charac-
teristic of which is its
reticence and solidity, and
we always enjoy the deli-
cacy of feeling and reflne-
ment of taste which we
find in it. Such produc-
tions are not without
significance in our days,
when the taste of the
middle classes is improv-
ing so much. In Mrs.
Erler's opinion the art of
the fan - maker ought to
include in its scope the
leaf as well as the frame,
as both are parts of one
whole. She abhors the in-
difference of procedure in
industry which permits of
the production of parts
regardless of the whole.
Each of her fans must, in
spite of its complicated pro-
duction, be the expression
of a harmony of real feel-
ing. In one of them now
reproduced tufts of yellow
roses are embedded in
white gauze leaves, tenderly
edged with cream-coloured
sitk. The material of the
ground or foundation is cut
out and fiHed with a kind
of guipure-stitch in yellow
silk. The rose-design is
also repeated in the ivory
frame, where the blossoms
of the front blade are
slightly tinted in yellow.
Another of the fans has the
primrose for its a FANs

wreath of white gauze flowers embroidered with
yellow is placed against a mass of maidenhair fern,
in which the shades of the tortoise-shell frame
seem mirrored. Another is a beautiful glitter of
mother-o'-pearl tints. The frame concentrates the
colour-idea, and the painted leaves of the lunary

BY MARGARETE ERLER

313