International studio (44.1911)

IValt her Klemm's

IVood-Engrarings

method is certainly a fine one, and compasses great
freedom of draughtsmanship in the end.
Klemm is less interested in the looks of animals
than in their movements, as the reader will see
plainly enough when he examines the reproduc-
tions accompanying these lines. This explains why
occasionally, both as to form, that is masses and
outline, and colour, his treatment is slight. Had
it been his object to put before us a pelican, plain
and simple, he could have easily hit upon a more
characteristic presentation of the bird than the one
shown in the plate here. What attracted him, how-
ever, was the peculiar motion in the manner in
which the animal extends its wing. This is the
spirit in which almost all of his work is done, and
in which it must be accepted.
Klemm left Vienna for Prague some years ago,
and after travelling about Europe settled finally at
Dachau, which would make him a member of the
Munich School of artists in a wider sense of the
term. As a matter of fact, however, he is not
quite in harmony with the views of his fellow-
workers at the Bavarian capital, where there is too
much of a chauvinistic spirit to suit him. The
Munich clan believes that it knows all there is to
be known, and that there is nothing to be gained
by looking at the work of others. Klemm feels as
if both the West and the Far East, both Paris and
Japan, were able to give us a good many points
still, and he thinks studying them sanely does not
mean as much as giving up one’s own personality
or sacrificing one’s national traits. It is always
full of promise when a man writes that he is not
yet beyond looking up to others, and one can
consequently look forward to Klemm’s work in the
future with genuine interest and full of expectation.
H. W. S.


“ SWAN.” FROM THE WOOD-ENGRAVING IN COLOURS
BY WALTHER KLEMM


“ DUCKS”
54

FROM THE WOOD-ENGRAVING IN COLOURS BY WALTHER KLEMM