International studio (47.1912)

INTERNATIONAL
• STUDIO
VOL. XLVII. No. 188 Copyright, 1912, by John Lane company OCTOBER, 1912

STAGE SETTING: REALISTIC AND
IMPRESSIONISTIC
) BY SAMUEL HOWE
Or the many attempts to devise some
means by which the scenery for the drama shall
present more than is usual of the true spirit of
Nature, preserving due regard to its position as a
background to the characters and action of the
play, the setting designed for the “ Chantecler”
presentation by Miss Maude Adams is by far the
most interesting and inspiring. The accompany-
ing views illustrating something of the elusive
quality of a new form of stage setting before which
the theme was acted, entailing a readjustment of
ideals, are from the work of Mr. J. Monroe Hew-
lett, the architect who designed and executed
them with the able assistance of Mr. Charles
Basing, the landscape painter, and his brother,
Mr. Arthur J. Hewlett.
It seems that when Miss Adams decided to
undertake the whimsical fantasy of which Paris
had so much to say, she turned to Mr. John W.
Alexander, the painter, for advice as to the design-
ing of the scenery, and he in turn called upon Mr.
Hewlett, whose enthusiasm for and success with
decorative schemes of a large size was well known.
This type of scenic presentation invites thought,
appealing to the feelings, and is withal possibly the
most remarkable background the actor has yet
had. It is more than welcome in these days when
stage setting is boldly striving to be real, when it
holds itself aloof from and too often superior to
the play and when costuming and the facetious
quality known as gesturing is overdone—for above
all things is it a day of extremes. The influence of
stage setting can scarcely be overestimated. By
Mr. Hewlett’s method the most delicate thoughts
can be expressed with magic tenderness. It is
photographic in a way, but only in a way. By no
means is it merely a transcript from Nature. It is
rather Nature plus Art, accepting as a definition of

the goddess the writing of Tolstoy. Certain de-
tail which might crowd and interfere with the
natural climax is eliminated, so that the final
study for the scene be as correct as is possible.
The process, in brief, is as follows: After the
study and sketches are complete, a model is made
one-sixteenth of the actual size of the scenery
when completed and of the actual gauze and can-
vas. It is not, therefore, an approximate but an
actual model—as it were, a miniature stage, with
complete wings, borders and drops and equip-
ment of lights big enough to be judged in detail
and in mass. After the completion of this model
it is taken apart and each of the gauze screens
which compose it is utilized as a stencil, or, one
might say, lantern slide, and, by means of a power-
ful arc light suspended at the top of a lofty room,
the drawing is projected upon the gauze and can-
vas which forms the scenery, stretched upon the
floor. In working upon the finished surface,
either with a spray of dye or a brush, the light and
dark masses are preserved and the danger of dis-
tracting high lights invading the surfaces which
have been designed in half-tone or shadow is
eliminated. The final result is, therefore, in its
main masses an absolute duplication of the model
which has been used in the preliminary study.
Extreme judgment is shown in the selection of
the points to be accented that dramatic strength
be given to the scene. The silhouette outline is
the thing of great moment. Balance, center, pro-
portion, scale, qualities dear to the heart of every
architect, pay homage to the scheme, entering into
it. The stern rule of rhythm and balance is here,
appearing, however, in so new a guise as to escape
notice. There is about it great depth and rich-
ness, great transparency of shadows and shades,
great repose, strange absence of irrelevant and
disturbing detail; there is also the remarkable
characteristic known in the vocabulary of the
artist as—quality. It states facts in a subtle
manner. It does not force itself upon the theatric-

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