DOI Heft:
No. 208 (June, 1914)
DOI Artikel:Peckham, W. G.: Russian art and American
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0479
Russian Art and American
AFTER THE BATTLE
BY VASNETZOFF
Purple cows are to the manner born in popular
American art. What do we offer our Russians of
foreign art? We offer largely the Cubists, the
PORTRAIT OF VON PLEHVE
BY ELIAS REPIN
Futurists, the Secessionists. The founder of these
painted two nude bathers, apparently not males,
with their male escorts standing by on shore, still
in bohemian full dress, coats and trousers. Gal-
lery walls may be said to crawl when covered with
the works of the Cubists. Raphael and Velasquez
always painted as gentlemen. So do the great
Russians. Some of the above paint as cads.
Passing such in review, our Russians may best say,
as with Dante in hell: “Guarda e passa.” Again,
an artisan is not an artist. An artist nobly pro-
duces noble things. A Cubist might be, at best,
an artisan. Neither can a great picture be a
mathematical problem. If a picture be such, take
heed lest it be pons asinorum. Walter Pater
warns of “the stupidity which is dead to the sub-
stances, and the vulgarity which is dead to form.”
Exchange the two attributes.
For freedom and peace with us, what have the
Russians left at home? Great artists must have
a great people behind them. A sage Japanese
writes: “Without national fervour there is no true
art.” Also, Russia is the greatest, proudest and
most serious of empires. Except with the mou-
jiks, when they seek to drown care, frivolity is not
known. To whistle would affront the holy
images. And Russians, in their way, are patri-
otic, religious and highly educated—in large part.
The Tretiakoff Gallery in Moscow is for Russian
art what the Prado is for Spanish art. In the
Tretiakoff, the greater Vasnetzoff has noteworthy
CXXII
AFTER THE BATTLE
BY VASNETZOFF
Purple cows are to the manner born in popular
American art. What do we offer our Russians of
foreign art? We offer largely the Cubists, the
PORTRAIT OF VON PLEHVE
BY ELIAS REPIN
Futurists, the Secessionists. The founder of these
painted two nude bathers, apparently not males,
with their male escorts standing by on shore, still
in bohemian full dress, coats and trousers. Gal-
lery walls may be said to crawl when covered with
the works of the Cubists. Raphael and Velasquez
always painted as gentlemen. So do the great
Russians. Some of the above paint as cads.
Passing such in review, our Russians may best say,
as with Dante in hell: “Guarda e passa.” Again,
an artisan is not an artist. An artist nobly pro-
duces noble things. A Cubist might be, at best,
an artisan. Neither can a great picture be a
mathematical problem. If a picture be such, take
heed lest it be pons asinorum. Walter Pater
warns of “the stupidity which is dead to the sub-
stances, and the vulgarity which is dead to form.”
Exchange the two attributes.
For freedom and peace with us, what have the
Russians left at home? Great artists must have
a great people behind them. A sage Japanese
writes: “Without national fervour there is no true
art.” Also, Russia is the greatest, proudest and
most serious of empires. Except with the mou-
jiks, when they seek to drown care, frivolity is not
known. To whistle would affront the holy
images. And Russians, in their way, are patri-
otic, religious and highly educated—in large part.
The Tretiakoff Gallery in Moscow is for Russian
art what the Prado is for Spanish art. In the
Tretiakoff, the greater Vasnetzoff has noteworthy
CXXII