DOI Heft:
Nr. 212 (October, 1914)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, Ernest Archibald: The paintings of F. C. Frieseke
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43456#0343
The Paintings of F. C. Frieseke
The paintings of f. c.
FRIESEKE. BY E. A. TAYLOR.
To some artists the garland that awaits
their mature attainment is given ere they scarce
have climbed the ladder of fame, while others seem
to labour unrecognised in silent bypaths until their
garland becomes a wreath. To those who have
followed carefully or even intermittently the various
paintings from the brush of F. C. Frieseke it must
have been always evident that he was an artist who
could not long lose himself behind the popular
cloak of others, while the leaves which fame has
twined for him have not been idly bestowed on one
who has only won through the battle on the out-
skirts. Whether one likes his work or not or finds
in it influential traces of the most revered painters
of the time it must also be apparent that his own
personality quite supersedes that of his masters.
It is not far to look back to 1898, that being
about the time of Frieseke’s arrival in Paris from
America and the year of his student days under
Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens.
Despite the reputed excellence of both these artists
there were few students in Paris at that date who
failed to come under the prevalent magnetic
influence of Whistler, and it is to him that one
faintly returns in thought when viewing Frieseke’s
early paintings. Frieseke, however, soon found
that it was not in that flood of enterprise that his
untried barque would fairly sail to the land of self-
discovery. Young, thoughtful and energetic, it was
not long before he turned to the more turbulent sea
which was bearing along Monet and Manet, finding
that on it lay the way to a more desirable haven
whose light with its myriad vibrations attracted
him; and it is the rendering and capturing of its
elusive playfulness which claims his most vital
interest to-day.
In all his later work it is clearly evident that
Frieseke had foreseen, if indeed he had not over-
come, the danger attending the pursuit of a purpose
so singularly attractive in the end—a danger most
noticeable in the work of many remarkable artists
which satisfies only by the masterly technical ac-
complishment displayed therein, but which sooner
or later fails from lack of compositional form
and symbolical significance. This deceptive rock
Frieseke has so far kept clear of, and it is not one
on which he is likely to be wrecked now; his own
training and essays in mural decoration, portraiture
and subtle landscapes having given him timely
warning of its lurking danger.
Frieseke is still a young man and by no means
BY FREDERICK C. FRIESEKE
259
“l’heure du the”
LIII. No. 212.—October 1914
The paintings of f. c.
FRIESEKE. BY E. A. TAYLOR.
To some artists the garland that awaits
their mature attainment is given ere they scarce
have climbed the ladder of fame, while others seem
to labour unrecognised in silent bypaths until their
garland becomes a wreath. To those who have
followed carefully or even intermittently the various
paintings from the brush of F. C. Frieseke it must
have been always evident that he was an artist who
could not long lose himself behind the popular
cloak of others, while the leaves which fame has
twined for him have not been idly bestowed on one
who has only won through the battle on the out-
skirts. Whether one likes his work or not or finds
in it influential traces of the most revered painters
of the time it must also be apparent that his own
personality quite supersedes that of his masters.
It is not far to look back to 1898, that being
about the time of Frieseke’s arrival in Paris from
America and the year of his student days under
Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens.
Despite the reputed excellence of both these artists
there were few students in Paris at that date who
failed to come under the prevalent magnetic
influence of Whistler, and it is to him that one
faintly returns in thought when viewing Frieseke’s
early paintings. Frieseke, however, soon found
that it was not in that flood of enterprise that his
untried barque would fairly sail to the land of self-
discovery. Young, thoughtful and energetic, it was
not long before he turned to the more turbulent sea
which was bearing along Monet and Manet, finding
that on it lay the way to a more desirable haven
whose light with its myriad vibrations attracted
him; and it is the rendering and capturing of its
elusive playfulness which claims his most vital
interest to-day.
In all his later work it is clearly evident that
Frieseke had foreseen, if indeed he had not over-
come, the danger attending the pursuit of a purpose
so singularly attractive in the end—a danger most
noticeable in the work of many remarkable artists
which satisfies only by the masterly technical ac-
complishment displayed therein, but which sooner
or later fails from lack of compositional form
and symbolical significance. This deceptive rock
Frieseke has so far kept clear of, and it is not one
on which he is likely to be wrecked now; his own
training and essays in mural decoration, portraiture
and subtle landscapes having given him timely
warning of its lurking danger.
Frieseke is still a young man and by no means
BY FREDERICK C. FRIESEKE
259
“l’heure du the”
LIII. No. 212.—October 1914