DOI Artikel:
MacChesney, Clara T.: American artists in Paris
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0107
American Artists in Paris
SUMMER BY FREDERIC FRIESEKE
A MERICAN ARTISTS IN PARIS
/\ BY CLARA T. MacCHESNEY
An article which appeared in the
London Tinies this summer made the assertion
in connection with the Exhibition of Paris-Ameri-
cans at Shepherd’s Bush, that “they painted
in a French or a cosmopolitan manner”; “they
seem more anxious to pass a certain examination
or standard than to express themselves”; also
“an exhibition of American pictures is apt to
look like a collection of the works of prize students,
and when we look for signs of American art we
do not find them.”
The author of these astounding statements
shows his unbounded ignorance.
I had the opportunity of seeing this Exhibition
several times, as well as three others by Paris-
Americans, and to visit six of the artists in their
studios. The thought came to me while walking
through the salons this summer, how easy it was
to pick out the canvases by Americans. I found
them, as always, not only uninfluenced by the so-
called French school, but also, with two excep-
tions, by the post-impressionists. They are
strongly individual, yet of an interesting similar-
ity. The men whose names have long been long
familiar to us, Max Bohm, FL O. Tanner, Richard
Miller, Frederic Frieseke, Gari Melchers, Eugene
Paul Ullmann, etc., not only “express them-
selves,” but hold high the standard of American
art.
Never did this standard reach a higher level
than at the different exhibitions held this summer.
There is little change in style and none in sub-
ject. Two new men were especially well repre-
sented at Shepherd’s Bush—John Noble, who
paints marines, and Roy Brown, a pure land-
scapist.
Frieseke and Miller reached their high-water
mark in the salons this year. The latter is
rapidly developing a style more and more his
own. His portrait of a lady in red was conceded
by all the artists to be his best endeavour. She
was not sitting as usual by her dressing table, nor
in front of green blinds. It was less laboured and
more spontaneous in treatment. After a weari-
some journey through the Salon des Artists Fran-
fais one hot June day, it appeared like a bright
oasis in the vast desert of monotonous, dead can-
vases.
Frieseke’s Venus au Soleil is one of the great-
est examples of flesh painting in sunlight I
have ever seen. The directors of the Luxem-
bourg Gallery negotiated for its purchase, but too
late, for a French lady had already become the
XXIV
SUMMER BY FREDERIC FRIESEKE
A MERICAN ARTISTS IN PARIS
/\ BY CLARA T. MacCHESNEY
An article which appeared in the
London Tinies this summer made the assertion
in connection with the Exhibition of Paris-Ameri-
cans at Shepherd’s Bush, that “they painted
in a French or a cosmopolitan manner”; “they
seem more anxious to pass a certain examination
or standard than to express themselves”; also
“an exhibition of American pictures is apt to
look like a collection of the works of prize students,
and when we look for signs of American art we
do not find them.”
The author of these astounding statements
shows his unbounded ignorance.
I had the opportunity of seeing this Exhibition
several times, as well as three others by Paris-
Americans, and to visit six of the artists in their
studios. The thought came to me while walking
through the salons this summer, how easy it was
to pick out the canvases by Americans. I found
them, as always, not only uninfluenced by the so-
called French school, but also, with two excep-
tions, by the post-impressionists. They are
strongly individual, yet of an interesting similar-
ity. The men whose names have long been long
familiar to us, Max Bohm, FL O. Tanner, Richard
Miller, Frederic Frieseke, Gari Melchers, Eugene
Paul Ullmann, etc., not only “express them-
selves,” but hold high the standard of American
art.
Never did this standard reach a higher level
than at the different exhibitions held this summer.
There is little change in style and none in sub-
ject. Two new men were especially well repre-
sented at Shepherd’s Bush—John Noble, who
paints marines, and Roy Brown, a pure land-
scapist.
Frieseke and Miller reached their high-water
mark in the salons this year. The latter is
rapidly developing a style more and more his
own. His portrait of a lady in red was conceded
by all the artists to be his best endeavour. She
was not sitting as usual by her dressing table, nor
in front of green blinds. It was less laboured and
more spontaneous in treatment. After a weari-
some journey through the Salon des Artists Fran-
fais one hot June day, it appeared like a bright
oasis in the vast desert of monotonous, dead can-
vases.
Frieseke’s Venus au Soleil is one of the great-
est examples of flesh painting in sunlight I
have ever seen. The directors of the Luxem-
bourg Gallery negotiated for its purchase, but too
late, for a French lady had already become the
XXIV