International studio (57.1915/1916)

The Work of Mario Korbel and Walter D. Goldbeck

The work of mario korbel
AND WALTER D. GOLDBECK
BY ARNOLD GENTHE
It was two years ago that the
young Bohemian sculptor, Mario Korbel,
whose work was already known in Paris and
Chicago, and Walter Dean Goldbeck, a young
American painter, whose clever illustrations had
brought him fame, first appeared before a New
York public in a joint exhibition at the Rein-
hardt Gallery. What their clever craftsmanship

larly in his portrait-heads, a penetration be-
neath the surface that at times is startling.
Korbel is evidently heeding Plato’s saying that
“the sculptor should give expression to the
activity of the soul,” and instead of being
satisfied with a faithful presentation of the
characteristic features he goes considerably be-
yond giving a mere likeness. The heads, Mrs.
Henry Blossom and Mrs. Chauncy Blair, are not
only realistic portraits, modelled very simply
with great refinement and delicacy, but they are
actually monuments of the irresistible charm of

and earnest idealism
promised then has
been amply fulfilled
in their later work,
recently shown at the
same galleries in an
exhibition, which for
effective and origi-
nal arrangement
could well serve as
a model for other
exhibitions, where
paintings and sculp-
ture are shown to-
gether.
Korbel, the son of
a Bohemian clergy-
man, devoted him-
self early — much
against the wishes
of his family—to the
study of art, instead
of theology, working
with various masters
in Munich, Berlin,
and Paris, without
however, attaching
himself to any par-
ticular school. Being

youthful woman-


PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER

BY WALTER DEAN GOLDBECK

hood. The portraits
of the children of
John McCormack
certainly fulfill that
highest aim of por-
traiture, the illus-
tration of the type
by the individual.
The immortal ap-
peal of childhood
has found in these
two heads an ex-
pression that is
bound to exercise a
powerful and con-
stant charm, while
the head of John
McCormack is not
only a faithful in-
dividual portrait of
a charming man who
loves life, but suc-
ceeds in giving an
impression of spiri-
tual importance; it
is a portrait of the

encouraged by his suc-

great artist and
sweet singer whose voice has moved all hearts.

cess at exhibitions, he came to this “land of

Korbel’s treatment of his portrait-heads is

unlimited possibilities,” and executed a number

distinguished by a technical characteristic that

of important public and private commissions in
Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, and other western
cities. His work done in New York during the
last two years fully justifies the confidence then
shown him.
It is not only brilliant in execution and of
refreshing vitality, but it shows, within a perfect
realization of the limits of sculpture, particu-

must not be passed without comment. He
never lets his effect be spoiled by the intru-
sion of uninteresting detail of apparel. This is
particularly true of his man portraits. A man’s
costume now-a-days, with its high collar and tie,
stiff coat and impossible trousers, was certainly
not meant to be perpetuated in bronze and
marble. In spite of St. Gaudens, we will not

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