DOI issue:
Nr. 333 (February 1925)
DOI article:Comstock, Helen: Fromkes paints Spain
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19984#0140
mceRHACionAL
us to the future, which join the
imperishable body of art of all
time.
The figure subjects of From kes
do not consciously strive after
the unusual, or attempt obvi-
ously to be "different." It is in
very subtle things, the way the
hand of the Spanish mother
reaches down in a gesture of
tender protection over the baby
in her arms, in the turn a lady
in a black mantilla gives to her
fan, in the shy, upward glance
of a young girl whose carriage
is proud and poised—in these
things Fromkes's portraits have
distinction for not affectation
but sympathy has inspired them.
The landscapes, of which the
reproduction in color of his un-
usual painting of Seville Cathe-
dral across the roof tops is our
only example, are rich in color
and enthusiastic in spirit. They
are not cold, intellectual clisqui-
"thebelle ofronda" by maurice fromkes sitions on what he saw, but a
passionate response to the joy-
besides I don't know what to tell her," said Mrs. ous color of Spain. They are paintings of mood
Fromkes reluctantly. in which the emotion of the painter is transferred
"Tell her that I have come three thousand to the beholder. In the " Golden Fields of Ronda"
miles to paint her," said the artist, "but hurry." the broad, rolling hillsides have the lyric appeal
So off she went and put her case before the of a song. There is also a painting in which the
young Spanish girl, and then the father and sunlit facade of some Gothic church is seen
mother had to be consulted and their permission through a Moorish arch, bringing together the
obtained. Finally she came to his studio, this two influences, Mohammedan and Christian,
daughter of the people, and put a red Spanish which exist everywhere side by side in Spain,
shawl around her shoulders and turned her profile, The still life subjects are not so much a product
and behold, she was an aristocrat, radiating that of his contact with Spain—something he took
ease and charm that Fromkes never ceased to from Spain—as his other work; in these he gave
wonder at in these people of simple birth. The to Spanish artists a new conception of still life,
painter fell sick while painting the picture and His subjects were old Gothic stone carvings; one
when he had recovered and wanted to go on with is of a thirteenth-century virgin against a reddish
it his model had become engaged and the fiancee's background; another is a beautiful polychromed
consent had to be won as well. wood "Descent from the Cross" against black; a
Fromkes's finest work seems to me to be in the third is the Virgin and Child with angel musicians
portrait of the peasant girl, Esperanza. This rises on either side. This is in polychromed wood, with
to the highest level of portraiture in which not warm pinks and gold and faded blue against a
only the individual is revealed but the race. She background of that deep rich blue which he favors
is significant of her time, her type, her age, and so often and uses with so much effect. These
yet she is an individual, a personality. Only occa- subjects, or rather this use of them, was noticed
sionally does a portrait attain this height. It is a especially by the Spaniards and Ricardo Baeze,
very fine thing when the particularities of the the art critic of El Sol, a Madrid newspaper,
moment are omitted from a work of art and the wrote this very appreciative and illuminating
feeling of an age and of a race expressed instead, impression:
It is such works as this which remain to represent "Nevertheless, I wish, before concluding, to
Jour hundred
F E B li I A R V I925
us to the future, which join the
imperishable body of art of all
time.
The figure subjects of From kes
do not consciously strive after
the unusual, or attempt obvi-
ously to be "different." It is in
very subtle things, the way the
hand of the Spanish mother
reaches down in a gesture of
tender protection over the baby
in her arms, in the turn a lady
in a black mantilla gives to her
fan, in the shy, upward glance
of a young girl whose carriage
is proud and poised—in these
things Fromkes's portraits have
distinction for not affectation
but sympathy has inspired them.
The landscapes, of which the
reproduction in color of his un-
usual painting of Seville Cathe-
dral across the roof tops is our
only example, are rich in color
and enthusiastic in spirit. They
are not cold, intellectual clisqui-
"thebelle ofronda" by maurice fromkes sitions on what he saw, but a
passionate response to the joy-
besides I don't know what to tell her," said Mrs. ous color of Spain. They are paintings of mood
Fromkes reluctantly. in which the emotion of the painter is transferred
"Tell her that I have come three thousand to the beholder. In the " Golden Fields of Ronda"
miles to paint her," said the artist, "but hurry." the broad, rolling hillsides have the lyric appeal
So off she went and put her case before the of a song. There is also a painting in which the
young Spanish girl, and then the father and sunlit facade of some Gothic church is seen
mother had to be consulted and their permission through a Moorish arch, bringing together the
obtained. Finally she came to his studio, this two influences, Mohammedan and Christian,
daughter of the people, and put a red Spanish which exist everywhere side by side in Spain,
shawl around her shoulders and turned her profile, The still life subjects are not so much a product
and behold, she was an aristocrat, radiating that of his contact with Spain—something he took
ease and charm that Fromkes never ceased to from Spain—as his other work; in these he gave
wonder at in these people of simple birth. The to Spanish artists a new conception of still life,
painter fell sick while painting the picture and His subjects were old Gothic stone carvings; one
when he had recovered and wanted to go on with is of a thirteenth-century virgin against a reddish
it his model had become engaged and the fiancee's background; another is a beautiful polychromed
consent had to be won as well. wood "Descent from the Cross" against black; a
Fromkes's finest work seems to me to be in the third is the Virgin and Child with angel musicians
portrait of the peasant girl, Esperanza. This rises on either side. This is in polychromed wood, with
to the highest level of portraiture in which not warm pinks and gold and faded blue against a
only the individual is revealed but the race. She background of that deep rich blue which he favors
is significant of her time, her type, her age, and so often and uses with so much effect. These
yet she is an individual, a personality. Only occa- subjects, or rather this use of them, was noticed
sionally does a portrait attain this height. It is a especially by the Spaniards and Ricardo Baeze,
very fine thing when the particularities of the the art critic of El Sol, a Madrid newspaper,
moment are omitted from a work of art and the wrote this very appreciative and illuminating
feeling of an age and of a race expressed instead, impression:
It is such works as this which remain to represent "Nevertheless, I wish, before concluding, to
Jour hundred
F E B li I A R V I925