International studio (81.1925)

mceRnAcionAL

paintings on silk. Even the
poorer ones are saved by his
exquisite sense of color. But
whether he worked in oil on
canvas or in water color on silk,
he had the faculty of rendering
in color the atmospheric quality
of different places, of different
seasons and of the different
times of day. He could inter-
pret with equal success and skill
the gradations of light and shade
in Australia, in the north of
France or the south of England.

His portraits, like his land-
scapes, were merely decorative
treatments of his subject; they
are never realistic. In spite of
the fact that he was weak in the
drawing of the figure, the por-
traits have an arresting quality
due to his use of color. His self
portrait was given to his old
'la fille aux yeux d'or" lithograph by charles conder friend, Will Rothenstem. His

portrait of Max Beerbohm shows

woman and the bird they are trying to catch— "the Incomparable Max" seated in a theatre box
are in the sunlight because the man and woman and some waltzing couples in the background. In
still believe that the blue bird may be caught; spite of its faulty drawing, we see in it the dandy
while the group of ladies to the right have the rich incarnate—the intellectual and sartorial dandy,
reds and blues of their dresses "delicately drenched as capable of turning the phrase "certain con-
in shadow" because they have reached the age of gruities of dark cloth and the rigid perfection of
doubt. This panel inspired a somewhat labored linen" as of earning it; escaping ridicule only
poem in which the poet sought to capture the because he did not hesitate to make fun of him-
picture's delicate mood; but it also inspired Max self. A portrait of Beardsley, painted by Conder
Beerbohm to write one of his Words for Pictures in 1896, has mysteriously disappeared. It would
in which the theme of the painting is artificially be interesting to sec Conder's representation of
and delightfully handled. the man whose color-comrade he was said to be.

Conder's other paintings on silk included panels, But his best portraits are those of womeri because
curtains, bed coverings and even costumes. He they were more decorative and he was interested
was asked to decorate the boudoir in the house of more in the decorative quality of his sitters thna
Mr. Bing, a well-known London dealer; and in making good likenesses. Among others, he
designed a series of panels of white silk which painted portraits of Madame Genee, the dancer,
were shown in his own exhibition in 1899 in and of the actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
London. Some of these became the property of His lithographs are the subject of unending
his friend, Fritz Thaulow, the artist with whom dispute; now they are compared to the work of
Conder spent his last days. Nine of them were Goya, and now their publication is said to detract
exhibited in New York in 1911 and became the from his fame. But this controversy does not keep
property of the late Mr. John Quinn. Each of the them from being eagerly sought by collectors who
panels had a medallion illustrating different stories value them because of their scarcity. Conder
and appropriately framed with a decorative design made a set of six lithographs for Balzac's La Fille
suitable to the theme; pastoral scenes were framed aux Yeux D'or in addition to the illustrations for
with shepherd's crooks, tournaments with lances, the book.

and the vanity of Marguerite with a border of Conder's relation with his fellow artists of the
peacocks. nineties was chiefly a personal one. He is not so

Conder's landscapes—at least the best of them closely identified with them artistically as the
—have often the same poetical quality as his writers about that fascinating decade would have

forty

APRIL 1925