International studio (82.1925)

Charles 24. Piatt: "Architect, Etcher, Painter

/n these days when high
specialization in profes-
sional activities seems to
shut up men into tight lit-
tle compartments, which,
apparently, are hermetic-
ally sealed against any seep-
age in of outside ideas or interests, it is refreshing
to encounter work that has the breadth and many-
sidedness of that of Charles A. Piatt. When one
man has achieved distinction, as Mr. Piatt has, as
etcher, painter and architect it restores one's
waning faith in the kinship of the Seven Arts.

Versatility, which today has acquired a sinister
suggestion of superficiality, was, of course, the key-
note of the Renaissance, when the depth of the
aesthetic impulse and the joy of creation were not
bounded by any one medium or technique, but
men painted pictures, carved statues, wrote
poems or built palaces as occasion required. It
was because they were faithful to one fundamental

thing that they were thus
made ruler over many, and
that one thing was their love
of beauty. So one feels
that it is because Mr. Piatt
is first and foremost an
artist that he is able to
work in different mediums with such success. In
all his work one finds his sensitiveness to beauty,
whether in the line of etching, the form and color
of painting, or the line, the color and the mass of
architecture. Varied artistic expressions, but car-
ried out with the same keynote of artistic sensi-
bility at the impulse of creative suggestion.

Heredity and environment both contributed
to the development of this artist's talents. Prac-
tically the only biographical data that need be
considered in relation to that development is the
record of his training and study. How seriously
the foundation was laid for future work is shown
by his early entrance at the National Academy

Artist by instinct, Piatt has
worked through, the ap-
proaches of the needle and
the brush to architecture

JOA^N ANDE'RSOTV

eighty

DECEMBER I 9 2 5