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Print collector's quarterly — 12.1925

DOI issue:
Quarterly notes - Vol. xii, No. 4. December, 1925
DOI article:
Bloemkolk, W.: The etched work of M.A.J. Bauer
DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51531#0559

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Rembrandt, the greatest etcher of all time ; and still
they are individual. Looking at these small prints,
we are carried into the region of ideals ; we may search
in vain for realism in them, they are like visions. It is
wonderful that a youth still under twenty could feel
and know how to express the mystery of the Eastern
people and the beautiful architecture of their buildings
and towns, as deeply as he did. It was not only for
the mighty lines of the Aya Sophia or the charming
minarets that he was enthusiastic. Many artists have
painted the subjects before, but they lack what Bauer
gives them, the history of many centuries, the mystery
of the Orient.
A few of them are reproduced here : W. 49 The.
Old, Clothes Man, a brief note, just a few lines, but giving
the real character, is clever without being smart. The
same is true of W. 72, A Stamboul Coffeehouse. This
hasty criss-cross of lines is a reminiscence of a party
of gesticulating, dirty Mohammedans, taking their
coffee. In W. 112, also reproduced, we see already the
natural feeling for light and shadow, so characteristic
of Bauer’s work, the bitten line alone being his medium
for expressing it.
These small plates have no pretension to technical
value, being the first experiments, and yet how pure
they are, although only attempts, without effort. They
were not esteemed so much at that time, except by a
small circle of friends, who were enthusiastic, and
the few impressions made, on the press of one of
these friends, were shared between them. There was
no idea of getting any financial profit out of them,
1 Catalogue-number of the publishers, Messrs. E. J. van Wisselingh & Co.
by whose courtesy the etchings here illustrated are reproduced.

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