DOI Heft:
No. 12 (March, 1894)
DOI Artikel:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: English art and M. Fernand Khnopff
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0216
English Art and M. Fernand Khnopff
fern and khnopff. from a photograph
Upon this topic I have spoken frequently to M. Werther did for Goethe. It has to a great
Fernand Khnopff, and I believe that he will one extent cleared his mind of unavailing sadness, and
day seek his subjects in the thrilling streets of taught him that the artist, like the poet, should
London. Those striking impressions of our turn his attention to the real world, and try to
express it. Then he will be inexhaustible, and
ought to be always new.
The following quotation is taken from an article
that appeared in The Belgian News, April 8,
1893, and will furnish you with Mr. Broadley's
estimate of M. Khnopff's work :
" At no distant date Fernand Khnopff seems
destined to occupy amongst English painters a
position akin to that which Alma Tadema has so
long enjoyed; his migration northwards is fast
becoming inevitable, and if he may still be found
to-day in .... his cool Pompeian studio, with
Doric columns, draped windows, walls delicately
tinted in pale shades of drab, sea-green and terra-
cotta, and a genuine Punic pavement, the begin-
ning of the twentieth century will doubtless see
Sir Fernand Khnopff located either on the breezy
heights of northern London, or in such portion
of the Groves of the Evangelists as may escape
gervais, Brussels the invasion of Sir Edward Watkin and his
myrmidons.
capital, our " Nation-Capital," with which he " Fernand Khnopff has come scathless out of
interested the elite of Brussels at the Cercle Artis- the snares of asstheticism and the juvenile errors of
tique, are destined, I think, to interest us too, eccentricity. ... If he owes some of his inspira-
but as pictures. The artist,
indeed, is well fitted to give us
an art that would touch the
feelings of the people, satisfy
the critical, and deliver down
to our great-grandchildren the
storied life of the present day.
I daresay you will dissent
from this opinion, and fancy
that, since M. Khnopff has
never once quite freed himself
from the tyranny of his own
dismal thoughts, I have not a
leg to stand upon. All I
remark is that " every era in a
state of decline and dissolution
is subjective," and that the
retrograde and feverish age in
which we live is apt to make
the sedentary man of abilities
a melancholy dreamer, or else
... _ from a painting BY fernand khnopff
a sneering realist that out-Swifts
Swift. You ought therefore to blame the time for tions as a painter to Burne-Jones, there is a strong
the too personal and somewhat morbid character dash of Donatello perceptible in the exquisite
of M. Khnopff s early work—work, however, which female heads he is modelling in black wax. The
has done for its author what the writing of Japanese fans and masks to be seen here and there
204
fern and khnopff. from a photograph
Upon this topic I have spoken frequently to M. Werther did for Goethe. It has to a great
Fernand Khnopff, and I believe that he will one extent cleared his mind of unavailing sadness, and
day seek his subjects in the thrilling streets of taught him that the artist, like the poet, should
London. Those striking impressions of our turn his attention to the real world, and try to
express it. Then he will be inexhaustible, and
ought to be always new.
The following quotation is taken from an article
that appeared in The Belgian News, April 8,
1893, and will furnish you with Mr. Broadley's
estimate of M. Khnopff's work :
" At no distant date Fernand Khnopff seems
destined to occupy amongst English painters a
position akin to that which Alma Tadema has so
long enjoyed; his migration northwards is fast
becoming inevitable, and if he may still be found
to-day in .... his cool Pompeian studio, with
Doric columns, draped windows, walls delicately
tinted in pale shades of drab, sea-green and terra-
cotta, and a genuine Punic pavement, the begin-
ning of the twentieth century will doubtless see
Sir Fernand Khnopff located either on the breezy
heights of northern London, or in such portion
of the Groves of the Evangelists as may escape
gervais, Brussels the invasion of Sir Edward Watkin and his
myrmidons.
capital, our " Nation-Capital," with which he " Fernand Khnopff has come scathless out of
interested the elite of Brussels at the Cercle Artis- the snares of asstheticism and the juvenile errors of
tique, are destined, I think, to interest us too, eccentricity. ... If he owes some of his inspira-
but as pictures. The artist,
indeed, is well fitted to give us
an art that would touch the
feelings of the people, satisfy
the critical, and deliver down
to our great-grandchildren the
storied life of the present day.
I daresay you will dissent
from this opinion, and fancy
that, since M. Khnopff has
never once quite freed himself
from the tyranny of his own
dismal thoughts, I have not a
leg to stand upon. All I
remark is that " every era in a
state of decline and dissolution
is subjective," and that the
retrograde and feverish age in
which we live is apt to make
the sedentary man of abilities
a melancholy dreamer, or else
... _ from a painting BY fernand khnopff
a sneering realist that out-Swifts
Swift. You ought therefore to blame the time for tions as a painter to Burne-Jones, there is a strong
the too personal and somewhat morbid character dash of Donatello perceptible in the exquisite
of M. Khnopff s early work—work, however, which female heads he is modelling in black wax. The
has done for its author what the writing of Japanese fans and masks to be seen here and there
204