DOI Heft:
No. 25 (April, 1895)
DOI Artikel:On some drawings by Tony Grubhofer
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17294#0023
Some Drawings by Tony Grubhofer
an artist might introduce a label bearing
lettering, or other extraneous details)
solely and entirely for their assistance
in balancing the pattern of his panel.
Whether or no Grubhofer sets out
with a primary intention to gain that
decorative effect which is rarely coin-
cidental with pictorial intention, and
still more rarely found in topographical
landscape subjects, there can be little
doubt that he has in several cases
achieved it. The scheme of lines of
the full-page drawing has this quality
in very marked degree; indeed, one
could only find parallel instances in the
work of masters—some of the Japanese
landscape draughtsmen, Rembrandt
occasionally, and Mr. Whistler nearly
always. In saying this one does not
put the artist in competition with these
great artists, nor even claim that he is
their equal j although with the original
of this particular drawing at hand it is
a temptation to do so. But it is not
invidious to insist that the charm of
this delightful study is not merely one
of subject, nor of clever handling; it
effect of wash you must needs have a result very has a distinct beauty as a piece of pattern-making,
far removed from Nature indeed. the value of curves and straight lines, the simplicity
Indeed, noticing that in these line drawings the of certain portions balancing the elaborately deco-
sky is left untouched, except in a couple of in- rative effect of other parts, all those qualities which
stances, you begin to suspect that the lines are used appeal to a designer in quite different fashion to
not so much to express the actual forms of clouds, that in which they appeal to a picture painter,
or to suggest aerial effects, as to give an excuse for Speaking for the moment on this particular point
lines that are absolutely decorative, and put in (as only, it would be very instructive to turn over a
" NEAR SALZBURG "
FROM A SKETCH IN PEN AND INK
13
an artist might introduce a label bearing
lettering, or other extraneous details)
solely and entirely for their assistance
in balancing the pattern of his panel.
Whether or no Grubhofer sets out
with a primary intention to gain that
decorative effect which is rarely coin-
cidental with pictorial intention, and
still more rarely found in topographical
landscape subjects, there can be little
doubt that he has in several cases
achieved it. The scheme of lines of
the full-page drawing has this quality
in very marked degree; indeed, one
could only find parallel instances in the
work of masters—some of the Japanese
landscape draughtsmen, Rembrandt
occasionally, and Mr. Whistler nearly
always. In saying this one does not
put the artist in competition with these
great artists, nor even claim that he is
their equal j although with the original
of this particular drawing at hand it is
a temptation to do so. But it is not
invidious to insist that the charm of
this delightful study is not merely one
of subject, nor of clever handling; it
effect of wash you must needs have a result very has a distinct beauty as a piece of pattern-making,
far removed from Nature indeed. the value of curves and straight lines, the simplicity
Indeed, noticing that in these line drawings the of certain portions balancing the elaborately deco-
sky is left untouched, except in a couple of in- rative effect of other parts, all those qualities which
stances, you begin to suspect that the lines are used appeal to a designer in quite different fashion to
not so much to express the actual forms of clouds, that in which they appeal to a picture painter,
or to suggest aerial effects, as to give an excuse for Speaking for the moment on this particular point
lines that are absolutely decorative, and put in (as only, it would be very instructive to turn over a
" NEAR SALZBURG "
FROM A SKETCH IN PEN AND INK
13