DOI article:
The editor's room
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17294#0259
The Lay Figure in Paris
THE LAY FIGURE IN PARIS.
" It is most interesting to see the
results of the Parisian movement to-
wards English Decorative Art," said the
Lay Figure as it took what it fondly believed to
be a very French d'ejeuner with its friends, out-
side a cafe in the " BouP Mich'," as students
love to call that busy thoroughfare.
" What do you mean by Decorative Art ?"
said an American ; " surely all Art should be, in
its essence, decorative."
"What else can you call pattern-making," said
the man with a clay pipe (for the while the man
with a "Petit Caporal" cigarette, since even his
patriotic self-sufficiency was not strong enough to
permit him to puff his clay in Paris). " If this
crude drawing and colouring wishes to be taken as
Art at all, it needs some complacent adjective."
" I don't agree with you there," said the Ameri-
can ; " you Britons tried to copy French methods,
with a very few successes ; but you were too timid,
as a rule, and induced to compromise matters.
In this symbolical decorative stuff, however, you
really are very fine indeed. If it must exist, you
at least deserve the credit of originating it."
" Really," said the Lay Figure, " it is a new
sensation not to be apologetic when hearing com-
parisons between French and English Art. I think
now that Paris flatters us by imitation, we may
be proud of our movement. Somebody wrote, the
other day, a lament over the death of the aesthetes.
The aesthetes may be dead, if so, nobody has
missed, or will miss, them; but the tendency to-
wards fine convention in colour plan, and meaning,
was never so marked. Look at both Salons, for
instance, with space devoted to all sorts of things—
carpets, wall-papers, tiles, pottery, glass, book-
binding, and the rest; and see how the designer
is gradually asserting his claim to be an artist."
" Or rather that the artists are dabbling in these
various crafts for fun—either without profit, or
else obtaining fancy prices for the moment," said
the American. " Like your Arts and Crafts, it is
most encouraging—to artists—but only affects
indirectly the real output of the nation."
" The Champ de Mars this year," said the Lay
Figure, " is like an Arts and Crafts seen through
French spectacles."
"Yet I prefer English decoration on the
whole," said the man with a Liberty tie. "These
rival attempts are full of style and fancy, better,
or at least more daring, colour; but they miss the
true inwardness of our own work."
xvi
" Don't crow too loudly ! " said the American ;
" Paris will soon catch you up now it has started."
The Lay Figure smiled. " I fear it may take too
long a step, and just miss the sublime," it said.
"Look at that fireplace in the Salon, with realistic
serpents as large as life, by way of a fender; a huge
wall lining of coloured glass on a silver background
apparently, and gilt metal flames spreading over
the leaded vitrail. C'est magnifique mats ce riest
pas I'Art."
" That is all very well," the American replied;
"and I grant you the wall-papers, and all-over
designs generally, are very naive paraphrases of
Morris and Voysey ; still the panels and frescoes
are already better, far better."
" Yes," said the Lay Figure. " There the French
genius for mural decoration, which we have no
opportunity even to experiment in, comes out
finely ; but even there the structures they intend
to adorn are often poor in shape. Look at that
over-mantel with barometers at each side ; the idea
is not bad, but the ideal of Tottenham Court Road
rules its woodwork, and the panels are inspired by
the Christmas card at its feeblest."
" It is true that the French are essentially classic,
and ourselves romantic," the man with a clay pipe
broke in. " Therefore I doubt if this pseudo-
Gothic movement will last very long; but while it
does, it may achieve a good deal."
" Is it not that we shall all prize classic simplicity,
in phrase or form, more than any jewelled splen-
dour of decadent luxury ?" said the Lay Figure.
" For years some of us have felt that the new cen-
tury would see a return to the purest classic ideals."
"You mean urns and Roman temples, without
much colour, and no all-over patterns," said the
American ; " if so, I say keep where we are."
" No, a thousand times no," said the Lay
Figure; " better the Welby Pugin, or Eastlake,
nay, the least queenly ' Queen Anne' than the
feeble echo of an already worn-out Renaissance.
No, not that; what I understand by ' classic' is a
quiet and superbly artistic way of using colour and
line; you remember how Mr. Whistler used to
decorate his exhibitions ; they were essentially in a
classic style if you like, discreet, yet full of power."
" But it takes a Whistler to make such a simple
thing artistic," the American said, unguardedly.
" Exactly," broke in the Lay Figure; " it does
take a great deal of knowledge, and more than
knowledge, to be simply perfect, and yet perfectly
simple. You .cee we may still have to learn a little
more about the true principles of decoration."
The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE IN PARIS.
" It is most interesting to see the
results of the Parisian movement to-
wards English Decorative Art," said the
Lay Figure as it took what it fondly believed to
be a very French d'ejeuner with its friends, out-
side a cafe in the " BouP Mich'," as students
love to call that busy thoroughfare.
" What do you mean by Decorative Art ?"
said an American ; " surely all Art should be, in
its essence, decorative."
"What else can you call pattern-making," said
the man with a clay pipe (for the while the man
with a "Petit Caporal" cigarette, since even his
patriotic self-sufficiency was not strong enough to
permit him to puff his clay in Paris). " If this
crude drawing and colouring wishes to be taken as
Art at all, it needs some complacent adjective."
" I don't agree with you there," said the Ameri-
can ; " you Britons tried to copy French methods,
with a very few successes ; but you were too timid,
as a rule, and induced to compromise matters.
In this symbolical decorative stuff, however, you
really are very fine indeed. If it must exist, you
at least deserve the credit of originating it."
" Really," said the Lay Figure, " it is a new
sensation not to be apologetic when hearing com-
parisons between French and English Art. I think
now that Paris flatters us by imitation, we may
be proud of our movement. Somebody wrote, the
other day, a lament over the death of the aesthetes.
The aesthetes may be dead, if so, nobody has
missed, or will miss, them; but the tendency to-
wards fine convention in colour plan, and meaning,
was never so marked. Look at both Salons, for
instance, with space devoted to all sorts of things—
carpets, wall-papers, tiles, pottery, glass, book-
binding, and the rest; and see how the designer
is gradually asserting his claim to be an artist."
" Or rather that the artists are dabbling in these
various crafts for fun—either without profit, or
else obtaining fancy prices for the moment," said
the American. " Like your Arts and Crafts, it is
most encouraging—to artists—but only affects
indirectly the real output of the nation."
" The Champ de Mars this year," said the Lay
Figure, " is like an Arts and Crafts seen through
French spectacles."
"Yet I prefer English decoration on the
whole," said the man with a Liberty tie. "These
rival attempts are full of style and fancy, better,
or at least more daring, colour; but they miss the
true inwardness of our own work."
xvi
" Don't crow too loudly ! " said the American ;
" Paris will soon catch you up now it has started."
The Lay Figure smiled. " I fear it may take too
long a step, and just miss the sublime," it said.
"Look at that fireplace in the Salon, with realistic
serpents as large as life, by way of a fender; a huge
wall lining of coloured glass on a silver background
apparently, and gilt metal flames spreading over
the leaded vitrail. C'est magnifique mats ce riest
pas I'Art."
" That is all very well," the American replied;
"and I grant you the wall-papers, and all-over
designs generally, are very naive paraphrases of
Morris and Voysey ; still the panels and frescoes
are already better, far better."
" Yes," said the Lay Figure. " There the French
genius for mural decoration, which we have no
opportunity even to experiment in, comes out
finely ; but even there the structures they intend
to adorn are often poor in shape. Look at that
over-mantel with barometers at each side ; the idea
is not bad, but the ideal of Tottenham Court Road
rules its woodwork, and the panels are inspired by
the Christmas card at its feeblest."
" It is true that the French are essentially classic,
and ourselves romantic," the man with a clay pipe
broke in. " Therefore I doubt if this pseudo-
Gothic movement will last very long; but while it
does, it may achieve a good deal."
" Is it not that we shall all prize classic simplicity,
in phrase or form, more than any jewelled splen-
dour of decadent luxury ?" said the Lay Figure.
" For years some of us have felt that the new cen-
tury would see a return to the purest classic ideals."
"You mean urns and Roman temples, without
much colour, and no all-over patterns," said the
American ; " if so, I say keep where we are."
" No, a thousand times no," said the Lay
Figure; " better the Welby Pugin, or Eastlake,
nay, the least queenly ' Queen Anne' than the
feeble echo of an already worn-out Renaissance.
No, not that; what I understand by ' classic' is a
quiet and superbly artistic way of using colour and
line; you remember how Mr. Whistler used to
decorate his exhibitions ; they were essentially in a
classic style if you like, discreet, yet full of power."
" But it takes a Whistler to make such a simple
thing artistic," the American said, unguardedly.
" Exactly," broke in the Lay Figure; " it does
take a great deal of knowledge, and more than
knowledge, to be simply perfect, and yet perfectly
simple. You .cee we may still have to learn a little
more about the true principles of decoration."
The Lay Figure.